Noteworthy

By Hannah Chan-Hartley, PhD

Through the ages, certain works of art, be it literature, visual art, or music, become recognized as exemplars of their creators’ talents and their enduring value. These are “classics,” because they capture the essence of what it means to be human, drawing us back to their beauty and insights again and again. In music, there is perhaps nothing more thrilling and special than hearing a “classic” performed live by accomplished performers, whether it’s the first or the umpteenth time you’ve heard it. This January, the TSO fires up the new year with a program of three distinguished orchestral classics, given exciting, fresh takes by conductor Anja Bihlmaier in her début with the orchestra, and TSO Principal Clarinet Eric Abramovitz starring in one of the great solo concertos of the repertoire.

A Modern Classic: Bacewicz’s Concerto for String Orchestra

If you’re not yet familiar with the music of Grażyna Bacewicz, her Concerto for String Orchestra is an ideal entry point. One of Poland’s significant musical figures of the mid-20th century, Bacewicz was a multi-hyphenate—a prolific composer who was also an actively performing violinist and pianist, as well as an accomplished writer of novels, short stories, and autobiographical anecdotes. Composed in 1948, the Concerto for String Orchestra shows her distinctive compositional style—lively and inventive, with a no-nonsense directness. “It’s a brilliant piece,” says Bihlmaier, “full of energy and power, with a nice structure and a lot of new colours that you might not have heard before. She writes for strings super well, and I feel this concerto, with its virtuosic demands, is a good fit for an orchestra like the TSO, which is well known for its technical finesse.” An enthusiastic advocate of Bacewicz’s music on the concert stage, Bihlmaier considers her “a very interesting, first-class composer whose music is ingenious and really worth checking out!” Since its première in June 1950, the Concerto for String Orchestra has become one of Bacewicz’s most performed works and is widely regarded as exceptional—in other words, a modern classic.

Rediscovering an Original Classic: Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto on the Basset Clarinet

The two other works on the program—Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”—are long-established masterpieces. For musicians who frequently play such well-known and much-loved musical works, there is a challenge, says Abramovitz on Sunday Night at the TSO, not only to fulfill expectations, but also “to approach [the piece] with freshness, novelty, and enthusiasm every time, as if you’re giving the première.” For these concerts, Abramovitz is excited to be performing Mozart’s concerto in the composer’s original version for the basset clarinet and its virtuoso player Anton Stadler. This will be a rare opportunity to hear this classic on the instrument that Mozart wrote it for, which is essentially an A clarinet with an extended lower range. Compared to the adaptation typically played on the standard A clarinet nowadays, you’ll get to experience in full the basset clarinet’s “big juicy sound in the low register,” which the composer explores frequently to great effect, and the striking contrast between the bass and soprano voices on it.

Bihlmaier is certain it will be something “very special” to hear Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto performed on the basset clarinet because it’s hardly ever done. She also counts the slow movement as “one of the most beautiful pieces of music that was ever written. I don’t know what it is or what Mozart has done with the harmonies, the melody, and the structure, but it’s incredible to me how such a simple thing can be so beautiful. I heard it when I was a kid, and I still get overwhelmed when I hear it now. Sure, the rest of the concerto is brilliant, but the second movement is really outstanding. You can understand why it’s so famous after all this time because it seems bigger than its moment—almost holy, in a way.”

Fresh Interpretations of a Popular Classic: Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony 

Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony is also a “very special” piece for Bihlmaier: “It’s the first thing I played in an orchestra as a violinist at school. So, it’s connected to my beginning of playing with an orchestra and getting to know the great music written for it.” In live performance, the emotional power of this symphony is undeniable, and no doubt a reason for its present-day popularity. However, it’s worth remembering that while this classic may have stood the test of time, the “New World” Symphony is also a product of its own time and, in this case, reflects complex social circumstances with aesthetic consequences.

In 1892, Dvořák moved from Prague to New York, to assume the role of artistic director and professor of composition at the newly founded National Conservatory of Music. Among his responsibilities was to guide American composers in creating a distinctively American style of art music (as he had been successful in creating a Czech style). He eventually determined that the path forward was for composers to draw on African-American music as the basis of raw material to be incorporated into European art-music forms (to be fair, it was the only way he knew how). With his “New World” Symphony, he attempted to show the way, pointing out, in many letters and interviews, the various aspects of African-American and Indigenous-American music he had used in the piece. As musicologist Douglas Shadle revealed in his recent historical study of the piece, all of this sparked much debate among American music critics, many of whom, despite the successful première of the symphony in December 1893, argued as to whether the piece sounded American at all. Some commentary was clearly racist, either noting that the music of African Americans was too trivial to warrant “elevation” to European art music or declaring that such music was not even genuinely American to begin with. It did not occur to them—and Dvořák, to an extent—that Black musicians and composers at the time might have their own perspectives to contribute to the conversation.

Controversy aside, what may be more obvious when listening to this otherwise ingeniously constructed symphony is the idea of 19th-century America from the perspective of a European “who is a bit homesick,” Bihlmaier observes. Following his first months in New York, Dvořák spent the summer of 1893 with his family in Spillville, a town in Iowa with a mainly Czech population. He completed the “New World” Symphony while there, amidst the expanse of the Turkey River Valley and surrounded by his family and other people from his homeland. Naturally, the sense of wide-open spaces, the richness of feelings (including powerful nostalgia) in the melodies, and the energy and drama evoked in the piece were probably inspired by this context, alongside the other American sources. “The rhythms, to me, are from Czech folk and dance music,” notes Bihlmaier. “I like to bring those out a lot.”

With a work such as the “New World” Symphony that “every orchestra these days knows inside out,” Bihlmaier sees an opportunity for inventive music-making during a live performance, to inject freshness into the interpretation. “This piece has a very elegant musicality that requires lots of flexibility and creativity from the musicians, and in how they react to each other,” she explains. “That’s when it comes alive—with sensitivity and spontaneity, as well as with how the hall sounds and what you’re feeling from the audience. Together, we’re creating something very new, a unique version of the work in the moment. That’s the gorgeous thing about this symphony. Every performance will be a little bit different—that’s what I really like.”

Don’t miss conductor Anja Bihlmaier’s début with the TSO, Principal Clarinet Eric Abramovitz on the solo stage, and Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony. Performances take place on January 9 and 11 at Roy Thomson Hall, and January 12 at George Weston Recital Hall.