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LCO LCO London Chamber Orchestra Beethoven Mendelssohn Live Conductor Soloist Director Christopher Warren-Green Melvyn Tan LCO Live Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) But really the differences are much Egmont Overture Op.84 more striking than the similarities. Where Beethoven Mendelssohn Cherubini is all bustle, a domestic scale Ludwig van Beethoven Beethoven was asked in 1809 for music for a domestic tragedy, the huge, slashing to accompany a Viennese production of chords of Beethoven’s opening, the painful 1. Egmont Overture Op.84 [8.08] Goethe’s eponymous play. He complied, fired chromaticism of its introduction, groping Christopher Warren-Green conductor with enthusiasm for its themes of national for resolution, and the sledgehammer liberation and personal heroism, though chords that punctuate its harried Allegro Ludwig van Beethoven not so much so that he could meet the theme: these are universal in ambition. The Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat major Op.19 [28.33] deadline: the overture was only ready for the sledgehammers don’t even let up from the 2. Allegro con brio [14.06] play’s fourth night in June 1810. The story second theme in the woodwinds, shapely is set in 16th-century Flanders. Egmont, a but never without the sense of fate pressing 3. Adagio [8.14] Flemish nobleman, is in love with Clärchen. close on its heels. It is those chords that 4. Rondo: Molto allegro [6.13] His attempts to moderate tyrannical rule of finally overwhelm all lyrical impulse: the Melvyn Tan soloist/director the Duke of Alba meet only with arrest and execution is graphically achieved. And at excution; grief-stricken, Clärchen poisons the moment of lowest despair is the highest Mendelssohn herself. Egmont’s death becomes both suspense, where a new tonic is found, C Symphony No.4 in A major Op.90 ‘Italian’ [30.06] tragedy and triumph because his spirit lives after the F minor darkness, and the ‘Victory on to inspire the successful uprising of his Symphony’ rings out with unstoppable 5. Allegro vivace [11.0 3 ] people against their oppressors. ebullience. This is music of the barricades. 6. Andante con moto [6.20] Beethoven’s response is inspired both 7. Con moto moderato [6.29] by his love for Goethe and his enthusiasm 8. Saltarello: Presto [6.16] for the post-Revolutionary wave of French composers, which lent to his works Christopher Warren-Green conductor around this time (notably the ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto and Fifth Symphony) Total time [67.01] their temperament and sometimes even their ideas. Beethoven owned a copy of Cherubini’s opera Medée, for example, and his overture owes more than its key to the Frenchman’s. www.signumrecords.com www.lco.co.uk 3 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) recitative for the piano at the end of the pause for breath present itself, but a theme of more importantly with Beethoven’s Seventh. Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat major Op.19 slow movement. This has proceeded in a definite military character enters, at first almost Beethoven’s work seems to have provided gently contained, almost Mozartian fashion unnoticed on the violins, but it soon gains Mendelssohn a structural template for the I Allegro con brio from its hymn-like opening (though without vigour and strength, and it competes with the ‘Italian’ Symphony, and the furious, dance- II Adagio the older composer’s concentration on main melody until the end of the movement. inspired finale is only the most obvious III Rondo: Molto allegro the wind instruments: here, everyone is Mendelssohn’s thorough-going but correspondence. Saltarello does not imply subordinate to the composer/keyboard), liberal education is everywhere evident in a specific dance metre in its own right – it Mozart was still alive when, in 1787, elaborating and decorating, and moving into this symphony. Just as the first movement comes from the Latin saltare, meaning Beethoven started work on a piano concerto some unexpected keys, the last of which translates his painter’s eye into musical light simply to dance - but Mendelssohn seems to in B flat: only 13 years later would it finally brings the orchestra to a head. In response, and shade, his literary accomplishments have associated it with the wild and whirling be played in the form we hear it today. the pianist explores a return to the theme, lend the second its gravitas. His letters and tarantella of Naples. Taken at a true presto, During that time Beethoven’s life and work third by third, helped by the orchestra. drawings while on tour attest to his awe at the music seems to hang on for dear life – or had undergone a sea-change: a concerto When fully appreciated by both performers finally laying eyes upon the ruins of Rome’s for grim death. There is no resolution here, in C major had been written and