SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)
The Isle of the Dead (1909)
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s composed his first orchestral masterpiece, the symphonic poem Isle of the Dead, in 1909. It was inspired by a mysteriously evocative painting of the same name by the Swiss Symbolist Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901). The composer had been spending time outside of Russia in the years after 1905, and found occasion to travel, attend concerts, and go to art galleries. While in Paris to perform his Piano Concerto No. 2, he encountered a black-and-white reproduction of the painting and later saw an original in color (Böcklin had painted several, each different from the others.) Central to the canvas is a white-shrouded figure (perhaps Charon, the ferryman from hell) rowing a coffin across the water to an island. Cypresses, the traditional symbols of mourning, and a monumental building hewn out of stone jut out of the dark waters. Rachmaninoff creates the sound of waves with undulating tones, which grow in intensity as the boat approaches the island. The central motif is the Dies irae (Day of Wrath), a fearsome description of the Day of Judgment, based on a medieval chant from the Mass for the Dead. It is a motif he would turn to again and again in later compositions, as had other composers before him, like Berlioz and Liszt, to suggest or represent death. The musical darkness prevails except for a passage Rachmaninoff called “the theme of life” that briefly enlivens the somber atmosphere, only to return to the quiet of the beginning.

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10 (1924-1925)
A music student at the Leningrad (aka St. Petersburg) Conservatory, Dmitri Shostakovich composed his daring First Symphony as his graduation piece. It’s an amazing achievement for a 19 year old and made him an instant celebrity. Writing to a friend, he said: “In general, I am satisfied with the symphony. Not bad. A symphony like any others, although it really ought to be called a “symphony-grotesque.” When it was premiered in Moscow, students fought to get in to hear it. Its fame spread across the world, including the New York Philharmonic’s performance in 1931 under Arturo Toscanini. Its language is so different from what had come before—though there are occasional echoes of Shostakovich’s musical “ancestors”… Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky. The First is cheeky, brash, vigorous, and exhibits the unmistakable traits that would characterize all 15 of his symphonic creations—wit, irony, satire, rhythmic drive, drama, and, humor, but also intense expressiveness, somber moods, and elements of the grotesque. And underneath it all, lurks an undercurrent of foreboding and danger. The first movement includes a fiendish march and pounding timpani. The piano plays a prominent role in the fleeting second movement Allegro. The Lento with its gorgeous, expansive themes is the heart of the symphony and contains some gorgeous if dark writing. The final movement begins without pause with the angry sound of a snare drum, and the timpani announces itself with great bravado. All comes to a brilliant conclusion in the finale of this remarkable work that heralds a bright new star in the firmament of classical music. With his 15 symphonies, composed over the span of nearly a half-century, Shostakovich came to be recognized as the greatest symphonic voice of the 20th century.

DAVID ROBERTSON, conductor, born in 1958 in Santa Monica, California
David Robertson is the twelfth music director of the 131-year-old Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, embarking on his sixth season there in the fall of 2010; he also continues as the principal guest conductor of London’s acclaimed BBC Symphony Orchestra, a post he has held since 2005. His popularity also makes him a welcome guest with orchestras throughout the world; in fact Musical America named him Conductor of the Year in 2000. “I have never looked at any of the musical positions I have held as stepping stones; I don’t look at life as a waiting-room experience. What I like to do is to really concentrate on what I’m doing at the moment. I let the rest of the stuff take care of itself.” His affinity for and expertise in 20th century repertoire led to his eight-year tenure as music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain (in Lyons, France), which champions new music. And speaking in a Carnegie Hall interview about the “transformative” nature of a live concert, David Robertson said: “Everybody comes into the concert hall with different experiences. If you perform a well-known work, there are people who have perhaps done their doctoral thesis on that work, and they know it intimately. [Then] there are people who are hearing the work perhaps for the first time in a live performance…You can provide an open structure where, once people get inside, the layered richness of that type of human creativity is expressed in such a way that each person hears the things that only they can hear in the program.”

“He’s a brilliant musician and a master programmer.” The New Yorker

“Mr. Robertson makes everything seem fresh and startling.” The New York Times

Find additional upcoming performances with David Robertson