Evening in the aid of Saint Francis Home Foundation - Pathankot, India
Teatro alla Scala Academy Orchestra
PROGRAMME
Egmont
Ouverture op. 84
Concert in A min. op. 54
for piano and orchestra
Simphony No 7 in A maj. op. 92
Egmont, Op. 84 by Ludwig van Beethoven, is a set of incidental music pieces for the 1787 play of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It consists of an overture followed by a sequence of nine pieces for soprano, male narrator, and full symphony orchestra. (The male narrator is optional; he is not used in the play and does not appear in all recordings of the complete incidental music.) Beethoven wrote it between October 1809 and June 1810, and it was premiered on 15 June 1810.
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 was completed in the year 1845 and is the only piano concerto written by the German Romantic composer Robert Schumann. The work was premiered in Dresden on December 4, 1845.
The Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, is a symphony in four movements composed by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1811 and 1812, while improving his health in the Bohemian spa town of Teplice. The work is dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries.
At its premiere, Beethoven was noted as remarking that it was one of his best works. The second movement, Allegretto, was the most popular movement and had to be encored. The instant popularity of the Allegretto resulted in its frequent performance separate from the complete symphony.
Egmont is a play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which he completed in 1788. Its dramaturgical structure, like that of his earlier 'Storm and Stress' play Götz von Berlichingen (1773), is heavily influenced by Shakespearean tragedy. In contrast to the earlier work, the portrait in Egmont of the downfall of a man who trusts in the goodness of those around him appears to mark a shift away from 'Storm and Stress' values.
In Egmont, Goethe relates the fight of Count Egmont (1522–1568) against the despotic Duke of Alba. Egmont is a famous Dutch warrior and the Duke of Alba represents the Spanish invader. Though under threat of arrest, Egmont refuses to run away and give up his ideal of liberty. Imprisoned and abandoned because of the cowardice of his people, and despite the desperate efforts of his mistress Klärchen, he is sentenced to death.
Thus, faced with her failure and despair, Klärchen puts an end to her life. The play ends on the hero's last call to fight for independence. His death as a martyr appears as a victory against oppression.
Egmont is a political manifesto in which Egmont's craving for justice and national liberty is opposed to the despotic authority of the Duke of Alba. It is also a drama of destiny in which the Flemish nobleman, with fatalism, accepts the dire consequences of his straightforwardness and honesty.
Music
Main article: Egmont (Beethoven)
When in 1809 the Burgtheater asked Ludwig van Beethoven, a great admirer of Goethe, to compose incidental music for a revival of the play, he accepted with enthusiasm. It recalled themes close to his own political preoccupations, already expressed in his opera Leonore (renamed Fidelio in the definitive 1814 version) and in his Coriolan Overture (in 1807). Besides the Overture, he wrote nine pieces of incidental music, of great quality but a little disconnected, culminating with the beautiful Klärchen's Death. Though the other pieces in the incidental music are seldom played, Beethoven's overture to Egmont is a staple of the concert repertoire. It has been used in various modern-day cultural output, a famous United Nations film being one of them. The overture was played at the memorial service commemorating the kidnapping and murders of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
Cultural influences
The Short Film Palme d'Or-winning Hungarian film Overture, by János Vadász, uses Beethoven's Egmont Overture as the soundtrack for a series of images, featuring a hatching bird, referencing the rebellious nature of Egmont fighting for freedom despite all barriers. The film, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) has been described as one of the most influential short films in film history. The reviewer said it was "among the most ingenious pairings of music and image in the history of the festival."
Piano Concerto (Schumann)
Schumann had earlier worked on several piano concerti: he began one in E-flat major in 1828, from 1829–31 he worked on one in F major, and in 1839, he wrote one movement of a concerto in D minor. None of these works were completed.
