Welcome Message From Maxim KuzinMaxim Kuzin, a native of Ukraine, will conduct the first concert of the season on Dec. 10, featuring the work of Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko. Kuzin is the current Music Director of the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic and spent 19 years conducting professional and student orchestras, opera companies and choirs in Ukraine, Eastern Europe and the United States. He also conducted the orchestra for the popular “Dancing With The Stars” show in Ukraine.
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It is my great pleasure to present to you this special concert program entitled “Celebration of Dance.” You will hear handpicked orchestral dances from Poland, Hungary, Austria, Spain, and Slavic countries by composers such as Chopin, Brahms, Dvořák, Strauss Jr., de Falla, and Kodály which will please your ear, uplift your spirit, and amaze you with the diversity of their beauty. The concert will also feature a young and very talented violinist Ronnie Zhang, the winner of the Parness Concerto Competition, who will perform very colorful romantic violin concerto by Alexander Glazunov.
I am a Ukrainian-American conductor and I strongly believe now is the right time to explore Ukrainian music. Therefore, I have prepared an unusual treat for you. Besides performing beautiful dances, we will start the concert with an overture to the opera Taras Bulba (1880-1891) by the founder of Ukrainian classical music Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912).
I am sure you will enjoy this concert from the first till the last note and will remember it for a long time. Please feel free to invite your family members to join you as the concert’s music is very approachable and will delight everyone regardless of age and music background. There will be a little surprise at the end of the concert but I am not going to disclose it now😊!
I look forward to the pleasure of seeing you in the audience on December 10th!
I am a Ukrainian-American conductor and I strongly believe now is the right time to explore Ukrainian music. Therefore, I have prepared an unusual treat for you. Besides performing beautiful dances, we will start the concert with an overture to the opera Taras Bulba (1880-1891) by the founder of Ukrainian classical music Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912).
I am sure you will enjoy this concert from the first till the last note and will remember it for a long time. Please feel free to invite your family members to join you as the concert’s music is very approachable and will delight everyone regardless of age and music background. There will be a little surprise at the end of the concert but I am not going to disclose it now😊!
I look forward to the pleasure of seeing you in the audience on December 10th!
Program Notes
Mykola Lysenko was a composer, pianist, ethnomusicologist, educator, and conductor. He shaped Ukrainian classical music tradition during the second half of the 19th century in the same fashion and at the same time as Grieg elevated Norwegian music, Smetana and Dvořák – Czech, and “The Five” – Russian.
Taras Bulba Overture is a staple piece in the legacy of Ukrainian symphonic music and can serve as a great introduction to it. The opera whose plot revolves around a Ukrainian Cossack Taras Bulba, had a very challenging production history. Endorsed by Tchaikovsky who, after hearing the piano version played for him by Lysenko, offered his help to promote the opera to be produced on the stage of the Russian Imperial Theaters. The Theaters’ directorate approved it under the condition that the opera, originally written in the Ukrainian language, had to be translated and performed in the Russian language. Lysenko, who spent three decades composing the epic five-act opera, refused the offer and never had a chance to hear it produced during his lifetime! Lysenko truly believed that Ukrainian culture is an equal among equals in the family of European cultures and that the opera written in Ukrainian language should be performed in this language as operas by other world composers. The opera was first produced only decades later in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1924. Since then, the opera has gained popularity and an important status in Ukraine and abroad. It now regularly opens each season at the National Opera House in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Alexander Glazunov’s Violin Concerto in A minor, op. 82 was written in 1904-1905 and dedicated to its first performer, famous at that time violinist Leopold Auer. Glazunov was at his career’s height at that time and this concerto is one of his most known and widely performed compositions.
The concerto has a couple of peculiar features. It is written with no breaks between movements which, in this case, become sections of the one-movement non-stop composition. Moreover, the slow section of this concerto is incorporated in the faster paced opening section. The last section of this concerto starts with a fanfare trumpet theme and is written in the rondo form meaning that the opening theme is recured a couple in the course of the section. Soloist’s cadenza written by Glazunov himself extensively employs the so-called double-stopping technique in which the soloist plays on two violin strings simultaneously.
Glazunov’s Violin Concerto represents technically brilliant yet lyric music writing and is a great representation of the romantic style of instrumental concerto.
