love and death TONE POEMS BY RICHARD STRAUSS THE QUEENSLAND ORCHESTRA JOHANNES FRITZSCH

Transcription

1 love and death TONE POEMS BY RICHARD STRAUSS THE QUEENSLAND ORCHESTRA JOHANNES FRITZSCH

2 RICHARD STRAUSS Don Juan, Op Macbeth, Op Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op The Queensland Orchestra Johannes Fritzsch conductor Total Playing Time

3 Richard Strauss blazed onto the concert stage and into the annals of music history with the sequence of tone poems dashed off in the last decade or so of the 19th century. They mark Strauss s coming of age as a composer. Although he had been writing music from childhood (Strauss grew up in a musical household his father, Franz Strauss, was one of the most celebrated horn players of his time), Strauss cast off the mantle of the epigone in his tone poems and emerged as a composer with a strong and distinctive voice. The confidence and exuberance of that voice is palpable right from the start of Don Juan, a work which, according to eminent German musicologist Carl Dahlhaus, heralds the dawn of musical modernism. Strauss s musical maturation was effected to no small degree through his exposure to the music of Richard Wagner. Wagner s works had been off-limits to the young composer Franz Strauss made no secret of his abhorrence of Wagner s music of the future so it was not until Strauss had left his home city of Munich and the orbit of his overbearing father that he had the freedom to listen to and study music that formerly had been proscribed. The results were transformative. In 1885, at the age of 21, Strauss took up the post of assistant conductor to renowned maestro Hans von Bülow in the small German city of Meiningen. There, he became a close friend of Wagner acolyte Alexander Ritter (a violinist in the orchestra) who convinced him of the rightness of the Wagnerian cause. (Many years later Strauss described Ritter s influence as cyclonic.) As played out in Strauss s symphonic poems, this may be summarised as a preference for content over structure and expression over form. Expressive imperatives shape the musical work at every level and musical logic is driven by poetic necessity. Strauss summed up his position in a letter written to Bülow in 1888: I consider it a legitimate artistic method to create a correspondingly new form for every new subject. The subject that he is referring to here is the extra-musical argument (or program ) that informs the work, whether that be a poem, play or picture. Strauss, in other words, is declaring his affinity with the aims and objectives of the so-called New German School 19th-century composers who advocated program music over absolute music (the latter being music which refers to nothing other than its condition as pure music). In the second half of the 19th century, the New German School (which was not a school as such but was understood to comprise Wagner, Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz amongst others) represented the radical stream in music. In writing symphonic poems and using the fully expanded harmonic palette of the New Germans, Strauss was making clear his aesthetic allegiances. He had become the kind of composer his father had warned him about. The flamboyance, audacity and brazenness of Strauss s new-found voice won him notoriety throughout Europe and beyond. While his tone poems offended the sensibilities of conservative concert-goers, no orchestra could afford to ignore the phenomenon that was Richard III (so dubbed by Bülow, for whom Richard Wagner was Richard I but, such was Wagner s greatness, it was respectfully felt that Richard II should be held in abeyance). But the explicitly programmatic nature of Strauss s tone poems turned out to be a mixed blessing. While there was no denying the composer s extraordinary skill and vivid imagination, there was also the suspicion that Strauss s modus operandi favoured technique over substance that he was delivering effects without causes. Furthermore, while appearing thoroughly up-to-date in the final decades of the 19th century, pictorialism à la Strauss was at odds with the cold rationality of 20th-century modernist aesthetics. Program music came to be regarded as quaint at best, embarrassing at worst. Which is not to say that Strauss s tone poems disappeared from the orchestral repertory; on the contrary, their dazzling orchestration and brilliant tonal colours assured their place in the performing canon. Within modernist music scholarship, however, Strauss and his music were rather less valued. Happily, today s postmodern climate has allowed for a fresh reassessment of the composer and his works. In an era that questions oppositions such as program music and absolute music and takes a suspicious view of absolutes per se, Strauss and his music have enjoyed a resurgence. The academy, as it were, has caught up with the concert hall. Richard III has won back his crown. Don Juan, Op. 20 Don Juan was written during spring and summer in It was underway by the time Strauss embarked upon a tour of northern Italy in May June and was fully orchestrated by the end of September. Nevertheless, the premiere did not take place until more than a year later: 11 November 1889 in Weimar. Strauss had moved to Weimar the previous month to take up the post of Kapellmeister to the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. It is fitting that Don Juan received its premiere in the city that had fostered progressive trends in music since Liszt s tenure as Kapellmeister around the middle of the century. Weimar was the site of the premiere of Wagner s Lohengrin (under the direction of Liszt) and it was where Liszt composed the symphonic poems that secured his place within the New German School. Don Juan was inspired by the verse drama of the same name by Austro-Hungarian poet 4 5

4 Nicolaus Lenau. In fact, the frontispiece of the published orchestral score includes three specially selected quotations from Lenau s poem. Swaggering sexual adventurer Don Juan has been an archetype in European literature since the early 17th century. He is well known to musical audiences through his characterisation in the Mozart Da Ponte opera Don Giovanni. The events that befall him vary from one telling of the tale to another, but they invariably involve serial seductions and a trail of destruction. The lively and vigorous theme heard at the outset of the tone poem is clearly meant to signify the mythical lover, and the contrasting themes that pop up in the course of the work represent his various sexual encounters. These contrasting episodes are frequently interspersed by the return of the opening theme as the protagonist moves Onward and upward to ever new conquests (to quote Lenau). However, in keeping with most versions of the Don Juan narrative, things do not end well for the insatiable lover. Tired of life, he thrusts himself on the sword of an opponent. Robbed of vitality, Don Juan falls lifeless to the ground. Macbeth, Op. 23 As the title makes clear, Macbeth takes its program from Shakespeare s tragedy. The Bard s works provided the inspiration for a number of programmatic orchestral works in the 19th century including Liszt s Hamlet, Smetana s Richard III, Tchaikovsky s Romeo and Juliet and Dvořák s Othello. Nor should we forget the overture A Midsummer Night s Dream by the youthful Mendelssohn. Strauss s Macbeth is dedicated to Ritter, the figure who more than any other convinced him of the merits of program music and set him on his new path. The tone poem s two principal themes are labelled Macbeth and Lady Macbeth respectively (the latter is first enunciated by the wind instruments). While other figures from the dramatis personae are not allocated specific themes, it is possible to trace in the musical argument the outlines of Shakespeare s drama, including the murder of Duncan (marked by massive triple-forte chords), Macbeth s coronation and the triumph of Macduff. The dramatic crescendo at the closing cadence is a wild flourish that brings down the curtain on the brutal and bloody saga. Although Macbeth bears a higher opus number than Don Juan, it was composed early in 1888; that is to say, before Strauss embarked upon Don Juan. But Strauss was dissatisfied with the work (he was stung, for one thing, by Bülow s negative appraisal of it) and subjected it to extensive revision. Macbeth was premiered in its second, revised, form in Weimar in However, Strauss was still not fully convinced by the work. The third and final form of Macbeth was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic under the composer in By that time Strauss had not only written Don Juan, but also Tod und Verklärung. Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24 Unlike Don Juan and Macbeth, Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) does not draw its inspiration from a literary work. Rather, it traces a scenario of Strauss s own invention. As explained by Strauss in a letter written to Friedrich von Hausegger in 1895, Tod und Verklärung seeks to evoke the dying moments of a creative artist. The figure is wracked by pain and is breathing irregularly. Falling asleep, he recalls pleasant memories from his childhood and youth, recollections that are interrupted by the pain and suffering of his present condition. He recalls his pursuit of the ideal and how it has been his mission in life to attain it through his art a goal that is necessarily unreachable as it is beyond the limits of human endeavour. The moment of death arrives and the individual expires. His soul, however, crosses over into the other realm and in its journey beyond life realises the ideal that was unable to be achieved in life. The ideal theme, which is hinted at in the Death section, reaches its apotheosis in the concluding Transfiguration. Strauss s symphonic writing reached a new level of maturity in Tod und Verklärung. His previous tone poems had demonstrated his gift for using music to depict external reality, but here he turned his attention to evoking an interior world. Premiered in 1890 in Eisenach at the annual gathering of the German General Music Association, it was an outstanding success. Indeed, even Bülow who up to this point had been sceptical of Strauss s new path was impressed by the work. The elderly Strauss revisited Tod und Verklarüng in the final years of his life in Im Abendrot, the last of his so-called Four Last Songs. Towards the end of the song at the point where the singer asks Is this perhaps death? the ideal theme emerges from the orchestra. Strauss was 25 years of age when he wrote Tod und Verklärung. Presumably he knew little of death. Death was much closer to hand at the time he wrote the Four Last Songs. The artist was quite literally looking back on a long and richly lived life. Robert Gibson Robert Gibson is an Australian writer and lecturer on music. He holds a doctorate from New College, Oxford, on the music of Richard Strauss. 6 7

