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JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 10’00 A composition written for an academic affair by a man with absolutely no inclinations for academia! Composed as his “thesis” for an Honorary Doctorate conferred by Cambridge University in England. Incorporates several German songs commonly sung by students. Brahms was not a man to stand on ceremony. In 1876, at the relatively young age of 43, he was honoured by Cambridge University with the offer of an Honorary Doctorate, but he couldn’t manage the journey to England so the offer was withdrawn. Three years later, another academic institution, the University of Breslau, conferred upon him in absentia the same degree, with the official parchment describing him as artis musicae severioris in Germania nunc princeps (“the leader in Germany today of music in the more serious vein”). Brahms’ acknowledgement took the form of a postcard to his conductor friend at the university, Bernard Scholz, asking him to thank the proper authorities on his behalf. Scholz had to advise the composer that a major work was expected of him: “a symphony, or at least a festive song”. Brahms grudgingly complied, but it was nearly two years after conferral of the degree before his “doctoral thesis” was heard. On January 4, 1881, before the distinguished faculty and administration of the school, Brahms conducted the premiere of his Academic Festival Overture. The overture was written in the summer of 1880, along with its companion piece, the Tragic Overture, Op. 81, at Brahms’ favourite summer resort in the mountains of Upper Austria. “One weeps; the other laughs,” said Brahms of his two overtures. He further described the Academic Festival Overture as “a jolly potpourri of student songs à la Suppé”. Although not a university man himself, Brahms was not entirely unfamiliar with student life, having shared in convivial university gatherings and events in his earlier years. Into his overture in standard sonata-allegro form he worked four student songs interspersed with original material of his own. The first of these songs, “Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus” (“We had built a stately house”) is softly and solemnly intoned by the brass following a soft roll on the timpani. The second, “Der Landesvater” (“Father of Our Country”) is a flowing, lyrical theme for the violins. A perky tune in the bassoons suddenly interrupts the mood to announce the ribald and mischievous Freshmens’ initiation song “Was kommt dort von der Hoh?” (“What comes there from on high?”). For a grandiose coda, Brahms introduces his fourth song, the immensely popular “in nineteenth-century Germany” “Gaudeamus igitur” (“Let us now rejoice”), with the full orchestra blazing away in joyous C major. RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949) Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, AV132 20’00 I. II. III. Allegro Andante con moto Rondo: Allegro molto Strauss’ two horn concertos come from the very beginning (age 19) and very end (age 78) of his long, long career. As one would expect from Strauss, the solo part is extremely virtuosic and demanding, following in the line of such orchestral scores as Till Eulenspiegel, Also sprach Zarathustra, Ein Heldenleben and Symphonia Domestica; and such operas as Salome, Elektra, and Der Rosenkavalier. Like Strauss’ other works of the 1940s, the concerto is imbued with tender melancholy and nostalgia. The horn is often considered to be one of the most romantic of instruments for its mellow tone, expressive range and noble character. Indeed, these qualities were exploited in countless works written throughout the nineteenth century, the era we call the “romantic” period in music history. Yet, surprisingly enough, no concerto for this instrument was created by an important composer since Mozart until Richard Strauss produced his First Horn Concerto in 1882-83. Nearly sixty years later, he wrote a second concerto, also in E-flat major. It is hardly surprising that Strauss wrote so brilliantly and ambitiously for the horn, his favourite instrument, as his own father was generally regarded to be the best horn player in Germany, perhaps in all of Europe. He dedicated his First Concerto to his father, and wrote the Second in 1942 to be performed in memory of his father. It was first heard at the Salzburg Festival on August 11, 1943 with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Karl Böhm. The orchestra’s renowned principal horn player, Gottfried von Freiberg, was the soloist. The concerto requires only a small classical orchestra and employs classical forms harking back to the eighteenth century. The solo part is often closely integrated with the orchestral texture; there are even passages where the orchestral horns join in with the soloist. It begins with a proud flourish, and continues with a long (54 measures!) expository passage from the soloist before the full orchestra finally takes over. The writing is highly supple and fluid, requiring the kind of technique more commonly associated with a flute or clarinet than with a horn. A bridge passage connects the first movement directly with the second, a tender, nostalgic idyll. Oboe and bassoon breathe forth a long, soaring cantilena before being joined by the solo horn. The final movement is a rondo, often of elfin lightness and delicacy, demanding extraordinary agility from the soloist as it trips buoyantly along to a flamboyant conclusion. JOHANNES BRAHMS (arr. ARNOLD SCHOENBERG) Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25 40’00 I. II. III. IV. Allegro Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo Andante con moto Rondo alla zingarese: Presto So indelibly has Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) become identified in the public consciousness as a radical, an innovator, a revolutionary, that to associate him with a basically conservative composer like Brahms