Already on January 10, 1833, Schumann first expressed the idea of writing a Piano Concerto in A minor. In a letter to his future father-in-law, Friedrich Wieck, he wrote: "I think the piano concerto must be in C major or in A minor."[1] From May 17 to 20 1841, Schumann wrote a fantasy for piano and orchestra, his Phantasie in A minor.[2] Schumann tried unsuccessfully to sell this one-movement piece to publishers. In August 1841 and January 1843 Schumann revised the piece, but was unsuccessful. His pianist wife Clara then urged him to expand it into a full piano concerto. In 1845 he added the Intermezzo and Allegro vivace to complete the work. It was the only piano concerto that Schumann completed.
The premiere of the first movement (Fantasy) took place on August 13, 1841 in the Leipzig Gewandhaus with the soloist Clara Schumann. The complete 3-movement version was premiered in Dresden on December 4, 1845 again with Clara on the piano and the dedicatee Ferdinand Hiller as conductor. Less than a month later on January 1, 1846, the concerto was performed in Leipzig under the conductorship of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
After this concerto, Schumann wrote two other pieces for piano and orchestra: the Introduction and Allegro Appassionato in G major, Op. 92, and the Introduction and Allegro Concertante in D minor, Op. 134.
Structure
The piece, as marked in the score, is in three movements:
- Allegro affettuoso (A minor)
- Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso (F major)
- Allegro vivace (A major)
There is no break between these last two movements (attacca subito).
Schumann preferred that the movements be listed in concert programs as only two movements:[citation needed]
- Allegro affettuoso
- Andantino and Rondo
The three movement listing is the more common form used.
The duration of the concerto is about 30 to 35 minutes, depending on the interpretation.
1st movement: Allegro affettuoso
The main movement of the concerto is marked Allegro affettuoso; its origin lay in the one-movement fantasy written by Schumann in 1841, at whose core is the musical development of the conflict between the boisterous Florestan and the dreamy Eusebius, two characters Schumann often used to express the duality of being. The movement is set in 4/4 rhythm.
The piece starts with an energetic strike by strings and timpani, followed by a fierce, descending attack by the piano. This exposition chord is followed by a descending, rhythmically incisive chord progression of the solo piano corresponding to the ideal of the boisterous Florestan.
Only then, the main, dreamlike theme of Eusebius is introduced by the oboe along with other wind instruments. The melody begins with the notes C–H–A–A, which stand for the Italian spelling of the first name CHiArA of Schumann's wife Clara, who was the soloist at the world premiere of the piano concerto. After its introduction by the woodwinds, the theme is then given to the soloist. Schumann provides great variety with this theme.
In the course of the first movement Schumann varies this theme in many ways. He first offers it in the A minor key of the movement, then we hear it again in major, and we can also hear small snatches of the tune in a very slow, A-flat section. The orchestra and especially the clarinet is often used against the piano in this movement: while the solo instrument is dedicated to the main theme of the concerto, the strings begin to intone a Florestan-like, syncopated side thought (bar 41), which becomes more and more dominant, until a variation of the Eusebian main theme recurs quietly but urgently.
This is followed by a subsection labeled Animato. At its end Schumann introduces a second theme, which, however, does not reach the significance of the main theme.
Subsequently, the development of the main movement begins in form of a dramatic lament (bar 156). This part almost reaches the position of an independent middle section. In A-flat major, the metrically altered main theme is referenced by piano arpeggios. Suddenly, however, chords of the Florestan theme interrupt the peace of the main theme. It comes to a struggle between the two ideals, which shapes the development further with rapid changes of soli and tutti.
With further dramatic progression and the modulation to A minor, the reprise is finally reached and cites the exposition almost tone for tone. The last tense progression brings forth a solo cadenza of monumental size and virtuosity (bar 402). It is undoubtedly the culmination of the movement.
In the coda, a throbbing, mysterious 2/4 rhythm dominates. This is turned into a fierce Davidsbündler-march a little later. The main movement of the concerto ends with four tutti chords.
2nd movement: Intermezzo - Andantino grazioso
This movement is keyed in F major. The piano and strings open up the piece with a small, delicate tune, which is heard throughout the movement before the cellos and later the other strings finally take the main theme, with the piano mainly used as accompaniment. The movement closes with small glimpses of the first movement's theme before moving straight into the third movement.
