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Announcer Shostakovich: Jazz Suite No. 1 Waltz Polka Foxtrot Announcer Gershwin: An American in Paris Announcer/Interview Marsalis: Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3) (LA Phil Commission)

Shostakovich: Jazz Suite No. 1 Composed: 1934 Length: c. 8 minutes Orchestration: soprano saxophone (= alto 2), alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, percussion (drum, woodblock, cymbal, bells, xylophone), piano, banjo, Hawaiian guitar, violin, and bass First Los Angeles Philharmonic performances Though Dmitri Shostakovich seemed destined to greatness in the classical tradition, he also loved popular music. He was taken with Jewish folk and theater music, for example, and with the gypsy tunes his father frequently sang around the house. He was also unabashedly in love with the cinema. In fact, he wrote over 30 film scores, many during periods in which he had fallen out of favor with the Soviet authorities and had trouble getting concert performances. The years 1929-1933 were busy ones for Shostakovich, especially writing music for films. Sound had been recently introduced in cinema, and as dialog and sound effects became more prominent, musical segments began to shrink. Also, directors were searching for new and exotic sounds. The Golden Mountains, a 1931 film by Sergei Yutkevich, was a perfect example. Shostakovich experimented with a variety of unusual and offbeat instruments in his score for that film, including the theremin (an electronic instrument invented by Russian Leo Theremin, forerunner of the modern synthesizer), the flexitone, the American banjo, and the electrified Hawaiian lap guitar. Rather than just writing extended compositions, he also wrote pop-style tunes for the film; the song “If Only I Had Mountains of Gold” became “all the rage” after the film’s release, according to Soviet cinema expert Herbert Marshall. Shostakovich’s experience in those years certainly influenced the sound of the 1934 Suite for Jazz Orchestra (No. 1), which was commissioned by a Leningrad dance band. His “take” on jazz is whimsical, indeed, reflecting his interest in gypsy music and in the music of the Yiddish theater more than it does the sound of American jazz. It also reflects his penchant for offbeat instruments, not to mention his ability to spin a tune. The first movement, an upbeat Waltz, opens with a catchy tune in the trumpet, followed by saxophone, then violin. A chirpy middle section features glockenspiel prominently. Shostakovich briefly flirts with the minor mode, then returns to the tunefulness of the opening. The second movement, a convivial Polka, continues the chirpiness, with xylophone featured first. Muted brass plays next, while the driving banjo plays the off beats. Both alto and tenor sax have their say before the violin has the last word with a chipper solo featuring the spiccato (bouncing) bowing technique. The Finale, marked “Foxtrot” in the score, starts with a brassy opening, followed by a sinuous melody played by saxophone. The most peculiar section, which hearkens back to his film score from The Golden Mountain, features the Hawaiian guitar taking the melody while a trombone slithers around underneath in accompaniment. Trombone next takes a turn at the melody, followed by another splash of glockenspiel, a return of the saxophones, and an assertive ending by the ensemble. George Gershwin: An American in Paris Composed: 1928 Length: c. 17 minutes Orchestration: 3 flutes (3rd = piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 saxophones (alto, tenor, and baritone), 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, bells, cymbals, snare drum, taxi horns, tom-toms, triangle, xylophone), celesta, and strings First Los Angeles Philharmonic performance: January 15, 1931, Artur Rodzinski conducting Since his early teens George Gershwin had been enamored with the music he heard uptown in Harlem, a region that was quickly becoming the center of the jazz universe. Indeed, his first attempt at a more serious composition – a mini-opera called Blue Monday – was a story about characters in a Harlem nightclub. Its first presentation was on Broadway, however, with white singers performing in blackface; it was a flop and received only one performance. Undisturbed, Gershwin’s next try at a classical/jazz merging was the so-called “Experiment in Modern Music” (as it was billed for its 1924 premiere): Rhapsody in Blue. He followed this with his Concerto in F, which some writers called “The Jazz Piano Concerto.” These two works were popularly successful, though critics were still guarded with their praise. It was a trip abroad that inspired Gershwin to work in earnest on a recent commission he had received from the New York Philharmonic. His idea for the new work solidified as he was shopping for Parisian taxi-horns to take back to the US: capture the tumult of Paris’ streets in music and create a concert work that didn’t center around the piano. Back in New York, Gershwin finished An American in Paris, which he subtitled “A Tone Poem for Orchestra.” In an interview in the August 18, 1928 edition of Musical America, he said of the work: “this new piece, really a rhapsodic ballet, is the most modern music I have ever attempted.” He also gave a brief “program note” of the work: “The opening gay section is followed by a rich blues with a strong rhythmic undercurrent. Our American… perhaps after strolling into a café and having a couple of drinks, has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness. The harmony here is both more intense and simpler than in the preceding pages. This blues rises to a climax, followed by a coda in which the spirit of the music returns to the vivacity and bubbling exuberance of the opening part with its impression of Paris. Apparently the homesick American, having left the café and reached the open air, has disowned his spell of the blues and once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life. At the conclusion, the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant.” Though still not a critical success, An American