Ravinia 2022, Issue 4

PAVILION 8:00 PM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2022 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA WAYNE MARSHALL, conductor, piano † BERNSTEIN Overture to Candide BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances fromWest Side Story Prologue—“Somewhere”—Scherzo— Mambo—Cha-Cha—Meeting Scene— “Cool” Fugue—Rumble BERNSTEIN Divertimento for Orchestra Sennets and Tuckets Waltz Mazurka Samba Turkey Trot Sphinxes— Blues In Memoriam—March: “The BSO Forever” MARSHALL Improvisation on a song by Stephen Sondheim GERSHWIN Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture (arr. Bennett) There will be no intermission in this program. † Ravinia debut Tonight’s concert is performed in memory of Charles and Margery Barancik . LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918–1990) Overture to Candide Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two B-flat, one E-flat, and one bass clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, tenor drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, glockenspiel, xylophone, harp, and strings Candide was Leonard Bernstein’s flawed masterpiece. This slow-evolving piece of mu- sical theater began life as Lillian Hellman’s adaptation of a play by 18th-century writer Voltaire, the “father of the French Revolu- tion.” Hellman suggested Voltaire’s comic sat- ire Candide as an unflattering allegory for the anti-Communist crusade—led by Senator Jo- seph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee—from which America was only recently emerging. The merciless McCarthyist crusades affected Hellman di- rectly when she was summoned before the Committee to explain her visit to the Soviet Union, alleged Communist activities, and romantic relationship with Dashiel Hammett (a suspected Communist who portrayed Sam Spade on the radio). Hellman proposed the production to Bernstein in September 1950, but the busy composer/ conductor/pianist did not consent to “having a fling” with Candide for four more years. This “comic operetta” experienced a difficult gesta- tion while Hellman wrote at her typically slow pace, Bernstein worked on his film score to On the Waterfront and began West Side Story , and the whole production went through a series of lyricists—John La Touche, Dorothy Parker, and finally Richard Wilbur, with adaptations by Bernstein and Hellman. (Stephen Sond- heim contributed lyrics to later productions.) After a tryout at Boston’s Colonial Theater, Candide opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theater on December 1, 1956. The show ran for a disappointing 73 performances. Critics recognized Candide ’s conceptual bril- liance, but audiences found the production too erudite and confusing. Over the past four decades, there have been numerous revivals and revisions, several in direct collaboration with Bernstein. The overture immediately conjures an opti- mistic atmosphere with its preview of select- ed themes from the operetta. The young man Candide is betrothed to the lovely ingénue Cu- negonde. Dr. Pangloss philosophizes that “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds,” a rather naive statement immediately chal- lenged by a series of misfortunes: Cunegonde’s alleged death, a death sentence imposed upon Candide and Dr. Pangloss by the Inquisition, the death of Pangloss, slavery, shipwreck, and poverty. Candide eventually renounces his teacher’s ideology and decides that the only way is “to make one’s own garden grow.” Symphonic Dances fromWest Side Story Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, one E-flat, two B-flat, and bass clarinets, alto saxophone, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, a battery of percussion, xylophone, vibraphone, celeste, chimes, harp, piano, and strings West Side Story began as the brainchild of writer Arthur Laurents, choreographer Jerome Robert Rounseville and Barbara Cook in the 1956 stage production of Candide Robbins, and composer Leonard Bernstein. Robbins proposed that this musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet be given a modern, slum setting during Easter/Passover with a violent conflict between Catholics and Jews. However, a struggle along religious lines quickly lost its appeal, and the three men went their separate ways. This was 1949. Six years later, the Romeo and Juliet idea resur- faced during a poolside conversation at the Beverly Hills Hotel. In the aftermath of gang warfare in the Mexican community, Laurents and Bernstein introduced a new spin: a clash between Hispanic and Anglo gangs. Laurents then suggested “the Blacks and Puerto Ricans in New York, because this was the time of the appearance there of teenage gangs, and the problem of juvenile delinquency was very much in the news.” Lyricist Stephen Sond- heim, the final member of the creative team, joined in 1955. The plot continued to evolve. Several permutations of the title reflected changes in geography and emphasis: first East Side Story , then Gangway! , and finally the fin- ger-snapping West Side Story . The show opened on August 19, 1957, at the National Theatre in Washington, DC, and on Septem- ber 26 moved to Broadway’s Winter Garden Theater, where it ran for 732 performances. Direct parallels with Romeo and Juliet abound. Two battling factions suggest the Capulets and Montagues. A generic Anglo gang, the Jets, defends its turf against the in- flux of Hispanic youths, the Sharks. The tragic lovers Maria (Juliet), a Puerto Rican girl, and Tony (Romeo), a member of the Jets, meet and fall in love at a school dance (the ball). Bernardo (Tybalt), Maria’s brother, kills To- ny’s best friend, Riff (Mercutio). Tony exacts revenge by murdering Bernardo. In the end, Tony dies in Maria’s arms. West Side Story was nominated for a Tony Award, but lost to Mer- edith Willson’s The Music Man . A film adap- tation appeared in 1961, winning 10 Oscars, including for Best Picture. That same year, Bernstein compiled the Symphonic Danc- es from West Side Story with orchestration Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert in a promotional photo for the original Broadway production of West Side Story (1957) RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 1 – AUGUST 14, 2022 24