Concerts of January 16 and 17, 2015

Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer

Overture to Guillaume Tell (1829) The first performance of Guillaume Tell took place at the Opéra in Paris, France, on August 3, 1829.

GIOACHINO ROSSINI was born in Pesaro, Italy, on February 29, 1792, and died in Passy, France, on November 13, 1868.

The Charlotte Symphony’s first performance of this work took place on April 29, 1948 with Guy S. Hutchins, Sr. conducting at Armory Auditorium. The ninth and most recent performance took place on June 29, 2014 with Albert-George Schram conducting at Symphony Park in South Park.

Gioachino Rossini’s final opera, Guillaume Tell, is based upon Friedrich Schiller’s play, Wilhelm Tell. Guillaume Tell takes place in 14th-century Switzerland, and relates the story of the Swiss victory over their Habsburg oppressors. For this epic work, Rossini provided music of extraordinary power and eloquence, departing from the early 19th- century bel canto practices that at times favored vocal display at the expense of the drama. Guillaume Tell earned the praise of such demanding and revolutionary musical dramatists as Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner. Berlioz deemed Guillaume Tell “seriously thought out, considered at leisure, and conscientiously executed from beginning to end.” Wagner particularly admired the title character’s eloquent aria, “Sois immobile.” During an 1860 meeting, Wagner told Rossini the aria “reached the highest summits of lyric expression.” Rossini replied: “So I made music of the future without knowing it.” To which Wagner responded: “There, Maestro, you made music for all times, and that is the best.” Guillaume Tell premiered at the Paris Opéra on August 3, 1829. Although Rossini was thirty-seven lived another thirty-nine years, he wrote no operas after Guillaume Tell. Between 1812 and 1829, Rossini composed thirty-nine operas, and the years of hard labor had taken a tremendous toll on his physical and emotional health. Rossini spent the remainder of his life enjoying the company of friends, and composing many salon pieces he affectionately referred to as “Sins of My Old Age.” In an 1866 letter to composer Giovanni Pacini, Rossini expressed no regrets about his abrupt retirement from opera: “such a presentiment is not given to everyone; God granted it to me and I bless him for it every hour.” The famous Overture to Guillaume Tell begins with an extended slow introduction (Andante), with a magical combination of five solo cellos. The rustlings of the strings and winds (Allegro) are prelude to a storm sequence of tremendous power. After the storm abates, the English horn, in tandem with the flute, offers a ranz des vaches, the traditional call of the Swiss herdsman to his cattle (Andante). Trumpet fanfares launch the triumphant final section (Allegro vivace). The music, known (perhaps all too well) for its association with the 1950s television series The Lone Ranger, still generates tremendous excitement on its own terms.

The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, triangle, bass drum, cymbals and strings. Duration: ca. 12 minutes

Les préludes, Symphonic Poem No. 3 (1848)

The first performance of Les préludes took place in Weimar, Germany, on February 28, 1854, with the composer conducting the Weimar Court Orchestra

Franz Liszt was born in Raiding, Hungary, on October 22, 1811, and died in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 31, 1886.

The Charlotte Symphony’s first performance of this work February 8, 1935 with Guillermo S. de Roxlo conducting at Alexander Graham Middle School. The ninth and most recent performance took place on February 24, 2010 with Christopher Confesssore conducting the orchestra in a side-by-side performance with the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra

Les préludes is the third of twelve Symphonic Poems written by Franz Liszt during the Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor’s tenure at the Weimar court (1848-1861). Liszt originally conceived of the work as an orchestral overture to a setting, for male chorus and piano, of Joseph Autran’s cycle of poems, Les quatre éléments. Liszt composed the overture during the years 1845-1848. However, Liszt finally abandoned the Four Elements portion of the project, and concentrated upon revising his overture.

It was then that Liszt received inspiration—not from Autran’s verse—but from the epic poem, Les préludes, included in the 1823 collection, Nouvelles méditations poétiques, by Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869). Liszt completed the work he now entitled Les préludes in 1854, and conducted its premiere in Weimar on February 28. Les préludes enjoyed great popularity during the composer’s lifetime, and this thrilling symphonic poem continues to be one of Liszt’s most-performed orchestral works.

