Beethoven's Fifth Saturday, January 18Th and 19Th, 2020

Beethoven’s Fifth Saturday, January 18th and 19th, 2020

Rolando Miranda Temporal Variations, Beethoven Revisited (b. 1948)

Georges Bizet Carmen Fantasia for Two Trumpets (1838-1875) arr. Donald Hunsberger Fanfare; Entracte to Act IV La Fleur Que Tu M’avais Jetee Entry of the Gypsies Habañera and Toreador Song Gypsy Song (Les Tringles des sistres)

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1770-1827) Allegro con brio Andante con moto Scherzo and Trio Allegro

Ronaldo Miranda, born in 1948 in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, studied piano and composition at the Escola de Música da Universidade Federal. Winning first prize at the II Biennial of Brazilian Contemporary Music in 1977 led to his being chosen as Brazil’s representative the following year in Paris at the Unesco International Rostrum for Composers. In 1982 the State of São Paulo Symphony Orchestra commissioned Symphonic Variations, and over the next several years he began to receive acclaim internationally. His works have since been performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Mozarteum (Salzburg), and Carnegie Hall. Among his diverse compositions are pieces for two pianos and percussion, flute trio, clarinet and percussion, solo piano, woodwind quintet, orchestra with chorus, as well as operas and concertos. He is currently teaching composition in the School of Communication and Arts of the São Paulo University. Temporal Variations, Beethoven Revisited (Variacoes Temporais, Beethoven Revisado) was published in 2014. Romantic in orientation, the Variations consist of brief sections of contrasting tempos and moods. Occasional glimpses of Beethoven, such as the “Waldstein” Sonata and the scherzo of the “Choral” Symphony, give the composition its subtitle. The episodic nature of Variations reminds one of a film soundtrack with colorful writing for percussion instruments and an exciting finish.

Ronaldo Miranda and friend, in Rio, 2004 Georges Bizet (1838-1875) became a student at the Paris Conservatory of Music when he was not yet ten and produced his first symphony at age 17. His one-act operetta, Le docteur Miracle, with librettist Ludovic Halévy, was one of the recipients of a Jacques Offenbach prize in 1857. Another award that Bizet received was the Prix de Rome with its requisite three years’ study in Rome, during which he polished his writing style. One of his enduring works, L'arlésienne, heard today as an independent orchestral work, premiered in 1872 as incidental music for a play by Alphonse Daudet. Two of Bizet’s most famous operas were not well received at their premieres: Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) in 1863 and Carmen in 1875. Important composers of the time, including Debussy, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms (who saw the Viennese premiere of Carmen and attended twenty performances), applauded the latter work. Today it is one of the most beloved of all operas, and excerpts such as “The Toreador Song” and “Habañera” are part of popular culture. Bizet, unfortunately, never knew of Carmen’s success as he died of a heart condition at age 36, three months after the opera’s Paris premiere. Carmen is a story about a flirtatious cigarette factory worker who tempts a young corporal, Don José, to leave his girlfriend for her; she (Carmen) then abandons him for Escamillo, a toreador. In a jealous rage Don José’s kills Carmen. Parisian audiences of the day were fascinated by the exoticism of the setting and the music, but they were shocked at the title character’s gypsy background and loose morals as well as the graphic murder onstage.

