National Festival Orchestra Brahms' Second Symphony

NATIONAL FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA BRAHMS’ SECOND SYMPHONY

ROSSEN MILANOV, conductor SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2015 . 8PM ELSIE & MARVIN DEKELBOUM CONCERT HALL

PROGRAM

Henri Dutilleux Métaboles Incantatoire — Linéaire — Obsessionnel — Torpide — Flamboyant —

Richard Strauss Suite from Der Rosenkavalier

- intermission -

Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso (quasi andantino) Allegro con spirito

19 Métaboles Métaboles, by now the most Suite from Der Rosenkavalier HENRI DUTILLEUX frequently performed of Dutilleux’s RICHARD STRAUSS orchestral works, was commissioned Born January 22, 1916, Angers, France and introduced by another American Born June 11, 1864, Munich Died May 22, 2013, Paris orchestra, in this case the Cleveland Died September 8, 1949, Garmisch- Orchestra, on the occasion of its Partenkirchen Dutilleux composed Métaboles under fortieth anniversary. The anniversary a commission from the Cleveland season was 1957–58, but Dutilleux Strauss composed his opera Der Orchestra, which gave the premiere on did not complete his score until 1964, Rosenkavalier (“The Cavalier of January 14, 1965, with George Szell and, as already noted, the premiere the Rose”), to a libretto by Hugo von conducting. The work is scored for a was given in Severance Hall early the Hofmannsthal, in 1910; the premiere large orchestra: 2 piccolos, 2 flutes, 3 following year. was given at the Dresden Court Opera oboes, English horn, 2 B-flat clarinets, The title Dutilleux chose for this on January 26, 1911, with Ernst von E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, work comes from classical rhetoric: Schuch conducting. The suite performed contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 it signifies “transition,” or “a passing this evening was put together by Artur trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, from one thing to another” — as the Rodzinski, who conducted its first celesta, harp and strings. In the battery, five contrasting moods reflected in performance in a concert of the New which requires five players in addition this music pass from one to another. York Philharmonic on October 5, 1944. to the timpanist, are xylophones, The composer advised, “This term The score for the suite, published in glockenspiel, triangle, cow-bell, 2 temple of rhetoric, adopted with regard to 1945, calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English blocks, snare drum, 3 tom-toms, bass musical forms, unveils the thought horn, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass drum, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, of the author of these five pieces clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 Chinese cymbal and both medium and to present one or several ideas in a horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, large tam-tams. Duration, 16 minutes. different order or under different timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, aspects, until they undergo, by tambourine, glockenspiel, celesta, 2 harps Like his illustrious musical compatriots successive stages, a true change of and strings. Duration, 22 minutes. Maurice Ravel and Paul Dukas, nature. The process of métabole occurs Henri Dutilleux early on developed within each of the pieces, while The Bavarian Richard Strauss was the demanding self-criticism that applying at the same time to the work not related to Johann Strauss, the led him to work painstakingly and as a whole. … In conceiving this work Viennese Waltz King, but he admired unhurriedly in creating and refining the composer did not cease to muse him profoundly, and their careers each composition — and to reject or upon the mysterious and fascinating overlapped for a dozen years or so at discard several scores he never brought world of eternal metamorphosis.” the end of the 19th century. Johann to completion. He thus became While Dutilleux specified that Strauss was at the height of his fame known for producing about a dozen the “music is not dictated by any at the time the young Richard began major works in some six decades, literary programme,” he did affix to make a name for himself (Don Juan, each of them exemplifying his solid descriptive subtitles to the five pieces, the first of his great tone poems, was craftsmanship and rich imaginativeness. which are linked together, the main given its premiere in the same year as His music was championed in our theme undergoing (again in the Johann’s Emperor Waltz, 1889), and Der area by the famous cellist Mstislav composer’s own words) “successive Rosenkavalier would not have come Rostropovich, during his years as transformations, as in … the domain into being if its composer had not conductor of the National Symphony of variations.” The first piece known and loved the waltzes of the Orchestra. Slava, for whom Dutilleux Incantatory (Largamente), is in the Viennese Strausses. composed his cello concerto Tout nature of a rondo, with woodwinds There are some intriguing parallels, und monde lointain, commissioned the predominating. The second, Linear or near-parallels, to be noted in the orchestral