UGA Symphony Orchestra and Choral Ensembles UGA Symphony Orchestra and Choral Ensembles Program Tuesday, April 17 2018 • 8:00 p.m. University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra conductorMark Cedel assistant conductor Jean Gomez Johannes Brahms Alto Rhapsody, Opus 53 Magdalena Wór, mezzo-soprano UGA Hodgson Singers conductorDaniel Bara Brahms Nänie. Opus 82 assistant conductor Lee Wright INTERMISSION University Chorus conductorJ.D. Burnett assistant conductor Christopher Mason Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Opus 73 Allegro non troppo UGA Men’s Glee Club Adagio non troppo conductorJ.D. Burnett Allegretto grazioso (quasi Andantino) assistant conductor Justin Bowen Allegro con spirito UGA Women’s Glee Club conductorLee Wright assistant conductor Marshall Williams with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Wor HODGSON CONCERT HALL 20 Performance UGA April May 2018 21 UGA Symphony Orchestra and Choral Ensembles some discomfort from the evident fervor of Program Notes Brahms’s interest in her well-being, though By Steven Ledbetter he never let her know his feelings explicitly. Out of his sadness at realizing he had lost Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) her, Brahms found words that perfectly ex- pressed his emotional condition and set Alto Rhapsody, Opus 53 them to music in one of his most moving scores. He presented the work as an expres- The Alto Rhapsody was composed in the sion of his own struggle with loneliness. A autumn of 1869; the first performance took week after Julie’s wedding on September place in Jena on March 3, 1870. The score 22, 1869, Brahms visited Clara and played calls for a solo alto voice, men’s chorus, and for her the work he called his “bridal song.” orchestra consisting of pairs of flutes, oboes, Clara’s response (in her journal): “It is long clarinets, bassoons, and horns, plus strings. since I remember being so moved by a depth Duration is about 14 minutes. of pain in words and music.” On May 11, 1869, Clara Schumann had The text that Brahms chose for what be- happy news to share with her good friend came one of the most personal expressions Brahms when he visited her in Baden-Baden: of his life comprises the central part of a her daughter 24-year-old daughter Julie had difficult poem of Goethe’s, Harzreise im just become engaged. Brahms choked out a Winter (“Winter Journey Through the Harz few words and, to Clara’s surprise, promptly Mountains”). Of the poem’s 88 lines, Brahms disappeared. Perhaps only now did she un- set only about one quarter of the whole. Aber abseits, wer ist’s? But off apart there, who is that? derstand some of the composer’s behavior Goethe’s poem was written after a 1777 visit Ins Gebüsch verliert sich sein Pfad, His path gets lost in the brush; during the previous half-dozen years. to the Harz Mountains, where he met a cor- Hinter ihm schlagen behind him the branches respondent of his, a misanthropic young Die Sträuche zusammen, close again, Julie was described as an ethereal beauty, fellow named Plessing, who had withdrawn and Brahms had evidently found her capti- Das Gras steht wieder auf, the grass stands straight again, from the world into the solitude of nature. Die Öde verschlingt ihn. the solitude swallows him up. vating as early as 1861, when he dedicated to Goethe’s poem describes one who goes “off her his Opus 23 Schumann Variations, on a apart,” praying that the Father of Love may theme composed by her father. At the time Ach, wer heilet die Schmerzen Ah, who can heal the pain have on his Psalter “a single tone perceptible Des, dem Balsam zu Gift ward? of one to whom balsam became poison? Clara evidently regarded it simply as hom- to his ear,” which might “revive his heart.” age to her family, because Robert, before his Der sich Menschenhass Who has drunk misanthropy Surely Brahms offered that prayer for him- Aus der Fülle der Liebe trank? from the fullness of love? death, had been the young Brahms’s best self. Goethe’s poem spoke to him with un- friend and strongest proponent. Julie was a Erst verachtet, nun ein Verächter, First despised, now despising, usual directness, and he responded to it with Zehrt er heimlich auf he secretly wastes beautiful but frail angel, who often suffered shattering, personal music. from illness. Brahms evidently felt a deep Seinen eignen Wert his own worth In ung’nügender Selbstsucht. in unsatisfying egoism. and growing affection for her, but his reac- The orchestral introduction shivers in its tion was complicated by the fact that his role chilly C-minor depiction of the winter Ist auf deinem Psalter, If there is in your Psalter, in helping to care for the family after Robert’s scene, interrupted by the alto soloist—enter- Vater der Liebe, ein Ton Father of Love, a single tone death made