Download Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Programme Notes Online
Henry E Rensburg Series
Bach Concerti
Thursday 11 May 2017 7.30pm
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
Concerto in D for string orchestra ‘Basle Concerto’
Vivace / Lively
Arioso: andantino / Arioso: at a gentle walking pace
Rondo: allegro / Rondo: fast
Though church and courtly patronage of composers had virtually
died out by the mid-19th century, affluent and influential individuals
continued to support musicians, their largesse buying composers
the necessary time and wherewithal for the exacting demands of
their craft. Which great works of Tchaikovsky may never have been
written without the help of the wealthy, music-loving widow
Nadezhda von Meck, who supported the composer from afar on the
agreement that the two should never meet? And both Wagner’s
vast four-part Ring Cycle and the lavish Bayreuth Festspielhaus
specially built for its performances would likely not have been
completed but for the extraordinarily generous (or insanely
profligate) spending power of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
Institutions such as the BBC aside, probably the most open-handed
and far-sighted patron of new music in the 20th century was the
Swiss philanthropist and conductor Paul Sacher (1906-99), founder
of the Basle Chamber Orchestra. The list of composers
commissioned to write new works by Sacher reads like a Who’s
Who of 20th-century music and includes Béla Bartók, Harrison
Birtwistle, Benjamin Britten, Elliott Carter, Henri Dutilleux, Hans
Werner Henze, Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger, Witold
Lutosławski, Frank Martin, Bohuslav Martinů and Richard Strauss.
Stravinsky was a particular favourite of Sacher’s (who was to
acquire the Stravinsky estate in 1983) and it is therefore not
surprising that when, in 1946, Sacher was seeking new pieces to
celebrate the 20th anniversary of his orchestra, Stravinsky was duly
approached. The result was the Concerto in D for strings, a work
premiered by Sacher and the Basle Chamber Orchestra in January
1947 along with two other new Sacher commissions, Honegger’s
Symphony No.4 and Martinů’s Toccata e due Canzoni.
Composed in Hollywood just after Stravinsky gained US citizenship,
the Concerto in D is written in the neo-classical style of the
composer’s middle period and draws for its model on the concerto
grosso genre of the Baroque era with its bipartate division between
a small group of soloists (the concertino) and the main body of
instruments (the ripieno or tutti). However, unlike earlier works of
Stravinsky’s neo-classical period such as the Violin Concerto and
the opera-oratorio Oedipus rex, here Stravinsky takes a less cynical
and less emotionally detached pleasure in appropriating an old
musical form.
The work’s three-movement structure (fast, slow, fast) corresponds
to that of the Baroque concerto grosso, as does its brief duration
(Stravinsky accepted Sacher’s commission on the understanding
that the work would be ‘ten to twelve minutes, like Bach’s
Brandenburg Concertos’). Its opening Vivace begins with a series of
chords that set up a creative tension between the keys of D major
and D minor. Dry, spiky rhythms characterise the movement’s two
outer sections, while the slower central section (Moderato) is a
pleasingly faltering, stop-start affair that hints at the exotic. The
Arioso slow movement is Stravinsky at his most lyrical, though
typically the melodic line is never predictable and is punctuated at
two points by incongruous and harmonically unrelated perfect
cadences that in their no-nonsense forthrightness heighten the
strange beauty that surrounds them. The concluding rondo oozes
nervous tension, its energetic principal theme interspersed by a
series of contrasting episodes.
Anthony Bateman © 2017
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)
Harpsichord Concerto No.5 in F minor, BWV 1056
Allegro – / Fast –
Largo – / Very slow –
Presto / Very fast
Bach was a man who delighted in taking existing forms and
adapting them, renewing them with his own indelible musical
imprint. He drew upon the music of his age, and shifted its content
or context to create new effects – such as the German chorale
tunes utilised throughout the Passions. The intended effect was, in
part at least, to encourage his listeners to hear familiar material with
fresh ears: a call no doubt echoed by tonight’s artists. We, the
audience, may think we know some of this music – but let us open
our ears, and listen again. As Igor Stravinsky put it, with
characteristically sardonic humour: “To listen is an effort, and just to
hear has no merit. A duck hears also.”
Prior to his appointment, in 1729, as director of the Leipzig
‘collegium musicum’ (a musical society established by Telemann),
Bach had devoted himself to writing sacred music for some six
years. Having amassed such a substantial archive of sacred works,
and with fine instrumentalists at his disposal, Bach began to
channel his energies into secular works for performance at the
collegium’s weekly concerts. Among these are the seven keyboard
concertos BWV 1052-1058, which date from the 1730s. Like the
Brandenburg Concertos, the works were intended to be published
as a group – initially as a set of six, BWV 1052-1057, to which BWV
1058 and the fragment BWV 1059 have been added.
