Bach, Haydn & Beethoven

Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 7:30 pm

Enmax Hall, Winspear Centre

Bach, Haydn & Beethoven

2011-12 Midweek Classics

  • Lucas Waldin, conductor
    Marc Destrubé, violin
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Details

About this Concert
Canadian violinist Marc Destrubé makes his ESO debut performing outstanding Violin Concertos by Bach and Leclair. Colourful programmatic works by Haydn and Beethoven will be heard in the final Midweek Classics concert of the season.

Featured Repertoire
HAYDN: The Creation: Representation of Chaos
LECLAIR: Violin Concerto
BACH: Violin Concerto
BEETHOVEN: Sixth Symphony “Pastorale”		 This is the final Midweek Classics performance in the 2011-12 Season. Click here to learn more about the 2012-2013 Midweek Classics season!

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Ticket Information

$65 Dress Circle (A)
$53 Terrace (B)
$39 Orchestra (C)
$25 Upper Circle (D)
$20 Gallery (E)
$20 Orchestra Front (F)
Tickets subject to applicable service charges.
This performance is part of the Midweek Classics series.

Program Info

Program

HAYDN
The Creation, Hob XXI/2: The Representation of Chaos (7’)*
 
LECLAIR
Violin Concerto in A minor, Opus 7 No. 5 (15’)*
  I. Vivace
  II. Largo – Adagio
  III. Allegro assai
 
JS BACH
Violin Concerto in E Major, BWV1042 (16’)*
  I. Allegro
  II. Adagio
  III. Allegro assai
 
INTERMISSION
 
BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Opus 68 “Pastorale” (39’)*
  I. Erwachen heiterer Empfindungen bei der Ankunft auf dem Lande: Allegro ma non troppo 
  II. Szene am Bach: Andante molto mosso
  III. Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute: Allegro 
  IV. Gewitter, Sturm: Allegro
  V. Hirtengesang. Frohe und dankbare Gefühle nach dem Sturm: Allegretto

*Indicates approximate performance duration.
Program subject to change.

Program Notes

The Creation, Hob.XXI: 2: The Representation of Chaos
Franz Josef Haydn (b. Rohrau, Lower Austria, 1732 / d. Vienna, 1809)
 
There are important similarities between the musical form of opera and the form known as oratorio. The differences, however, are probably more important. Like operas, oratorios were works for soloists, choir, and orchestra. Like operas, oratorios were generally about one particular thing – a specific story, or on an important subject. It is not uncommon for the voice parts in an oratorio to be specific characters – again, much like an opera.
 
Oratorios, however, are concert works, performed without costumes, scenery, or staging. But perhaps most importantly, most oratorios written during the baroque and classical eras were usually based on sacred subjects. In the case of Haydn’s The Creation, first performed publicly in Vienna on March 19, 1799, the subject was the creation story told in Genesis. “In the beginning,” that book begins, “God created the heavens and the earth.” But there was a time before the beginning, when there was no order to the universe – in other words, there was Chaos. And so Haydn begins his great oratorio with a musical depiction of the Chaos that was brought to order by God. Beginning out of a single, loud chord, the nothingness of the universe is depicted in frightening tones. Haydn felt free to employ dissonances he might not otherwise have felt appropriate, and the dynamic shifts are wide and dramatic. Gradually, out of this morass of contrasts, a sense of regimented order emerges – out of nothing, Haydn’s music tells us, comes God’s creation.
 
 
Violin Concerto in A minor, Op.7 No. 5
Jean-Marie Leclair (b. Lyons, 1697 / d. Paris 1764)
 
Six of the eight children born to lace-maker Antoine Leclair became violinists. It was Jean-Marie’s original intention to follow in his father’s footsteps, but experience as a young dancer and ballet-master led him to the world of music. By the age of 25, he was in Paris, and began a long and successful career, securing several court appointments, publishing many works for his chosen instrument, and dazzling audiences with his violin virtuosity. His life ended bizarrely; he separated from his second wife and chose to live in a poor part of Paris – and there he was found murdered on his doorstep on the morning of October 23, 1764. It seems certain he was killed by his own nephew, although no one was ever brought to justice.
 
