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Mozart – Overture Idomeneo

In 1780 the 24-year-old Mozart and his librettist, Varesco, were commissioned by Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, to compose an opera for a court carnival. The result – Idomeneo – was Mozart’s first truly mature opera, although he had already composed 11 previously, in a wide range of styles. Idomeneo is remarkable for its succession of beautiful arias, dramatic choruses, and accompanied recitatives (speech-like music which moves the action on more rapidly), and reveals his extraodinary gift for orchestral color, particularly in the writing for the wind instruments. Mozart himself conducted the premiere in the exquisite and still existing Cuvilliers Theatre of the Elector’s Munich palace, on January 29th, 1781.

Idomeneo is set in 1200BC on the island of Crete. Returning from the Trojan war, where he was on the losing side, Idomeneo (Idomeneus), King of Crete, is caught in a terrible sea storm. He vows to the god Neptune that, if he is saved, he will sacrifice the first human being he meets on land. This proves to be his own son, Idamante, who is in love with Ilia, King Priam of Troy’s daughter. The opera tells the story of their love, and of the desperation of Electra, a Greek princess, who is also in love with Idamante. Overshadowing the love story are the king’s attempts to avoid sacrificing his son, which are finally successful: at the end of the opera Neptune commands Idomeneo to abdicate in favor of his son, and Idamante, finally united with his beloved Ilia ascends to the throne.

The overture to Idomeneo is brilliant and dramatic. After an impressive, triumphal opening – this is music for the court – Mozart magnificently portrays the surging sea. More festive music gives way to a quietly restless melody on the violins. Towards the end, the uncertainty of the drama is foreshadowed in music with an eerie quality. In the opera, this leads straight into the opening scene. The 19th century Romantic composer Reinecke, whose lovely Flute Concerto formed part of last October’s program, provided an extended “concert ending.” However, much of it is not quite in Mozart’s style, so we have taken just the last few bars to bring the Overture to a strong conclusion.

Mozart score the Idomeneo overture for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets; timpani, and strings

Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K491

Six years after his success with Idomeneo, in the winter of 1785-86, Mozart composed his great comic opera The Marriage of Figaro. At the same time he wrote perhaps the greatest of all his piano concertos, the C Minor Concerto, No. 24, the last in a series of six concertos written since 1784. Coincidentally, Mozart completed it on March 24th. The first performance took place at Vienna’s Burgtheater the following month, with Mozart, as usual, directing from the keyboard.

Only two of Mozart’s twenty-seven piano concertos are in the minor key – the other is the great and turbulent D Minor Concerto No. 20, which can be seen as emotional brother of K491. The C Minor Concerto is especially remarkable for its complex, yet perfectly clear structural balance, and as in Idomeneo, the writing for the wind instruments. The orchestra is the most complete and integrated of any of Mozart’s concertos – nowhere else did he use both oboes and clarinets. The only other piano concertos employing clarinets are numbers 22 in Eb Major and 23 in A Major.

The first movement of the C Minor Concerto is, unusually, in ¾ time: Mozart only used ¾ for the opening movements of two other concertos. The quietly ominous opening phrase may have been influenced by his friend Haydn’s Symphony No. 78. It certainly inspired the opening of Beethoven’s own C Minor Piano Concerto. The strange, “stretched” climb and bizarre, chromatic rising tail of this opening theme set the mood for a movement of unsurpassed dramatic intensity, which is made all the more telling by Mozart’s unerring control of melodic line and form. Mozart did not leave a cadenza – the solo, bravura passage near the end of the movement which was originally intended to be improvised – for this concerto, but unusually, when the orchestra resumes, the soloist continues with quiet arpeggios (chords played one note at a time) until the last measure.

“Childlike simplicity” is the phrase universally used to describe the charming melody, in Eb Major, which opens the second movement. After the restless drama of the first, this brings welcome relief. Trumpets and drums are silent, and the writing for woodwinds and horns is among the most beautiful Mozart ever fashioned. The movement is in rondo form, which Mozart normally reserved for the finales of his concertos.

However, the finale itself is a Theme and Variations. returning to the restless mood of the first movement, but it also has a playful dimension. The theme is piquant and march-like, with strange harmonic adventures, and the variations are truly varied, ranging through exotically chromatic, strangely humorous, aggressively martial, rhythmically precise, and sublimely beautiful. The interplay between piano and orchestra is marvelous. Finally, the music moves from common time to 6/8 for an unsettlingly turbulent conclusion.

The orchestration of the C Minor Piano Concerto is: one flute, pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets; timpani, and strings.

Bruckner – Symphony No. 4, Romantic

Anton Bruckner was born in the village of Ansfelden, close to Linz in Upper Austria, about 60 miles from Salzburg. The son of a school music teacher, he grew up among craftsmen, farmers and working men, whose life was ruled by the qualities of unquestioning obedience to authority, acceptance, and persistence. Bruckner was deeply religious from his youth, and was also closely connected with the monks of the monastery of St. Florian. His great symphonies, while not overtly sacred, reflect his intense faith and his sense of the majesty of God. He was extremely humble, even naïve: after a rehearsal for this symphony he was so pleased that he offered the aristocratic conductor, Hans Richter, a thaler coin and told him to buy himself a beer with it! The composer Mahler described him as “half simpleton, half God.”

