UGA Symphony Orchestra University of Georgia Program Notes Symphony Orchestra By Steven Ledbetter Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Pelléas et Mélisande, Suite of Thursday incidental music to Maeterlinck’s tragedy, Op. 80 March 8 2018 8:00 p.m. Fauré composed incidental music for an English production of Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande between May 16 and June 5, conductor Mark Cedel 1898; this was premiered at the Prince of assistant conductor Jean Gómez Wales Theatre, London, on June 21, 1898, with Fauré conducting. Three movements, the Prélude, Fileuse, and the Molto Adagio, every year from 1892 to 1900 in the British PROGRAM were published in 1901, with a dedication capital. Thus it was that when he met the to the Princesse Edmond de Polignac, as the famous actress, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, at Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Pelléas et Mélisande, Suite Op. 80 Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80. the home of a mutual friend, Frank Schus- Prélude He added the Sicilienne for a new edition ter, in 1898, she commissioned him to write Entr’acte in 1909; it had been composed in 1895 as incidental music for a production she was a work for cello and piano and was orches- planning of Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbol- Fileuse trated in 1898 for the incidental music. The ist drama Pelléas et Mélisande at the Prince La mort de Mélisande three movement Suite received its first per- of Wales Theatre. formance on February 3, 1902 at a Lamou- There had been only one performance of the Beethoven (1770-1827) Symphony No. 8, Op. 93, F Major reux Concert in Paris under the direction of Camille Chevillard; André Messager play in its original French, on May 17, 1893, Allegro vivace e conbrio conducted the premiere of the four move- and it had resulted in general incomprehen- Allegretto scherzando ment Suite on December 1, 1912. The Suite sion. Claude Debussy was in the audience, Tempo di minuetto is scored for two each of flutes, oboes, clari- though, and he began at once to work on an Allegro vivace nets, and bassoons, four horns, two trum- opera, which was not to be performed un- pets, timpani, harp, and strings. Approxi- til 1902. Several other composers have been mate performance time is eighteen minutes. attracted to Pelléas – Schoenberg and Cyril INTERMISSION Scott for orchestral tone poems, Sibelius for Fauré was a long time coming into his own incidental music – but Fauré is the only one as a composer who could draw an audience. not to have written his score in the shadow Béla Bártok Concerto for Orchestra Even in his fifties, though he was highly of Debussy’s great opera, and, ironically, he regarded by cognoscenti as a creator and wrote it for a production not in the original Introduzione (Andante non troppo – Allegro vivace) teacher, he was in no sense a “popular” com- French but in an English translation. Giuoco delle coppie (Allegro scherzando) poser. Much of his music gained a hearing Elegia (Andante, non troppo) only in the salons of cultivated aristocrats Fauré was notoriously uninterested in the like the Princess Edmonde de Polignac, process of orchestration. Preferring to de- Intermezzo interrotto (Allegretto) whose activities as a patron of advanced vote his attention to the creation of the Finale (Presto) composers lasted for decades. (Stravinsky abstract musical concepts, he left the scor- dedicated works to her in the ‘20s.) Fauré ing to his student Charles Koechlin, who also had a group of devoted English friends scored the seventeen numbers of the inci- who sponsored performances of his music dental music in May, 1898, and prepared HODGSON CONCERT HALL in London, so he spent a substantial part of a fair copy for Fauré to use at the London

52 Performance UGA February March 2018 53 UGA Symphony Orchestra performances. Koechlin scored for a pit or- someone should undertake a complete re- the dominant, C) for the secondary theme. chestra of modest proportions. Later, when vival of the play with Fauré’s gentle, fragile, But scarcely has the theme started before it arranging the movements to be included in mysterious score. falters, suddenly aware of its faux pas, and the Op. 80 suite, Fauré added extra parts for swings around to the expected dominant. second oboe, second bassoon, and third and fourth horns. He also made a number of Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) The development is one of Beethoven’s most subtle changes in the orchestration through- masterful demonstrations of musical tim- out and substantially rescored the climaxes Symphony No. 8 in F Major, ing. At first he simply marks time with a for the larger ensemble, so that we may fairly Op. 93 rhythmic vamp in the violas, jumping up speak of a Koechlin