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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.