Although the concertos, like so much of Bach’s output, draw upon
his previous compositions, they also represent a significant step
forward in the history of the keyboard concerto. Bach emancipated
the keyboard from its purely harmonic function as a continuo
instrument; it is still used to provide harmonic foundation in the tutti
sections of the concerto, but in its solo passages is given idiomatic,
soloistic writing in dialogue with the ensemble. In particular, the lefthand part evolved into a more independent and characterful musical
entity.
This fresh compositional approach may to some extent have been
inspired by the new harpsichord acquired by the collegium musicum
in 1733, which was heralded in a concert advertisement as “a new
Clavicymbel, the like of which has never been heard here before”.
This emphasis on the new was a recurrent theme in the collegium’s
programmes: Bach was keen to deliver the most cutting-edge
repertoire, artists and instruments to his audiences. Indeed, Bach
was involved with Gottfried Siebermann’s fortepiano constructions
in the mid-1730s; but the timbre of those early models would have
been too remote for the collegium’s outdoor concerts in Leipzig’s
coffee garden.
The Concerto No.5 in F minor, BWV 1056, opens with a sombre
motif based on the F minor arpeggio, a motif which pervades the
whole movement and lends it its sense of inexorable forwardmotion. The keyboard part is dominated by flowing triplets in the
right hand, which serve both to decorate the pervasive motif and to
demonstrate the soloist’s skill. It is thought that this movement, and
the final Presto, use material from an earlier violin concerto,
whereas the central Largo stems from one of Bach’s oboe
concertos. Recycling of this kind was standard practice for
composers during Bach’s era, but one would never guess: the
keyboard writing is of such idiomatic dexterity that it feels bespoke.
The Largo was also used by Bach as the sinfonia to his cantata Ich
Steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe, BWV 156 – and it is easy to
understand why he was so fond of this music, with its exquisite,
seemingly eternal melody weaving its way around a delicate
pizzicato accompaniment. It is in the final Presto that the left-hand’s
new-found freedom comes into its own. Bach creates a sense of
dialogue not only between soloist and ensemble, but between the
two hands of the keyboard part itself. The result is a movement full
of rhetorical weight and compelling dramatic intensity.
Joanna Wyld © 2017
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D major, BWV 1050
Allegro / Fast
Affettuoso / With tenderness
Allegro / Fast
The most innovative of Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos is almost
universally recognised to be the Fifth, probably the last-written of the
set. In this work the harpsichord is ‘promoted’ from its vital, but
essentially supportive, continuo role to that of a solo instrument,
enjoying numerous virtuosic and exposed passages. This forwardlooking treatment of the instrument undoubtedly paved the way for
the development of the solo keyboard concerto.
Furthermore, Bach employed the fashionable new transverse flute
for the Fifth Concerto, in place of the recorders (Blockflöte) used for
Nos. 2 and 4. Alongside the flute and harpsichord soloists is the
violin; Bach’s use of these three soloists contrasted with the larger
ensemble identifies the work as essentially a concerto grosso, but
with the harpsichord’s solo in the first movement, as well as its later
prominent passages, Bach includes solo concerto elements.
The central Affetuoso is basically a trio sonata, in which the three
solo instruments perform without support from the larger ensemble
(ripieno). As with the Concerto No.3, Bach plays with texture,
shifting the flute, violin and harpsichord between soloistic
(concertino) and supportive (ripieno) roles. In this movement Bach
also reveals a particularly sympathetic understanding of the
transverse flute’s expressive capabilities. The dancing, gigue-like
final Allegro bestrides both France and Italy: the structure is
Italianate, but the elegantly expressive grace notes in the tutti violin
and viola lines are quintessentially French.
Yet again, Bach’s technical accomplishment in fusing different
elements is not merely intellectually worthy. On the contrary, the
delightful nature of Bach’s music is so abundant that the listener
cannot fail to hear it, in Telemann’s words, ‘with joy’.
Joanna Wyld © 2017
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Harpsichord Concerto No.1 in D minor, BWV 1052
Allegro – / Fast –
Adagio – / Slow –
Allegro / Fast
Like the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, the Harpsichord Concerto No.1
in D minor, BWV 1052, is a magnificent display work for the
keyboard. Again, Bach reworked existing material – and, again, it
hardly shows. The music originated as a violin concerto, which was
then rearranged for organ in 1728, and then employed in Bach’s
cantatas BWV 146 (featuring the first two concerto movements) and
BWV 188 (which uses the final movement).
