Download March 19, 20, 2016 Franz Schreker Austrian composer born: March

March 19, 20, 2016
Franz Schreker
Austrian composer
born: March 23, 1878, Monaco; died: March 21, 1934, Berlin, Germany
The Birthday of the Infanta
First Classics performance: January 3, 2003, conducted by JoAnn Falletta; duration 7 minutes
CD recordings and the internet have saved a lot of deserving music from permanent obscurity.
Among these lucky survivors is The Birthday of the Infanta, a ballet score completed in Vienna
in 1908 by the almost-forgotten Franz Schreker. For his part, Schreker came to maturity just as
the artistic Zeitgeist (spirit of the times) headed straight into the near-chaos of the modern world.
Richard Strauss and Mahler were the dominant tail winds, but Debussy and Stravinsky brought
new creative storms from each side, and the future looked doubtful, with intrepid moderns like
Schöenberg spreading rumors about music without tonality, no predictable form, maybe not even
melody.
So, after the downbeat of 1900, one can understand why Schreker would be taken up by the
cross winds which prevailed in music, literature and poetry, painting, theater and philosophy. He
identified himself with the Szessionist (secessionist) painters like Paul Klimt, and with the free
spirits of playwrights like Britain’s Oscar Wilde, who wrote the novella The Birthday of the
Infanta. The evocative storyline became the primary source for Schreker’s ballet by the same
name, completed in 1908, revised in 1923.
Wilde derived his narrative from the stories surrounding the more than twenty portraits of
King Philip IV of Spain, his Queen, Maria Anna of Austria, and their daughter, the Infanta Dona
Margarita, all painted by the Spanish master Diego Velazquez (1599-1660). The canvases reveal
the royal family in various postures, including some with the Infanta’s favorite court jesters, the
dwarfs Maribarbola and Nicolasito.
Wilde’s beautiful prose tells the tale of how a ‘little Dwarf’ fell in love with the Infanta on her
twelfth birthday. The Dwarf mistakes the Infanta’s delight at his awkward manners as an
expression of her love. But when, for the first time, he sees himself in a mirror in the castle, the
Dwarf realizes the truth and dies on the spot of a broken heart.
As for Schreker’s score, despite various glances in style - now left, now right, then forward
and back again - the music remains delightfully accessible. There are tuneful snippets
everywhere, with clever harmonies along the way, and rhythmic pointing cued to the storyline,
ideal for choreographers. In sum, the musical narrative is altogether charming, set with a brilliant
orchestration.
P.S: ‘Infanta’ is the classical title for a daughter in the royal families of Spain or Portugal
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Austrian composer, pianist and violinist
born: January 27,1756, Salzburg; died: December 5, 1791, Vienna
Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595
Allegro
Larghetto
Allegro
First BPO Classics performance: March 20, 1941, conducted by Franco Autori with pianist
Webster Aiken; most recent performance: October 14, 2001, conducted by JoAnn Falletta with
pianist Richard Goode; duration 30 minutes
Given that Mozart wrote most of his 27 piano concertos for his own use as a soloist, the
scores are often regarded as a guide to the persona of the man himself. En garde: there are a few
caveats to that view. For example, because K. 595 was completed on January 5, 1791 (exactly 11
months before his passing), and because it was the last piano concerto Mozart composed, some
historians find a noble angst lingering somewhere behind the notes and harmonies. Hardly.
Mozart was never so simple, nor predictable, and surely never melodramatic. Despite long-term
poverty and deteriorating health, Wolfgang Amadeus was a savvy bon vivant who never
conceded his joy in life and music.
In any case, let us trust the music, i.e. the playfulness of the overall scheme for K. 595,
especially the final Allegro. This is most certainly not music from a composer who believed
death was waiting around the corner. In fact, the happy melodic passages from the third
movement were used again a few weeks later by Wolfgang Amadeus in his delightful song
Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling (Longing for Spring). Moreover, we recall the remark by
Tchaikovsky (who adored Mozart): “Fine music is always about something.” The only catch is
that we cannot know for sure just what those meanings might be -- composers rarely tell. Clearly,
the message resides with the listener, whose heart has the password.
