Program
- Reinhold Glière: Russian Sailor’s Dance from The Red Poppy
- George Frideric Handel: Alla Hornpipe from Water Music
- Benjamin Britten: Moonlight Interlude from Peter Grimes
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Sea Hawk
- James Horner: Titanic Medley
- Dmitri Kabalevsky: Cello Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 49 (First Movement)
- Brandon Gajek, cello
- 2026 Youth Artists Solo Competition Winner
Intermission
- Claude Debussy: La Mer
Program Notes by Cole Davis
Russian Sailors Dance from The Red Poppy
Reinhold Glière (1875-1956)
In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, the Bolshoi Theatre struggled to find its footing within a radically transformed society. Faced with Kremlin demands to showcase works reflecting new socialist ideals, the institution fought to shed its previous elitist reputation, leaving the future of classical Russian ballet under constant threat. Rather than following the traditional model of a direct theater or patron commission, the creation of The Red Poppy emerged from a 1925 competition held by the Bolshoi to find a new ballet with a revolutionary theme.
Composed by Reinhold Glière, the work is set in 1920s republican China. The narrative follows Taï-Choa, a young dancer who witnesses a Soviet captain defending starving harbor laborers from their oppressive, capitalistic master. As a token of admiration and love, she gifts the captain a red poppy. Infuriated, her fiancé later orders her to assassinate the captain. Taï-Choa refuses and is later killed when a riot erupts at the harbor. In her final moments, she passes a red poppy to a young Chinese girl, leaving it as a symbol of freedom and love.
A musical and choreographic highlight of the ballet is the high-energy “Russian Sailors’ Dance” (Yablochko), which brings the first act to a celebratory close. Built upon a traditional Russian folk tune meaning “Little Apple,” this vibrant theme provides a sharp contrast to the romantic and political turmoil that unfolds in Act II. Backed by the full endorsement of the Kremlin, The Red Poppy was a triumphant success, securing its legacy as the first truly Soviet ballet.
Ala Hornpipe from Water Music
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Following the death of the childless Queen Anne in 1714, the British line of succession faced significant disruption, ultimately leading to the ascension of Georg Ludwig of Hanover as King George I. However, the new monarch struggled to win the favor of the English public due to his limited command of the English language, a perceived lack of charisma, and the prominent presence of German mistresses within his court. Compounding the King’s public relations challenges was the popularity of his estranged son, George, Prince of Wales, whose public standing had been further bolstered by his survival of an assassination attempt and .
To counteract this widespread criticism and elevate his public profile, the King commissioned his longtime associate, George Frideric Handel, to compose an orchestral suite. This music was designed to accompany a grand royal pageant of barges cruising along the River Thames. Unlike the later orchestral suites of the Romantic and Modern eras—which typically comprise collections of independent short works—Baroque suites were defined by their structured arrangements of courtly dances. Handel’s cosmopolitan career enabled him to deliver a masterclass in musical diplomacy, seamlessly blending a French Overture with structured dances like the bourrée and minuet, alongside an English folk dance known as the hornpipe.
The performance was a resounding success. The King was so enthralled by the presentation that he commanded the ensemble to repeat the suites three times during the journey. The event was equally celebrated by the civilian public, to whom the experience of a large-scale public concert was an extraordinary rarity.
The Sea Hawk
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
The pioneering achievements of Hollywood’s Golden Age profoundly influenced modern masters of film scoring, including John Williams, James Horner, and Jerry Goldsmith. A prime example of this lineage is Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Fleeing Austria just two weeks before the Anschluss due to his Jewish heritage, Korngold found refuge and a prolific new career scoring films in Hollywood.
His score for The Sea Hawk (1940)—a swashbuckling adventure depicting Elizabethan England resisting the Spanish Armada—is a masterful product of this era. The film was primarily produced as wartime propaganda to boost the morale of British citizens and soldiers fighting Nazi Germany. In the narrative, King Philip II of Spain serves as a thinly veiled stand-in for Adolf Hitler, turning the story’s defiance against tyranny into a direct mirror of the contemporary geopolitical landscape.
Having vowed not to write classical music until Hitler was defeated, Korngold poured his creative soul entirely into cinema. Aided by an extraordinary photographic memory, he completed the massive, 96-minute score in a mere seven weeks. At the time of its release, The Sea Hawk was Warner Bros.’ most expensive and popular production, grossing over $1,631,000 domestically and earning four Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Score.
