The Houston Symphony

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY THE HOUSTON SYMPHONY Christoph Eschenbach Conductor and Pianist Thursday Evening, March 7, 1991, at 8:00 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan PROGRAM Carnival Overture, Op. 92 Dvorak Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 23 in A major, K. Mozart Allegro Adagio Allegro assai Christoph Eschenbach INTERMISSION Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 ........ Brahms Un poco sostenuto, allegro Andante sostenuto Un poco allegretto e grazioso Adagio, piu andante; allegro non troppo, ma con brio Christoph Eschenbach plays the Steinway piano available through Hammell Music, Inc., Livonia. The Houston Symphony's 1991 Northeast Tour is sponsored by Enron Corporation. The Houston Symphony records exclusively for Virgin Classics. The Houston Symphony is represented by Columbia Artists Management Inc., New York City. The box office in the outer lobby is open during intermission for tickets to upcoming concerts. Copies of this title page are available in larger print; please contact an usher. Twenty-ninth Concert of the 112th Season 112th Annual Choral Union Series Program Notes Carnival Overture, Op. 92 Carnival was dedicated to the Czech ANTONIN DVORAK (1849-1904) University in Prague and was conducted by the composer at the premiere in April 1892 as part of a farewell concert prior to his ature, Life, and Love" that American tour. All three overtures figured is the title Dvorak initially prominently in the concerts that Dvorak planned for a series of three conducted during that visit, but Carnival concert overtures he com established its preeminence then and has held posed in 1891 and 1892. Per it steadfastly. hapsN because Simrock published them with Dvorak's score calls for piccolo, flutes, separate opus numbers, In Nature's Realm, oboes, English horn, clarinets, bassoons, four Op. 91, Carnival, Op. 92, and Othello (after horns, trumpets, trombone, bass trombone Shakespeare), Op. 93, are all known individ and tuba, harp, timpani, cymbals, tambou ually and are rarely heard together as the rine, triangle, and strings. composer intended them. His biographer Schonzeler calls the triptych "Dvorak's most Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, important, most misunderstood, and most K. 488 underrated compositions." He likens them to WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Schumann's Overture, Scherzo, and Finale, symphony lack as a sort of three-movement ozart reserved the key of A ing a slow movement. major for special works. His has fared the best of Dvorak's Carnival compositions in that key re overtures, earning a prominent three concert flect tranquility, clarity of on symphonic pro niche as a curtain-raiser spirit, and a measure of inti grams. Like its companion pieces, it has no macyM that are rarely present in other tonali association with an opera or stage work, but ties. For example, the late violin-piano was rather conceived as concert music. Its sonata, K. 526, and the two late clarinet popularity derives from the exuberant energy pieces - the Quintet, K. 581, and Concerto, of the music, a reflection of the composer's K. 622 - all seem to glow with a diffuse inner childhood memories of village celebrations. light that derives in no small part from their From the opening cymbal crash, vibrant casting in A major. Mozart's String Quartet Bohemian dance rhythms burst forth at a in A major, K. 464, is spiritually consistent furious pace, rarely relinquishing their hold with these works, sharing their linear clarity on our sensibilities. and twilit benignity. The overture is in A major, a particu Both of Mozart's A-major piano con larly bright key for strings. To enhance that certos (K. 414 and K. 488) are exquisite brightness, Dvorak wrote for one of the jewels with an immediate melodic appeal that largest orchestras he ever employed. Swash does not preclude emotional weight. In par buckling flair and big gestures are the order ticular, the later concerto, which dates from of the moment in Carnival. But to place 1786, holds a special place in the Mozart undue emphasis on the dazzling brilliance of canon, more fully realizing the tenderness, the piece and its clangy loud sections does an pathos, and sparkle hinted at so generously injustice to the composer. His quicksilver in the earlier work. moods require consummate control from both A distinguishing feature of this lovely conductor and orchestra; his customary me concerto is its transparent scoring. It is one lodic abundance provides many rich glimpses of a very few concertos in which Mozart called of individual orchestral talent. The pastoral for the sweeter clarinets rather than the more middle section, marked Andantino con moto, piquant oboes. The reedy, nasal sound of the is particularly lovely, showcasing English oboes was incompatible with the wistful char horn, flute, clarinet, and violin soloists. acter of