Download Programme Notes - Sage Gateshead

thursday 2 february 2012
Northern sinfonia
Hall one, The Sage Gateshead
Programme Notes
SCHUBERT SYMPHONY NO.5 IN B FLAT
MOZART PIANO CONCERTO NO.24 IN C MINOR, K491
INTERVAL
SCHUBERT SYMPHONY NO.6 IN C ‘LITTLE’
SCHUBERT 1797-1828
SYMPHONY NO.5 IN B FLAT, D485
Allegro - Andante con moto - Menuetto: Allegro molto - Allegro vivace
Otto Hatwig
He was a violinist and leader of the
orchestra at Vienna’s Burg Theatre.
It’s believed that Schubert’s first
six symphonies were first privately
performed at Hatwig’s home under his
supervision.
trio
A gentle contrasting central section of
a minuet, scherzo or march which was
originally written for three-part harmony.
ländler
A type of slow waltz which originated in
rural Austria. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
and Mahler used this dance form in their
works.
Franz Schubert’s fifth symphony was first performed by a private orchestra in
October 1816 – and after the last page of the score was turned at that concert its
wonderful music was to stay silent for more than a century.
It is one of the tragedies of music history that so much of Schubert’s orchestral
output was neglected, not only during his lifetime but also for many years afterwards.
The first five of his symphonies, the product of his teenage years, only began to
attract admirers in the 1930s, thanks largely to the development of gramophone
recordings and radio broadcasts. And of those early symphonies the Fifth, with its
high-spirited approach and lyrical melodies, proved the most popular.
Schubert made use of more modest forces than in his earlier creations. There are no
trumpets, drums or clarinets, making it more of a chamber symphony, ideally suited
to the small orchestra of Otto Hatwig which gave that first performance.
In his previous symphonies Schubert had aspired to the style of Ludwig van
Beethoven – his much more successful contemporary in Vienna – but the young man,
at this stage in his growth as a composer, failed to get to grips with the formidable
techniques and musical structures Beethoven was then developing.
In the Symphony no.5 in B flat Schubert is happier with the style of that earlier
Viennese master, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and he clearly felt more confident
working within the structure of an early Classical symphony, while at the same time
enhancing the form through his own melodic genius.
The Allegro movement opens the symphony with a happy little tune of which Mozart
himself would have been proud. This joyful theme is exchanged and developed
between the strings and the woodwinds.
A gentle, slightly melancholic song is presented in the lengthy Andante con moto
slow movement, introduced by the strings then enriched by the woodwinds. Some
wonderfully melodic exchanges then follow.
In contrast, the Menuetto opens with a vigorous theme which is developed by the
orchestra. At the centre of the movement is a trio in the form of a ländler.
The symphony reaches its exuberant climax in the Allegro vivace, a spirited rondo
which is again rich in melody and contrasts gentle chamber-like sections with louder,
more extrovert passages.
MOZART 1756-1791
PIANO CONCERTO NO.24 IN C MINOR, K491
Allegro – Larghetto – Allegretto
K491
This is the ‘Köchel number’ of the
concerto, a coding in the universally
accepted chronological catalogue of
Mozart’s compositions, which was
devised by the Austrian botanist,
mineralogist and massive Mozart fan
Ludwig von Köchel (1800-1877).
rondo
Literally a ‘round’, a piece of music in
which one section recurs intermittently.
Beethoven was deeply impressed, if not taken aback, by Mozart’s C minor piano
concerto at a concert in 1800. And when the finale was played he exclaimed,
despairingly, to his publisher seated next to him: “We shall never be able to do
anything like that!”
Beethoven, of course, did quite a lot like it, eventually – the finale of his
‘Appassionata’ sonata acknowledges the influence of K491 – but the point was
made: Mozart’s skill in combining virtuoso piano playing and symphonic melody in a
soloist-orchestra partnership was supreme, and transformed the concerto form for
all time.
The C minor work was written for one of Mozart’s own performances, and received
its premiere in the spring of 1786. Judging from the state of the original manuscript
it was written in a hurry, and some of the passages had not come easily, as they had
been reworked several times. It calls for the largest orchestra Mozart ever used for
a piano concerto. The greater use of oboes, clarinets and trumpets also testifies to
his great love of the wind instruments which his works were now helping to raise in
orchestral status.
The subdued Allegro opening in 3/4 time for strings, underpinned by the winds,
tiptoes in and soon gives way to the full orchestra’s version of the theme with its
upward-skipping notes. The piano enters this sombre, uncertain world cautiously but
then, as the theme is developed, enjoys a rich and harmonious partnership with the
orchestra.
The piano opens the delightful Larghetto with a simple lullaby-like tune which is then
elegantly expanded upon in rondo form by the winds and strings.
The Allegretto finale is a series of variations on a vigorous march theme which,
spurred on by the piano, presents those lately-liberated wind instruments in
particular with a joyful field day.
SCHUBERT 1797-1828
SYMPHONY NO.6 IN C, ‘LITTLE’, D589
Adagio, Allegretto - Andante - Presto - Allegro moderato
D589
The catalogue number of the work
prefixed by the initial of the surname
of Otto Erich Deutsch (1883-1967),
the Schubert scholar who codified the
composer’s works in the 1950s.
coda
‘Tail piece’. A musical display that
rounds off a movement and often
includes material heard earlier.
The visit of Gioachino Rossini’s opera company to Vienna in 1816 took that city by
storm, and the Italian style – light, lyrical melodies contrasting with sudden bursts of
passion and dramatic intensity – was soon fashionable music.
19-year-old Schubert didn’t want to be left behind: he was struggling against the
odds to establish himself as a freelance composer in the Austrian capital, and in the
next year he wrote two overtures ‘in the Italian style’ and began work on what he
called his ‘Little’ Symphony in C, completing it the following year.
Certainly, it has none of the profundity of his final ‘Great’ Symphony in C, and the
style is very much in the shadow of Schubert’s much more successful contemporary,
Ludwig van Beethoven, but D589 offers much tuneful and charming music.
The symphony opens with a slow and dignified Adagio, the wind players carrying an
elegiac theme which is answered by the strings. This leads into the Allegretto with
the woodwind launching into a bubbly little tune which is developed in dialogue with
the strings and then the full orchestra, concluding with a short but spirited coda.
The Andante begins with a stately, graceful tune, first for the strings then repeated
by the wind section. A scherzo marked Presto follows, which is strongly rhythmical
and very much in the Beethoven style – but if that composer’s presence looms large,
here Ludwig is wearing a Panama hat and white suit for the glorious sunshine-andwine Allegro moderato finale which contrasts stentorian chords with genial Italianstyle tunes, and dramatic flourishes with song-like passages.
Schubert could well have won over Vienna’s new Rossini fans with this symphony.
Sadly for the composer, who died at the age of 31, it was never published in his
lifetime.
All programme notes © Richard C. Yates