program notes

2020 - 2021 SEASON Celebrating 100 Years

All Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 7:30 PM | Holland Center Thomas Wilkins, conductor

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN to The Creatures of , Op. 43 (1770-1827)

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica” Allegro Marcia funebre: Adagio assai : Allegro vivace Finale: Allegro molto

program notes by Paul Schiavo

It hardly needs to be stated that Ludwig van Beethoven stands among history’s very greatest . His and remain the heart of the orchestral repertory, and his works, string , and other chamber occupy similarly important positions within their genres. But for all the brilliance of his music, Beethoven’s achievement cannot be measured in musical terms alone. As an artist who imagined radically expanded notions of harmony, thematic development, and compositional form, Beethoven brought to music the revolutionary spirit that had recently created democracy in America and toppled the monarchy of France. Moreover, as one who persevered in his art despite illness, isolation, and the catastrophic loss of his hearing, Beethoven came to embody a sense of epic struggle and triumph, an of heroism that became a central theme of 19th-century . Obviously, no single concert could convey anything like the full extent of Beethoven’s achievement. But the enduring quality of the ’s music, together with his iconic stature as artist-hero, more than justify a program devoted, as ours is, entirely to his work. That this year sees the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth makes the theme of this program all the more fitting.

1 Overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus (The Creatures of Prometheus), Op. 43 Ludwig Van Beethoven Born: , December 16, 1770 Died: on March 26, 1827

Beethoven wrote a considerable quantity of dance music over the course of his career. Most of this took the form of and other short pieces suitable for social dancing, which the composer himself enjoyed as a form of recreation (though reportedly with more enthusiasm than skill). As for theatrical dance, Beethoven ventured just once into the field of , that excursion coming at the instigation of one Salvatore Vigano. A highly acclaimed artist in his day, Vigano began his career in his native Italy but in 1793 came to Vienna, where he enjoyed success as both a dancer and choreog- rapher. Vigano’s productions and portrayals must have been moving, for called him a genius with “an imagination in the style of Shakespeare.” Vigano probably encountered Beethoven in 1800 and before the end of that year provided the young composer a detailed scenario for which to write music. This scenario entailed an allegorical treatment of the Prometheus legend. It tells nothing of the mythical hero bringing early humans knowledge of fire, as in Greek legend. Instead, Prometheus refines two statues he has brought to life, educating them in music and dance, while imparting morals, manners, and feelings to them. Beethoven’s score for Vigano’s ballet comprised some 18 numbers, but only the overture has gained a secure foothold in the concert repertory. This piece adopts the classic overture format of an introduction in slow followed by a fast movement whose form and style resemble the opening movement of a . Beethoven opens the introductory paragraph with a series of stark chords whose searching propel the music to more melodic thoughts. There follows a solemn theme led by the and horns, but Beethoven barely finishes its presentation before moving directly into the Allegro that forms the main body of the piece. Here the principal idea is a running figure played by the . Beethoven counters it with a more relaxed second subject introduced by the woodwinds. A short development fantasy leads to the expected reprise of both subjects, then a coda passage marked by swelling volume and accelerating tempo.

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica” Ludwig Van Beethoven

With his “ eroica,” completed in 1804, Beethoven brought into being a new kind of symphony. Beethoven’s first two symphonies had extended the classical procedures of Mozart and Haydn, and the composer, now in his early 30’s, might well have continued writing in that vein. But the world of the nascent was not the same one in which his illustrious predecessors had lived and worked. The aristocracy that ruled Europe was under siege both politically and intellectually. Revolutions in America and France had turned the theories of the Enlightenment into practical reality, and a heady sense of new possibilities was in the air. It was a time of idealism and, in a broad sense, of heroism. Beethoven was strongly affected by these new currents. He applauded the French Revolution and remained an ardent democrat throughout his life. Numerous anecdotes recount his refusal to defer to members of the nobility, even those who were his patrons. It is not surprising, therefore, that he should have planned a work honoring a popular hero like , which was his original intention in writing his Third Symphony. (We must recall that when the composer began work on this piece, early in 1803, the brilliant general and First Consul was widely perceived as the defender of the French Revolution and an embodiment of a new and hopeful political order. Napoleon the emperor and scourge of Europe was still a thing of the future.) Nor is it startling that Beethoven should have outgrown the comparatively restrained musical forms and language of the previous generation. By the turn of the century, the composer had begun moving towards larger, more potent modes of expression. His Second Symphony and Third Piano seem to strain the boundaries of their Classical-period models. These pieces, however, hardly foretold the extraordinary leap taken in the “Eroica Symphony.” Its length alone, nearly twice that of most Mozart or Haydn symphonies, far exceeded any similar work. Yet it was not so much its outer dimensions as its inner life, its tremendous power and propulsive drive, that placed the Eroica beyond the pale of musical comportment. A sense of energy and restless invention pervade the long opening movement. Beethoven seems so full of creative fire that the usual first-movement design can scarcely contain his thoughts, and we find him continually overstepping its nominal boundaries. As a result, this portion of the symphony has about

2 it the feeling of an epic drama. That quality is present as well, though in different forms, in the movement that follows, a that still sends chills down the spine, its consoling central episode notwith- standing. The ensuing scherzo gives us a nimble, dance-like movement with a “ call” contrasting section. The finale begins as a set of variations on a melody presented by and in alternating phrases. Beethoven always favored the theme-and-variations procedure and worked it masterfully, but his inventiveness now proves too great for its comparatively confined architecture. Before long, the subject spills out of the strict variation format into several unexpected developments, concluding with a rousing coda. Beethoven maintained that this was his finest symphony, and while it is difficult to choose among his works in this genre, there is reason to agree. Nowhere, even in his Fifth and Ninth Symphonies, was the composer more successful in welding a wide array of thematic ideas into a cohesive whole, in developing those ideas to fill out an expansive compositional frame, or in extracting from them an arresting musical drama. From this point of view, the well-known account of how the composer angrily changed the title on his score from Buonaparte to the anonymous “Sinfonia eroica” (“Heroic Symphony”) after learning that Napoleon had declared himself emperor hardly bears retelling. Today, the connection between this music and the Corsican general is not particularly apparent. Like all art, the Third Symphony really tells us of the artist who conceived it. Beethoven himself, who overcame the adversity of his growing deafness to compose the work, can rightly be considered the heroic figure to which its title alludes.

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