Franck - Symphonic Variations For Piano and Orchestra

Like most of the compositions Cesar Franck wrote in the last decade of his life, the Symphonic Variations were coldly received.  It wasn't until after his death in 1890 that his compositions became more well known and popular, mainly due to the efforts of his devoted students.

But the audience at the premiere of the Symphonic Variations were probably confused by what they actually heard. Far from a classic set of variations on a theme, Franck wrote a different and subtle type of work. The actual variations are small in number and there is much that goes on before and after.

The work is in three distinct sections played without break. The first section is in the key of F-sharp minor and begins with severe and dramatic octaves in the strings, to which the piano answers in a gentle manner. This beginning is similar to the beginning of Beethoven's slow movement of his Piano Concerto No. 4, and whether Franck intended it as a homage to Beethoven or it is a mere coincidence, the piano soon becomes an equal with the orchestra and after some dialog between them the piano introduces the theme that is the object of the variations.

There are six (some say more) variations that are seamlessly woven together with piano and orchestra. Everything moves so smoothly, that the variations are almost over before the listener knows it, and the piano enters into a trance of gentle music with the orchestra quietly commenting. The piano and orchestra end up in a sleep-walking dialog, until the piano throws off some sparkling trills that lead the music to the key of F-sharp major. With the change in key comes a change in mood as the piano scampers in a graceful dance with the orchestra. As the orchestra and piano remind each other of the beginning with snippets of the opening theme in major mode, the music ends.

The Symphonic Variations is a piece that is one of the most perfect ever written for piano and orchestra. It is short, but there is so much happening that it should take longer than the average time of 15 minutes to play it.  It is not possible to think about it being for any other combination of instruments (although there is a version for two pianos, it was probably made for rehearsal use or to allow performance when no orchestra is available).  The piano writing is for a virtuoso, but never at the expense of the musical content. Franck has written a piece where virtuosity is for the good of the whole, not an end in itself.

 

Bach - Concerto For Oboe d'amore In A Major

The musical world of J.S. Bach was one of transition.  The emphasis had been slowly changing from counterpoint and polyphony to harmonically accompanied melody, or monody.  Bach's own sons were leaders in the changes in music, while Bach was seen as somewhat old-fashioned.  It's not that the elder Bach was against the newer music as it was that his interest still lay in the possibilities of counterpoint and polyphony.

Of course not all of Bach's music was strictly contrapuntal.  The Concerto For Oboe d'Amore  has the solo instrument play a melody with as much as against the string parts.  Like all of Bach's concertos, there exists different versions of the work for different instruments. This concerto also exists in the form of a harpsichord concerto, but unlike most of Bach's other concertos it was not originally written for violin. There has been research done by Sir Donald Tovey proving that the concerto was originally written for the oboe d'amore.  The harpsichord version is the only one extant, but with the evidence supplied by Tovey the solo part was reconstructed from the harpsichord part.

Bach's time was also one of transition pertaining to musical instruments. The viola family existed alongside the violin family, the recorder alongside the transverse flute, the lute was still being played by some musicians, and even the early form of the piano existed alongside the harpsichord and clavichord. The oboe d'amore is a member of the double reed oboe family, midway in range between the oboe and the cor anglais. It was invented in the early 17th century.  Its tone is not as assertive as the oboe. Bach was fond of the instrument as he used it in his cantatas besides this concerto. The instrument fell out of use shortly after Bach's time but was revived by Romantic era composers such as Richard Strauss and Maurice Ravel.

The concerto for oboe d'amore has the traditional three movements:

I. Allegro - Bach has the full string orchestra play the opening of the concerto. The oboe d'amore adds its melodic statements in between the returning motive played by the strings. The movement has the grace and balance of a dance between the two.
II. Allegretto -  The difference between the opening movement and this one is like day and night. Where the mood was carefree and light, it has now turned sad and melancholic. The oboe d'amore plays one of Bach's most emotional, heart-felt tunes while being accompanied by a chromatic descent in the bass.
III. Allegro ma non tanto - The finale returns to the feelings of a dance and happier times.

