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Concert
December 2005
PROGRAMME NOTES
by
Michael Bell
Engelbert HUMPERDINCK (1854-1921) Germany
“Hansel and Gretel”
– Overture
Engelbert
Humperdinck
was
strongly attracted to music from earliest childhood. He
eventually succeeded in studying it, despite strong
opposition from his father who had intended his son to
be an architect. At the age of twenty five Humperdinck
studied first in Cologne and then in Munich and was
hugely influenced by Richard Wagner whom he met
in Italy. When I listen to some of Wagner’s heavy,
obtuse and seemingly interminable music dramas, so cruel
to the human voice, I sometimes think it might have been
better if he had been hugely influenced by
Humperdinck.
The
enchanting “fairytale play” Hansel and Gretel was
originally a labour of love. The composer’s sister had
written some verses based on the famous fairy tale and
she asked her brother to set them to music for a
Christmas party for her children. This modest
entertainment so enchanted librettist and composer that
they set to work and extended it into a full length
opera.
The first
performance took place on the 23rd December
1893 at Weimar. Richard Strauss conducted and the
opera was an instant success. Strauss wrote to the
composer: Truly, this is a masterpiece. What
heart-warming humour, what charm and simplicity of
melodic line, what art and subtlety in your handling of
the orchestra. The simple melodies have the charm
and simplicity of folk song. The vocal lines are light
enough to suggest children’s voices and only the
orchestral accompaniment suggests a Wagnerian tenderness
- more melting than Wagner ever achieved. In fact,
Hansel and Gretel goes beyond the woodland scenes in
Wagner’s Siegfried to the roots of German
romantic opera in Weber, to the magic elements in
Der Freischutz and Oberon.
Although
Humperdinck wrote six more operas, he never repeated the
enormous success of Hansel and Gretel. A new
generation of composers had little time for amiable,
uncomplicated music based upon folk melodies. Soon after
his sixty-eighth birthday Humperdinck died on the 27th
September 1921.
But his
adorable work continues to delight all - from the child
of eight to the most learned musician of eighty.
It is in
the Overture that Humperdinck shows his full
mastery of the orchestra. The length of this piece (9
minutes) may sorely try the patience of young children
awaiting the rise of the curtain in the opera house, but
it is a delight for the discerning listener (such as
yourself) in its elegant treatment of themes taken from
the score – including The Witch’s spell Hocus pocus
and the Final Scene The witch is dead. It
opens and closes with the gentle, comforting melody of
the children’s Evening Prayer.
Ludwig
van BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827) Germany
Symphony
No. 2 in D, Op. 36 (1801-2)
The great
English conductor Sir Thomas Beecham remarked of
the late Beethoven string quartets, They were
composed by a person suffering from severe deafness and
they should only be listened to by persons suffering
from the same affliction. Beecham’s unusual view of
Beethoven was demonstrated by the recordings he chose to
make of his music – no version of the First, the Fourth,
the popular Fifth or the Ninth Choral Symphony.
He did commit the Eroica and the Seventh
to disc, but neither were outstanding performances.
However, in my opinion, Beecham’s Pastoral and
the Eighth are as fine as any other recorded versions
ever made. And, best of all, in a superb recording of
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, Sir Thomas lavished all his
considerable conducting gifts on this beguiling but
strangely neglected piece. Does this early work merit
the care and attention Beecham gave to it?
The Second
symphony was sketched in the autumn of 1801 and composed
in the summer of the next year – a time of fearful
depression for Beethoven for it was then that he first
faced the certain prospect of crippling deafness. This
is by no means apparent in the jubilant and dynamic
music of this symphony which seems closer to the 18th
than to the 19th century – nearer to Haydn
than Mendelssohn.
1.
The opening
Adagio is a splendidly ambitious expansion of
Haydn’s slow introductions with much modulation and
dynamic variety, so that the simplicity and formality of
the material in the following Allegro con brio
come as a surprise. Most of the development section is
concerned with a single phrase from the first subject
with which much can, and will, be done. Beethoven had
the ability to extract the maximum interest and
significance from seemingly unpromising material.
2.
The
tranquil lyricism of the Larghetto, with its
three tuneful, easy- going melodies, brings Beethoven
unusually close to his junior Franz Schubert. In
addition, there is a gracefulness which, by means of
ornamentation and rhythmic suspensions, develops in a
quietly playful manner quite different from Beethoven’s
often boisterous humour.
3.
If there is
any recollection of the dance in the boisterous
Scherzo-Allegro it is not of the formal minuet but
of a dance involving short and energetic leaps. The
Trio section contrasts the woodwind with the
strings, both playing in a strongly accented unison.
4.
It is in
the finale Allegro molto that we encounter, for
the first time, many of the characteristics of the
Beethoven-to-be. It opens with another leaping phrase,
and the exploratory and explosive movement alternates
and contrasts abrupt gestures with the flowing melody
first announced by the strings. After hints, decoys,
abrupt dynamic contrasts and surprise key-changes, an
unexpected 16 bar final outburst ends the movement, and
the symphony.
In the
context of 1802, Beethoven’s Second symphony must have
sounded strangely big and bold and it excited alarm
among early audiences who gave the work a stormy
reception. We hear it now, looking backward to the
Viennese classic tradition, whilst being aware that the
Eroica is just round the corner.
I believe
it is an underestimated work by a great composer.