Bruckner was considered the finest organist of his day, giving impressive recitals in Paris and London. The way he writes for the orchestra, contrasting different groups of instruments, as well as the rich writing for the brass instruments, is obviously inspired by the sound possibilities of the organ. On this instrument different sounds can be produced by changing the “registration” – the combination of organ stops.

Schubert and Bruckner were the only two great Romantic composers who were born in Austria, and it is interesting that their musical language is remarkably similar, given that Bruckner’s is much more sophisticated. Surprisingly, Bruckner had the same rigorous composition teacher that Schubert had consulted towards the end of his brief life thirty years earlier – Simon Sechter. Bruckner was extremely conservative by nature, and during the first 40 years of his life he only left the confines of a small area around Linz in order to go to Vienna for his lessons with Sechter.

Bruckner was a prodigiously diligent student, and struggled for years to master all the great forms and techniques of musical composition. He was nearly 44 when his First Symphony was premiered in 1868, having waited even longer than Brahms before trusting his abilities enough to present them to the musical public. Bruckner suppressed two early symphonies, which were not discovered until 1895, the year before his death – but the composer dismissed them as immature and gave them no number.

Bruckner himself gave the title Romantic to the 4th Symphony. He meant this not in the modern, emotional sense, but suggesting a medieval story of love and chivalry. He even gave a programmatic description for the first part of this movement:

“Mediaeval city — Daybreak — Morning calls sound from the city towers — the gates open — On proud horses the knights burst out into the open, the magic of nature envelops them — forest murmurs — bird song.”

Inspired by the opening of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Bruckner’s symphonies almost always start with quietly shimmering strings. The 4th Symphony is no exception, and over this shimmer a solo horn plays a magical melody of broken phrases, which is then taken up by the flutes and clarinets. The music quickly moves from its quiet opening to the first of many great, cathedral-like passages, led nobly by the brass instruments. The “bird song” refers to the next section: a beautiful and lyrical intertwining of melodic lines with a pastoral atmosphere, which alternates with majestic outbursts for the full orchestra. The middle section of this movement is especially beautiful, as the horn’s opening melodic fragment is taken up by other instruments, contrasted by smooth solo woodwind phrases, over more string shimmering. One of the most inspired passages of the Symphony is the conclusion of this movement: the horn’s opening phrase alternates between winds and brass over undulating strings, building steadily to a magnificent paean of triumph.

Bruckner referred to the second movement, in the key of C Minor, simply as “song”. Over a march-like accompaniment first the cellos, and then the woodwinds, play a melody of subdued but yearning lyricism. There follows a chorale-like passage of string chords with surprising harmonic progressions, and then comes the true second theme: a mysterious passage in which the violas, accompanied by quiet pizzicato chords from the rest of the strings, play a melody of beautiful, questioning phrases. The whole feeling of this movement is one of unhurried progression. After a powerful but brief climax, the march-like song and the viola melody return, and then, once again, Bruckner builds a passage of increasing grandeur. This gradually involves the whole orchestra, before the movement subsides to a quiet conclusion.

The third movement is a vivacious depiction of “the hunt”. Horns, and then trumpets, playfully toss hunting calls to each other in music which proves that Bruckner could express lightness and humor, while retaining a sense of noble gravitas: although he described the movement as a hunting party, it is surely the Gods who are having fun. The middle section, which Bruckner allegedly described as “repose from the hunt,” is a pastoral Ländler – an Austrian country minuet in the rare and subtle key of Gb Major (6 flats). The instruments interweave the naively charming melodic lines with quiet humor.

The finale is structurally the most complex movement of the four, and repays closely attentive listening so that one does not lose the thread. Bruckner gave no descriptive hints, and he revised it more than once. The opening section builds slowly to a titanic unison statement for the full orchestra. Then come the first of three song-like passages of richly contrapuntal, but delicately passionate melody. The music soon becomes elegant and charming, but this mood gives suddenly gives way to a passage of uncompromising grandeur. The process repeats with much variation in the central section of the movement. After the third of the song-like passages, which again gives way to lively elegance, Bruckner concludes the symphony by building the music slowly and inexorably to a supreme climax. The Symphony’s apotheosis is a radiant transfiguration of the horn theme which opened the first movement. It is surely Bruckner’s breathtaking and humbling vision of the glory of Heaven.

Bruckner originally composed the 4th Symphony in 1874, but revised it repeatedly, the last full revision being completed in 1888. The version performed this weekend is frequently used, and was for many years considered the definitive version – there is conflicting evidence as to whether later changes were made at the instigation of Bruckner’s pupils. The scoring of the 4th Symphony calls for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons; four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani and strings.

 

Program:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Overture Idomeneo

Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K491

Allegro
Larghetto
(Allegretto)

Soloist: Konstantin Soukhovetski

***Intermission***

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)

Symphony No. 4 in Eb Major, Romantic
(1881 “Original Version” – edited by Haas, 1936)

Bewegt, nicht zu schnell (lively, not too fast)
Andante quasi allegretto (Walking pace, somewhat lively)
Scherzo: Bewegt (lively) – Trio: Nicht zu schnell, keinesfalls schleppend (not too fast, but in no way dragging)
Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell (Lively, but not too fast)