Gershwin and Berlioz are “in” this weekend at the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra will present “An American IN Paris” and “Harold IN Italy,” IN Richardson Auditorium IN Alexander Hall, this Saturday evening at 8:00 and Sunday afternoon at 4:00.
By merest coincidence, “Harold in Italy” received its first U.S. performance on this date, 160 years ago. In 1863, it was presented in New York by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, sharing a program with Mozart’s overture to “The Magic Flute” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, interspersed with some shorter musical interludes.
Berlioz’s symphony is unusual for, among other things, its prominent role for an instrumental soloist – a flourish usually reserved for the concerto. The work was written for Niccolò Paganini, the legendary violinist who was hoping for a showcase for his new Stradivarius viola.
Unfortunately, when Paganini received the score, his face dropped, as the composer was evidently more interested in Harold’s meditations – admittedly punched up by some colorful musical evocations, of a religious pilgrimage, a mountaineer’s serenade, and a brigands’ orgy – than in the virtuosic flights Paganini had envisioned. In the event, the world premiere took place in Paris in 1834, with Chrétien Urhan as the soloist.
Though Paganini never played the piece, he did come to appreciate its genius. When he finally heard the work performed in 1838, he ascended the stage, dropped to his knees, and before a cheering crowd, kissed Berlioz’s hand. Perhaps even more gratifying for the composer, Paganini later sent him a bank draft for 20,000 francs.
As Berlioz stated in his “Memoirs,” “My intention was to write a series of orchestral scenes, in which the solo viola would be involved as a more or less active participant while retaining its own character. By placing it among the poetic memories formed from my wanderings in the Abruzzi, I wanted to make the viola a kind of melancholy dreamer in the manner of Byron’s Childe-Harold.”
Although “Harold” is probably the composer’s second most-popular symphony, after the weird and wonderful “Symphonie fantastique,” concert performances are comparatively rare, due to a scarcity of star violists – that is to say, violists who are able to sustain a career as soloists. If the work is done, it’s generally with an orchestra principal in the spotlight. In fact, I believe the last time I heard the piece in person was over 30 years ago, with Joseph de Pasquale and the Philadelphia Orchestra. That’s not to say it hasn’t been played, but rather in my decades of concertgoing, it’s the last time I personally encountered it. Indeed, De Pasquale was the orchestra’s principal violist, but he had quite an association with the piece, having performed it in Boston, where he had also been principal, with Charles Munch, and recorded it in Philadelphia with Eugene Ormandy.
Princeton’s soloist will be De Pasquale’s successor, Roberto Diaz, who was Philadelphia’s principal violist for ten years. In 2006, he left to become director of the Curtis Institute of Music.
The weekend’s concerts will also include Julia Perry’s “Study for Orchestra.” Perry, a graduate of Princeton’s Westminster Choir College in 1948, continued her studies with Luigi Dallapiccola at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, at the Juilliard School in New York, and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. With the recent push to reevaluate neglected music by minority composers, Perry’s “Study” has become a focus of renewed interest, with a number of performances popping up on orchestra schedules this season and next.
The other American on the program requires little introduction. “An American in Paris” even became the subject of an Academy Award winning movie, starring Gene Kelly, with the show-stopping climax a 17-minute ballet inspired by Gershwin’s by turns eager, melancholy, and exuberant score.
It’s an American IN Paris and Harold IN Italy IN Princeton, with one of Westm-IN-ster’s own, IN concert this Saturday and Sunday with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Rossen Milanov will conduct. For tickets and information, visit princetonsymphony.org.
Berlioz, stylin’, in 1832 (portrait attributed to Emile Signol)
