Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble

PROGRAM NOTES – FESTIVAL CONCERT 1

Franz Joseph Haydn, Piano Trio No. 28 in D Major, op. 67, no. 2, Hb XV:16:  At age 29 Haydn (1732-1809) entered the employment of the Esterházy family, the wealthiest in the Holy Roman Empire.  By the time of his death 48 years later, he had become the most famous composer in Europe.  He was a good friend of Mozart and a teacher of the impetuous young Beethoven.  He wrote 104 symphonies, 83 string quartets, 60 piano sonatas, 23 operas, and 45 piano trios, as well as hundreds of choral and other instrumental works.  Some of the piano trios, such as the opus 67, number 2, could be performed by piano and cello with violin or with flute.  Written in 1790, the three movements of this trio are:  I. Allegro, II. Andantino più tosto Allegretto,and III. Vivace Assai.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Twelve Variations on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” from The Magic Flute, op. 66:  At age 16, the young Beethoven (1770-1827) traveled from Bonn to Vienna seeking to study with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).  His letter of introduction from Elector Maximilian Franzsecured him an audition with Mozart, who was extremely impressed with him.  No sooner had Mozart accepted Beethoven as a student than he received an urgent message from his father, that his mother lay gravely ill.  Shortly after Beethoven returned to Bonn, his mother died of consumption.  He didn’t return to Vienna until 11 months after Mozart’s death.  Even though they never met again, Beethoven’s admiration for Mozart in general, and the comic opera Die Zauberflöte in particular,never waned.  Between 1796 and 1801, Beethoven composed variations for piano and cello based on two arias from The Magic Flute.  This evening, Brightmusic will perform the variations he composed in 1796-98 on Papegeno’s aria “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” (“A Young Maiden or a Little Wife”).

Anton Giulio Priolo, “Threepenny in the Dark,” a Fantasia on Themes by Kurt Weill:  Kurt Weill (1900-1950)was the son of a cantor.  He studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik and with Ferruccio Busoni at the Preußische Akademia der Künste in Berlin.  In turn, he was a teacher of Claudio Arrau.  His Viennese wife, the actress Lotte Lenya, was his muse:  her voice “is the one I hear in my head when I am writing my songs.”  Weill is best remembered for the score he wrote for Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera of 1928.  Weill fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and moved to New York City in 1935, where he wrote songs and scores for musical theatre and opera.  Anton Giulio Priolo (b. 1966) is a contemporary Italian composer and musician, who wrote Threepenny in the Dark in 2013 based on Kurt Weill themes, including those from The Threepenny Opera and Weill’s score for Lady in the Dark, a 1941 Broadway collaboration with Ira Gershwin and Moss Hart.

The Magic Flute                                          The Threepenny Opera
© Metropolitan Opera                                  Original Berlin Poster, 1928

Franz Schubert, Adagio and Rondo Concertante in F Major, D.487:  Schubert (1797-1828) wrote this piece at the age of 19.  At that time, he was enamored with one Therese Grob, who had sung the soprano solo part in Schubert’s Mass in F, and for whom he had written “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel.”  Although Schubert’s finances were far too modest, he still thought that he could ingratiate himself with her family by composing a work which her cellist brother could perform.  Schubert didn’t get the girl.  Nor did this work gain him any fame or fortune.  Indeed, it wasn’t publicly performed until 1861 and wasn’t published until 1865, like much of Schubert’s oeuvre.  The piano-centered work is in two movements: I. Adagio and II. Rondo – Allegro Vivace.  Some commentators have said that it is the closest that Schubert came to composing a piano concerto. 

Arnold Schoenberg, “Die Eiserne Brigade” (“The Iron Brigade”):  Shortly after World War I broke out, the 40-year-old Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) volunteered for service in the Austrian Army.  He was discharged a year later because his asthma, if not his age.  Before his final discharge was completed, he wrote a witty piano quintet, in the form of a march, for a social evening of boot camp volunteers, undoubtedly well-lubricated for the occasion.  “Unlike the twelve-tone works for which Schoenberg is most remembered, this piece ... is a light-hearted, distinctly tonal work that quotes folk and military songs, and asks the musicians to give voice to sounds of barnyard animals and a hearty snore” [Elaine Schmidt].  You too can now enjoy Schoenberg! 

