Download Program Notes for March 9, 2014

Program Notes for March 9, 2014
By Ellen Schmidt
Symphony No. 7 “Le Midi”
Franz Joseph Haydn 1732-1809
Haydn was born in the small Austrian village of Rohrau. His musical gifts were
apparent when he was quite young, but the opportunities to develop them in Rohrau were
virtually non-existent, so at the age of five he was sent to live in the town of Hainburg,
twelve miles away, with Johann Matthias Frankh, a relative who was the schoolmaster
and choirmaster there. He sang in the choir and learned to play the harpsichord and
violin. At the age of eight, he was recruited to join the choir of the prestigious St.
Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, where he was exposed to much of the best music of the
time. It was only after he left St. Stephen’s nine years later that he began to study
composition with Italian composer and voice teacher Nicola Porpora, while he served as
Porpora’s accompanist and valet. In 1761 he was hired as Kapellmeister, or music
director, by Prince Anton Esterhazy, a position he held for the next 29 years.
The Symphony No. 7, named by Haydn himself Le Midi (Afternoon), was the second
of three symphonies following the course of the day which he composed shortly after he
began his service with the Esterhazys. Exactly how Haydn saw the work as expressing
“afternoon” is unclear. It is reminiscent of the Baroque concerto grosso, with two violins
and a cello as soloists.
The work opens with a stately introduction in the style of the French overture, with
its dotted rhythms and slow tempo. Bustling strings then burst in with the principal
theme. A brief second subject is heard in the solo cello. Movement two, marked Adagio,
has a recitative-like introduction. There is a cadenza by the violin and cello before the
orchestra brings the movement to its close. The third movement is a lilting minuet with a
more lyric trio in which the French horn has a prominent role. The lively fourth
movement, in sonata allegro form, adds the flute to the solo instruments.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Chopin’s father was a Frenchman who immigrated to Poland and made his living
teaching French; his mother was Polish. Frederic was a child prodigy – by the age of
eight he was performing in public and composing polonaises, mazurkas, and waltzes for
the piano. Though he moved to Paris when he was twenty and never returned to Poland,
his love of his native country never left him and the flavor of its songs and dances can be
heard in many of his works. Following his death from tuberculosis at the age of 39, his
body was buried in Paris, but his heart was taken to Warsaw, where it remains in a shrine
in the Church of the Holy Cross.
Chopin’s composition teacher recognized his genius and encouraged him to compose
symphonies and operas, but Chopin decided at a young age to write only for the
instrument he loved, the piano. Music historian Harold Schonberg writes that “As a
pianist he created a style that dominated the entire second half of the nineteenth
century…For the first time the piano became a total instrument, a singing instrument, an
instrument of infinite color, poetry, and nuance, a heroic instrument, an intimate
instrument…As a composer, Chopin has survived all changes of fashion and is as popular
today as he ever was. Almost everything he composed is in the active repertoire.”
Although the Piano Concerto in F minor is designated Chopin’s second concerto, it
actually was composed earlier than the first. It was published second because during his
extended journey from Warsaw to Paris in 1830-31, the orchestral parts were lost and had
to be written out again. Chopin found this task very tedious, and the concerto was not
published until 1836, despite being premiered in Warsaw on March 17, 1830, when he
was barely 20 years old. So many people had been turned away from that concert that a
second performance was given just two days later.
Chopin’s orchestration was considered by some later composers to be inadequate,
with the orchestra serving as just a background rather than being in dialogue with the
piano. Several of them actually reorchestrated it, but their attempts were unsuccessful,
and today we hear the concerto as Chopin wrote it.
The first movement, marked Maestoso, is in sonata allegro form, and it has a double
exposition. The orchestra first presents both the vigorous first theme (in the strings) and
the songlike second theme (introduced by the oboe) before the piano enters and presents
both themes again, although in a more elaborate fashion. Only the first theme is
expanded upon in the development section. However, after the orchestra brings in the
recapitulation, the first theme is played only briefly while the second is extended.
Movement two is marked Larghetto and is in ternary form. A soulful nocturne is
followed by a more passionate middle section played over tremolo strings, and then the
nocturne returns and the movement closes in a wistful, dreamy fashion. Chopin told a
friend that this movement was inspired by his unrequited love for a young soprano and
fellow student. The concluding movement is marked Allegro Vivace and draws upon
Polish folk dance rhythms.
Masques and Bergamasques, Suite for Orchestra, Op. 112
Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)
Faure was born in Pamiers, a small town in the south of France, where his father was a
school headmaster. As a child he learned to play the harmonium, a small organ, in the
school’s chapel. In 1853, an official of the National Assembly heard the boy play and
encouraged his father to enroll him in the Niedermeyer School of Classical and Religious
Music in Paris, 500 miles away! Faure stayed at the school for eleven years, graduating
at twenty and receiving prizes in piano, organ, harmony, and composition. He was
greatly influenced by Camille Saint-Saens, a teacher at the school who became a lifelong
friend.
Early in his career Faure made his living as a church organist and piano teacher,
composing when he found time. In 1896 he was appointed professor of composition at
the Paris Conservatory, and he spent his summers in the country composing. Among his
students at the Conservatory were Maurice Ravel, George Enescu, and Nadia Boulanger.
Musicologist Henri Prunieres writes that “What Faure developed among his pupils was
taste, harmonic sensibility, and the love of pure lines, of unexpected and colorful
modulations; but he never gave them recipes for composing according to his style, and
that is why they all sought and found their own paths in many different, and often
opposed, directions.” He was a founding member of the Societe Nationale de Musique,
which had been established in 1871 to promote new French music. Other members
included Saint-Saens, Cesar Franck, Edouard Lalo, and Jules Massenet. Many of Faure’s
works were premiered at the Societe’s concerts. He became director of the Conservatory
in 1905 and held that position until he retired in 1920. In his last years he was recognized
as the leading French composer of his time.
Annotator Max Derrickson writes that “there are few composers how can match the
sheer loveliness of Faure’s music. Whether he was writing a melancholic or a sprightly
piece, beauty for Faure was always paramount – his compositions nearly always achieved
a perfect balance between melody and harmony, with a remarkable beauty….Masques
and Bergamasques, written near the end of his long career, illustrates this wonderfully.”
Masques and Bergamasques was composed in 1919 for King Albert I of Monaco, who
had requested a one-act divertissement, a danced and sung entertainment, for the Monte
Carlo Theater, to be composed by Faure in collaboration with librettist Rene Fauchois.
Faure biographer Jessica Duchen writes that the work is best described as a lyric comedy
set in the 18th century. The title was taken from a poem by French poet Paul Verlaine and
refers to the masks of classic Italian comedy characters and an old Italian dance from the
town of Bergamo. The program for the premiere stated that “The comic characters
Harlequin, Gilles, and Colombine, whose task is usually to amuse the aristocratic
audience, take their turn at being spectators at a masked ball on the island of Cythera.
The lords and ladies, who as a rule applaud their efforts, now unwittingly provide them
with entertainment by their coquettish behavior.”
The Suite for Orchestra consists of four orchestral numbers taken from the stage
work. It opens with an overture, marked Allegro molto vivo, with a syncopated first
theme and a more lyric second theme. The second movement, in ¾ time, is a stately
minuet with a fanfare-like trio. Movement three is a sprightly gavotte, a dance in duple
meter. Its first theme is rather boisterous, while the second is more genteel. The work
closes with a gentle pastorale in which an echo of the syncopated theme from the
overture heard.