Donald Hunsberger (b. 1932) was a Professor of Conducting at the Eastman School of Music, where he also conducted the Wind Ensemble from 1965 to 2001. He composed the Carmen Fantasia for husband/wife trumpeters Barbara Butler and Charles Geye who requested a work that featured both instrumentalists equally. They premiered the composition in 1994, performing on trumpets, piccolo trumpets, and Flugelhorns (all of which you will hear tonight, also). Fanfare (Act I); Entracte to Act IV: Fanfares present each soloist in turn as they each make their own grand entrance playing an improvisatory-like cadenza. This first selection allows the soloists to individually, then collectively, demonstrate their virtuosity and that of their instruments. The brass section announces the second act duet, “La Fleur Que Tu M’avais Jetee,” which emphasizes the lyrical capabilities of these solo instruments as they interact with each other. After an introduction featuring the snare drum, Sextet and Chorus “Entry of the Gypsies” (Act I) continues with the trumpeters playing the familiar tune, which they later vary with extensive ornamentation. The imaginative orchestral commentary highlights the exotic nature of the music. “Habañera” and “Toreador Song” (Act I) really need no explanation, but you might enjoy some of the instructions to the soloists written in this section: “arrogant and fatuous,” “as in anger,” and “Shout bullfight words!” Gypsy Song (“Les Tringles des sistres,” Act II) with its spicy grace notes, flamboyant percussion, and increasingly faster tempo provides a rousing conclusion to tonight’s performance. Like the original operatic music, Hunsberger’s Fantasia is vibrant and full of Spanish flair.

Born in Bonn, Germany, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) had hoped to study with Mozart in Vienna, but his plans changed when his mother’s death and his father’s alcoholism made it necessary for him to assume financial responsibility while still a teenager. At twenty-two, however, he moved to Vienna, studied with Haydn, and remained there until his death. He was well known as a virtuoso pianist before his increasing deafness around the age of thirty made it difficult for him to perform. In 1802 Beethoven wrote his famous Heiligenstadt Testament: "But what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard a shepherd singing and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair, a little more of that and I would have ended my life-it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me." Music composed after this turning point often seems to portray a dramatic struggle that eventually ends with transcendence. Such is the case with Symphony No. 5 in C minor, written between 1804 and 1808. It premiered on 22 December 1808 at a four-hour long concert of exclusively Beethoven compositions.

Are there any more famous four notes in music than the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth? Even if one doesn’t hear the pitches (three repeated pitches followed by a descending minor third), the rhythm alone (short-short-short-long) is instantly recognizable. After those first four notes (“Fate motto”) are immediately repeated a step lower, Beethoven extends the idea and uses a horn call based on the motto to form the bridge to the more lyrical second theme, for which the four-note motto provides accompaniment. Finally, a very energetic closing theme involves multiple repetitions of the motto before the exposition is repeated (which allows the audience another chance at identifying the themes that will soon be “developed” and “recapitulated”). Note the effective use of silence as well as the dialogues between instruments. Beethoven increases the drama and tension with unexpected contrasts of dynamics. Two things you might not have previously paid attention to: (1) just as the recapitulation begins with the repeated four-note motto, there is an unexpected brief, poignant oboe solo; (2) the composer introduces an emphatic new theme in the expanded coda.

The form of the Andante con moto is a double variation—two themes are varied by rhythmic modification, changes in harmony and instrumentation, and alternation of mode (major/minor). The first is a genteel theme for violas and cellos; the second theme is first heard in clarinets, bassoons, and violins while lower strings provide a triplet accompaniment. The melody becomes a regal fanfare when the trumpets and horns take over. Listen carefully for the rhythmic four-note (“Fate”) motto in the background.

In the third movement, instead of the courtly Minuet and Trio associated with Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven inserts a scherzo and trio (scherzo= Italian for “joke,” suggesting a more light-hearted, less aristocracy-related movement). It begins with cellos and basses playing a “sneaky” pianissimo theme that outlines a minor chord. A secondary theme in the horns uses the short-short-short-long rhythm of the opening motto (old rhythm, new theme). Cellos and basses are featured again at the beginning of the trio section, which involves imitation of a theme by successively higher pitched string instruments; the fugato passage leads to the repeat of the scherzo where the sneaky theme is now pizzicato, and the horn motive is also transformed with quiet clarinets, oboe, and plucked violins.

A truly stirring feature of this composition is Beethoven’s segue to the finale—a chord sustained in the strings over regular timpani pulses undergoes a huge crescendo that bursts into the Allegro. Another thing to note in this familiar work is the repetition of the short-short-short-long theme from the scherzo; its hushed transformation is eerie, especially as it gives way to a joyous, climactic recapitulation of the triumphant first theme. The symphony is a glorious victory over darkness and despair.