PROGRAMME NOTES & TEXTS
LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA | 28 MARCH 2020
2007: BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s slice-throughthe-centuries series 2020 Vision has reached 2007, the year in which the French composer Henri Dutilleux composed most of his last major work, Le temps l’horloge. It is a song-cycle for soprano and large orchestra reflecting movingly on the passing of time and the end of life. Two centuries earlier, in 1807, Beethoven began composing his famous Fifth Symphony, a work of revolutionary vehemence and coherence. Its four movements give the impression of an overarching
1907
Sibelius composed the third of his seven symphonies between 1904 and 1907, and conducted its first performance in Helsinki in September 1907. This was a period when the opulent late Romanticism of Mahler, Strauss and Scriabin was at its height. But, after two symphonies in the tradition of Tchaikovsky, Sibelius now took a decisive turn away from Romanticism, and towards the ‘young Classicism’ advocated by his friend Ferruccio Busoni, abstract in conception, fresh and clear in form and language. The Symphony is in three movements lasting only around half an hour, and is scored for a modest orchestra; and it is in a key offering an unusual openness and clarity of sound, C major – though in the outer movements the persistent presence of a ‘foreign’ F sharp pushes the work into harmonic progressions and key-schemes which are anything but traditional.
narrative of struggle and triumph, not least through the linking of the scherzo third movement and the finale into a continuous whole. Halfway between them came the Third Symphony of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, completed and first performed in 1907. This too feels as if it forms a continuous narrative, and again links its scherzo and finale so subtly that they merge into a single unit. But it replaces Beethoven’s Romantic assertiveness with cool, clear symphonic logic.
Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52 1 Allegro moderato 2 Andantino con moto, quasi allegretto 3 Moderato – Allegro (ma non tanto)
The first movement – said to have been inspired by the sight of banks of fog rolling along the English coast – is based in the Classical manner on two contrasting themes: the first, begun by the cellos and basses unaccompanied, in short phrases generating a sense of forward movement; the second, also launched by the cellos, in longer lines growing out of a sustained first note (a Sibelius trademark). The energetic semiquavers of the first subject tend to invade the texture at every opportunity, running almost continuously through the central development section until the return of their parent theme becomes inevitable. The coda develops ideas heard earlier to provide a solemn, hymn-like conclusion. The moderately-paced central movement is based on a gentle double-stranded melody in 6/4 time, two groups of three beats to the bar – though this is
frequently re-divided into three groups of two, and occasionally accompanied with bars of 4/4 in the bass. The melody is repeated and varied throughout the movement, in alternation with a calm episode begun by the cello section in resonant harmony, and a more dramatic second episode begun by the strings. The highly original final movement begins as a scherzo in 6/8 time, which soon throws off recollections in the flutes of the previous movement, but itself remains restless, never settling into a theme, a key or even a tempo for any length of time. Gradually it is invaded
2007
by a contrasting duple-time theme in sturdy close harmony; and eventually this theme breaks free of the scherzo completely, to dominate the rest of the movement in increasingly firm orchestral restatements. Neither half of the movement would stand up on its own, yet the scherzo is too substantial to count as an introduction, and the second half is much more than a coda. It is the balance between the two elements, and the subtle gradation of the transition between them, that gives this finale such a sense of purposeful movement and satisfying arrival.