this music. Additionally, Mozart Dvorak takes a coy bow to Wagner, referring scaled back the aggression of the previous frankly to the Venusberg music from year's concertos (the famous D minor, K. 466, Tannhauser. and the splendid C major, K. 467, both dating from 1785, are the best known exam it could give unity to a phrase, and to the ples) by forgoing timpani in K. 488. movement between phrases, while the me As a performing artist in the Vienna of lodic line that traced and decorated the the 1780s, Mozart was famed for his brilliant progression was as varied in rhythm and improvisations. In his 27 piano concertos he phrasing as the character of the music de left us a tantalizing glimpse of his improvisa manded." tory style in the surviving cadenzas. These Despite the jollity and brilliance of the cadenzas, which occur uniformly in the first ensuing rondo-finale, our memory of the slow movements, occasionally in the finales, and movement is never fully erased. Mozart gives very rarely in the slow movements, present a us a powerful reminder of it in a thrilling paradox: Mozart generally committed them to F-sharp minor episode. He concludes the manuscript paper only when they were in concerto with brilliant figuration in an exu tended for someone else. When performing berant style, but that echo of wistfulness still concertos in public, he relied on his own hangs in the air. inexhaustible invention, creating the caden zas spontaneously. Thus, those cadenzas pro duced for his students are the best surviving Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 evidence we have of his imaginative, freer JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) playing. They submit readily to the interpre tive keyboard gifts of other pianists. The first ohannes Brahms left behind no excess movement cadenza to the A-major concerto baggage when he died in April 1897. is Mozart's own and holds the distinction of Unlike Beethoven, who hoarded all his being the only original cadenza for any of the musical sketches and conversation dozen concertos composed between 1784 and notebooks, Brahms left no record of his 1786. It is played by virtually all pianists who creative and thought processes. If a perform this work. composition did not satisfy him after revision, J he reworked Many writers have noted the increasing he destroyed it. Occasionally, importance of opera in Mozart's instrumental one composition into another; the Piano works during the 1780s. It is surely no coin Concerto in D minor, Op. 15, for example, cidence that K. 488 is contemporary with The was originally intended to be a symphony. Marriage of Figaro: its dancing bassoon lines But Brahms took the legacy of Beethoven in the zesty finale look forward to the irresis very seriously, and the spectre of Beethoven tible shenanigans brought to such masterly lay heavily on his shoulders. perfection in the Da Ponte opera. Even more "You do not know what it is like striking is the emotional intensity of the slow hearing his footsteps constantly behind one," movement. H. C. Robbins Landon has drawn Brahms wrote. As early as 1854, probably a parallel between the Adagio and the affec with Robert Schumann's encouragement, tive arias of Mozart's opera seria heroines; Brahms, then 21, was at work on sketches for there is a prescient relationship between this a symphony. Two decades elapsed before that music and that of Pamina in The Magic Flute music found its way into any permanent form. as well. Surely, here is nobility of spirit. Clara Schumann and Albert Dietrich both Once again, tonality plays an impor saw a draft of the first movement in 1862, in tant role: this Adagio is the only instance in a version not yet preceded by slow introduc all of Mozart of a movement in the dark key tion. Some five years later, Brahms wrote a of F-sharp minor, the relative minor of A letter to Clara including the famous horn major. Musicologist and pianist Charles theme that became the transition to the Rosen singles out the slow movement as an hymn of the finale. Not until 1873, however, astonishingly poignant expression of grief and did Brahms start to concentrate seriously on despair, referring to its "passionate melan the completion of his First Symphony. He choly." Mozart achieves this by the simplest waited until the age of 43 to contribute to of means; no virtuoso figuration interferes the symphonic canon. with the tragic intimacy of this lovely Adagio Between 1867 and 1873, Brahms com in slow siciiiana rhythm. Rosen has written: posed hardly any instrumental music, focus "Mozart's genius lay in the understand ing his energies on a wealth of choral ing of how the expressive possibilities of such compositions. Most significant among these a simple progression could be used, and how is, of course, A German Requiem, Op. 45 (1868). In short order followed the dramatic Brahms's good friend Theodore Billroth cantata Rinaldo, Op.

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