Program Notes for February 10. 2024
Nänie, Op. 82 for Chorus and Orchestra Johannes Brahms
Composer: Born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany; Died April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria
Work composed: 1881
First Performance: December 6, 1881, in Zurich, Switzerland by the Tonhalle Gesellschaft, the composer conducting
Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, three trombones, timpani, harp, chorus, and strings
Estimated duration: 15 minutes
This is the first Rockford Symphony Orchestra performance of this work
The work Nänie was written as funeral music for the memory of a close friend of Brahms, Anselm Feuerbach. The word comes from the Latin naenia, meaning "funeral song.” Brahms sets the music to a poem of the same name by the great German poet Freidrich Schiller ("Ode to Joy"). There are references in the poem to ancient Greek mythological heroes and figures associated with death: Orpheus and Eurydice, Aphrodite and Adonis, and Achilles.
It should be noted that Brahms was at the height of his creative powers at this time. Works surrounding the piece are such towering compositions as the Tragic Overture, Op. 81 and the Second Piano Concerto, Op. 83. This work is the equal of its companions and deserves more performances.
The text in German and with English translation is as follows:
Auch das Schöne muß sterben! Das Menschen und Götter bezwinget,
Nicht die eherne Brust rührt es des stygischen Zeus.
Einmal nur erweichte die Liebe den Schattenbeherrscher,
Und an der Schwelle noch, streng, rief er zurück sein Geschenk.
Nicht stillt Aphrodite dem schönen Knaben die Wunde,
Die in den zierlichen Leib grausam der Eber geritzt.
Nicht errettet den göttlichen Held die unsterbliche Mutter,
Wann er, am skäischen Tor fallend, sein Schicksal erfüllt.
Aber sie steigt aus dem Meer mit allen Töchtern des Nereus,
Und die Klage hebt an um den verherrlichten Sohn.
Siehe! Da weinen die Götter, es weinen die Göttinnen alle,
Daß das Schöne vergeht, daß das Vollkommene stirbt.
Auch ein Klaglied zu sein im Mund der Geliebten, ist herrlich;
Denn das Gemeine geht klanglos zum Orkus hinab.
English Translation
Even beauty must die! That which subjugates gods and men
Moves not the steely heart of the Stygian Zeus.
Only once did love come to soften the Lord of the Shadows,
And just at the threshold he sternly took back his gift.
Neither can Aphrodite heal the wounds of the beautiful youth
That the boar had savagely torn in his delicate body.
Nor can the deathless mother rescue the divine hero
When, at the Scaean gate now falling, he fulfills his fate.
But she ascends from the sea with all the daughters of Nereus,
And she raises a plaint here for her glorious son.
Behold! The gods weep, all the goddesses weep,
That the beautiful perishes, that the most perfect passes away.
But a lament on the lips of loved ones is glorious,
For the ignoble goes down to Orcus in silence.
Piano Concerto Viktor Ullmann
Composer: Born January 21, 1898, Ciezyn, Poland; Died October 18, 1944, Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland
Work composed: 1939
First performance: April 28, 1992, by Staatsphilharmonie Brno in Stuttgart, Germany, Israel Yinon conducting
Instrumentation: solo piano, three flutes (one doubling on piccolo), two oboes, one English horn, three clarinets (one doubling on E-flat clarinet), one bass clarinet, two bassoons, one contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings
Estimated duration: 20 minutes
This is the Rockford Symphony Orchestra’s first performance of this work
I. Allegro con fuoco
II. Andante tranquillo
III. Allegro
IV. Allegro molto
Viktor Ullmann was born in what was called Silesia, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is now a part of Poland on the border with the Czech Republic. Ullmann was a gifted pianist, composer, and writer but only wrote approximately 40 compositions, many for piano although he was a gifted orchestral composer as well.
His parents both came from Jewish backgrounds but had converted to Catholicism, similarly to Gustav Mahler, Felix Mendelssohn's family, and others. However, the stigma of being Jewish never left him, as at the turn of the century, antisemitism was prevalent in the Austrian Empire.
Ullman became a student of the great Atonal and Serialist composer, Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna. Schoenberg was a powerful new voice in the early twentieth century and drew to him many like-minded young rebels looking for a new style of music. Many found new freedom in the artistic movement called Expressionism. This new style tried to find new ways to get across feelings and ways of dealing with the harsh realities of life in central Europe, including the increased mechanization, dehumanization (see the literature of Kafka), World War I and the economic frailties of Germany, antisemitism, the rise of Nationalism, the Russian Revolution, and many other destabilizing events of the early twentieth century.
Ullmann did receive his training with Schoenberg and embraced the new ideas of Serialism as well as experiments in quarter-tone music (musical scales using intervals smaller than a half step). However, Ullmann eventually steered his music to the more tonal-sounding music of Schoenberg's student Alban Berg. In the 1930s, Ullmann's music reached a wider audience in Vienna and later in Prague, to which he had moved in the early 1930s.
Ullmann's music of the 1930s has an emotional quality that used dissonance, driving rhythms, counterpoint, and control of form. At times, his music can sound like the barbarism of early Bartók or Prokofiev; at times the seductive harmonies of later Richard Strauss; at other times borrowing jazz elements similar to the music of late Ravel. Such was the mastery of Ullmann's musical style at this time.
