Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Probably No Individual Composer Has Ever En- Gether, “I Was Leader of the Second Violins
CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM NOTES Friday, February 25, 2011, 8pm Franz Schubert (1797–1828) anything else, he learned it all from God him- Zellerbach Hall Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, D. 125 self”) and the famed Antonio Salieri (“You can do everything, you are a genius”), but also by his Composed in 1815. fellow students. Josef von Spaun, who became a lifelong friend, wrote of their school days to- Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Probably no individual composer has ever en- gether, “I was leader of the second violins. Little gendered such an avalanche of new music as Schubert stood behind me and fiddled. [Many Semyon Bychkov, conductor flowed from Franz Schubert’s pen in 1815. There orchestras, except for the cellists, performed are almost 200 separate works from that one standing until the mid-19th century.] Very soon, year: the Second and Third Symphonies, a string I noticed that the little musician far surpassed quartet, two piano sonatas and four other large me in rhythmic surety. This aroused my interest PROGRAM piano works, two Masses, four choral composi- and made me realize with what animation the tions, five operas and 146 songs, eight coming in lad, who seemed otherwise quiet and indifferent, a single day in May. Schubert capped the year’s gave himself up to the impression of the beauti- Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, D. 125 (1815) activities by producing Der Erlkönig on New ful symphonies which we played.” The school or- Year’s Eve. He was 18. chestra tackled works by Haydn, Mozart (“You Largo — Allegro vivace A year earlier, in the autumn of 1814, could hear the angels sing,” Schubert wrote of Andante Schubert had been exempted from compul- the G minor Symphony) and early Beethoven, Menuetto: Allegro vivace sory 13-year (!) military service because of his as well as such lesser masters as Krommer, Presto vivace short stature (barely five feet) and terrible eye- Kozeluch, Méhul and Weigl.
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