SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY A JACOBS MASTERWORKS CONCERT January 13, 14, and 15, 2012 WAGNER Overture to The Flying Dutchman SCHUMANN Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 54 Allegro affettuoso Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso Allegro vivace INTERMISSION BRAHMS Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Opus 90 Allegro con brio Andante Poco allegretto Allegro
Overture to The Flying Dutchman RICHARD WAGNER Born May 22, 1813, Leipzig Died February 13, 1883, Venice In the summer of 1839, Richard Wagner hounded by debtors and anxious to make a new life for himself in Paris fled from Riga, where he had been music director for two years. He and his wife evaded military patrols on the Prussian frontier and made their way to the port city of Pillau. There they boarded a small Norwegian schooner, the Thetis, with a crew of seven, which was bound for London. In the North Sea, the Thetis encountered a violent storm, so severe that the ship had to take refuge in a Norwegian fjord, where Wagner was struck by the sound of the sailors cries echoing off the rocky walls. That stormy sea-journey to London took nearly a month, and Wagner later claimed that not only did it inspire his opera The Flying Dutchman but also that he composed some of the music of the opera while still on the Thetis. Modern scholarship disputes this (Wagner was always good at embellishing his past): he began the actual composition of The Flying Dutchman during the summer of 1840 and completed it in October 1841. The overture composed after the opera had been completed was written in November 1841, and Wagner himself led the premiere in Dresden on January 2, 1843. The Flying Dutchman, which touches some of the themes important to Wagner throughout his life, is his first opera based on an organic use of thematic material rather than the set-pieces of contemporary opera, and in this sense The Flying Dutchman is considered his first mature opera. Two ideas animate The Flying Dutchman. The first is the legend of the mariner who curses fate and is condemned to sail stormy seas forever. Wagner may have heard this tale from the Norwegian sailors on the Thetis, but he based his libretto on the legend as told in Heine s poem Aus den Memoiren des Herren von Schnabelewopski. To this Wagner added an idea that consumed him throughout his life: the belief that man could be redeemed by the faithful love of a woman. In the opera, the Dutchman is allowed to come ashore every seven years to search for this woman and her redemptive love, and in the opera his ship with its ghostly crew and bloodred sails puts in at a port on the Norwegian coast. There the Dutchman encounters Senta, who is engaged to the hunter Erik but who senses that her destiny is to provide the love that will save the Dutchman. At the opera s climax, she throws herself from a cliff into the sea, and at that instant the Dutchman s ship sinks and he and Senta rise out of the sea, locked in the embrace that transfigures them both.
Wagner s overture to The Flying Dutchman is one of his finest, effective both as an introduction to the opera and as a separate piece in the concert hall. He builds it on two quite different themes: the violent opening, which depicts a storm at sea (and which was certainly inspired by his experience on the Thetis), and a second theme, which incorporates one of the melodies from Senta s ballad in Act II. This was the first part of the opera that Wagner composed in the summer of 1840, and he later claimed that all of the opera grew out of this ballad. In the ballad, Senta reviews the legend of the curse that has condemned the Dutchman to sail eternally, and at the same time she begins to sense that it will be her destiny to rescue him through her love. The overture s opening is a tremendous depiction of the storm at sea, with crashing waves and whistling winds: the Dutchman s mighty theme is punched out by the horns as part of this beginning. By contrast, Senta s theme introduced by the English horn is gentle and lyric: marked dolce, it has a falling and rising shape. Wagner builds the overture, which is not in strict sonata form, from these two ideas, and along the way come fragments of the songs of Norwegian sailors do we hear the echoes of the cries of the crew of the Thetis off the rocky fjord walls in this music? The mighty Dutchman theme energizes the overture and drives it to its climax, but finally it is Senta s theme with its promise of redemptive love that brings this music to its close. Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 54 ROBERT SCHUMANN Born June 8, 1810, Zwickau Died July 29, 1856, Endenich In September 1840, Robert Schumann married the young Clara Wieck, one of the finest pianists in the world, and in that happy first year of marriage he wrote over 130 songs. But Clara was anxious that he try something more ambitious. In her journal she wrote, My greatest wish is for him to compose for orchestra that s his field. May I succeed in leading him to it. In the spring of 1841, she got her wish: Schumann composed his Spring Symphony and sketched a further symphony, but he also pressed on with another project, this time with his wife specifically in mind. He composed what he called a Concert Fantasy for piano and orchestra, and Clara (eight months pregnant) tried it out at a private rehearsal with the Leipzig orchestra that summer. But Schumann could find no publisher interested in a one-movement piece for piano and orchestra, and the music stayed on the shelf for four years. Then in the summer of
