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PROGRAM NOTES by Klay and Karen Woodworth Franz Schubert Symphony No. 8, D. 759, “Unfinished” Franz Schubert showed an early aptitude for music and received lessons in piano, violin, organ, singing, and harmony. He became a chorister in Vienna’s Imperial court chapel and studied composition with Antonio Salieri. Salieri was impressed by Schubert’s skill, commenting, “That boy can do everything—he composes operas, songs, quartets, symphonies and whatever you want.” Through diligent work habits, Schubert created hundreds of pieces before his untimely death at the age of thirty-one. Schubert began work on his B-minor symphony in 1822. It was to be his penultimate symphony, followed only by the large C-major symphony, although sketches for the beginning of a tenth symphony survive. His work on the B-minor symphony ceased in 1823, when he gave the manuscript for the first two movements to Josef and Anselm Hüttenbrenner. Anselm Hüttenbrenner was a member of the Styrian Music Society in Graz, which had awarded an honorary diploma to Schubert in 1823. In acknowledging the diploma Schubert wrote, “So as to express my sincere gratitude in music too, I shall soon be taking the liberty of presenting to your honorable Society one of my symphonies in full score.” He followed up on this promise with the manuscript. Hüttenbrenner kept the score of the symphony until conductor Johann Herbeck persuasively requested it in 1865. Herbeck led the orchestra of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in the premiere of the symphony on December 17, 1865, thirty-seven years after Schubert’s death. The symphony is considered unfinished both because it lacks the usual four-movement structure of the symphony and because of manuscript evidence. Many different reasons have been suggested for Schubert’s failure to complete the symphony. It is possible that he intended eventually to return to the symphony and complete it, but ran out of time. Some musicologists have suggested that the “Entr’acte” in B minor from Schubert’s opera Rosamunde, also written in 1823, was originally intended to be the finale for the symphony, and the symphony has been performed with this added movement on several occasions. Current practice, though, is to perform the symphony as originally given to Hüttenbrenner. The two movements of the symphony showcase the supreme command of melody for which Schubert is known, serving as a translation of his song-writing genius into instrumental music. The beginning of the Allegro moderato is pianissimo and low, descending almost to the very bottom notes of the double-basses and cellos. The first theme enters as a unison solo by the clarinet and oboe. The second theme, heard first in the cellos, is the famous melody to which mnemonic words have been put. The brass and timpani are used very deliberately for dramatic effect. The Andante con moto begins with a descending pianissimo line in the double-basses, underneath chords by the horns and bassoons. The rest of the strings enter with the principal theme, and the lyrical nature of Schubert’s melodies continues to shine in this beautiful music. Listen for the oboe, clarinet, and flute to pass phrases back and forth. The movement ends softly and introspectively. Although it may not have the emotional bombast of a regular nineteenth-century symphonic finale, the conclusion of the second movement nevertheless satisfies the listener. Antonin Dvořák paid the symphony a great tribute in 1894. He wrote, “I do not hesitate to say that, greatly as I esteem Schubert’s songs, I value his instrumental works even more highly. Were all of his compositions to be destroyed but two, I should say, ‘Save the last two symphonies.’” Sergei Rachmaninoff Symphony in D Minor, “Youth” Sergei Rachmaninoff began to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1882. After his parents separated, he transferred to the Moscow Conservatory to continue piano study. Composing captured his interest around 1887. In the fall of 1891, Rachmaninoff was struck down by illness (probably malaria) for six weeks. While he was recovering, he decided to push forward the completion of his time at the conservatory. His major professor, Anton Arensky, gave his consent and Rachmaninoff began work on a range of projects, including a symphony. Rachmaninoff later recalled completing the multi-movement work, which got a lukewarm reception from his instructors. Despite this, the aspiring composer managed to graduate from the conservatory with the highest possible marks and the Great Gold Medal, a rarely conferred honor. After he left the conservatory, Rachmaninoff didn’t pursue performances or publication of his symphony. At the time of his death, only one movement of his student symphony survived. It was published posthumously in 1947. This D-minor movement from September of 1891 has become known as the Youth Symphony to distinguish it from the full-length Symphony No. 1 composed by Rachmaninoff in 1897. The Youth Symphony has all the hallmarks of an opening movement from a Russian Romantic composer and most listeners hear the influence of Tchaikovsky in the music. Rachmaninoff referred back to the first movement of his Youth Symphony when he was contemplating the opening of his Second Symphony. The Youth Symphony opens with brooding low strings and horns building slowly to the first theme. A change of mood is abruptly signaled by a drum beat, and contrasting materials are allowed to build to a further height. The woodwinds bring a lyrical countersubject to the fore. Wave after wave of musical drama carries us through the interactions in the development section before the woodwinds again take the stage. Rachmaninoff employs a very Russian flourish of brass as part of the intense ending of this piece. Antonín