Bruckner - Symphony No. 5

The time in Bruckner's life when the 5th symphony was composed was a troubled one. He had just suffered the humiliation of the first performance of his 3rd Symphony in D Minor. He had to conduct the symphony himself at the last minute because of the untimely death of the conductor Johann von Herbeck. A combination of factors contributed to the failure of the 3rd symphony. Evidently Bruckner was not the best of conductors, and the fact that Bruckner had dedicated the 3rd symphony to Richard Wagner made Bruckner a part of the Brahms/Wagner controversy. By the time the 3rd Symphony had been played on that night, most of the Viennese audience had left and the orchestra members scurried off the stage leaving Bruckner alone on the podium.

It wasn't the first or last time Bruckner experienced negativity towards his music.  Even after the success of his 7th Symphony in E Major his next symphony, the 8th Symphony in C Minor was rejected as unintelligible by one of his most ardent champions, the conductor Herman Levi.  While these happenings affected Bruckner, they did not affect him to the point of being unable to compose. His ability to keep composing amid so much rejection speaks volumes about his determination and genius. It has been said that genius is mostly the ability to work hard no matter the circumstances. That definition surely fits Bruckner, for he worked into his forties taking instruction in harmony and counterpoint and worked so hard that even his task-master teacher told him to not work so hard.

But Bruckner brought more to his compositions than hard work. He had a rare mix of love of tradition along with the ability to work within that tradition to develop his own style, and a rare ability of having a sense of mystery and awe in his work that isn't evident on the written page. He brought no innovations to the orchestra forces he used, outside of Wagner tubas in his last three symphonies. His orchestrations are fairly straight-forward and at least note-wise are not exceedingly difficult for a good orchestra. So outside of his being affiliated with the 'enemy' Wagner camp, why was Bruckner's music met with so much hostility from orchestra members in particular?  I think it was what at the core of Bruckner's music. A restless drive rhythmically, an ever-changing palette of key changes and stretching of tonality that was a natural progression from the works of Schubert, and a mastery of counterpoint. In short,  Bruckner's music is an art unto itself. To judge it against Beethoven's symphonies does neither composer justice.  No matter how much analysis is done of Bruckner's form, harmony and melody, his music will always have a certain amount of mystery and surprise to it.  And that, at least for me, creates a never ending interest in his music. Every time I hear one of his symphonies, I seem to notice something I didn't before.

The 5th Symphony is in 4 movements:

I. Adagio - Allegro - This symphony is the only one Bruckner wrote that opens adagio.  With pizzicato strings, this adagio beginning has been called an introduction. Considering that pizzicato strings open all four movements of the symphony, it can also be considered a theme that helps create cohesion for the symphony.   Bruckner makes a great deal of contrast between themes in this first movement.

II. Adagio. Sehr langsam - Pizzicato strings begin this movement, in a slightly faster tempo than the first movement. The strings play in triplets, essentially in 6/4 time while the winds introduce new material. This is but one example of cross rhythms Bruckner uses that creates different moods within the music. Soon the orchestra begins to sing and the movement moves steadily to an inevitable thrilling Bruckner climax.  The music decreases in volume and slowly builds to a series of minor climaxes until it ends quietly.

