Download Concerts of Thursday, February 16, Friday, February 17, at 8:00p

Concerts of Thursday, February 16, Friday, February 17, at 8:00p, and Sunday,
February 19, at 3:00p
Roberto Minczuk, Conductor
Johannes Moser, Cello
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of
Nuremberg) (1868)
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Concerto in E minor for Cello and Orchestra, Opus 85 (1919)
I. Adagio. Moderato
II. Lento. Allegro molto
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro. Moderato. Allegro, ma non troppo
Intermission
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385 (“Haffner”) (1782)
I. Allegro con spirito
II. Andante
III. Menuetto
IV. Presto
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Opus 59 (1910)
Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer
Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of
Nuremberg) (1868)
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany, on May 22, 1813, and died in
Venice, Italy, on February 13, 1883. The first performance of The Mastersingers of
Nuremberg took place at the Hoftheater in Munich, Germany, on June 21, 1868,
with Hans von Bülow conducting. The Prelude to Act I is scored for piccolo, two
flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three
trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle, harp and strings. Approximate
performance time is ten minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performance: November 4, 1950, Henry Sopkin,
Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: May 6, 7 and 8, 1999,
Donald Runnicles, Conductor.
As with any revolutionary composer, Richard Wagner encountered formidable critical
resistance. In Wagner’s only successful comedy, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The
Mastersingers of Nuremberg), the composer lampoons his critics, but also acknowledges
that youthful inspiration must be tempered by the wisdom of tradition.
As was his usual practice, Wagner authored both the text and music for Die
Meistersinger. Wagner drew upon tales of the Mastersingers, an actual guild that existed
in Nuremberg in the 16th century. Indeed, many of the opera’s characters, including the
beloved German writer and composer Hans Sachs (1494-1576), were members of the
Nuremberg Mastersingers.
Likewise, the opera’s villain, Sixtus Beckmesser, was a Mastersinger. There is no
indication that the actual Beckmesser displayed the objectionable traits found in his
operatic counterpart. In Die Meistersinger, Beckmesser represents the critics who railed
against Wagner’s musical expression. In fact, Wagner contemplated naming Beckmesser
“Veit Hanslich,” a clear reference to his nemesis, the eminent Viennese critic Eduard
Hanslick. Wagner wisely decided to forego such heavy-handed tactics, hardly necessary
to make his point.
Wagner completed Die Meistersinger in October of 1867. The opera received its
premiere in Munich on June 21, 1868, under the direction of Hans von Bülow. Hanslick,
who was present for the first performance, characterized Die Meistersinger as “the
conscious dissolution of all fixed forms in a formless, intoxicating sea of sound, the
replacement of self-sufficient, articulated melodies by shapelessly vague melodizing.”
Posterity has disagreed, according Die Meistersinger the status of one of the greatest of
all comic operas.
Die Meistersinger takes place in Nuremberg toward the middle of the 16th century. The
young knight Walther von Stolzing is in love with Eva, daughter of Veit Pogner, a
member of the Nuremberg Mastersingers’ guild. Walther attempts to join the
Mastersingers in order to win Eva as his bride. But the guild members, led by the
pedantic town clerk Sixtus Beckmesser (also a rival for Eva’s hand), reject the knight’s
inspired, but undisciplined, song. Even the support of the cobbler Hans Sachs, the most
respected Mastersinger, fails to aid Walther.
The next day, Sachs assists Walther to craft a song that ideally synthesizes the knight’s
youthful eloquence with accepted musical structures and discipline. At the contest,
Beckmesser attempts to present the song as his own, but so mangles the piece that he is
humiliated. Walther’s presentation wins the admiration of the Mastersingers. With the
urging of Sachs, Walther accepts membership in the Mastersingers guild and marries
Eva. The assembled join in praising Nuremberg’s beloved Sachs.
The majestic orchestral Prelude to Act I (Sehr gehalten) (Molto tenuto) opens with a
grand statement of the Mastersinger’s theme. Other themes include melodies associated
with Walther’s love for Eva, and the knight’s conflict with Beckmesser. Wagner
manipulates (and often brilliantly combines) the various melodies, as the Prelude resolves
to a final grand statement of the Mastersingers’ theme.