Kaiser-Walzer, op.437 (Emperor Waltzes) (1889)
Johann Strauss, Jr. is known as “The Waltz King” who composed more than 150 waltzes over the course of his fruitful life as a composer many of which are widely considered as the pinnacles of the orchestral light classic dance genre. The Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I's visit to Berlin to meet the German Kaiser Wilhelm II prompted the composition of this famous waltz. In fact, this composition is a set of four different waltzes preceded, surprisingly, by a march-like introduction and concluding with a very poetic coda with an extremely beautiful and touching cello solo which also appears before the first waltz. A publisher suggested that the title “Emperor Waltzes” should be used instead of the original Strauss’ “Kaiser-Walzer” as it would be a more diplomatically correct name for the piece as it would refer equally to both monarchs.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Polonaise, op.40 no.1, A major (Military) (1838)
Polonaise is a French adjective for Polish and is one of the prominent Polish dances in the triple meter. Chopin composed the “Military” Polonaise while being in Paris following the aftermath of the Russian Empire’s suppression of the Cadet Revolution of 1830-31 organized by young Polish officers joined by Lithuanians, Belorussians, and Ukrainians to liberate the territory from the Empire’s occupation. This Polonaise is the first in a set of two Polonaises under opus 40 and is sometimes referred to as the one to symbolize Polish glory and national pride. This Polonaise is one of the most known and often performed Chopin’s pieces. It sounds tonight in the glorious orchestration by Alexander Glazunov.
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
Dances of Galánta (Galántai táncok) (1933)
Another four-dance set tonight is by Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály. But what a striking difference to the set of Strauss’ waltzes! Galánta is a small town in modern Slovakia (a part of the Kingdom of Hungary during Kodály’s childhood) where the composer spent some of the best years of his life according to his own account. Kodály, who was a major collector of Hungarian folk music, built the composition around the dance music representing the so called Verbunkos folk tradition to recruit people into the military through dance. The following composer’s remarks although about another set of Hungarian folk dances can be equally attributed to Galánta Dances:
“The Hungarian Dances composed by Brahms are typical of urban Hungary around 1860, and were in the main based on the work of composers that were still living. My Dances... have their roots in a much more remote past, and represent a fairyland that has disappeared.”
Czech composer Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) composed Slavonic Dances, op.46, B.83 (Slovanské tance; Slawische Tänze; Danses slaves) in 1878 as a set of eight dances initially for piano four hands. The orchestral versions by the composer himself followed swiftly. The composition of dances was inspired by Brahms’ Hungarian Dances one of which you will hear as the closing piece on our program. Unlike Kodály’s Galánta Dances, Dvořák used his own melodies composed in the spirit of Slavonic folk music.
The Dance No. 2 in E minor from this set had been inspired by Ukrainian Dumka songs, which were later transferred to a style of instrumental music characterized by sudden changes from melancholy to exuberant. Dumkas became popular after Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko (whose Overture to opera Taras Bulba you heard at the beginning of the concert) presented research on this song type in Kyiv and Saint Petersburg in 1873-1874 illustrating the presentation by live performances of the blind kobzar Ostap Veresai.
The next two pieces are by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). De Falla was an extremely responsible composer and very humble person. He wrote very few compositions and yet is regarded by many as Spain’s most influential composer. While in Paris, he met with, and was praised and supported by, such composers as Ravel, Debussy, Dukas, Stravinsky, and Albéniz, among others.
The “Ritual Fire Dance” was written as a part of the ballet El amor brujo (Spell-Bound Love) (1914-1915). Originally unsuccessful, the ballet went through a few revisions in the subsequent years. In the ballet, the main character, Candela, wants to free herself from the haunting spirit of her dead husband to move on to a new lover. She dances around a lit fire to fend off the spirits afflicting her. The music of this dance has its own unique sound aura, is full of mystery and huge dynamic contrasts.
