Igor Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale (Le chant du Rossignol, poème symphonique)
One of the towering figures of twentieth-century music, Igor Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum, Russia on June 17, 1882 and died in New York City on April 6, 1971. His best-known works remain the three ballet scores based on Russian themes and scenarios—The Firebird (1910, rev. 1919, 1945), Petrushka (1910-11, rev. 1947), and The Rite of Spring (1913, rev. 1921). All three scores were composed for fellow ex-patriot Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, based in Paris. Stravinsky wrote works that encompass many genres which explore a wide variety of musical styles, all of which bear his own distinctive traits. Stravinsky’s composition of his first opera, The Nightingale, began in 1908 and was completed in 1914. Song of the Nightingale was created in 1917, deriving music from Acts 2 and 3 of his short opera, This poème symphonique, as he called it, is scored for piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, E-flat clarinet, clarinet in A, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, 2 harps, and strings.
Igor Stravinsky’s initial foray into the world of opera came into existence in 1914 with The Nightingale, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s 1843 fairy tale of the same name. The opera, originally set to a Russian libretto by the composer a Stepan Mitusov, was composed shortly after Stravinsky’s success with his scores to the ballets, The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and the even more revolutionary Rite of Spring (1913). Ever since its publication in 1923, the opera has been known by its French title with the addition of the words “conte lyrique” (lyrical tale).
Set in China, the tale is told from the viewpoint of a fisherman about how a nightingale is brought to the Imperial court so that Emperor may enjoy its singing. In the opera’s second act we learn that the bird, whose sweetest melodies are best enjoyed in the forest, is at first greeted with delight by the emperor. Japanese emissaries subsequently present him with a mechanical nightingale, which the emperor proclaims to be the “first singer.” Insulted, the real bird flies away in anger. Act Three finds the emperor near death. The real nightingale returns. Moved by the bird’s song, Death retreats and the emperor rewards the nightingale by restoring her title as “first singer.” The sweet songstress, satisfied by the emperor’s tears, rewards the monarch by promising to continue to sing for him each night.
Stravinsky returned to the music of Le Rossignol in 1917, turning its music into a purely symphonic work for the concert hall, although the impresario Sergei Diaghlev retasked it as a ballet. The poème symphonique heard on tonight’s program was first performed in Geneva on December 6, 1919. The music comprises four distinct sections. After the introductory material, we hear a Chinese march, followed by the song of the nightingale, represented by the flute and an instrumental replication of the sound of the Chinese erhu (a two-string bowed instrument), and concluding with the song of the mechanical nightingale. Its music contains a modicum of “chinoiserie,”melded with Stravinksy’s rhythmic angularity and spectacularly colorful orchestration. Those listeners who are familiar with Stravinsky’s ballets, The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring, will hear clear echoes of those scores in Song of the Nightingale.
Program Note by David B. Levy © 2026
Michael Abels: Guitar Concerto (“Borders”)
American composer, Michael Abels was born on October 8, 1962 in Phoenix, AZ. Raised by his grandparents in South Dakota, his musical talents surfaced early in his life. He went on to study at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, as well as West African Drumming at the California Institute for the Arts. He received acclaim for his collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens on the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Omar (2023). He also has as composed scores for Jordan Peele’s films, Get Out, Us, and Nope. His Guitar Concerto (“Borders”) was composed in 2022 to fulfill a commission from the Houston, TX-based River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) and the Quad City Symphony, written for guitarist, Mak Grgić.
Tonight’s performance by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra features the soloist for whom Abel’s Guitar Concerto (“Borders”) was composed. The composer, Michael Abels, andMak Grgić have written the following concerning the work (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K11lQX-lyS0&list=PLk5A2zPfxCKgspYOwpO0oQlEpIXQ96ema&index=1):
“This piece is inspired by the museum exhibit “Sahara: Acts of Memory” depicting life in camp “Sahara” that was created in Denmark for housing refugees of the Bosnian War in the 1990s. Among the refugees was graphic artist Ismet Berbic and his family. The exhibit details the Berbics’ struggle to preserve individuality, family and cultural identity in the face of losing country and community. Guitarist Mak Grgic is a friend of the Berbics, and experienced the Balkan war firsthand as a child. In the first movement of this concerto, the guitar is a protagonist that is repeatedly confined by sonic bars or walls created by the orchestra. The second movement depicts a child running, sometimes joyfully, but also sometimes in fear.”