Fauré orchestration. The and down an octave. The basic melodic idea resulting score, dedicated to the Princess de Beethoven composed the Eighth Symphony turns out to be the very first measure of the Polignac, has turned out to be Fauré’s most in 1812; it was first performed, in Vienna, he describes them as “a grand symphony in symphony, unheard since its single earlier important symphonic work. on February 27, 1814. The score calls for A major (one of my most excellent works) appearance. Now it dominates the discus- pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and a smaller symphony in F major.” But sion. The development is a long crescendo The air of charming reticence that runs horns, and trumpets, plus timpani and size alone is not the central factor here. If over its entire length. The volume increases through much of Fauré’s music is equally to strings. Approximate performance time is Beethoven could call the Eighth a smaller gradually; at the same time phrase lengths be found in his incidental music for Maeter- twenty-six minutes. work, he surely meant so only in the objective become progressively shorter, so that things linck; it is an appropriate mood for a play in sense of the number of measures contained appear to be moving faster and faster, un- which virtually nothing happens, in which Beethoven composed his Eighth Symphony within it. When Czerny once remarked that til the movement culminates in the blaz- every effort to do anything leads to tragedy. in tandem with the Seventh. Some of the the Eighth was much less popular than the ing return to the home key, while the bass The first movement serves as the prelude sketches for both works appear together in Seventh, Beethoven replied gruffly, “That’s instruments proclaim the principal theme. for the play, painting its misty colors with a manuscript known as the Petter sketch- because it’s so much better.” The recapitulation is quite straightforward a few dramatic outbursts that may hint at book. He apparently liked the challenge and until the Coda, when a bassoon (recalling the impetuous Golaud. The movement ends the change of pace that comes with work- Surprisingly enough this jovial symphony the leaping octaves heard at the beginning with a transition to the opening scene of the ing on two very different pieces at the same was composed in large part during a pe- of the development) leads into a new har- play (in which Golaud, lost while hunting, time. Indeed, he had already done the same riod of family strife, when Beethoven went monic world, another crescendo, and a new comes across the mysterious Mélisande by thing with the Fifth and Sixth symphonies. to Linz to interfere in the private life of his version of the main theme in the wrong key. a fountain deep in the woods); even before But though the two new symphonies were thirty five year old brother Johann, who had After a solid return to the tonic, the orches- the overture ends, we hear Golaud’s hunting finished almost together, the Seventh was recently allowed his young housekeeper to tra fades out delightfully, leaving one final horn signaling his arrival. premiered on December 8, 1813, about two move in with him. Beethoven, a complete salute to the first measure in the bass at the months before the Eighth, which was not puritan in matters sexual (and possibly very last instant. The second movement, sometimes called La heard until February 27 following (unlike jealous, since he never had a woman in his Fileuse (The Spinner) served as the entr’acte the Fifth and Sixth, which had been pre- life), was outraged by the situation and ob- The second movement is a humorous hom- before Act III; its nearly constant triplet turn miered on the same concert in 1808). tained a police order that the girl return to age to Beethoven’s friend Mälzel, the inventor provides the background hum of the spin- Vienna by a certain date. Johann evaded the of the metronome, a device that Beethoven ning wheel. The Sicilienne, heard before Act The premiere of the Seventh had been one of issue by marrying her, but not before there found invaluable in giving composers, for II, is characterized by the rocking rhythm of the most successful concerts of Beethoven’s had been an ugly confrontation between the first time, a way to specify precise tem- that delicate Italian dance known as the si- life, establishing him without question as the two brothers. During this tense period, pos for their music. The cheerful, jesting ciliano. All is grace and gentle reflection, en- the greatest living composer – though the Beethoven was finishing the jovial Eighth! movement is filled with humorous touches tirely appropriate to the mysterious world of work that truly ignited the audience’s en- (including a suggestion at the end that the the play – even though this movement was thusiasm on