PROGRAM NOTES

By Laurie Shulman

 

Concerto in D minor for two violins BWV 1043

Johann Sebastian Bach

Born 21 March, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany

Died 28 July, 1750 in Leipzig, Germany

 

• Musicians call this concerto “The Bach Double”

• Bach fused Italian concerto style with German contrapuntal technique

• The slow movement is like an Italian Baroque opera aria

• Listen for the intricate interweaving of the two soloists’ lines

 

Between 1717 and 1723, Bach was employed by Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, a music-loving nobleman from an area northeast of Weimar in what used to be called East Germany. The position was rather similar to the one that Haydn was to hold with the Esterházy family later on in the century. When Bach was engaged as Kapellmeister, Leopold’s court boasted one of the largest and finest orchestras in Europe. Bach composed a considerable amount of instrumental music for the Cöthen musicians, including most of his solo concertos.

 

Bach was very interested in the Italian style of concerto writing, particularly the works of Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). He studied Vivaldi's music avidly, sometimes copying the scores to develop greater familiarity with the style. It is no surprise that the D minor Concerto for two violins reflects certain Italian Baroque characteristics.

 

The three movements adhere to the Vivaldian model of fast-slow-fast tempi. Bach makes extensive use of sequences and contrast between full orchestra (ripieno) and his solo group (concertino, in this case the two violins). The presence of two soloists in the D minor concerto highlights the contrapuntal intricacy of Bach's texture. Their entrances are frequently canonic; he also makes use of invertible counterpoint, whereby the two voices exchange material, maintaining the integrity of each contrapuntal line.

 

The slow movement, an elegant F major cantilena in gently rocking 12/8 meter, has  particular melodic beauty. Once again, invertible counterpoint plays a significant role, but it is the suspended harmonies that enhance the operatic expressivity of this Largo.

 

A stormy, aggressive opening motive sets the tone for Bach’s finale, which distances itself from the dance-like finales of his solo concertos. Indeed, the relationship between concertino and ripieno is practically reversed here. The orchestra shares in the densely overlapped principal statement, a close canon that functions as a ritornello. Twice in the course of the movement, both soloists play several measures of repeated double-stops in steady eighth notes. Together, they form a chordal accompaniment to the sequential gestures the orchestra is tossing about. Bach’s abundant melodic material attests to his power of imagination.

 

This Double Concerto was extremely popular throughout the 19th century, after the “Bach Revival” spearheaded by Felix Mendelssohn took hold. It remains one of Bach’s best-loved instrumental compositions.

 

Romance No. 2 in F major for Violin & Orchestra, Op.50

Romance No. 1 in G major for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 40

Ludwig van Beethoven

Born 16 December, 1770 in Bonn, Germany

Died 26 March, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

 

• Both Romances date from between 1798 to 1801

• Delay in publication accounts for their higher opus numbers. They were also published in reverse order of composition: No. 2 was written in 1798; No. 1 in 1801

• They were probably conceived as slow movements for a violin concerto that did not come to fruition

• Tender and intimate, both Romances focus on the soloist’s beauty of tone

• Think of the violin line as comparable to a soprano in an opera

 

Beethoven’s concerto output appears slim: five for piano, one for violin, and the so-called “Triple” concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra. That short list is not, however, an accurate reflection of the composer’s keen interest in concerto form. A number of Beethoven’s additional concerted works were lost or survive only in fragments, such as a 1784 piano concerto and an oboe concerto from the early 1790s. Other works were incomplete at the time of his death. There is, for example, a set of sketches for a projected sixth piano concerto.

 

That stated, the two Romances for violin and orchestra, Op. 40 in G and Op. 50 in F, hold a special place in the literature, because they are the only other free-standing concerto movements by Beethoven that have come down to us. We know tantalizingly little about them; as a matter of fact, for years scholars could not even agree as to when they were written. Recent watermark studies of manuscript paper have provided compelling evidence that the G major Romance dates from 1800. The F major work, although published later, may be from as early as 1798.

 

Possibly Beethoven intended one of them to be the slow movement of an earlier, unfinished violin concerto. Certainly both Romances were important predecessors to the Violin Concerto, Op. 61, and in that respect equal in importance to Beethoven’s violin sonatas. (Nine of the ten sonatas for violin and piano also preceded his violin concerto.)

 

The first Romance is more difficult than it sounds. With its exposed chorale-like opening and lack of overt display, it presents interpretive challenges to the soloist that make it difficult to bring off as a stand-alone concert piece. Beethoven’s beauty of melodic material and elegant woodwind writing make this intimate movement a small treasure in the literature. If only we had its unwritten outer movements as well!

 

In the late 18th century, both the German word Romanze and the French term romance meant a ballad-like song. Beethoven's choice of title is no accident.  His tempo indication for the Romance No.2 in F major, Adagio cantabile, confirms that he was thinking along vocal lines. The musical emphasis is on the soloist's upper register.  The violinist requires great beauty of sound and the most tender expression for the melodies of this Romance.

