PROGRAM NOTES
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
(1770-1827)
Namensfeier Overture, opus 115
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Born in the small German city of Bonn on or around December 16, 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven received his early training from his father and other local musicians. As a teenager, he was granted half of his father's salary as court musician from the Electorate of Cologne in order to care for his two younger brothers after his father gave in to alcoholism. Beethoven played viola in various orchestras, becoming friends with other players such as Anton Reicha, Nikolaus Simrock, and Franz Ries, and began taking on composition commissions. As a member of the court chapel orchestra, he was able to travel some and meet members of the nobility, one of whom, Count Ferdinand Waldstein, would become a great friend and patron.
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Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792 to study with Franz Josef Haydn and, despite the prickliness of their relationship, Haydn's concise humor helped form Beethoven's style. His subsequent teachers in composition were Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Antonio Salieri. In 1794, he began his career as a pianist and composer, taking advantage whenever he could of the patronage of others. In the fall of 1801, at the age of 30, Beethoven revealed his ever-increasing hearing loss and stated in a letter that he would "seize Fate by the throat; it shall not bend or crush me completely." Beginning in 1803, Beethoven was good to his word as he embarked on a sustained period of groundbreaking creativity. In later years, he was plagued by personal difficulties, including a series of failed romances and a nasty custody battle over his nephew, Karl. He died in Vienna on March 26, 1827.
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The Namensfeier Overture, opus 115 (Feast Day or Name Day Overture) was the result of Beethoven’s typically long compositional process. Beethoven was an admirer of Friedrich Schiller and, in particular, of his Ode to Joy (1795). It was the text of the ode that inspired Beethoven to write a concert overture based upon its themes of humanity, friendship, overcoming adversity, and freedom. Beethoven first sketched ideas for the work in 1809, occasionally returning to it over the next half-decade, but it wasn’t until 1814 that he turned his attention to its completion. It was originally scheduled to be performed on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the name day of the Austrian Emperor Franz I. However, it wasn’t ready in time and, instead, was premiered, now dedicated to the amateur composer Prince Anton Heinrich Radziwill, on Christmas Day in 1815 as part of a hospital benefit concert. There is nothing serious, profound, or earth-shattering about the Namensfeier Overture; instead, it is a festive, celebratory romp that delivers pure, unsophisticated fun. In the manuscript, Beethoven wrote, “Overture for any occasion—or for concert use.”
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OF NOTE: Beethoven detested the French nickname "La chasse" (“the hunt”) for the overture (bestowed because of the buoyant 6/8 "hunting" meter of the main part of the overture).​
Max BRUCH
(1838-1920)
Violin Concerto No. 1 in g minor, opus 26
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Although he was born five years after Johannes Brahms, Max Bruch (1838-1920) was one of the most well-respected German composers of his day. Active from an early age, he was quite prolific, writing choral music, operas, songs, symphonies, concerti, and chamber music. While his music generally strikes listeners as beautiful, imaginative, and high-minded, critics have tended to relegate him to the status of a minor master. Bruch started composing as a child, displaying an extraordinary musical talent, which Ignaz Moscheles recognized. In 1852, he wrote a symphony and a string quartet, the latter work bringing him a scholarship from the Frankfurt-based Mozart Foundation, which enabled him to study with Ferdinand Breunung, Ferdinand Hiller, and Carl Reinecke.
In 1858, Bruch embarked on a teaching and composing career which took him to Cologne, Mannheim, Paris, Brussels, Koblenz, Berlin, and Bonn. In 1881, he left his teaching career to succeeded Julius Benedict as conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society in England. Unfortunately, his tenure at Liverpool was short lived, and he left there in 1883 to become director of the Breslau Orchesterverein. During the autumn of 1890, Bruch accepted the appointment as professor of composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, working there until his retirement in 1910 and retaining his rank as a professor there until his death in 1920.
Bruch's best-known work is without doubt his passionately romantic Violin Concerto No. 1 in g minor (1868). It seemed that no matter what he wrote or how good it was, all of his mature works were eclipsed by the fame of this work . . . one that he composed before he turned thirty! This incredibly popular work haunted Bruch for the rest of his life. He wrote of it: “Nothing compares to the laziness, stupidity and dullness of many German violinists. Every fortnight another one comes to me wanting to play the first Concerto; I have now become rude and have told them, ‘I cannot listen to this Concerto any more - did I perhaps write just this one? Go away and once and for all play the other Concertos, which are just as good, if not better’.”
Soloists keep concertos before the public, and violinists have always loved to play this piece. Bruch studied violin for several years and he wrote for the instrument with enormous affection and skill. When his publisher once suggested he try a work for cello and orchestra, Bruch replied, “I have more important things to do than write stupid cello concertos.” Eugen d'Albert asked for a piano concerto in 1886; Bruch fired back: “Me, write a piano concerto! That's the limit!“ Bruch eventually wrote beautifully for cello with orchestra but never did compose a piano concerto.
