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Home , Richard Wagner

NATIONAL FESTIVAL , BEETHOVEN AND BARTÓK

ASHER FISCH, conductor SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 2015 . 8PM ELSIE & MARVIN DEKELBOUM CONCERT HALL

PROGRAM

Richard Wagner Prelude to Act I of

Ludwig van Beethoven No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60 Adagio – Allegro vivace Adagio Menuetto: Allegro vivace Allegro ma non troppo

- intermission -

Béla Bartók Concerto for Orchestra Introduzione Giuocco delle coppie Elegia interrotto Finale

23 Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin questions about his origin.” This was In the fall of 1805, when Beethoven RICHARD WAGNER Lohengrin, whose name has been received Count Oppersdorff’s traced to Loheran Garin, or Garin of commission for a new symphony, Born , 1813, Lorrain. his first thought was to present him Died February 13, 1883, Wagner wrote of the Grail as “a with the Symphony in C minor symbol of the suprasensual … the whose first two movements he had Lohengrin, with text by the , precious vase from which the Saviour sketched the previous year. Instead, was completed in 1847, but was not once had pledged his farewell to His however, he set the C minor aside performed until August 28, 1850, when people, the vessel into which His and began this totally new and utterly it was presented at the Court Theater in blood had poured when he suffered different Symphony in B-flat, which , with . crucifixion for His brethren. … he completed within a few months. It The orchestra specified for the Act I Already had this cup of healing been is one of his very few major works for Prelude comprises 3 flutes, 2 oboes, reft from worthless Man, when once which no preliminary sketches seem to English , 2 , , a flight of angels brought it back from have been made. 3 , 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 Heaven’s height to lonely men athirst The reason Beethoven gave Count , , timpani, and for love; committed it to the keeping Oppersdorff for this change of plans strings. Duration, 9 minutes. of these men, miraculously blest and was that he had been “compelled by strengthened by its presence.” want” to sell the C-minor Symphony In a period of three years, from At the same time, several of “with a second one to someone else.” October 1842 to 1845, Wagner enjoyed Wagner’s letters emphasize his (Nos. 5 and 6, introduced together at three huge successes in with indebtedness to the religions of the end of 1808, bear joint dedications the premieres there of his , the East in creating this work. He to Prince Lobkowitz and Count The and Tannhäuser. sometimes referred to Lohengrin as Rasumovsky.) Sir George Grove His next work, Lohengrin, might “Ananda” and to Elsa as “Savitri,” suggested, however, in his book be regarded as the first 100 percent signing himself as “Your grateful Beethoven and His Nine , that Wagnerian “ .” It was the Buddhist.” He made it clear that, the motivation had come from other last work to which Wagner affixed despite the particular he considerations than merely practical the label “Romantic ,” and the had chosen, his Lohengrin is not a ones: “Perhaps Beethoven’s instinct first to be really durchkomponiert, with specifically Christian work, but was showed him that it would be an artistic no semblance of and with meant to be spiritual in the broadest, mistake to follow so very serious a every action carried forward by the most all-encompassing sense. He liked symphony as the Eroica by one equally music itself. Wagner completed his to speak of the “grand concordance” earnest and profound. … At any rate, text two years before the music and of all genuine myths, likening both the B-flat Symphony is a complete first read his poem in November 1845 his Dutchman and his Tannhäuser to contrast to both its predecessor and its to a gathering that included Robert Ulysses. successor, and is as gay and spontaneous Schumann, J.A. Hiller and a number Of the Prelude to Act I, Wagner as they are serious and lofty.” of painters and . Schumann wrote: “This wonder-working Coming The composer of the path-breaking wrote to that the of the Grail in escort of an angel-host, Eroica might not have been expected poem had impressed nearly everyone its committal to the care of chosen to make any further gesture toward favorably (“particularly the painters”), men, the composer of Lohengrin — a the Classical notion of the symphony, and that it had compelled him to Knight of the Grail — chose for his but in the Fourth Beethoven built abandon his own plans for an opera on subject a sketch in tone, as introduction on the Classical structure an edifice a somewhat similar Arthurian theme. to his drama.” The Prelude is built as distinguished by its originality as The now forgotten Hiller, however, on the simplest of motifs, repeated in by its grace. The suspenseful Adagio remarked that “Wagner’s talent as a subtle variants and