Beecham certainly recognised it as a work which, with
tender, loving musical care and sensitive
interpretation, could be defined as the most lovable of
Beethoven’s symphonies.
INTERVAL
Modest
Petrovich MUSSORGSKY (1839-81) Russia
A Night
on the Bare Mountain
Of the 19th
century Russian nationalist composers, Mussorgsky
possesses the most powerful and original genius; he was
also the most intensely Russian. He abandoned the
romantic musical conventions of the period, in order to
depict human nature in all its variety and his style is
rooted in Russian folk-song and influenced by the folk
tales he heard in childhood. His capacity for sustained
and orderly work was impaired by the poverty of his
mature years, which bound him to an ill-paid job in the
civil service; still more, by the habit of excessive
drinking which he had acquired during his youth as an
officer in the guards. Thus his genius remained largely
unfulfilled; and he left behind him a mass of unfinished
material, much of it in a chaotic state.
It was left
to Rimsky-Korsakov to complete much of
Mussorgsky’s unfinished material and to attempt to
restore order to his chaotic legacy. As it stands, the
version of A Night on the Bare Mountain which you
will hear this evening is not by Mussorgsky at all, but
by Rimsky-Korsakov. The last movement of Berlioz’s
Symphonie Fantastique had made a deep impression
on Mussorgsky and in 1867 he completed, “with God’s
help”, an orchestral work with a Witches’ Sabbath
programme called St. John’s Night on the Bare
Mountain. For his part in the opera-ballet Mlada
(a curious enterprise, to which several different
composers were to contribute) he recast this piece,
adding choral parts in “demon language”, and he re-used
it once more (or intended to do so) in Sorochinsky
Fair. It is on this last version that the Rimsky
revision is based. He re-orchestrated it having
seemingly forgotten that Mussorgsky’s original
orchestral version was quite complete. The difference
between the current version and the original is said to
be unusually great.
A Night
on a Bare Mountain,
proclaimed a critic in “The Musical Times” in 1898, is
as hideous a thing as we have ever heard…an orgy of
ugliness and an abomination. May we never hear it again.
Well, as
this enduringly popular piece is to be heard yet again
this evening, here is the specific programme followed by
the composer:
“A
subterranean noise of unearthly voices.
Apparition of the Spirits of Darkness, later of Satan.
Glorification of Satan.
Black
Mass.
Revelries of the Witches’ Sabbath.
Dispersion of the Evil Spirits, at the ringing of a
distant church bell.
Daybreak”
The music
follows the programme closely: quick switches from
pianissimo to fortissimo; wild shrieks from
high woodwind; solemn rites intoned in the brass. There
is a wild infernal dance ended by a church bell ringing
in the distance. After a sudden silence, the clarinet
plays an exquisite pastoral tune (borrowed by
Rimsky-Korsakov from Mussorgsky’s song, The Dream of
a Young Peasant). Dawn breaks and daylight
replaces the darkness of the sinister night.
Antonin
DVORAK (1841 – 1904) Bohemia
Slavonic
Dances Op, 46
At the end
of the 1870s the first set of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances
took London by storm. The musical public, for at least a
century had become accustomed to music by foreign
composers such as Handel, Chopin, Schumann and
particularly Mendelssohn. But here was music wearing
the strange, colourful apparel of folklore and as
invigorating as a breath of fresh air. Dvorak’s clean
harmony and rich melody, derived from the happy
simplicity of folk music, ensured a popularity for his
music which has scarcely diminished up to this day.
The early
influences of Wagner, Schumann and Liszt on Dvorak were
supplemented by the passion for homeland absorbed from
Smetana. This passion became a source of poetical
inspiration that was to remain with him throughout his
life. His friendship with Brahms developed Dvorak’s
technical skill to a high level of perfection and it was
Brahms who influenced the composition of his Slavonic
Dances.
The Berlin
publisher Simrock had experienced a huge success with
Brahms’ Hungarian Dances. The public had been enchanted
by their colour and exoticism so, hoping for further
success, Simrock invited Dvorak to compose a set of
Slavonic Dances. He was not disappointed. The Slavonic
Dances were enthusiastically received in Germany and
before long had introduced Dvorak’s name to Paris,
London and New York
The dances
were the most intensely Czech music he had written so
far. Composed for piano duet in the spring of 1878, they
were arranged for orchestra immediately afterwards. With
the exception of the second dance, all the dances follow
rhythmical models from the realm of Czech folk music
such as Dvorak, the son of an
innkeeper
and for years a musician at dances, had been familiar
with since his childhood. Their vivacity, glorious
melodic freshness and bold, brilliant orchestration
exert an immediate appeal.
1.
The first dance (C major, 3/4 time) is a superbly vital
and colourful example of the swaggering Furiant
– a rapid, challenging dance which owes
its rhythmical effectiveness to its alternation between
triple and duple time.
2.
Although Dvorak did not use actual folk tunes the second
dance (E minor) is modelled on a Ukrainian Dumka
which alternates abruptly between elegiac and fiery
episodes, the latter being based on a leaping dance.
5.
The Skocna, another quick, leaping dance (easier
to play than to dance, I guess!) is featured in the
fifth dance, which is in A major and 2/4 time.
7.
The seventh dance (C minor, 2/4) is also of the
Skocna type. It features a dialogue between the oboe
and bassoon, which leads into a vigorous closing Galop.
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