The “Spanish Dance No. 1” from the opera La vida breve (The Brief Life) also lives its own life on symphonic stages separate from the opera it is a part of. This dance is a lively jota - a folk dance from northern Spain, danced in couples in fast triple time – is the most popular of the opera’s music. It is performed during the betrothal ceremony for Paco and Carnela, the girl of his own class that he is forced to marry while he loves a Gypsy woman Salud. Peculiar fiery rhythms and very colorful orchestration for full orchestra with castanets makes this piece a great representation of the rich Spanish dance music tradition on our program.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Hungarian Dance No.1 in G minor (1868)
Brahms’ Dance No. 1 is probably one of the most famous dances from the set of 21 Hungarian Dances by the composer. Originally composed for piano four hands, Brahms’ dances evoked great interest to gypsy folk music that influenced many composers after him including Kodály and Dvořák whose music we performed earlier tonight. Brahms was attracted to and eventually infatuated with the so-called Hungarian style music (gypsy music, in fact) by a Hungarian virtuoso violinist Eduard Reményi who came to Hamburg where 17-year-old Brahm’s was living with his family. Brahms refused to put his name as the composer of the dances on the published music and asked his publisher to simply list him as an arranger of the music.
This dance is full of fiery, grand, and, at moments, intimate music full of rapid dynamic and tempo contrasts that are, generally speaking, the attributes of the entire scope of the Hungarian style music.
On behalf of the Culver City Symphony musicians, we are very happy to present this diverse, extremely beautiful, and engaging “Celebration of Dance” concert program to you tonight!
Taras Bulba Overture is a staple piece in the legacy of Ukrainian symphonic music and can serve as a great introduction to it. The opera whose plot revolves around a Ukrainian Cossack Taras Bulba, had a very challenging production history. Endorsed by Tchaikovsky who, after hearing the piano version played for him by Lysenko, offered his help to promote the opera to be produced on the stage of the Russian Imperial Theaters. The Theaters’ directorate approved it under the condition that the opera, originally written in the Ukrainian language, had to be translated and performed in the Russian language. Lysenko, who spent three decades composing the epic five-act opera, refused the offer and never had a chance to hear it produced during his lifetime! Lysenko truly believed that Ukrainian culture is an equal among equals in the family of European cultures and that the opera written in Ukrainian language should be performed in this language as operas by other world composers. The opera was first produced only decades later in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1924. Since then, the opera has gained popularity and an important status in Ukraine and abroad. It now regularly opens each season at the National Opera House in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Alexander Glazunov’s Violin Concerto in A minor, op. 82 was written in 1904-1905 and dedicated to its first performer, famous at that time violinist Leopold Auer. Glazunov was at his career’s height at that time and this concerto is one of his most known and widely performed compositions.
The concerto has a couple of peculiar features. It is written with no breaks between movements which, in this case, become sections of the one-movement non-stop composition. Moreover, the slow section of this concerto is incorporated in the faster paced opening section. The last section of this concerto starts with a fanfare trumpet theme and is written in the rondo form meaning that the opening theme is recured a couple in the course of the section. Soloist’s cadenza written by Glazunov himself extensively employs the so-called double-stopping technique in which the soloist plays on two violin strings simultaneously.
Glazunov’s Violin Concerto represents technically brilliant yet lyric music writing and is a great representation of the romantic style of instrumental concerto.
Kaiser-Walzer, op.437 (Emperor Waltzes) (1889)
Johann Strauss, Jr. is known as “The Waltz King” who composed more than 150 waltzes over the course of his fruitful life as a composer many of which are widely considered as the pinnacles of the orchestral light classic dance genre. The Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I's visit to Berlin to meet the German Kaiser Wilhelm II prompted the composition of this famous waltz. In fact, this composition is a set of four different waltzes preceded, surprisingly, by a march-like introduction and concluding with a very poetic coda with an extremely beautiful and touching cello solo which also appears before the first waltz. A publisher suggested that the title “Emperor Waltzes” should be used instead of the original Strauss’ “Kaiser-Walzer” as it would be a more diplomatically correct name for the piece as it would refer equally to both monarchs.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Polonaise, op.40 no.1, A major (Military) (1838)
Polonaise is a French adjective for Polish and is one of the prominent Polish dances in the triple meter. Chopin composed the “Military” Polonaise while being in Paris following the aftermath of the Russian Empire’s suppression of the Cadet Revolution of 1830-31 organized by young Polish officers joined by Lithuanians, Belorussians, and Ukrainians to liberate the territory from the Empire’s occupation. This Polonaise is the first in a set of two Polonaises under opus 40 and is sometimes referred to as the one to symbolize Polish glory and national pride. This Polonaise is one of the most known and often performed Chopin’s pieces. It sounds tonight in the glorious orchestration by Alexander Glazunov.
