Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online

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1 Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online Henry E Rensburg Series Elgar s Cello Concerto Thursday 5 April pm sponsored by Investec RICHARD WAGNER ( ) Overture: Rienzi As all-powerful a figure as Richard Wagner seems today a man whose operas dominate the repertoire and who decreed that a special theatre be built to enshrine them he was an artist who endured his fair share of professional obstacles. In 1838, while music director at the opera house in Riga, the composer began work on what is considered his first mature opera: Rienzi. Not long after that, Wagner fled Riga under the cover of darkness, pursued by creditors. With his partner Minna, he endured a treacherous sea-voyage to London (the journey would inspire his next opera, The Flying Dutchman) before moving to Paris where he was all but rejected by the operatic establishment. All that time, Wagner had been continuing to work on Rienzi, finishing its Overture in 1840 in a debtor s prison in the French capital. The turbulence of Wagner s existence at the time is tangible in the opera, which was eventually performed in Dresden in 1842, and particularly in its Overture the earliest slice of orchestral Wagner that has remained in the repertoire today. What the Overture actually depicts isn t a million miles away from Wagner s own predicament: the tribune Cola de Rienzi and his tireless fight against the scheming nobles of Rome (the story came from a historical novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton). When he wasn t in prison in Paris, Wagner was listening to Beethoven and

2 Berlioz, and the Overture bears the influence of their orchestration, pointed and lustrous. After the three trumpet notes bring the piece into life, we hear the noble theme on strings that will appear in the opera as Rienzi s prayer. The opera in its entirety may be patchy, but in its Overture we hear the passionate intensity, melodic brilliance and theatrical force that would see its composer change the opera world forever. Andrew Mellor 2018 EDWARD ELGAR ( ) Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85 Adagio moderato / Slow at a moderate speed Allegro molto / Very fast Adagio / Slow Allegro moderato allegro non troppo / Fast at a moderate speed fast, but not too fast Elgar wrote his Cello Concerto in the summer of It was to be his last major orchestral work and without Elgar s wife, Alice, even this concerto would have remained unwritten. He was shaken by the War, and sensed that the times were against him. Alice Elgar realized that he needed peace and seclusion if he was to write music again, so in May 1917 found him in Brinkwells, West Sussex a woodland cottage deep amongst the South Downs. Sure enough, he composed once more, but a very different kind of music. In 1918 he wrote his Violin Sonata, String Quartet, and Piano Quintet. Alice called them wood magic, and the same could go for the Cello Concerto written the following summer, and in its own way, just as much a piece of chamber music. It was premiered on 27 October Elgar was not given sufficient rehearsal time, and the audience didn t want to hear new music; the hall was half-empty. A week later, Alice Elgar fell into her final illness. With her death the following April, Elgar s composing career effectively ended.

3 For many years after that premiere, the Cello Concerto was widely regarded as understated even uninspired. Now it s a different story it s seen almost as a musical equivalent of Wilfred Owen s war poetry. Neither view is quite right. The Concerto isn t a public lament, but a private meditation, full of sweetness, moments of hope and even (in the second and fourth movements) humour. Throughout his life, Elgar was always most himself when lost in the countryside with his own thoughts. This concerto s emotions came from deep within him. How else to account for the impact of this haunted music? So much of it is quiet Michael Kennedy called the long, singing theme of the first movement (after the cello s impassioned opening cry) music of falling leaves and autumn smoke. There s something mysterious, too, about the second movement, which, after a few pauses for thought, speeds away as a fantastic scherzo, finally vanishing like a bursting bubble. There s laughter as well as tears in this Concerto even if the short Adagio runs too deep for either. So the gruff opening of the finale comes as something of shock as does the good humour that begins to surface in the least likely places. But at the peak of the movement, the sky darkens, and the cello pours out a pained lament over bitter harmonies. You can t mistake this emotion and sure enough, the cello is singing over the very chords with which Elgar had accompanied the Angel of the Agony in The Dream of Gerontius, 20 years earlier, and in another life. It s too much; the mood suddenly snaps and Elgar brushes the concerto away with a few angry bars of dismissal. Richard Bratby 2018 ROBERT SCHUMANN ( ) Symphony No.2 in C major, Op.61