 

Beethoven scored both Romances for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, solo violin and strings.

 

 

Symphony No. 29 in A major, K.201   

Wolfgang Amadè Mozart

Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria

Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna, Austria

 

• An octave dip and an appoggiatura constitute the unique opening gesture

• Notice how different they sound when Mozart repeats the initial phrase at full volume

• The slow movement has the intimacy of string quartet writing

• Dotted rhythms dominate the Menuetto

• No hunting calls appear in the finale, but it feels like a chase

• At 28 minutes, this was Mozart’s boldest and largest scale symphony to date; only the last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40 and 41) exceed it in length

 

Our knowledge of the Mozart family’s day-to-day activities is based on more than 600 family letters that have survived. Leopold Mozart wrote to his wife, Maria Anna, when he and his gifted son were traveling. Young Wolfgang wrote to his sister, his mother, his cousins, and some friends. After his move to Vienna, he continued a lively correspondence with his father and sister, who remained in Salzburg.

 

When the Mozart family was at home together in Salzburg, there was no need for correspondence. Consequently, very little information survives concerning Mozart's life between October 1773 and December 1774, the period from which this symphony dates. We must glean our knowledge of this fifteen-month period from other contemporary reports and records from the Salzburg Archbishop’s court – and from the compositions he wrote. Mozart’s principal focus was on the opera La finta giardiniera, K.196, which would be produced in Munich in early 1775.

 

Sandwiched in between bouts of concentration on the opera, he composed a tremendous amount of other music. These include four symphonies, five piano sonatas, and a number of sacred choral pieces. Mozart completed the A major Symphony on 6 April, 1774. Along with the so-called "Little G-minor" Symphony, No. 25 (K.183), this is the best known of Mozart's earlier symphonies.  It is filled with characteristic grace and humor, and indicates a musical style already fully developed, despite the composer's youth: he was still in his teens.

 

The first movement is especially lovely, exuberant and lighthearted, with many unexpected melodic details that give it the feeling of chamber music.  Its dipping octave, so graceful in the opening statement, takes on an altogether different character when restated forte by full orchestra. Mozart, of course, understood that musical pronunciation was an integral component of expression. The slow movement perpetuates an intimate atmosphere by muting the strings. Mozart weaves its elegant melodies together with the sort of detail one expects in a string quartet. 

 

Persistent dotted rhythms mark the minuet as resolute and forthright. Mozart biographer Stanley Sadie noted a contrast between its elegant melodies and an almost Beethovenian drama in “fanfare-like echoes” of the oboes and horns. Mozart's finale is rollicking, witty and full of the energy of its title, Allegro con spirito. Another prominent Mozart authority, Neal Zaslaw, is the author of a landmark book on the Mozart symphonies. He  has written:

 

Despite its fully-worked-out sonata form, including a development section that Einstein described as `the richest and most dramatic Mozart had written up to this time,' the Finale has the character of a chasse [hunt], with its mandatory repeated notes and other hunting-horn calls. […] In this symphony Mozart seems to have achieved a successful equilibrium between the lyrical elements and the abstract, instrumental ones.

 

A rising "Mannheim rocket" figures prominently as a rapidly ascending scale. Mozart endows this conclusion with a rich development section that adds surprising weight to the end of the symphony.

 

Mozart thought highly of this work. Two years after relocating to Vienna, he wrote to his father Leopold requesting that the score be sent to him. He clearly recognized how modern it was in his handling of the modest orchestra; its superb development of the thematic material, and the clarity of its form and articulation. He was right.

 

The scoring calls for oboes, horns, and strings. 

 

GLOSSARY FOR THE MOZART SYMPHONY

 

Appoggiatura - this Italian term refers to an ornamental note, usually a falling or descending note, that has a melodic connection to the note that follows. It is an expressive device that falls into the category of musical “pronunciation” known as articulation. The interpretation of an appoggiatura in vocal music is sometimes left to the singer, but in instrumental music, as in the opening melody of Mozart’s Symphony No.29, the rhythms are clearly notated.

 

Mannheim rocket - in the mid-18th century, the German city of Mannheim boasted the finest orchestra in Europe and became a magnet for gifted composers and performers. Mozart sought employment there – unsuccessfully – in 1777-78, but met many excellent musicians during his sojourn. Mannheim composers exerted a powerful influence on the development of symphonic and chamber music during the transition from late Baroque to early Classical style.

 

One signature of the Mannheim orchestral style was a rapidly rising arpeggio [broken chord] or scale used as a bold melodic gesture. Mozart adopted this gesture in several of his instrumental works. In the finale of the Symphony No.29, it occurs as a rapidly rising scale in the strings followed by a split second of silence; the effect is quite dramatic.

 

Program Notes by Laurie Shulman ©2023

First North American Serial Rights Only

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