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
Dances of Galánta (Galántai táncok) (1933)
Another four-dance set tonight is by Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály. But what a striking difference to the set of Strauss’ waltzes! Galánta is a small town in modern Slovakia (a part of the Kingdom of Hungary during Kodály’s childhood) where the composer spent some of the best years of his life according to his own account. Kodály, who was a major collector of Hungarian folk music, built the composition around the dance music representing the so called Verbunkos folk tradition to recruit people into the military through dance. The following composer’s remarks although about another set of Hungarian folk dances can be equally attributed to Galánta Dances:
“The Hungarian Dances composed by Brahms are typical of urban Hungary around 1860, and were in the main based on the work of composers that were still living. My Dances... have their roots in a much more remote past, and represent a fairyland that has disappeared.”
Czech composer Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) composed Slavonic Dances, op.46, B.83 (Slovanské tance; Slawische Tänze; Danses slaves) in 1878 as a set of eight dances initially for piano four hands. The orchestral versions by the composer himself followed swiftly. The composition of dances was inspired by Brahms’ Hungarian Dances one of which you will hear as the closing piece on our program. Unlike Kodály’s Galánta Dances, Dvořák used his own melodies composed in the spirit of Slavonic folk music.
The Dance No. 2 in E minor from this set had been inspired by Ukrainian Dumka songs, which were later transferred to a style of instrumental music characterized by sudden changes from melancholy to exuberant. Dumkas became popular after Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko (whose Overture to opera Taras Bulba you heard at the beginning of the concert) presented research on this song type in Kyiv and Saint Petersburg in 1873-1874 illustrating the presentation by live performances of the blind kobzar Ostap Veresai.
The next two pieces are by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). De Falla was an extremely responsible composer and very humble person. He wrote very few compositions and yet is regarded by many as Spain’s most influential composer. While in Paris, he met with, and was praised and supported by, such composers as Ravel, Debussy, Dukas, Stravinsky, and Albéniz, among others.
The “Ritual Fire Dance” was written as a part of the ballet El amor brujo (Spell-Bound Love) (1914-1915). Originally unsuccessful, the ballet went through a few revisions in the subsequent years. In the ballet, the main character, Candela, wants to free herself from the haunting spirit of her dead husband to move on to a new lover. She dances around a lit fire to fend off the spirits afflicting her. The music of this dance has its own unique sound aura, is full of mystery and huge dynamic contrasts.
The “Spanish Dance No. 1” from the opera La vida breve (The Brief Life) also lives its own life on symphonic stages separate from the opera it is a part of. This dance is a lively jota - a folk dance from northern Spain, danced in couples in fast triple time – is the most popular of the opera’s music. It is performed during the betrothal ceremony for Paco and Carnela, the girl of his own class that he is forced to marry while he loves a Gypsy woman Salud. Peculiar fiery rhythms and very colorful orchestration for full orchestra with castanets makes this piece a great representation of the rich Spanish dance music tradition on our program.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Hungarian Dance No.1 in G minor (1868)
Brahms’ Dance No. 1 is probably one of the most famous dances from the set of 21 Hungarian Dances by the composer. Originally composed for piano four hands, Brahms’ dances evoked great interest to gypsy folk music that influenced many composers after him including Kodály and Dvořák whose music we performed earlier tonight. Brahms was attracted to and eventually infatuated with the so-called Hungarian style music (gypsy music, in fact) by a Hungarian virtuoso violinist Eduard Reményi who came to Hamburg where 17-year-old Brahm’s was living with his family. Brahms refused to put his name as the composer of the dances on the published music and asked his publisher to simply list him as an arranger of the music.
This dance is full of fiery, grand, and, at moments, intimate music full of rapid dynamic and tempo contrasts that are, generally speaking, the attributes of the entire scope of the Hungarian style music.
On behalf of the Culver City Symphony musicians, we are very happy to present this diverse, extremely beautiful, and engaging “Celebration of Dance” concert program to you tonight!