Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 105 [in one movement] Jean Sibelius Born December 8, 1865 in Hameenlinna, Finland Died September 20, 1957 Jarvenpaa, Finland

FIRST PERFORMANCES BY THE WICHITA SYMPHONY

For most of the audience, this performance of the Sibelius Seventh will be a first hearing. Careful listening is in order, for the symphony is intense and concentrated. Its texture is frequently complex, providing an unusual backdrop to recurring motives. Sibelius’s elusive themes are not the type you will exit the hall humming, yet the Seventh Symphony is indisputably melodious and diatonic, with a powerful undercurrent of C major throughout.

Sibelius did not initially intend to call this work a symphony. At the premiere on March 24, 1924, the program listed it as Fantasia sinfonica. By the time it was published, the title had changed to Symphony No. 7. The earlier label is a helpful clue to understanding the Seventh Symphony, for its amalgamation of sections into one fused unit adapts the freedom associated with musical fantasies.

The seeds for the work unfold in its opening measures. Lower strings begin with an ascent culminating in an ominous chord. Led by flutes and bassoons, the woodwinds respond with a second musical idea, a fleeting, questioning motive in parallel thirds. Analogous exchanges of chorale-like strings with the higher woodwinds constitute much of the dialogue that follows. It is all part of an extended, reverent slow introduction that presents most of the material for the entire symphony.

The introduction leads to the symphony's inner sections, in faster tempi. An Allegro moderato develops the musical ideas already introduced; then a scherzo-like section presents new material. The symphony closes with a regal finale featuring a magisterial trombone solo. Throughout, transitions are effected seamlessly.

Piano Concerto No.1 in C Minor with Solo Trumpet, Op. 35 (1933) Dmitri Shostakovich Born September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia Died August 9, 1975 in Moscow, Russia

PREVIOUS PERFORMANCES BY THE WICHITA SYMPHONY MARCH 22 AND 23, 1987

Laced with savage irony and technical fireworks, Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto is deservedly among the most famous of his early compositions. Written when he was only 27, it reveals his youthful exuberance and personal keyboard style. Shostakovich himself performed the concerto frequently during the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Much of its character derives from the unusual scoring for two solo instruments plus string orchestra – a throwback to Baroque instrumental concerti. Shostakovich had been thinking about writing a concerto for Alexander Schmidt of the Leningrad Philharmonic. Although he abandoned that project, he salvaged much of his trumpet writing for use in the piano concerto. Its part is concertante: calling for soloistic display but, in this case, complementing the piano soloist without obscuring him. Shostakovich directed the trumpeter to stand stage front, adjacent to the keyboard.

Writer Ronald Stevenson has called Op. 35 "a celebration of the Russian circus." The trumpet is a key component of the sardonic tone that permeates the concerto, prompting such descriptions. Shostakovich entrusts insolent tunes to the trumpet, particularly in the outer movements.

Only the slow movement, a gentle waltz, is exclusively lyrical. The third movement intermezzo functions as an introduction to the madcap finale. Shostakovich quotes briefly from Bach, Weber, Haydn and Mahler, and tosses in some jazz licks for good measure. His solo piano cadenza takes a bow to Beethoven's "Rage over a Lost Penny." On one level, the young Soviet composer was thumbing his nose at the establishment via this pastiche. His constantly changing musical landscape is also a reminder that Shostakovich spent much of his youth improvising at the piano in silent movie houses. Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 Ludwig van Beethoven Born in December 17, 1770 in Bonn, Germany Died in March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

PREVIOUS PERFORMANCES BY THE WICHITA SYMPHONY OCTOBER 17 AND 18, 2009

. . . ripe for the madhouse. –Carl Maria von Weber on Beethoven, after hearing Beethoven’s Seventh

. . the apotheosis of the dance. – Richard Wagner on Beethoven’s Seventh

You can chase a Beethoven symphony all your life and never catch up. – André Previn

The Seventh Symphony falls into what Beethoven's biographer Maynard Solomon calls "the heroic decade." During this period, which comprises the period approximately from the "Eroica" Symphony through the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, Beethoven wrote major compositions in a grand style that melded elements of Viennese symphonic tradition and French orchestral style. French music of this era frequently bore a martial stamp.

Among Beethoven's orchestral works, the Fifth Symphony is the easiest one in which to discern French "military" motifs, but the Seventh Symphony in its day was strongly associated with the victory over Napoleon. The English Duke of Wellington won a decisive battle in Spain in June 1813. He was able to seize San Sebastian and invade France. Although Elba, the “Hundred Days,” and Waterloo still lay ahead, the tide had turned against the French Emperor. When the news reached Vienna, her citizens erupted in jubilant celebration. The Seventh Symphony was premièred just a few months later: an expression of the upbeat mood.

Public, aggressive, decisive in its gestures, and filled with boundless enthusiasm, this is one of Beethoven's most gregarious and optimistic compositions. It opens with the lengthiest slow introduction of any Beethoven symphony. Music historian J.W.N. Sullivan has written: The great introduction to the first movement seems to convey the awakening and murmuring of the multitudinous life of an immense forest. Much more than in the Pastoral symphony do we feel here in the presence of Nature itself. It is life, life in every form, not merely human life, of which the exultation is here expressed.

That spirit of exultation bursts forth in the ensuing Allegro, whose pronounced dotted rhythm dominates the entire fabric of the movement.

The slow movement, Allegretto, enjoyed enormous popularity in the 19th-century, and proved to be one of Beethoven's most influential compositions. Essentially a march, it is closely related to the funeral march slow movement of the "Eroica" Symphony, switching between A major and A minor. The trio sections feature triplet accompaniment. Beethoven emphasizes strings in the minor sections and the woodwinds in the A major parts. Combining elements of rondo, march and variation, he spins a remarkable tale from the simplest of means. Instead, the superimposition of two motives – one a single repeated note, the other a simple accompaniment in counterpoint – comprise virtually the entire fabric.

Beethoven's scherzo is a vibrant Presto in F major, the only case in the nine symphonies where he strays from the home key for this movement. By expanding the conventional ternary form to an A-B-A-B-A structure, he increases the length and scope of the scherzo, giving it more psychological weight. He closes with a jubilant Allegro con brio, an overwhelmingly optimistic movement that captivates us with its distinctive flourish in its opening measures and a compelling rhythmic drive throughout. Indeed, rhythm is the most memorable feature of the Seventh Symphony, delivering Beethoven's personality more convincingly than his melodies do in this work, and setting in relief the understated calm of the slow movement. Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2015 First North American Serial Rights Only