March 13-14, 2010 Concert

Lehár
    Overture to The Merry Widow

Brahms
    Double Concerto for Violin and
    Cello in A minor
    Augustin Hadelich, Violin
    Gustav Rivinius, Cello

Prokofiev
Symphony No. 6


Augustin Hadelich, Violin	Gustav Rivinius, Cello

Program Notes

Overture to The Merry Widow
(Die lustige Witwe)
Franz Lehár (1870-1948)

Composer Franz Lehár, of Czech and Hungarian descent, can be credited for composing the most popular Viennese operetta of the 20th century. Completed in 1905, this work, a leader of that genre of lighter, more playful staged dramas with music, offers a vivid picture of life among the wealthy, influential inhabitants of the small, imaginary principality of Pontevedro, with images of Hapsburg Vienna and the sparkling Edwardian era of the waltz. The plot, which takes place in glittering turn-of-the-century Paris, is centered on keeping the recently widowed Hanna’s millions from leaving the principality if she should marry a foreigner.

The overture was composed after the hugely successful debut performance in Vienna on December 30, 1905, perhaps as a way to showcase the musical variety in the operetta, with ever-changing dance rhythms and tempos. This variety includes Viennese waltzes, can-cans, gallops, mazurkas, marches, the polonaise and more. Lehár also expanded the orchestra in his operettas, breaking with the tradition of using a small ensemble. The overture, not surprisingly, has enjoyed the same spectacular success over time as the operetta.

Double Concerto for Violin and
Cello in A minor, Op. 102
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

At the the beginning of his career, when he was 20, Johannes Brahms was introduced to the 22-year-old Hungarian violin virtuoso, Joseph Joachim. Joachim had heard Brahms perform some of his own compositions and Joachim was deeply impressed by Brahms’s composing and performing skills. A mutual respect and deep friendship soon developed between them. Joachim then introduced Brahms to Robert and Clara Schumann, and a similarly warm and productive relationship developed with them. Taken together, these two events had an immeasurable impact on the launching and development of Brahms’s career.

The Schumanns were equally struck with Brahms’s musical gifts, and Robert, a respected music critic as well as composer and pianist, wrote an article in his influential Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik praising Brahms as the young composer the world was waiting for. He began to receive widespread notice. Robert Schumann, mentally ill, suffered a tragic death within a few years, but his wife Clara, a brilliant pianist and composer as well, helped publicize Brahms’s music through her concerts and recitals. The depth of their relationship, which some say was romantic in the beginning, lasted for decades.

Joachim lent Brahms his expertise, support and friendship for thirty years; he had a major influence on his compositions, particularly in technical matters relating to string instrument performance. Alas, a situation arose that interrupted their wonderful friendship. Joachim had married a beautiful singer, Amalie Weiss, of whom he was extremely jealous, and in 1880, he accused her of having an affair with Fritz Simrock, Brahms’s publisher and friend. Brahms wrote Amalie a strong letter of support and sympathy. To his surprise, it was used in the subsequent divorce trial and resulted in the angry Joachim’s severing their friendship. They did not speak for seven years.

Although Brahms had made several attempts to renew the relationship, it was his conception of the Double Concerto in 1887 that ultimately brought them back together. He wrote the piece with Joachim in mind as the violinist, just as he had earlier with other works, including his masterful Violin Concerto in D Major in 1878. Reaching out, Brahms sent a few timid, hopeful letters to Joachim, and happily, the great violinist became engrossed in the project – he had been performing Brahms’s music all along - and soon he and Brahms were friends again. Many of Joachim’s suggestions were incorporated in the final version of the piece. The premiere took place in Cologne on October 18, 1887, with Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann as soloists and Brahms conducting. This piece was Brahms’s final, large orchestral composition and was dedicated to Joachim.

Eschewing the popular practice of writing a concerto as a vehicle primarily for solo instrument virtuosic display, Brahms drew upon all his powerful, dramatic symphonic ideas to create a concerto with roles of equal importance for soloists and the orchestra. It also contains his characteristic qualities: lyric, romantic melodies contained in classical forms; harmony rich with colorful modulations into remote keys; polyrhythms, such as two beats against three, heard simultaneously; syncopation, placing accents off the main beats of whole measures and phrases as well as individual notes.

