5.) Mlynarksi - Mazurka in G Major

Now we encounter the composer on the program who is totally unfamiliar to most
music lovers....but, as we often discover at the NSO, these unsung masters usually
produce immensely appealing music---at first hearing!  In fact, the Basque
Rapsodie by Gabriel Pierne on our September 30th French concert was the highlight
for some of the folks with whom I spoke.

AND SO IT MAY BE HERE, since the Mazurka by Emil Mlynarski is a totally delightful
work. Mlynarski was the founder of the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra, and also
conducted in Scotland during the early 20th-century. In fact......

Do you recall the impressive work by Elgar-- POLONIA----which we performed a year
ago, which Elgar had written to aid in the Polish relief effort in World War I?  Elgar
quoted several Polish songs, which a trio of ladies from Chicago's Lyra Ensemble
performed on our stage before we played the full work. WELL....it was Emil
Mlynarski who had approached Elgar with the idea of writing Polonia in the
first place. So we have plenty to thank him for.

Mlynarksi's MAZURKA is an early work, written for violin and piano; apparently
it is VERY well-known to young violinists, as one of the first "serious" works they
play as students. I first heard it in the summer of 2011; I play percussion in the
Whiting (IN) Festival Orchestra (a professional group made up of mostly Chicago
players), and the conductor programmed the orchestrated version as part of an
Eastern European salute; I immediately fell for it, and decided then and there
that I must program it ASAP.

Thus, you will be the first to hear it in the Northbrook area.

The Mazurka is a well-known Polish dance, very much like a fast waltz. Chopin
wrote many mazurkas for piano (hint......), and it figures prominently in Polish
folk culture. The orchestrated version we will use is by Lucien Cailliet, who served
for many years as arranger for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and did some pretty
heavy-duty orchestrating in Hollywood during the late 40's and 50's (check out
his credentials on IMDB). He also did a MASSIVE orchestration of Mussorgsky's
Pictures at an Exhibition in 1937 for Stokowski and the Philly Orch.

Cailliet's orchestration of Mlynarski's lovely Mazurka is also a tad MASSIVE....
so I took the liberty of thinning it out here and there.

But it is a WONDERFUL work......robust, bright, sweeping, joyous...the sort
of music that makes you glad to be alive. It evokes the magnificent, OLD-WORLD
elegance of Poland in a brilliant way.....and I am thrilled to be able to present it
as part of our tribute to Eastern European music.

However, it is followed on our program by a surprisingly different sort of
mazurka.......stay tuned!

Thanks for reading,

Larry