 III. Scherzo. Molto vivace - The scherzo begins with pizzicato strings but a driving melody is soon heard. This melody is short, and a contrasting theme is heard immediately after. Bruckner uses varying length of phrases to create a certain restlessness, even in the German dance like contrasting theme. The calm, short trio is in direct contrast with the rest of the scherzo, which returns and ends with the orchestra chugging away to the closing chord

IV. Adagio - Allegro moderato - For the final time, the pizzicato strings begin the movement but are interrupted by a tune played by the clarinet. Other themes from the first movement appear, only to be likewise interrupted by the clarinet tune. The clarinet tune is played by the low strings, and it is then we find out that the tune is a theme for a fugue for the orchestra. Then the secondary theme shows itself and is lyrical and decorative, a contrast to the fugue heard before it.  After this theme works itself through, another theme appears which is like a chorale. This chorale contains within it the theme of another fugue. The second fugue plays itself through, whereupon the theme from the first movement is joined with the theme of the first fugue to create a double fugue. After a thorough working out, the first fugue is played again (without any other melody) and the brass play the theme of the second fugue together with the first fugue.  As if all that isn't enough to boggle the ear of the mere mortal listener, Bruckner has four horns play the theme of the first movement along with the rest.

The final movement of this symphony shows the talent and genius of Bruckner like no other composition he ever wrote. The incredible complexity of writing a fugue alone, let alone a fugue for full orchestra, would be challenge enough. But to write two fugues, then a double fugue, and finally what amounts to three themes playing at the same time  (and have the whole thing intelligible) would be called impossible if Bruckner hadn't shown us it is possible.

For those who really want to get into Bruckner's life and music, I recommend the book Anton Bruckner- Rustic Genius by Werner Wolff.  It is an old book (written in 1942) and there has been much research into the life and music of Bruckner since it was written,  but the author was a musician, conductor and musicologist that had practical experience with conducting Bruckner's symphonies and his analyses of all of them are in depth. It is a book I reference often, and the beauty of it is you can down load it for free at:

Anton Bruckner Rustic Genius  There are options to download the book or read it on line.

Schubert - Symphony No. 4 'Tragic'

Along with Felix Mendelssohn and Wolfgang Mozart, Franz Schubert was one of the most outstanding child prodigies the musical world has ever seen. All three men lived only into their third decade, with Schubert dying the youngest at age 31. By the time of his death he had written over 1000 pieces, among them being nine symphonies, much chamber music and 600 lieder,some of the greatest art songs ever composed.  He composed his first work when he was 13 years old, and never stopped composing after that.  His output is phenomenal, considering his age at his death. 

Schubert came under the influence of Antonio Salieri who was living in Vienna at the time. Salieri recognized Schubert's immense talent and took him as a private pupil. Schubert also had a great singing voice and acquired a choir scholarship at a local seminary.  He also went to a teacher training school and taught in his father's school for a few years. He disliked the drudgery and boredom of teaching and applied for a kappelmeister's position and also tried teaching piano for a time. He soon abandoned both of those endeavors and devoted himself to composing full time, and living off the kindness and generosity of his friends.

Schubert himself subtitled his 4th Symphony 'Tragic'. although the introduction to the first movement does have the sense of gloom and tragedy about it, whether the rest of the symphony has much tragedy in it is questionable. Why did Schubert name it such if the music really isn't all that tragic? Some have conjectured he did it to try and attract a publisher, but no one really knows why. Perhaps it was on account of the introduction to the first movement, a departure from his first three symphonies. The 4th symphony is the first symphony he wrote in a minor key, and he was about 19 years old when he wrote it in the years 1815-1816. Like so much of Schubert's music, the 4th symphony had to wait a long time for its premiere, in 1849 in Leipzig.

The 4th Symphony is in the traditional 4 movements:
I  Adagio molto – Allegro vivace - The introduction to the first movement moves far afield key-wise, but Schubert is known for his modulating through distant keys before settling on one. This key-wandering is all the more remarkable as it all makes sense. It was one of Schubert's many talents, this harmonic wandering and use of distant keys.  The movement proper begins with a theme in the home key of C minor. The entire movement keeps driving forward with the second theme that adds to the momentum. The ending of the movement has another surprise in store...a coda in C major.
II Andante - One of Schubert's most attractive slow movements, it is in a major key with a few episodes in the minor to add interest and contrast.
III Menuetto. Allegro vivace - Although named as such, this is far from a 'menuetto' in the common sense of the word. Schubert's debt to Beethoven is heard as the syncopated accent on the third beat at the beginning of each phrase throws the music into a cross rhythm that stumbles its way to the trio.