Johann Strauss II (arranged by Arnold Schoenberg), “The Kaiser Waltz,” op. 437:  This work reflects the spirit of 19^th Century Imperial Vienna.   Johann Strauss II (1825-1899) composed it in honor of Kaiser Franz Josef, certainly more as a concert work than a dance hall waltz.  It reflects the style typical of the time: an introduction, five different waltzes, and a coda.  The version that Brightmusic will play tonight was arranged by Arnold Schoenberg in 1925 for a performance in Spain. 

The young Franz Schubert

Johann Strauss II

PROGRAM NOTES – FESTIVAL CONCERT 2

Ludwig van Beethoven, Trio in B-flat Major for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, op. 11:  By the time he wrote this trio, Beethoven (1770-1827) was gaining fame as a composer, and was writing most of his works on commission.  This trio, written in 1797-98, was commissioned by the Viennese clarinetist Franz Joseph Bähr, who asked Beethoven to compose a work that included a hit tune from a recent comic opera, L’amor marinaro by Joseph Weigl.  Beethoven obliged, although Carl Czerny later said that Beethoven wished he had composed a different finale, and had published his original finale as a separate set of variations.  Nonetheless, the finale – a “genial and amusing set of nine variations” [James Keller] – provides an early example of Beethoven’s skillful variation technique.  The trio is scored in three movements:  I. Allegro con brio, II. Adagio, and III. Tema: “Pria ch’io l’impegno:” Allegretto.  Beethoven dedicated the work to Countess Maria Wilhelmina von Thun, the mother-in-law of his important patron, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, who had also patronized Mozart. 

Franz Schubert, Fantasy in C Major for Violin and Piano, op. 159, D.934:  Schubert (1797-1828) wrote this piece less than a year before his death.  It is an “easy-going, mainly lighthearted” work ... very “Schubertian” [Roy Brewer].  But “melodic and appealing as the Fantasy may be to hear, it is nevertheless extremely difficult to perform.  It demands players of the greatest skill” [Eric Bromberger].  Schubert wrote it for a young Bohemian violin virtuoso, Josef Slawjk, whom Chopin called “a second Paganini.”  Premiered in January 1828, the work was panned by the local critics, one of whom candidly wrote that it was longer than a “Viennese is prepared to devote to pleasures of the mind.”  Although not published until 22 years after Schubert’s death, the work has stood the test of time better than its original audience, with its short attention span, might have expected.  The work was written in a single movement, but multiple sections – either six or seven, depending on how you wish to count: I. Andante molto, II. Allegretto, III. Andantino, IV. Tempo primo, V. Allegro, VI. Allegretto and VII. Presto.  The heart of the work is its third section -- a set of variations on Schubert’s own 1821 song, “Sei mir gegrüßt!” (“Greetings to you!”), D.741.     

Alexander von Zemlinsky, Trio in D Minor for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, op. 3:  Zemlinsky (1871-1942) is remembered today more for having taught Schoenberg (who became his brother-in-law), Berg, Webern and Korngold than for his own music.  Zemlinsky’s career took him from Vienna to Prague to Berlin, then back to Vienna, from which (like many of his colleagues of even part-Jewish ancestry) he fled the threat of Nazi persecution for the United States.  He wrote this trio in 1895-1896, “a work of conservative Romanticism modeled on Brahms’ own trio scored for the same instruments of 1892” [James Leonard].  The work also contains echoes of Tchaikovsky, Dvořák and Mahler.  The trio caught the attention of Brahms in a competition sponsored by the Viennese Society of Musicians, and Brahms recommended it to his own publisher for publication.  The work is written in three movements:  I. Allegro ma non troppo, II. Andante, and III. Allegro.

