Masters Program Notes: Music that Changed the World, Mar 7 & 8, 2009

Masters Program Notes: Music that Changed the World, Mar 7 & 8, 2009

Music that Changed the World
Saturday, March 7, 2009 - 8 pm
Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 2 pm

William Eddins, conductor
Pieter Wispelwey, cello

Buy Tickets

Learn more about the performance on Saturday at Symphony Prelude: 7:15 pm in the Upper Circle (Third Level) Lobby with D.T. Baker.

SCHWANTNER
Aftertones of Infinity  (14’)*

PROKOFIEV
Sinfonia concertante in E minor, Op.125  (39’)*
    Andante
    Allegro giusto
    Andante con moto
    Pieter Wispelwey, cello

INTERMISSION

BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op.67  (31’)*
    Allegro con brio
    Andante con moto
    Allegro
    Allegro

*indicates approximate performance duration

Program Notes

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op.67
Ludwig van Beethoven
(b. Bonn, 1770 / d. Vienna, 1827)

First performance: December 22, 1808 in Vienna
Last ESO performance: November 2002

“(The Fifth Symphony) unfolds Beethoven’s romanticism more than any of his other works and tears the listener irresistibly away into the wonderful spiritual realm of the infinite.”
E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1810

If classical music has DNA – some small strand of information upon which the rest of the world bases their knowledge of the art form – it is the Fifth Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven.  It is the Universal Music with the unforgettable opening motive that ties the entire symphony together, and it has been used for everything from a call to victory during the Second World War, to a rock anthem, to a disco beat. Not bad for a piece that was almost ignored at its premiere.

The genesis of the great C Minor Symphony was interrupted many times.  Beethoven started working on the piece shortly after completing his “Eroica” Symphony in 1804, but it wasn’t premiered until December, 1808, at one of the most notorious concerts in history.  This concert also saw the premiere of the Sixth Symphony (originally called the fifth while the C minor was entitled the sixth), the concert aria Ah, Perfido!, the Fourth Piano Concerto, three movements from the Great C Major Mass, and the Choral Fantasy.  This was the musical equivalent of an extreme marathon, and from all accounts the audience was exhausted by the proceedings.  The C Minor Symphony did not make a huge impact.

Not so a mere one and a half years later, when after a second performance, the critic E.T.A. Hoffmann went completely overboard in his account of the music:

Radiant beams shoot through the deep night of this region, and we become aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking back and forth, close in on us and destroy all within us except the pain of endless longing — a longing in which every pleasure that rose up amid jubilant tones sinks and succumbs. Only through this pain, which, while consuming but not destroying love, hope, and joy, tries to burst our breasts with a full-voiced general cry from all the passions, do we live on and are captivated beholders of the spirits.

I suspect he liked it. He had good reason. There are good pieces, there are masterpieces, and then there are masterpieces by Masters, and this symphony falls into the latter category.  Four notes, used over and over again, in every conceivable way, showcase the true genius of Beethoven. This is what he was best at - taking a small nugget and turning it into a towering work of art. If anyone else tried that we’d be bored.


Sinfonia concertante in E minor, Op.125
Sergei Prokofiev
(b. Sontsovka, Ekaterinoslav, 1891 / d. Moscow, 1953)

First performance: February 18, 1952 in Moscow
This is the ESO premiere of the work

“Shostakovich went to listen to all my performances of the Sinfonia concertante. After I recorded it, he once told me, ‘Slava, I have played the LP so many times that now it’s worn out, and the disc only issues a sort of hissing sound.’ And indeed, as he was writing his first concerto, Shostakovich remarked in an interview how much he had been influenced by Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante.”
Mstislav Rostropovich

Almost 150 years after Beethoven wrote his symphony, Sergei Prokofiev found himself, again, on the wrong side of the establishment.  During World War Two, his music had been deemed suitable for the glory of the Soviet people, but the end of the war found Prokofiev once again afoul of Stalin’s political apparatus.  His health was not good and his wife had been convicted as a spy and sent to a labor camp.  Into his life enters the most influential cellist in history, Mstislav Rostropovich.

Prokofiev was inspired by the young Russian cellist and the next few years saw two major additions to the cello literature – the Sonata for Cello and Piano (1949) and the Sinfonia concertante (1952), the latter written for and dedicated to Rostropovich.  The Sinfonia concertante is a very large work in three movements, lasting some 40 minutes, and it highlights both an incredible solo part as well as Prokofiev’s brilliant orchestrational technique.   Unfortunately, this proved to be one of Prokofiev’s last major works, as he died on 5 March 1953, ironically the same day as his nemesis Stalin.  Rostropovich went on to champion this concerto, as well as concerti by Kabalevsky, Khatchaturian, and Shostakovich, and he ended up commissioning over 150 works for cello during his lifetime.


Aftertones of Infinity
Joseph Schwantner
(b. Chicago, 1943)

First performance: January 29, 1979 in New York
This is the ESO premiere of the work

“(Aftertones of Infinity’s) structure is a high-vaulted arch, studded with orchestral jewels of light – the whole firmament periodically bursting into supernovic flame, only to melt into eternity again, like Neptune in Holst’s The Planets.”
Bret Johnson, Tempo

Almost thirty years after the Prokofiev concerto, a young William Eddins was involved in the world premiere recording of New Morning for the World written by Joseph Schwantner.  I have since performed several of his works, and on a lark contacted him in December ’08, to see if he wanted to write some program notes in honor of the 30th anniversary of his 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Aftertones of Infinity.  In Joe’s own words:

Aftertones of Infinity is a series of textures, each a careful blend of orchestral colours.  Some textures evolve into others, while others are sharply juxtaposed.  Each texture is a sensitive combination of timbres, some of which are prominently heard and others of which give just a subtle tinge of color.  Some textures recur often and some are heard but once.  Some have great internal rhythmic activity, others are more like washes of sound.

The piece begins with a rising figure in piano, harp, and vibraphone.  Remember this motive, because it recurs several times.  It functions as the beginning of the first texture, which continues with the sustained sound of a “celestial choir” plus the sound of crystal glasses (exactly tuned with water) played by rubbing a moist finger around the rim.  Flute and clarinet figures join the texture, then there is a sharp attack followed by another sustained sound.

The next texture involves the strings, playing in rhythmic unison.  Following that there is an ethereal sonority in which violins continually slide down from high notes, to the soft accompaniment of the piano, celeste,, harp, and percussion.  The brass join in to make the sound more urgent.  This texture gives way suddenly to an active filigree of harp, celeste, temple bells, gongs, piccolo, and flute.  Piano and violins, and then clarinets, are added to change the texture.

If all the textures were described in this program note it would take longer to read than to hear the piece, and the reading would surely distract from the hearing.  The preceding description covers about two minutes of this 17 minute piece, and it serves to show the variety of textures and the ways they are transformed and juxtaposed.

Program Notes © 2008 William Eddins, with thanks to Joseph Schwantner

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.