Timbres, espace, movuement (Lento moderato), “represents the aspects careers of Richard Strauss and Johann for his first season as music director of a Lied … sovereignty of the strings, Strauss. Both turned to writing for the of the NSO, and that work actually with more and more numerous stage only after establishing themselves had three premieres in Washington: divisions of the string quartet.” The in the orchestral realm — Johann Rostropovich conducted the first of its third, Obsessive (Scherzando), “follows after being crowned the Waltz King, three sections in January 1978; he gave strictly the pattern of a passacaglia,” Richard after producing his remarkable the premiere of the complete work the with the brass in the forefront. The chain of symphonic poems. Both were following November, and introduced fourth, Torpid (Andantino), features also conspicuously active as conductors. the revised version in September the “almost exclusive employment of Johann Strauss did not confine himself 1991. Dutilleux’s Correspondances, an the percussion, with added touches of exclusively to dance music in that role, orchestral song cycle with texts drawn brass, harp, celesta, clarinet and bass but conducted his orchestra in the from letters (one of them from the clarinet, and the double basses treated Viennese premieres of works by Liszt famous writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn in harmonics.” The concluding section, and Wagner when the Establishment to Rostropovich himself and his wife, Flamboyant (Presto), is a scherzo either lacked the courage to do the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya) was exhibiting “dialogues, opposition or so or reneged on a commitment. performed in Slava’s last appearances blending of these different groups.” Richard, too, went far beyond his with the NSO, in April 2006, with own compositions in his conducting Dawn Upshaw, the soprano who had repertory; he was especially admired introduced the work in Berlin three for his Mozart, in both the concert hall years earlier. and the opera house, and it is to that 20 composer, perhaps even more than the Such connections and allusions Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Waltz King, that Der Rosenkavalier is an more than intimate that Der Op. 73 affectionate tribute, with The Marriage Rosenkavalier was a labor of love on its of Figaro as the most likely model. It is composer’s part, and Strauss indeed JOHANNES BRAHMS significant that Strauss set his opera in had a special place in his heart for this Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg the city associated with both Mozart work to the end of his life. When a Died April 3, 1897, Vienna and the Johann Strauss dynasty, and group of American soldiers came to where he himself was to serve for a his door in Garmisch at the end of Brahms began work on his Second time as director of the Vienna Opera. the European war in 1945, he greeted Symphony in the summer of 1877 By a happy coincidence, the premiere, them with the simple statement, “I am and completed the score in time for the in Dresden, fell on the eve of Mozart’s Dr. Richard Strauss, the composer of illustrious conductor Hans Richter to 155th birthday. Der Rosenkavalier.” introduce the work with the Vienna Such a work, in any event, was There have been several orchestral Philharmonic Orchestra on December 30 just what Strauss needed to reassure suites drawn from Der Rosenkavalier. of that year. The orchestra specified in the his public in the wake of the minor One was prepared by Strauss himself, score comprises flutes, oboes, clarinets and scandals generated by his Salome based on a curious film version of bassoons in pairs; 4 horns, 2 trumpets, and the fierce drama of his Elektra. the opera, a silent film made in 1926 3 trombones, tuba, timpani and strings. The latter was his first collaboration and shown with recorded music. Duration, 40 minutes. with Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the Another suite was created by the librettist who was to him the kind of brilliant conductor Antal Doráti After working off and on for some collaborator Lorenzo da Ponte had (Rostropovich’s predecessor on the 20 years to produce what eventually been to Mozart; Der Rosenkavalier was podium of the National Symphony became his First Symphony in 1876, their second joint effort, set not in Orchestra), whose own enthusiasm for Brahms was so heartened by the huge bleak antiquity but in the Vienna of the Viennese Strausses is documented success of that work that he was able Maria Theresia, the empress who died in the form of his score for the ballet to compose his Second swiftly and in 1780, a year before Mozart settled Graduation Ball, based entirely on their almost effortlessly in the following year. there. The chief character is not the dance pieces. The very successful suite Where the First had been laboriously title role but the Marschallin, who is performed in the present concerts hewn from granite, the Second seemed herself named Marie-Thérèse, and who was arranged by another celebrated to bloom as spontaneously as a spring in some respects may remind us of the conductor, Artur Rodzinski, whose blossom in a forest glade. Its genial, Countess