–Michael Abels, Composer
“When Michael and I first started talking about the narrative of the new guitar concerto, we couldn’t help but notice that we both came from turbulent backgrounds and that music had provided a safe haven for us. It was a sheer coincidence that around the same time, my friend Amir Berbic had an exhibit in Pomona, California about his family’s experience as refugees during the Balkan War in the 1990s. We visited Amir’s exhibit Sahara: Acts of Memory together, and it touched us both deeply, providing further inspiration for Michael’s writing of the concerto, which took on the title Borders. Constant runs and movement up and down the fretboard, seeming restlessness accented by moments of deep repose, mimic the continuous struggles of the Berbic family, and really anyone in such a position. As is typically the case when working on a new piece, Michael and I communicated back and forth about each section of the score as I tried it on guitar for the first time. Working through the nuances of the score with Michael was a joy. I am beyond thrilled that we chose to present music as something that supersedes life’s obstacles, and that the Berbic family’s story of persistence and perseverance has been told so well.”
–Mak Grgić
Program Note by David B. Levy, Michael Abels/Mak Grgić, © 2026
Francis Poulenc: Les Biches Suite
Composer and pianist Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was born in Paris on January 7, 1899 and died there on January 30, 1963. His earlier works, many of which were of a lighter or satirical character, led audiences and critics to dismiss Poulenc as a serious composer despite having composed some sacred works. Poulenc’s attitude, and that of his critics, began to change after the Second World War, as witnessed by his opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites. Duality is an appropriate word to describe Poulenc. According to the biographical article in the Second Edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the composer’s father, Emile, was a wealthy pharmaceutical businessman with deep religious roots in his native Aveyron region. His mother, née Jenny Royer, was a Parisian with strong artistic bent. Staunch catholic and urbane wit; city boy with country roots; pianist and composer. As Claude Rostand put it: “In Poulenc there is something of the monk and something of the rascal.” His one-act ballet, Les Biches, was a collaboration with choreographer Bronislava Nijinska and was first performed by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes on January 6, 1924 in Monte Carlo’s Salle Granier. Several successful performances soon followed. Poulenc revised the works orchestration in 1939-40, and created the Suite from the ballet in 1948, omitting the work’s overture and three choral movements. The Suite is dedicated to Misia Sert, and is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon; brass: 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba; percussion, celeste, glockenspiel; and strings.
The title, Les Biches, has been variously translated as The Hinds, The Does, and The Darlings, none of which fully captures the ballet’s sexuality. The scenario of the ballet from which the Suite was derived has no true plotline, depicting the interactions of a group of young people on a summer afternoon. The enterprise was a kind of neo-classical fantasy, comparable in some respects to, and perhaps inspired by, Igor Stravinksy’s ballet, Pulcinella (1920). Poulenc’smusic is tonal—sometimes modal—in idiom, yet always fresh and saucy to the ear. Even though his career brought him into close personal contact with other French modernists—most notably Milhaud, Auric, Honegger (Swiss born), Taileferre, and Durey, who collectively with Poulenc were dubbed as the “Groupe des Six”—his style remained distinct from that of his colleagues.
Les Biches comprises five movements. The first movement, Rondeau, begins with a brief slow introduction, followed by quick section marked by a saucy theme featuring the trumpet. A calmer central section leads to a return of the trumpet tune. The second movement, Adagietto, presents a plaintive oboe melody, interrupted briefly by a noisy interlude, before returning to its original mood. Poulenc did not wish this music to be played sentimentally, remarking that none of the characters in the ballet “falls for love in life, they have sex! Let’s just leave it there.” The third movement is marked Rag-Mazurka. Its jazz-inspired lilt is typically of the European understanding and interpretation of this American-born musical style. The Suite concludes with another slower movement, Andantino, followed by a virtuosic movement, labled Final.
Program Note by David B. Levy, © 2026