3rd movement: Allegro vivace
The movement opens with a huge run up the strings while the piano takes the main A major theme. Schumann shows great color and variety in this movement. Though it is in 3/4 time, Schumann manipulates it so that the time signature is often ambiguous. (See hemiola.) The piece finishes with a restating of the previous material before finally launching into an exciting finale, and ending with a long timpani roll and a huge chord from the orchestra.
Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)
The Seventh Symphony is in four movements:
- Poco sostenuto – Vivace (A major)
- Allegretto (A minor)
- Presto – Assai meno presto (trio) (F major, Trio in D major)
- Allegro con brio (A major)
- A typical performance time lasts approximately 40 minutes.
The work as a whole is known for its use of rhythmic devices suggestive of a dance, such as dotted rhythm and repeated rhythmic figures. It is also tonally subtle, making use of the tensions between the key centres of A, C and F. For instance, the first movement is in A major but has repeated episodes in C major and F major. In addition, the second movement is in A minor with episodes in A major, and the third movement, a scherzo, is in F major.
I. Poco sostenuto – Vivace
The first movement starts with a long, expanded introduction marked Poco sostenuto (metronome mark: quarter note = 69) that is noted for its long ascending scales and a cascading series of applied dominants that facilitates modulations to C major and F major. From the last episode in F major, the movement transitions to Vivace through a series of no fewer than sixty-one repetitions of the note E.
The Vivace (dotted quarter note. = 104) is in sonata form, and is dominated by lively dance-like dotted rhythms, sudden dynamic changes, and abrupt modulations. The first theme of the Vivace is shown below.
The development section opens in C major and contains extensive episodes in F major. The movement finishes with a long coda, which starts similarly as the development section. The coda contains a famous twenty-bar passage consisting of a two-bar motif repeated ten times to the background a grinding four octave deep pedal point of an E.
II. Allegretto
The second movement in A minor has a tempo marking of Allegretto ("a little lively)", making it slow only in comparison to the other three movements. This movement was encored at the premiere and has remained popular since. Its reliance on the string section makes it a good example of Beethoven's advances in orchestral writing for strings, building on the experimental innovations of Haydn.
The movement is structured in a double variation form. It begins with the main melody played by the violas and cellos, an ostinato (repeated rhythmic figure, or ground bass, or passacaglia of a quarter note, two eighth notes and two quarter notes).
This melody is then played by the second violins while the violas and cellos play a second melody, described by George Grove as "a string of beauties hand-in-hand". The first violins then take the first melody while the second violins take the second. This progression culminates with the wind section playing the first melody while the first violin plays the second.
After this, the music changes from A minor to A major as the clarinets take a calmer melody to the background of light triplets played by the violins. This section ends thirty-seven bars later with a quick descent of the strings on an A minor scale, and the first melody is resumed and elaborated upon in a strict fugato.
III. Presto – Assai meno presto
The third movement is a scherzo in F major and trio in D major. Here, the trio (based on an Austrian pilgrims' hymn) is played twice rather than once. This expansion of the usual A–B–A structure of ternary form into A–B–A–B–A was quite common in other works of Beethoven of this period, such as his Fourth Symphony, Pastoral Symphony, and String Quartet Op. 59 No. 2.
IV. Allegro con brio
The last movement is in sonata form. According to music historian Glenn Stanley, Beethoven "exploited the possibility that a string section can realize both angularity and rhythmic contrast if used as an obbligato-like background", particularly in the coda, which contains an example, rare in Beethoven's music, of the dynamic marking fff.
In his book Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies, Sir George Grove wrote, "The force that reigns throughout this movement is literally prodigious, and reminds one of Carlyle's hero Ram Dass, who has 'fire enough in his belly to burn up the entire world.'" Donald Tovey, writing in his Essays in Musical Analysis, commented on this movement's "Bacchic fury" and many other writers have commented on its whirling dance-energy: the main theme is a precise duple time variant of the instrumental ritornello in Beethoven's own arrangement of the Irish folk-song "Save me from the grave and wise", No. 8 of his Twelve Irish Folk Songs, WoO 154.
Via Filodrammatici, 2