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notesGIOACCHINO ROSSINIBorn February 29, 1792 in Pesaro, Italy;died November 13, 1868 in Paris.
OVERTURE TO WILLIAM TELL (1829)• First performed at the Paris Opéra on August
3, 1829, conducted by François Habeneck.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on May 11, 1947 with Frank Noyes conducting.
Subsequent performances occurred in 1982,
1983, 1994, and most recently on December 31,
2014 with Joseph Giunta conducting.
(Duration: ca. 12 minutes)
In 1824, Rossini moved to Paris to direct the
Théâtre Italien and there became fully aware of
the revolutionary artistic and political trends that
were then gaining popularity. Rossini was too
closely attuned to public fashion to ignore the
changing audience tastes, and he began casting
about for a libretto that would keep him abreast
of the latest developments in the musical theater
while solidifying his new position in Paris.
Schiller’s play William Tell, based on the heroic
Swiss struggle against tyranny in the 14th
century, had recently created much interest
when it was introduced to Paris in a French
translation. Rossini decided that the drama
would make a fine opera (or, at least, a saleable
one), and he took special care to incorporate the
emerging Romantic style into this epic work, as
evidenced by its subject matter, symphonic
scope and attention to dramatic and poetic
content. From the summer of 1828, when word
of the project first surfaced, through the
following spring, when several delays were
reportedly caused by prima donna incapacity
(actually, Rossini was withholding the work’s
premiere to press negotiations with the
government over a lucrative contract for future
— never realized — operas) until the premiere
30 SECOND NOTES: Rossini, Bach and Beethoven are icons, each the epitome of his musical age. But the three works on this Des Moines Symphony concert show them also as pioneers, moving their art in directions not imagined before — Rossini opening the realm of French grand opera with William Tell, with its spectacular productions, formidable orchestration and bold drama; Bach inventing the solo keyboard concerto with the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, which showed off not only the new harpsichord he had been sent to Berlin to purchase for his employer but also his remarkable virtuosity on it; and Beethoven, who invested the symphonic form with an unprecedented expressive range by adding singers to his “Choral” Symphony, the first time the human voice had been incorporated into such a composition.
By Dr. Richard E. Rodda
September 24/25
SEASON DEBUT: BEETHOVEN’S ODE TO JOY!
in August 1829, William Tell kept Parisian society
abuzz. Once the opera finally reached the stage,
it was hailed by critics and musicians but
disappointed the public, who felt that its six-hour
length was more entertainment than a single
evening should decently hold. (The score was
greatly truncated when it was staged in later
years.) Whether the new style of the opera was
one Rossini did not wish to pursue, or whether
he was drained by two decades of constant
work, or whether he just wanted to enjoy in
leisure the fortune he had amassed, William Tell
was his last opera. During the remaining 39
years of his life, he did not compose another
note for the stage. The four sections of the
Overture, virtually a miniature tone poem,
represent dawn in the mountains, a
thunderstorm, the pastoral countryside and the
triumphant return of the Swiss troops.
The score calls for for piccolo, flute, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum and the usual strings consisting of first violins, second violins, violas, violoncellos and double basses.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACHBorn March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany;died July 28, 1750 in Leipzig.
BRANDENBURG CONCERTO NO. 5 IN D MAJOR, BWV 1050 (CA. 1720)• The first performance is unknown, but the work
was probably played at the court of Anhalt-
Cöthen, north of Leipzig, sometime before 1720.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on November 15 & 16, 1997 with Lukas Foss
conducting.
(Duration: ca. 21 minutes)
Brandenburg, in Bach’s day, was a political and
military powerhouse. It had been part of the Holy
Roman Empire since the mid-12th century, and
its ruler — the Markgraf, or Margrave — was
charged with defending and extending the
northern imperial border (“mark,” or “marche” in
Old English and Old French), in return for which
he was allowed to be an Elector of the Emperor.
The house of Hohenzollern acquired the
margraviate of Brandenburg in 1415, and the
family embraced the Reformation a century later
with such authority that they came to be regarded
as the leaders of German Protestantism;
Potsdam, near Berlin, was chosen as the site of
the electoral court in the 17th century.
