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notesRICHARD WAGNERBorn May 22, 1813 in Leipzig;died February 13, 1883 in Venice.
OVERTURE TO THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (1843)• First performed on January 2, 1843 in
Dresden, conducted by the composer.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on November 20, 1955 with Frank Noyes
conducting. Subsequently performed on May 7 &
8, 1994 with Joseph Giunta conducting.
(Duration: ca. 11 minutes)
“A Dutch sea captain attempts to round the Cape
of Good Hope, vowing to succeed if it takes
eternity. Taken at his word by the devil, he is
condemned to sail the seas forever, but an angel
intervenes with the possibility of redemption.
The Dutchman is allowed one day every seven
years on land; if he can find a woman who will
follow him to death, he will be released.” Thus
Richard Wagner described the old legend from
which sprang his first operatic masterpiece, The
Flying Dutchman. Wagner gave this précis of his
opera: “[Act 1] As the opera opens two ships
take refuge in a cove on the coast of Norway,
one commanded by Daland, the other by the
Dutchman. Impressed by the Dutchman’s
wealth, Daland offers hospitality and promises
the hand of his daughter Senta to the Dutchman.
[Act II] Senta is waiting with the other maidens
for the return of her father’s ship. She reveals
that she is strangely moved by the story of the
Flying Dutchman’s suffering and has a strong
desire to save him. Erik, her lover, tries to
persuade her to abandon her wild dreams.
Daland and the Dutchman arrive together, and
Senta agrees to marry the Dutchman. [Act III]
Outside Daland’s house, the ships lie at anchor.
The Dutchman hears Erik accusing Senta of
breaking a past promise to him. Assuming her
incapable of fidelity, the Dutchman puts out to
sea. Senta calls that she is faithful to death and
30 SECOND NOTES: This Des Moines Symphony concert balances two fundamental streams of orchestral music — the descriptive and the abstract. The Overture to Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman evokes the storms that buffet both the title character’s eternal sea voyages and his own troubled soul. Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel portrays one of Medieval Germany’s most notorious rogues. Mozart’s “Haffner” Symphony and Brahms’ Violin Concerto, on the other hand, are among those masters’ many creations that infuse the non-referential, “abstract” genres of instrumental music with satisfactions for both head and heart, for intellect as well as emotion.
By Dr. Richard E. Rodda
October 29/30
A GERMAN RHAPSODY
throws herself from the rocky cliff into the sea.
At once the Dutchman’s ship sinks beneath the
waves, and Senta and the Dutchman are seen
rising toward heaven.” The Overture, more than
simply setting the stage for the drama to follow,
is a highly effective summary of the opera’s
musical and emotional progression.
The score calls for for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp and the usual strings consisting of first violins, second violins, violas, violoncellos and double basses.
JOHANNES BRAHMSBorn May 7, 1833 in Hamburg;died April 3, 1897 in Vienna.
VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR, OP. 77 (1879)• First performed on New Year’s Day 1879 in
Leipzig, conducted by the composer with Joseph
Joachim as soloist.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on January 13, 1952 with Frank Noyes
conducting and Szymon Goldberg as soloist.
Subsequently performed six more times, most
recently on April 4 & 5, 2009 with Joseph Giunta
conducting and Sarah Chang as soloist.
(Duration: ca. 38 minutes)
“The healthy and ruddy colors of his skin
indicated a love of nature and a habit of being in
the open air in all kinds of weather; his thick
straight hair of brownish color came nearly down
to his shoulders. His clothes and boots were not
of exactly the latest pattern, nor did they fit
particularly well, but his linen was spotless....
[There was a] kindliness in his eyes ... with now
and then a roguish twinkle in them which
corresponded to a quality in his nature which
would perhaps be best described as good-
natured sarcasm.” So wrote Sir George
Henschel, the singer and conductor who became
the first Music Director of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, of his friend Johannes Brahms at the
time of the composition of his Violin Concerto,
when Brahms, at 45, was coming into the full
efflorescence of his talent and fame. The
twenty-year gestation of the First Symphony had
finally ended in 1876, and the Second Symphony
came easily only a year later. He was occupied
with many songs and important chamber works
during the mid-1870s, and the two greatest of
his concertos, the B-flat for piano and the D
major for violin, were both conceived in 1878.
