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Symphonic Cycle 11 |
Symphonic Cycle 11

15/16MAY2025|20:00H

Teatro de la Maestranza |
20:00 h.

DAAHOUD SALIM | Siete principios herméticos (Estreno absoluto) (Obra encargo de SGAE-AEOS)
MANUEL DE FALLA | Noches en los jardines de España
PIOTR ILICH CHAIKÓVSKI | Sinfonía nº 6, en Si menor, Op.74

Piano | Iván Martín
Conductor | Pablo González

Symphonic Cycle 11 | Program notes
Symphonic Cycle 11
Program notes

This concert presents a dense program that combines innovation, daydreams connected to gardens, and painful introspection with shades of nihilism. It also features a world premiere, which is becoming more frequent in the ROSS seasons, allowing the audience to connect with current creation, as stimulating as it is little-known.

Know More

It may not be far-fetched to link the mysticism of Falla, an essential and introspective composer, with Tchaikovsky's final work, a raw search for his own truth. Two ways of looking inward: Falla, focused on the mystery of dreamlike landscapes, and Tchaikovsky, probing the mystery that all existence entails.

Daahoud Salim: Siete principios herméticos - Seven Hermetic Principles

Daahoud Salim, a composer from Seville, studied with his father, the Texan saxophonist Abdu Salim, a pioneering figure of jazz in Seville. With this enriching education, he graduated in Amsterdam in both classical piano and jazz piano, founded a jazz quintet, and balanced his performances as a classical performer. In 2017, he premiered the work Colores invisibles at the Fundación March, where he explores the cognitive structures of the mind and translates the colors that exist but are not perceived by the human eye into sound.

 

Manuel de Falla: Noches en los jardines de España - Nights in the Gardens of Spain

Noches en los jardines de España began in Paris around 1909 and was completed in Sitges in 1915. Its premiere took place on April 9, 1916, at the Teatro Real in Madrid, with pianist José Cubiles and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Enrique Fernández Arbós, in a concert that also featured El Amor Brujo.

Initially, the work was conceived as four nocturnes for piano, two of which were soon discarded by Falla himself: the "Nocturno de Cádiz", which would later become part of El Amor Brujo, and the "Nocturno de Sevilla". Falla's biographer, Jaime Pahissa, recounts: "Originally, Falla had imagined Noches for piano. But when he communicated his idea to Albéniz, the latter said: 'No tablatures. Paintings! Paintings!' And then the pianist Ricardo Viñes, who had premiered Cuatro piezas españolas in Paris, suggested that he write it for piano and orchestra".

Upon his return to Spain, coinciding with the outbreak of World War I, Falla settled in the coastal town of Sitges, staying in the house-workshop of Santiago Rusiñol, the quintessential Spanish garden painter. This possible and late influence was complemented by that of Granada, where his close friend María Lejárraga, a sentimental guide, resided. Falla would not move to Granada until 1920.

For its composer, Noches en los jardines de España was described as "symphonic impressions", a music "that has no intention of being descriptive, it is merely expressive", where "pain and mystery also have their part". Its themes are based on "the rhythms, modes, cadences, and figures" of Andalusian folk music, though they are not used in their original forms.

We are not dealing with a piano concerto, as in Noches the piano is treated as just another instrument in the orchestra but assumes a leading role, with writing that evokes the guitar (with abundant arpeggios and trills). Furthermore, the orchestration is balanced, as befits a score that is both ornate and evanescent. It is a work that unfolds "without effort or effects," and is considered Falla's most impressionistic, often described as "having a French dress and a Spanish body".

"En el Generalife" (Allegretto tranquilo e misterioso) begins with an enigmatic introduction that reflects its nocturnal character. The delicate entry of the piano emphasizes this atmosphere, and the movement is filled with arabesques and chords. The piano then dialogues with various solo instruments in a crescendo, finishing with the same atmosphere from the beginning.

The following two movements are played without interruption.

"Danza lejana" (Allegretto giusto). It is unclear in which garden this dance takes place, but its brevity creates a mood of unease and dark playfulness, with very marked rhythms. It serves as a bridge between the two sections.

"En los jardines de la Sierra de Córdoba" (Vivo). This is a rondo with accents of zambra and echoes of cante jondo. The movement, with its orchestral brilliance and the sensuality of the piano, evokes a festive atmosphere that ends with a tranquil conclusion, a pianissimo marked as "extinguished sound".