Unique among French baroque composers, Leclair composed concertos, most of them for violin – two sets of six, published as his Op.7 and Op.10. They offer a delightful synthesis of the Italian form that Vivaldi had made so influential with French modalities and rhythms. The A minor home key of tonight’s concerto lends a sense of drama to the opening, an extended orchestral introduction which the solo instrument immediately begins to explore upon its entrance. There is then a dialog between the solo violin and the orchestra, infused with an insistent, bristling tension. Near the movement’s climax, there are clever manipulations of syncopation, lending a further unsettledness, this time to the rhythm.
 
The second movement begins with the air of a measured, dignified – and lovely – French court dance. The solo violin begins rhapsodizing eloquently on the opening material to hushed accompaniment, often only a single other string instrument or two, plus the harpsichord continuo. The music modulates to some unexpected keys at the movement’s gentle close. The final movement is a dotted-rhythm dance, though still in the darker shade of the concerto’s home key. Exchanges between soloist and orchestra are a thrust-and-parry affair, a good-natured duel in which each is allowed its share of the spotlight.
 
 
Violin Concerto in E Major, BWV 1042
Johann Sebastian Bach (b. Eisenach, Saxony, 1685 / d. Leipzig, 1750)
 
Johann Sebastian Bach did not invent the violin concerto as a form, but as he did with nearly every form with which he worked, the violin concertos he wrote were likely the supreme examples of such compositions yet written. A great admirer of Vivaldi, Bach’s early concertos were harpsichord rewritings of Vivaldi violin concertos. It was when he wrote his own, however, that Bach infused them with more deeply interwoven textures between soloist and orchestra, as well as contrapuntal elements that made his concertos more substantial and integrated.
 
While he likely wrote more, only two concertos featuring solo violin have survived to the present day by Bach. Like much of Bach’s purely instrumental music, these concertos date from his time in Cöthen, where he was employed from 1717 to 1723. The work begins with a three-note ascending figure; this will be a central feature of much of the material for both the soloist and the orchestra. Listen for the many instances in this movement where the violin’s line is taken up or completed by the orchestra, or vice versa. This is an example of the integration of the music that Bach brought to the violin concerto form. Near the movement’s end, the orchestra moves the three-note idea up through several different keys as the violin solos above it; there is also a brief cadenza right before a “da capo” brings back the opening 52 measures to conclude the movement.
 
The slow movement is in the relative minor, C-sharp, in which a haunting figure in the low strings repeats, while the orchestral violins provide hushed accompaniment to the violin’s lyrical line. The finale is a rondo in a sprightly 3/8 dance form. All the musical “blocks” in this movement are either 16-bar constructions, or 32 bars. Unusually for Bach, he uses double stops (having the violin play on more than one string simultaneously) in one section. It is a brief, amiable conclusion, one making us wish more such works by Bach had come down to us.
 
 
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op.68 “Pastorale”
Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Bonn, 1770 / d. Vienna, 1827)
 
It was to the countryside that Beethoven would always turn to find solace, quietude, serenity, and replenishment for his spirit. His friend Therese von Brunsvik once said, “He loved to be alone with Nature, to make her his only confidante.”
 
The roots of the “Pastorale” Symphony go back many years before its first performance, December 22, 1808 in Vienna. Sketches for music that would find its way into the second movement appear in notebooks from 1803, and even then, Beethoven had a scene by a brook in mind, sketching the words, “The larger the stream the deeper the note” next to his musical musings. But Beethoven did not intend his work to be pictorial, or so programmatic that it was little more than musical illustation. While he did append the nickname to the work, it was important that the work was, “more an expression of feelings than tone painting,” as he wrote on the work’s title page.
 