However, in the first movement alone, Bach’s re-workings are so
extensive that they encompass swathes of intricate passagework
which could only have been written for the keyboard, displaying the
virtuosic capabilities of the instrument in its solo capacity. In
contrast, the central Adagio is a work of profound contemplation; the
left hand returns to its more accompanimental role beneath the right
hand’s enigmatic, meandering melodic line. In the final Allegro,
Bach weaves together a rich tapestry of sound, deftly alternating the
prominence of soloist and ensemble to create scintillating dialogue,
paving the way for the solo concertos of the future. Indeed, Bach’s
thirst for innovation during this period was such that he followed this
set of concertos with concertos for two, three and even four
harpsichords. For all his reliance on previously written material,
Bach was a composer who relished experimenting with the new.
Joanna Wyld © 2017
IGOR STRAVINSKY
Danses Concertantes
Marche-Introduction / March-Introduction
Pas d’Action: con moto – meno mosso – tempo primo – / Pas
d’Action: With movement – less quickly – at the first speed –
Thème varié: lento / Theme and variations: very slow
Variation I: allegretto / quite fast
Variation II: scherzando – meno mosso – tempo primo / with
humour – less quickly – at the first speed
Variation III: andantino / at a gentle walking pace
Variation IV (coda): tempo giusto / in strict time
Pas de Deux: (risoluto) – andante sostenuto – più mosso –
andante sostenuto / Pas de Deux: (resolutely) – at a sustained
walking pace – faster – at a sustained walking pace
Marche-Conclusion / March-Conclusion
Danses Concertantes looks and sounds like a ballet score.
Officially, however, it is a concert piece, commissioned by the
Werner Janssen Orchestra and first performed by that ensemble
under the composer’s direction in Los Angeles in February 1942.
Even so, according to George Balanchine, who had already
choreographed three Stravinsky ballets, the work had been
conceived for the theatre. If that is true, it looks as though the
composer had accepted Janssen’s commission and rethought a
score he was already working on. Certainly, within two years
Danses Concertantes was successfully choreographed by
Balanchine for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in New York and
it has been presented in several different choreographic
interpretations since then.
Scored for one each of flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, two
horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani and strings, Danses
Concertantes is a delightful work whether performed in the
concert hall or the theatre – not least because of the rhythmic
ingenuity, the stylish melodies, the finely focused harmonies and
the lucid textures characteristic of the neo-classical manner
developed by Stravinsky ever since he had completed Pulcinella
more than 20 years earlier. Another attractive quality of the work
is that it was written as a ‘Concerto for small orchestra,’ as it is
described in the manuscript but not, strangely, in the published
score. In spite of the colourful writing for the two horns, this
concertante aspect is not as prominent in the brisk introductory
march as in most later movements. The eventful Pas d’action (a
ballet term indicating a dance that tells a story), purposefully
shaped by a ritornello for strings, makes a feature of the
woodwind soloists at an early stage and again in the Meno
mosso (slower) middle section where flute and clarinet delicately
accompany four solo violins. A flute and bassoon duo is joined by
clarinet and oboe before the last return of the string ritornello.
A sustained clarinet note connects the Pas d’action directly to the
central Thème varié section, the theme of which is introduced by
the flute, very quietly echoed by bassoon and repeated in high
profile by a horn and finally muted trumpet, each instrument with
a slightly different version of the melody but retaining the rising
fifth with which it begins. The first of the four variations is a horn
solo that briefly makes way for violins and violas in dotted rhythm.
A wittily rhythmic scherzo, the second variation gently satirises
romantically inclined solo violins in a slower middle section. The
third variation, which offers a variety of melodious woodwind
ensembles with occasional comments from horns and strings, is
followed by a prancing coda in 6/8 almost throughout.
The Pas de deux (often in ballet a romantic duet for the principal
male and female dancers) is based on the melodious clarinet and
oboe duet which follows the introductory string and woodwind
flourishes and which recurs at the end. In the meantime there are
several contrasting episodes, two with a trombone solo, two with
decorative woodwind cadenzas. The work ends with an
abbreviated recall of the opening march which again hints at but
avoids a direct quotation from Stravinsky’s favourite Schubert
Marche militaire.
Gerald Larner © 2017