Program Notes: May 26, 2002
In his opera Euryanthe, written for Vienna and premiered there in 1823, Carl Maria von Weber attempted to build on the tremendous success of his earlier Der Freischütz by writing a more ambitious, through-composed opera–based, however, on an unfortunately turgid libretto. Whatever impact Euryanthe may have had on later developments in German opera, only its flavorful overture has passed the "test of time," successfully bringing together the elements that go into a dramatically rousing overture. Thus, Weber begins and ends with the "rousing" part, includes a strong lyrical theme, a mysterious central Largo hinting at magic intervention, and a fugue-like section that builds excitingly toward the climax.
Franz Liszt’s Les Préludes, the third and most famous of his thirteen "symphonic poems," was premiered at Weimar in 1854. Officially, Liszt based the work on Lamartine’s long poem of the same name, and it is easy enough to hear a relationship between Liszt’s music and Lamartine’s account of life as a series of "preludes" leading up to death (the main event). Thus, the episodic structure seems to depict such a series, with each episode, or "prelude," stamped with its own distinct character. Moreover, when the most famous passage in Les Préludes–familiar to most of us from having heard it in countless movies and science fiction serials–returns near the end, we sense in its heroic tone an affirmation of an indomitable life force. Despite these affinities to Lamartine’s poem, however, the work was originally conceived as an overture to a series of choruses Liszt had written eight years earlier, depicting "The Four Elements." Accordingly, the music of Les Préludes cycles through themes that Liszt had originally fashioned from a single three-note melodic germ in order to represent the various poetic topics involved: Stars (the introduction), Floods (the returning heroic theme), Earth (the main lyrical theme), and Wind (the central stormy passage). Bruce Broughton’s Piccolo Concerto, written for Susan Greenberg and premiered by her in 1992, follows the larger three-movement plan of the traditional concerto. Particularly impressive is the lovely and lyrical second movement, especially surprising after the often raucous first movement, with its circus-like acrobatics and occasional playful swerves into the realm of cartoon music. The finale combines the rondo principle (in which the opening tune returns in between a series of episodes) with a process of thematic accumulation, in which the theme incorporates something from each episode each time it reappears. Within this imaginative framework, the playful element that dominated the first movement returns with a vengeance. Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony was so successful with the public that his efforts to "improve" the work were met by his friends with puzzlement, and he ultimately despaired of publishing a version of the work that would both meet his standards and not dissatisfy an already satisfied public. As a result, the symphony was published only after his death, when it was numbered "No. 4" even though it was written before the Scottish Symphony (No. 3). Although the popular title is not Mendelssohn’s, the symphony seems obviously inspired by Italy, especially the Saltarello finale and the second movement, which vividly evokes a procession of pilgrims. In fact, both movements have been convincingly connected to the nineteenth-century vogue for landscape painting, as they seem to place human activity within a specifically Italian landscape, and even use favorite topics of that genre (pilgrimage and frenzied dance). Moreover, the association with Italy has seemed both historically grounded and perennially apt, since the symphony, completed in 1933, was written not long after Mendelssohn’s Italian sojourn, and the vibrant music of the first movement has continued to evoke Italy, figuring prominently, for example, in the 1979 film Breaking Away where it is associated with the Italian bikers. Both the outer movements of the symphony undertake related processes of thematic integration, introducing contrasting material in the middle section that is at first presented separately as a fugue and later combined with the opening material. In the first movement, this new material has a martial character, making the return of the opening seem especially triumphant. In the finale, with its opening orchestral imitation of a tambourine setting the stage, the middle section switches from the saltarello to a related dance, the tarantella, and the conclusion brings the two together in a new combination.
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