10 minute read
April 8-10 — Classics
DE WAART & BRAUTIGAM
Friday, April 8, 2022 at 7:30 pm Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 7:30 pm Sunday, April 10, 2022 at 2:30 pm ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL
Edo de Waart, conductor Ronald Brautigam, piano
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, Opus 56a Chorale St. Antoni: Andante Variation I: Poco più animato Variation II: Più vivace Variation III: Con moto Variation IV: Andante con moto Variation V: Vivace Variation VI: Vivace Variation VII: Grazioso Variation VIII: Presto non troppo Finale: Andante
FRANZ SCHREKER
IN TERMISSION
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Overture to Collin’s Coriolan, Opus 62
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Concerto No. 25 in C major for Piano and Orchestra, K. 503 I. Allegro maestoso II. Andante III. Allegretto
Ronald Brautigam, piano
The MSO Steinway piano was made possible through a generous gift from MICHAEL AND JEANNE SCHMITZ. The 2021.22 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND.
The length of this concert is approximately 2 hours. Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra can be heard on Telarc, Koss Classics, Pro Arte, AVIE, and Vox/Turnabout recordings. MSO Classics recordings (digital only) available on iTunes and at mso.org. MSO Binaural recordings (digital only) available at mso.org.
Guest Artist Biographies
RONALD BRAUTIGAM
One of the leading pianists of his generation, Ronald Brautigam is one of the few to perform at the highest level on modern as well as period instruments. A student of the legendary Rudolf Serkin, he has over the years established himself as an authority on the classical and early romantic composers, with an acclaimed discography on the BIS label that includes complete cycles of works by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven as well as recordings of solo works and concertos by Kraus, Weber, and Mendelssohn. Brautigam has performed with leading orchestras across the world – from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra – as well as the foremost period ensembles. In 2009 he began what has proved a highly successful collaboration with the Kölner Akademie and its conductor Michael Alexander Willens, resulting in acclaimed recordings of the complete piano concertos of Mozart (11 discs), Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Weber. Current recording projects include the piano concertos by the Dutch-German composer Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847). In 2004, Brautigam released the first installment of a 15-disc Beethoven cycle on fortepiano, prompting the reviewer of the magazine Fanfare to envisage a series “that challenges the very notion of playing this music on modern instruments, a stylistic paradigm shift.” Featuring the piano sonatas, the first nine discs of the cycle were awarded an Edison Award and the prestigious Jahrespreise der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2015. Besides his work for BIS, Brautigam has recorded piano concertos by Shostakovich, Hindemith, and Frank Martin with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly, as well as several discs with violinist Isabelle van Keulen and cellist Christian Poltéra. His recordings have earned him a number of awards including three Edisons, a Diapason d’Or de l’Année, and two MIDEM Classical Awards, for best solo piano and best concerto recording respectively. His editorial work includes a reconstruction of the orchestral score of Beethoven’s piano concerto WoO4 from 1784, as well as preparing an edition of the five piano concertos by Johann Wilhelm Wilms.
Program notes by J. Mark Baker
Music Director Laureate Edo de Waart returns to conduct a program of Austro-German works: much-loved music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms is complemented by Schreker’s lesser-known – but completely beguiling – Chamber Symphony. Welcome back to Milwaukee, Ronald Brautigam!
