Gershwin & Tchaikovsky Program Notes

Carlos Simon’s Motherboxx Connection

World Premiere January 26, 2022; Ann Arbor, Michigan
6 minutes

Black heritage and identity are central to Carlos Simon’s music.
His film scores draw on jazz, gospel and the romantic tradition.
As music director and keyboardist, Simon has worked with Jennifer Holliday and the soul artist Angie Stone.

GRAMMY®-nominated Carlos Simon is currently composer-in-residence for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is also the Boston Symphony’s first Composer Chair in the institution’s nearly 150-year history. A graduate of Morehouse College and Georgia State, he earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan, studying with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. His music melds classical techniques and neo-romantic harmonies with the improvisatory styles of gospel and jazz.

Motherboxx Connection is the first movement of Simon’s Tales: A Folklore Symphony, a four-movement work commissioned by the Sphinx Organization and the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra. His title comes from the Afrofuturist duo Black Kirby whose characters depict Black heroes fusing both ancient traditions and futurist concepts from the African diaspora. The motherboxx has been described as “the technological equivalent of the ‘motherland’ in the Black diaspora imagination … where Black identities merge and depart.”

Simon’s five-minute movement is a whirlwind of activity with a prevailing dynamism, forward momentum and strength that he describes as representing the power and intelligence of the motherboxx. He has written, “I imagine the motherboxx as an all-knowing entity that is aware of the multi-faceted aspects of Blackness.”

George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F

World Premiere December 3, 1925; New York, New York
31 minutes

George Gershwin worked as a Tin Pan Alley pianist before he had Broadway successes.
He was a fitness enthusiast who enjoyed boxing and had a home gym.
An amateur painter himself, Gershwin acquired a substantial collection of modern art.
His older brother Ira was his lyricist for dozens of iconic American songs.

When Paul Whiteman’s band premiered George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in 1925, the 26-year-old composer became an overnight sensation. Recognizing that Gershwin would now be a powerful draw at the box office, the German conductor Walter Damrosch arranged for the New York Symphony Society to commission an orchestral work from him. Gershwin decided to feature himself as piano soloist once again.

Damrosch liked to say that Gershwin had “made a lady out of jazz” with this work. With its syncopated rhythms and melodies colored by blue notes, the concerto has clear links to jazz. Gershwin bristled when it was labeled a “jazz concerto,” however. He was proud of his orchestration, a newly acquired skill for him and of the links he made among the three movements. The Concerto has remained an audience favorite for a century. With one foot in the classical camp and the other in the jazz halls of Harlem, this Gershwin masterpiece is unique in the literature.

The version with the Marcus Roberts Trio interpolates several cadenzas that use Gershwin’s music as a springboard for improvisation. The trio’s bass and drums also play during some of the notated passages for piano and orchestra, subtly enhancing Gershwin’s original. Essentially, it is a recomposition, substantially lengthening the performance duration by about 10 minutes, from about half an hour to slightly more than 40 minutes. The Marcus Roberts Trio adds a magical freshness to this familiar concerto, imprinting it with good taste, spontaneity and a profound respect for the original.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

World Premiere November 17, 1888; Saint Petersburg, Russia
44 minutes

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was the quintessential Russian romantic.
He relied more on traditional Western models than his Russian contemporaries.
Italian opera, French ballet and German romanticism all influenced his compositions.
His music tends to be emotional and sometimes deeply affecting.
Many of his works have an extra-musical subtext.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony is similar to its predecessor, the stormy Fourth Symphony, in that it focuses on mankind’s futile struggle with destiny. This is, however, a more spiritual work than the F minor symphony; specifically, it deals with man’s spiritual helplessness and inadequacy. These thoughts are most evident in the finale, which opens with great solemnity. But the entire symphony is filled with operatic crescendos and dramatic, sudden shifts in tempo, all of which bespeak a soul in torment, searching for its own catharsis.

Like Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth is a “motto” symphony with a unifying motive that recurs periodically throughout the work and is particularly noticeable in the first and final movements. Its character changes from gloomy and menacing in the first movement, to gentle in the Valse, then ultimately victorious in the last movement.

Tchaikovsky is justly praised for his imaginative woodwind writing. From the opening measures, where the clarinet introduces the motto, the winds have wonderful cameo solos. They frequently play as a section in lively dialogue with the strings. The famous French horn solo in the slow movement is one of the glories of the literature.

