SUMMER SERENADE

 Dedications, Diversions, Delights

This has been a challenging year, filled with loss.  Loss of security, loss of civility, loss of life.  But think of winter. Each winter is a time of loss. Loss of light, loss of warmth, loss of life. Yet in that darkest time, the seeds of rebirth are awaiting their time.  Now is their time.

To recognize our metaphorical winter of very real losses this year, losses we have all suffered, VBF dedicates this performance of Samuel Barber’s poignant “Adagio” to the memory of Kay Walker and all the loved ones who left us. Composed in 1938, only three years after he won the famed Prix de Rome, this lovely work demonstrates the evolution of a child prodigy into a mature artist.

This piece, a complex fusion of serenity and tragedy, enfolds us in what conductor Stephen Errante calls a “numbed, throbbing silence,” before reprising the lush opening theme. The Adagio’s deeply empathetic power has expressed sorrows at such events as the funeral of Franklin Roosevelt and the ceremony commemorating the fall of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.  Tonight, it marks our time spent mourning the losses experienced during the pandemic.

As we emerge from this period, we remember the joys we experienced with our loved ones and anticipate the joys yet to come.  Composed in 1772, Mozart’s bright Divertimento served as a compositional palette cleanser while he prepared his virtually forgotten opera Lucio Silla for its premiere in Milan later that same year. The child prodigy was sixteen at the time.

This diversion perfectly resonates with the Classic era ethos through a springtide charm offensive. In this era, composers used certain stylistic gestures, now called “topics,” to express different effects.  The first movement illustrates the “brilliant” topic with bright tempo and racing scales, the perfect effect for the lively hope of rebirth. The second movement is the romantic Empfindsamer, or “sensitive” topic, featuring cantabile melodies bathed in delicate harmonic sensibilities.  The final presto shows the energy and elegance of the galant topic with a touch of brilliance.

To end this voyage of reawakening, Dvořák’s Serenade is the perfect vehicle of delight. It travels through images of urban and rural society, dancing all the while.  Opening with some hints of past darkness, the moderato expresses the composer’s allegiance to his cultural homeland, Bohemia, now known as the Czech Republic.  The waltz, star turn of social ballrooms, spins and swirls and charms, with the occasional hint of rustic boldness. The chuckling scherzo and finale are both more overtly Czech with the pesante feel of pastoral dances—hearty tunes with strong down-to-earth rhythms. Yet even the larghetto seems to have that passionate yearning and puckish humor often found in East European music.

This piece was written in 1875 after the composer, then in his early thirties, had won a grant from a panel whose judges included the great Johannes Brahms.  Perhaps its joy comes having that rare composer’s treat: a stable income.  Whatever the reason, the richness of this serenade fills the heart and perfectly points the way past a time of stress, toward rest and reflection, and on to renewing the everyday pleasures of life.

–Dr. Yvonne Kendall, © 2021