PROGRAM NOTES

23 May 2008 Concert

Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra in E Flat Major, S. 124

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Two words that surface frequently in descriptions of Liszt and his career are “mercurial” and “contradictory.” Born in Raiding, Hungary, Liszt was the son of a court musician and began studying piano with his father at age six. In 1821 Liszt’s family took him to Vienna, where his teachers included Czerny and Salieri and where he made his debut as soloist at the age of 11. In his mid-teens he moved to Paris and began to compose for piano and orchestra. His alliance with the married Countess Marie d’Agoult prompted a move to Geneva and produced three children, including Cosima (b. 1837), who later became the wife of Richard Wagner. After the relationship with the Countess ended, Liszt traveled widely throughout Europe before settling into a career as music director to the court in Weimar. Eventually his life took a religious turn when he moved to Rome, entered a monastery, and was ordained an abbé, one step short of becoming a priest. Another hairpin turn found him back in Weimar teaching and conducting, and ultimately in Bayreuth, the opera center built by his son-in-law, where he died.

Liszt began composing his First Piano Concerto in 1830 and finished it in 1849. The work premièred on 17 February 1855 with the composer as soloist and Hector Berlioz, a mentor from his Paris days, as conductor. The concerto consists of four relatively short movements played without breaks. A fellow Hungarian, Béla Bartók, described its pattern of interlacing motives and variations as “the first perfect realization of cyclic sonata form.” 

Toni Empringham

Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra in C Major, Op. 26

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

In 1917 during the Bolshevik revolution, Prokofiev left Russia for the United States. His exit probably had less to do with politics than with his assessment of the market for new music in his devastated country. However, his American sojourn, lasting about five years, was personally disappointing. While he was financially successful (he was a virtuoso piano soloist and performed other standard concertos), American audiences gave his music lukewarm receptions. Musically conservative audiences found it too dissonant, and American critics were savage. He was particularly disappointed by the tepid reaction to his Piano Concerto No. 3, which premièred in Chicago on December 16, 1921. He played the concerto the next year in Paris, and the more sophisticated French audience gave it an enthusiastic response. French reaction to this and other works was a major factor in his decision to leave America.

Now a standard in piano concerto literature, Concerto No. 3 is the most frequently performed of Prokofiev’s five concertos for piano. The first movement played by tonight’s soloist opens with a quiet Andante introduction played by the solo clarinet(s), then abruptly changes character and tempo (Allegro). The piano introduces the main theme, an angular melody requiring exceptional technique.

Bill Malcolm

Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Opus 6

Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840)

Along with Liszt, Paganini has become a symbol of the Romantic period, and his name is synonymous with violin virtuosity. His show-stopping technical innovations include left-hand pizzicato, high multi-string harmonics, rapid sequential double stops, and ingenious bowing. Paganini was born in Genoa; his father taught him to play the mandolin and violin at an early age before the youngster began formal violin and composition studies. Later Paganini relocated several times before settling in Lucca (in the province of Tuscany), where he became an orchestra leader and court violinist. At age 27 he began a full-time solo touring career, first in Italy and then throughout Europe, particularly in the music capitals of Vienna, Paris, and London. He influenced a generation of composers and performers, including Liszt, who spoke of wanting to become the “Paganini of the piano.”

Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 was probably composed between 1817 and 1818, when his technical genius was fully formed. The first movement--Allegro maestoso (maestoso = majestic, dignified, in a style characterized by lofty breadth)--is introduced by a series of commanding chords and a long presentation of motifs by the orchestra. Then the violin takes over, showcasing the full range of the soloist’s artistry in a manner echoing the bel canto tradition of vocalizing for the sake of sheer beauty and pleasure.

T. E.

Symphonie Espagnole

Édouard Lalo (1823-1892)

Lalo became known as a composer because of works he wrote for the Spanish violinist Pablo Sarasate. The most spectacular violin virtuoso of the late 19th century, Sarasate was known for his beautiful tone, perfect intonation, and élan on the stage. He was the 19th century equivalent of a 20th century rock star and lived in lavish Paris mansions. Many composers dedicated works to him, including Max Bruch, Camille Saint-Saëns, Joseph Joachim, Henryk Wieniawski, Antonín Dvorák, and Lalo. In 1873 Lalo composed his Violin Concerto, Op. 20, for Sarasate and a year later followed up with another work for violin and orchestra, the Symphonie espagnole. Sarasate premièred both with the Colonne Orchestra of Paris.

Symphonie espagnole is neither a real symphony nor a traditional concerto. It is more like a five-movement suite, especially in its incorporation of dance rhythms. But Lalo hated the term "suite," considering it "a tainted and discredited title." The Symphonie is French in character, but Spanish in rhythm. The five movements correspond to Spanish dances and folk rhythms, but the structure of all five follows classical symphonic and concerto models. The first movement played by tonight’s soloist is a habanera, with the three themes of this sonata form in the same rhythm but varying in mood. The first two themes run together, and although the first is little more than a motive, it serves as the binding that holds the movement together both as refrain and as developed musical idea.

B. M.

Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

The Mastersingers of Nuremberg is Wagner’s only comic opera. Originally sketched out in a single day in 1845, this work was not actually begun until 15 years later. At that point Wagner needed a break from the difficulties of composing and producing Tristan and Isolde, a much darker exploration of romantic love. He finished the libretto of Die Meistersinger in 1862 and began composing the music; however, the entire score took up another five years. During this period his marriage disintegrated, his relationship with Cosima von Bülow (wife of his good friend Hans von Bülow and daughter of Franz Liszt) began, and their first child was born. Perhaps because of these life-altering events, Die Meistersinger is firmly anchored in the realities of ordinary humans, not in myths, gods, or legends.

The story tells of the medieval Guild of Mastersingers whose restrictive rules fail to discourage a talented young outsider, Walter von Stolzing. Walter has fallen in love with Eva, daughter of a local goldsmith, and wants to win her hand in marriage by winning the Mastersingers’ music and poetry competition. His victory despite lack of formal training is a triumph of artistic creativity over stultifying authority, a theme dear to Wagner’s heart. In the Prelude, Wagner introduces several of the opera’s motifs, including those of the proud and stately Mastersingers, their lively young apprentices, and Walter’s lyrical prizewinning song.

T. E.

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