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The Program
Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, “Pathétique”
Milica Paranosic/Lara St. John - Roma Suite (Premiere)
Samuel Barber - Violin Concerto, Op. 14
Concert Snapshots
Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony. Nine days later, he died and the cause is still unclear.
Barber was hired to write his Violin Concerto by Samuel Fels, a wealthy businessman who made his fortune in laundry soap.
Want to learn more? Click the button below to explore articles about the composers and the pieces, and read the program notes.
Explore the Music
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Before the concert and during intermission:
Wine is available from our wine sponsor.
Sweet treats and non-alcoholic drinks are also available.
All proceeds support the Walla Walla Symphony.
About the Guest Artist
Lara St. John, violin
After performing for decades around the globe as a “high-powered soloist” (The New York Times), Canadian-born violinist Lara St. John has chosen to dispense with a conventional biography, preferring instead to offer the following personal statement:
“I began playing the violin when I was two years old and have continued to do so ever since. But even though my career has had many high points and offered real artistic satisfaction, I cannot honestly say I would do it all over again. It has required horrific sacrifices – including my experiences with child sexual abuse and being treated as little more than a commodity by a long list of presenters, administrators and so-called educators.
“Rampant misogyny continues to be depressingly commonplace in the world of classical music, incredibly, even as we fumble our way toward the middle of the 21st century. This has drained away a lot of the sheer joy of making music for me.
“At the same time, I have made some wonderful friends in this business. I will always have faith in them and in the profound power of music to inspire and to heal. I will never stop being amazed by the possibility within a simple instrument like the violin. But my desire to use it as a tool for making a living has fallen off to almost nothing.”
Lara has performed as a soloist with most of the world’s major orchestras. She also owns her own recording label, Ancalagon, which she founded in 1999. In 2022, she released she/her/hers, her label’s 16th album, featuring solo violin works by women. After going public with her own experience of being raped by her professor at the Curtis Institute of Music when she was 14 years old, Lara heard from many other survivors of abuse at the hands of music teachers, conductors and colleagues, with the complicity of their respective institutions. She is now in the process of making Dear Lara, a documentary film on this subject.
In 2021 Lara was invested with the Order of Canada, her country’s highest honor. She is a knight of Burgundy and a reptile enthusiast. She owns and performs on a 1779 Guadagnini, a 2011 David Wiebe and a 2024 Isabelle Wilbaux.
larastjohn.com
Program Notes
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia
Died November 6, 1893, in Saint Petersburg, Russia
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, “Pathétique” (1893)
Last WWS Performance: First performance at tonight’s concert
Approximate length: 46 minutes
This work was first performed on October 28, 1893, in St. Petersburg, conducted by the composer. It is scored for piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, percussion, timpani, and strings.
By the late 1880s, Tchaikovsky had composed nearly all his most revered works – five of the six symphonies, the ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, and most of his operas and chamber music. Since the mid-1870s, the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck had been his benefactress, providing him with an annual stipend of six thousand rubles on the condition that he would devote his energies to full-time composition. These were the brightest years of his life, but they were not to last.
In 1890 von Meck severed their relationship. Even though he no longer relied on her financial assistance, the world-famous composer sorely missed the emotional support he found through their many correspondences. For years he had suffered from depression over his failed month-long marriage in the 1870s, his general insecurity, and his difficulty in coming to terms with his homosexuality. The loss of von Meck’s support sent Tchaikovsky into the deepest depression of his life. On his American tour of 1891 (during which he conducted his own Marche Solennelle at the opening concert for New York's Carnegie Hall), he began to feel as if something was gravely wrong. By 1893 he had hit rock-bottom. On November 6 of that year, the composer died under mysterious circumstances. Although the official story has Tchaikovsky committing suicide by drinking a glass of unboiled water during a cholera epidemic, arsenic poisoning has never been ruled out.
Tchaikovsky composed the Pathétique Symphony in the depths of his despair – a state of mind that somehow helped him immerse himself in the creative process. He completed the symphony in seven months’ time, between February and August of 1893. Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere on October 28 – just nine days before his unforeseen death.
The Pathetique is one of Tchaikovsky’s most soul-searching scores. He claimed that the work was a program symphony – one that tells a story – but refused to divulge the underlying program. One significant clue was found on a scrap of paper among the sketches for his Nutcracker ballet:
“Following is the plan for a symphony LIFE! First movement – all impulse, confidence, thirst for activity. Must be short (Finale death – result of collapse). Second movement love; third movement disappointment; fourth end with a dying away (also short)”
Although the final symphony does not follow this impromptu sketch directly, it is no doubt autobiographical to a large degree.
