Sarasate - Carmen Fantasy

The Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate was one of  the premiere virtuosos of his day, known for his purity of tone and elegance of performance. Many middle and late 19th century composers dedicated works to him, such as Camille Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 and his Introduction and Rondo capriccioso. He was also a talented composer and wrote many pieces for violin and orchestra, mainly virtuosic pieces that utilized themes from popular operas of the time, such as the Carmen Fantasy.

There is something about Spain and its music that has attracted and inspired many French composers. As Spain and France are next to each other, perhaps it is the close proximity and inevitable mingling of cultures and languages that accounts for this. Whatever the reasons, Bizet is in a long line of French composers that wrote music on Spanish themes. Georges Bizet's opera Carmen opened in  Paris in 1874 and was a failure. Critics panned it and the audience, while initially receptive, grew colder as the opera progressed. During its initial run, the composer Bizet died suddenly of a heart attack at age 36. The opera played a total of 48 performances in its first production, then was not heard again in Paris until 1883.  The failure of the opera in its initial run has been attributed to the realism of it and the loose morals of some of the characters in it. Tchaikovsky saw the opera in a performance during its initial run and thought it a work of genius.

The following year there was a production in Vienna and it met with more success. Brahms and Wagner saw it in Vienna and they both agreed with Tchaikovsky's assessment. After the Vienna production, the opera slowly began to gain momentum and performances until it became a world-wide success at the turn of the century and remains a staple of the opera repertoire.

Sarasate wrote his Carmen Fantasy in 1883, just as the opera was beginning to gain in popularity. It is in five sections, four dances and an interlude:
Aragonaise - A Spanish dance from the Aragon region, in triple time.
 Habanera- Originally a dance from Cuba, it was brought to pain by sailors.
 Interlude
 Seguidilla - An old Castillian folk song and dance form in triple time.
 Gypsy Dance

The Carmen Fantasy is a very technically demanding. It asks much of the violinist in the way of pure technique, but also it is a test of the soloists musicianship. It also exists in a version for piano and violin and is often played in violin competitions.

Beethoven - Violin Concerto

There are generally two kinds of concertos for violin. Those that are written by violin virtuosos themselves such as ones by Paganini, and that are showcases for their own abilities, and concertos that are written by non-virtuosos. Those written by composers who were not also violin virtuosos saw the composer relying on a violinist for at least some technical advice.

Although Beethoven played the violin in the court opera orchestra in Bonn for four years in his youth and understood the complexities of writing for the instrument,  he was far from a virtuoso.  Historians think the violinist Franz Clement, the concertmaster and leader of the orchestra that played the first performances of Beethoven's opera Leonora (and also gave Beethoven some advice on)  was Beethoven's go-to man for any technical help.  How much (if any) assistance Beethoven needed  is not known, but Clement was the soloist at the 1806 premiere of the concerto.

Tradition has it that the solo part wasn't finished in time for the performance and Clement had to sight-read parts of it at the performance itself.  The concert was a benefit concert for Clement, and Beethoven himself conducted the concerto with Clement as soloist.  The concerto was not a success, and wasn't heard again until 1844 when the 12 year-old violin prodigy Joseph Joachim revived it and played it with Felix Mendelssohn conducting the orchestra. Since then it has been a staple of the repertoire.

The concerto begins with a very long orchestral introduction, one of the longest orchestral beginnings of any concerto. A solo timpani taps five times in a rhythm which in typical Beethoven fashion returns in many guises throughout the movement. The violin finally enters, and remains in the spotlight for the rest of the movement. This first movement is one of the most expansive ones Beethoven ever wrote, and the lyrical violin writing may be a nod to the first soloist, because Clement was known for his lyrical style of performing.  Beethoven left no cadenza, there have been many written by composer/violinists. The cadenza used in the present recording is by Fritz Kreisler.

The second movement remains lyrical in tone and consists of a gentle melody with some simple variations. The orchestra carries the melody while the violin day-dreams and carries on a running commentary. It is music of great peace,  music that moves very gracefully and calmly. Time itself seems to slow down until the orchestra makes an outburst, and the solo violin escorts the finale's dance-like rondo tune.  The violin part increases in difficulty and brilliance with each episode, until the cadenza and final statement of the theme.