seems downright incongruous. Yet, upon some consideration, we find that such a meeting of these two musical minds is not so improbable after all, but in fact a continuation of the grand tradition of Austro-German music extending from Bach through Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Brahms and Richard Strauss. Schoenberg further believed that Brahms was no conservative, and wrote an essay in 1933 called “Brahms the Progressive”, noting such forward-looking aspects in his music as the extensive use of variation procedures, metrical asymmetry, unity achieved through development of motivic fragments, and lack of tonality in certain passages – all characteristics found extensively in Schoenberg’s own music. Schoenberg orchestrated Brahms’ G-minor Piano Quartet during the spring and summer of 1937 while living in California. The first performance took place on May 7, 1938 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Otto Klemperer. This work represents Schoenberg’s final and most ambitious effort at orchestrating the music of other composers, a skill that he had been polishing for over four decades. (His first paying job was that of orchestrating operettas!) Between 1897 and 1923, Schoenberg transcribed music by Bach, Beethoven, Rossini, Schumann, Busoni, Zemlinsky, Schreker and Johann Strauss. In 1932, he wrote a Cello Concerto based loosely on a harpsichord concerto by the eighteenth-century Viennese composer Georg Matthias Monn, and in 1933 he made a “free arrangement” of Handel’s Concerto grosso Op. 6, No. 7 as a Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra. Schoenberg was indeed a master orchestrator, but his belief that he had transcribed Brahms’ sound for the orchestra, and that he had held true to his intention “to remain strictly within the style of Brahms and not go further than he himself would have gone” are exaggerated claims. For one thing, Schoenberg’s orchestration includes a number of instruments Brahms never used: English horn, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, glockenspiel and xylophone. Woodwinds are employed in threes, whereas Brahms used only pairs. (The opening bars, for instance, are scored for E-flat, B-flat and bass clarinet in octaves.) Other instruments are used more generously than Brahms was wont to, particularly piccolo, trombones, cymbals and triangle. Schoenberg gives trumpets and horns melodic lines of a kind Brahms would never have written, since the latter composer steadfastly wrote only for the natural, valve-less instruments with their true, open notes restricted to those of the harmonic series. In a Brahms orchestral work, one is never aware of a sense of virtuosity. But in Schoenberg’s transcription, virtuosity is apparent throughout; one almost could dub the G-minor Piano Quartet a “Concerto for Orchestra”. His transcription is a veritable tour de force of orchestral mastery that dazzles with a brilliance Brahms never dreamed of, especially in the exuberant, gypsy-inspired finale. Special effects includes brass trills, “stopped” horns (the player’s right hand is jammed tightly into the bell, choking off the sound), fluttertonguing and trombone glissandos. In sum, the orchestral writing is more Straussian than Brahmsian, but this detracts not a bit from its appeal. Although originally written in 1859 as a quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello, its scope is so grand, the textures so rich and the sonorities so powerful that the music fairly cries out for symphonic elaboration. Such treatment has also been accorded to other largescale masterpieces, such as Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. Schoenberg was justly proud of his achievement, and liked to think of the result as Brahms’ Fifth Symphony. “Expansive” is the word most often invoked to describe the first movement. It contains a wealth of thematic, motivic and rhythmic ideas, all welded into a musical structure and unified by the four-note motif that opens the work. The grandeur of the spacious opening subject (spread out over 20 measures and containing two distinct ideas in itself) is counterpoised with the soaring lyricism of the second (initially heard in the solo cello in D minor, and thereafter in altered form in glorious D major by violin and viola). One of the oft-remarked peculiarities of this movement is that although it is technically in G minor, a surprisingly large portion lies in the contrasting tonality of D major/minor – nearly 75%. “The movement is never untroubled,” writes Malcolm MacDonald, “continually questioning its own premises; and no comforting answer is found, for the coda, beginning hopefully with sweet tranquillo writing for strings alone, blazes up in a passion only to gutter out quietly in implied frustration.” Brahms had originally intended to call the second movement a Scherzo but decided that Intermezzo would be more appropriate, rightly so in view of its moderate tempo, subdued nature, wistful tone and veiled colours. The central Trio in A-flat major is more animated and sports brighter colours while retaining the characteristic rhythmic pattern of the Intermezzo (short-long-short-longlong). The emotional heart of the Quartet is the magnificent slow movement, written in the “heroic” key of E-flat major. Long-arching melodic lines, a warmly romantic atmosphere and rich sonorities of almost orchestral proportions are features of this third movement. The mood is interrupted by a march-like section in C major (traditionally a “military” key) full of “rumbustious good spirits” and which “works up to a climax that cries out for trumpets and drums” (MacDonald) – which is precisely what Schoenberg used here in his orchestration. The rondo-finale “in the gypsy style” incorporates four themes into an all-out maelstrom of untamed energy and virtuosic effects, complete with a piano cadenza and a coda replete with dazzling pyrotechnical displays. Programme notes by Robert Markow