2008-2009 Concerts
Serenity & Energy
Sunday, November 16, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Washington Center for the Performing Arts
Conductor
Huw Edwards
Guest Artist
Tonya Siderius
Concert Sponsor 
Serenity & Energy |
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Ludwig van Beethoven |
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 |
Ms. Siderius INTERMISSION |
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Ludwig van Beethoven |
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 |
Program Notes
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Beethoven completed his Fourth Piano Concerto in Vienna during March 1806. It is just one masterpiece from his remarkable "middle period" of creativity--a fertile span which included such unique works as the Waldstein Sonata, op. 53, the Eroica Symphony, op. 55, the Appassionata Sonata, op. 57, the three Razumovsky Quartets, op. 59, the Fourth Symphony, op. 60 and the Violin Concerto, op. 61. The G major Concerto had to wait well over a year for its first performance, as Beethoven was preoccupied with revising his only opera, Fidelio, for another doom-laden production. In 1808, Prince Lobkowitz--one of Beethoven's a most reliable and generous patron--romoted a pair of concerts in his Viennese palace, which included the Fourth Piano Concerto, as well as the first four symphonies and excerpts from Fidelio!
The G major Concerto is one of Beethoven's most serene works, born of a lyrical reservoir and poetic tenderness not always apparent in this composer's generally muscular music. The work opens with a soft passage for the soloist (a simple but unique effect) rather than the customary orchestral gambit. The orchestra adopts the soloist's broad theme but in the remote key of B major, initiating an expansive tutti which passes through numerous keys. The movement is one of persuasive eloquence, which slowly reveals its poetry and grandeur. It is dominated by the four-note motif heard at the outset--this motif being one Beethoven would employ again, to a vastly different end, in the lauded Fifth Symphony (1807). A new, lyrical theme is reserved for the second exposition and the frequent use of triplets adds a feeling of briskness to this mellow-hued movement. Following the impassioned development, the recapitulation opens fortissimo--in contrast to the movement's pianissimo opening. The soloist is kept busy after the long cadenza and all combine in the powerful closing peroration.
The Andante is brief compared to the far-reaching Allegro moderato; in fact, some commentators have analyzed it as "an interlude-cum-preparation for the finale." The strings announce a truculent theme in E minor--the heavy dotted-rhythms giving the music an ominous, martial tread. The piano replies softly and eventually calms the strings in this battle of conflicting emotions. It is known that Beethoven had read the Orpheus legend not long before sketching this movement and many persuasive arguments have been tendered that claim this music portrays Orpheus (pianoforte) taming the Furies (strings); the arpeggio writing for the soloist at the movement's close reflects Orpheus strumming his lyre as he sadly bids farewell to his beloved Euridice.
The Rondo finale follows the soul-animating Andante without a pause. It begins in the "wrong" key of C major (the notes E and G being common to both E minor and C major)--a Haydnesque joke that Beethoven was happy to borrow from his one-time teacher. The movement's rhythmic exuberance is dramatized by the addition of trumpets and timpani. The march-like theme is contrasted by episodes of warm lyricism--the strings and oboe singing a passage of an almost Wordsworthian loftiness. Beethoven utilizes the recent additions made to the treble register of the keyboard in this movement, and the piano is awarded many solo flourishes (Eingange) and moments of virtuoso display. The Presto coda is pure delight, Beethoven choosing a moment of unbuttoned joy to conclude one of his supreme creations.
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
Ludwig van Beethoven
From 1800 onwards Beethoven had produced a symphony a year but a gap of five years separates the Sixth Symphony ("Pastoral") from the Seventh. The A major Symphony was written in 1812 but not performed until December 1813. Beethoven thought highly of it, writing to Johann Salomon, Haydn's benefactor in London: "I have recently composed a grand symphony in A, one of my most excellent works." The composer should have been proud as, quite simply, the Seventh is a perfect and unique work of art which has become a perennial favorite; it is a powerful drama of tonality and rhythm (this work is often called Beethoven's "Dance Symphony") and its technology-defying alchemy never ceases to amaze.
The Seventh Symphony opens with an enormous Introduction, which is almost a movement in its own right--by far the broadest introduction for a symphony to date. This, however, is not a slow introduction but moves quite briskly--the material laying the foundations for the entire Symphony. As the ever-perceptive Robert Simpson observes: "Few stop to consider how 'obvious' the strokes in this Symphony are....the material itself is of such a primitive simplicity as to be part of some basic vocabulary, yet its individuality is such as to mesmerize the listener." Beethoven uses chords, rising scales and repeated notes to create a multidimensional effect that has rarely been equaled. The drama is heightened by Beethoven's use of tonality: having emphatically established A major, the music swings to C major and F major, and it is these foreign tonalities that make the music sound so special. At the end of the introduction, the note E is repeated incessantly by the flutes and strings; the Symphony seems to hang on a thread until the flute's confluence into the 6/8 dance rhythm of the Vivace. The whole orchestra soon pulsates to this rhythm and the theme swings between the violins and lower strings like some mighty pendulum. Even in the lyrical secondary theme rhythm is at the fore. In the development these rhythms are pitted against each other to build climaxes of overwhelming intensity--the music, again, being magically colored by unorthodox tonalities. In the vast coda the music softens and, over a woozy bass line, the relentless rhythm and repeated notes generate one last wave of orchestral power--the movement's coursing energy maintained to the very end.
This Symphony has no "slow" movement: the flowing Allegretto is ten settings of a march that has been described by one luminary as "variations rondo". Rhythm again is a primary feature of this movement, with its constant dactylic (long-short-short) gait. The key is A minor and the color of divided violas over cellos imparts the feel of a veiled funeral march. Variations 5 and 6 are in A major when the music changes character to a heartfelt hymn, but Variation 7 returns to the minor and acts as a quasi-recapitulation. Variation 8 is fugal, which recalls the March funebre of the Eroica Symphony (1803), and provides some horizontal relief to the chordal predominance of the movement. Variation 9 returns to the major and the final variation acts as a coda--the movement closing with an echo of the unresolved questioning with which it opened.
A Herculean Scherzo in F major is placed third. It is full of novel and humorous features, including the pianissimo reprise which demands ultra-delicate orchestral playing. The Scherzo is divided by two renditions of the Trio in resplendent D major. The low horn writing in this movement adds a new color to the palette, as the orchestration for most of the piece exploits high instrumental registers. The movement ends with another reference to the Trio in the minor key but is abruptly cut short by five seismic chords.
Beethoven is now posed with the enormous problem of how to reassert A major for the finale. He does this by following a movement of unrelenting energy with another of even more energy and rhythmical impetus! The finale is a frenetic dance, its combustion created by hammer-stroke chords, incendiary sforzando accents and whirlwind phrases in the strings. Tonality is again used to dramatic effect in the long coda: over another sinuous bass line, repeated notes and competing scales form a highly active texture (split fiddles make for an exciting peroration), and Beethoven requests fff for the first time in a symphony. The closing measures are an ode to joy and epitomize the vitality and dynamic drive of the whole Symphony. It was Ezra Pound who once remarked: "Music rots when it gets far from the Dance." After hearing Beethoven's Seventh, it would be hard to disagree.
Program Comments Copyright 2008 by Huw Edwards
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