BEETHOVEN Egmont: overture 
BEETHOVEN Egmont: overture
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Ludwig van Beethoven
1770-1827
Egmont: overture, Op. 84
The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw the rise of strong nationalist aspirations in Europe. Self-governing nations were beginning to emerge from empires which had maintained an almost feudal system of rule over vast areas of the continent. Nowhere was this spirit of nationalism more strongly felt than in Germany, and it was both captured and inspired by the writings of the poet and dramatist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). His work mirrored the aspirations of the German people with their tales of popular victory over the foreign oppressor, and had a profound effect on his fellow artists. Those who wrote music directly inspired by Goethe included the very greatest composers of the 19th century; Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, Berlioz and, of course, Beethoven.
One of the plays in which Goethe most vividly caught the mood of the times was Egmont. Set in the 16th century when Flanders (in the north) was governed by Spain (in the extreme south), it tells of the noble Count Egmont on whom the hopes of all the Flemish people rest as he appeals to the Spanish regional governor to moderate his harsh and tyrannical treatment of them. But he is arrested and condemned to death. A young girl (Clärchen) who loves him tries to incite the people to rescue him, but they are too afraid of the Spanish authorities and, out of desperation, she poisons herself as Egmont is led away and executed. His death is actually a triumph since his spirit survives and serves to inspire the Flemish people to rise up and overthrow their Spanish oppressors.
In 1810 the Vienna Court Theatre planned to stage both Schiller’s William Tell and Goethe’s Egmont. Beethoven had hoped to write music for the former, but that task was assigned to Adalbert Gyrowetz. However on Goethe’s own recommendation the theatre director commissioned Beethoven to write an overture, a Victory Symphony, two songs, funeral music and four entr’actes for Egmont. Although he stopped work on everything else in order to concentrate on this commission, Beethoven had not finished the overture (the last part of the music he wrote) in time for the play’s first night - 24th May – and it was not heard until 15th June 1810. Nevertheless it very quickly developed a life of its own in the concert hall. The stern opening signifies the heavy hand of the oppressor, the subdued theme first introduced by the oboe represents the tenderness of Clärchen, while the despair of the people is portrayed in the quicker central section of the work. Egmont’s death is indicated by a whole bar’s rest followed by a great outburst of joy (actually the “Victory Symphony”) representing the victory of the oppressed people over their tyrannical rulers.
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MOZART Piano Concerto No.17 in G, K.453
MOZART Piano Concerto No.17 in G, K.453
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1756-1791
Piano Concerto No. 17 in G, K453
Allegro
Andante
Allegretto – Presto
Mozart’s first attempts at writing keyboard concertos followed hot on the heels of his European tour: in 1767 he took four keyboard Sonatas by four different composers and added orchestral introductions and interludes to them. His first genuinely original piano concerto was completed in 1773 and, in all, he composed 27 Piano Concertos, most of which date from his years in Vienna. The first of these Viennese concertos was No. 11, which Mozart premièred in the city on 11th January 1783. He performed two others in that season the success of which prompted him to compose four more (Nos 14-17) for the following season. He wrote these in the space of just two months, between 9th February and 12th April 1784.
The circumstances surrounding the composition of these concertos must have been chaotic, to say the least. In Mozart’s house there was his six-month-old son, a lively dog called Guckel, and a pet bird - a starling named Starl - that had learnt to whistle a theme which one of Mozart’s pupils had been playing quite a lot during her lessons at the house. The pupil was Barbara Ployer, daughter of Gottfried Ignaz von Ployer the Salzburg Court’s representative in Vienna, and the theme picked up by the starling came from the finale of a piano concerto Mozart had composed for her, the Concerto in G major No.17 (K453). This was the second concerto Mozart had composed for her and she gave the first performance of it at her family’s country house in Döbling, on the outskirts of Vienna, on 13th June 1784 with Mozart in the audience.
