PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks V: Beethoven’S Fifth Symphony
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Quad City Symphony Orchestra PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks V: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony By Jacob Bancks Associate Professor of Music Augustana College “Glowing rays shoot through the deep night… and we sense giant shadows surging to and fro, closing in on us until they destroy us… Only with this pain of love, hope, joy—which consumes but does not destroy, which would burst asunder our breasts with a mightily impassioned chord—we live on, enchanted seers of the ghostly world!” —E.T.A. Hoffman From a review of Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770- is directly traceable to Beethoven, who 1827) loaded his works with an unprecedented Twelve German Dances level of gravity. In his symphonies in partic- ular, it can be difficult to listen in any other Instrumentation: Piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clar- way than to imagine the composer in the inets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, limelight, calling all the shots and writing for percussion, and strings (no violas). posterity. It is thus important to remember Premiere: November 22, 1795. Redoutensaal, that, on several occasions, Beethoven wrote Hofburg Palace, Vienna. music intended to support other arts or so- QCSO Premiere. cial activities. It can be easy to forget that, aside from pro- This is the case with his early 12 German ducing immortal works of genius, compos- Dances, WoO 8. The “WoO” is important: it ers have occasionally proven themselves means “without opus number”; in other useful. Indeed, in many instances, the pri- words, a work that is outside of a com- mary work of a composer has been and con- poser’s essential catalogue, often un- tinues to be producing “background” music published during the composer’s lifetime. for various uses. For example, although the QCSO has recently performed Bach’s St. So what was the non-concert context for the Matthew Passion and John Williams’ The first performances of these pieces? The Cowboys Overture on Masterworks con- building was the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, certs, both works originated in contexts (Lu- winter residence of the royal Hapsburg fam- theran worship; a 70s western film) where ily, and the room was the Redoutensaal the music was not (at least officially) the (“masquerade hall”), designated by the Em- main event. press Maria Theresa to be used for balls and other entertainments. Like his teacher Our concert experience, by contrast, puts Haydn before him (and Johann Strauss, Jr. music front and center, and this expectation much later), Beethoven wrote pieces for the dance to dance together comprise Redoutensaal to be played on just such an something of a long-range tonal jour- occasion. Decades later, the same hall ney. The conventional practice was for would host the premiere of his Eighth Sym- adjacent dances to be in “closely-re- phony. lated keys” (moving, for example, from C major to G major, a difference of only Written in 1795 and predating his Sym- one sharp). However, in Beethoven’s phony No. 1 by five years, the dances might work, dances #1, #2, and #3 have rather all be classified as “minuets”, genteel drastic key differences between them (C dances in three, including a “trio” (middle major, A major, F major). This same pat- contrasting section) in all but the first dance. tern of remote key relationships is re- The pieces must have served their social peated in dances #7, #8, and #9. Over- function well; though they contain hints of all, dances #1, #7, and #12 are all in C Beethoven’s later orchestral brilliance and major, so it functions as a tonal “home” creative harmonic shifts, he stays well within and midway resting place; Beethoven al- contemporary expectations for imperial ways departs C major in an unexpected dance music. way, but always approaches it (from #6 to #7 and #11 to #12) more predictably, Beethoven, 12 German Dances from the closely-related key of G major. Listening Guide ¯ Foreshadowing his own Symphony ¯ You might have noticed that a whole No. 3 (“Eroica”), dance #5 is has a regal, section of strings is absent… the violas! triumphant tone in the heroic key of E- Though violas have always been an es- flat major. sential part of the symphony orchestra, ¯ Perhaps livening up the festivities the orchestra regularly providing dance near the end, Beethoven makes use of music at the Redoutensaal must not the tambourine for the first time in #10. have had violas; Haydn’s music for the ¯ As will become his practice in almost same kind of occasion, for example, also all of his major works, Beethoven uses lacks viola parts. the Coda, or closing passage, to light ¯ Aside from the first dance, each some fireworks. dance is in a three-part, ABA form. The ¯ You will hear the trumpet in the finale “B” is the section called the “trio”, playing a soaring “triadic” melody (i.e., which is usually contrasting in nature and all skips and leaps, no steps), similar to sometimes in key. In these dances, the Taps, but much livelier. The invention of trio is (with one exception) in the same the valve trumpet was still 20 years key, but the delineation between the A away, so these were the only notes avail- and B sections is usually clear. able on Beethoven’s trumpet. ¯ In keeping with the festive atmos- phere of an imperial ball, every dance in the group is in a major key (exception: there is one trio, #7, in C minor). ¯ Though each dance falls within a sin- gle key, the shifts between keys from 2 QCSO Program Notes 2018-19, Masterworks V RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949) oboe concerto? Strauss answered with a Concerto in D Major for Oboe and simple, “No.” Small Orchestra To be sure, it was kind of an odd question: Instrumentation: solo oboe, 2 flutes, English oboe concertos are rare, and the 81-year- horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and old Strauss, most famous for his grandilo- strings. quent tone poems and operas, had written Premiere: February 26, 1946. Marcel Saillet, only three concertos in total (two of them for oboe, Tonhalle Orchestra, Volkmar Andreae, horn, his father’s instrument). But in any conductor. case, de Lancie’s ended up being a very QCSO Performance History: This is the second QCSO performance of Strauss’s oboe con- consequential question: shortly thereafter certo. The first was in 1988, with Bert Lucarelli Strauss completed his Concerto for Oboe as soloist, and James Dixon conducting. and Small Orchestra, explaining publicly that he had written it at an American sol- The mobilization of the American people dier’s suggestion. De Lancie learned of the during World War II was nearly universal, piece’s existence in the newspaper. and this included musicians. Among those recruited into the Allied effort was John de The resulting piece provides an illuminating Lancie, then principal oboist of the Pitts- glimpse into the end of an intriguing and in- burgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner. He fluential musical career. Strauss was first joined the United States Army Band and credited with initiating the musical shock- later served as an intelligence operative in waves of the early twentieth century: this occupied Germany. After the war, he would was the composer who burst into the inter- become one of America’s most prominent national music scene with the overwhelming oboists, performing in the Philadelphia Or- flourish of Don Juan in 1888 and scandalized chestra and running the famed Curtis Insti- the world with his salacious, harmonically tute of Music. (His son, incidentally, would adventurous opera Salome in 1905. But he become an actor, portraying the character also began to show a less revolutionary, “Q” on Star Trek: The Next Generation.) more nostalgic side as early as 1911 with his comic opera Der Rosenkavalier, set in mid- Shortly after the war had ended, while he eighteenth-century Vienna (one might al- was still stationed in Germany, de Lancie most imagine the opera being performed in heard that the elderly composer Richard the Redoutensaal!). By the 1940s, he had Strauss was living in the Bavarian resort composed himself firmly back into the nine- town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Curious, teenth century, with works like Metamor- the oboist-soldier decided to pay the com- phosen for string orchestra, the Four Last poser a visit, and Strauss, eager to maintain Songs, and his oboe concerto. This regres- good relations with occupying American sion was a disappointment to those who had forces, received his fellow musician kindly. deigned him the standard-bearer of atonal- Over the course of their conversation, de ity, but a welcome development for mid- Lancie asked a burning question: had the twentieth-century audiences still eager for old master ever thought about writing an the trappings of romanticism. QCSO Program Notes 2018-19, Masterworks V 3 Strauss, Oboe Concerto recalls the accompanying “little steps” Listening Guide that supported the first movement’s First movement: Allegro moderato opening to transition to the Mozartean ¯ Strauss included “for small orchestra” melody that begins the slow movement. in the title of this work, and for him it ¯ Note the eloquent and elegant sec- certainly is much smaller than usual. No- ond movement cadenza, accompanied tice that he employs “double winds”, with simple pizzicatos from the strings. i.e., two each of the woodwind instru- Third movement: Vivace–Allegro ments, except only one oboe (which is ¯ In a manner similar to the clarinet actually an English Horn). This is a prac- duet from the first movement, the last tical consideration: if, as for us at the opens with happy counterpoint be- QCSO, the principal oboist is perform- tween the soloist and flute, continuing in ing the solo part, the work does not re- the violins.