Download April 2, 3, 2016 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770

April 2, 3, 2016
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
German composer and pianist
Born 1770, Bonn, Germany; died 1827, Vienna, Austria
Coriolan Overture, Op. 62
First Classics performance: April 1, 1947, conducted by William Steinberg; most recent
performance: November 17, 1991, conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies; duration 8 minutes
This masterpiece of dramatic music by Beethoven was composed in 1807 for a performance
of a play by the same title. According to the composer, the author of the work on which the
music is based is not Shakespeare, whose tragedy Coriolanus is so very widely recognized, but
rather Heinrich Joseph von Collin (1771-1811), an Austrian poet and playwright. However, both
plays are based on the same legend in Roman history, dating from the early 5th century B.C. The
intent of Beethoven’s score is not to convey a narrative of the drama, but rather to represent the
persona and emotional conflicts of its principal character. That is the ‘official’ take on the piece
by most of Beethoven’s biographers. But there is a very big flip side to the story. Wagner, for
one, points out that Beethoven knew Shakespeare’s version intimately, and scored Op. 62
accordingly, believing that no one -- not even Collin -- would detect the difference. Moreover,
the English composer and witty historian Donald Tovey is certain exactly which lines from
Shakespeare inspired the tonal poetic music.
In sum, the legendary storyline:
Coriolanus is an invincible Roman general, whose contempt for corrupt politics leads to
popular distrust. In turn, he is banished from Rome. In bitterness he joins the enemies of the
Roman Empire. After directing great victories for his new allies, Coriolanus is ready to attack
Rome when his mother intercedes and convinces him to spare the Eternal City in which he was
born. He accedes to her plea, knowing he will be condemned as a traitor by his adopted allies,
who murder him in retribution.
Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli had some fine words for this brand of Latin politics:
Io rido, e il rider mio non passa dentro;
Io ardo, e l’arsion mia non par di fore.
I laugh, and my laughter is not within me;
I burn, and the fire is not seen outside.
The words are close to the persona of Beethoven himself - a severe and ironic critic of the
world at large but who had great faith in brave individuality. In Shakespeare’s Act V, Coriolanus
declares:
“I’ll never be such a gosling to obey instinct,
But stand as if a man were author of himself
And knew no other kin.”
Op. 62 begins with urgent accents leaving no doubt that tragedy is at hand -- ominous and
forbearing. In Beethoven’s inimitable manner, the principal theme is at once lyrical yet resolute,
even heroic. The music then proceeds to spin its tale, buffeted in turns from hope to dread, with
resolute phrases and imperious energy -- alas, to end in quiescent repose.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Hindemith
German composer
born: November 16, 1895, Hanau; died: December 28, 1963, Frankfurt
Mathis der Maler Symphony
Prelude: Concert of Angels
Interlude: The Entombment of Christ
Finale: The Temptation of St. Anthony
First Classics performance: November 18, 1935, conducted by Lajos Shuk; most recent
performance: April 5, 2003, conducted by JoAnn Falletta; duration 26 minutes
Inspired artistry, savvy theory and refined technique are the hallmarks of the music of
German composer Paul Hindemith. Moreover, the composer’s full catalog reveals a preference
for accessible themes and harmonies, all cast among the diverse styles of the first half of the 20th
century.
Hindemith began his career in 1915 as a conductor with the Frankfurt Opera at the famed
Alte-Oper (‘Old-Opera’ -- the same hall where the Buffalo Philharmonic performed on its
European tour in 1988). But it was the young maestro’s gift for composition that gained him
rapid recognition, and his prolific pen was soon to produce works for every conceivable
combination of instruments, including separate sonatas for each of the symphonic winds, brass,
percussion and strings. However, his expressive style did not always meet with official approval,
and by 1934 his music had so thoroughly alienated the Nazis (Goebbels accused him of being
‘spiritually non-Aryan’) that he was forced to leave Germany, taking up residence initially in
Turkey and then the United States, where he taught at Yale University from 1940 to 1953. As a
philosopher, Hindemith held that a composer’s role should be essentially pragmatic and
audience-oriented -- quite a contrast to those who claim that metaphysics is at the core of all
important music.