Lightly scored, but for an orchestra comprising a particularly well-developed wind section (there is a flute, two oboes, two bassoons and two horns), the Concerto is for the most part a sunny, happy work, the 1st movement opening with a cheerful orchestral introduction following which the piano enters with great delicacy and lightness. Occasional clouds appear as the music momentarily moves into the minor key but these invariably drift away and after the cadenza the final clouds quickly disperse in the brightly lit orchestral coda.
A subdued string introduction followed by a lyrical theme featuring some truly inspired woodwind writing sets the scene for the emotionally-charged 2nd movement which has been described as “evoking the ache at the heart of all mortal joy”.
The theme which tickled Starl’s fancy so much is subjected a series of variations in the carefree 3rd movement, the piano writing becoming ever more glittering.
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TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5
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Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
1840-1893
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
Andante - Allegro con anima
Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza
Valse: Allegro moderato
Finale: Andante maestoso - Allegro vivace
Tchaikovsky wrote seven symphonies. He gave a title to one of them - “Manfred” - to underline the fact that the work was inspired by Byron’s epic of the same name, but while the other six merely have numbers, all follow some kind of programmatic line. Tchaikovsky once wrote “I wish no symphonic work to emanate from me that has nothing to express and is made up of harmonies and a purposeless pattern of rhythms and modulations”, and from jottings found in the notebooks Tchaikovsky carried with him at the time of its composition, we learn that he had a firm idea as to what the Fifth Symphony was supposed to express. It was to begin, for example, with music portraying “complete resignation before Fate or, which is the same, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence”, and commentators generally assume that “complete resignation” here was a sign that Tchaikovsky had, at last, come to terms with his homosexuality and his last three numbered symphonies were effectively the outlet through which Tchaikovsky could give public expression to the intensely private drama of his life.
Of those three symphonies, the Fifth is the most traditional in its structure; a fact Tchaikovsky tacitly acknowledged by dedicating the finished score to a German teacher, Theodor Avé-Lallement, who was renowned for his arch-traditionalist approach to music. Tchaikovsky had met Avé-Lallement in Hamburg during a conducting tour in 1888 and the German had recommended that Tchaikovsky settle in the country; “where the classical traditions and the general atmosphere of a higher culture would not fail to correct me and rid me of those deficiencies which he felt were easily accountable by the fact that I was born and grew up in a country which was still so unenlightened and backward when compared to Germany”, as Tchaikovsky wryly recalled. He may not have taken Avé-Lallement’s advice, but he did set out to prove that he could fulfil traditionalist expectations of a symphony cast in the mould of Beethoven’s Fifth, passing from darkness into light. As he wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, “I strove to bring it to the greatest possible state of perfection”. Tchaikovsky himself conducted the première in St Petersburg on 17th November 1888.
The 1st movement begins in sombre mood (the “complete resignation before Fate”) but after a while the speed changes and a jerky little tune (“murmurs, doubts, reproaches”) flurries by with a characteristically tricky but nevertheless appealing rhythm. This is balanced by a softer melody played by the strings answered by delicate woodwind figures.
The 2nd movement is built around a beautifully lyrical melody played by a single horn. Above this melody Tchaikovsky had written, in French, “O how I love you!” and certainly if ever a musical tune expressed the depth of human love this does.
The 3rd movement contains one of Tchaikovsky’s most charming and graceful Waltzes. At one point the bassoon offers a new melody while the violins intersperse a few running scales like ribbons fluttering in the breeze, but the movement’s charm and innocence is never lost.
The 4th movement begins with a restatement of the work’s introduction, although this time given more majesty and sounding a lot more optimistic now it has been put into a major key. Much of the remainder of the movement is built around two themes, a strong, punchy set of chords with a rather nervous answer from the oboe, and a graceful flowing tune played by the woodwind. It all builds up to a triumphant climax which, without being too fanciful seems to represent the final dispelling of those earlier “murmurs, doubts, reproaches”.
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