Chamber Orchestra to Perform at Ironwood Theatre

IRONWOOD, MI - Tuesday, September 21, 2010 - Have a taste for classical music? Are you curious to see why others do? You’re in for a treat! Direct from Moscow, the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin will be performing on Sunday, September 26 at 7:30 PM at the historic Ironwood Theatre.

Since its formation in 1991, in the heady aftermath of momentous events in Russia, the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin has performed over 1400 concerts – over 800 of them on tours in 24 countries of Europe, North and South America, and the Far East. The orchestra’s repertoire includes about 900 compositions; and over 20 of them were written especially for this orchestra.

As a Swedish newspaper reviewer wrote, "Russia is popularly known for two things – its rockets and its violins. The Chamber Orchestra Kremlin is renowned for the latter, but their music will take you soaring as if somehow there is a connection to the former.”

The Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, consisting of nine violins, four violas, four cellos, and double bass, is one of the finest string ensembles in Russia today and, arguably, one of the best in the world. Music Director Misha Rachlevsky, conducting with his eyes closed, draws from his young musicians “a flawless execution that astounds audiences the world over."

The program will include Edward Elgar’s Serenade in E minor for String Orchestra, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, J.S. Bach’s Contrapunctus No. 1 from The Art of the Fugue, and Antonin Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings.

The emotional high point of this program falls on the Shostakovich masterpiece. Dark and tragic, it never fails to reach every listener in the auditorium (and balcony). Bach’s Contrapunctus immediately follows, to help both performers and listeners make the transition to the rest of the program. Dvorak’s sunny, carefree Serenade restores inner comfort for everyone.

The orchestra has recorded over 30 CDs and has received widespread international acclaim and awards, including the Critics Choice award from London's Gramophone and the New York Times. The recordings are available at this concert.

Doors open at 6:30 pm. Kelly’s Wine Bar, located in the Theatre Lobby, will be open prior to the concert and during intermission.

For ticket prices and for more information contact the Ironwood Theatre Office at 906-932-0618, Wednesday through Friday from 11am to 5pm.

Elgar -- Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op. 20

There are many jokes based on national characteristics, or rather on the common perception of these characteristics. There was the German engineer, French cook, Swiss banker and Italian lover who switched hats, and ended up being the German cook, Italian banker, French engineer, and Swiss lover. And the like. With the globalization of our lives these days, and “political correctness” keeping us on our toes, these jokes are perhaps not as cute as we once thought they were, but still, certain combinations do look more befitting than the others.

Now, if one had to attach the adjective “romantic” to a certain nation, where would one start? And how far down the list would Great Britain would be? Lord Byron and Princess Di did wonders to romanticize the English, but still, the emotional attributes of what is associated with romanticism and “Briticism” probably do not go hand in hand. Or so I thought.

To account for my impression of the Brits, I suspect that in my youth there were just too many English jokes and too little British music. (For some reason, I never thought of Beatles as being British or anybody else. There were just the Beatles, the most romantic pop band on the earth). But, then I heard the music of Elgar. Its rich expressiveness and scope of emotions put everything right. However, the misconceptions of my adolescence did come in handy many years later, when I first began working on Elgar’s Serenade in E minor. From the first reading, the first movement felt comfortable, the second movement was utterly captivating and my affection for it only grew stronger with time. The opening of the third movement did not work. It felt too understated and very illusive, a real letdown after such a gorgeous second movement. Many tries later, a funny thought visited me – could it be that Sir Edward (although at the time the Serenade was written he had not been knighted yet) felt a bit embarrassed about the emotional outburst of the second movement, as if saying at the beginning of the third “Sorry, I didn’t really mean to disrobe my soul so much ...”. As far away from the composer’s intended approach as this may be, it did work for me very well at the time. And still does.

Shostakovich - Chamber Symphony, Op. 110 bis

Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, Op. 110 bis, holds the honors of being one of the most frequently performed works in its original version, as String Quartet No. 8, and in Barshai’s arrangement for string orchestra, approved by Shostakovich.