The graceful third movement Valse reminds us that Tchaikovsky was a great ballet composer. This waltz holds its own with the wonderful ones from his ballets Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. It also provides contrast to the marches that dominate the outer movements. Tchaikovsky turns his finale into a triumphal march with thrilling moments for the brass section. Emotional, dramatic and melodious, this Symphony has it all.

Motherboxx Connection

Carlos Simon

Born April 13, 1986, in Washington D.C.

In 2022, Carlos Simon told The Washington Post, “My dad, he always gets on me. He wants me to be a preacher, but I always tell him, ‘Music is my pulpit. That’s where I preach.’” Immersed in gospel music as a child, Simon acknowledges gospel’s improvisatory nature as a key influence on his own compositions. His album, Requiem for the Enslaved, a multi-genre tribute commemorating the lives of enslaved persons sold by Georgetown University in 1838, was nominated for the GRAMMY® Best Contemporary Classical Composition last year.

Motherboxx Connection is the first movement of Simon’s Tales: A Folklore Symphony, a four-movement work commissioned by the Sphinx Organization at the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra. His title comes from the Afrofuturist duo Black Kirby, whose characters depict Black heroes fusing both ancient traditions and futurist concepts from the African diaspora. According to Regina N. Bradley, a Professor of African American literature and culture at Kennesaw State University, Motherboxx Connection is:

… a pun on Jack Kirby’s Mother Box, a living computer connected to the world, the motherboxx too is a living computer with a heightened awareness of racial and sexual discourses surrounding the Black body. The motherboxx is the technological equivalent of the “motherland” in the Black diaspora imagination. She is where Black identities merge and depart.

Instrumentation: The score calls for flute, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani and strings.

Piano Concerto in F

George Gershwin

Born September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York · Died July 11, 1937, in Beverly Hills, California

When Paul Whiteman’s band premiered George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in 1924, the 26-year-old composer became an overnight sensation. Gershwin was already well known on Tin Pan Alley and on Broadway. The Rhapsody expanded his musical empire to the concert hall and increased Gershwin’s fame and popularity.

The German conductor Walter Damrosch heard the premiere and was very impressed. Shrewd and farsighted, he recognized that Gershwin had something to offer to the classical world: a powerful draw at the box office. Damrosch had conducted the New York Symphony Society since 1903. He approached its president, Harry Harkness Flagler, about commissioning Gershwin to compose an orchestral work, convincing Flagler that the timing was right to take full advantage of Gershwin’s surging popularity.

Gershwin accepted the commission, despite lacking experience writing for symphony orchestra. He decided to cast himself as piano soloist, as he had in the Rhapsody. He signed a contract with the New York Symphony in April 1925, agreeing to deliver the score and parts one week before rehearsals started in December and to perform seven concerts with Damrosch’s orchestra.

In his first sketches, the work bore the title “New York Concerto,” but Gershwin had changed to the more sedate “Concerto in F” by mid-July. The music was shaping up to be anything but sedate. Gershwin’s basic layout conformed with a traditional concerto: three movements in the order fast, slow and faster. The atmosphere, however, was not at all traditional. Gershwin’s initial thoughts ran along the lines of: Part one, rhythm. Part two, blues. Part three, more rhythm. With his instinctive flair for jazz and his thorough understanding of popular culture, he caught the energy and optimism of the era, incorporating Charleston dance rhythms and the blues of muted trumpet. He finished composing by September and worked on the orchestration – a more difficult task for him – throughout October and into November. The score is dated November 10, 1925. The premiere took place on December 3, 1925, at New York’s venerable Carnegie Hall.

The week before the first performance, Gershwin published an article about his new concerto in the New York Herald – New York Tribune on November 25, 1925. He described it thus:

The first movement employs the Charleston rhythm. It is quick and pulsating, representing the young, enthusiastic spirit of American life. It begins with a rhythmic motif given out by the kettledrums, supported by other percussion instruments, and with a Charleston motif introduced by horns, clarinets and violas. The principal theme is announced by the bassoon. Later, a second theme is introduced by the piano.

The second movement has a poetic, nocturnal atmosphere, which has come to be referred to as the American blues but in a purer form than that in which they are usually treated.

The final movement reverts to the style of the first. It is a [riot] of rhythms, starting violently and keeping to the same pace throughout.

