OPEN REHEARSAL: STUTZMANN CONDUCTS TCHAIKOVSKY 6

Johanes Brahms’s works for chorus and orchestra are relative rarities. This concert offers three of the lesser-known entries from this area of his output. Each of them considers a similar topic—the impotence of humanity within the pitiless progression of fate or destiny. Despite their shared subject matter, Brahms imbues each with a distinct musical character. Nänie soars on wings of neo-Baroque counterpoint; Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates) chills the bones with grim monumentality; and Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) surrounds an expressive choral narrative with a prelude and postlude of exquisite orchestral writing.

 “I certainly regard it as easily the best—and especially the most ‘sincere’—of all my works” Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky said to a friend of his Sixth Symphony. He wrote another, “Without exaggeration, I have put my whole soul into this work.” However the premiere, led by the composer, was met with some puzzlement. The music seemed, somehow, “unfinal.” Yet the second performance, just three weeks later, made a powerful impression. Why? Between the two first performances, Tchaikovsky died unexpectedly. What a bewildering experience it must have been for early listeners of this astonishingly soulful piece, which ends with music that simply passes beyond our hearing.

—After notes by James M. Keller and Michael Steinberg