Classical Concert IV March 15, 2008, 7:30 PM & March 16, 3:00 PM | Peakes Auditorium, Bangor High School Snow date: March 17, 2008 Wagner - Tannhäuser: Prelude, Act III Lalo - Symphonie espagnole, op. 21 Philippe Quint, soloist Franck - Symphony in D minor Program Notes by Laura Artesani, D.M.A. Tannhäuser Prelude, Act III by Richard Wagner The plot of Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser is based on the life of a German poet and minstrel who lived in the thirteenth century and may have participated in the Crusades. A ballad entitled Danhauser, written in 1515, tells the story of how Venus, goddess of love, drew this minstrel away from his Christian life. When the minstrel repents and asks the Pope to absolve him from his sins, the Pope refuses and the minstrel returns to Venus in despair. The premiere of Wagner’s Tannhäuser took place on October 19, 1845 in Dresden. Wagner made some modifications to the original story, adding the character of Elizabeth, a virtuous maiden who loves Tannhäuser and offers her life to God as a sacrifice in exchange for his forgiveness. In the premiere, the part of Elizabeth was played by Johanna Wagner, niece of the composer. The scenery, which had been ordered from Paris, did not arrive in time, so the premiere took place on a bare stage. The reaction of the audience was lukewarm, and the reviews of the critics were not favorable. Wagner began revising the opera immediately; by the second performance, cuts had been made and the scenery was in place. By the third performance, an enthusiastic audience filled the house. Three performances took place at the Paris Opéra in 1861, and each performance was different, due to Wagner’s constant revisions. Before the opening night in Paris on March 13, 1861, no less than 163 rehearsals took place, with Wagner present for most of them. Four horses and twelve dogs were used in the Act I hunting scene, and Wagner requested twenty-four French horns for the end of Act I (a request which the Paris Opéra was unable to fulfill, although they gathered together as many French horn players as they could find). Despite the fact that Napoleon and his wife, the Empress, were in attendance at the Paris premiere, a small group in the audience behaved badly, protesting the absence of a ballet in the opera. During the English horn solo that takes place in Act I, catcalls and whistles could be heard. After three performances, Wagner withdrew the opera, and Tannhäuser did not reappear in Paris until 1895. Wagner continued to be preoccupied with Tannhäuser for the remainder of his life, never satisfied with his countless revised versions of the opera. Act III of Tannhäuser is preceded by an orchestral interlude, which is heard on today’s program. Wagner called it Tannhäuser’s Pilgrimage. Set at an andante tempo, it describes Tannhäuser’s journey to Rome to seek redemption. Motives from the overture, the Chorus of Pilgrims and Elizabeth’s plea for Tannhäuser are heard, as well as a new motive identified as “the motive of heavenly grace.” When the Prelude concludes, Act III begins with this description: It is autumn. Evening is falling. Elizabeth is praying before the shrine of the Blessed Virgin. In the scenes that follow, Elizabeth offers up her life for her beloved Tannhäuser, who perishes with grief at her casket when he hears the news of her sacrifice. Symphonie espagnole, op. 21 by Edouard Lalo Edouard Lalo’s father served as an officer in Napoleon’s army and strongly objected to his son’s plans to become a professional musician. Edouard left home at age sixteen and studied violin at the Paris Conservatoire, supporting himself by giving lessons and performing. He did not achieve success as a composer until his late forties. His best-known works include the Violin Concerto (1874), the Cello Concerto (1880), and the Symphonie espagnole, completed in 1875. After hearing the Spanish violinist Pablo Sarasate perform his Violin Concerto, Lalo was inspired to write another work for violin and orchestra that would pay tribute not only to Sarasate’s Spanish roots, but to his own as well. The result was the Symphonie espagnole, which was premiered in Paris on February 7, 1875 with Sarasate as soloist and Edouard Colonne at the podium. The timing of this performance was fortuitous, as Bizet’s Carmen was the current rage, and Parisian audiences were hungry for more Spanish music. Their response to the Symphonie espagnole was one of immediate enthusiasm. Although the Symphonie espagnole is reminiscent of a concerto or a symphony, it is actually a suite in four movements. After an opening fanfare, a 2 + 3/ 3 + 2 Spanish rhythm dominates the opening movement. The second movement commences with an introduction consisting of pizzicato passages for the strings, reminiscent of Spanish guitars, followed by a seguidilla (a dance from the south of Spain in triple meter). In ABA form, the outer sections are lively, while the middle section is dramatic and rhapsodic, with numerous tempo changes. A soulful Andante follows, with the instruments of the orchestra playing in their low registers as accompaniment to the impassioned, melancholy music of the soloist. The Finale, a rondo, begins with light, pianissimo chords played by the high woodwinds, harp and percussion, followed by an ostinato that is introduced by the bassoon and gradually spreads throughout the orchestra. The solo violin answers with a variant of this motive. As the movement progresses, the tempo relaxes briefly, with a brief section reminiscent of a malaguena (an Andalusian folk dance), but the conclusion is one of high-spirited bravura. Pablo