Titanic Medley
James Horner (1953-2015)
If Erich Wolfgang Korngold defined the orchestral vocabulary of Hollywood’s First Golden Age, James Horner redefined it for the modern blockbuster era with his monumental score for Titanic (1997). While Horner’s score elegantly captured the historical gravity of the 1912 maritime disaster, it also achieved something rare in music history: it became an absolute pop culture phenomenon. Landing as one of the best-selling orchestral soundtracks of all time at 30 million copies sold, Horner’s work seamlessly bridged the gap between traditional symphonic scoring and mainstream commercial success.
The medley is a vibrant celebration of that musical legacy, weaving together the score’s most iconic and beloved themes into a concise concert showcase. The arrangement launches the audience into the grand, syncopated optimism of the ship’s departure (‘Southampton’) before pivoting to the lively, rhythmic Irish folk idioms that colored the ship’s lower decks. Naturally, the musical heart of the medley centers on ‘My Heart Will Go On.’ Throughout the actual film, Horner utilized this melody as a recurring orchestral leitmotif for the main characters; here, it receives its full, sweeping, and triumphant spotlight, serving as an enduring testament to love, memory, and one of the greatest eras in modern cinema.
Cello Concerto No. 1
Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987)
When discussing Soviet-era music, the names Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev frequently dominate the conversation—two towering figures whose fierce creativity often left them at odds with socialist state directives. By contrast, Dmitry Kabalevsky maintained an exceptionally harmonious relationship with the Soviet government. His musical style prioritized accessible melodies and traditional harmonies, heavily appealing to state cultural censors who favored art that connected directly with the public. Dedicating much of his life to youth music education, Kabalevsky’s pedagogical devotion earned him the prestigious Order of Lenin, recognizing his ability to instill civic and moral values through the arts.
A crowning achievement of this educational mission is his Cello Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 49 (1949). The centerpiece of a concerto trilogy explicitly composed for young musicians, the work was dedicated to Sviatoslav Knushevitsky and premiered by a student orchestra from the Moscow Conservatory. Kabalevsky masterfully calculated the concerto to be simple enough for a student to grasp, yet sophisticated enough to push their musicality and technique.
Tonight’s performance features the opening Allegro movement, which launches with a crisp, march-like pulse in the orchestral strings. Over this steady accompaniment, the solo cello enters with a striking, tension-filled theme that climbs dramatically into the upper registers. Kabalevsky expertly balances this rhythmic energy with a lyrical secondary theme steeped in Eastern European folk idioms. Following a brief but intense solo cadenza that highlights ascending double-stops and octave passagework, the movement defies standard concerto expectations—rather than building to a bombastic orchestral climax, it concludes in an intimate, surprising whisper.
La Mer (“The Sea”)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
While Claude Debussy once mused that he was “destined for a sailor’s life,” the closest his career ever actually neared the sea was in the composition of La mer (1905). Ironically, Debussy composed much of this masterpiece while landlocked in Burgundy and Paris. He famously observed to a friend that his memories of the ocean were “worth more than a reality,” choosing instead to capture the fluid motion of the waves by painting purely from memory. Deeply inspired by visual art, Debussy decorated his apartment with Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. The image became synonymous with the piece after Debussy explicitly requested it serve as the cover art for the score’s first printing.
Subtitled Three Symphonic Sketches, the work unfolds in three distinct movements. The first, “From Dawn to Midday on the Sea,” opens mysteriously with low strings and muted brass, gradually swelling in color and volume until a blazing brass chorale signals the height of the midday sun. The second movement, “Play of the Waves,” functions as an unpredictable orchestral scherzo. Driven by quick tempo changes, fluttering woodwinds, and a shimmering glockenspiel, it brilliantly mimics the splashing of surf and spray. The finale, “Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea,” introduces a turbulent storm theme in the low woodwinds that relentlessly gathers momentum, culminating in a gargantuan orchestral roar.
Initial critical reception at the 1905 Paris premiere was notoriously harsh. The prominent critic Pierre Lalo coldly dismissed the piece, writing, “I do not hear, I do not see, I do not smell the sea.” Despite its rocky debut, the decades that followed vindicated the composer; La mer has firmly cemented itself in the core symphonic repertoire, with The Musical Times ultimately ranking it as Debussy’s most important orchestral achievement.