The work is in four movements: the first being very dramatic in its orchestration with interplay of the solo piano within the orchestral texture. The slow second movement is more lyrical and dialogue-like between the orchestra and soloist. The third movement is a scherzo followed by a short episode-like fourth movement in 5/4 time. Each movement can be powerful, or small and charming in its language. Contrast is very much played up in this work. The orchestration is similar to Mahler: there are large forces available to use but are not always used en masse except for the first movement and parts of the third and last movement. There are many moments in which very few instruments are used to create a chamber music-like sound. Again, the contrast of large and small forces creates a varied texture that keeps the audience’s attention.
Ullmann's life ended tragically. In 1933, he left Vienna for Prague attempting to escape the rising Nazi power there. In 1942, he was deported to the Terezin concentration camp. It was here that Ullman was allowed the flexibility to continue the development of his compositions and to have his music performed with others at the camp. In October of 1944, he was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he died in the gas chambers two days after arriving.
Blumie Gustav Mahler
Composer: Born July 7, 1860, Kalischt, Bohemia, Austrian Empire; Died May 18, 1911, Vienna, Austria.
Work composed: Late 1887 to March 1888
First Performance: November 20, 1889, by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, Hungary with the composer conducting
Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, solo trumpet, timpani, harp, and strings
Estimated duration: 6 minutes
This is the first Rockford Symphony Orchestra performance of this work
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1 in D Major holds a wonderful surprise for many music listeners and lovers of his music: the Blumine movement that he wrote for the symphony and later removed. This work originally appeared as the slow second movement to this symphony and was an essential part of the program Mahler devised for this work. The RSO just recently performed this symphony at its opening concert in September.
Going back to Mahler's original program, the semi-autobiographical work was in two large sections with the first movement depicting the world of nature. The Blumine movement was meant to reinforce this program by depicting a scene of flowers or another aspect of Nature. Blumine in some references means the "Flower Goddess" in German.
Mahler does not intend the listener to try and depict any visual aspects in this music. Instead, Mahler tries to express the strong nature element and gives us a more Romantic impression through the use of a trumpet serenade accompanied by a reduced orchestration. Mahler achieves this feeling also through the use of folk-like melodies so prevalent in many of his works. It is believed Mahler wrote the work for Johanna Richter, with whom Mahler was involved at the time.
The movement received harsh criticism in the first few performances along with the entire symphony until Mahler finally removed the movement in 1896 from the symphony. The music for this movement was only discovered in 1966 by Donald Mitchell, a famed scholar of Mahler’s music. It slowly found favor as a separate work and is sometimes included in performances with the First Symphony.
Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120 Robert Schumann
Composer: Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany; Died July 29, 1856, in Bonn, Germany
Work composed: completed in 1841, revised in 1851.
First Performance: 1841 in Leipzig, Germany with the Leipzig Gewandaus Orchestra, the composer conducting
Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, timpani, and strings
Estimated duration: 34 minutes
Most recent RSO performance: February 7, 2009, Steven Larsen conducting
I. Ziemlich langsam - Lebhaft (Andante con moto - Allegro di molto)
II. Romanze: Ziemlich langsam (Andante)
III. Scherzo: Lebhaft (Presto)
IV. Langsam - Lebhaft (Largo - Allegro vivace)
Robert Schumann was a composer of many gifts. As a young man, he was a law student at the University of Heidelburg, Germany. Within a year, he had devoted himself to music, much to his mother's disappointment. He became a pianist and composer and studied with one of the important piano teachers of the day, Friedrich Wieck. An apocryphal story goes that Schumann wished to strengthen his right hand to become more technically fluent. He developed a mechanical device to strengthen the tendons in his right hand and the result was catastrophic; he could no longer perform! Whether this is true or not, it possibly turned Schumann towards composition.
His time studying with Wieck brought him together with Wieck's daughter, Clara, a rising star in the piano world. She was already a virtuoso performer, and they became romantically involved, much to the displeasure of her father. The two eventually married and they became inseparable as a musical "power couple.” Robert composed, taught, wrote musical criticism, and conducted. Clara was invaluable as a performer, champion of her husband’s piano music, and equally as important as a critic and editor of his works.
In 1840, the newlywed couple moved to Leipzig where Robert taught composition and conducted. It was there that he composed his first two symphonies, the First and the Fourth as it came to be known. The Fourth was originally the Second of his Four Symphonies, however, it went through extensive revisions and was published in 1851 as his Fourth Symphony. It is this 1851 edition that we hear most frequently.
The work has four movements with the tempo markings above - the Italian tempi in parenthesis are from the original edition of 1841, the German tempi from the 1851 edition. With influence from both Beethoven and Mendelssohn, Schumann revised the symphony into four movements that go from one to the next without break. Think of the transition in Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies where one movement goes directly into the next and then you will have the right idea. The symphony is also cyclical: where themes from one movement find their way into other movements. Again, think of Beethoven and the finale to his Fifth Symphony where the theme from the third movement returns and interrupts the finale. It is meant to unify the work into a single whole instead of four different unconnected ideas or movements. It also creates drama in a work as the audience is unsure as to the direction a composer is taking them.
Schumann's greatest ability is his taking chances, especially with form. His ideas on form and structure are radical in that they are meant to deliver the emotions of the composer. Yes, he continues to write traditional symphonies and concerti but each has some unusual twist to them to make them more Romantic. Not all of his ideas were successful; however, it is the imperfections in Schumann's music that are endearing and makes listening to his compositions wonderful. It is his striving to communicate his emotions that elevates us to the world of Romanticism.