published and audience, it is a moment of true, imperial glory, after his years as an avid for the movement stays in the minor key (which is why the B flat is known as No.2) Beethovenian communion. classical scholar. His account of the Holy until its final brusque send-off. As so often, and he had travelled miles, physically and Week processions through Rome also fits Mendelssohn’s reputation for geniality is belied emotionally, from an eager-to-please lad in the steady, sombre tread of the theme in the by a tension that here brilliantly reflects the Bonn to a young turk in Vienna. It would take Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) bass. Two flutes wind their way around each intensity of Mediterranean life. a novelist to trace this journey through the Symphony No.4 in A major Op.90 ‘Italian’ other at one point like trails of incense, before concerto, but we can hear clearly enough © Peter Quantrill dissonant clarinets add a sharper tang to the sophistication of the finale’s repartee in I Allegro vivace the harmony. There may also be a personal comparison with the more abrupt turns of II Andante con moto inspiration in the form of a memorial to his event of the first movement. Off the piano III Con moto moderato childhood composition teacher Carl Friedrich runs and the orchestra chase after, before IV Saltarello. Presto Zelter, who died in 1832, before Mendelssohn apparently offering more weighty second revised the symphony for publication. thoughts. Nothing loth, the piano proposes The climate of Mendelssohn’s home town of If anything it is the third movement which an even more skittish idea – and later twirls Leipzig was hardly different to our own, and performs more of the traditional functions the orchestra round its finger still further with when he toured Italy in 1831 he seems to have of a slow movement, though the minuet loopy jumps and stamping accents on the been struck by the same burst of light that flows easily enough. The brightness of its wrong beat of the bar. We’re even left to think meets modern-day travellers as they step off soundworld is partly due to the (relatively rare that the concerto will sign off with a shrug the plane. The symphony’s opening bars and for the time) ‘high’ key of A major, which the before good order is finally restored. fanfare-like melody radiate with solar energy. symphony shares with Mozart’s 29th – and But more quietly original still is the tiny Only at the start of the development does a 4 5 Christopher Warren-Green Christopher Warren-Green is also Music Melvyn Tan Melvyn has given complete cycles of the Music Director & Principal Conductor Director of the London Chamber Orchestra, Piano Beethoven Concertos and Sonatas, Mozart © © Thomas Balsamo Thomas and makes regular guest appearances with Sheila Rock Sonatas, Debussy Préludes and Chopin the Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia and Préludes in New York, Tokyo and London. BBC Concert orchestras. He has worked with He has performed at many leading concert the London Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool halls around the world, including London’s Philharmonic orchestras, and has conducted Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall, New the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to high York’s Lincoln Centre, Théâtre du Châtelet critical acclaim. He also makes frequent visits and Cité de la Musique in Paris, Vienna’s to orchestras within Europe and the Far East, Musikverein and Konzerthaus; Salzburg’s including the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and has made several tours of Japan with the and Cologne’s Philharmonie. His festival NHK Symphony. appearances include Salzburg, Edinburgh, In 1980, by personal invitation of HRH La Roque d’Anthéron, City of London, The Prince of Wales, Mr Warren-Green was Spitalfields, and Bath’s Mozartfest. He has honoured to conduct the first concert to be worked with orchestras such as the London given in modern times, in the Throne Room Philharmonic and Netherlands Symphony of Buckingham Palace; since then, he has orchestras, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, conducted numerous concerts at Buckingham Academy of St Martin’s in the Fields, Stuttgart A highly experienced musician, Christopher Palace, as well as Highgrove House and St Melvyn Tan has been has lived in London Radio, Salzburg’s Camerata and Mozarteum Warren-Green’s wide knowledge of the James’s Palace. To mark the occasion of HM since leaving his native Singapore at an early orchestras, New World and Melbourne repertoire and poised command of an The Queen’s 80th birthday at Kew Palace, age to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School symphonies and has toured Australia regularly orchestra has earned him great respect he conducted a private concert for the entire and the Royal College of Music.

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