Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev

There will be a Starter prior to this concert. You can attend this in the Swing on the second floor to the left of cloakroom. 

Kostas Zisimopoulos (1994)
One Minute Symphony: ànemos : MYRA (2023)

Opening tonight is the second One Minute Symphony of this season, the collaboration between Residentie Orkest and Royal Conservatoire The Hague. The inspiration comes from a meeting between Greek composition student Kostas Zisimopoulos and Fabian Buijs, harbor master of Jachtclub Scheveningen. Fabian told about his youth, in which he made many sailing trips with his parents. His memories of a storm made a big impression.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Violin Concerto in D, op. 35 (1878)

• Allegro moderato

• Canzonetta: Andante

• Finale: Allegro vivacissimo

By all accounts, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky fell for men. To stay ahead of rumors about his orientation, he married one of his former conservatory students, Antonina Miliukova, in 1877. A happy marriage it did not become. Although the couple would never officially divorce, the pair separated after barely three months, after which the composer fell prey to a severe depression.

To shake off all history, Tchaikovsky traveled in March 1878 to Clarens, a Swiss spa resort near Lake Geneva. There he was joined by his composition student (and alleged lover) Iossif Kotek, an excellent violinist with whom he spent the days making music. When the pair played through an excerpt from Édouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole one afternoon, Tchaikovsky was thoroughly impressed by the notes. 'This music is fresh, light and full of piquant rhythms and beautiful, excellently harmonized melodies,' the composer wrote to his patron Nadezhda von Meck. 'Lalo does not seek depth at all costs, but carefully avoids routine. He looks for new forms, and pays more attention to musical beauty than to established traditions.'

It is tempting to think that Tchaikovsky is here laying out the recipe for a concerto of his own for himself, for inspired by Lalo, he immediately began writing a major work for violin and orchestra. With help from Kotek, who advised the composer on the playing technicalities, the job was done in a jiffy. Less than a month later, the Violin Concerto in D orchestrated and well was on paper.

While Lalo drew inspiration from Spanish folk music in his Symphonie espagnole, Tchaikovsky harkens back to his Russian roots in his Violin Concerto . Illustrative is the lyrical melodic material of the first movement, for example. The folk scale-inspired harmonies of the Canzonetta and the clear nods to Russian folk music in the finale also speak volumes.

At intermission we will serve a free drink.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat, op. 100 (1944)

• Andante

• Allegro marcato

• Adagio

• Finale: Allegro giocoso

As paradoxical as it may sound, World War II was perhaps the happiest time of his life for Sergei Prokofiev, a period in which he felt free as a composer and achieved success with his compositions. Like many of his fellow artists, Prokofiev left Russia after the 1917 revolution. But while a composer like Igor Stravinsky set the tone in the West at the beginning of the twentieth century with works such as Le sacre du printemps and Petrushka, Prokofiev barely managed to find recognition abroad. As a result, he gradually longed to return to his homeland and finally returned to Russia permanently in December 1935. Prokofiev composed his Fifth Symphony during World War II. The composition is Prokofiev all over, especially in the sarcastic, bitingly piercing second movement. The Adagio is a long, heartbreaking complaint and the finale is extremely lively. Prokofiev himself said of this work, "This symphony expresses the greatness of the human spirit, a tribute, and is the end of a creative period. The audience interpreted this grand, compelling music as hope for a better future.