In a preface to the score, Liszt provided the following synopsis of Les préludes:

What is our life but a series of Preludes to that unknown song, the first solemn note of which is sounded by Death? The enchanted dawn of every existence is heralded by Love, yet in whose destiny are not the first throbs of happiness interrupted by storms, whose violent blasts dissipate his fond illusions, consuming his altar with fatal fire? And where is it to be found the cruelly bruised soul, that having become the sport of one of these tempests, does not seek oblivion in the sweet quiet of rural life? Nevertheless, man seldom resigns himself to the beneficial calm that at first chained him to Nature’s bosom. No sooner does the trumpet sound the alarm, than he runs to the post of danger, be the war what it may, that summons him to its ranks. For there he will find again in the struggle complete self-realization and the full possession of his forces.

The score calls for piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, harp and strings.

Duration: ca. 16 minutes

Don Quixote, Opus 35 (1897)

The first performance of Don Quixote took place at the Gürzenich Concerts of Cologne, Germany, on March 8, 1898, with Franz Wüllner conducting.

Richard Strauss was born in Munich, Germany, on June 11, 1864, and died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on September 8, 1949.

The first and only prior performances of this work by the Charlotte Symphony took place on February 22 & 23, 2008 with Christof Perick conducting in the Belk Theater at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.

Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote, is based upon Miguel de Cervantes’s 1605 epic satire. Richard Strauss completed the orchestral tone poem, subtitled Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character, in 1897. Strauss’s Don Quixote premiered the following year.

The finest musical representations of Don Quixote emphasize that while Cervantes’s knight-errant is, of course, in many ways a ridiculous figure, he is also a person of humanity and noble aspirations. As a result, Don Quixote’s spectacular failures become a source not just of humor, but of tragedy as well. And it is the tragicomic nature of Cervantes’s masterpiece that Richard Strauss brilliantly captures in his orchestral tone poem.

Don Quixote perhaps, offers the best of all worlds—the technical wizardry found in Strauss’s orchestral tone poems Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, as well as the intimacy and humanity of such works as his opera, Der Rosenkavalier, and the Four Last Songs. In Don Quixote, Strauss demonstrates that he, like the “Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance,” can both thrill and move his audience.

Introduction. Mässiges Zeitmass (Don Quixote sinks into madness)—The flutes and oboes offer a fanfare motif symbolic of the deeds portrayed in Don Quixote’s beloved books of chivalry. This, along with subsequent motifs introduced by the violins and clarinet, will soon reappear as the protagonist’s main themes. As the hero’s mind begins to wander, the motifs become fragmented. The oboe, to harp accompaniment, sings the theme associated with the protagonist’s vision of ideal womanhood as embodied by Dulcinea. When Don Quixote imagines his lady under siege and fantasizes about rushing to her defense, the music becomes turbulent. The subsequent discord reflects the hero’s total descent into madness.

Mässig (Don Quixote)—The solo cello, with counterpoint from the violin, offers Don Quixote’s principal themes.

Maggiore (Sancho Panza)—Don Quixote’s motifs are immediately followed by the themes associated with Sancho Panza, the rotund peasant who becomes the knight’s squire. The first is a lumbering refrain played by the tenor tuba. The viola depicts Sancho Panza’s loquacious nature.

Now that Strauss has introduced his principal characters, the adventures begin.

Variation I (The adventure with the windmills)

Variation II (The battle with the sheep)

Variation III (Discourse between knight and squire)

Variation IV (The adventure with the pilgrims)

Variation V (The knight’s vigil)

Variation VI (The meeting with Dulcinea)

Variation VII (The ride through the air)

Variation VIII (The voyage in the enchanted boat)

Variation IX (The combat with the two magicians)

Variation X (The defeat of Don Quixote)

Finale. Sehr ruhig—In the final section, depicting Don Quixote’s death, the cellist plays a tranquil variation of the knight’s initial theme. Moments of agitation briefly invade, but then, serenity returns with reminiscences of past glories. Finally, the voice of Don Quixote weakens and, with a final octave descent, expires (it has become a tradition of sorts for the soloist to mime the Don’s passing at this moment). A few peaceful chords lay Don Quixote to rest.

The score calls for solo cello and viola, piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, E- flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, six horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tenor tuba, bass tuba, harp, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, orchestra bells, snare drum, tambourine, triangle, wind machine and strings.

Duration: ca. 38 minutes