Concerto in E minor for Cello and Orchestra, Opus 85 (1919)
Edward Elgar was born in Broadheath, near Worcester, England, on June 2, 1857,
and died in Worcester on February 23, 1934. The first performance of the Cello
Concerto took place at the Queen’s Hall in London on October 27, 1919, with Felix
Salmond as soloist and the composer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to the solo cello, the Concerto is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes,
two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba,
timpani and strings. Approximate performance time is thirty-one minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performances: October 9, 10 and 12, 1969,
Leonard Rose, Cello, Robert Shaw, Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: January 6, 7 and 8, 2000,
Christopher Rex, Cello, Donald Runnicles, Conductor.
“I am frantically busy”
In early March of 1918, following a long and mysterious illness, Edward Elgar was
diagnosed with tonsillitis. While the ensuing tonsillectomy was a success, the recovery
proved difficult. As the composer’s daughter Carice recalled: “He was in a great deal of
pain for several days; (there) were not anything like the sedatives that we have now, but
nevertheless he woke up one morning and asked for pencil and paper.” Elgar then
composed the first music he had written in nine months—a beautiful melody in 9/8.
In the fall of 1918, Elgar’s wife Alice noted that her husband was at work orchestrating
the melody he composed during his convalescence. By the spring of the following year,
Elgar was devoting much time and attention to this music, which now took form as his
Cello Concerto in E minor. On June 26, 1919, Elgar wrote to his friend, Sidney Colvin:
“I am frantically busy writing & have nearly completed a Concerto for Violoncello—a
real large work & I think good & alive.” Elgar later dedicated the Concerto to Sidney
Colvin and his wife, Frances.
Cellist Felix Salmond assisted Elgar in the composition of the solo part. In August, Elgar
offered Salmond the opportunity to be the soloist in the Concerto’s world premiere. As
Alice Elgar noted in her diary: “F. Salmond left after lunch & seemed so happy here—
thrilled with the thought of playing the Concerto for the 1st time & wildly excited about
it, did not sleep all night thinking about it…”
“Wistful brooding upon the loveliness of the earth”
Perhaps if Salmond had been aware of the events in store for him and Elgar, he would
still have experienced insomnia, but for quite different reasons. The premiere of the
Elgar Cello Concerto took place at the Queen’s Hall in London on October 27, 1919. It
was the opening of the London Symphony Orchestra’s first concert season following
World War I. Albert Coates, the Orchestra’s new conductor, was scheduled to lead
music by Wagner, Scriabin and Borodin. Elgar would take the podium for the premiere
of his Cello Concerto. Coates decided to devote virtually all of the Orchestra’s allotted
rehearsal time to the music he was conducting. As a result, the Concerto received a
woefully inadequate performance.
In reviewing the premiere of the Cello Concerto, the eminent British music critic, Ernest
Newman, wrote: “never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable a
public exhibition of itself.” Still, Newman was able to discern the considerable qualities
of Elgar’s newest composition: “The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple—that
pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar’s music in the last couple of years—but
with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity…the realization in tone of a
fine spirit’s lifelong wistful brooding upon the loveliness of the earth.”
In time, the Elgar Concerto has become recognized as one of the 20th century’s finest
works for cello and orchestra. Many commentators have recognized the Concerto’s
“profound wisdom,” first cited by Ernest Newman. However, they often attribute that
quality to far less genial circumstances. Elgar composed the Cello Concerto after the
devastation of the First World War. Elgar was all too aware of the effect the “War to End
All Wars” had upon the world he knew and loved. As the composer wrote in 1917:
“Everything good & nice & clean & sweet is far away—never to return.”
And, perhaps, Elgar sensed that his own life—at least as a composer—was reaching its
final stages. In his catalogue of works, Elgar wrote the following next to the listing of his
Cello Concerto: “FINIS R.I.P.” And after his beloved Alice’s death in 1920, Elgar was
never the same. Although Edward Elgar lived another fifteen years after the premiere of
the Cello Concerto, it proved to be his last major work.