in The Marriage of Figaro. Like name, however, does not appear on outgoing character, among other Cherubino in that opera, Octavian, the the score; this version was given the factors, sets it apart from Brahms’ young hero (the Rosenkavalier himself), composer’s blessing, and has been a three other symphonies; this is the one is a Hosenrolle, a male character repertory staple for some 70 years now. that might regarded as his “pastoral” portrayed by a female singer. If the The opera’s dominant personality symphony, and it is surely the most Strauss opera is more voluptuous, is that of the Marschallin, even though directly endearing of the four. more opulent and even more rife with she makes no appearance from the end Brahms tried to conceal this intrigue than Figaro, it is also a bit of Act I to the middle of Act III. In this geniality from the Viennese public up more indulgent in its view of human orchestral suite, however, the emphasis to the time of the work’s premiere, weakness in affairs of the heart. Even is more on youth and its joys, with even remarking that he ought to wear its cynicism is served up mit Schlag, little reference to age and its sacrifices. a black armband “in deference to the ornamented and sweetened with waltz Here we follow the title character, the solemn and mournful nature of my rhythms that, far from striking us as young Octavian, from the Marschallin’s latest child.” anachronistic, actually seem to give the boudoir to his meeting with the While some musical analysts have work a sort of fairyland timelessness. young Sophie — to whom he is taken him at his word and have gone One of these waltzes — the one to present the silver rose as a token to great lengths to show the Second associated with Baron Ochs — was of her engagement to his kinsman as a “tragic” symphony (the conductor apparently borrowed by Richard Baron Ochs — and then the comic Artur Rodzinski, mentioned in the Strauss from the waltz Geheime encounters with the Baron himself, foregoing note on the Rosenkavalier Anziehungskräafte (“Secret Magnetic the Marschallin’s gracious gesture Suite, was one who felt “great tragedy” Forces,” known also as Dynamiden), by of resignation and the final ecstatic in this music), the very opening of the Johann’s younger brother Josef Strauss, duet of Sophie and Octavian, “Ist ein work assures us that the composer was and the first motif heard in the opera’s Traum.” The specific portions of the only having one of his little jokes, for prelude was apparently adapted from opera represented are the Prelude to it establishes at once an ingratiatingly the same composer’s waltz Delirien. Act I, the Presentation of the Silver pastoral mood. The radiant second There is a further, extramusical Rose, the Arrival of Ochs and Waltzes theme is one of Brahms’ characteristic connection with the Waltz King, in from Act II, and the Trio, Duet and outpourings of warm contentment, the character of Octavian, whose Great Waltz from Act III. reminiscent of his beloved “Cradle family name is specified as Rofrano, a Song” and the Waltz in A-flat for name taken from the annals of actual piano. The first theme is subjected to Viennese aristocracy and so well fugal treatment in the development; known that it was given to a street in new motifs spun off by variations in Vienna: the Rofranogasse, the very the rhythm are hailed and dismissed street on which Johann Strauss himself by clipped comments from the brass, lived for several years. and after its vigorous course has been 21 run the movement ends even more tenderly than it began. The serious mood of the second movement has been cited in support of the “tragic” interpretation of the Symphony, but “solemn” and “meditative” — terms that do characterize this music — are hardly synonyms for “tragic.” There is a certain melancholy vein here, which deepens with the appearance of the hymn-like second theme, but it is only in the second half of the movement that the basic tranquility is disturbed briefly by a passing storm — and storms, by long established tradition, are hardly out of place in “pastoral” works. This basic element is emphasized on a simpler level in the third movement, a bucolic intermezzo of almost naïve charm and intimacy. The scoring is lighter here than in the rest of the work, and the unexpectedly animated middle section serves to heighten the ingratiating effect of the easygoing Allegretto that enwraps it. At the work’s premiere, the delighted Viennese audience demanded and got a repetition of this movement. Following the energetic but consciously restrained opening of the final movement, its first theme is restated in an exultant orchestral outburst and then, the way cleared by the good-naturedly crackling and snarling winds, the broad second theme makes its entrance in lambent sunset colors. The music builds confidently to the invigorating coda in which the second theme is transformed into a blazing fanfare, ending the symphony on a note of sheer exhilaration virtually unparalleled among Brahms’ major works. The conclusions of his First and Fourth symphonies are monumental, that of the Third touchingly elegiac; that of the Second simply abounds in joy — black armband to the contrary notwithstanding.