Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra

PCO Presents Mozart & Britten

Premiered 3 pm, Sunday, September 27, 2020

Program Notes

L'amerò, sarò constante:

Fido sposo, e fido amante

Sol per lei sospirerò.

In sì caro e dolce oggetto

La mia gioia, il mio diletto,

La mia pace io troverò.

In his youth, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart enjoyed the steady patronage of several Salzburg Archbishops and composed a number of works for their private functions. Il re pastore, an opera seria first debuted at the Archbishops’s Palace in Salzburg on 23 April 1775, was one of these early gems.

Count Hieronymus von Colloredo commissioned then-19-year-old Mozart to commemorate the visit of Archduke Maximilian Francis to Salzburg with a special stage work. The young composer picked an Italian libretto by opera seria heavyweight Pietro Metastasio. Metastasio, in turn, had found inspiration in a play by Torquato Tasso, 1573’s Aminta. It presents the eternal conflict between personal desires and the higher callings of the state.

Mozart finished working on Il re pastore in the record time of six weeks, producing a two-act opera which is widely considered the best dramatization of Metastasio’s libretto.

The plot of Il re pastore, or The Shepherd King, unfolds during the grand conquests of Alexander the Great, or King Alessandro as the character is named here. Having dethroned Sidon’s tyrannical despot Stratone, Alessandro is now looking for the throne’s rightful heir. He finds him in the simple shepherd Aminta, whose father was once overthrown by the belligerent Stratone. Aminta now finds himself torn between the duties of his kingdom and the desires of his heart.

Alessandro’s plan to reinstate Aminta to the Sidonian throne includes a politically motivated marriage between the shepherd and Tamiri, Stratone’s daughter. However, since neither Aminta nor Tamiri want to go through with the plan and vocally declare their love for other people, Alessandro is forced to abandon his strategy and give his blessings to the Shepherd King and his true love, the shepherdess Elisa.

"L'amerò sarò costante," (I shall love her, I shall be constant) from Act II, is one of the opera's notable arias and is sung by Aminta (originally a castrato) when Elisa pleads with Alessandro to let her marry Aminta. Cast as a duet between Aminta and a solo violin, the aria opens with a short introduction for the orchestra and solo violin.

Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations is a song cycle written for high voice (soprano or tenor) and string orchestra. While on a weekend excursion, Britten read poems by the nineteenth century Frenchman Arthur Rimbaud and declared, "I must put them to music." Britten was deeply affected by the poems and felt a strong affinity to Rimbaud's sense of cynicism, and a longing for the innocence of childhood. Les Illuminations was dedicated to the Swiss soprano, Sophie Wyss, who gave the premiere in London, 1940.

In 1871 at age 17 Rimbaud sent some of his poetry to Paul Verlaine, the French poet he admired most. Verlaine was impressed by the brilliance of these poems and invited Rimbaud to visit him in Paris.

Verlaine introduced Rimbaud to many of the great poets and authors of Paris, who concurred that Rimbaud was indeed a youthful genius. Unfortunately Rimbaud seemed determined to provoke and insult everyone. His caustic remarks and rude habits eventually alienated almost everyone except Verlaine.

Verlaine and Rimbaud formed a passionate relationship which included absinthe and hashish, love and cruelty, inspiration and antagonism, arguments and reconciliations. Rimbaud's cruel disposition and insults finally took its toll on Verlaine. They quarreled violently. During this volatile period, perhaps influenced by his emotional stress, Rimbaud wrote his visionary, brilliant and gaudy prose poems which would later be collected in Les Illuminations. These depicted a surrealistic world of dreams and subconscious thoughts. Although the poems are in French, a few of them have English titles, a reflection of his residence in London.

The piece opens with a Fanfare in which Britten imitates the sound of trumpets with a violin and a viola. The second movement is titled "Villes," and is about the industrialization of cities; the constant eighth note pattern, the mechanical noise of the city. The third movement is divided into two parts, "Phrase," a simple song, and "Antique," a dance-like piece dedicated to "K.H.W.S.", Britten's first romantic interest. Aaron Copland commented regarding the section "Antique" that he did not know how Britten dared to write the melody. The next movement, "Royaute," is ceremonious, portraying a couple wishing for and attaining royalty -- at least in their own minds! "Marine," the sixth song, sets the vocal line against an ostinato accompaniment followed by an orchestral interlude.

1. Fanfare

J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.

2. Villes

Ce sont des villes! C'est un peuple pour qui se sont montés ces Alleghanys et ces Libans de rêve! Des chalets de cristal et de bois se meuvent sur des rails et des poulies invisibles. Les vieux cratères ceints de colosses et de palmiers de cuivre rugissent mélodieusement dans les feux…Des cortèges de Mabs en robes rousses, opalines, montent des ravines. Là-haut, les pieds dans la cascade et les ronces, les cerfs tettent Diane. Les Bacchantes des banlieues sanglotent et la lune brûle et hurle. Vénus entre dans les cavernes des forgerons et des ermites. Des groupes de beffrois chantent les idées des peuples. Des châteaux bâtis en os sort la musique inconnue…Le paradis des orages s'effondre…Les sauvages dansent sans cesse la fête de la nuit…

Quels bons bras, quelle belle heure me rendront cette région d'où viennent mes sommeils et mes moindres mouvements?

3a. Phrase

J'ai tendu des cordes de clocher à clocher; des guirlandes de fenêtre à fenêtre; des chaînes d'or d'étoile à étoile, et je danse.

3b. Antique

Gracieux fils de Pan! Autour de ton front couronné de fleurettes et de baies, tes yeux, des boules précieuses, remuent. Tachées de lies brunes, tes joues se creusent. Tes crocs luisent. Ta poitrine ressemble à une cithare, des tintements circulent dans tes bras blonds. Ton cœur bat dans ce ventre où dort le double sexe. Promène-toi, la nuit, en mouvant doucement cette cuisse, cette seconde cuisse et cette jambe de gauche.

4. Royauté

Un beau matin, chez un peuple fort doux, un homme et une femme superbes criaient sur la place publique: "Mes amis, je veux qu'elle soit reine!" "Je veux être reine!" Elle riait et tremblait. Il parlait aux amis de révélation, d'épreuve terminée. Ils se pâmaient l'un contre l'autre.

En effet ils furent rois toute une matinée où les tentures carminées se relevèrent sur les maisons, et toute l'après-midi, où ils s'avancèrent du côté des jardins de palmes.

5. Marine

Les chars d'argent et de cuivre—
Les proues d'acier et d'argent—
Battent l'écume,—
Soulèvent les souches des ronces.
Les courants de la lande,
Et les ornières immenses du reflux,
Filent circulairement vers l'est,
Vers les piliers de la forêt,
Vers les fûts de la jetée,
Dont l'angle est heurté par des tourbillons de lumière.

Program notes by Conductor Laureate, Douglas Meyer.

Video produced by CW Studios.