building resolutely introduction may be more or less musician would by no means suffice to an inevitable yet unfailingly according to Haydn’s formula, but it for this subject; the fine verses would stunning climax whose power, like that could not possibly be mistaken for surely yearn for some other composer.” of the work’s hero, lies in its unfeigned Haydn, and the thrust and color of the The origin and significance of the simplicity and directness. first movement properly stamp this concept of Ideal Knighthood were music even more surely as Beethoven’s subsequently discussed in an essay Symphony No. 4 in B-flat and his alone. Here the delicious Wagner wrote in 1848, in which he Major, Op. 60 writing for the winds celebrates the recalled that the had been lyric impulse that is to illumine the the goal pursued by Barbarossa, who Symphony (No. 6), and the met his end, after all, by plunging Born December 16, 1770, Bonn rhythmic assertiveness looks ahead still into a stream on horseback out of Died March 26, 1827, Vienna farther, to the Seventh. sheer impatience to get to the Grail. A side of the same character Beethoven composed his Fourth Since the time of Barbarossa, Wagner that is both softer and, in two quite Symphony in 1806 and conducted observed, there had been legends its first performance in March of the different senses, darker greets us in that “once the Keeper of the Grail following year, at Prince Lobkowitz’s the slow movement, a nobly flowing had really brought the Holy Relic to palace in Vienna. The score, dedicated to Adagio with nocturnal coloring, the Occident and performed great Count Franz von Oppersdorff, calls for caressing themes and an inspired use wonders here. … In the Netherlands flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 of the drums to set the lyric phrases … a Knight of the Grail had appeared, horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. in high relief. A more animated but vanished when asked forbidden Duration, 35 minutes. middle section brings an unexpected 24 touch of dramatic urgency, with the Concerto for Orchestra and urgency is one of the work’s drums providing both contrast to BÉLA BARTÓK conspicuous characteristics. When and continuity with the movement’s Koussevitzky conducted the premiere, opening section. Once this passes, the Born March 25, 1881, Nagyszentmiklós, in December 1944, he pronounced second half is even more intimate in Hungary the Concerto for Orchestra “the best feeling than the first, right up to the (now Sînnicolaul Mare, Romania) orchestral piece of the last 25 years.” ruminative passage for winds that Died September 26, 1945, Two months later, at Koussevitzky’s leads to the emphatic conclusion. This New York City suggestion, Bartók added a 22-bar is a device characteristic of Haydn’s coda to the original finale, and by the symphonic slow movements, but again Bartók composed his Concerto for end of the decade the Concerto was the language is so clearly Beethoven’s Orchestra between August 15 and a prominent part of the international that the similarity is noted only in October 8, 1943; the premiere was given repertory. passing. by the Boston Symphony Orchestra By the time this work was Beethoven did not label the third under Serge Koussevitzky on December introduced, Bartók had completed movement a scherzo; as with the 1, 1944. The score, dedicated to the his Sonata for unaccompanied violin, corresponding movement of his First memory of Natalie Koussevitzky, calls commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin; Symphony, he called it a minuet. for piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, English he had undertaken the last of his three While it is clearly more of a Beethoven horn, 3 clarinets, , 3 concertos for piano and accepted a scherzo than a Classical minuet, a bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 commission for a concerto from the Classical sense of order seems to trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, violist William Primrose. He lived long provide a rein against boisterousness. snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, enough to complete the Third Piano The trio section is Beethoven at his tam-tam, 2 harps and strings. Duration, Concerto, except for the last 17 bars of most genial and ingratiating, but very 38 minutes. , which were eventually clearly on his own terms. The final filled in by his associate Tibor Serly movement, at once high-spirited and The Concerto for Orchestra, the last — who also managed, in a heroic four- elegant, begins with a sort of perpetuum work Bartók completed in his own year undertaking, to sort out the wildly mobile tune, which is contrasted almost hand and lived to hear performed, unorganized sketches for the at once with a more lyrical and quickly established itself as his greatest Concerto so that it could be performed expansive one. These two themes and popular success. A “concerto