According to Federico Sopeña: "If El Amor Brujo is Falla's most radically original work, Noches en los jardines de España is the most influenced and, at the same time, the most beautiful in the literal sense of the word: a delight, a delight inseparable from the modernist-impressionist aesthetic, but avoiding any temptation toward decadence. It is the first great Spanish work for piano and orchestra: neither Albéniz nor Granados reached this pinnacle".

 

Piotr Ilich Chaikovski: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, "Pathétique"

Of the six symphonies composed by Tchaikovsky (seven, if we include the Manfred Symphony, inspired by a poem by Lord Byron), the first three represent an objective world, while the last three are deeply personal, filled with intensity and united, despite the temporal gap between them, by the idea of fatum (fate).

The Sixth Symphony carries the subtitle "Pathetique", suggested by his brother Modesto the day after its premiere, using a Russian word that can also mean "passionate" and "emotional" (the composer did not agree with another suggestion: "Tragic"). After hearing the symphony, we can confirm that the work overflows with passion and emotion, and is not without tragic elements. Composed between February and August 1893, Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere in St. Petersburg on October 28 of that year, nine days before his death. His second performance, on November 6, conducted by his friend Eduard Naprávnik, had a commemorative character and reaffirmed the success of the premiere.

On a personal note, Tchaikovsky told his brother that he cried a great deal while composing it; musically, he wrote in a letter to his nephew Vladimir Davýdov, to whom the work is dedicated, that "from a formal standpoint, there will be many novelties, especially in the ending, which will not be a loud allegro but a long adagio".

The first movement, Adagio – Allegro non troppo, is very extensive and follows sonata form, beginning with a slow introduction, where a theme is presented by the bassoon and strings, creating a dark, somber atmosphere of despair. The Allegro begins with an unexpected fortissimo, developing the movement. It presents two contrasting themes full of emotional weight: the first, filled with anguish; the second, with a marked lyricism. Then, over a cello ostinato, a choral passage is inserted, played by the trombones, with the words "Sleep with the saints," extracted from the Orthodox liturgy. After the recap of the second theme, the movement ends with a coda based on a large descending scale, played pizzicato by the strings, over which a new choral passage from the wind instruments rests.

The second movement, Allegro con grazia, is characterized by its unusual 5/4 time signature, the first time it had been used in a symphony. In 1896, Eduard Hanslick wrote, “This unpleasant meter disturbs both listeners and performers”, and suggested it could be played in 6/8 "without the least inconvenience". This movement serves as a relaxing pause after the dramatic first movement, beginning with a serene and elegant waltz, followed by a trio with a melancholic and sad character. After alternating the two main motifs, the movement ends on a pianissimo chord from the wind instruments.

The Allegro molto vivace goes beyond a classic scherzo. André Lischké described it as "Dionysian, with a continuous drive, without a moment of rest, and, for once, a total absence of contrasts." A march stands out, building in crescendo, triumphant, reinforced by the brass, and reveling in aggressive, almost grotesque rhythms. After some vigorous repetitions, the march closes the movement with strength, which the composer described as “solemnly jubilant.”

It is noteworthy that this symphony is the first to end with a slow movement: Adagio lamentoso, a conclusion that further reinforces the pathetic aspect of the work and the feeling of despair, underscoring the boldness and novelty of the piece. It presents two themes: one, deep and hopeless, exposed by the violins, and a second that evokes desolation, yet also the acceptance of fate, the fatum that haunts the last three symphonies. The strings intone an intense lament, and the music darkens into an atmosphere very close to the opening theme of the first movement, establishing symmetry. The recap of the first section leads to the coda, introduced by a grave choral passage from the trombones. An evocation of the second theme leads the work to a final in which the sound fades to silence.

It has often been pointed out that if Tchaikovsky had simply reversed the order of the last two movements, he would have preserved the optimistic Beethovenian model, the triumph of light over darkness. However, by reversing this model and ending with the nihilistic, dying fall of the Adagio (the same tempo as the symphony's beginning), aside from confessing his own anguished emotional state, he introduces a radically new concept into the symphonic genre, one that Mahler would later continue with great effect in his Ninth Symphony, also a work of pain and farewell.

Juan Lamillar