Musical Analysis
I. Adagio. Moderato—The Concerto’s slow introduction (Adagio) features a grand
statement by the soloist, to which the winds offer a subdued response. Another solo
passage for the cello leads to the violas’ rapt introduction of the melody Elgar originally
composed during his recuperative period (Moderato). The soloist repeats the melody,
which predominates the opening movement. Following a somewhat more lighthearted
interlude in 12/8 time, the soloist quietly reprises the central melody. After a grand,
orchestral presentation of the melody, the soloist predominates as the opening movement
proceeds to a hushed conclusion. The second movement follows without pause.
II. Lento. Allegro molto—The opening chords of the first movement’s slow introduction
return, but this time the soloist plays them pizzicato. After a brief orchestral flourish, the
soloist offers a glimpse of the second-movement scherzo’s principal theme. The theme
finally emerges in its totality as a quicksilver, perpetuum mobile figure. Brief dialogues
between the soloist and orchestra periodically interrupt the theme’s inexorable progress.
The filigree orchestration and furtive energy of this delectable movement are worthy of
the finest Mendelssohn scherzos.
III. Adagio—This slow movement features an elegiac, wide-ranging melody, played
molto espressivo by the soloist. The hushed, closing measures lead directly to the finale.
IV. Allegro. Moderato. Allegro, ma non troppo—The finale opens with a brief orchestral
proclamation (Allegro), followed by the soloist’s recitative-like statement (Moderato).
This introduction both recalls the Concerto’s opening measures and foreshadows the
finale’s central theme, which, after an upward flourish, is played in complete form by the
soloist (Allegro, ma non troppo). It appears that high spirits will dominate the finale.
But quite unexpectedly, the music’s lively gait slows for a lengthy episode of
extraordinary introspection and pathos. Echoes of the preceding Adagio add to the mood
of resignation, as the music seems to fade to a silent conclusion. But suddenly, there is a
reprise of the work’s formidable opening measures, followed by a brief restatement of the
principal theme, and the Concerto proceeds to a terse resolution.
Symphony No. 35 in D Major, “Haffner,” K. 385 (1782)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27, 1756,
and died in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1791. The first performance of the
“Haffner” Symphony took place at the Burgtheater in Vienna on March 23, 1783,
with the composer conducting. The “Haffner” Symphony is scored for two flutes,
two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and
strings. Approximate performance time is twenty minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performance: November 13, 1951, Henry Sopkin,
Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: January 26, 27 and 28,
2006, Laura Jackson, Conductor.
In mid-July of 1782, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then living in Vienna, received a letter
from his father Leopold in Salzburg. Mozart’s friend Siegmund Haffner, the younger,
had recently been accorded noble rank. In 1776, Mozart had composed his “Haffner”
Serenade, K. 250, for the festivities surrounding the marriage of Siegmund’s sister
Elisabeth. Now, the Haffner family wanted Mozart to provide another work for the
celebration of Siegmund’s ennoblement. The Haffners approached father Leopold to
inform Wolfgang of this request.
The timing of the Haffner’s proposal could not have come at a less opportune time. The
premiere of Mozart’s opera The Abduction from the Seraglio had taken place on July 16.
Further, Mozart was in the midst of preparations for his marriage to Constanze Weber,
which occurred on August 4.
On July 20, Mozart reported to his father:
Well, I am up to my eyes in work. By Sunday week I have to arrange my
opera for wind instruments, otherwise someone will beat me to it and
secure the profits instead of me. And now you ask me to write a new
symphony too! How on earth can I do so?
Nevertheless, on August 7, three days after his marriage to Constanze, Mozart forwarded
the completed work to Leopold, commenting: “I only hope that all will reach you in good
time, and be to your taste. The first Allegro must be played with great fire, the last—as
fast as possible.”
Later that year, Mozart wrote to his father and requested that Leopold send the music
back to him. When Mozart finally received the work, which he had composed in the span
of approximately two weeks, he told his father: “My new Haffner symphony has
positively amazed me, for I had forgotten every single note of it. It must surely have
produced a good effect.”
Upon receipt of the score, Mozart converted the work into a standard four-movement
symphony by removing the march and one of the minuets. Mozart also added flutes and
clarinets to the instrumentation of the outer movements.
The premiere of the “Haffner” Symphony took place on March 23, 1783, part of a
concert at the Vienna Burgtheater sponsored by Mozart, who appeared both as conductor
and piano soloist. The concert opened with the first three movements of the “Haffner”
Symphony. After the performance of several other instrumental and vocal works, the
Symphony’s finale served to conclude the program, which, according to one reviewer,
inspired “unanimous applause as has never been heard of here.”