that occasion was the potboiler The opening movement is small in length mechanical marvel has broken down). Its composed independently five years earlier! Wellington’s Victory, also being heard for the compared to its sibling, the Seventh, but it scherzando marking makes it rather faster first time. When Beethoven premiered the is full of events. The opening phrases form than a slow movement was expected to be. The final Molto Adagio – which introduced Eighth two months later, he sandwiched it a complete melody (how rare that is for Act V – is a quiet, touching depiction of the between repeats of the Seventh and Welling- Beethoven!), but immediately after the ca- Beethoven compensates by making his next death of Mélisande. Though Fauré certainly ton’s Victory. Under the circumstances, the dence the next phrases open out and grow movement – for which we expect a rollick- never thought of the Suite as a symphony, it Seventh, a far longer work, overwhelmed in the most astonishing way. False leads ing scherzo – Tempo di Menuetto, a marking remains his best known and most frequently the new score with its sheer visceral energy. cheerfully undermine the tonal solidity that he had long since ceased using in his sym- performed symphonic composition and all A letter in which Beethoven offered both Beethoven had been at such pains to establish phonies. This movement particularly is re- we are likely to hear of the seventeen selec- symphonies to an English publisher seems in the opening bars, seeming to settle in to the sponsible for the symphony’s reputation as a tions composed as incidental music, unless to patronize the later work somewhat, since highly unorthodox key of D major (instead of Haydnesque “throwback.”

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Having held his horses back, so to speak, for folk songs housed at Columbia University. of the change in her husband: “One thing is first movement (brass instruments), three movements, Beethoven lets them have He had all but given up composition during sure: Béla’s ‘under no circumstances will I or in the perpetuum mobile-like pas- their head in the merry rush of the rondo the preceding years, depressed by the state of ever write a new work’ attitude has gone. It’s sage of the principal theme in the last like tune that seems about to come to a close Europe and by his own financial insecurity. more than three years now.” movement (strings), and, especially, on an normal dominant C when it is sud- Bartók enjoyed his work with the folk mate- in the second movement, in which denly jerked up to C sharp, only to have the rials at Columbia, but he was painfully aware Bartók spent the summer resting under med- pairs of instruments consecutively ap- unexpected note drop away as quickly as that his position there was only temporary, ical supervision at a sanatorium at Lake Sara- pear with brilliant passages. it had arrived, apparently without conse- and he kept casting around for lectureships, nac in upstate New York; here he wrote most quence. The same thing happens at the re- concerts, and other ways of earning a living. of the new work in just eight weeks. And in He paired the first and fifth movements, as capitulation, and though the bubbling high working on the score, he recovered much of well as the second and fourth, so that the spirits leave us little time to worry about Worse, he had begun to have a series of irreg- his former energy and enthusiasm. He told overall structure is a symmetrical pattern bal- details, the sheer obtrusiveness of that note ular high fevers that the doctors were unable Szigeti early in 1944 that the improvement in anced through the middle (this was a favorite lingers in the ear, demanding consideration. to diagnose, but which turned out to be the his health allowed him to finish the Concerto design in his multi-movement works). The questions are answered in the immense first indication of leukemia. By early 1943, the for Orchestra – or perhaps it was the other The Concerto opens with a mysterious in- Coda, where the obtrusive C sharp note re- state of his health and the fact that Americans way around. troduction laying forth the essential mo- turns with harmonic consequences, gener- showed little interest in his music brought tivic ideas: a theme built up of intervals of ating a new and distant tonal diversion that him to a low point. He insisted that he never Béla and Ditta Bartók made the trip to Bos- the fourth, answered by symmetrical con- must be worked out before we can return wanted to compose again. The medical men ton late in November, 1944, to attend the pre- trary motion in seconds. These ideas be- safely home. At this pace, Beethoven’s clev- were unable to do much, yet powerful medi- miere, as the composer reported to a friend a come gradually more energetic until they erness