Lexington Symphony: November 4, 2006 Concert

Savithri -- Ekangi Abhinaya

At a reception following the concert, the story of Savithri will be performed using the ancient Indian Classical dance style of Bharatanatyam. A single dancer will enact the role of all the characters using supporting rhythm, melody and narration. [photos and video clips]

About the artists

Choreographer Ranjani Saigal is the founder of the Eastern Rhythms School of dance. She has created many productions including a ground breaking one called Dancing Nature's Art where Indian dance was used to tell the story of the scientific concept of DNA. This was featured in the Boston Globe and NPR.

Dancer Amudha Pazhanisamy is a student of Ranjani Saigal, at the Eastern Rhythms School of dance. She is the grand niece of the legendary Bharatanatyam dancer Balasaraswati and has received critical acclaim for her own performances. Amudha is currently a junior at Lexington High School.

Musician Geeta Murali is a much sought after dance vocalist and has provided music for over 500 dance recitals in India, US and Canada. Ms Murali is a graded artist for the All India Radio and is the recipient of 'Tambur' and other prestigious awards.

In addition, traditional Indian desserts will be provided by Nirmala Garimella, cooking enthusiast and a resident of Lexington.

Program Notes

Dvořák Serenade for Strings, Op. 22

In the summer of 1874, Antonin Dvořák decided to apply for a grant to supplement his income as organist at Prague's St. Adalbert Church. The award he sought had been made possible by Emperor Franz Joseph, who had earlier established a State Commission provide financial assistance to struggling artists in the eastern provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Dvořák, awaiting the birth of his first child, was able to obtain the necessary certification of poverty from the local authorities. He then gathered a number of his recent scores--the Third and Fourth Symphonies among them--and sent them along to Vienna.

The committee, which included the renowned critic Eduard Hanslick, Court Opera director Johann Herbeck, and Johannes Brahms, did not fail to recognize Dvořák's "genuine and original gifts," and recommended that he be awarded 400 gulden, the highest stipend available under the program. This grant was to be the composer's first recognition outside his homeland, while both Brahms and Hanslick would later prove to exert powerful influences on Dvorak's career.

Following news of the grant, Dvořák plunged into a burst of inspired creativity; one of the resulting works, the Moravian Duets for soprano and tenor would later cause Brahms to recommend Dvořák to the publisher Simrock. Several chamber works, the Fifth Symphony, and the Serenade for Strings all appeared within short order, the latter in only eleven days in May of 1875.

Biographer Otakar Sourek describes the Serenade as being "mainly cast in a poetic mood, with an overtone of ardent longing, yet not altogether devoid of a certain cheerful gaiety." The composition itself, with its five movements and lightly romantic nature, easily reflects its 18th-century divertimento roots. It also reveals the composer's increasing confidence in his creative talents; here there is no lack of melodic invention, rhythmic vitality, or stylistic conviction. And although Dvořák did not use actual folk melodies in an of the movements, the music is unmistakably the outpouring of an artist in love with his homeland.

Mahler Adagietto from Symphony No. 5

As in tonight's program, Gustav Mahler's Adagietto is often performed by itself, rather than as part of the composer's Fifth Symphony, where the piece occurs as the fourth of five movements. The symphony was begun in the summer of 1901, just before Mahler met and married Alma Schindler, and was completed in 1902 after the couple had spent an idyllic summer at Maiernigg, Mahler's Austrian country retreat.

Felix Mengelberg, famous conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, considered the Adagietto to be a form of proposal from Gustav to Alma, who was a composer herself, and a much sought after woman at the time. The music, almost more an expansive Lied than than a movement in itself, is scored for strings and harp alone, and speaks of the couple's 'life of utter peace and concentration' together.

Holst Savitri

In 1898, soon after leaving college, Gustav Holst happened to read a book called Silent Gods and Sun-steeped Lands. This was the composer's first exposure to the ancient Hindu legends of the gods and goddesses of fire, earth, water, sky and storm. Excited by what he had read, he went on to discover the collection of sacred verses known as Rig Veda. Finding that most Sanskrit texts were either not translated or not translated very well, Holst enrolled in the London's University College, eventually learning enough Sanskrit grammar to allow him to make his own translations to set to music.

One of these enterprises was Holst's first opera, Sita, the libretto being Holst's own adaptation of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. The composer worked on the opera over a period of six years, from 1899 to to 1906. A grandiose, three-act project which Holst himself later described as 'good old Wagnerian bawling,' the opera was never performed, and failed at first to win a prize in the Ricordi competition to which Holst had submitted it in 1906. (It eventually garnered a third prize in 1908.) Depressed and overworked, the composer decided to follow his doctor's recommendation to take a holiday in a warm climate. For Holst, this meant a trip to Algeria and bicycling in the desert.

Upon returning to England, a much-refreshed Holst began work on another Indian opera which he called Savitri. Unlike its gargantuan predecessor, this one-act opera lasted a little over thirty minutes, and was written for three soloists, a small hidden female chorus, and a chamber orchestra. Whereas in Sita Holst had tried to enter the world of spirits and demons, gods and mortals, in Savitri the composer was able to respond with music appropriate to the classic simplicity of love's triumph over death.

The libretto, written by Holst, comes from the Hindu Mahabharata.

Savitri was a rich and beautiful princess, who searched the realm for a husband and fell in love with the penniless but generous prince Satyavan. She was determined to marry him despite the warnings her father received of a curse that Satyavan would live only one more year. The couple went ahead with the marriage and one year later, true to the warnings, Satyavan fell ill and died. When Yama, the god of death, came for his soul, Savitri implored him to restore Satyavan's life. Yama agreed to grant her a wish, any wish but that. Savitri wished for three sons, and her wish was granted. She then asked, "But how can I have these sons without my beloved husband Satyavan?"

Yama was swayed by her intellect, loyalty and the power of her love for Satyavan, and agreed to bring him back to life for her.

Program Notes by Ken Seitz

Dvořák	Serenade for Strings, Op. 22
Mahler	Adagietto from Symphony No. 5
Holst	Savitri