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Classics IV Brother-and-Sister Geniuses Program Notes Overture in C major Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel Born in Hamburg, November 14, 1805; died in Berlin, May 14, 1847 Fanny Mendelssohn was the oldest of the Mendelssohn siblings, born into a cultured Jewish family—her grandfather was the celebrated philosopher Moses Mendelssohn—though she and the immediate family converted to Lutheranism in the post-Enlightenment atmosphere of Berlin. She received the same wide-ranging education that her brother Felix did, which included piano lessons with Ludwig Berger and composition studies with C. F. Zelter. She and her brother Felix were extremely close, always consulting about their artistic pursuits, but while he encouraged her composing he drew the line at publication as something unseemly for women at the time. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, drawing by her husband, Wilhelm Hensel, 1836 Once Felix married, the intensity of Fanny’s relationship with him lessened and she did venture to publish on her own. Fanny married Prussian court painter Wilhelm Hensel in 1829, and became a leading figure in the Berlin arts scene, holding regular salons where many of her compositions were heard, and where she often played piano or conducted. She died suddenly of a stroke in 1847, greatly mourned by Felix and the whole of her close family, only months before he too succumbed to a stroke. Fanny’s over five hundred compositions consist mainly of piano pieces and songs, but she did compose several large-scale dramatic works—the Lobgesang, the cantata Hiob, and the Oratorium nach Bildern der Bibel, all in 1831, and the dramatic scene Hero und Leander the following year. The Overture in C major, her only orchestral work, also dates from between March 29 and May 1832 (though often listed as c. 1830), but remained unheard until Fanny herself conducted a performance, “horribly shy and embarrassed with every stroke,” as she reported to Felix, at her residence on June 15, 1834, with musicians from the Konigstadt Theater orchestra. Nevertheless, she reported, “It greatly pleased me to hear this piece for the first time after two years and to find that almost everything was as I had imagined it to be.” The first performance since that time took place on June 7, 1986, at the Frankfurt Opera House by the Clara-Schumann-Orchester, conducted by Elke Mascha Blankenburg, at the Fest der tausend Frauen (Festival of One Thousand Women). Since then the work has been championed by the Women’s Philharmonic, whose recording, conducted by JoAnn Falletta, was released in 1992. The Overture in C major shows a certain kinship with Felix’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture of 1828, both as to structure—a slow introduction with transition to a fast section—and even perhaps as to some wave motion in the accompaniment to the second theme. Mendelssohn scholar Larry Todd also suspects the influence of her brother’s Trumpet Overture (1826) in her brass fanfares, but notes that she must have also known Carl Maria von Weber’s overtures and absorbed the influences of Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. Her use of four rather than two horns suggests a celebratory atmosphere, and she teases her listeners with a “false reprise” of the first theme before the recapitulation proper. A great build-up the final chords provides a wonderfully emphatic ending. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings Concierto de Aranjuez Joaquín Rodrigo Born in Sagunto, Valencia, November 22, 1901; died in Madrid, July 6, 1999 Of the few internationally renowned guitar concertos— including those by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Manuel Ponce, and Villa-Lobos—the Concierto de Aranjuez of Rodrigo is probably the most universally popular. Rodrigo, blind since the age of three, showed great musical talent and was sent to study in Paris, where he became a student of Paul Dukas. In the 1930s he traveled extensively in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, returning to Spain with the outbreak of war in 1939, the year he composed his guitar concerto. Although he was highly regarded by Dukas, and also by his friend Manuel de Falla, he did not receive public recognition until the premiere of the Concierto, which took place in Barcelona, November 9, 1940, with Regino Sainz de la Maza as soloist. Rodrigo became famous overnight. Joaquín Rodrigo, 1938 The title refers to the ancient royal Aranjuez palace, associated particularly with Charles I and Philip II, located between Madrid and Toledo. Its beauty is said to be tinged with a somberness that pervades much of Spain’s historic heritage. While the Concierto shows some of that mixture, the predominant mood is sunny. “It should sound like the hidden breeze that stirs the treetops,” said the composer, “as strong as a butterfly, as dainty as a veronica.” The first movement, in sonata form, is based on the rhythm of the fandango, which highlights the shift between 6/8 and 3/4 meter, or the alternation of two and three beats in a measure. The heart-melting Adagio begins with a duet between the English horn and guitar, and may hint at the castle’s (or its occupants’?) darker hues. It is this movement that contains an extended guitar cadenza rather than one of the fast outer movements. The buoyant finale, Allegro gentile, is characterized by sudden rhythmic shifts, again capitalizing on the juxtaposition of two versus three beats per bar. Perhaps the most miraculous aspect of the work is the finesse of its scoring. Everyone agrees that pitting a guitar against an orchestra creates challenges for balance, yet Rodrigo often manages to circumvent them with transparent orchestral textures. The writing for the guitar is demanding but idiomatic. Given its share of melodic material, the guitar also allows other instruments the spotlight, such as the cello in the Allegro con spirito or the English horn in the Adagio. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Scored for 2 flutes, 2nd doubling piccolo, 2 oboes, 2nd doubling English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, and strings Symphony No. 3 in A minor, op. 56, “Scottish” Felix Mendelssohn Born in Hamburg, February 3, 1809; died in Leipzig, November 4, 1847 Mendelssohn took his first trip to Great Britain in April 1829. After giving four large-scale concerts in London, he made a trip to Edinburgh in July. There he visited the Holyrood Castle, writing home on July 30: In darkening twilight today, we went to the Palace [of Holyrood] where Queen Mary lived and loved. There is a little room to be seen there with a spiral staircase at its door. That is where they went up and found Rizzio [Italian musician, Mary’s lover] in the room, dragged him out, and three chambers away there is a dark corner where they murdered him. The chapel beside it has lost its roof and is Felix Mendelssohn, watercolor portrait by overgrown with grass and ivy, and at that broken James Warren Childe, 1829 altar Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything there is ruined, decayed and open to the clear sky. I believe that I have found there today the beginning of my Scottish Symphony. He immediately sketched out the opening sixteen measures of the Symphony, but it was a long time before he returned to it. Meanwhile he wrote his Italian and Reformation symphonies, and only took up his Scottish Symphony again in 1841. Completing it on January 20, 1842, Mendelssohn himself conducted the first performance from the manuscript with his Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig on March 3, 1842. He made a few revisions and the final version was performed two weeks later by Karl Bach, conductor of the Leipzig Opera. Mendelssohn visited England for the seventh time at the end of May and on June 13 his Scottish Symphony was performed by the Philharmonic Society. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, ardent admirers and performers of his chamber music and songs, received the composer twice; Mendelssohn dedicated the Symphony to the queen in gratitude. It was the last of his symphonies to be completed (the symphonies were composed in the order 1, 5, 4, 2, 3), but it was published third, in 1843. Though Mendelssohn typically referred to it as his Scottish Symphony, the nickname did not appear on the published score. Consequently, Robert Schumann, in his role as music journal reporter, reviewed the Symphony thinking it was written in Rome and that it reflected Mendelssohn’s Italian travels. Such an interpretation from an extremely astute musician only points up the subjective nature of musical perception! In the slow introduction, the theme—representing his somber thoughts upon seeing the ruin of Holyrood Castle—is only slightly altered from the original sketch. Whenever the composer was inspired by an extramusical experience he nevertheless adhered to Classic abstract forms—in this case, sonata form. His recapitulation is somewhat modified, saving the transition theme (Assai animato), which had led from the first theme to the second, for the coda. Most notably he brings back the slow introduction as a link to the scherzo. The second movement shows Mendelssohn’s fondness for employing sonata form for a scherzo instead of the traditional scherzo–trio–scherzo form. He also opted for duple rather than the customary triple meter. His vivacious main theme suggests a Scottish melody in its characteristic short-long rhythm at the end of each phrase. The Adagio begins with a nine-measure introduction that contains the seeds for the entire movement: the movement’s main theme, a flowing violin melody, is previewed by fragments, particularly the two-note “sighs” and accompanying arpeggiated chords, and the contrasting martial theme is represented in short segments of repeated notes with dotted rhythms. The flowing and martial themes alternate throughout the movement. Mendelssohn’s designation “guerriero” (warlike) for the sonata-form last movement may have had some programmatic significance in his mind—perhaps a Scottish battle; after all there was a whole history of “battle” pieces, including Beethoven’s recent Wellington’s Victory, known as the Battle Symphony (1816). It has become unfashionable to discuss music in blow-by-blow terms and especially to attach a narrative to someone else’s pre-existing work. Nonetheless, indulging in a bit of early nineteenth-century–style description, we might be tempted to associate the main theme with galloping horses in preparation for battle. The second theme, akin to the slow introduction of the first movement, might represent a kind of distant fanfare (played by winds rather than brass). Certainly things “heat up” in the development, and the triumphant coda (Mendelssohn’s “Finale maestoso”)—based on a major-key theme related again to the Symphony’s opening theme—can easily be heard as a victory. Nevertheless, without Mendelssohn’s one little word “guerriero,” such speculation might never arise and the piece is just as easily appreciated on abstract terms. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings Note: The following desires of the composer preface the printed score: “The separate movements of this Symphony must follow one another directly and not be separated by the usual long pauses. For the listener the contents of the separate movements can be given on the concert program as follows: Introduction—Allegro agitato— Scherzo assai vivace— Adagio cantabile— Allegro guerriero—Finale maestoso.” Therefore they are listed this way on the present program despite the fact that the designations appear as follows on the respective movements in the same score: Andante con moto—Allegro un poco agitato— Vivace non troppo— Adagio— Allegro vivacissimo—Allegro maestoso assai.