Lighter Classics Program Notes: A Night in Vienna, February 26, 2009

Lighter Classics Program Notes: A Night in Vienna, February 26, 2009

A Night in Vienna
Thursday, February 26, 2009 - 8 pm

Andrew Grams, conductor
Andrew Wan, violin

J. STRAUSS II
Acceleration Waltz, Op.234

BEETHOVEN
Romance No. 2 in F Major, Op.50
Andrew Wan, violin

MOZART
Serenade No. 7, K.250/248b “Haffner”: 4th mvmt. (arr. Kreisler)
Andrew Wan, violin

J. STRAUSS II
Éljen a Magyar Polka, Op.332

BRAHMS
Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor

J. STRAUSS II
Ritter Pásmán, Op.441: Csárdás

INTERMISSION

J. STRAUSS II
Bei uns z’ Haus, Op.361

J. STRAUSS II
Persian March, Op.289

J. STRAUSS II
Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, Op.314

KREISLER
Altwiener Tanzweisen (orch. McAlister)
    Schön Rosmarin
    Liebeslied
    Liebesfreud
Andrew Wan, violin

Jos. STRAUSS
Plappermäulchen Polka, Op.245

J. STRAUSS II
On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Op. 314

Program Notes

Vienna was, for centuries, the cultural capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Even after the collapse of the Empire, it was still a mecca for the German-speaking artistic community. It was where the great composers aspired to establish themselves. If you could make it in Vienna, one could say, you could make it anywhere. Tonight’s program presents merely a taste of music by composers who made Vienna their artistic headquarters. These notes will not follow the program order of tonight’s concert, but will instead focus on each composer.

Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart – among the greatest and most celebrated names in music – were drawn to Vienna. Yet the man whose name comes first whenever one imagines the great Austrian city is Johann Strauss II (1825-1899). That’s because at the height of Vienna’s power and influence in Europe, Strauss was the man who wrote its music. But Johann Strauss the Second (the one who became known as “The Waltz King”) was only the most famous name in a family musical empire all its own.

It was the patriarch, Johann Strauss senior (1804-1849), that began the family business – and ironically, he did not want any of his children to follow in his footsteps, though several of them did. His orchestra was one of the best-drilled in Europe, playing night after night to meet the insatiable Viennese demand for music to which to dance. His eldest child, Johann the younger, had to sneak violin lessons on the side, to avoid his father’s stricture against such education. By the time the elder Strauss died, his son was established as his father’s celebrated successor, and the two were reconciled. Not only dance music – Johann Strauss II also composed operettas, some of which (such as Die Fledermaus) continue to be popular today. It was not just Johann II; Josef (1827-1870) and Eduard (1835-1916) became composers and conductors as well.

At its height (the late 1800s), the Strauss empire was presenting as many as four balls a night throughout Vienna. And of course it was more than waltzes; the dances included quadrilles, polkas, galops – even marches were written for the dance. Each was distinctive, and each was often given a colourful or charming title, based on each work’s inspiration or purpose.

The Acceleration Waltz, for example, was so named because it was written for, and dedicated to, the engineering students at Vienna University for their ball on St. Valentine’s Day, 1860. Acceleration is a basic concept in engineering, and the music itself does indeed gather momentum following its stately introduction.

Éljen a Magyar (“Long Live the Magyar”) was written for a concert given in the Hungarian city of Pest in 1869. Its title refers to a tribe from the 9th century associated with the founding of what became Hungary. Dedicated to “the Hungarian nation,” it is a fast polka which, at its conclusion, quotes a national Hungarian song.

Ritter Pásmán (“The Knight Pásmán”) was an opera by Johann II. It premiered in 1892 and was a rarity among the composer’s output – it was a complete flop. Based on a Hungarian folk tale, it is remembered today for a couple of its picturesque dance interludes. The Csárdás is such an interlude. A court dance based on a Hungarian folk dance, a csárdás is typically in 2/4 time, with a distinctive syncopation.

In 1873, Vienna hosted a World Exhibition. At a concert celebrating the event, Johann Strauss II composed a waltz for men’s chorus and orchestra intended to welcome the world. Bei uns z' Haus (“At Home”) was so named as the intent of the Exhibition was to make Vienna a home to all visitors. Strauss also arranged the work for orchestra alone.

The Persian March was originally written as the Persian Army March, and in that guise, it received its premiere in Pavlovsk, Russia, in the summer of 1864. That fall, the Shah of Persia (and a staunch supporter of the arts), Näser od-Dïn, bestowed Strauss the honour of Persian Order of the Sun. In gratitude, Strauss renamed his march, and dedicated the work to the Shah.

With his charming and humorous Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, Johann Strauss had one of his biggest and most instant hits. Named for a German colloquialism similar to our term “chit-chat,” the brisk polka skips and scampers like idle chatter does. Having been performed at a number of concerts since its 1858 premiere, the work was already a sensation by the time of its printing, necessitating its publisher to begin second and third printings before the first had even been completed.