5 Johannes Fritzsch Johannes Fritzsch is the Chief Conductor of The Queensland Orchestra, and also Chief Conductor of the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra and Graz Opera in Austria. Born in Meissen, Germany, in 1960, he received his first musical tuition in piano and organ from his father, a cantor and organist. He also studied violin and trumpet. He went on to study at the Carl Maria von Weber Music Academy in Dresden, majoring in conducting and piano. In 1982, after completing his studies, Johannes Fritzsch was appointed Second Kapellmeister at the Volkstheater in Rostock. There he gained acclaim in performances such as the East German premiere of The English Cat by Hans Werner Henze in In 1987 he accepted the position of Kapellmeister with the Staatsoper Dresden, Semperoper, where he conducted more than 350 opera and ballet performances within five years. After the German reunification Johannes Fritzsch was able to accept engagements outside of Eastern Europe. He worked as First Kapellmeister at the Staatsoper Hannover and Music Director and Chief Conductor at the Städtische Bühnen and the Philharmonisches Orchester in Freiburg, where he remained until 1999 enjoying widespread acclaim. The Association of German Music Publishers honoured his 1998/99 season with the distinction of having the Best Concert Program. Johannes Fritzsch has performed with many orchestras, both within Germany and internationally. These include the Hamburger Sinfoniker, Düsseldorfer Sinfoniker, National Theatre Orchestra Mannheim, Staatskapelle Schwerin, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, Staatsorchester Halle, the radio orchestras of Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo, the Strassbourg Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the philharmonic orchestras of Montpellier and Toulouse, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and the Tasmanian, Queensland and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. Opera companies with which he has worked include the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, Opernhaus Köln, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, Opéra Bastille in Paris, Royal Opera Stockholm and Malmö Opera; he has also held the position of Music Director and Chief Conductor of Staatsoper Nürnberg. Engagements with Opera Australia have included Wozzeck, Don Giovanni, Carmen, Tosca, Rigoletto, Salome and Der Rosenkavalier. The Queensland Orchestra The Queensland Orchestra (TQO) is the largest of Queensland s leading performing arts companies and the state s only professional symphony orchestra. Employing 88 full-time musicians, TQO plays a vital role in Queensland s arts, community and corporate sectors, supporting and advancing our rapidly growing state s cultural identity. In fulfilling its vision to touch the hearts and minds of Queenslanders through music, TQO s annual season presents seven contrasting concert series, alongside hugely successful special event concerts with popular artists, a state-wide touring schedule visiting at least 15 centres annually, an extensive education program reaching 15,000 young people each year, a free community engagement program, and innovative corporate workshops. In addition, TQO performs for major arts festivals, state and national opera and ballet companies, direct broadcasts and recordings. Providing these orchestral services involves TQO in over 100 performances across 47 weeks of the year, to live audiences of 100,000 people annually. TQO draws on 60 years of local orchestral heritage, having been formed in 2001 from the merger of the state s forerunner Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras. 8 9

6 The Orchestra has received significant critical acclaim, winning the 2007 Limelight Award for Best Orchestral Performance and receiving regular ARIA Award nominations for Best Classical Album for its recordings on the ABC Classics label. Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Martin Buzacott Recording Producer, Editor and Mastering Virginia Read Recording Engineer Gary Yule Assistant Engineers Costa Zouliou, Jim Ussher Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb Publications Editor Natalie Shea Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd Cover Photo Fie Johansen/Monsoon Images/Photolibrary Photo p8 Marc Grimwade For The Queensland Orchestra Chairman Carolyn J. Barker AM Managing Director Michael P. Smith Director Artistic Planning Tom Woods Recorded January 2007 in The Queensland Orchestra Studios, Ferry Road, Brisbane Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited. 10