Beethoven - Symphony No. 2 In D Major

In Beethoven's day, most music was taught by private instruction. Beethoven had the good fortune to be taught by some of the finest teachers of his era. The first of his teachers that we know about besides his father is Christian Gottlieb Neefe, who thought much of his young student and instilled in him a love for Bach by having Beethoven learn how to play Bach's set of preludes and fugues in  The Well Tempered Clavier.  Beethoven also studied with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, an acknowledged master of counterpoint.  Joseph Haydn taught Beethoven for two years and their relationship was strained. Haydn called Beethoven 'The Great Mogul' and Beethoven refused to be acknowledged as a Haydn pupil.  Antonio Salieri also taught Beethoven about vocal composition, especially for opera.

But perhaps the best teacher Beethoven had was experience. At age 14 he was named organist for the Choir of Maximillian Franz, and he also played the violin well enough to be in t he orchestra for the Bonn Opera house for four seasons.  His time as an orchestral musician was no doubt of the utmost usefulness to the budding composer as he rehearsed and played through the operas of Mozart and many others.

Beethoven used that experience to good effect in his first symphony, written in 1799 and first performed in 1800 at a concert that also saw the premiere of his 2nd Piano Concerto and Septet.  This was Beethoven's initial concert of works in Vienna. His Second Symphony followed closely behind, as he began writing it in 1800 and finished it in 1802.

He wrote much of the symphony while staying in Heiligenstadt, where he came to terms with his increasing hearing difficulties. The prospects of his growing totally deaf were a hard blow to overcome for Beethoven. He was at the point of taking his own life.  But he came to terms with it and went on to take a different path in his compositions. In some ways, the second symphony was the very beginning of this new path, and considering the state of his mind during some of his stay in Heiligenstadt, the work is remarkable for its confidence and playfulness.

The symphony is in 4 movements:

1) Adagio molto : Allegro con brio - The symphony begins with an Introduction that makes its way to the opening theme, with an outburst in D minor thrown in for good measure.  The first theme is full of energy and spirit with a rapid connecting piece to the second theme. The connecting music that leads to the recapitulation has some of the syncopated off-beat accents that Beethoven was fond of. The development sees Beethoven modulating and varying both the main themes and their accompaniments. The recapitulation is condensed considerably and has a coda added to it.

2) Larghetto -  The second movement is in sonata form, and contains some of Beethoven's most lyrical writing  for the orchestra. It is also rather long for a 'slow' movement, but the sheer beauty of the music and the way it is presented makes it seem shorter than it is.

3) Scherzo : Allegro -  Beethoven's first use of the term 'scherzo' in his symphonies. This movement is a foreshadowing of the originality and rhythmic vitality of the Beethoven that is to come in the later symphonies. The contrast between loud and soft 'makes' the joke in the scherzo and plays a part in the trio also, along with the chattering bassoons and other woodwinds. The scherzo moves briskly along, and seems like it just got started before it is over.

4) Allegro molto -   This is the movement that gave Beethoven's contemporary audiences the most problem. The orchestra begins the movement with a huge 'dip' from G down 12 notes to C.

This was looked upon at the time as bizarre at best and downright crude at worst. There has been all kinds of interpretations concerning this re-occurring rondo theme, even to a modern-day idea that Beethoven was depicting the noises he made due to his poor digestion, that it is a hiccup, belch, or (heaven forbid in a piece of 'serious' music) a fart.  Or it could just have been an attention-getter to make the listeners of the day sit up and take notice. Kind of like a jab in the side to get one's attention. Be that as it may, the entire movement was something of a novelty of the time.

Beethoven was a composer that was always growing, always evolving.  The second symphony is not a revolutionary symphony as was the third, but it was markedly different in tone and expression if not in form. Indeed, the second symphony is as far as Beethoven could go within the confines of the form as known by Haydn and Mozart. To go further, he had to add and expand on the form and technique of the symphony until he made it his own.

A word about the recording in the video. The Academy Of Ancient Music was one of the first organizations that began playing period music on instruments and with methods of the period. They made a name first by exploring medieval and renaissance music, instruments and performing practices. Under their director Christopher Hogwood, they branched out into the Classical era and have given new insight on how the music of Beethoven and other composers sounded in their time. In this recording, all the strings are strung with gut strings instead of wire, the horns are natural horns (valveless), the woodwinds have fewer keys,  tympani have real hide drum heads, the music is played at the standard pitch of the time (lower than modern pitch). As there was no baton-wielding conductor at the time of Beethoven's Second Symphony, either the concertmaster (leader of the first violins), or a leader at the piano or harpsichord lead the orchestra, sometimes both of them shared the duties. So if you can hear a piano in some places of the symphony, it is Mr. Hogwood leading the orchestra per early 19th century performance practice.