The most famous waltz ever written was actually not written out in the form by which we know it so well until just before its first performance. The first “choral waltz” Johann Strauss II wrote was originally composed for four-part unaccompanied male choir, and dedicated to the Vienna Men’s Choral Association. As the work’s February 1867 premiere drew closer, however, Strauss hastily added a piano accompaniment, then another waltz section, and finally a slow introduction. The orchestration was the last to be done. The original text was a bit of an “in joke” for the Choral Association, though the words were changed later so that the work could be performed elsewhere. The new text began with the words, “Danube, so blue…”

The waltz’s title is An der schönen blauen Donau (“By the Beautiful Blue Danube”), and its place in the repertoire is matchless. Even crusty Johannes Brahms, who could be positively disdainful about the music of others, was under its sway. At a party attended by both Strauss and Brahms, Johann’s wife asked the great Brahms for his autograph. Taking her fan, Brahms sketched out the opening of The Blue Danube, and under it wrote, “Unfortunately, not by Johannes Brahms.”

One work on tonight’s program is from one of the Waltz King’s younger brothers. Josef Strauss wrote his polka Plappermäulchen (“Chatterbox”) in 1868, after Josef had resigned himself to a life on the orchestral podium, where he had made a decent name for himself. The title refers not to “chatterboxes” in general, but was a playful, teasing reference to his only daughter, 10-year-old Anna Karoline.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) came to Vienna as many others had - because that was where you went to make your name in the musical world. He quickly established himself as a pianist, and not long after, as a composer of the first rank. Among his output are two Romances for violin and orchestra. They both arose as he worked at his one and only Violin Concerto. The notion of a “romance” differed in German and French schools of thought. Both of Beethoven’s Romances follow the French model, used as blueprints for slow movements of concerti. Beethoven’s Second Romance, in the key of F Major, would eventually be published as Op.50, though its 1798 composition predates the other Romance, which was published earlier. The F Major Romance is more lyrical, more graceful than its more serious cousin, and while led start to finish by the soloist, there is a balanced interplay between the violin and the orchestra.

By the time Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) arrived on the scene, the era of the touring soloist had become well established. He made his living as a violin “star,” touring relentlessly as both a recitalist and orchestral soloist. But compared to many such performers, Kreisler only occasionally relied on other composers for the popular music he played. A case in point was the lyrical fourth movement to Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s (1756-1791) “Haffner” Serenade. Already established in the musical canon, and written originally for a wedding celebration for the family of one of Mozart’s influential friends from his days in Salzburg, the serenade features a prominent part for the lead violin. Kreisler took the fourth of the work’s eight movements, embellished the lead violin part even more, while retaining the integrity of the original music, in arranging this violin showcase for himself.

While he was certainly one of the supreme violinists of his day, Kreisler also excelled in writing wonderful “miniatures,” designed to charm his audiences on his many tours around the world. The three short works that make up the Altwiener Tanzweisen (“Old Vienna Dance Airs” is a close translation) are probably best known by their separate movement titles. Liebesfreud (“Love’s Joy”), Liebesleid (“Love’s Sorrow”) and Schön Rosmarin (“Beautiful Rosemarie”) are all in the most popular dance form Vienna had – the waltz – though bearing the suitably emotional stamp each of their titles suggests. The third one of the set, however, was not written in Vienna at all, Kreisler claimed, but was dashed off in haste on a tour stop in Odessa, to fill a gap in a recital program.

We’re actually cheating a bit by presenting the Hungarian Dance No. 1 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) on tonight’s Viennese program. While Brahms, like Beethoven and Mozart, left his native city to establish himself in Vienna, he did so only after some “apprentice” work he did in his youth. For a time beginning in 1853, Brahms toured as an accompanist to a violinist named Eduard Reményi. An early musical “showman,” Reményi played in a faux gypsy style, marketing himself as a Hungarian gypsy fiddler. From that experience, Brahms began writing his Hungarian Dances, originally for piano four-hands. While most were absolutely original compositions in terms of their melodies, they did use traditional Hungarian dance forms, and became early hits for the emerging composer, and did much to get his name known to the public. Dance No. 1 is thought to be based on the Isteni Csárdás (“Sacred Csárdás”) by a man named Sárközy.

Program Notes © 2008 D.T. Baker

Program notes © 2008 by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and its respective annotators. All Rights Reserved. Program notes may not be printed in their entirety without the written consent of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra; excerpts may be quoted if due acknowledgment is given to the author and to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. For reprint permission, contact D.T. Baker, Music Resource, by email, dave.baker@winspearcentre.com.
 
These notes appear in galley files prepared for Signature magazine, official publication of the ESO, and may contain typographical or other errors, or may differ from the final print version. Programs and artists subject to change without notice.