for and published. The remarkable success their offspring sustain the Symphony’s orchestra” is by definition a kind of of the Concerto for Orchestra created dual character of vivacity and geniality display piece, specifically one in which a receptive audience for those works, to the end, which comes about with every section of the orchestra gets and its sustained popularity made it a touch of Haydnesque humor that its chance to shine, and this one is possible for Bartók’s earlier works in Beethoven, yet again, succeeded in by all odds the grandest specimen of various forms to make their way into making his own. that genre; at the same time, it is an the mainstream at last. For more than a hundred years, intensely personal work, and as such its The period in which the Concerto the Fourth Symphony was seldom creation proved to be a significant act of for Orchestra was composed — the spoken of without reference to regeneration on the composer’s part. mid-1940s, the final years of World ’s description of it When Bartók came to America in War II — gave rise to a number of as standing between the Eroica and the October 1940 he was in poor health orchestral works by various C-minor “like a slender Greek maiden and financially insecure. The solo that were conceived in a spirit of between two Norse giants.” As the recitals he gave as pianist met with optimism and undisguised warmth of already quoted Grove pointed out back little success and he came to feel his heart, and were similarly well received. in 1896, though, “humour is hardly the compositions were being shunned by Among these we may count Prokofiev’s characteristic of a Greek maiden, and the big . He accepted low- Fifth Symphony, ’s when we recollect the humour which level academic work procured for him Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by accompanies the grace and beauty by friends and, while he adapted some and, from our of the Fourth Symphony, and is so earlier works for different performing own , the music for the obvious in every one of its movements, forces, he attempted no new creative ballet Appalachian Spring and the broad- it must be admitted, though with great effort until May 1943. By then he had scaled Third Symphony. Just as the respect, that the comparison loses been confined to a New York hospital Prokofiev is unmistakably Russian, and something of its force.” for some three months, and it was there the Copland unmistakably American, that Serge Koussevitzky, the legendary the Concerto for Orchestra could only conductor of the Boston Symphony have been written by the Hungarian Orchestra, visited him to offer him musician and patriot Béla Bartók. a commission (in the name of the The work’s five movements are newly formed Koussevitzky Music organized symmetrically around a Foundation) for a major symphonic central slow movement that is separated work. That gesture provided effective from the two outer ones by a pair of therapy. Bartók was well enough to scherzos — the same layout Bartók used leave the hospital a short time later; for his Fourth in 1928. he began work on his new score at For the Boston premiere, he provided Saranac Lake in upstate New York in a program note of his own (in English), mid-August, and completed it in less which he headed “Explanation to than two months. A sense of spontaneity Concerto for Orchestra”: 25 “The title of this symphony-like portrayal of Hungary’s tragic fate, as Bartók advised that it was actually a orchestral work is explained by its Bartók himself has said. In this work the reaction to an insistently repeated motif tendency to treat the single instruments nation finally rises above the chaos of in the first movement of Shostakovich’s or instrument groups in a concertant destruction. Bartók always believed that Seventh Symphony, which he had heard or soloistic manner. The ‘virtuoso’ even a people’s outward fate can change on the radio in his hospital room. treatment appears, for instance, in the for the better only through inner Apart from the matter of parody, fugato sections of the development of purification.” listeners familiar with Bartók’s Contrasts the first movement (brass instruments) What the composer described as for violin, clarinet and piano (composed or in the perpetuum-mobile-like passages “sternness” in the first movement, in 1938 for Joseph Szigeti and Benny of the principal theme in the last with its prominent passages for brass, Goodman, and performed and recorded movement (strings), and, especially, in is modified by lyric episodes. The by them with Bartók at the piano) may the second movement. conspicuously Hungarian style of the notice here a recollection of a fleeting “As for the structure of the work, first two movements has been cited by gesture in that work’s final movement. the first and fifth movements are various commentators as an expression György Kroó quotes the pianist György written in a more or less regular sonata of