Written in Dresden, in just three days in October of 1960, this quartet bears a dedication “In memory of victims of fascism and war “. While the character of the composition well tends itself to this dedication, even without knowing Shostakovich’s privately made statements (his daughter, Galina, recounted that after completing the quartet Shostakovich said: “I dedicated this work to myself”, and the same is found in the recently published Shostakovich’s letter to his friend, Isaak Glikman), it is very clear from the music itself, that this work is autobiographical. Thematic material of all five movements is based on Shostakovich’s monogram -- musical signature DSCH (D, E flat, C, B in German notation), and there are numerous quotations from his symphonies, and other works.

This composition is a testimony to Shostakovich’s incredible ability in just a few bars to create a complete emotional world. The opening movement is full of anticipation of tragedy, yet with moments of relief and hope. Then comes the brutal force and agony of the second movement, and the waltz-like third movement, full of typical Shostakovich’s bitter-sweetness. The fourth movement is introduced by a repetitive three-chord phrase, in which some hear gun shots, and others, including myself, the notorious KGB knocks on the door, followed by a quote from the revolutionary song “Tormented by Hard Bondage” and the emotional culmination - an aria from his opera Katerina Izmailova. The fifth movement returns the material of the opening movement, but this time there is no more hope, just total acceptance of the tragic fate.

For many years I always follow this work with the performance of Bach’s First Contrapunctus from the Art of the Fugue. Years ago, when I began performing this work, it struck me how unsettling it felt to hear the applause after this composition. My experiments to ask the audience to refrain from applause produced no less unsettling result, especially when this composition was performed right before the intermission, which is usually the case. The only other solution was to go back to music immediately after this work. The moment I thought of Bach’s First Contrapunctus, it just felt right. Starting in the similar emotional atmosphere as the opening of the Chamber Symphony (on the rare occasions when we play this Contrapunctus on its own, it is played totally differently), it then takes a drastically different road, becoming a majestic hymn to the human spirit.

I would like to stress, that by performing the Bach immediately after the Shostakovich I am not suggesting that anything needs to be added to what Shostakovich has said in his composition. On the contrary, this work is one of the most powerful and complete statements ever expressed in music. In fact, so much so, that for me, my colleagues and, hopefully you, the listener, another powerful statement is needed to restore the inner balance.

Dvorak -- Serenade for Strings, Op. 22

Just like delivering good news to someone has a positive rub-off effect on the messenger, performing Dvorak’s Serenade is really a very therapeutic endeavor for performers. There is so much “pure goodness” in it. Somehow even the moments, which could cast a gloomy shadow – light melancholy of the Waltz, or the fragility of the opening of Larghetto – retain the wonderfully cloudless atmosphere. Usually large-scale compositions have drama, tension, conflict -- the tools which help the performer “to take a position”, interpreting work from his/her unique angle. If to compare a dozen great performances of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony with another dozen of equally great performances of his Nutcracker Suite, the range of differences in interpretation will be far greater in the former. (“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Lev Tolstoy, the opening sentence of “Anna Karenina”). The remarkable thing about Dvorak’s Serenade – this “cloudless goodness” is fully sufficient for sustaining meaningful communication for nearly half an hour of music.

While the circumstances surrounding creation of the work and the emotional content of the resulting composition far not always go hand in hand, in this particular instance they do. In the summer of 1874 the recently married Dvorak’s were expecting their first child. Dvorak was employed as the organist at one of Prague’s churches – a position which did not create any problems for getting qualifying papers from the City Hall, documenting his poverty. With these papers, and a healthy stack of his recent scores (which included two symphonies, orchestral overtures, songs and some chamber music), he applied for a government grant. A distinguished jury, which included Johannes Brahms, did not fail to recognize the “genuine and original gifts”, and on their recommendation, the Minister of Culture presented Dvorak with the highest stipend available under this program. Little wonder that the announcement of this grant stimulated an outburst of creativity. And it was in this happy wave, that Serenade for Strings was completed in just 11 days.