Saturday, August 10 , 2024
8:00 PM
In her Boston Symphony debut, conductor Dalia Stasevska leads a program that includes Sibelius’s Canzonetta and Symphony No. 5, as well as Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Leila Josefowicz. Listen to the concert using the player above.
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Dalia Stasevska, conductor
Leila Josefowicz, violin
Jean SIBELIUS (arr. STRAVINKSY) Canzonetta
Igor STRAVINSKY Violin Concerto
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5
This concert is no longer available on demand.
In a preview of this concert, Dalia Stasevska describes the distinctive character of each of the works on the program and offers thoughts and ideas about developing new audiences, through both digital streaming and live performance. To hear the interview, use the player below.
TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath from WCRB at the Koussevitzky Music Shed with Dalia Stasevska, and Dalia, it's so good to have you here. Tell me, had you ever been to Tanglewood before this week?
Dalia Stasevska Well, it's great to be here, and this is indeed my very first time and debut. And I can't tell you, I'm just starstruck by the this whole venue, the history of it, and also just the continuation of the history. There's old, new players, so many stories, pictures around here, the audience members who have seen, oh my God, God knows what's been coming here for over 50 years. So, you know, it's a great joy and an honor to be finally here.
Brian McCreath Tell me about how the program came together and your discussions with the Boston Symphony. Was the Stravinsky Violin Concerto a piece that was sort of a given because Leila had requested that, or was there a more complicated process than that?
Dalia Stasevska Yes and no. So I wanted to bring something from my country, Finland. So it was clear I wanted to do Sibelius. And knowing that there's quite little of rehearsing time, Leila's repertoire is very contemporary, so we knew that we couldn't take too long piece and also too complicated because we just wouldn't have time to rehearse. So we ended up picking up Stravinsky. It hasn't been played here for a while, so that was also nice, and I have done this concerto with Leila before, and she is just spectacular. And then we thought that there's a small little gem. Sibelius's Canzonetta for string orchestra that Stravinsky arranged when he got a Sibelius prize in the 1950s. And this was kind of like a gift and a thank you to Sibelius and the Finnish a government for that prize. So it's really fascinating to see Sibelius through Stravinsky's eyes.
Brian McCreath What do you see when you hear this piece? What is it that you learn about Stravinsky? And what do you learn about Sibelius through this little Canzonetta?
Dalia Stasevska Well, I think that why Stravinsky chose this is because there's a little bit of something Tchaikovsky in it, I don't know, or Eastern European. I feel always that I'm in a nice somewhere town square, drinking cafe. It's a very light piece, and it's perfect for the string orchestra. But I love how Stravinsky twisted it. And you hear clearly that Sibelius would never write such instrumentation. It's really quirky. And it's only Stravinsky uses this kind of instrumentation, and it's a natural also continuation to the Violin Concerto, which has this kind of instrumentation. So it's a beautiful and a funny, silly little gem.
Brian McCreath That's a good way to put it. So, you grew up in Finland primarily, and as you say, you wanted to bring Finnish music to this orchestra and to Tanglewood. Tell me about why the Symphony No. 5 is the piece that you chose for the second half of the program?
Dalia Stasevska Well, it's of course a masterpiece and loved by the audiences and people, musicians across the world. This symphony, I think, is the essence of what Sibelius is, and it's in the middle of his career also. So there's not anymore this kind of little bit of, I wouldn't say even edginess, but, kind of rawness that he has still in the first symphonies. But also he's not at the end of his life, like with the Seventh Symphony and Tapiola, when it's not any more narrative, it becomes almost like a state of mind where we are. So this symphony is, in a way, a combination of the Second Symphony, with those glorious melodies, but also the Fourth Symphony, that is a very private and an honest piece. So this symphony, I always feel like it starts in the spring, and it invites us to go into the most glorious nature place. The music just flows by, and I always think that it's not even important to understand what is what, where it goes. It's just that the inner flow in this piece is unbelievably gorgeous. I love the second movement, how he plays with the folk music and these very romantic middle sections. And then the third movement is, of course, irresistible how it starts, but it has this famous swan theme in the middle of it. Sibelius said that he saw 16 swans passing by one spring, and this is when the melody came to him. And something that maybe might inspire everybody who is listening is that Finland has a very strong four seasons, and half of the year is very dark. At the worst time, we have only four hours of light. So when the spring comes, it comes always with the migrating birds. And when those swans migrate, I mean, you cannot miss the whole - everybody stops because it's such a religious experience, and they are so loud. And you can really hear in this movement when the horns are playing [sings theme] the swan theme. But it's almost like their beautiful wings. And then you hear very loud clarinets, flutes and oboes and cellists playing like this piercing swan sound [sings theme] And I just kind of picture this religious experience that Sibelius had when he saw those migrating birds and this theme came to him.