him a kind of surrogate father to ing suddenly as if overheard in the middle Seinem Ohre vernehmlich, perceptible to his ear, Julie, and his warm friendship with Clara— of a thought—who notices the solitary wan- So erquicke sein Herz! then revive his heart! twenty years older than he—made her a derer. A central section, actually an aria, de- Öffne den umwölkten Blick Open his cloud covered sight cross between a mother figure and a fan- scribes the one who, having been scorned, Über die tausend Quellen onto the thousand fountains tasy lover. Combined with these emotional now scorns all in return. The harmonic and Neben dem Durstenden beside the thirsting soul complexities was the fact that Brahms’s early rhythmic agitation of this section yields In der Wüste. in the desert. experiences playing the piano in the broth- magically at the entrance of the men’s voic- els of Hamburg led him to view the sexual es and a turn to a consoling C major and a side of human relations as something essen- warmly ardent melody praying for the rec- – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) – English translation by S.L. tially sordid. Julie herself occasionally felt onciliation of the wanderer. 22 Performance UGA April May 2018 23 UGA Symphony Orchestra and Choral Ensembles Brahms “heathenish” poem, especially as a memorial to Feuerbach, whose favorite subjects were Nänie, Opus 82 drawn from classical mythology. Nänie Nenia Auch das Schöne muss sterben! Das Men- Even Beauty must die; that which overcomes Nänie was composed in 1881, and the first In any case, Brahms completed his setting schen und Götter bezwinget, men and gods performance took place in Zurich on Decem- in the summer of 1881. It is one of his most Nicht die eherne Brust rührt es des stygischen Does not touch the iron breast of the Stygian ber 6 that year. The score calls for four-part exquisite creations, yet is performed surpris- Zeus. Zeus.1 mixed chorus and an orchestra consisting of ingly rarely. A musical setting of a text that Einmal nur erweichte die Liebe den Only once did love soften the ruler of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns laments the transitoriness of all things, life, Schattenbeherrscher, shadows, in pairs, three trombones, timpani, harp and love, beauty, and heroic glory might have Und an der Schwelle noch, streng, rief er And then, at the very threshold, he sternly strings. Duration is about 14 minutes. turned out profoundly gloomy—but it is not. zurück sein Geschenk. called back his gift.2 Brahms makes it serene and accepting, quite Nicht stillt Aphrodite dem schönen Knaben Aphrodite could not staunch the wound of the Nänie (the Greek word “nenia,” or “song in the spirit of Schiller’s poem and the gentle die Wunde, beautiful youth of lamentation”), Op. 82, is one of the least fatalism of Greek antiquity. Die in zierlichen Leib grausam der Eber which the boar savagely ripped in his delicate known of Brahms’s major works, and one of geritzt. body.3 the most exquisitely beautiful in its balance Schiller’s poem is cast in Greek hexameters— Nicht erettet den göttlichen Held die unster- Nor could the immortal mother save the and repose. Schiller’s classicizing poem, a long lines that Brahms found it a challenge bliche godlike lament that “Even Beauty must die,” was an to set, but they inspired him to create a long- Mutter, hero, obvious choice of text for a piece to memori- breathed flowing melody in 6/4 first heard in Wenn er, am skäischen Tor fallend, sein when he, falling at the Scaean gate, fulfilled alize the composer’s friend, the painter An- the oboe, then forming the basis of a gentle Schicksal his destiny.4 selm Feuerbach. canon in the voices—soaring, hovering, and erfüllt. But she ascends from the sea with all the intertwining from part to part. The text is 5 Brahms may have first encountered the Aber sie steigt aus dem Meer mit allen daughters of Nereus, filled with mythological references that few Töchtern des Nereus, and raises the lament for her glorified son. poem in a setting by Hermann Goetz, which will immediately recognize today (hence the happened to have been performed in Vienna Und die Klage hebt an um den verherrlichten footnotes added here), but Brahms either Sohn. Behold, the gods weep, and all the goddesses, in February 1880, within a month of Feuer- understood them or received an explana- bach’s death. He did not choose the text im- Siehe, da weinen die Götter, es weinen die too, tion before he set the poem to music. At Göttinnen alle, that Beauty must pass away, that the Perfect mediately, however. In July 1880 he wrote his the mention of Achilles’ mother Thetis ris- friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg, assuring Dass das Schöne vergeht, dass das Vollkom- must ing from the sea to lament the death of her mene die.