Johann Sebastian Bach met Christian
Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, in 1719,
during his tenure as music director at the court
of Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. Bach worked at
Cöthen from 1717 to 1723, and early in 1719 he
was sent by Leopold to Berlin to finalize
arrangements for the purchase of a new
harpsichord, a large, two-manual model made
by Michael Mietke, instrument-builder to the
royal court. While in Berlin, Bach played for
Christian Ludwig, who was so taken with his
music that he asked him to send some of his
compositions for his library. Bach lost an infant
son a few months later, however, and in 1720,
his wife died and he rejected an offer to become
organist at the Jacobkirche in Hamburg, so it
was more than two years before he fulfilled
Brandenburg’s request. By 1721, Leopold had
become engaged to marry a woman who looked
askance at his huge expenditures for musical
entertainment. Bach seems to have realized that
when she moved in, he would probably be
moved out, so he began casting about for a more
secure position. He remembered the interest the
Margrave Brandenburg had shown in his music,
so he picked six of the finest concertos he had
written at Cöthen and sent them to Christian
Ludwig in March 1721 with a flowery dedication
in French — but to no avail. No job materialized
at Potsdam, and in 1723, Bach moved to
Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, where he remained for
the rest of his life.
The soloists in the Brandenburg Concerto
No. 5 are flute, violin and harpsichord, which
was featured to show off the new instrument
Bach had brought back from Berlin. The first
movement opens with a vigorous tutti theme for
the orchestra, after which the trio of soloists —
the concertino — is introduced. It becomes clear
as the movement progresses that the
harpsichord is primus inter pares among the
concertino instruments, and its part grows more
elaborate with the passing measures, finally
erupting in ribbons of unaccompanied melody
and figuration in the closing pages. A brief
statement of the main theme brings the
movement to an end. The second movement is
an impassioned trio for the concertino alone. The
entire ensemble joins the soloists for the finale,
one of Bach’s most joyous flights of contrapuntal
ingenuity and rhythmic vivacity.
The score calls for flute, violin, harpsichord and the usual strings.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVENBorn December 16, 1770 in Bonn;died March 26, 1827 in Vienna.
SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN D MINOR, OP. 125, “CHORAL” (1824)
• Beethoven supervised the premiere of the
Ninth Symphony, at Vienna’s Kärntnertor Theater
on May 7, 1824, though the actual conducting
was handled by Michael Umlauf.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on May 17, 1970 with Willis Page conducting. Six
subsequent performances occurred, most
recently on September 17 & 18, 2011 with
Joseph Giunta conducting.
(Duration: ca. 65 minutes)
“I’ve got it! I’ve got it! Let us sing the song of the
immortal Schiller!” shouted Beethoven to Anton
Schindler, his companion and eventual
biographer, as he burst from his workroom one
afternoon in October 1823. The joyful
announcement meant that the path to the
completion of the Ninth Symphony — after a
gestation of more than three decades — was
finally clear.
Friedrich Schiller published his poem An die
Freude (“Ode to Joy” ) in 1785 as a tribute to his
friend Christian Gottfried Körner. By 1790, when
he was twenty, Beethoven knew the poem, and
as early as 1793 he considered making a
musical setting of it. Schiller’s poem appears in
his notes in 1798, but the earliest musical ideas
for its setting are found among the sketches for
the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, composed
simultaneously in 1811-1812. Though these
sketches are unrelated to the finished Ode to Joy
theme — that went through more than 200
revisions (!) before Beethoven was satisfied with
it — they do show the composer’s continuing
interest in the text and the gestating idea of
setting it for chorus and orchestra. The Seventh
and Eighth Symphonies were finished by 1812,
and Beethoven immediately started making
plans for his next composition in the genre,
settling on the key of D minor, but getting no
further. It was to be another dozen years before
he could bring this vague vision to fulfillment.
The first evidence of the musical material
that was to figure in the finished Ninth Symphony
appeared in 1815, when a sketch for the theme
of the Scherzo emerged among Beethoven’s
notes. He took up his draft again in 1817, and by
the following year much of the Scherzo was
sketched. It was also in 1818 that he considered
including a choral movement, but as the slow
movement rather than as the Finale. With much
still unsettled, Beethoven was forced to lay aside
this vague symphonic scheme in 1818 because
of ill health, the distressing court battle to secure
custody of his nephew, and other composing
projects, most notably the monumental Missa
Solemnis, and he was not able to resume work
on the piece until the end of 1822. The 1822
sketches show considerable progress on the
Symphony’s first movement, little on the Scherzo,
and, for the first time, some tentative ideas for a
choral finale based on Schiller’s poem.
In November 1822, a commission arrived
from the London Philharmonic Society for a new
symphony. Beethoven accepted it. For several
months thereafter, he envisioned two completely
separate works: one for London, entirely
instrumental, to include the sketched first
movement and the nearly completed Scherzo ;
the other to use the proposed choral movement
with a German text, which he considered
inappropriate for an English audience. He took
up the “English Symphony” first, and most of the
opening movement was sketched during the
early months of 1823. The Scherzo was finished
in short score by August, eight years after
Beethoven first conceived its thematic material,
and the third movement sketched by October.