Bruch - Symphony No. 1

Max Bruch's music aesthetics put him squarely in the camp of Brahms and other so-called conservative composers.  But the fact that a composer is or isn't conservative only refers to their style and content of their compositions. Like many other labels, it groups people into a readily identified unit that by its very nature is broad and somewhat prejudicial.

It's not that the conservative label doesn't fit Bruch, for it certainly does. But the conservative label doesn't mean that Bruch was a mediocre composer. On the contrary, he had a wonderful melodic gift and he was a master of orchestration,  as his popular Violin Concerto No. 1 and Scottish Fantasy For Violin and Orchestra readily attest.  So it's good to try and go further than just the labels that are put on people. This is pretty good advice for all facets of life, not just music. When we acquiesce to a label given to someone, we cease to think, discover and explore about that person for ourselves. We are in essence taking someone else's opinion without question or examination, an opinion arrived at through their own particular frames of reference, knowledge, taste, and yes, prejudice.

Bruch's Symphony No. 1 in E -flat was composed in 1867 and dedicated to Johannes Brahms. It is in the traditional 4 movements:
1) Allegro maestoso -  Bruch was a master of sonata form and used it in his own way to express himself musically.  The first movement is in sonata form and opens with a grand theme stated by bassoons and horn:

This is not the initial theme of the exposition proper. It is a type of introduction to the initial theme which follows shortly after. After the initial theme is heard, the introductory theme is restated, and the second theme is played. At the end of the second theme, parts of the introduction appear again and the exposition continues with the repeating of the initial and secondary themes. The introduction also plays a large part in the development section as it plays off and against the other themes until the theme itself is varied and leads directly into the recapitulation of the other two themes of the first movement. Bruch's personalized use of sonata form shows why the form was so prevalent for so long in classical music. It is a way to give form and direction to a piece of music while still maintaining a semblance of allowable variation in the use of the form itself to suit the music and the composer.

2) Scherzo. Presto -  This scherzo scurries along somewhat like the music of Mendelssohn, a composer that Bruch emulated in his popular Violin Concerto.

3) Quasi fantasia. Grave -  A heart-felt slow movement, somber in orchestration.

4) Finale. Allegro guerriero -  The Finale begins without pause and is marked 'guerriero' - war-like or militarily. Not so much as a struggle as between two enemies in war, but as a swaggering, self-confident military unit passing by on galloping horses .

 

Rust - Sonata For Viola

Friedrich Rust  was a German composer that was a contemporary of Haydn. By his own admission he could play the first part of J.S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier by the time he was sixteen. He studied music with two of Bach's sons, Wilhelm Friedrich and Carl Philip Emmanuel and finished his studies in Italy.

He settled in Dessau and was the focal point of the musical life there. He organized concerts, was instrumental in starting a theater there and was honored for his work within the community when he was appointed court musical director. He was well-known in his day as a composer as well as a performer. He composed in most forms except the symphony.  He was also a very influential teacher. He was the subject of a minor scandal years after his death when his grandson Wilhelm Rust,  a noted and respected musician and music editor (he was the editor of 26 volumes of the collected works of J.S. Bach, the Bach-Gesellschaft) brought out an edition of his grandfather's piano sonatas. He credited his grandfather with writing music that was well ahead of his time that was very influential in bringing about the Romantic era. Wilhelm Rust was the editor of this edition of his grandfather's works, and after creating quite a stir in the music world it was found that Wilhelm had made numerous additions of his own to his grandfather's works to make them look like they really were ahead of their time.

Whatever the reasons for the grandson to play footloose and fancy free with his grandfather's music, it was unnecessary. Friedrich Rust was a good composer and craftsman and did carry a certain amount of influence in the music he wrote. On occasion he wrote music for instruments out of fashion such as the clavichord, viola d'amore, harp, lute and even the nail violin. He also wrote for the usual instruments but in odd groupings. The Viola Sonata is a case in point. Sonatas written for violas are scarce enough, but one written for the viola accompanied by a cello and two horns is quite unique.

The sonata is in three movements, with the first being in the traditional sonata form.  The second movement is a classical andante, with a refined theme. The finale is a rondo with Rust showing good contrast within the episodes between the restatements of the rondo theme.

Although this sonata is far from earth-shattering in its originality, it is well written and the unique sonority of the viola, cello and two horns make it an interesting piece.
 

Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 5

Say the name Paganini to a modern music lover and the first impression would most likely be of a virtuoso violinist dazzling the the early 19th century audiences with his 'tricks of the trade'. To be sure, Paganini was a great showman who did barnyard imitations on his violin and other things to please the crowd. But he was much more than a showman. He was also consummate musician in the best sense of the term.  With no technical barriers to hinder his musical expression, he could give wing to his musical imagination and touch the hearts of such outstanding musicians as Schumann, Chopin and Schubert.  The slow movements of his violin concertos were less about the fireworks and more about the passionate musician Paganini could be. His tone could be heart-rending, and he could play as if he were an angel.

Many composers used the piano as an aid to composition in one way or the other. Paganini was not proficient on the piano. The instrument he used as a compositional aid was the guitar. This no doubt shows in his handling of the orchestra. And after all, his primary motive was to showcase the violin with a accompaniment that was as non-instrusive as possible.

The 5th Violin Concerto was written towards the end of his career, and only the solo part exists. The orchestral parts have been reconstructed from the solo part and are a very fair representation of how the concerto could have sounded. The reconstruction was done in 1959 by Frederico Mompellio and follows Paganini's style very well.

Like most of Paganini's concertos, the 5th is very operatic in nature. The first movement is the longest of all three, and it is written in the sonata form mold so prevalent in first movements of the era. After a drum roll and a few chords to get our attention,  the movement begins with a long orchestral introduction of the primary themes, with the first being borrowed from some of his other compositions.  The oboe is entrusted with a theme of its own later in the introduction and the orchestra repeats it which leads to the repeating of the primary theme. There is a rousing cadence and the theme is taken over by the violin. The music shifts back and for the from major to minor keys, and of course the violin is the 'star' of the concerto.   The violin plays with a simpler passion in the second movement as it decorates the music while subduing the technical fireworks.  The finale is a Paganini rondo as much as any he ever wrote as the tune keeps returning, is decorated, is spattered out with remarkable virtuosity in places and is gently stated in others. It is the perfect vehicle to show a violinist's technique and musicality. That is exactly what Paganini wrote it to do.

Goedicke - Koncertstück For Piano And Orchestra

During the Soviet reign of Russia, many composers and other artists got into trouble with the authorities because they refused to kow-tow to  'official' Soviet ideals about art.  These Soviet 'ideals' didn't reflect an actual aesthetic of art as much as what the big shots in charge liked or didn't like.  Sometimes it had nothing to do with the art of the accused, but everything to do with how well the powers that be thought they could control the person in question. Especially if, for whatever reason, the artist was disliked, it was likely to spell their doom.

After the Russian revolution of 1917, some notable artists did leave the country. In music, the names of Rachmaninoff the composer/pianist, Horowitz the pianist and Chaliapin, the Bass singer come to mind. Others chose to stay, some were done away with, some like Shostaskovich lived the rest of their lives in fear. But there were those who didn't get into trouble, mostly by not making waves.  Russian's a big country, and if a composer chose to remain somewhat anonymous, or didn't cause official displeasure at any rate.  Alexander Goedicke appears to have been a survivor, for he lived until 1957, the year he turned 80 years old.  He was much better known in Eastern Europe as a composer and performer on the piano and organ. He was well regarded for his interpretations of J.S. Bach's organ works.

Although Goedicke was a  professor at the Moscow Conservatory,  he had no formal training as a composer. He studied piano performance at the conservatory, but managed to win the Anton Rubinstein prize in  composition in 1900 when he was 23 years old.  He wrote 3 symphonies, concertos, many piano pieces, operas and other pieces, nearly a hundred opus numbers worth. He is mostly remembered for his Concert Etude for Trumpet.

The Koncertstück is a Romantic piece, steeped in the same harmonies and musical world as the music of Rachmaninoff and Glazunov. It opens with a gentle horn call, which is taken up by the soloist. The piano part is highly decorative. The main theme is finally heard in the piano, a melody that is big and strong, very Russian in character in my opinion. Another theme is stated by the orchestra, very similar to the preceding one. This is expanded by soloist and orchestra, snatches of preceding motifs are played. The piano decorates the orchestral renditions until the recapitulation of the first theme appears.  Bits and pieces of the second theme (and others) are heard, and after a  short cadenza, themes combine and play against each other until the finale begins with thundering chords in the piano and a noble theme heard in the brass. The piano writing is brilliant, the orchestra states its business with the piano grandly summing up and the piece comes to a close.

This piece is more than enough to whet my appetite to hear more of Goedicke's music.  Sadly, not much of it has been recorded and some that has been recorded is out of print.

Goedicke - Koncertstück For Piano And Orchestra