Dvořák Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor, Op. 104 When Antonín Dvořák accepted the directorship of the National Conservatory in New York in 1892, he had already built a solid following in Europe and Great Britain. His compositions were eagerly awaited by his publishers and his public. Dvořák led the conservatory for three years. During his tenure, he urged musicians to incorporate the music they heard around them into their compositions. He also continued to compose music, and began work on his cello concerto in the United States before returning to Prague, where he finished the piece before the end of 1895. Dvořák once told a student that “the cello is a beautiful instrument, but its place is in the orchestra and in chamber music. As a solo instrument it isn’t much good. Its middle register is fine—that’s true—but the upper voice squeaks and the lower growls.” Two cellists can be credited for helping to change his mind. The first was Hanuš Wihan. Before leaving for New York, Dvořák performed a farewell concert tour of Bohemia and Moravia that featured his Piano Trio in E minor, “Dumky.” The concerts were filled out with solo violin and cello pieces that Dvořák arranged from his compositions. Wihan was the cellist for this tour, and during their concerts in forty cities, Dvořák had many opportunities to hear the potential of the cello as a solo instrument. The second cellist to provide inspiration for Dvořák’s cello concerto was Victor Herbert. Herbert was born in Ireland and educated in Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1886 and joined the faculty of the National Conservatory in 1889. We know Herbert today principally as the composer of operettas such as Babes in Toyland, but during his career he was acclaimed as a conductor and soloist. He wrote concertos for his own use, and completed his second cello concerto during the time Dvořák was in New York. Dvořák took time out of his schedule to attend a rehearsal of the piece with the New York Philharmonic and was very excited by the music. Taking his personal secretary Joseph Jan Kovařík with him, Dvořák made a rare evening trip back to Carnegie Hall that evening. Kovařík later recalled that Dvořák nearly knocked him out of his seat when drawing his attention to a spot where Herbert had employed the trombones in the orchestra without overpowering the soloist. Dvořák made a painstaking study of the score, and soon embarked on the composition of his own concerto for cello. The cello that Dvořák heard featured in Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 may be on our stage in Kalamazoo this evening. Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra Principal Cello David Peshlakai was recently asked to evaluate an instrument at the end of a KSO rehearsal. The beauty of the sound drew the attention of other KSO members, and an inspection of the cello revealed that one of its former owners was Victor Herbert. The owner of the cello, who has requested anonymity, graciously granted Peshlakai the right to perform on this instrument. Dvořák’s cello concerto is approximately forty minutes in length. It represents a transitional period for him between symphonies and operas. The cello concerto is Dvořák’s last major work for orchestra. After returning to Prague, Dvořák devoted the majority of his creative powers to opera, taking particular satisfaction from the success of his fairytale opera Rusalka in 1901. The cello concerto benefits both from the orchestral weight of Dvořák as a mature symphonic composer, and from the striking lyricism also associated with Dvořák’s operatic successes. Above all, the Cello Concerto is a brilliant display piece for a strong and talented cellist. Part of the lyrical nature of the concerto results from its inclusion of material from the song “Lasst mich allein! (Leave Me Alone!),” composed by Dvořák in 1865 as part of the song cycle Cypresses. This was a favorite song of his sister-in-law and former pupil, Josefina Čermáková, who is generally credited as being the inspiration for Cypresses. She was on his mind as he composed the cello concerto because she had written to him and his wife (her sister) during their time in New York about her depression and isolation. You will hear the melody of the song in the middle section of the concerto’s Adagio. When Josefina died in May of 1895, Dvořák rewrote the end of his concerto and incorporated another reference to the song. Thus, the dramatic music of the finale comes from a mixture of nostalgia and loving farewell. Written on a broad canvas, the concerto is well-crafted along the formal lines of the Romantic symphony from its broad introduction to the cyclic return of thematic elements used to bind the entire work into a whole. Wihan gave Dvořák many comments on the solo part, and was the composer’s choice to give the first performance of the concerto at a Philharmonic Society concert in London. However, Wihan’s schedule prevented him from taking part in the concert, and the premiere was given instead by cellist Leo Stern, with Dvořák directing the orchestra. Many of the works now cherished as part of the standard orchestral repertoire received poor reviews upon their first performances. Happily, this was not the case with Dvořák’s cello concerto. The critic of The Times in London wrote, “In wealth and beauty of thematic material, as well as in the unusual interest of the development of its first movement, the new Concerto yields to none of the composer’s recent works; all three movements are richly melodious, the just balance is maintained between the orchestra and the solo instrument, and the passages written for display are admirably devised. … The work was received with much enthusiasm.” ©2008 Klayton Woodworth and Karen M. Woodworth
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