Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online. Henry E Rensburg Series Sounds like Shakespeare Thursday 4 May

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1 Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online Henry E Rensburg Series Sounds like Shakespeare Thursday 4 May pm OTTO NICOLAI ( ) Overture: The Merry Wives of Windsor Among the traditional events in the calendar of the Vienna Philharmonic, alongside its famous New Year s Day celebration, is an annual Nicolai concert, dedicated to the German musician who founded the orchestra in Although Nicolai conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in the Overture to his Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor) in 1847, the opera itself was turned down by the Royal Opera in Vienna. It was only in 1849, after he had returned to Germany as musical director of the Berlin Royal Opera, that he was able to see it performed. Sadly, he died before he was able to witness the immense success his operatic version of Shakespeare s comedy was to enjoy particularly in Vienna, where it retains its place in the repertoire alongside that later masterly version of the same Shakespearean material, Verdi s Falstaff. The atmospheric material of the slow introduction to the Overture derives from the last scene, set at night by Herne s Oak in Windsor Forest. As Falstaff s tormentors enter, disguised as fairies, the tempo accelerates to Allegro vivace, its lightly articulated main theme eventually being offset by a lovely lilting melody on violins a melody which, though it is one of the best in the whole score, never appears in the opera itself. Gerald Larner 2017

2 EDWARD ELGAR ( ) Falstaff: Symphonic Study in C minor, Op.68 Music ran in Elgar s family but so did literature. Elgar s mother celebrated the birth of her first child by composing a sonnet, and as a boy, Elgar was joined in the work-room of his father s Worcester music shop by Ned Spiers an out-of-work Shakespearean actor. So it was always likely that, sooner or later, Elgar the composer would turn to Shakespeare. But he stayed well clear of the Bard s actual words. Falstaff, written in the first half of 1913, is a Symphonic Study a purely orchestral work in the manner of Richard Strauss s still-new musical portraits of Don Juan and Don Quixote. Symphonic? well, it lasts as long as many symphonies. Study? Elgar knew his Shakespeare back-to-front, and almost every phrase and theme in this half-hour work is linked to a specific quote from Shakespeare. But it s still an extremely personal take on the anti-hero of Shakespeare s Henry IV. Listen to the very first theme Sir John Falstaff himself, lumbering, absurd, yet strangely serious (C minor is traditionally a tragic key). Soon after comes a very different tune a dignified, swinging march. That s Prince Hal, Falstaff s youthful friend. These are the two main characters of the piece, and immediately something seems slightly unusual. Falstaff s a comic character; though Elgar saw him as a knight, a gentleman, and a soldier. Why so melancholy? Is Elgar s Falstaff only outwardly a bluff rustic squire and inwardly a melancholic dreamer? And is this starting to remind you of anyone...? Elgar wastes no time launching his two friends on their adventures with a string of themes, sometimes perky, sometimes suave, depicting Falstaff as wit, courtier and inveterate charmer. We hear the mocking chatter of the ladies at the Boar s Head Tavern, and Sir John sounding off noisily over

3 his ale (the whole orchestra in unison) before he sets off with the bright young prince (scurrying violins) for a series of japes in the countryside. But he s not built for action, and nods off with a preposterous snore (bassoon). There s a short dream interlude a sweet violin solo as Falstaff dreams of his boyhood as page to the Duke of Norfolk. He wakes with a start, martial fanfares sound in the distance, and soon he s at the head of his scarecrow army, marching raggedly through Gloucestershire. A second interlude finds him nodding off again, in Justice Shallow s orchard waves of drowsiness lap over him in the strings, while in the distance a pipe and drum play a morrisdance. Another jolt; we re amidst the bustling crowds outside Westminster Abbey as Falstaff excitedly awaits the crowning of Prince Hal as the new King. The coronation procession sweeps in; a moment of pure, brassy Pomp and Circumstance. Falstaff rushes forwards; but Hal rejects him with stern chords I know thee not, old man. Falstaff can respond only as a heartbroken solo cello; and from there on it s downhill for the old knight. Hushed strings and clarinets depict his death-bed he babbled of green fields. A last, fond memory of the young Hal is banished by stern reality. With a chilly rattle of drums, and a final cry, it s all over. Richard Bratby 2017 JOHANNES BRAHMS ( ) Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat major, Op.83 Allegro non troppo / Fast, but not too fast Allegro appassionato / Fast, passionately Andante / At a walking pace Allegretto grazioso / Quite fast, gracefully

4 Brahms began sketching his Second Piano Concerto in 1878, then put it to one side while he finished work on his Violin Concerto. He eventually completed it in July 1881 and, after a semi-private run-through with the orchestra at the ducal court at Meiningen (about 80 miles north-east of Frankfurt), he gave the first public performance with the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra in November. Not for the first time, he announced the completion of a new work in apparently misleading terms. He wrote to his friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg telling her he had produced a quite little piano concerto with a quite pleasant little scherzo. To another friend, Theodore Billroth, he sent a copy of the score with the words I am sending you a few small piano pieces. This is, in fact, the longest of Brahms s four concertos, a huge work of symphonic scope and imposing dimensions. But it is also contains passages which have an intimate quality often compared to chamber music, and ends with the most relaxed and light-hearted of his finales. It is a work as full of contradictions as the man himself. First movement That feeling of intimacy is established right at the start, in a dialogue between the piano and a solo horn. But the piano soon introduces a more strenuous tone, in an energetic solo passage which is the nearest thing in the concerto to a formally distinct solo cadenza. It leads to the first big orchestral entry, where the opening theme takes on an unexpectedly heroic dimension. In a few moments and with a minimum of fuss Brahms has set out the concerto s two emotional poles. Second movement Between the first movement and the andante, he instinctively felt, an additional movement was needed to introduce an element of dramatic tension which, for all the first movement s big-boned rhetoric, the concerto would otherwise have lacked. Hence the addition of the quite pleasant little scherzo to the usual threemovement concerto design. Again, Brahms s words are intended

5 to lead us up the garden path. Reworking material from a movement originally sketched for the Violin Concerto, this is as tense and stormy as anything he wrote, propelled by an urgent rhythmic drive. In this context the chiming celebration of the central section s new theme takes on a quality amounting to something like defiance. Third movement Now the concerto has earned the third movement s tranquillity. A solo cello has a role even more prominent than that of the solo horn in the first movement, leading off with the serene song-like opening melody. The piano never has this theme in its original form. Instead it weaves delicate figuration around it, often playing an accompanying role to the orchestra. A more animated central passage subsides as quickly as it arises, and the movement ends in a mood of radiant tenderness. Fourth movement The last movement is Brahms at his most easy-going and, as usual when he wanted to end a work in a relaxed, light-hearted frame of mind, it evokes the Hungarian gypsy style he so much enjoyed. Though here it is rather more sublimated than in other similar movements, it is not far below the surface, animating this engagingly fresh and sparkling piece. The score of the Second Piano Concerto is dedicated to Eduard Marxsen ( ), a pianist and composer with whom Brahms studied in the late 1840s and early 1850s. Brahms was, by now, an established figure in his late forties. But he was always ruthlessly self-critical, and there is something touching in the thought that only now does he feel that he has produced something he can honourably dedicate to his former teacher. Mike Wheeler 2017