1845 Schumann returned to it, wrote a finale, and composed the middle movement last. What had begun as an individual movement had become a piano concerto. Clara was delighted: Robert has... done a fine last movement... I am very glad, because I have never had a large-sized bravura piece from him. She played the premiere in Dresden on December 4, 1845, with Ferdinand Hiller conducting, and repeated it in Leipzig on New Year s Day 1846 with Mendelssohn on the podium. It was soon played throughout Europe, and it remains a century and a half after its composition one of the most popular piano concertos ever written. Yet it has a unique form. This is not a virtuoso concerto, a style that was becoming popular by the middle of the nineteenth century. Schumann said: I cannot write a concerto for virtuoso; I shall have to contrive something else. But neither does he return to the classical model of Mozart and Beethoven, with its symphonic argument advanced mutually by soloist and orchestra. This is a much smaller-scaled conception, more intimate in character, with the piano right at the center. Recognizing that his concerto did not conform to any existing model, Schumann called it something between symphony, concerto and grand sonata. Yet it would be a mistake to underestimate the ingenuity of this concerto. Despite a period of composition that stretched over four years, this music is beautifully unified around one main theme, which appears in all three movements, imaginatively varied on each appearance. Schumann gives each movement an Italian tempo marking, but modifies each of these with an important qualification meant to suggest the music s character. The opening movement is the expected Allegro, but Schumann specifies that it should be affettuoso: affectionate. He instantly reverses classical form by having the piano introduce the orchestra: its cascading chords lead to the woodwinds statement of what will be the concerto s central theme, here marked espressivo. The piano plays virtually throughout this concerto: the orchestra s role is to accompany and sometimes to repeat or expand the soloist s melodies. Characteristically, Schumann writes out a cadenza himself rather than allowing soloists the opportunity to write their own he was afraid that too brilliant a cadenza would violate the gentle spirit of this music. The coda, a brisk march derived from the main theme, propels the movement to its firm close. Schumann calls the middle movement an Intermezzo and marks it Andantino grazioso. Graceful it certainly is, with soloist and orchestra offering a delicate question-and-answer opening section and cellos soaring in the middle. The concerto s main theme reappears in the
transition to the finale as a tantalizing foretaste of what is to come, and this bursts to life at the Allegro vivace, where the piano thunders out the theme-shape in its most powerful manifestation. The finale is in sonata form, and Schumann treats the main theme to some vigorous counterpoint (and some wonderful rhythmic displacements) along the way before rushing to the close of this unique concerto, music that is fired in every measure by its creator s love for his wife. Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Opus 90 JOHANNES BRAHMS Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg Died April 3, 1897, Vienna Brahms spent the summer of 1883 in Wiesbaden, where he took a second-story apartment looking out over the Rhine, and it was here that he composed his Symphony No. 3 in the space of only four months. At age 50, Brahms was at the height of his powers, and this mastery is evident in every measure of this Third Symphony. Of his four symphonies, the Third is the shortest, most concise, and most subtle (all four movements end quietly), and it is marked by an attention to instrumental color rare in Brahms music. The opening Allegro con brio is extraordinary music, even by Brahms standards. It is built around a three-note motto (the rising sequence F-Ab-F), a figure that saturates the movement: these are the first three notes of the symphony, and this motto will function melodically, serve as an accompaniment, and bind sections together. After the brass blazes out the three-note motto to open the symphony, the main theme marked passionato comes crashing downward in the violins like a mighty wave; it is characteristic of this