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PROGRAM NOTES by Klay and Karen Woodworth Ludwig van Beethoven Egmont Overture When Ludwig van Beethoven began his career in Vienna in 1792, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was already one of the best known writers in central Europe. Beethoven developed a great admiration for Goethe and was pleased to receive a commission to write incidental music for Goethe’s play Egmont (published in 1788). Beethoven composed an overture and set of incidental pieces for the Leipzig production that was first performed in June of 1810. The play is based on the life of Count Egmont, a Dutch nobleman who lived from 1522 to 1568, and his part in the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain. In the drama, Egmont is taken prisoner and receives a death sentence for treason. While in prison he sees his wife Klärchen in a dream. She tells him that his death will rally his followers into overthrowing the Spaniards. Military music awakens Egmont from the dream and he is led off-stage to a scaffold. He is executed as the curtain closes and a Victory Symphony (called for in the script) plays. Beethoven’s overture begins with a slow introduction. The main body of the piece, which includes a captivating main melody and a brilliant development section, is followed by the Victory Symphony that functions as a coda. When performed in the concert hall, the coda material seems to come out of nowhere, making the music quite thrilling and memorable. Scott Burnham points out in Beethoven Hero that Goethe’s play strays into the realm of opera with its rather cavalier leaps of dramatic logic. The overture mirrors this blurring of genre by adhering more to the rules of drama than sonata form. It’s a striking, if brief, glimpse of Beethoven at his Romantic and heroic best. Beethoven and Goethe met in Teplitz in July, 1812, but they did not become friends. That they never actively collaborated on a project is truly one of history’s great missed opportunities.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy The HebridesOverture Felix Mendelssohn’s short career was one of the most highly regarded of the nineteenth century. Raised in a wealthy Berlin banking family, Mendelssohn received the best general and musical education possible at the time. He pursued philosophy (including aesthetics) and a thorough study of literature. Musical studies led him to the works of the great Baroque composers such as G. F. Handel and J.S. Bach that had all but disappeared from the concert repertoire. He traveled widely, managing to meet and befriend most of the influential figures in the arts and letters during his time. When he reached his mid-twenties he was much in demand as a guest conductor and performer. This was especially true in London, where he developed a personal relationship with Queen Victoria and her consort Albert. On a trip to Britain in 1829, Mendelssohn and a companion traveled across Scotland and visited the islands off the western coast. Staying in Tobermory on Mull, they made day trips by steamer to the holy island of Iona and the island of Staffa, location of the basalt formation popularly known as Fingal’s Cave. The visit to Scotland was quite inspirational for Mendelssohn, leading him to compose his “Scottish” symphony and the Hebrides Overture. Mendelssohn had several working titles for this popular concert overture, including “The Lonely Isle” and “Isles of Fingal.” When the work was published in 1834, the score said “ Fingal’s Cave” while the parts were labeled “The Hebrides.” The music is evocative of the swelling sea and the drama of the natural spectacle of the seacave. The Hebrides Overture is a wonderful example of Mendelssohn’s mastery of orchestration.
Hector Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture Hector Berlioz was a very gifted individual who made a conscious choice to pursue music after completing two years of medical school. His exceptional intellect, coupled with his early training in the sciences, allowed him to absorb how an orchestra functions and how musical effects are achieved. Eventually he would triumph as a composer, conductor, concert producer, journalist, and scholar, but he also had his share of disappointments One of the lowest spots in Berlioz’s career was the release of his first opera, Benvenuto Cellini. The opera was given only three complete and three partial performances in the 1838–39 season before it was withdrawn by the composer. Eventually Berlioz, quite certain that this music was some of his finest work, used parts of the score in other ways. In 1843, Berlioz took music from the first and second acts of Benvenuto Cellini and created “The Roman Carnival,” which he called an “ouverture caractéristique.” The work is evocative of the opera from which it was taken, but does not function as the overture to the opera when staged. Set in Rome during the Carnival season of 1532, the opera relies on the chaos and festivities of the period before Lent for major plot elements such as the planned elopement of Cellini and Teresa. Berlioz’s music illustrates the carnival atmosphere while portraying the two sides of the hero Cellini — a brash artist and a tender lover. The overture proved to be an audience favorite when Berlioz presented it in concerts throughout the rest of his career. It still welcomes audiences to the concert hall with great zeal.
Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Opus 68 Johannes Brahms started to gain recognition as a young man, especially after his work was championed by Robert and Clara Schumann. Robert Schumann, a respected and powerful critic, saw Brahms as a “savior” of music and immediately began to publicize the young composer. Brahms was a truly gifted musician but he seemed compelled to work even harder to live up to his press. For German composers of the nineteenth century, writing a successful symphony was how one became a recognized composer, and for Brahms and his contemporaries the definition of successful was set by the music of Beethoven. With this in mind, Brahms worked some fifteen years on his first symphony (1862–1877). During this time Brahms also composed a great volume of other music. In hindsight, we can see that he was preparing for the writing of a symphony. For example, he used chamber ensembles to experiment with large musical forms, and he solved some of his own questions about orchestration in works like the Haydn Variations (opus 56). For his first symphony, Brahms drew from a musical stream springing from somewhere between Beethoven’s fifth and ninth symphonies. The work poses a dilemma and then ultimately resolves it much later in a grand final statement. The first movement is this dilemma or question — an introduction to the argument of the symphony — which comes with an introduction of its own. Brahms states the motivic materials in a rather blocky, but very clear, fashion. He puts the material through something of a sonata-allegro development process while adding ideas that he will pick up in subsequent movements. The first movement ends with a quiet punctuation before moving into the resolution process. Following the thorny dilemma, the music provides a quiet movement of gentle contemplation (Andante sostenuto) and then a healthy reawakening of the faculties (Un poco Allegretto e grazioso). The finale opens brusquely with the timpani answering their own query from the very beginning of the symphony. The body of the final movement is taken up by interplay between an alphorn melody (collected by Brahms in 1868) and a glorious chorale. Although one can hear a little of Martin Luther in the chorale melody, it’s also quite like material from the finale of Beethoven’s ninth symphony. This chorale, no matter what its derivation, is the answer to the dilemma. We are, of course, free to put any kind of philosophical labels on the dichotomy that we choose. In his first symphony, Brahms completed the assignment given to him by Robert Schumann of picking up Beethoven’s mantle. The symphony is, by any definition of the term, a masterpiece. © 2010 Klayton Woodworth and Karen M. Woodworth |