The opening bassoon solo sets a somber mood before giving way to a more agitated incarnation of the same melody at the outset of the Allegro. After a brief respite with the lyrical second theme, the turmoil returns. The movement ends with gestures of emotional resignation. The second movement is the famous 5/4 waltz – lopsided but flowing and completely natural. The march of the third movement is the brightest emotional moment of the entire work but is more akin to Berlioz’s March to the Scaffold than Tchaikovsky’s ceremonial music. The final movement is tragic and melancholy and seems even more heartrending after the bright ending of the march. The intensity builds until the devastating moment near the end when a gong sounds, followed by a brass chorale, and the symphony fades away into silence.
©2025 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com
MILICA PARANOSIC
Born in Belgrade, Serbia
LARA ST. JOHN
Born April 15, 1971, in London, Ontario, Canada
Roma Suite (Premiere)
Last WWS Performance: First performance at tonight’s concert
Approximate length: 12 minutes
Growing up and receiving my musical training in my native Serbia, I often encountered the expectation that composers should avoid drawing heavily from their own cultural heritage. This tradition was seen as too easy or natural, as if a composer’s identity should be defined by something more elevated or external.
I never adhered to that theory. Embracing my Serbian roots has been a liberating journey since my relocating to NYC, allowing me to explore and celebrate the rich traditions of Balkan music without judgment or hesitation.
This concerto is a product of that journey, born out of a collaboration with Lara, who shares my passion for Balkan music. Together, we have woven melodies and inspirations from Serbia, Macedonia, and the broader Balkan region, blending traditional influences with our original compositions.
The third movement, Maruška, is part of an evolving multi-movement work, a testament to the vibrant musical heritage that continues to inspire and connect us.
At its heart, Maruška is a playful love song. The singer calls out to Maruška, declaring passion and longing, sometimes teasing that she does not return his affection, other times promising that love (and marriage) will follow. The repetition of her name and the driving rhythm make the song feel hypnotic and celebratory — perfect for dancing and communal singing.
I wear a hat, smoke my pipe — I am a Romani man,
I’m crazy about horses — everyone knows that.
But in my heart, I carry a pendant that rustles;
When I open my eyes in the morning — there is Maruška.
Refrain: Maruška, Maruška — my living little flame,
She knows how to love, she knows how to pray — she will be mine.
Other verses often describe simple Romani life — a hut for a home, music and dancing to drive away sorrow, and the promise of marriage when the spring grass turns green.
Milica Paranosic
SAMUEL BARBER
Born March 9, 1910, in West Chester, Pennsylvania
Died January 23, 1981, in New York City, New York
Violin Concerto, Op. 14 (1939)
Last WWS Performance: First performance at tonight’s concert
Approximate length: 25 minutes
The work was premiered on February 7, 1941, by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Arturo Toscanini with Albert Spalding as soloist. It is scored for solo violin, piccolo, pairs of woodwinds, horns, and trumpets, with timpani, percussion, piano, and strings.
The 1920s and 1930s were a period of transition for Samuel Barber. He spent the school year as a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and summers in Italy and Switzerland with his friend and fellow composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Summers there allowed Barber to escape the tensions of his studies and a city that he felt was musically confining. He spent a large portion of his time swimming, bicycling, shopping, playing tennis, and composing, which came much more readily to him when combined with leisure activities. Barber’s career was well underway, due largely to Artur Rodzinski’s performance of his Symphony No. 1 at the 1937 Salzburg Festival and Arturo Toscanini’s premieres of the First Essay for Orchestra and the Adagio for Strings the following year.
That such fame would grace a native Philadelphian who attended a Philadelphia Conservatory certainly resonated among the elite of the city. One onlooker was Samuel Fels, the wealthy manufacturer of Fels Naphtha Soap, who came to Barber with a commission. Fels’ adopted son, the Russian-born violin prodigy Iso Briselli, was respected in the music world, having performed as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra on several occasions, and wanted an original work written for his exclusive use. Barber completed the first two movements in Switzerland in 1939 and sent them to Briselli. Traditional accounts relate Briselli’s dissatisfaction with the work, especially with its difficulty. However, the violinist’s survivors drafted a news release in 2004 denying these accounts and clarifying that Briselli’s frustration with the concerto rested in the seemingly mismatched finale, which is in a different style than the rest of the work. Regardless of the reason, Briselli did not play the work at its premiere – an honor that fell instead to Albert Spalding.
With the impending war in Europe, Barber’s Violin Concerto is best understood when viewed against this backdrop. Opening with the solo violin, the almost pastoral quality of the first movement (Allegro) imparts a sentimental and haunting feeling to the work. Could this represent Europe before the war? A second theme, with a more jagged rhythm, is introduced by the clarinets. Occasional dark clouds cast fleeting shadows over the rhapsodic reverie. With a poignant oboe solo of surpassing beauty, the second movement (Andante) begins with a sense of mystery. However, the central section introduces distant martial fanfares, hinting at the unrest to follow in the finale. Marked Presto in moto perpetuo, the movement’s endless runs, set against a boisterous accompaniment, bring to mind the “machine of war” from Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony. With its brutal accentuations and wickedly delightful violin figurations, the concerto ends in a blazing display of technical ability.
© 2025 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com