Johannes Brahms
Born 7 May 1833; Hamburg, Germany Died 3 April 1897; Vienna, Austria
Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, Opus 56a
Composed: 1873 First performance: 2 November 1873; Vienna, Austria Last MSO performance: March 2016; Joshua Weilerstein, conductor Instrumentation: 2 flutes; piccolo; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; percussion (triangle); strings Approximate duration: 19 minutes Like the two orchestral serenades and Ein deutches Requiem, Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn predates his Symphony No. 1. The 40-year-old composer wrote the work in the summer of 1873. A few years earlier, his friend (and Haydn biographer) C.F. Pohl had shown him the score to Haydn’s Feldpartita in B-flat major – written for two oboes, two horns, three bassoons, and the archaic serpent horn. In his notebook, he copied the second movement, which probably was based on an old chant entitled Chorale St. Antonii, sung by the Burgenland pilgrims. (Despite Brahms’s title, the theme most likely predated Haydn.) The German master used its hymn-like melody as the theme for the Opus 56 Variations. First scored for two pianos (Opus 56b), it was always Brahms’s intention to create an orchestral version. And indeed, it is one of his finest. The eight variations retain the harmony, the rhythm, and, to a certain degree, the melody of the theme. Various instruments share the motives and melodies, playfully tossing them from one section of the orchestra to another. The variations build toward a dramatic climax, and the finale, passacaglia-like, provides variations on a fivemeasure basso-ostinato gleaned from the theme itself. The work pretends to taper to a quiet close, but a subito fortissimo ends the piece in a resounding B-flat major.
Franz Schreker
Born 23 March 1878; Monaco Died 21 March 1934; Berlin, Germany
Composed: 1916 First performance: 12 March 1917; Vienna, Austria Last MSO performance: MSO premiere Instrumentation: flute; oboe; clarinet; bassoon; horn; trumpet; trombone; timpani; percussion (cymbals, glockenspiel, suspended cymbal, tam tam, triangle, xylophone); harp: celeste; harmonium; piano; strings Approximate duration: 25 minutes
Though his primary genre was opera, the Austrian composer Franz Schreker also wrote orchestral and chamber music, as well as songs and choral works. He studied violin and composition at the Vienna Conservatory and later had a career in that city as a composer, conductor, and professor. As a conductor, he was on the podium for the premieres of Zemlinsky’s Psalm XXIII and Schoenberg›s Friede auf Erden and Gurre-Lieder, among many others. In 1920, Schreker accepted the directorship of the Berlin Hochschule für Musik; he moved to Berlin and remained there for the rest of his life. As a Jew, he came under Nazi attack in the early 1930s, and was forced, in 1932, to resign from his position at the Hochschule. He then took over a masterclass in composition at the Prussian Academy of Arts, but was dismissed at the end of 1933. The shock of that event caused a severe heart attack, from which he never recovered; he died two days short of his 56th birthday. Though the music of his later years became leaner, harsher, and more dissonant, Schreker was essentially a Romantic composer. This is patently obvious in the Chamber Symphony, written to celebrate the centenary of the Vienna Academy. Its first performance was given there in 1917, conducted by the composer. From its phosphorescent opening measures – wherein first the flute, then the violins hover above the misty timbres of celesta, piano, harp, and harmonium – the Kammersymphonie beguiles us with its lush scoring and sultry eroticism. In Schreker’s hands, the orchestra becomes a prism, refracting motivic ideas as various instruments combine to create a kaleidoscope of colors. Melodies crisscross and, as in a relay race, are handed from one player or section to another. Schreker’s penchant for kinetic fluctuations of tempo, rhythm, and mood can delightfully obscure formal articulation. Nevertheless, this single-movement work contains four discernable sections: introduction, main movement, adagio, and scherzo. These often overlap and, except for the scherzo, are all echoed at the end.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Baptized 17 December 1770; Bonn, Germany Died 26 March 1827; Vienna, Austria
Overture to Collin’s Coriolan, Opus 62
Composed: 1807 First performance: March 1807; Vienna, Austria Last MSO performance: February 2013; Edo de Waart, conductor Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; strings Approximate duration: 8 minutes
