Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 1971; #8 (Reel 1)

From music calling Cincinnati here is another concert of the 1970 71 season by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Thomas Schippers musical director. This is Myron Bennett. And on today's program. A concert conducted by Max Rudolf. Music director emeritus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. I'm just sort of a lot of that are. Just Josh because he will be heard in the Beethoven Piano Concerto Number five on the flight major. And also on the program we will hear the four C interludes from the opera Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten and the Brahms symphony number two. Max Rudolph needs no introduction to musical audiences or to the listeners around the network to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra programs. He guided the growth and development of the Cincinnati orchestra from 1958 until 1969. And during those years he brought the orchestra to its present strength of ninety five members. He began this weekly radio program signed an exclusive long term record recording contract and he took the symphony on a 10 week world tour under the

auspices of the U.S. State Department. And a four week European tour. Before coming to Cincinnati Maestro Rudolph had spent 13 years as conductor and artistic administrator of the Metropolitan Opera. So his decision to accept a post as head of the Opera department at Curtis Institute in Philadelphia was understandable. The ill health forced Mr Rudolph to retire as CSO music director a bit sooner than he had planned but his health has now greatly improved and he is extremely busy with his new responsibilities at curtains. For the opening number on this program Maestro Rudolph has selected Benjamin Britten's four sea interludes from the opera Peter Grimes Opus 33 8. The setting of the Opera is a small English fishing town of the 1820s and the story tells of the tragedy of a rude unhappy and hot tempered fisherman under whom a young apprentice had died in suspicious circumstances. He is innocent

and is acquitted at an inquest but when another boy Apprentice is accidentally killed and angry mob marches on Grimes lonely punch tormented by sea rather traumatic by fear and anger. Grimes puts out to sea in a boat never to return. And the sea dominates the opera. As it dominated and finally claimed the life of Peter Grimes. So these four sea interludes are in a way for pictures of the ocean. The first dawn follows the prologue of the Opera which deals with the inquest and the music describes the bleak atmosphere of the village. The second Sunday morning the setting is the street. The beach and the church in the background chords from the horns are just church bells followed by a syncopated staccato melody for woodwinds suggesting a bright day with waves dancing in the sunlight. The third interlude is moonlight. It precedes the first scene of Act Three in the street and Foreshore are seen at night. That applause greets Sigmund Ephron the concert master

of the orchestra. Now to New York Mr.. The fourth section is the storm which is played between seasons 1 and 2 of Act 1. It's a tonal setting of the storm at sea and the storm in the brain of Peter Grimes angry brasses work up a climax for full orchestra after the turmoil ceases strings are given a brief expressive figure followed by an enchanting pianissimo passage. The fury of the storm gradually returns and brings the interlude to a violent close these are really some of the best pictures of the sea since Debussy's great. We're waiting now for Max Rudolf to make his entrance on the stage I imagine he will be greeted quite warmly by the Cincinnati audience. And here you. Are returning. To the. Concert. Thank you all even the applause all of this will help you out.

And now in just a moment we will be hearing before Seattle loads from the opera Peter Grimes Opus 33 a by Benjamin Button. Max Rudolf conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The band. It'll work.

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Used. You. Before see interludes from the opera Peter Grimes Private Benjamin But Opus 33. Max Rudolf conductor of America's. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra put in this concert with a selection. Thank you is a warm feeling here tonight. Thanks Rudolph. Returning to Cincinnati for this concert

and the audience that has been with them for many years with the orchestra greeting his return for this concert. The music almost seems classic but Meister Rudolph points out that when he was conducting at the Metropolitan and early 1948. Most of the public was disgusted with the music of Peter Grimes. And he says that one infuriated listener demanded his money back and almost attacked the ticket seller. There's been quite a change in public taste since the operas premier of just twenty six years ago. The stage is being cleared now and the piano will be brought out in just a moment. And the soloist for the next election is bloody Canarsie who has been called one of the great pianists of his generation. He was born in Gorky in the Soviet Union. He began his music studies at the age of six and then entered the Central Music School in Moscow where he studied for 10 years. At 17

he took second prize and the fifth international shop on competition in Wausau. And entered the Moscow Conservatory. He was unanimously selected the winner of the Queen Elizabeth competition in Brussels the 1956. And then began a most successful concert career which has taken Mr Ashkenazy all over the world. Last season he played 61 concerts in the United States alone and is scheduled for at least 50 more this following year. He is married to one of his fellow students at the Moscow Conservatory. He was married in 1060 and they now make their home in Iceland with their three children. We're going to hear the Beethoven concerto number five. This is an evil lot in the Opus number is 73. And this is the one that bears the title The Emperor. It's a ground piece. It's been named the Emperor and we're told that in consideration of the splendor of its conception in the mastery with which the parts are handled it must be admitted that this name

is the ideal one. And yet it's made up to a remarkable extent of the simplest display elements elevated to grander by the force of Beethoven's creative imagination. It's as if he deliberately set out to show what he could achieve with the most commonplace material. There are many ideas as to what makes up a concerto. I'd like to quote Bernard Jacobson who when he says what them do I mean by the pure classical sense of the term concerto. One of the commonest mistakes to which an experienced listeners incompetent critics and minor composers are equally prone is to think of the concerto as a kind of battle between soloist and orchestra. Another error less serious because it corresponds to part of the truth. He has to think of it as concern principally to show off the soul of its virtual city. Mr. Jacobson goes on to say the concerto was not Hector doing battle with the Greeks nor is it Hector giving a demonstration of swordsmanship for the benefit of his

admiring fellow Trojans. It is more like Hector fighting among his compatriots as he leads them in the field. And it is still more like Hector prevailing over them in the assembly by force of personality intellect and arguments. Well that could be a description of many concertos and of this one. It begins with three chords with the orchestra and following this the piano. Comes in right away establishing its bravura and the music of grunge over. There follow almost a hundred measures in which the orchestra alone lays forth the two themes and develops them in a leisurely pace and at great length. And then the piano from this point assumes the first place and makes the themes which sounded so symphonic before and now primarily its own. In the solo part goes over elaborate figures but they never obscure the thematic

outlines but in time. If I them and enhanced the development instantly Beethoven wrote his own cadenza into the score and this has forced all of Joe many lesser lights putting there was a witch. With watered down the work considerably. The slow movement is short. It's sort of a dub dialogue between orchestra and piano and hear the muted strings and tone their tender theme. And the piano answers with a pianissimo passage of its own and gently descending triplets. The rondo final movement. Begins with the Rondo theme then the piano takes the thematically and the finale is long and brilliantly developed. The orchestra has to Nell as you no doubt have heard. There is not a mask and I say. Natural problem.

Thank you notes from the piano. And now we will hear the Beethoven Piano Concerto Number Five and Opus 73 the Emperor lot in Austin as a soloist. And live. Lord.

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