November 2 Program Notes

From The Americas

“Breathe” by Carlos Simon

Carlos Simon’s compositional voice has been heard loud and clear in the past several years. In August of 2024, the composer from Washington released his first full-length orchestral album, Four Symphonic Works, featuring the National Symphony Orchestra. Simon’s album Requiem for the Enslaved was nominated for the 2023 Grammy Award for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition.” His piece “brea(d)th,” which the New York Times heralded as “the most important commission of Simon’s career so far,” was a response to the murder of George Floyd and, in the words of the composer, “America’s unfulfilled promises and history of systemic oppression against Black Americans.”

Opening this afternoon’s concert is Simon’s “Breathe,” a 2021 commission by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. The inspiration for “Breathe” comes from the writings of Howard Thurman, a renowned theologian, civil rights activist, and mentor of many figures in the civil rights movement, notably Martin Luther King Jr. Thurman’s book, Meditations of the Heart is a text Simon frequently returns to. As Simon writes, “I was deeply inspired by one section entitled ‘Still Dews of Quietness’, which urges one to ‘stay put for a spell’. Through his [Thurman’s] words, I wanted to take the gesture further by writing a piece that encourages others to simply reflect and breathe.”

Samuel Barber's Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, Op. 22, featuring Brent Selby

The story of a Western classical composition can so easily focus solely on the composer. In reality, music-making is highly collaborative and involves the participation of many individuals. In the case of Samuel Barber's Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924-1949, initiated the idea; John Nicholas Brown, a Boston Symphony Orchestra trustee, funded the commission; Samuel Barber composed the piece; cellist Raya Garbousova gave its debut performance.

Wanting to showcase Garbousova, a fellow Russian who immigrated to the United States in 1939, Koussevitsky suggested that Barber compose a cello concerto. Barber began the compositional process by asking Garbousova to perform her repertoire to gain an understanding of her style and unique approach to the instrument. Garbousova premiered the piece with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall on April 5, 1946.

Despite Barber winning the New York Music Critics’ Circle Award in 1947 for the piece, it has only recently surfaced in the concert hall repertoire. Historians have pointed to its difficulty as a reason it is seldom performed. For instance, Leonard Rose, the famed cello pedagogue, claimed that it was among the most difficult concertos he’d ever attempted; Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell have echoed similar sentiments. The concerto’s technical demands, however, haven’t deterred today’s soloist, Brent Selby (Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, and Boston Lyric Opera), from performing it for this afternoon’s program.

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein

When West Side Story made its Broadway debut on September 26, 1957, it was heralded as a monumental success in mid-century musical theater, revered for its bridging of European and “authentic” American musical stage drama. Set in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, during the 1950s, the musical is inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Many of Leonard Bernstein’s and Stephen Sondheim’s compositions quickly became standards, notably “America,” “I Feel Pretty,” and “Somewhere.” Three years later, Bernstein, along with Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal (the two orchestrators for the Broadway production), began working on a symphonic suite using various excerpts of the larger work for the suite’s individual movements. The two-and-a-half hour-long original stage production of West Side Story was compressed into a roughly 23-minute instrumental symphonic suite.

Pay particular attention to the orchestra’s percussion section throughout the suite. To accentuate the influence of popular dances, Bernstein, Ramin, and Kostal included myriad percussion instruments in the orchestration, particularly those in Latin American dance music. The impressive array of percussion instruments includes bongo, conga, cowbell, glockenspiel, gourd, guiro, maraca, marimba, tam-tam, tambourine, timbale, vibraphone, woodblock, and xylophone.

To this day, Bernstein’s place in popular culture remains firm. In 2021, Steven Spielberg directed the third film adaptation of West Side Story, and Maestro, starring Bradley Cooper, was released in 2023 and received seven Academy Awards.

~ James Heazlewood-Dale