Both works were ignited by the delicious
experience of his first trip to Italy in April of that
year, though the Piano Concerto was soon laid
aside when the Violin Concerto became his main
focus during the following summer. After the
Italian trip, he returned to the idyllic Austrian
village of Pörtschach (site of the composition of
the Second Symphony the previous year), where
he composed the Violin Concerto for his old
friend and musical ally, Joseph Joachim.
The first movement is constructed on the
lines of the Classical concerto form, with an
extended orchestral introduction presenting
much of the movement’s main thematic material
before the entry of the soloist. The last theme, a
dramatic strain in stern dotted rhythms, ushers
in the soloist, who plays an extended passage as
transition to the second exposition of the
themes. This initial solo entry is unsettled and
anxious in mood and serves to heighten the
serene majesty of the main theme when it is
sung by the violin upon its reappearance. A
melody not heard in the orchestral introduction,
limpid and almost a waltz, is given out by the
soloist to serve as the second theme. The
vigorous dotted-rhythm figure returns to close
the exposition, with the development continuing
the agitated aura of this closing theme. The
recapitulation begins on a heroic wave of sound
spread through the entire orchestra. After the
return of the themes, the bridge to the coda is
made by the soloist’s cadenza. With another
traversal of the main theme and a series of
dignified cadential figures, this grand movement
comes to an end.
The rapturous second movement is based
on a theme that the composer Max Bruch said
was derived from a Bohemian folk song. The
melody, intoned by the oboe, is initially
presented in the colorful sonorities of wind choir
without strings. After the violin’s entry, the
soloist is seldom confined to the exact notes of
the theme, but rather weaves a rich embroidery
around their melodic shape. The central section
of the movement is cast in darker hues, and
employs the full range of the violin in its sweet
arpeggios. The opening melody returns in the
plangent tones of the oboe accompanied by the
widely spaced chords of the violinist.
The finale, an invigorating dance of Gypsy
character, is cast in rondo form, with a
scintillating tune in double stops as the recurring
theme.
The score calls for flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, timpani and the usual strings.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZARTBorn January 27, 1756 in Salzburg;died December 5, 1791 in Vienna.
SYMPHONY NO. 35 IN D MAJOR, K. 385, “HAFFNER” (1782)• First performed privately, in Salzburg in early
August 1782, and heard in public at the
composer’s concert of March 23, 1783 at the
Burgtheater in Vienna.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on November 20, 1938 with Frank Noyes
conducting. Subsequently performed on May 5,
1968 with Robert Gutter conducting and on
March 21 & 22, 1992 with Joseph Giunta
conducting.
(Duration: ca. 18 minutes)
By the summer of 1782, Mozart had been living
as a free-lance composer and pianist in Vienna
for a full year and was making some headway in
his career and in his personal life. Though he
had more than a drop of the roustabout in his
blood, he was preparing to undertake a marriage
in August with Constanze Weber, his second
choice after Constanze’s sister, Aloysia, became
unavailable. His music was becoming known,
and a steady stream of commissions was
coming his way. Through his concerts, for which
he wrote his own concertos, he was gaining a
sound reputation as a splendid pianist. In July,
he was finishing The Abduction from the Seraglio
and getting the production on the boards, as well
as working on the C Minor Serenade (K. 388). At
the end of the month, an urgent letter arrived
from his father, Leopold, in Salzburg, which told
Wolfgang that the Salzburg Burgomaster [mayor]
Siegmund Haffner was being elevated to the
nobility and would not think of celebrating such
an important occasion without a grand party
highlighted by a new composition from that
distinguished son of Salzburg, the young Mozart
off seeking his fortune in Vienna. The
Burgomaster knew what he was ordering —
Mozart had provided the splendid “Haffner”
Serenade (K. 250) for the wedding of
Siegmund’s daughter, Elizabeth, in 1776. Mozart
was reluctant to accept the proposal because of
his crowded schedule, but he realized that a
request from such an important person was not
to be taken lightly, so he agreed. Over the next
two weeks, the six movements of the
commissioned work — another serenade —
were sent to Salzburg. The last movement to be
completed was an introductory march that was
posted on August 1st, only three days before his
marriage to Constanze. Early the following year,
Mozart was organizing a concert and needed a
new symphony for the program. He recalled the
second serenade he had composed for
Burgomaster Haffner, and wrote to his father
asking him to send a copy of the work. The
opening march (K. 408, No. 2) and a second
minuet (perhaps K. 409) were not needed and
were jettisoned to produce the four-movement
“Haffner” Symphony that has always borne the
name of its patron.