Bruch had planned to call the work a fantasy, which helps to explain the disposition of the three movements. The first is a prelude in title (Vorspiel) and mood, rather than the weightiest movement of the work. Even though the violinist works as hard as in any of the great virtuoso concertos and the dialogue between solo and orchestra is heated and extensive, the tone is anticipatory. Without a pause, the first movement transitions to the second movement, where we find the heart of the concerto. This movement is a rich, wonderfully lyrical expanse of music that shows Bruch at his best. The finale begins in quiet suspense, broken by the entrance of the violin with a hearty dance tune and fireworks galore.
Bruch had difficulty writing this concerto, resorting to a public performance of a preliminary version of the work. He was very dissatisfied and called upon the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim to offer suggestions. Coincidentally, Jochim would later play the same role in the creation of Brahms’ concerto. When the concerto was presented in its final form in 1868, Joachim was both the soloist and the dedicatee. Bruch composed two more violin concertos, but neither is as well known as his first.
George Whitefield CHADWICK
(1854-1931)
Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major, opus 21
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Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931) received some early musical training from organ lessons given by his older brother, Fitz Henry and used his earnings as an organist to finance musical studies - which his father opposed. He developed an independent, self-reliant character early in his life. Dropping out of high school in 1871, Chadwick assisted briefly in his father's insurance business. In 1872, he entered New England Conservatory as a "special student", where he could study with the faculty without needing to satisfy rigorous entrance or degree requirements. However, he approached his studies more seriously and took advantage of what the conservatory had to offer. Four years later, Chadwick accepted a faculty position in the music program at Mt. Olivet College, founding the Music Teachers National Association while there.
Realizing that his musical career in the U.S. would be limited without further studies in Europe, Chadwick headed to Germany in 1877 to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Leipzig under Carl Reinecke and, later, in Munich at the Hochschule für Musik with Josef Rheinberger. Chadwick traveled around Europe with a group of artists who called themselves the "Duveneck Boys". Ultimately, he arrived in France with the group, where he was taken with the French lifestyle and influenced by the emerging Impressionist movement.
Returning to Boston in March of 1880, he soon began establishing a career in the U.S. by opening a teaching studio, securing performances as organist and conductor, and continuing to compose. In 1897, he was appointed Director of New England Conservatory – a position that he held until 1930. Known in the Boston arts circle as talented, personable, and energetic, he implemented changes that resembled those of the German conservatories by establishing a variety of performing ensembles and expanding the music theory and history course offerings. Additionally, he invited members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to serve as private studio teachers. During his tenure at the New England Conservatory, he taught several generations of American composers and was a pioneer in making professional instruction available to women and racial minorities.
During the last decade of his life, Chadwick’s compositional output declined, most likely due to periods of ill health. However, he still remained active in Boston social circles and remained in his post as Director of New England Conservatory. He died on April 4, 1931 at his home in Boston. He was survived by his wife of almost forty-three years, Ida May (Brooks), and their two sons, Theodore and Noel, as well as four grandchildren.
Along with Horatio Parker, Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Edward MacDowell, and John Knowles Paine, George Whitefield Chadwick was a representative composer of what can be called the New England School of American Composers of the late 19th century (sometimes referred to as the “Boston Six”). Chadwick's works are influenced by the Realist movement in the arts, characterized by a down-to-earth depiction of people's lives. As a composer, Chadwick was sensitive to indigenous influences and made use of African-American song, Anglo-American psalmody, and folk idioms in his symphonic compositions. His 137 songs for solo voice and piano reflect a deep-seated interest in contemporary poetry in a Romantic vein. His works included several operas, three symphonies, five string quartets, tone poems, incidental music, the aforementioned songs and choral anthems.
The Symphony No. 2 (1883-1886) represents the composer’s more traditional side, following the standard four-movement formal structure, utilizing Sonata-Allegro Form, diatonic harmony, and regular phrasing and rhythms – all modeled after composers like Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Antonín DvoÅ™ák. The work also contains all the elements of Chadwick's mature style, which is a European conservatory-based one, open to American musical influences, and which includes folk music built on Scots-Irish roots, the New England style of hymnody, and African-American elements. Chadwick shows a mastery of the standard nineteenth century orchestra by scoring with transparency and using imaginative colors within the traditional bounds of the German symphonic style of the time.
OF NOTE: In 1897, Chadwick published the music theory text Harmony: A Course of Study in which he modernized the Roman-numeral analysis of Gottfried Weber by combining it with the older practice of Figured Bass symbology to create a system which shows the chord root and the inversion in a single symbol (e.g. V7, I6).