Coriolanus was a celebrated Roman military leader of the fifth century B.C. His story has been related by the likes of Plutarch and Shakespeare, but Beethoven’s overture was inspired by Heinrich Joseph von Collin’s tragedy Coriolan, first staged in 1804 and revived in 1807. We don’t know whether or not Beethoven intended his Opus 62 to be performed in the theatre. Its first performance took place in a concert at Prince Lobkowitz’s Viennese palace; the composer’s Fourth Symphony and Fourth Piano Concerto were on the same program. In Collin’s drama, Coriolanus, failing to show adequate interest in the people of Rome, has been banned from the city. Angered, he joins forces with the Volscians, enemies of Rome, and resolves to attack his native city. When he reaches the edge of the city, Roman representatives beg him to desist, but he refuses. Before long, his wife and his mother, Volumnia, arrive to plead with him. Seeing his mother, he foreswears his revenge and, to reclaim his honor, falls on his sword. The Coriolan Overture is set in sonata-allegro form in C minor, a key Beethoven reserved for stormy, emotionally charged works (“Pathetique” Sonata, funeral march in the “Eroica” Symphony, Fifth Symphony, et al.). Its first theme, in C minor, portrays Coriolanus as the lamentable warrior. The second theme, depicting Volumnia, is its antithesis; set in the relative
key of E-flat major, it is a melody of radiant gentleness. Throughout the work, the contrast between these motives remains unresolved. In the coda, Beethoven reverses the themes, first presenting Volumnia’s melody (now in C major), then the Coriolanus motive. The latter slows down and finally ebbs away, followed by three unison Cs, pizzicato et pianissimo. Beethoven dedicated his Opus 62 to H.J. Collin. In its own way, the Coriolan Overture is a watershed moment in the history of 19th-century music. Descriptive rather than narrative, it paved the way for concert overtures by Mendelssohn, Weber, Wagner, Smetana, Dvořák, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar, among many others – all the way to Shostakovich’s Festive Overture (1954), one of the last that still shows links with the tradition.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born 27 January 1756; Salzburg, Austria Died 5 December 1791; Vienna, Austria
Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503
Composed: 1786 First performance: [?] December 1786; Vienna, Austria Last MSO performance: March 1989; Lukas Foss, conductor; Richard Goode, piano Instrumentation: flute; 2 oboes; 2 bassoons; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; strings Approximate duration: 30 minutes
It is an axiom among music lovers that Beethoven’s greatest, most profound musical utterances are to be found in his late string quartets and late piano sonatas. The same is said of Mozart’s late operas and late piano concertos. Such is certainly the case with the C major concerto, K. 503. Though he would go on to write two more piano concertos, this was the last of what are considered the great 12 piano concertos he penned between 1784-86. Mozart completed the work on 4 December 1786; though the reason for its composition is uncertain, it’s possible that he premiered it the following evening on a projected Advent concert. What we do know is that the nimble composer also completed the “Prague” Symphony, K. 504 just two days later, on 6 December. In Mozart’s time (and earlier), C major and D major were the keys in which trumpets and drums were customarily used. “The extra depth of C seems to have led to Mozart’s preferring it for works of a more ceremonious character” (Stanley Sadie). This holds true for K. 503 – one of his greatest works in the concerto genre; here, he eschews the use of his beloved clarinets and instead opts for those more celebratory – and militaristic – instruments. The wide-ranging opening movement opens with a fanfare-like melody befitting its “maestoso” marking. Among its themes is a march-like melody with a short-short-short-long rhythm that some have likened to “La Marseillaise,” though that tune had not yet been written. Qualities other than majesty are soon evident, however, as shifts to the minor mode create moments of doubt and ambiguity. Mozart left no cadenza for this movement, so the soloist is free to play one of their own choosing – or from their own imagination. The serene Andante, set in F major in 3/4 meter, makes extensive and colorful use of the winds. Likewise, Mozart toys with the timbral possibilities of his own instrument, exploring and exploiting its extreme registers. Throughout the movement, primly straightlaced passages alternate with elaborately embellished ones to create a refined, graceful whole. The final Allegretto is a sonata-rondo that opens with a gavotte theme from Mozart’s 1781 opera Idomeneo. On its surface it is cheerful and confident, but, like the first movement, it is tinted by contrasts of major and minor keys. A lyrical theme in the middle of the bustling activity adds a moment of pathos, but this delightful work of the 30-year-old master ends with joy and assurance.
