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.