The first movement, Allegro, in sonata form, has an introduction that presents a few measures of the assertive first theme, quickly taken over by a cello cadenza, an elaborate solo passage. Woodwinds then bring forth a brief portion of the gentle second main theme, immediately followed by a solo violin cadenza, soon joined by the cello. This is the most virtuosic solo material in the piece, and it leads with a climax directly to the exposition and a full orchestral statement of the first theme. The second theme appears in full though it is now treated more passionately. These two melodies, along with other minor themes, provide Brahms with fruitful material to develop and contrast in a variety of orchestral
and solo treatments.

Brahms chose to have the solo instruments play the beautiful opening melody of the second movement, Andante, voiced an octave apart, producing an unforgettable, extraordinary color. The middle section features a flowing theme written for woodwinds and a lovely melody in triplets for the soloists.

The bright, rhythmic final movement, Vivace non troppo, in rondo form, presents a strong primary theme alternating with contrasting episodes. Drawing upon his symphonic mastery and ability to bring forth the concerto’s dramatic potential, Brahms closes the great work with joyful triumph.

Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, Op. 111
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Of the three Russian composers who shared leading roles in the twentieth century – Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1971) and Sergei Prokofiev – the latter is perhaps the most enigmatic. He gained the reputation of enfant terrible while still a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The impudent genius openly argued with with his professors, Rimsky-Korsakoff and Liadov; at his graduation recital, which required the performance of a classical piano concerto, he instead gave the premiere performance of his own Piano Concerto No. 1.

His style of composition, while maintaining his own easily recognized qualities, has at least four unique facets that appear unpredictably at any time in his pieces. Many of his listeners, then and now, find this puzzling and disconcerting. Prokofiev was a supreme lyricist who created the most exquisite, sublime melodies. But some of his most beautiful lines contain abrupt and bizarre harmonic changes; others are angular, satiric and harsh. There can be violence and barbarism, as evidenced in the Scythian Suite. In much of his music he used the piano as a percussion rather than as a stringed instrument. His fast movements may have a tumultuous, unrelenting rhythmic drive.

This, then, provides the listener with some insight into Prokofiev’s music and what can be expected from this irrepressible musician. Above all, however, there is the expression, power and ingenuity of his ideas, plus magnificent orchestration which keep the listener involved, anticipating the next surprising turn of events. Many of his masterpieces, such as Peter and the Wolf; music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet; the Classical Symphony, and the Lieutenant Kijé suite, have become familiar staples in the repertoire and invite us to explore many of his lesser known works.

The Symphony No. 6 contains three movements, not the usual four, and to some degree they were influenced by the anguish of WWII. Prokofiev produced early sketches in 1944 and worked seriously on the symphony from 1945 to early 1947. The first performance was performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic in October, 1947.

The first movement, Allegro moderato, is described by Prokofiev as ''agitated, sometimes lyrical and sometimes austere.'' After the opening descending scale in brasses and low strings, the first theme in violins and violas is presented in 6/8 meter, followed by a second softer, slower theme first heard in oboes in octaves. The movement consists of this music in various settings, as well as a somewhat grim march and several climactic passages.

After a brief opening cry of anguish, the music in the second movement Largo is noted for its intense passion and beauty, so wonderfully similar to that same quality heard in Prokofiev’s score for Romeo and Juliet. The contrasting middle section is marked by a colorfully orchestrated and tempestuous quality.

The third and final movement, Vivace, is a perfect example of Prokofiev’s unrelenting rhythmic drive mentioned earlier. It is indeed a ''perpetual motion, scampering flightiness,'' so optimistic and delightful. Well into the movement, the energy is halted momentarily so that the oboe theme from the first movement can be recalled. This is not to last, however, and after a brief orchestral outburst of protest, the movement scampers to a brilliant
close.

– Richard Wolter