Gabriel Weber
Staff Writer
Using their instruments to crack jokes, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and internationally recognized pianist and Artist in Residence Alexander Gavrylyuk weave interlocking tales of misfortune and pranksters.
At 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, Gavrylyuk joins the CSO for a program composed with this week’s “Comedy Now” theme in mind.
Gavrylyuk — Sasha to friends — is a longtime student of music, giving his first concerto performance at the age of 9. Since then, he has cemented himself as a first prize and gold medal-winning pianist in the Horowitz International Piano Competition, the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition and the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition.
“The audience is really lucky, for sure. They always get attached to somebody, and the love for Sasha is just very rare — it’s never ending,” Milanov said.
With all pieces connected to a humorous story, Maestro Milanov curated a performance of Paul Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Richard Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel.”
Beginning with “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” theme, which has been made immortal by the movie “Fantasia,” the tale centers around an apprentice who is left alone to carry buckets of water but becomes bored and enchants the brooms to help. Unable to break the enchantment, the apprentice sees the workshop flood, and the master sorcerer must fix his mistake.
“It starts very innocently, and then at the end it goes to this noise flooding portion of the piece,” Milanov said.
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is related to Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel” in the “lightness of the subject, but also (the) two pieces have incredible orchestration and demand from the players,” Milanov said.
The Strauss piece features a medieval German character named Till Eulenspiegel who attempts to “alter the system in which he lives by using humor instead of willpower,” according to Milanov, which leads to the character’s hanging in the end. Ever the comedian until the very end, Till Eulenspiegel uses his last words to crack a joke.
“The piece is very descriptive,” Milanov said. “Since it’s a semi-folklore book in German culture, Strauss picks a few scenes, and each one of them describes a different prank.”
A very “clever piece,” Milanov said, “(Strauss) does it in such an incredible way that you can see the story.” The beheading is indicated with a big drum roll while a “grotesque”-sounding E flat clarinet portrays Till Eulenspiegel.
For the inspiration behind Piano Concerto No. 1, Shostakovich spent much of his childhood watching black-and-white movies — which are usually centered around some sort of comedic act — so he became very good at employing that kind of absurdity in his composing. Since the piece has a double concerto, Principal Trumpeter Micah Wilkinson is a featured soloist along with Gavrylyuk, which is a “very odd instrument combination,” according to Milanov.
“It has this beautiful, nostalgic and nocturnal melody that is really quite touching,” Milanov said.