Hindemith’s third full-length opera titled Mathis der Maler was based on the composer’s
own libretto on the life of German painter Mathias Grünewald (1480-1528). Hindemith drew his
inspiration from the artist’s magnificent series of nine painted panels for the altarpiece at St.
Anthony’s Church in Isenheim, Germany. The opera concerns seven of the tableaus, from which
Hindemith derived the current symphonic suite.
Titled Prelude, the first movement represents the opera’s tormented heroine, Regina, who is
comforted by Mathis’ vision of an Angelic Concert (the subject of Grünewald’s Christmas
Panel). Ancient hymns are presented in the brass, with exquisite clouds from the string choir as
the musical allegory is revealed via Hindemith’s gift for intricate counterpoint.
The Interlude represents the moment of Regina’s death, associated with Grünewald’s
Entombment of Christ. Here the music is carried via muted pulses in the strings, over which the
solo flute and oboe whisper a mysterious descant.
Apart from the sequence of the opera’s storyline, the Finale represents Grünewald’s panel
titled The Temptation of St. Anthony. Hindemith offers a musical portrayal of Mathis who at one
point becomes distraught over a succession of beguiling apparitions: luxury, wealth, a beggar, a
courtesan, a martyr, scholarship and a knight in shining armour. Although transparent at every
turn, the score offers a complexity of 20th century modes, seasoned with biting rhythms and
intricate harmony, interrupted along the way with gentle episodes of misty color from the strings.
The work ends with a spectacular final chorale in the brass.
P.S. On a local note, at the invitation of Cameron Baird, Hindemith joined the faculty here at
UB for the spring semester in 1940. He had earlier conducted Mathis der Maler with the BPO on
April 23, 1937.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Ralph Vaughan Williams
English composer
born: October 12, 1872, Down Ampney; died: August 26, 1958, London
Dona Nobis Pacem for Soprano, Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra
Agnus Dei: Lento
Beat! Beat! Drums!: Allegro moderato
Reconciliation: Andantino
Dirge for Two Veterans: Moderato alla marcia
Finale: Listesso tempo
These are the first performances of this work on the Classics series; duration 35 minutes
Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is well known for his many original scores written from
the heart and hearth of the British Isles. Included are the mode and manner his nine symphonies,
a trove of chamber music, about 80 settings for voice, and dozens of scores for theater and films.
He once noted:
“Have we not all about us forms of musical expression which we can take and purify and
raise to the level of great art? For instance, the lilt of the chorus at a music-hall joining in a
popular song, the children dancing to a barrel-organ, the rousing fervor of a Salvation Army
hymn, St. Paul’s and a great choir singing in one of its festivals, the Welshmen striking up one of
their own hymns whenever they score a goal in an international soccer match, the cries of street
peddlers, the factory girls singing their sentimental songs. Have all these nothing to say to us?
Every composer cannot expect to have a world-wide message, but he may reasonably expect to
have a special message for his own people, and many young composers make the mistake of
imagining that they can be universal without at first having been local.”
Doubtless, we may take the composer at his word, given that so much of his music is blended
with the color and accent of the United Kingdom. The same applies even when themes or text are
derived from remote origins, as in the case of the lyrical drama Dona Nobis Pacem, a cantata
scored in 1936.
As an evocation of the presentiments of World War II, the piece reflects a melange of
sources. After a solo praeludium, the work begins with the Agnus Dei from the Roman mass. In
turn follows verse selected from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, the “Angel of Death” speech by
Quaker John Bright to the House of Commons in 1855, and quotations from the St. James Bible.
The various texts are embellished with a fully symphonic treatment, featuring a lavish chorus
and soprano and baritone soloists. In particular, the chorus provides a gripping sense of urgency
with interludes of haunting pathos. In sum, the work is a continuous narrative (played without
pause) – an evocation of the harsh reality and consequences of war.