in Paris was wildly successful with audiences – and Hollywood – and established Gershwin as an original voice in concert halls worldwide, a voice that resonates to this day. Wynton Marsalis: Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3) Written in 2010 by Wynton Marsalis, the symphony was co-commissioned by the LA Phil and is a part of the On Location residency of Jazz at Lincoln Center, which also includes a Jazz series concert, educational outreach, and inspiration for a Toyota Symphonies for Youth program, Jazz and the Orchestra. Swing Symphony was conducted by the multiple award-winning maestro, Leonard Slatkin, the former Principal Conductor of the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl and a longtime friend of Carolyn and Bill Powers, the beloved philanthropists behind the popular Jazz Series programs at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. The six-movement piece runs approximately 55 minutes and featured the 15 members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, and nearly 90 members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. Defined as a “symphonic meditation” on the evolution of swing, Marsalis’ inspired symphony celebrates jazz history as it assimilates many of the evolutionary forces that have contributed to its survival. Swing Symphony also celebrates the symphony orchestra and jazz orchestra in a democratic pairing. The first movement pays tribute to Ragtime and fills the most conspicuous gaps in the music’s literature, the need for a work that would update the genre’s story. Marsalis didn’t spare the syncopated power of ragtime rhythms or the intensity and emotional depth of the improvised sections that were accomplished in a stirring solo by trumpeter Ryan Kisor followed by collective improvisation by the jazz orchestra that closed the movement. The second movement suggests a busy city street, complete with car horns, whistles and sirens. There are several dance rhythms including the Charleston and later one hears a tango! This Duke Ellington-esque movement may have gone over the head of a less apt conductor or orchestra and would have sounded disjointed. The movement has a big ending with a sort of George M. Cohan feeling with its However, under the baton of the great Leonard Slatkin as he conducted the legendary Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the movement brought applause from the audience at its conclusion. The third movement was ripe with Kansas City swing. There is a big call and response with saxophone . At this point many audience members are patting their feet and bobbing their heads to the rhythms and beats coming straight from the hearts of two world class orchestras. The symphonic orchestra was swaying rhythmically, the cellists patting their feet in time while the jazz orchestra delivered on the Coleman Hawkins-esque section with its 5-saxophone voicings. Call and response again here between the saxophone and cello. The leads change with Sherman Irby , then Victor Goines, but the baritone saxophone does not have a solo. There is even a parade/chant feeling at the end with all of the orchestra swinging with a Louie Prima type swing. This movement was joyous, spirited, romantic and stirred an elated audience to applaud even more appreciatively. By the time the fourth movement began, many of the audience members could hardly contain themselves. As the heat of the bebop emanating from Marsalis’ trumpet solo rose to the highest rafters, you knew that this movement would be the most talked about. Marsalis played in the upper registers, honoring both Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in a blazing solo before an extended mambo enticed you to get out of your seat! The beat of the percussion and brass captivated and seduced you until an expressive alto saxophonist paying homage to Bennie Carter took you to another level of Carter’s great riffing. A fugue with Gunther Schuller, John Lewis, George Russell’s influences starts this movement. The orchestra then goes into Mingus, with something that sounded like Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. Later, modal structures suggested by Miles Davis’ So What and John Coltrane comprise the fifth movement but they are very modern and as described by the composer, “modern primal.” The movement captured the essence of these great masters and was intoxicatingly beautiful. Marsalis’ use of a wide range of compositional techniques to arrange the emerging sensibilities of Schuller, Lewis Russell, Davis and Coltrane into this amazing movement only hints at the full extent of Marsalis’ genius. The sixth (which is actually the seventh movement) movement of the Swing Symphony starts off with a groove of hand claps and foot stomps along with brass and percussive sounds straight from Africa…expressing growls, moans and plaintive calls all through luminous high tones and sly quotes. Then we’re back in New Orleans and the orchestras are in full swing, tempering the work from swing to ballad, then a brief trumpet cadenza before the final note. The audience burst into a deafening roar, shouting “bravo,” “bravo,” “more,” “more.” Maestro Slatkin took his bows as the composer emerged from the center of the orchestras to take his. The audience leapt to its feet and the ovation grew louder as Wynton Marsalis, the LA Phil and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra stood to take their bows. The ovation continued as Slatkin and Marsalis returned for a second bow. Finally, after the third curtain bow, Slatkin returned, took a seat on the podium, and pointed to Marsalis to lead an encore. After the encore was over, the audience rose to its feet with an even more deafening ovation. Marsalis, with tears in his eyes and hand over his heart thanked his new patrons and left the stage with Slatkin. The event was a huge success. Two multiple award winning maestros had put one of the most anticipated symphonies on its new feet and now, still together, they would delight in the roar of thousands of feet pounding and hands clamoring for more!

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