The trio is a German Ländler, a peasant dance that Schubert knew very well.
IV Allegro -  The finale begins with music as nervous and forward-moving as the first movement.  After much development in various keys, the music turns to C major for the conclusion.

To say Schubert was a composer of natural ability would be an understatement. But he didn't rest on his talent. He worked hard, and his music progressed throughout his short career. Within his thirty-one years he accomplished so much. What he could have created if he had lived longer will always be a mystery. 

Franck - Organ Chorale No. 2 in B Minor

The history of the pipe organ is a rich and ancient one, going back as far as the Roman Empire with its organ operated by water pressure called the Hydraulis. The organ slowly evolved from a monstrous instrument that had keys so big they had to be struck with the fist to the instruments of the early Baroque with their ranks of pipes and voices, multiple keyboards and foot pedals.

For many centuries the pipe organ was the most complicated mechanical device known, as it took the artistry and craftsmanship of many different disciplines to construct one.  Master cabinet makers to make the chests, keyboards and all the wooden parts, wood carvers to beautify the outside of the instrument, craftsman working in metals to make all of the pins and guide wires necessary, experienced makers to make hundreds and sometimes thousands of  organ pipes, craftsmen with a fine ear to tune the pipes, organ players to assist with regulation of the action. All of this craftsmanship and knowledge was learned by experience by each organ builder in each part of Europe that they worked. There developed styles of construction and sounds according to the locality of the builder. Each part of Europe created their own unique version of the instrument, and accordingly there developed schools of organ playing to match the instruments of the locale.

The school of French organ playing began in the 16th century and unlike some others, continued into the Romantic era. With composer/organists like Camille Saint-Saens, Cesar Franck and Charles-Marie Widor, French organ builders went on to include improvements to the instrument that allowed the French organ composers to write in a symphonic style for the instrument.

The most influential and beloved of these composer/organists was Cesar Franck. After his early years of composing and performing he settled into a life of teaching. It wasn't until his later years that he started to compose again, and in the matter of but a few years managed to compose a handful of masterpieces. He was a master improviser on the instrument, but only composed about a dozen pieces for it. nonetheless, he is regarded as the most important organ composer since J.S. Bach. High praise indeed, as it attests to the quality of his compositions.

Among those few pieces he wrote for organ (and the last three pieces he wrote before his death) are the Three Chorales For Organ. Franck was a composer that loved the traditional forms of music, but he made these forms his own by the way he used them. The second organ chorale is in B minor, and is in the form of a passacaglia and fugue, a passacaglia being a type of variation form in which the composition is based on a bass-ostinato which appears throughout the composition. Franck used a 16-bar bass theme:

In true passacaglia form, it isn't always confined to the bass part.  This work bears an outward resemblance at least in form to Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, but as with other works by Franck, his music is distinctive and speaks with a voice all his own.

Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre

The Danse Macabre (French for Dance Of Death) became a cultural symbol in late Medieval Europe.  Artists painted scenes of the dead escorting the living to the grave with a final dance of death.  The reality of a sudden and painful death were all too vivid after the horrors of the bubonic plague, the 'Black Death' epidemics of the 14th century.  It is estimated that 40 to 50 percent of the total population of Europe perished in a four-year period.

The notion that death was the fate of all, as stated in the Latin motto that accompanied many of the artworks depicting the Dance of Death, Momento Mori (remember you will die) expresses the sentiment that no matter a person's position in society or station in life, our fate is the same. While the notion of death has been romanticized to a certain degree over the years and even trivialized in cartoons and videos, the Dance of Death was very real to people of earlier times.