Concerto No. 27 begins blithely with a trove of melodic mischief, as Wolfgang Amadeus
shares the wealth from the top of his game. With graceful ease, the soloist enters as the keyboard
tapestry unfolds, threaded with Mozart’s indelible virtuosity. The latter is highlighted by a robust
cadenza just before the movement closes.
Like a poetic reverie, the second movement Larghetto offers a lyrical retreat, set warmly in
the luster of E-flat major. For the Finale, returning to the signature key of B-flat, the music skips
brightly into the morning light in high-rondo style, again with keyboard prowess to the fore in a
dazzling cadenza. Of this Allegro, historian Alfred Einstein wrote: “It breathes a veiled
joyfulness, as if blessed children were playing in Elysian fields.” We are reminded of Mozart’s
contemporary, William Blake, who wrote in 1789, just two years before K. 595:
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:
‘Pipe a song about a Lamb!’
So I piped with merry cheer,
‘Piper, pipe that song again;’
So I piped: he wept to hear.
Songs of Innocence
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Strauss
German composer
born: June 11, 1864, Munich; died: September 8, 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Ariadne auf Naxos Symphony-Suite
Prologue
Duet
Waltz
Overture
Aria
Interlude
Finale
These are the first performances of this work on the BPO Classics series; duration 38 minutes
Strauss’ luxuriant opera, Der Rosenkavalier of 1911, led directly to Ariadne auf Naxos a
year later. In both cases, Strauss collaborated with the librettist Hugo Von Hofmannsthal. Based
on Roman mythology, Ariadne emerged with the lyrical levity of Rosenkavalier, and featured a
droll ballet intended as a prologue in the Italian manner of a commedia dell’arte. The double
motif was initially framed as a take-off on Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a theater farce
from 1670. Strauss and Hofmannsthal ultimately came up with a second version of Ariadne in
1916. The storyline calls for an ‘opera-within-opera,’ written by the Composer - a male role sung
by a travesti mezzo soprano (in trousers), just as Strauss had employed for Octavian in Der
Rosenkavalier.
The commedia/opera storyline can be summed in brief: At the extravagant mansion of a
Viennese dilettante, it is decided that -- to save time -- both the commedia ballet and the serious
opera would be performed simultaneously. The Composer is distraught, but calmed by the
flirtatious Zerbinetta, as Ariadne is already weeping for lost love, waiting for death. Zerbinetta
segues from the commedia to advise her that the only antidote is another lover. Voilà: just in
time -- the worldly Bacchus arrives on the scene. After exchanging arias, he escorts Ariadne into
the morning sun.
We should note: Mozart also used a travesti soprano for the role of Cherubino in The
Marriage of Figaro; and, in Ariadne, Zerbinetta is a replica of the savvy maid, Despina, in
Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, whose principal aria presages the harmonies of Strauss, who knew well
how to borrow.
The current setting by D. Wilson Ochoa was scored in 2010 for Giancarlo Guerrero and the
Nashville Symphony. Except for the Interlude from Version 1, the movements are all derived
from Version 2. About the work, Mr. Ochoa notes:
“Strauss’ original instrumentation is maintained, with the exception of having the second
oboe double on English horn, an instrument which proved ideal for taking over some vocal
lines.”
“The Symphony-Suite is divided into seven continuous sections: the Prologue acts as the
introduction to the ‘symphony,’ quoting all of the major themes from the opera. The tender and
lyrical Duet is between the characters of Zerbinetta and the Composer (Ein Augenblick ist wenig
ein Blick ist viel - A glance is greater than a moment) as she flirts with him for her own designs.
“The Waltz (Eine Störrische zu trösten - Discard such worries) is sung by Zerbinetta and
three of her male admirers. The Overture is the slow, beautiful music that introduces the ‘operawithin-opera’ and eventually forms Ariadne’s aria (Ein Schönes war - There was such beauty).
“Ariadne’s beautiful Aria (Es gibt ein Reich - There is a realm) is her belief that death would
bring liberation from her sorrows. The Interlude is an absolutely charming episode which leads
to the sumptuous Finale, where the same theme is elongated to become (Gibt es kein Hinüber? Where is the passage?), revealing Ariadne’s transformation by new love.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------program notes by Edward Yadzinski
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------