The majestic Allegro, excellently suited to
the grand occasion for which it was conceived,
contains only a single theme rather than the
contrasting melodies usually found in similar
movements. The intimate Andante, a delicate
sonatina (sonata form without development
section) in Mozart’s most elegant style, presents
a charming contrast to the extroverted bustle of
the first movement. The following Menuetto
treads a stately strain, with a central trio that
bears some resemblance to an air from Mozart’s
opera La Finta Giardiniera, composed for the
Munich carnival season of 1775. The finale is a
rollicking sonata-rondo indebted in spirit and
form to the music of Mozart’s dear friend Joseph
Haydn.
The score calls for flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets in pairs, timpani and the usual strings.
RICHARD STRAUSSBorn June 11, 1864 in Munich;died September 8, 1949 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
TILL EULENSPIEGEL’S MERRY PRANKS, OP. 28 (1895)• First performed in Cologne on November 5,
1895 conducted by Franz Wüllner.
• First performed by the Des Moines Symphony
on January 24 & 25, 1981 with Yuri
Krasnapolsky conducting. Subsequently
performed in 1994 and again on March 5 & 6,
2005 with Joseph Giunta conducting.
(Duration: ca. 15 minutes)
The “Till Eulenspiegel” from which Strauss’ tone
poem sprang was a well-known character of
German folklore, a “rude mechanical” born in
Brunswick in 1283, according to the account of
1515 by a Franciscan monk, Thomas Murner. So
popular were the tales of Till that they were soon
translated into a half dozen languages, including
English, and fully twenty editions of his
adventures had been published in French by the
beginning of the 18th century. Olin Downes
wrote of this impish character, “Till, they say,
was a wandering mechanic who lived by his
wits, turning up in every town and city. He made
himself out to be whatever the situation required
— butcher, baker, wheelwright, joiner, monk, or
learned metaphysician. He was a lord of misrule,
a liar and villain, whose joy it was to plague
honest folk and play foul jests upon them. He
pillaged the rich, but often helped the poor.... For
Till is freedom and fantasy; his is the gallant,
mocking warfare of the One against the Many
and the tyranny of accepted things. He is Puck
and Rabelais, and [he inspired] quicksilver in
Strauss’ music.”
“Eulenspiegel” in German means “owl-
mirror,” and it is generally agreed that the name
of this legendary rascal, who both embodies and
exploits human foibles, alludes to a German
proverb: “Man sees his own faults as little as an
owl recognizes his ugliness by looking into a
mirror.” When asked to elucidate his music,
Strauss wrote to Franz Wüllner, the conductor of
the premiere, “By way of helping listeners to a
better understanding, it seems sufficient to point
out the two Eulenspiegel motives, which, in the
most manifold disguises, moods, and situations,
pervade the whole up to the catastrophe, when,
after he has been condemned to death, Till is
strung up to the gibbet. For the rest, let them
guess at the musical joke which the Rogue has
offered them.” The two motives that Strauss
mentioned occur immediately at the beginning of
the work — a “once upon a time” phrase played
by the strings, and a bounding horn theme.
Strauss, a master of thematic manipulation,
spun most of the melodic threads of Till from
these two motives. Unlike the historical Till, who
reportedly died in bed of the plague, Strauss
sentenced his scoundrel to swing for his crimes
amid threatening rolls on the drums and great
blasts from the trombones. The closing pages,
however, revive the impish specter of the
physically departed Till, as if to say that his
insouciant spirit remains always evergreen.
The score calls for piccolo, three flutes, three oboes, English horn, clarinet in D, two clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, ratchet, cymbals, field drum, snare drum, bass drum and the usual strings.
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