The young Beethoven               Schubert                                                   Zemlinsky 

PROGRAM NOTES – FESTIVAL CONCERT 3

The Mae Ruth Swanson Memorial Concert

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K.478:  This is one of two quartets for piano, violin, viola and cello that Mozart (1756-1791) composed.  When he penned it in 1785, he was “composing at the top of his bent” [Julian Rushton].  “Although earlier works for this combination of instruments did exist, there was nothing to rival the level of compositional complexity or technical subtlety that Mozart put forth here” [James Keller].  This quartet showed his “mastery of a new medium at a stroke” [Rushton].  Nonetheless, the publisher cancelled his order for two more piano quartets because he knew this one would be too difficult for the amateurs who purchased most published music.  The quartet is set in G Minor, “Mozart’s most dramatic key,” whose “dark romantic sonorities” [Brian Robins] emphasize the lower strings, including Mozart’s own instrument – the viola.  “Emotional seriousness and dramatic import ... inform this entire quartet” [Keller].  The three movements are:  I. Allegro, II. Andante, and III. Rondo: Allegro moderato.

Gustav Mahler, Piano Quartet in A Minor:  Mahler (1860-1911) composed this work at age 16, when he was a first-year student at the Vienna Conservatory.  It is a one-movement work, perhaps intended as the first movement of a quartet that he never completed.  Records confirm that it was performed at least three times in 1876, each time with Mahler at the piano.  Because it was never published, the piece was long forgotten until his widow, Alma Mahler, rediscovered the manuscript in the early 1960s.  Peter Serkin and the Galimir Quartet premiered the work in the United States about a year before Alma’s death in 1964.  Martin Scorsese used it in his soundtrack for the 2010 film Shutter Island, in which the characters discuss the work.  The tempo marking is Nicht zu schnell.  “Though written by a teenager, this movement is far from a bit of juvenilia.  Mahler’s seriousness, melancholy, and angst show through every measure” [The Fauré Quartet].

Johannes Brahms, Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, op. 25:  Brahms (1833-1897) composed this work between the ages of 24 and 28.  He performed the piano part at its Vienna premiere in 1862, which was also his debut as a composer and pianist in that city (he moved there only one month before the Vienna premiere).  Some were enthralled by the quartet (the violinist who played the Vienna premiere declared, “This is Beethoven’s heir!”).  Others, including Clara Schumann (who had played the piano part at the Hamburg premiere one year earlier) voiced misgivings.  Since then, the quartet has become a staple of Romantic chamber music.  The work is scored in four movements:  I. Allegro, II. Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo - Trio: Animato, III. Andante con moto, and IV. Rondo alla Zingarese: Presto.  James Keller has said that audiences for this quartet are “lured by the work’s cumulative momentum: the tense tautness of [Movement I] leading to the introspective [Movement II] and the warmhearted [Movement III], finally to let loose with full abandon in [Movement IV].” 

Mozart                                     The young Mahler                       The young Brahms

PROGRAM NOTES – FESTIVAL CONCERT 4

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (arranged by Johann Nepomuk Wendt), Harmoniemusik for Wind Octet from The Marriage of Figaro, K.492:  Mozart (1756-1791) moved to Vienna in 1781.  There, “he was on his own, and it is as if a great psychological block was lifted.  He began to write music of much greater depth, confidence, brilliance, and power....  1781 marks the period of Mozart’s maturity, and virtually every work thereafter is a masterpiece” [Harold Schonberg].  He wrote the greatest of his 23 operas in Vienna, three of them, including The Marriage of Figaro, in collaboration with the Italian lyricist Lorenzo Da Ponte.  The Marriage of Figaro “opened the door to a new world of opera.  It is a scintillating work with real people in it, and the music exposes them for what they are – loveable, vain, capricious, selfish, ambitious, forgiving, philandering” [id].  The play on which the opera was based also opened the door to a delicate subject – class revolution.  “It was surprising that an opera which has such an explosive subject – the routing of an aristocrat by a pair of quick-witted plebeians – was allowed to be staged at all” [id.].  The opera premiered in Vienna on May 1, 1786.  The arranger, Johann Nepomuk Wendt (1745-1801), was a Bohemian wind musician.  His Harmoniemusik from The Marriage of Figaro includes the following works from the opera:

Overture                                                     
Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso (“No more frolic, amorous butterfly”)                 
Porgi amor qualche ristoro (“Oh love, bring some relief”)
Voi che sapete che cosa è amor (“You ladies who know what love is”)                 
Dove sono i bei momenti (“Where are those happy moments”)                                   
Ecco la marcia (“There’s the march”)

Ludwig van Beethoven, Rondino in E-flat Major for Wind Octet, WoO 25:  Beethoven (1770-1827) wrote this work at age 23.  1793 was his first year of living in Vienna and studying with Haydn.  His compositions at that time included several for wind ensemble, reflecting what his biographer Barry Cooper called “Vienna’s seemingly insatiable demand for wind music.”  This work was probably intended to be the fifth movement of what ultimately became a four-movement wind octet.  For some reason, Beethoven dropped it from the wind octet and scored it as a separate piece labeled “Rondo, Andante.”  Neither the Wind Octet (ultimately published as posthumous opus 103) nor the Rondo (relabeled as Rondino) was published during Beethoven’s lifetime.  That is regrettable because the Rondino is “a charming piece of considerable subtlety, concluding in an enchanting coda” [James Keller]. 

Mozart                            The Marriage of Figaro                             The young Beethoven
                                        ©  Metropolitan Opera

Franz Krommer, Partita in F Major for Wind Octet, op. 57:  We would all know Krommer (1759-1831) better, were it not for Beethoven.  Krommer was the most famous Czech composer in imperial Vienna.  He was a contemporary and rival to Beethoven, even though his style was more like that of Haydn or Mozart.  Born in Moravia, he studied violin and organ in his youth.  Most of his career, he spent in Vienna, first as the music director of the Court ballet and then as the director of chamber music and Court composer.  His output was prolific, more than 300 compositions, including nine symphonies, concertos, 36 string quintets and more than 70 string quartets.  He wrote powerful music for wind ensemble, for which he is best known today.  His opus 57 Partita was the first of 13 wind works he wrote for either eight or nine instruments (depending on whether the ensemble included a contrabassoon or not).  Such works for “wind band” were extremely popular in Vienna.  This Partita is scored in four movements:  I. Allegro vivace, II. Menuetto: Presto, III. Adagio – Andante cantabile and IV. Alla polacca.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (arranged by Josef Triebensee), Harmoniemusik for Wind Octet from Don Giovanni, K.527:  Don Giovanni followed The Marriage of Figaro by one year.  Once again, Mozart collaborated with Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte.  Harold Schonberg has said that Mozart was the first composer “to make comic opera transcend mere entertainment.”  In some ways, Don Giovanni even transcended comic opera.  Mozart called it a drama giocoso, a humorous drama.  Its plot was comic, but its emotions were serious.  It has always received the highest accolades.  Pytor Tchaikovsky wrote to a friend, “Don Giovanni was the first music to produce an overwhelming effect on me and it aroused in me a holy ecstasy.”  David Dubal called it “the most cataclysmic opera of the eighteenth century.”   And Harold Schonberg said that “it is the most Romantic of Mozart’s operas, just as it is the most serious, the most powerful, and the most otherworldly ....  Many consider Don Giovanni to be the greatest opera ever composed.”  Mozart premiered the opera in Prague on October 29, 1787.  The arranger, Josef Triebensee (1772-1846), was an oboist in Prague.  Among other things, he played second oboe for Mozart’s 1791 premiere of The Magic Flute.  His Harmoniemusik from Don Giovanni includes the following works from the opera:

Overture
Notte e giorno faticar (“Night and day I slave”)
Madamina, il catalogo è questo (“My dear lady, this is the list”)
Giovinette che fate all’amore (“Let’s enjoy while the season invites us”)
Là ci darem la mano (“Give me thy hand, oh fairest”)
Finch’han dal vino (“Until they have some wine”)
Batti, batti, o bel Masetto (“Beat, beat, oh handsome Masetto”)
Minuetto and Act I finale
Vedrai, carino (“You’ll see, my dear”) 
Già la mensa è preparata (“Ah, I see the table is ready”)                                  

Franz Krommer        Don Giovanni                                  Mozart’s Memorial – St. Mary
                                ©  Metropolitan Opera                      Cemetery  - Vienna