And the last thing that makes this symphony a spectacular and unique work of its kind in all written music history is the ending. The six chords: what are they, and why is there silence between them? When you hear and listen closely before those six chords appear at the end, you hear that the symphony is breaking through its seams. You hear how the harmony becomes almost atonal. Sibelius is trying to push through. You know, the harmony has come to the end. Where to go next? I think that Sibelius went to the next level as a writer, as a composer. He said something about this symphony, that the process for him was like climbing on a mountain. And he said it was so difficult. But he knew that when he will climb on this mountain, that God will open his doors and his symphony orchestra will play for him the Fifth Symphony. So this cute line that he wrote, this tells how serious he was about reaching something else, something cosmic. And I think that this symphony is, in these six chords, like a megabyte. It's concentrated. So [sings] goes the first chord, and you hear in the silence the symphony going by. The second chord, silence. And the symphony is in the silence, you know. So these six chords are concentrated, the whole symphony in those chords. And off it goes into the cosmos and into space.
Brian McCreath That's amazing. Wow. Thank you for all of that. I want to ask you a slightly bigger picture kind of question. You recently released, the Dalia Stasevska Mixtape, with lots of women composers, single tracks that are sort of meant to be enjoyed together. And what I understand, from reading other interviews with you, is that the thoughts behind this have to do with the way that people experience recordings now. It's not quite the same as it used to be when albums were sold on LPs or even CDs. There's more streaming, there's more sharing, there's more mixing things up. It brings to mind a question, though, about live performance and what you see in your work in the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and in other orchestras, where you see the future of live performance going in the format of symphony orchestra concerts as we know them. Is that something that you have thoughts about that you're hoping to experiment with, and maybe find new ways that people gather for live performance?
Dalia Stasevska You're absolutely right. This is such a thrilling time for classical music. I don't think, I know that classical music is listened to by broader and wider audiences than ever. The way we listen to music is completely changed from the way it was 20 years ago or 50 years ago, and it will be different in 20 years to come. It is really important for us to be sensitive to our times, though. We come from a great tradition, a long history that we cherish, and this is what makes our profession so special. But it is so important for us to explore and be on this train, bringing the classical music to our time and to explore the future together. So that's why I wanted to release not an album of ten tracks, but the single tracks to give, for every track, a limelight and playlist it because people don't listen to albums anymore. They listen to single pieces being playlisted. They listen by moods. And this is what inspires me. So many people don't know even that they are listening to classical music, you know? And then when I talk to them, "Show me your playlist," and then they show me and then I see they're listening to Bach, and I tell them this is classical music, and they are like, wow! And the feedback that I've gotten from this Dalia's mixtape is, again, that people have been amazed. Is this possible to do with a symphony orchestra? And this is exactly at the core.
I think the symphony orchestra is one of the greatest instruments ever created. So of course I want to know, what can we still achieve with this amazing established instrument? What is our future? I am really inspired that composers from wider and broader range from different genres, they get inspired still by the symphony orchestra, and they write incredible music. I don't even want to talk anymore about genres. I just want to talk about great music, great experiences, fantastic talents and ideas that are pouring into our industry. These ten tracks are celebrating this diversity and being sensitive to our time and having this fun and joy, exploring, inviting people across the genres to be inspired by what we do and see where we can go.
Of course, I can't help saying that I love contemporary music. Why not? This is the language of our time. You know, we love always to talk about, "Koussevitzky commissioned the Bartók piece, you know, 100 years ago." I want to be that Koussevitzky now. And I want to work with, now, in our times Bartóks and our time Beethovens and be sensitive and create this magical history now.
One thing more that I want to say about these mixtape and playlist things is that because people are listening so much to classical music, how to crack and get these people from listening online to our concert halls, this is something that nobody in our industry has cracked yet. But I think that I have a solution. We need to move forward. We cannot do the things that we have been doing the last 200 years. We just can't tick the boxes anymore. We have to change how the way we are thinking about the concerts, how we do concerts, where we do, when, what kind of programs. And I really think that there is an amazing, bright future with the new audiences. But we just need to be more bold, more courageous, and have more joy and be fearless in what we do, because people want to have music in their lives. We can't live without music, and I really believe in this magnificent language and classical music and in our gorgeous tradition.
Brian McCreath Inspiring words. Wonderful. Dalia Stasevska, it's so good to have you here. I'm glad that you're so entranced with Tanglewood. It's wonderful to hear when people come here for the first time. So I'm glad you're here. It's wonderful to hear you with the orchestra. Thank you very much.
Dalia Stasevska Thank you very much.