can only leave us breathless with de- cine that spring came not from a doctor, but few weeks later: explode in the vigorous principal theme in light at his exhilarating wit. rather from a conductor – Serge Koussevitzky. We went there for the rehearsals and the strings, a tune that bears the imprint of Violinist Joseph Szigeti had told Koussevitz- performances – after having obtained Bartók’s musical physiognomy all over with Béla Bartók ky of Bartók’s situation, warning him that the the grudgingly granted permission of its emphatic leaping fourths and its imme- proud composer would not accept anything my doctor for this trip. It was worth diate inversion. It is a rich mine of melodic Concerto for Orchestra remotely smacking of charity. Koussevitzky wile [sic], the performance was ex- motives for future development. The solo therefore offered work: $1000 to write a new cellent. Koussevitzky is very enthu- trombone introduces a fanfare-like figure, The Concerto for Orchestra was commis- orchestral piece with a guarantee of a perfor- siastic about the piece, and says it is again built of fourths, that will come to play sioned in the spring of 1943 by Serge Kous- mance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “the best orchestra piece of the last 25 an important role in the brasses later on. A sevitzky through the Koussevitzky Music The commission was a tonic for the ailing years” (including the works of his idol contrasting theme appears in the form of a Foundation in memory of Natalie Koussev- composer; at once he was filled with ideas Shostakovich!). gently rocking idea first heard in the oboe. itzky. Bartók composed the work between for a new composition, which he composed Most of these materials make their first im- August 15 and October 8, 1943; Koussev- in just eight weeks – August 15 to October 8, For the first performance Bartók wrote a pression as melodies pure and simple, not as itzky led the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1943 – while resting under medical supervi- commentary printed in the orchestra’s pro- the source material for contrapuntal elabora- the first performances on December 1 and 2, sion at a sanatorium at Lake Saranac in up- gram book, something he did only rarely. tion, but Bartók works out a wondrously rich 1944. The Concerto for Orchestra is scored state New York. His summary of the spirit of the work was concoction with all kinds of contrapuntal for three flutes (third doubling piccolo), no doubt a response to his own feeling of tricks, and the fact that this was possible is, of three oboes (third doubling English horn), Throughout his American years, Bartók recuperation as he composed it: course, no accident; the composer planned it found no reason to feel that his music had three clarinets (third doubling bass clari- The general mood of the work repre- from the start in designing his themes. net), three bassoons (third doubling contra- struck any sort of responsive chord here. In December, 1941, he had claimed to Kodály sents, apart from the jesting second The “Game of Pairs” that forms the second bassoon), four horns, three trumpets (with a movement, a gradual transition from fourth trumpet marked ad lib.), three trom- that he felt lucky in lacking the inclination movement is simple but original in form, a to write a new large score since “even if I had the sternness of the first movement chain-like sequence of folk-oriented melo- bones, tuba, timpani, side drum, bass drum, and the lugubrious death-song of the tam-tam, cymbals, triangle, two harps, and a new orchestra work it would be impossible dies presented by five pairs of instruments, to get it performed.” third, to the life-assertion of the last each pair playing in parallel motion at a dif- strings. Approximate performance time is one. The title of this symphony-like thirty-six minutes. ferent interval: the bassoons in sixths, then Koussevitzky’s visit in April, 1943, changed orchestral work is explained by its ten- oboes in thirds, clarinets in sevenths, flutes Early in the 1940s, with a world war raging all that, for the conductor commissioned a dency to treat the single instruments or in fifths, and trumpets in seconds. After a in Europe, Bartók immigrated to the United work and guaranteed a performance. The instrumental groups in a concertant or brass chorale in the middle of the move- States, where he had a position doing re- change in Bartók’s spirit was immediate. His soloistic manner. The ‘virtuoso’ treat- ment, the entire sequence of tunes is repeat- search on recordings of eastern European wife Ditta wrote to Joseph Szigeti to tell him ment appears, for instance, in the fu- ed with more elaborate scoring. gato sections of the development of the 56 Performance UGA February March 2018 57 The third movement, Elegia, is one of those a key