While each movement is given the usual Italian tempo markings, Beethoven also included descriptors for each movement, which are useful guides for the listener. The first two movements are long and luxuriant, each built from relatively simple melodic ideas. The first movement’s subtitle translates as, “Awakening of happy feelings upon arrival in the country.” Its measured, unhurried pace is nevertheless sun-dappled and sprightly. The long second movement has the subtitle “Scene at a brook.” Not a lot actually transpires in this section, but as the music historian Sir George Grove observed, “Only when the sameness of fields, woods, and streams become distasteful will the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony weary its hearers.”
 
The final three movements blend one into the other without a pause. The third movement is the jauntiest of the entire work, a rustic dance of country folk, with unexpected key changes and clever instrumental colours. The “Thunderstorm” fourth movement is a few minutes of excitement and even fear. It is only in this short movement that piccolo and timpani are used, representing a keening wind and thunder, respectively. The storm is short-lived, and as the sun once again punctures the sky, the country folk who had been dancing only minutes before have their sense of gratitude at the storm’s passing expressed in a jovial and majestic song of thanksgiving. Ironically, the work’s first performance took place in an unheated hall on a cold Vienna December night – anything but the sunny, inviting landscape the music so vividly depicts.
 
Program notes © 2012 by D.T. Baker

Artist Info

Lucas Waldin, conductor

Lucas Waldin

The 2011/12 season marks the third for Lucas Waldin as Resident Conductor for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. This mentorship position is made possible through the Canada Council for the Arts and Enbridge. Mr. Waldin graduated in 2006 from the Cleveland Institute of Music with a Masters in Conducting. He has performed with L'Orchestre du Festival Beaulieu-Sur-Mer (Monaco), Staatstheater Cottbus (Brandenburg), and Bachakademie Stuttgart. Lucas was assistant conductor of the contemporary orchestra RED (Cleveland), director of the Cleveland Bach Consort, and a Discovery Series Conductor at the Oregon Bach Festival. In 2007, he was invited to conduct the Miami-based New World Symphony Orchestra in masterclasses given by Michael Tilson Thomas. In Lucerne in 2009, he also participated in a masterclass led by Bernard Haitink, with the Lucerne Festival Strings.

A native of Toronto, Lucas Waldin has spent summers studying in Europe, including studies at the International Music Academy in Leipzig, the Bayreuth Youth Orchestra, and the Acanthes New Music Festival in France. On this continent, he has studied under the renowned Bach conductor Helmut Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival, and has attended conducting masterclasses with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto. Mr. Waldin received a Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance from the Cleveland Institute, studying with Joshua Smith.

The ESO would like to thank Enbridge Pipelines for their commitment to the arts and this program by matching the funding provided by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Marc Destrubé, violin

marc destrubeCanadian violinist Marc Destrubé is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director/conductor of orchestras. His teachers include Harry Cawood, David Zafer and Steven Staryk, the great Hungarian pedagogue and quartet leader Sandor Végh, and Norbert Brainin of the Amadeus Quartet. He is first violinist with the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He has also performed and recorded with L’Archibudelli, and is a member of the Turning Point Ensemble in Vancouver. He has appeared as soloist and guest director with symphony orchestras in Victoria, Windsor, and Halifax, as well as with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra and Lyra Baroque Orchestra. A founding member of the Tafelmusik Orchestra, he has appeared with many of the leading period-instrument orchestras in North America and Europe, including as guest concertmaster of the Academy of Ancient Music and of the Hanover Band. As a concertmaster he has played under Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Helmuth Rilling, Christopher Hogwood, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustav Leonhardt, and Frans Brüggen. He is co-concertmaster of Brüggen’s Orchestra of the 18th Century.
 
As founding director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Marc Destrubé was responsible for commissioning works for the orchestra from a number of Vancouver-based composers, as well as instigating other innovative projects such as a program of French baroque and Aboriginal dance and music. A highly respected teacher, he has given annual classes at international academies in Mateus (Portugal), Oberlin College and Vancouver. Fluent in English, French, German and Dutch, Mr. Destrubé has also been an invited teacher at the Paris, Moscow and Utrecht Conservatoires, Indiana University, Oberlin College, the MacPhail School (Minneapolis), the Banff Centre and the University of Victoria, and has presented children’s concerts at the Cité de la Musique (Paris).

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