Musical Analysis
I. Allegro con spirito—The Symphony opens with a tutti presentation of the movement’s
bold principal theme, which predominates throughout the movement. Striking dynamic
and harmonic contrasts, as well as brilliant thematic manipulation, supply the drama in
this exhilarating movement.
II. Andante—The first violins sing the Andante’s elegant central theme. Repeated
sixteenth-notes by the first violins serve to launch the second theme. It begins with a
playful figure by the second violins and violas, to which the first violins provide a
glowing response. A brief interlude leads to a varied reprise of the opening section and
the Andante’s graceful conclusion.
III. Menuetto—The principal Minuet features striking dynamic juxtapositions. By
contrast, the central Trio, which spotlights the winds, is hushed throughout. A repeat of
the Minuet concludes the third movement.
IV. Presto—The finale opens with the strings’ furtive presentation of a theme that soon
bursts forth with unrestrained vigor. The first violins introduce the more restrained
second theme, which, along with its predecessor, returns throughout the movement. A
concluding statement of the opening theme and an orchestral fanfare bring Mozart’s
“Haffner” Symphony to a rousing close.
Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Opus 59 (1910)
Richard Strauss was born in Munich, Germany, on June 11, 1864, and died in
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on September 8, 1949. The first performance
of the opera, Der Rosenkavalier, took place in Dresden, Germany, at the Königliches
Opernhaus on January 26, 1911. The orchestral Suite derived from Der
Rosenkavalier is scored for piccolo, three flutes, three oboes, English horn, E-flat
clarinet, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns,
three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, orchestra bells, tambourine, side
drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, rattle, two harps, celeste and strings.
Approximate performance time is twenty-five minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performances: March 8, 9 and 11, 1973, Jacques
Houtmann, Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: February 8, 9 and 10, 1996,
Franz-Paul Decker, Conductor.
After the success of Salome (1905) and Elektra (1909), two lyric dramas featuring
shocking stories and music, Richard Strauss informed his librettist, poet Hugo von
Hofmannsthal, that he wished to compose “a Mozart opera.” Hofmannsthal first
suggested a story based on the life of Casanova, but early in 1909 the two agreed on the
plot that was to become the basis of Der Rosenkavalier. Hofmannsthal described the
story in the following manner: “(A) pompous, fat, and elderly suitor favored by the father
has his nose put out of joint by a dashing lover—could anything be plainer?”
The correspondence between Strauss and Hofmannsthal during the creation of Der
Rosenkavalier documents an intense and mutually rewarding collaboration. “Do not, I
implore you, let my criticism discourage you,” Strauss wrote to Hofmannsthal in July of
1909, “My criticism is intended to spur you on, not to discourage you. I want to draw the
best out of you...” Indeed, there is no doubt that Strauss and Hofmannsthal did “draw the
best” from each other, resulting in one of the enduring masterpieces of 20th-century
opera.
Der Rosenkavalier takes place in Vienna during the reign of the Empress Maria Theresa.
The Feldmarschallin, a woman of 32, is carrying on an affair with the 17-year-old Count
Octavian. The Marschallin’s boorish cousin, Baron Ochs, pays a surprise visit to seek
her aid in his impending marriage to Sophie, the young daughter of the bourgeois Herr
von Faninal. The Baron enlists Octavian to deliver a silver rose to Sophie. When
Octavian arrives, he and Sophie immediately fall in love. Octavian vows to defy Ochs,
and slightly wounds the Baron in a duel. Ochs is tricked into abandoning his designs on
Sophie. The Marschallin realizes her time with Octavian has reached its conclusion. She
graciously yields her lover to Sophie.
The orchestral Suite performed at these concerts (approved but not fashioned by Strauss)
features music from the Act One Introduction; the Second Act’s Presentation of the Rose,
arrival of Ochs and waltz; and the glorious final trio and closing duet from Act III, all
capped by a boisterous waltz reprise. While there is, of course, no substitute for the
magical experience of Der Rosenkavalier in the opera house, the Suite is a highly
entertaining synthesis that does afford concertgoers the opportunity to sample one of
Richard Strauss’s most charming and beautiful works.