symphony that the threenote motto has been instantly transformed into the bass-line beneath this powerful theme, and over the next few moments the motto will be woven into the texture of the music countless times. The second theme, announced by solo clarinet and quickly taken up by the violas, dances gracefully in the unusual meter 9/4, but surprisingly the development is quite short. A noble horn call (derived from the opening motto) leads to an extended and very agitated recapitulation before the movement closes on a quiet restatement of the opening theme. The two middle movements are also unusual: the Third Symphony has no true slow movement, nor is there a scherzo. Instead, Brahms offers two moderately-paced movements, both littered with his constant reminder to performers: dolce, espressivo. The Andante (in sonata form) opens with a graceful tune announced by clarinets and bassoon, and curiously those two
instruments also have the slightly-sprung second theme; the luminous closing moments of this gentle movement are particularly effective. The cellos C-minor melody at the start of the Poco Allegretto, with its subtle shadings and gypsy turns, is one of the most haunting themes Brahms ever wrote; a slightly rustic middle section, full of off-the-beat accents, gives way to the return of the opening theme, but now in a magic touch Brahms assigns it to the solo horn, which soars above shimmering string accompaniment. The finale opens ominously in F minor, but this quickly gives way to the heroic main theme in C major for cellos and horns. A powerful development with secondary material derived from the second movement leads to a conclusion full of even more original touches. The music grows quiet, and themes from earlier movements begin to reappear: the motto from the first movement, the second theme from the Andante, and finally at the very end the opening theme from the first movement. That passionate theme returns not in triumph but with a sort of resigned dignity: its quiet descent here has been compared by one critic to the fall of autumn leaves, and this very concise symphony ends not in thunder but on a restrained wind chord. The premiere of the Third Symphony in Vienna on December 2, 1883, was the occasion of one of the major collisions between the Wagner and Brahms factions in that city. The followers of Wagner (who had died earlier that year) tried to hiss each movement of the symphony, but they were drowned out by the cheers of Brahms supporters. The young Hugo Wolf, a passionate Wagnerian and a sworn enemy of the classical Brahms, wrote a searing review of the symphony, calling it Disgustingly stale and prosy. Fundamentally false and perverse. A single cymbal-stroke of a work by Liszt expresses more intellect and emotion than all three symphonies of Brahms and his serenades taken together. Brahms lifelong friend Clara Schumann, however, had quite a different view. She wrote the composer: What a harmonious mood pervades the whole! All the movements seem to be of one piece, one beat of the heart, each one a jewel. From start to finish one is wrapped about with the mysterious charm of the woods and forests. -Program notes by Eric Bromberger WHY THIS PROGRAM? States Maestro Ling: When I learned that the Schumann was in Lortie s repertoire, I immediately wanted him to play that. He s such a sensitive pianist, perfect for what is really a
love story in music. The second movement, especially, is a love idyll. Then, programming the Brahms Third Symphony continues the love story. His love for Clara Schumann extended over many years, but was unrequited. This symphony is my absolute favorite Brahms symphony. The melodies are gorgeous, especially in the middle movements. They, too, can be heard as love songs. The third movement theme was even made into a pop love song, but it s also filled with longing. Continuing, the maestro noted, This program also opens with another very emotional piece. Wagner s emotional imagination, though, was often expressed directly in his music, as can be heard clearly in this Dutchman overture. For the Schumann, however, the pianist must have extraordinary insight into what Schumann was feeling inside. Schumann s feelings were too strong for him to be able to give vent to them externally or overtly in his music. Surprisingly, Wagner s popular overture to The Flying Dutchman is being given its first performance at these concerts by the San Diego Symphony. Menahem Pressler was the piano soloist, under Fabien Sevitzky, when the orchestra played the Schumann concerto for the first time during the 1951 season. It has been programmed several times since then, most recently during the 1988-89 season, when Ivan Moravec played it, under Hermann Michael. Zoltan Rozsnyai led the orchestra in its initial playing of the Brahms F-Major Symphony during the 1967-68 season. Yoav Talmi conducted when it was played here most recently, during the 1992-93 season. -Dr. Melvin G. Goldzband, Symphony Archivist