4 Sostenuto assai un poco più vivace allegro ma non troppo con fuoco / Very sustained a little more lively fast but not too fast with fire Scherzo: allegro vivace / Scherzo: fast, lively Adagio espressivo / Slow, expressively Allegro molto vivace / Fast, very lively There s been a drumming and trumpeting within me for a few days, wrote Schumann to Felix Mendelssohn in September 1845, I don t know what it will lead to. Schumann was almost certainly referring to the first stirrings of his C major symphony which he sketched during the following December, when he was still recovering from a serious deterioration of his mental and physical health. He completed its orchestration by October of the following year, only three weeks before its premiere, which was directed by Mendelssohn at Leipzig s Gewandhaus on 5 November The performance was not a great success and led to the first and only disagreement between the two composers, although this was due to Mendelssohn s excessively long programme (which included not one, but two renditions of Rossini s William Tell Overture) rather than his interpretation of the work itself. It is Schumann s most purely classical symphony he viewed it as a successor to Schubert s Great C major Symphony, which he had rediscovered in 1839 and persuaded Mendelssohn to perform and some contemporary reviewers compared it favourably to the symphonies of Beethoven. However, whilst Schumann succeeded in adhering to the great classical symphonic models, he had doubts about its emotional register. The composer later expressed concern that the work was stamped with melancholy : First movement Schumann was surely being unnecessarily harsh on himself. As he also recognised, the work symbolises his struggle to overcome physical and mental adversity, and in its outer

5 movements particularly, it possesses powerfully heroic qualities. In fact, the work presents a sustained musical struggle between light and darkness, an opposition set up at the very opening of its slow, chorale-like introduction. Here two contrasting ideas are presented simultaneously: a bright and uplifting brass motif and a darker, more ruminative string line. Amid increasing agitation, the tempo quickens towards the allegro ma non troppo, its strident first subject characterised by jagged double-dotted rhythms. After a long crescendo the second subject appears, an equally energetic affair featuring much interplay between strings and woodwind. The two main themes are repeated before the development section ensues in which Schumann s different themes battle for supremacy to great dramatic effect. The two principal themes eventually re-emerge from the conflict with renewed defiance before a fiery coda leads to a splendidly heroic conclusion. Second movement As in his two previous symphonies (numbered as 1 and 4), Schumann structures the Scherzo in five sections with the addition of a second Trio. The high-spirited Scherzo, with its busy violin lines, recalls those of Mendelssohn, and the two contrasting Trios, foreshadow Brahms in character and orchestration. At the same time the movement is one of Schumann s most inventive and infectious orchestral creations, and one that can hardly be described as stamped with melancholy. The breathless momentum of the Scherzo music eventually leads to a lively moto perpetuo coda. Third movement The lyrical Adagio espressivo is a profoundly nostalgic affair that at moments takes on the character of an improvisation. Its cantabile main theme is followed by horn calls and rising arpeggios, and is then passionately elaborated with ornate scales and trills. There are notable solos for flute, oboe, clarinet and what Schumann described as the mournful bassoon. A fugato section (the theme of which is based on the earlier rising

6 arpeggios) briefly ensues, but the plaintive opening theme, now more glowingly orchestrated, soon interrupts proceedings. After more horn calls, arpeggios and elaborations, the movement ends peacefully in the optimistic key of C major. Fourth movement An upward flourish heralds the start of the finale. It opens with an exciting march theme, the tight dotted rhythms of which echo the opening movement s first subject. Eventually, amidst frantic violin activity, a lyrical theme in woodwind and lower strings appears, a version of the third movement s first subject. The march reappears but the mood gradually becomes darker and more agitated, and plangent echoes of the third movement are heard. After three hushed chords a new, gently lyrical theme emerges (one deriving from Beethoven s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte, To the Distant Beloved ) and this, in combination with the now familiar fanfare motif, dominate the scene right up to the symphony s triumphant ending. With a rousing kettledrum solo and emphatic final chords, Schumann is finally himself again. Anthony Bateman 2018

LISTENING GUIDE. p) serve to increase the intensity and drive. The overall effect is one of great power and compression.

LISTENING GUIDE. p) serve to increase the intensity and drive. The overall effect is one of great power and compression. LISTENING GUIDE LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 1827) Symphony No. 5 in C Minor Date of composition: 1807 8 Orchestration: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings Duration: