Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
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CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM NOTES Saturday, January 28, 2012, 8pm Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) leading a dozen of his hussars through the mas- Zellerbach Hall Dances of Galánta culine motions of the dance to the accompani- ment of a Gypsy band was apparently irresistible Composed in 1933. Premiered on October 10, 1933, to any red-blooded Hungarian.) While no mod- in Budapest, conducted by Ernst von Dohnányi. ern young man would consider enlisting just Royal Philharmonic Orchestra because he saw a nice dance, it must be remem- Charles Dutoit, Artistic Director & Principal Conductor In 1905, when Kodály was working toward his bered that the soldiers of that era were equally with doctoral degree at Budapest University, he found proficient at wine, wenches and waltzing as at it necessary to leave town to do some research war, and a spirited verbunkos was more a promise Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano for his thesis—he needed information on the of pleasures to come than a mere temporary di- stanzaic structure of Hungarian folksong—and version. The verbunkos withered away after con- he returned to his childhood home to collect scription was begun in 1849, but its progeny still PROGRAM it. Between 1885 and 1892 (ages three to ten), resound in concert halls throughout the world. Kodály lived in Galánta, a small market town The Dances of Galánta follow the structure near the Austrian border, where his father was of the alternating slow and fast sections of their Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) Dances of Galánta (1933) the local stationmaster for the national railway verbunkos model. The work’s slow introduction and where he had first heard the folksongs and consists of a series of instrumental solos (played Gypsy bands which were among his most last- in turn by cello, horn, oboe and clarinet) sepa- Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, Op. 23 ing and influential musical impressions. When rated by rushing string figures. The first dance, (1839, 1849) he returned there in 1905 on what proved to be a slow one begun by the solo clarinet, displays a the first of many folk music hunts throughout restrained Gypsy pathos in its snapping rhyth- Adagio sostenuto assai Eastern Europe, he went to old friends, servants mic figures. The quicker second dance, initiated Allegro agitato assai and neighbors and asked them to sing again by the solo flute, is based on a melody circling Allegro moderato the songs he had so loved as a boy. He accu- around a single pitch in halting rhythms. The Allegro deciso mulated over 150 examples, more than enough first dance returns in the full orchestra as a Marziale un poco meno Allegro material to complete his thesis, and he returned bridge to the next number in the series, a spir- Allegro animato to Budapest. ited tune with engaging syncopations heard first Played without pause. During the next 30 years, Kodály not only in the oboe. Another brief recall of the opening continued to collect indigenous music, but he dance leads to the finale, a brilliant whirlwind also devised a system of music education based of music that is twice broken off in its headlong INTERMISSION on Hungarian folk song and consistently utilized rush. The first interruption is for a cheeky little its stylistic components in his compositions. tune insouciantly paraded by the clarinet and When the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra the other woodwinds. The second interruption Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 commissioned him to write a work for its 80th is for a final reminiscence of the opening dance, (1855–1876) anniversary, Kodály dipped once again into his which dissolves into a short clarinet cadenza. Un poco sostenuto — Allegro inexhaustible folk treasury for melodic material, The closing section of the Dances of Galánta, Andante sostenuto turning to some books of Hungarian dances electric in its rhythmic intensity and gleaming Un poco allegretto e grazioso published in Vienna around 1800 which con- orchestration, is music of stomping feet, whirl- Adagio — Allegro non troppo, ma con brio tained music “after several Gypsies of Galánta.” ing bodies and abundant, youthful enthusiasm. These dances were in the verbunkos or Gypsy style that had been assimilated into the concert works of, among many others, Liszt, Bartók and Enesco. Theverbunkos , a Hungarian dance This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Gail and Daniel Rubinfeld. of alternating fast and slow sections, became something of a national institution when it was Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. used by local military recruiters during the 18th- century imperial wars as a tactic to entice young men into joining the armed forces. (A sergeant 14 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 15 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Germany, he chose to settle in the small but Liszt sketched his two piano concertos in Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, Op. 23 sophisticated city of Weimar, where Sebastian 1839, but they lay unfinished until he went to Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 Bach held a job early in his career. Once in- Weimar. He completed the Second Concerto, Composed in 1839 and 1849. Premiered on stalled at Weimar, Liszt took over the musical in A major, in the summer of 1849, but he did Composed in 1855–1876. Premiered on January 7, 1857, in Weimar, conducted by the com- establishment there and elevated it into one of not get around to having it performed for more November 4, 1876, in Karlsruhe, conducted by poser with Hans von Bronsart as soloist. the most important centers of European artistic than seven years. Liszt required of a concerto Felix Otto Dessoff. culture. He stirred up interest in such neglected that it be “clear in sense, brilliant in expression, “Franz Liszt was one of the most brilliant and composers as Schubert, and encouraged such and grand in style.” In other words, it had to Brahms, while not as breathtakingly precocious provocative figures in music history. As a pia- younger ones as Saint-Saëns, Wagner and Grieg be a knockout. While it was inevitable that this as Mozart, Mendelssohn or Schubert, got a rea- nist, conductor, composer, teacher, writer and by performing their works. He also gave much Concerto would have a high percentage of fin- sonably early start on his musical career: he had personality—for with Liszt, being a colorful of his energy to his own original compositions, ger-churning display, it was not automatic that it produced several piano works (including two personality was itself a profession—his immedi- and created many of the pieces for which he is should also be of high musical quality—but it is. large sonatas) and a goodly number of songs by ate influence upon European music can hardly known today—the symphonies, piano concer- The procedure on which Liszt built this the age of 19. In 1853, when Brahms was only be exaggerated. His life was a veritable pagan tos, symphonic poems and choral works. Liszt Concerto and other of his orchestral works is 20, Robert Schumann wrote an article for the wilderness wherein flourished luxuriant legends had composed before he moved to Weimar, called “thematic transformation,” or, to use widely distributed Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, of love affairs, illegitimate children, encounters of course—his total output numbers between the rather more jolly phrase of the American his first contribution to that journal in a decade, with great figures of the period, and hairbreadth 1,400 and 1,500 separate works—but the early critic William Foster Apthorp, “The Life and hailing Brahms as the savior of German music, escapes from a variety of romantic murders. pieces were mainly piano solos for use at his own Adventures of a Melody.” Never bothered that the rightful heir to the mantle of Beethoven. Unlike Wagner and Berlioz, Liszt never wrote recitals. His later works are not only indispens- he was ignoring the Classical models of form, Brahms was extremely proud of Schumann’s ad- the story of his life, for, as he casually remarked, able components of the Romantic musical era Liszt concocted his own new structures around vocacy and he displayed the journal with great he was too busy living it.” If it were not for the in their own right, but also were an important this transformation technique. (“Music is never joy to his friends and family when he returned to fact that Liszt’s life had been so thoroughly doc- influence on other composers in their form, har- stationary,” he pronounced. “Successive forms his humble Hamburg neighborhood after visit- umented by his contemporaries, we might think mony and poetic content. and styles can only be like so many resting plac- ing Schumann in Düsseldorf, but there was the that the preceding description by Abraham As if composing, conducting and performing es—like tents pitched and taken down again on other side of Schumann’s assessment as well, that Veinus was based on some profligate fictional were insufficient, Liszt was also one of the most the road to the Ideal.”) Basically, the “thematic which placed an immense burden on Brahms’s character out of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Not so. By sought-after piano teachers of the 19th century. transformation” process consisted of inventing a shoulders. all accounts, Liszt led the most sensational life He was popular with students not just because theme that could be used to create a wide variety Brahms was acutely aware of the deeply ever granted to a musician. In his youth and he possessed an awesome technique that was of moods, tempos, orchestrations and rhythms rooted traditions of German music extending early manhood, he received the sort of wild and (and remains) the model of every serious pianist.