homesickness on Bartók’s part, and Sándor as having had Bartók spell form. The development of the first this feeling is reinforced and expanded out his source of inspiration and the movement contains fugato sections upon in subsequent sections. Another description of this “only programmatic for the brass; the exposition in the compatriot, the musicologist György portion” of the Concerto: “The artist finale is somewhat extended, and its Kroó, wrote that the “atmosphere of declares his love for his native land in a development consists of a built on the opening movement … is evoked serenade which is suddenly interrupted the last theme of the exposition. by a -like theme resembling a in a crude and violent manner; he is “Less traditional forms are found in call for battle, a broader Hungarian- seized by rough, booted men who even the second and third movements. The style continuation of the same, and a break his instrument.” main part of the second movement contrasting infinitely sensitive, shy, quiet The Concerto’s final movement consists of a chain of independent short dolce melody lyrically orchestrated.” is based largely on bagpipe tunes sections, played by wind instruments The second movement, the first of Bartók collected on his field trips in consecutively introduced in pairs the two scherzos, is labeled Giuocco delle Transylvania about a hundred years (bassoons, oboes, clarinets, flutes, and coppie (“Game of Pairs”) in the printed ago. Early in the movement is a brisk, muted trumpets). Thematically, score, but Bartók’s original title for it unrepeated phrase that seems to echo sections have nothing in common and was Presentando le coppie (“Presenting the first of Grieg’s four Norwegian could be symbolized by the letters A, the Couples”), which reflects the folk Dances (originally for piano duet, better B, C, D, E. A kind of ‘trio’ — a short tradition known in parts of Hungary as known in Hans Sitt’s orchestration) — chorale for brass instruments and side the “Sunday order of dances.” possibly an unconscious reminiscence drum — follows, after which the five Feelings of nostalgia and loss define of the time Bartók spent immersed in sections are recapitulated in a more the central Elegia, which is dominated, Grieg’s works in an attempt at tracing elaborate instrumentation. according to the late István Csicsery- the latter’s inspiration in Norwegian “The structure of the third Rónay (a and publisher, whose . It fits in seamlessly amid the movement is chain-like: three themes Occidental Press published the Juhász rumbustious and exuberant proceedings. appear successively. These constitute book quoted above), by a Székely The entire movement is dancelike, the core of the movement, which threnody that may have been connected open-hearted and close to the earth is enframed by a misty texture of in Bartók’s mind with the loss of in feeling, and is said to represent, in rudimentary motives. Most of the Transylvania, a region he especially Bartók’s words, “the brotherhood of all thematic material of this movement loved and in which, as a collector or nations, in spite of wars and conflicts derives from the introduction to the Hungarian folk songs, he found his … a whirling paroxysm of dance in first movement. The form of the fourth oldest specimens. The Székelys were the which all the peoples of the world join movement — Intermezzo interrotto — oldest Hungarian tribe in Transylvania, hands.” The coda, one of the happiest could be rendered by the letter symbols and there are thousands of such laments of musical afterthoughts, brings the A, B, A — interruption — B, A. in their music. Material from the first work to a brilliant and resoundingly “The general mood of the work movement, as the composer noted, also affirmative conclusion. represents — apart from the jesting appears here in slightly altered form. second movement — a gradual The fourth movement, Intermezzo Notes by Richard Freed © 2015 transition of the first movement and the interrotto, returns us to a lighter form of lugubrious death song of the third, to homesickness, its playfulness on a more the life-assertion of the last one.” robust level than in the Giuocco delle coppie. The second theme is Bartók’s What Bartók did not state in his somewhat idealized quotation of an program note, but did confide to operetta song by Zsigmond Vincze various Hungarian associates, is that the that was popular in the 1930s: its Concerto for Orchestra was conceived text includes the line, “You are lovely, and created as a personal expression you are beautiful, my Hungary.” The “of homesickness and hope for his burlesque section of this movement country, and of peace and brotherhood struck some listeners as a parody of for the world.” Vilmos Juhász, in his Danilo’s song about the girls at Maxim’s study Bartók’s Years in America, remarked in the Hungarian-born Franz Lehár’s that the Concerto for Orchestra “is the famous operetta The Merry Widow, but 26