Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Programme Notes Online Henry E Rensburg Series Beethoven s Third Piano Concerto Thursday 31 May 2018 7.30pm sponsored by Investec LI HUANZHI (1919-2000) Spring Festival Overture Li Huanzhi was one of the Chinese musical establishment s leading lights in the later 20th century. Born in Hong Kong, he studied at various institutions including the National Music College in Shanghai, and also with the influential and pioneering composer Xian Xinghai (1905-45), whose Yellow River Cantata has become known around the world through the Yellow River Piano Concerto that is based on it. Li Huanzhi founded and directed the China Central Chinese Orchestra, an ensemble of traditional Chinese instruments, and held various roles including Chair of the Music Department at the North China Associated University, and Chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association. The Spring Festival, as the celebration of Chinese New Year is known in China, is the most important festival of the year, and takes place over 15 days beginning on a date in late January or early February; in 2018 it began on 16 February. It involves decorations of red and gold, gift-giving, fireworks, a thorough house cleaning, and family gatherings featuring foods rich with symbolism. Composed in 1955 and 1956, the Spring Festival Overture relates particularly to the Spring Festival as it is celebrated in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi Province in north-west China. It has become very popular throughout China, both in the version heard
tonight for symphony orchestra, and in arrangements for various groupings of Chinese instruments, Western instruments, and combinations of the two. In 2007 it was one of 30 pieces of music sent into space aboard Chang e No.1, China s first lunar-orbiting satellite, and was beamed 236,000 miles back to Earth. The Spring Festival Overture revels in a bright, joyful orchestral sound and an infectious energy. Vigorous dance-like passages frame a contrasting section with a lyrical, nostalgic character; percussion comes to the fore in the brief coda. Ian Stephens 2018 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Allegro con brio / Fast, with vigour Largo / Very slow Rondo: allegro / Rondo: fast Beethoven wasn t just a revolutionary. He may have rebelled against his teacher Haydn, but when it came to Mozart, his attitude was more like hero-worship. After listening to a performance of a Mozart piano concerto, he turned to his young pupil Ferdinand Ries and said: The likes of us will never be able to do anything like that. But Beethoven was never the type to refuse an artistic challenge even one of his own. The Mozart concerto in question was No.24 in C minor, and between 1797 and 1800 Beethoven created his own C minor Piano Concerto. Different key signatures had different meanings for Beethoven, and his stormy C minor mood is his most personal of all think of the first movement of the Fifth Symphony! But in Beethoven s C minor concerto, it s a very different story. No outbursts of rage here. It s the last piano concerto in which he kept the three movements, Mozart-like, in proportion with each other. And since Mozart begins his concerto
with a low, unison phrase for strings so does Beethoven. The musically-literate audience that heard him give the first performance at Vienna s Theater an der Wien on the night of 5 April 1803 would have spotted the resemblance immediately. And yes, it s an act of homage. But it s anything but an imitation. Beethoven s vision was very different from his hero s; but it shows itself in quiet poetry rather than barnstorming heroics. Mozart always finished his first movements with the orchestra alone; but Beethoven allows the piano a few last words to magical effect. The hushed, glowing slow movement is one of the tenderest ten minutes he ever penned. And at the end of the finale he switches both key and time signature, to dazzling effect. It s nothing like Mozart and that s the highest compliment Beethoven could have paid him. Richard Bratby 2018 PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) Symphony No.5 in E minor, Op.64 Andante allegro con anima / At a walking pace fast, animatedly Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza / At a walking pace, in a singing style, with some freedom Valse: allegro moderato / Waltz: moderately fast Andante maestoso allegro vivace / At a majestic walking pace fast, lively When Tchaikovsky showed his Fifth Symphony to Taneyev, the younger composer was typically forthright in pointing out what he felt to be its faults. Unfortunately, the hypersensitive Tchaikovsky overreacted and, in red pencil, wrote Awful muck across the score. Still not satisfied with his punishment, he then tore the score in two, hurled it on the floor and stormed out of the room. Piotr Ilyich takes everything to heart, said the unflustered Taneyev. After all, he himself asked me to give my opinion
Awful muck or not, with its gorgeous lyricism and powerful dramatic sweep, Tchaikovsky s Fifth remains beloved of concert audiences around the globe. It was completed in 1888 and first performed in St Petersburg under the baton of the composer himself. Like his Fourth Symphony, the work explores Tchaikovsky s obsession with the theme of Fate. Throughout the symphony, therefore, a Fate motif reappears providing the listener with a recurring reference point and giving the work its overall structural unity. First movement The symphony opens with a lengthy slow introduction featuring a funereal clarinet solo. According to Tchaikovsky this music evokes Total submission before Fate. With the onset of the Allegro con anima the Fate motif appears in a different, more dance-like guise, gradually building in intensity and representing Murmurs, doubts, laments. Following this no fewer than four sumptuous themes are introduced, the last of which is a soaring violin melody as Tchaikovsky considers whether to cast himself into the embrace of faith. After a short section in which all the preceding music is developed, the Fate theme creeps back in, now in the bassoons. The material is repeated before a dark coda sinks into the depths of despair. Second movement Over hushed string chords a horn sings the most exquisite and heart-rending of melodies before engaging in intimate dialogue with the clarinet. The oboe then introduces a more animated second theme; massed cellos warmly restate the horn melody and the strings give an expansive rendition of the oboe tune. Amidst this wealth of glorious melody, however, a different tone is struck by the intrusion of the Fate motif which enters fortissimo in the trumpets and later returns even more defiantly. Following various re-workings of its luscious melodic material the movement winds down to the most serene of endings.
Third movement After the draining emotional intensity of the first two movements, this charming and untroubled waltz comes as welcome relief. The contrasting middle section features chattering runs in the strings and woodwind, echoes of which remain when the waltz eventually returns. During a buoyant little coda, the Fate motif tries to re-establish itself but a more cheery temper now prevails. Fourth movement The slow introduction to the finale is a majestic statement of the Fate motif, now transformed into something altogether more positive in outlook. In the main body of the movement the new mood is celebrated with abandon in music struggling to contain its sheer energy and self-assurance. On two occasions the Fate theme blasts out exultantly and the movement builds to a powerful false ending (not a good place to applaud!). Now the Fate motif is triumphantly restated all vestiges of doubt and anxiety are gone and the final presto rounds things off with breathtaking panache and brio. The journey from darkness to light is complete. Anthony Bateman 2018