The Concerto has remained an audience favorite for a century. With one foot in the classical camp and the other in the jazz halls of Harlem, this Gershwin masterpiece is unique in the literature. The version with the Marcus Roberts Trio interpolates several cadenzas that use Gershwin’s music as a springboard for improvisation. The trio’s bass and drums also play during some of the notated passages for piano and orchestra, subtly enhancing Gershwin’s original. Essentially it is a recomposition, substantially lengthening the performance duration by about 10 minutes, from about half an hour to slightly more than 40 minutes. The Marcus Roberts Trio adds a magical freshness to this familiar concerto, imprinting it with good taste, spontaneity and a profound respect for the original.

Instrumentation: Roberts’ arrangement is scored for three flutes (third doubling piccolo), three oboes (third doubling English horn, three clarinets (third doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (cymbals, glockenspiel, xylophone, snare drum, wood block, whip, bass drum, triangle and gong), solo jazz trio (piano, bass and drums) and strings.

Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Viatka district, Russia · Died November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg, Russia

Hans Keller has observed that Tchaikovsky’s last two symphonies are so popular that one feels somewhat embarrassed to be writing about either one:

It is as if one were invited to write an essay recommending the “Blue Danube” waltz. Yet, at the present stage in the history of music, one finds oneself in the paradoxical position of having to defend these works against their popularity.

Over the years, the Fifth Symphony has swung in and out of favor. Within a year or two of its premiere in 1888, critics took the Russian composer to task for lack of discipline, incoherence and commonplace themes. Reception was particularly severe in the United States where, for example, the Boston Evening Transcript critic wrote:

Of the Fifth Tchaikovsky Symphony one hardly knows what to say … In the Finale, we have all the untamed fury of the Cossack, whetting itself for deeds of atrocity, against all the sterility of the Russian steppes. The furious peroration sounds like nothing so much as a horde of demons struggling in a torrent of brandy, the music growing drunker and drunker. Pandemonium, delirium tremens, raving and above all, noise worse confounded!

Despite this feedback, the symphony succeeded in transcending such journalistic mudslinging and winning a secure place in the repertoire. Its enormous popularity exists because of an emotional immediacy in Tchaikovsky’s music that reaches the listener on a very personal level. Is there any symphonic work more immediately moving and ingratiating than Tchaikovsky’s Fifth? From its opening measures, where the clarinet declaims a lugubrious Russian march tune, this symphony grips and retains our emotional involvement. Nowhere is Tchaikovsky less subtle, and nowhere is he more effective. The lovely horn melody that dominates the famous slow movement is one of the triumphs of the symphonic literature: memorable and eminently singable, it stays with us for weeks after hearing this symphony.

And the waltz – a bow to Berlioz’s similar ploy in the Symphonie fantastique, also replacing the scherzo – is graceful and alluring, ever a reminder that Tchaikovsky was the greatest ballet composer of the 19th century. His reliance on dance rhythms in this symphony, particularly waltzes and marches, contributes to its cyclic unity and emphasizes his innate gift as a composer for the ballet stage.

Tchaikovsky began work on his Fifth Symphony shortly after taking occupancy of his new country house at Frolovskoye, near Klin. He moved there in April 1888 and at first was entranced by gardening and the natural beauty of his surroundings. By midsummer, however, the urge to compose had returned. He commenced work on the E-minor symphony, his first in over a decade, and was orchestrating by August. The premiere performances took place that autumn in St. Petersburg. Their failure depressed Tchaikovsky, whose opinion of his own new compositions tended to vacillate wildly with public and critical opinion. He was much encouraged by Johannes Brahms’ kind words the following spring in Hamburg when the new symphony was first heard in Germany on tour. In a letter to his brother Modest from Hamburg in March 1889, he wrote:

Brahms stayed an extra day to hear my symphony and was very kind. We had lunch together after the rehearsal and quite a few drinks. He is very sympathetic, and I like his honesty and open-mindedness. Neither he nor the players liked the Finale, which I also think rather horrible.

But two weeks later, from Hanover, this harsh self-criticism had passed, and he was able to write:

The Fifth Symphony was beautifully played, and I have started to love it again – I was beginning to develop an exaggerated, negative opinion about it.

Like its predecessor, the stormy Fourth Symphony, the Fifth focuses on mankind’s futile struggle with destiny. This is, however, a more spiritual work than the F-minor symphony; specifically, it deals with man’s spiritual helplessness and inadequacy. These thoughts are most evident in the finale, which opens with great solemnity. The entire symphony is filled with operatic crescendos and dramatic, sudden shifts in tempo, all of which bespeak a soul searching for its own catharsis.

Instrumentation: Tchaikovsky scored his Fifth Symphony for three flutes (third doubling piccolo); oboes, clarinets and bassoons in pairs; four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani and strings.