Bartók Béla, George Enescu, and Johannes Brahms
The Nashville Symphony is taking a musical journey to Eastern Europe this weekend at the Schermerhorn with Romantic Rhapsodies, a program rich with Hungarian and Romanian folk music influences and a featured role for Symphony concertmaster Jun Iwasaki.
Opening the concerts will be Johannes Brahms’ Third Symphony, considered the composer’s most beloved work in the genre, before the orchestra embarks on George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 and 2, and Béla Bartók’s Rhapsody No. 1 and 2 for Violin and Orchestra, the latter pair with Iwasaki as the featured soloist.
Performances take place 7 p.m. Thursday, January 30 and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Visit NashvilleSymphony.org/Rhapsodies or call 615-687-6400 to purchase tickets. Before you go, read on for some background and fun facts on the program!
Origins of the rhapsody
Queen
Rock legends Queen may have brought the concept of the rhapsody to the mainstream, but this musical form dates back as far as the 17th century. The word rhapsody comes from the ancient Greeks, meaning “songs stitched together,” and early literary rhapsodies were marked by extravagant expressions of emotion or sentiment. Musical rhapsodies are usually episodic one-movement works that bring together an array of tunes in a free-flowing manner, while featuring a range of contrasting moods.
Bartók
In addition to being one of Hungary’s most important composers, Béla Bartók was also a founder of ethnomusicology, which studies music from the cultural and social perspectives of those who create it. He penned numerous challenging, larger-scale works before embarking on these rhapsodies, which came about after he realized that his audiences were craving more accessible material. Bartók used Romanian folk material for most of the melodies in both of these rhapsodies and also implemented a distinct two-part structure derived from a traditional dance known as the verbunkos – which was used to attract recruits to the Austro-Hungarian military!
Enescu
Romanian composer George Enescu was every bit the child prodigy Mozart was – he was already playing multiple instruments and composing by the age of seven, when he was admitted to the prestigious Vienna Conservatory. He was only 16 when his Poème Roumain (Romanian Poem for Orchestra) premiered in Paris to rave reviews, and four years later he wrote this pair of rhapsodies, which were premiered in reverse numerical order per his wishes.
Guest conductor Lawrence Foster is the perfect choice to lead this program and Enescu’s rhapsodies in particular. Not only was Foster born to Romanian parents, but he has been a major advocate and champion of Enescu’s work throughout his career, even serving as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival from 1998 to 2001.
Brahms & the “War of the Romantics”
Johannes Brahms’ legacy and enormous influence have earned him a place with Beethoven and Bach in an esteemed group of composers known as the “Three B’s,” but he was also a central player in the famed 19th century music feud called the “War of the Romantics.” A traditional composer, Brahms was strongly rooted in the structure and techniques of the Classical masters, which put him at odds with a progressive movement at the time spearheaded by Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.
This feud reared its ugly head on the evening of December 2, 1883, when Wagner supporters tried to disrupt the premiere of Brahms’ Third Symphony in a Vienna concert hall. The conflict escalated to the point that it nearly resulted in a duel between the two sides, but cooler heads eventually prevailed and the premiere earned rave reviews.
Concertmaster
Jun Iwasaki
Newcomers to the symphony often ask: what exactly is the role of the concertmaster? Simply put, the concertmaster is the leader of both the first violin section and the orchestra on the whole. You can usually identify a concertmaster as the only musician to take the stage alone before a performance, in an entrance that immediately precedes the conductor’s.
Bartók’s two rhapsodies will be an excellent showcase for Jun Iwasaki, the Nashville Symphony’s concertmaster since 2011. Jun has earned rave reviews for his performances both in Music City and around the country, with the Fort Worth Star Telegram hailing his ability to “…reach into his violin and pull out bouquets of sound, then reach behind your ear and touch your soul.”
Don’t forget, you can learn even more of the history and background behind these composers and repertoire at the Symphony’s Classical Conversations, which take place one hour prior to concerts in the Schermerhorn’s Balcony Lobby. Or stick around after the performance for an informal Q&A session in the rear of the concert hall with assistant conductor Nathan Aspinall and some special guests.