With the first three movements nearing
completion, Beethoven found himself without a
finale. His thoughts turned to the choral setting of
An die Freude lying unused among the sketches
for the “German Symphony,” and he decided to
include it in the work for London, language
notwithstanding. The “English Symphony” and
the “German Symphony” had merged. The
Philharmonic Society eventually received the
symphony it had commissioned — but not until
a year after it had been heard in Vienna.
Beethoven had one major obstacle to
overcome before he could complete the
Symphony: how to join together the instrumental
and vocal movements. A recitative — the
technique that had been used for generations to
bridge from one operatic number to the next —
that would be perfect, he decided. And the
recitative could include fragments of themes from
earlier movements — to unify the structure. “I’ve
got it! I’ve got it!” he shouted with triumphant
delight. Beethoven still had much work to do, as
the sketches from the autumn of 1823 show, but
he at last knew his goal, and the composition
was completed by the end of the year. When the
final scoring was finished in February 1824, it
had been nearly 35 years since Beethoven first
considered setting Schiller’s poem.
The Ninth Symphony begins with the
interval of a barren open fifth, suggesting some
awe-inspiring cosmic void. Thematic fragments
sparkle and whirl into place to form the riveting
main theme. A group of lyrical subordinate ideas
follows. After a great climax, the open fifth
intervals return to begin the highly concentrated
development section. A complete recapitulation
and an ominous coda arising from the depths of
the orchestra bring this eloquent movement to a
close.
The form of the second movement is a
combination of scherzo, fugue and sonata that
exudes a lusty physical exuberance and a
leaping energy. The trio is more serene in
character but forfeits none of the contrapuntal
richness of the Scherzo.
The Adagio is one of the most sublime
pieces that Beethoven, or anyone else, ever
wrote. Its impression of solemn profundity is
enhanced by being placed between two such
extroverted movements as the Scherzo and the
Finale. Formally, this movement is a variation on
two themes, almost like two separate kinds of
music that alternate with each other.
The majestic closing movement is divided
into two large parts: the first instrumental, the
second with chorus and soloists. Beethoven
chose to set about two-thirds of the original 96
lines of Schiller’s poem. To these, the composer
added two lines of his own for the bass soloist
as a transition to the choral section. A shrieking
dissonance introduces the instrumental recitative
for cellos and basses that joins together brief
thematic reminiscences from the three
preceding movements. The wondrous Ode to Joy
theme appears unadorned in the low strings, and
is the subject of a set of increasingly powerful
variations. The shrieking dissonance is again
hurled forth, but this time the ensuing recitative
is given voice and words by the bass soloist.
“Oh, friends,” he sings, “no more of these sad
tones! Rather let us raise our voices together,
and joyful be our song.” The song is the Ode to
Joy, presented with transcendent jubilation by
the chorus. Many sections based on the theme
of the Ode follow, some martial, some fugal, all
radiant with the glory of Beethoven’s vision.
The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, the usual strings, four-part mixed chorus, and solo soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices.
Ode “An die Freude”
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!Sondern laßt uns angenehmereanstimmen, und freudenvollere!
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,Tochter aus Elysium,Wir betreten feuertrunken,Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!Deine Zauber binden wieder,Was die Mode streng geteilt;Alle Menschen werden Brüder,Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Wem der große Wurf gelungen,Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,Mische seinen Jubel ein! Ja, wer auch nur eine SeeleSein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!Und wer’s nie gekonnt, der stehleWeinend sich aus diesem Bund!
Freude trinken alle WesenAn den Brüsten der Natur;Alle Guten, alle BösenFolgen ihrer Rosenspur.Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegenDurch des Himmels prächt’gen Plan,Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!Brüder! über’m SternenzeltMuß ein lieber Vater wohnen.Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?Such ihn über’m Sternenzelt!Über Sternen muß er wohnen.
Ode to Joy
Oh friends, not these tones!Let us raise our voices in morepleasing and more joyful sounds!
Joy, bright spark of divinity,Daughter of Elysium,Fire-inspired we treadThy sanctuary.Thy magic power reunites All that custom has divided,All men become brothersUnder the sway of thy gentle wing.
Whoever has createdAn abiding friendlyship,Or has wonA true and loving wife,All who can call at least one soul theirs.Join in our song of praise;But any who cannot must creep tearfullyAway from our circle.
All creatures drink of joyAt nature’s breast.Just and unjustAlike taste of her gift;She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine,A tried friend to the end.Even the worm can feel contentment,And the cherub stands before God!
Gladly, like the heavenly bodiesWhich He set on their course;Through the splendor of the firmamentThus, brothers, you should run your raceAs a hero going to conquest.
You millions, I embrace you.This kiss is for all the world!Brothers, above the starry canopyThere must dwell a loving Father.Do you fall in worship, you millions?World, do you know your Creator?Seek Him in the heavens;Above the stars must He dwell.