Henri Dutilleux (1916–2013) Le temps l’horloge Five episodes for soprano and orchestra
1 Le temps l’horloge 2 Le masque 3 Le dernier poème 4 Interlude – 5 Enivrez-vous
The texts and translations begin on page 13. Henri Dutilleux, who died seven years ago at the age of 97, was a highly respected and utterly distinctive figure in French music. A native of Angers in northern France, he was head of music production at French Radio from 1945–63, and from 1961–71 taught at the École Normale de Musique and the Paris Conservatoire. These activities restricted his opportunities for composition for some years, but he was in any case a slow worker, sometimes abandoning projects at an advanced stage or rewriting them from scratch. His sources of inspiration were varied, embracing literature, painting and nature. He belonged to the mainstream French tradition of Debussy, Ravel and Roussel, rather than embracing the wit of Poulenc,
the structured mysticism of Messiaen, or the avantgarde techniques and sonorities of Boulez. But he rethought his language from piece to piece, as he did his handling of the orchestra, and his methods of continuous transformation of thematic material. In a book of interviews in the 1990s, Dutilleux admitted that vocal music had up to that time been ‘a serious gap in my catalogue’, but expressed a wish to write for ‘the most beautiful instrument of all’, adding ‘I think firstly of female voices’. He eventually made good that ambition with two cycles for soprano and orchestra, Correspondances (2002–04) and Le temps l’horloge (‘Time and the clock’). The latter, written in 2007–09
for Renée Fleming, was his last major work. It was premiered in its first version, consisting of the first three movements, in Matsumoto, Japan in September 2007, and given its first complete performance (preserved on Renée Fleming’s album Poèmes) in Paris in May 2009. The cycle is a meditation on the passing of time and the end of life. It is luminously scored for a large orchestra, with distinctive touches of colour from harpsichord and accordion. The first two songs are settings of poems by the writer and artist Jean Tardieu, a colleague of Dutilleux at French radio: the first reflects on the
sounds of time passing, while the second imagines an encounter with a timeless artefact in the desert. ‘Le dernier poème’ by the Surrealist poet Robert Desnos (though the attribution to him is doubtful) is a tender farewell to a lover. There is an orchestral interlude inspired by another Tardieu poem, ‘Le futur antérieur’, about the overlap between a life foreseen and a life lived, ‘so that when death comes it will find nobody there’. This leads into a defiant setting of a prose-poem by Baudelaire advocating intoxication as a response to ‘the terrible burden of Time’.
LE TEMPS L’HORLOGE TEXTS 1 Le temps l’horloge
Time and the Clock
L’autre jour j’écoutais le temps qui passait dans l’horloge. Chaînes, battants et rouages il faisait plus de bruit que cent au clocher du village et mon âme en était contente.
The other day I was listening to time as it passed inside the clock. Chains, chimes and cogs it made more noise than a hundred in the village clocktower, and that made my soul content.
J’aime mieux le temps s’il se montre que s’il passe en nous sans bruit comme un voleur dans la nuit.
I prefer time to show itself rather than pass among us noiselessly, like a thief in the night.
Jean Tardieu (1903–95)
2 Le masque
The Mask
Un lourd objet de bronze creux en forme de masque aux yeux clos s’élève lentement et seul très haut dans le désert sonore. Jusqu’à cet astre vert, à cette Face qui se tait depuis dix mille ans, sans effort je m’énvole, sans crainte je m’approche. Je frappe de mon doigt replié sur le front dur sur les paupières bombées, le son m’épouvante et me comble: loin dans la nuit limpide mon âme éternelle retentit.
A heavy object of hollow bronze in the form of a mask, its eyes closed, rises slowly and alone, high above the sonorous desert. Towards this green star, this Face silent for ten thousand years, I effortlessly soar, I fearlessly make my way. With bent finger I tap upon its solid brow, its bulging eyelids, the sound frightens and overwhelms me; far away in the limpid night my eternal soul reverberates.
Rayonne, obscurité, sourire, solitude! Je n’irai pas violer le secret je reste du côté du Visage puisque je lui parle et lui ressemble. Cependant tout autour la splendeur c’est le vide, brillants cristaux nocturnes de l’été.
Radiate, darkness, smile, solitude! I shall not betray the secret, I stay beside the Face since I’m talking to it and resemble it. Meanwhile, all around is the splendour of the void, dazzling crystals of a summer’s night.
Jean Tardieu (1903–95)
Please turn the page quietly.
3 Le dernier poème
The Last Poem
J’ai rêvé tellement fort de toi, J’ai tellement marché, tellement parlé, Tellement aimé ton ombre, Qu’il ne me reste plus rien de toi. Il me reste d’être l’ombre parmi les ombres D’être cent fois plus ombre que l’ombre
I’ve dreamed so clearly of you, I’ve walked so far, talked so long, loved your shadow so dearly, that I’ve nothing left of you. All I’ve got left is to be a shadow among shadows, to be a hundred times more of a shadow than the shadow, to be the shadow that will fall time and again across your sunlit life.
D’être l’ombre qui viendra et reviendra Dans ta vie ensoleillée. Robert Desnos (1900–45)
4 Interlude: Le futur antérieur
5 Enivrez-vous
Get drunk
Il faut toujours être ivre. Tout est là; c’est l’unique question. Pour ne pas sentir l’horrible fardeau du Temps qui brise vos épaules et vous penche vers la terre, il faut vous enivrer sans trêve.
One must always be drunk. That’s the key: it’s the only thing to do. To avoid feeling the terrible burden of Time that breaks your shoulders and bows you down towards the ground, you have to get drunk and stay drunk.
Mais de quoi? De vin, de poésie, ou de vertu, mais enivrez-vous. Et si quelquefois, sur les marches d’un palais, sur l’herbe verte d’un fossé, dans la solitude morne de votre chambre, vous vous réveillez, l’ivresse déjà diminuée ou disparue, demandez au vent, à la vague, à l’oiseau, à l’étoile, à l’horloge, à tout ce qui gémit, à tout ce qui chante, demandez quelle heure il est. Et le vent, la vague, l’étoile, l’oiseau, l’horloge, vous répondront: ‘Il est l’heure de s’enivrer! Pour n’être pas les esclaves martyrisés du Temps, enivrez-vous, enivrez-vous sans cesse à votre guise.’
But on what? On wine, on poetry or on virtue, just get drunk. And if sometimes you wake up on the steps of a palace, on the green grass of a ditch or in the lonely gloom of your bedroom, your drunkenness wearing off or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that groans, everything that sings, ask them what time it is; and the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock will tell you: ‘It’s time to get drunk! To avoid becoming martyrs enslaved to Time, get drunk and stay drunk, as you wish.’
L’horloge, l’oiseau, l’étoile.
The clock, the bird, the star.
Charles Baudelaire (1821–67)
English translations by Susannah Howe. Reprinted with kind permission of Decca Music Group Limited.
1807
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 1 Allegro con brio 2 Andante con moto 3 Allegro – 4 Allegro
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was written for the most part in the winter of 1807/8. It had its first performance at an extraordinary marathon concert in Vienna in December 1808 which also included the premieres of the Sixth Symphony and the Choral Fantasia, and much more besides. The Symphony shows Beethoven’s advances in the development of the genre. Building on the examples of Mozart and Haydn, he expanded the size of the orchestra, the scale of individual movements, their variety of expression, and the range of keys they visited. Drawing on his experience of the theatre, as well as his intense personal experience of deafness and isolation, he also increasingly bound the movements together into an overall narrative: sometimes suggested by titles, as in the ‘Eroica’ and ‘Pastoral’ Symphonies, sometimes implicit in the musical expression.
And so it proves when the scherzo reverts to the initial C minor, in dark and sinister mood, but the contrasting trio section (which Beethoven originally intended to come round twice) is in C major, an almost grotesque fugato led off by the cellos and double-basses.
In the Fifth, the implicit narrative is present from the start of the first movement. Whether or not Beethoven actually said of the opening motif ‘Thus Fate knocks at the door’ (the quotation comes from a notoriously unreliable source), the dramatic pauses, the astonishingly intensive treatment of that first idea and especially its rhythm, the vehemence of the development section and even more of the extended coda, all convey a titanic and unresolved struggle.
Programme notes © Anthony Burton
The slow movement initially seems to offer a respite: it is a relaxed Andante in the mellow key of A flat major, apparently settling into the form devised by Haydn of variations on two themes in turn. But when the plan is broken up by digressions into the heroic key of C major (a key untouched in the C minor first movement), with prominent trumpets, and when the ending is assertive rather than quiet, it is clear that the movement has become part of a longer-term strategy.
After this, in the Symphony’s biggest formal innovation, the reprise of the scherzo is not the usual literal repeat, but is hushed throughout, and extended to form a bridge leading straight into the finale. Here the key turns decisively to C major, and piccolo, double bassoon and (for the first time in a symphony) trombones reinforce the orchestra in a hymn of triumph. But Beethoven’s plan is not quite complete yet: at the end of the development section, the dark scherzo returns at its original tempo and in its original C minor – thus enhancing the final blaze of glory of the recapitulation and coda.
Recommended recordings by Laurie Watt Sibelius: Symphony No. 3 Minnesota Orchestra | Osmo Vänskä (BIS) Dutilleux: Le temps l’horloge Renée Fleming | Orchestre Nationale de France Seiji Ozawa (Decca) Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (see page 15) London Philharmonic Orchestra | Klaus Tennstedt (LPO Label LPO-0087) or London Philharmonic Orchestra | Kurt Masur (LPO Label LPO-0012)