Sarasate was known for his bright, light attack on the violin strings, which contrasted with the heavier, powerful style of other violin virtuosos of the time. Lalo capitalized on this in the Symphonie espagnole, which calls for the flowing, singing line and delicate, brilliant passagework for which Sarasate was famous. Symphony in D minor by César Franck Although he spent the first thirteen years of his life in Belgium, César Franck is now remembered as the leader of a group of French composers who favored the Germanic ideals of symphonic form and absolute music, as opposed to the operatic music that was popular in France in the mid-nineteenth century. A gifted keyboard player, he toured as a virtuoso pianist at age eleven and moved with his family to Paris at age thirteen to study at the Paris Conservatoire. Mercilessly exploited by his overly ambitious father, he left home at age twenty-six to marry one of his piano students. He became the organist at Notre Dame de Lorette in Paris shortly after the wedding, and held positions at several other major churches in Paris throughout his lifetime. Although he began teaching organ at the Paris Conservatoire in 1872, his works were not taken seriously because he was not a member of the composition faculty. The works for which Franck is known today were all written during the final decade of his life, including the Symphony in D minor, which he completed in 1888 at age sixty-six. Franck’s Symphony in D minor was dedicated to Henri Duparc, who was a member of “la bande á Franck” at the Conservatoire, along with Vincent d’Indy, Emmanuel Chabrier, and Paul Dukas. The premiere took place on February 17, 1889 at the Paris Conservatoire under the direction of Jules Garcin. The choice of venue was unfortunate, as Franck’s attempt to fuse Wagnerian harmonies and cyclical structure with symphonic form were regarded as a waste of time by the non-progressive audience at the Conservatoire. As Jonathan D. Kramer asks, “Could a symphony with no story, with no text, be an appropriate vehicle for Wagnerian harmonies? According to the Parisian musical establishment, the answer was a resounding no… An orchestral work in three rather than the traditional four movements, which used Wagnerian harmonies and modulations, and whose form was loose and rhapsodic- this was no symphony at all in the eyes and ears of the Conservatory establishment.” Contrary to the opinions of the Paris Conservatoire faculty members of the late nineteenth century, this work is now regarded as a symphonic masterpiece and is Franck’s most famous composition. The symphony begins with a highly chromatic, lento introduction that presents the three-note dotted motive heard throughout the work. At the conclusion of the introduction, the tempo changes to allegro, and the motive is heard again, this time at a fortissimo level. Unpredictably, the slow introduction appears again after twenty bars, this time in the key of F minor. It is once again answered by the Allegro, which is now allowed to proceed. During the course of the movement, a new theme in F major appears, sometimes known as the “faith” motive. This motive will reappear in the third movement. The second movement, an Allegretto in B minor, is evocative of a medieval French dance. The delicate harp and pizzicato strings gradually yield to a chromatic melody, followed by a scherzo-like contrasting section in E flat major. This movement features a solo for English horn, an instrument that the conservative Parisians found unsuitable for symphonic music. The unrestrained, enthusiastic finale begins with sharp attacks from the winds, against an accompaniment of octave Ds in the string section. An unexpected shift to pianissimo follows, with a syncopated main theme introduced by the cellos and bassoons. As this melody becomes more chromatic, the “faith” motive from the first movement reappears. The main theme from the second movement is also heard again, stated much more powerfully here. As Franck explained, “The finale, just as in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, recalls all the themes, but in my work they do not make their reappearance as mere quotations. I have adopted another plan and made each of them play an entirely new part in the music.” The opening melody returns, bringing the symphony to a triumphant conclusion. Despite the criticism of his fellow faculty members at the premiere of this work, other members of the audience recognized its worth. As Paul Henry Lang writes, “The ecstatic yet sensuous and disquieting quality of Franck’s music pleased the over-refined aural senses of the public, no longer capable of subsisting on diatonic harmonic logic; at the same time they beheld the saintly devotion of the man, his indifference to success and financial returns, his apostolic zealousness to move a public indifference to pure music, and his love of the faithful disciples gathered around him.” Ironically, within a decade the progressive Franck and his “faithful disciples” were considered conservative by Satie, Debussy, Ravel and their followers as Parisians embraced impressionism and neo-classicism.

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Sunday, May 11, 2008: Famous Fifths Schubert: Symphony in B flat major, no. 5 Beethoven: Symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 Mozart: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, K. 22 Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 Mahler: Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 Shostakovich: Symphony no. 5 in D minor, op. 47

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