Many composers based compositions on the Dance Of Death, most notably Hector Berlioz in his Symphonie Fantastique and Franz Liszt in his Totentanz for piano and orchestra. Both of these composers used the 13th century Latin Hymn Dies Irae in their compositions as does Saint-Saëns.  Saint-Saëns' inspiration for his setting  was a poem written by Henri Cazalis, a French poet that got the idea for the poem from French folk legend:

Zig, zig, zig, Death in cadence, 
 Striking with his heel a tomb, 
 Death at midnight plays a dance-tune, 
 Zig, zig, zig, on his violin. 
 The winter wind blows and the night is dark; 
 Moans are heard in the linden-trees. 
 Through the gloom, white skeletons pass, 
 Running and leaping in their shrouds. 
 Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking. 
 The bones of the dancers are heard to crack- 
 But hist! of a sudden they quit the round, 
 They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed.

Saint-Saëns wrote a version for voice and piano using Cazalis' poem in 1872, then wrote the orchestral version in 1874. It begins with the quiet tolling of midnight on the harp. Then Death is heard playing the Devil's Interval,  the  tritone dissonance of classical harmony, a diminished fifth, in this instance an A and an E-flat.  Saint-Saëns instructs the solo violinist to tune his E string down to an E-flat to accomplish this.  Saint-Saëns also uses the xylophone to depict the dancing skeletons. After much cavorting around, the oboe imitates the crowing of a rooster at dawn, the skeletons scurry back to their graves and Death ends his solo on the violin.

Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 9 'Jeunehomme'

Mozart wrote many of his 20-plus piano concertos for his own use, but the 9th concerto in E-flat was an exception. Tradition says he wrote it for a traveling French virtuoso, a woman (a rare thing in those days?) whose surname was Jeunehomme. The concerto was written in 1777 when Mozart was 21 years old and was premiered in the early part of the same year by her. There is nothing else known about her,  nothing about her career, or if her name was actually Jeunehomme.  She must have been good, for Mozart wrote one of his finest piano concertos for her. Mozart himself played the concerto later in the same year, and came back to it in later years to add some minor ornamentation to it.

The concerto is unique for other reasons also, as will be told in the analysis below. It was composed for strings, two oboes, two horns and soloist, but Mozart's skill in using the forces at hand makes it sound much larger than that. It is in the customary three movements:

I. Allegro - Mozart begins the concerto with a flourish for the orchestra, which is immediately answered by the solo piano, a novel idea at the time for the soloist usually didn't enter until the orchestra played an exposition of the themes. This sets the tone as the piano has other surprising entrances at different times as well as its traditional statements of the themes of the movement.

II. Andantino - This movement is written in C minor, the relative minor of the home key of E flat major.  Mozart wrote only five concertos that had middle movements in a minor key.  Mozart has the piano sing a sad, melancholy song while the orchestra accompanies.  It is like a scene from a tragic opera, one of Mozart's most heart-felt slow movements.

III. Rondo : Presto - The piano plays an extended solo at a brisk tempo, the orchestra replies.  Mozart keeps up the pace, with piano and orchestra trading comments and taking turns accompanying and soloing.  After a few episodes and return of the rondo theme,  the piano plays a short cadenza that leads to a gentle minuet. The minuet  is played and developed as a separate section until the piano plays another short cadenza that leads back to the theme of the rondo. The music runs helter-skelter to the conclusion.

A word about the performance in the video below. This was played on a copy of a piano like Mozart would have played on. To distinguish this kind of piano from the modern instrument it is sometimes referred to as a fortepiano.  The piano of Mozart's time was markedly different from the modern instrument. The keyboard was smaller, five octaves compared to seven and a third, the frame was wood compared to iron,  lighter hammers and action, different tone qualities in different parts of the keyboard, considerably less volume than a modern instrument. These qualities will be evident in the recording.  It gives the listener an idea of why concertos were written as they were. With an orchestra that could drown out the soloist the problem of balance between the two is crucial.