by means of which many listeners have expressive “night music” movements that learned to love Bartók’s music, including the Bartók delighted in. He described it as built pieces that were once found to be too “dif- of three themes appearing successively, ficult.” And for Bartók personally, compos- framed “by a misty texture of rudimentary ing this score proved to be just the tonic he motifs.” The thematic ideas are closely relat- needed. It had filled his summer 1943 “rest ed to those of the first movement, but they cure” with, if not rest, at least a cure. In the are treated here in a kind of expressive rec- fall, Bartók and Ditta received a visit from itative of the type that Bartók called “par- their friend Agatha Fassett, who was aston- Administration lando rubato,” a style that he found charac- ished at the change in the composer over the President Jere W. Morehead teristic of much Hungarian music. summer, and when he showed her the com- Senior Vice President pleted score to the Concerto for Orchestra, for Academic Affairs TheIntermezzo interrotto (“Interrupted Inter- he said to her (as she recalled later in her and Provost Pamela S. Whitten mezzo”) alternates two very different themes: book on Bartók’s last years): Vice Provost a rather choppy one first heard in the oboe, for Academic Affairs Russell J. Mumper then a flowing, lush, romantic one that is But what nobody could possibly see Bartók’s gift to the viola section. But after in this score is that through working these ideas have been stated in an ABA pat- on this concerto, I have discovered UGA Performing Arts Center tern, there is a sudden interruption in the the wonder drug I needed to bring Director Jeffrey Martin form of a vulgar, simple-minded tune that about my own cure. And like so many Assistant Director Blake H. Schneider descends the scale in stepwise motion. This other discoveries, it just happened ac- tune actually comes from the Seventh Sym- cidentally, and was only a by-product Business Manager Sonja Eklund phony of Dmitri Shostakovich, which Bartók of what was of true importance to House Manager Miranda Wilson heard on a radio broadcast while working on me, and I was almost unaware, at the Director of Development Carlton Bain the Concerto for Orchestra. According to his time, that it was happening. Director of Marketing son Péter, he was so incensed with the theme’s and Media Relations Bobby B. Tyler, Jr. ludicrous simplicity that he decided to work The despair that had caused him to give up Publications Manager Tim Wells it into his new piece and burlesque it with composing had been overcome – even more Assistant Box Office Manager Bridgette C. Burton nose-thumbing jibes in the form of cackling so when the Concerto for Orchestra began Production Manager Graf Imhoof trills from the woodwinds, raspberries from its triumphal conquest of concert halls the Stage Manager James Sewell the tuba and trombones, and chattering com- following year. Bartók began accepting new mentary from the strings. Soon, however, all commissions and undertaking further proj- settles back to normal with a finale BA state- ects, though it was also clear that his health Academic Programs in the ment of the two main tunes. was not permanently improved. As he told a friend in Seattle a few weeks after the first Performing Arts The last movement begins with characteris- performance of the Concerto for Orches- Franklin College of Arts tic dance rhythms in an equally characteris- tra: “You said in one of your letters that and Sciences tic Bartókian perpetuo moto that rushes on my recovering was a miracle. This is true Dean Alan T. Dorsey and on, throwing off various motives that only with some reservations: it was only a gradually solidify into themes, the most im- hemidemisemi-miracle.” Be that as it may, Hugh Hodgson School of Music Director Dale E. Monson portant of which appears in the trumpet and the months remaining to him produced the turns into a massive fugue, complicated and Sonata for Solo Violin, dedicated to Yehudi Department of Theatre richly wrought, but building up naturally to Menuhin, and the Third Piano Concerto, and Film Studies a splendidly sonorous climax. finished but for the last seventeen measures, Head David Z. Saltz as well as the unfinished Viola Concerto and Department of Dance The overwhelming success of the Concerto sketches for a seventh string quartet. For a Head Lisa A. Fusillo for Orchestra marked the real beginning of man who had declared a short time earlier Bartók’s fame with the broad concert audi- that he never wanted to compose again, that ence. It remains without doubt his best- may be miracle enough. known and best-loved purely orchestral work, but over the years it has also provided © Steven Ledbetter (www.stevenledbetter.com)

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