Ravinia 2025 Issue 4

island with a serenade. “In the wee small hours the other morning,” reported The Havana Post (February 20), an English-language daily news- paper that tracked Gershwin throughout his stay, “guests were surprised to hear the rhythmic rattle of maracas, the staccato beat of the bongo drum and voices lifted in harmonious song permeating the night air.” Not everyone appreciated the ges- ture. Cerf recalled that “several outraged patrons left the hotel the next morning.” Notwithstanding the endless series of social events, Gershwin’s primary purpose for visit- ing Havana was to immerse himself in Cuban music. “The siren call of Cuban music with its odd rhythms and plaintive melodies has lured George Gershwin, internationally famous com- poser, to Havana, in search of new inspiration for his ‘Rhapsodies,’ which have set a trend in composition,” according to The Havana Post . Gershwin’s fascination with Cuban music had taken hold years before. In New York City, he frequented the Sert Room at the Waldorf-As- toria to hear Xavier Cugat & His Hotel Wal- dorf-Astoria Orchestra, mingle with the musi- cians, and occasionally join their jam sessions. The resident orchestra at the Almendares—the Orquesta Hermanos Palau—performed Cuban dance band music nightly. Their laid-back style of rumba blended elements of Afro-Cuban, jazz, and popular music. Of greater interest and in- fluence on Gershwin were the smaller son en- sembles that played more rhythmically complex pieces influenced by Spanish and African music. Fascinated by their kaleidoscopic percussion in- struments, he acquired maracas, bongo drums, gourds, guiros, and claves to take back to the US. Gershwin departed Havana on February 29. Once back amid the hubbub of New York City, he began drafting an orchestral piece called Rumba (later retitled Cuban Overture ) incorporating these same percussion instruments. The Cuban Overture brought important strides in Gersh- win’s development as a composer, as techniques he explored during formal composition, coun- terpoint, and orchestration lessons with Joseph Schillinger were put into practice. The language of his program notes, written for the first perfor- mance on August 16, 1932, reflected the compos- er’s serious intent. This all-Gershwin concert at Lewisohn Stadium was given by the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under Al- bert Coates before an audience of 18,000. “In my composition, I have endeavored to com- bine the Cuban rhythms with my own themat- ic material. The result is a symphonic overture which embodies the essence of the Cuban dance. It has three main parts. The first part ( Moderato e molto ritmato ) is preceded by a ( forte ) intro- duction featuring some of the thematic material. Then comes a three-part contrapuntal episode leading to a second theme. The first part finishes with a recurrence of the first theme combined with fragments of the second. “A solo clarinet cadenza leads to a middle part, which is in a plaintive mood. It is a gradually de- veloping canon in a polytonal manner. This part concludes with a climax based on an ostinato of the theme in the canon, after which a sudden change in tempo brings us back to the rumba dance rhythms. The finale is a development of the preceding material in a stretto-like manner. This leads us back again to the main theme. The conclusion of the work is a coda featuring the Cuban instruments of percussion.” NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844–1908) Sheherazade : Symphonic Suite, op. 35 Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, bass drum, gong, cymbals, harp, solo violin, and strings The revision and orchestration of Prince Igor , an opera by Alexander Borodin left incomplete at his death, entirely absorbed Rimsky-Korsakov’s energy and attention for much of 1887 and early 1888. Freed of his editing responsibilities in the summer of 1888, Rimsky-Korsakov quickly compensated by producing three orchestral works: the symphonic suite Sheherazade , op. 35; Souvenir de trois chants polonaise for violin and orchestra; and the liturgically inspired overture Russian Easter Festival , op. 36. Delving into “Oriental” literature, Rimsky-Kor- sakov discovered the ancient anthology of Per- sian, Indian, and Arabian tales known as A Thousand and One Nights , or The Arabian Nights . This collection of disconnected stories is unified only by the narrative voice of Sheherazade, the ill-fated wife of the sultan. Rimsky-Korsakov se- lected four tales for his symphonic suite. Like his literary inspiration, he integrated the four She- herazade movements with a single voice: a solo violin theme “delineating Sheherazade herself telling her wondrous tales to the stern Sultan.” Other descriptive themes recur throughout the suite, appearing “each time under different illu- minations, depicting each time different traits, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and expressing different moods, the self-same given motives and themes correspond each time to different images, actions, and pictures.” She- herazade was first performed on November 3, 1888, at a Russian Symphony Concert in St. Pe- tersburg, under the composer’s direction. Rimsky-Korsakov prefaced the first edition of Sheherazade with the following programmatic outline: “The Sultan Schahriar, convinced of the duplicity and infidelity of all women, vows to slay each of his wives after the first night. The Sultana, Sheherazade, however, saved her life by the expe- dient of recounting to the Sultan a succession of tales over a period of a thousand and one nights. Overcome by curiosity, the monarch postponed from day to day the execution of his wife and ended by renouncing altogether his sanguinary resolution. Many were the marvels recounted to Schahriar by Sheherazade. For the telling of these, she drew from the verses of the poets and the words of folksongs and tales, connecting her stories one with the other.” All four movements originally were given descriptive titles, which the composer later attempted to suppress. I. The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship . The sultan speaks gruffly in the opening measures, but Sheheraza- de’s gentle voice soothes him for the first tale. Sinbad, a wealthy Baghdad sea merchant, gains his riches through seven difficult voyages. The ocean rocks back and forth in a gentle 6/4 meter. Billows gradually rise, making for a tumultuous journey. II. The Story of the Kalender Prince . In the Ara- bian Nights , three royal princes are disguised as wandering beggars ( kalenders ). Each has lost his right eye: the first is plucked out, the second is burned by a hot cinder, and the third is knocked out by a flying horse’s tail. Rimsky-Korsakov represented the hapless trio in recitative passag- es for trombone/trumpet, clarinet, and bassoon. III. The Young Prince and the Young Princess . A string waltz serenades the young lovers. With- in this romantic setting, a most unlikely debate arose. Vasily Vasilyevich Yastrebtsev wrote in his Reminiscences of Rimsky-Korsakov (November 10, 1898): “We [the composer and Yastrebtsev] also took note that Sheherazade was played recently in London and that a heated controversy had bro- ken out among the English over whether the clar- inet runs in the third movement depicted kisses!” IV. Festival at Baghdad—The Sea—The Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior—Conclusion . Rimsky-Korsakov embellished the tale with this festival in Baghdad. The fifth of Sinbad’s voyages violently sweeps him to a rocky crag, which smashes his ship to bits. Themes from the previous three movements make fleeting appearances. The solo violin plays a final, gentle phrase as Sheherazade spins her last tale, putting the Sultan’s fury to rest. –Program notes © 2025 Todd E. Sullivan RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 21 – AUG. 3, 2025 60