Mehul - Le Jeune Henri Overture

The composer Étienne Méhul has been called the most important opera composer in Revolutionary-era France. He followed the reforms of opera as instituted by Christoph Willibald Gluck and is considered one of the first Romantic composers.  He used the leitmotif, music that associates itself with a character or idea in the opera, a device made more well known by Richard Wagner years later.  Berlioz was influenced by Mehul's complete music aesthetic and wrote:

"...In truly dramatic music, when the importance of the situation deserves the sacrifice, the composer should not hesitate as between a pretty musical effect that is foreign to the scenic or dramatic character, and a series of accents that are true but do not yield any surface pleasure. Méhul was convinced that musical expressiveness is a lovely flower, delicate and rare, of exquisite fragrance, which does not bloom without culture, and which a breath can wither; that it does not dwell in melody alone, but that everything concurs either to create or destroy it..."

Méhul had a great feel for orchestral color and changed his orchestration to help convey the action or mood. In the Le Jeune Henri (Young King Henri) Overture he expanded the usual pair of horns in the orchestra to four to depict the young king out in the field hunting with his barking dogs and hunting horns. The overture was written in 1797 is taken from the opera of the same name that was based on an incident in the life of King Henri IV of France. While the opera itself was a failure, the overture was received very well and had to be encored at the first performance. The music depicts the hunt from its beginning in the early morning to the signaling of the horns and the chase of the stag. The overture is also known as La chasse du jeune Henri, Young Henri's Hunt.

Méhul's influence began to wane in the early years of the 19th century, and after years of intrigues against him and the failure of his latest operas, his popularity in France was over. He continued to compose with some of his operas becoming popular in Germany. But his health declined and he died of tuberculosis in 1817.

Paganini - Le Streghe

One of the first musical superstars, Niccolò Paganini not only was influential in advancing the art and technique of playing the violin, his compositions inspired other composers as well. While most of Paganini's compositions were written to showcase his enormous technical abilities, they also showed his lyrical and dramatic side.  Composers from the progressive Liszt to the more traditional Brahms (and many others) took inspiration from his music that combined brilliant technique with flashes of expressive musicality.

Although news of his tremendous abilities spread, Paganini didn't begin touring outside of his native Italy until1828. He toured all of Europe and Britain until 1834 when he retired from the concert platform due to poor health. Paganini died in Nice, France in 1840 but his last request to be buried in his birthplace of Genoa, Italy was refused by the Catholic church because he had refused the last rites and was thought to have been in league with the devil because of his musical abilities. His body laid in the hospital at Nice for a time, was sent to Genoa but was not allowed to be buried.  The body was finally laid to rest in Parma in 1876.

The rumors of Paganini being in league with the devil began early on. One of Paganini's early compositions helped create the rumor, Le Streghe or in English, The Witches. The composition is for solo violin and orchestra and is based on a tune that Paganini heard in a performance of a ballet in Milan in 1813. The ballet, Le nozze di Benevento was a revision of an earlier ballet written in 1803 with music by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, a composer most well known for having finished Mozart's Requiem. The tune announces the entrance of the witches in the ballet, hence the name given the piece by Paganini.

After an introduction by the orchestra, a tune is played by the soloist with a light accompaniment, a short cadenza for the soloist leads to Süssmayr's theme which is followed by three variations. The first variation has double and triple stops, the second variation pizzacatos, harmonics and wide leaps, a section in a minor key in octaves, and the third variation played on the G-string combined with double stopped harmonics.  The coda of the piece has Paganini round off the piece with yet more fireworks for the violin.


 

Schumann - String Quartet No. 1 In A Minor

After a long  (and often times clandestine) courtship,  Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck were married in 1840, very much against her father's wishes. Clara's father immediately filed legal charges against the marriage but after a long (and nasty) legal battle the court ruled in favor of the newlyweds. The end of all the stress of the legal battles caused by Clara's father brought forth a burst of creative energy from Schumann. Up until then, all of his compositions were for the piano alone, but now with Clara's urging he began to branch out into works for voice, orchestra, and chamber music.

In 1842 Schumann wrote his first chamber pieces, a piano quartet and piano quintet, and began serious study of the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, along with counterpoint and fugue. He also had the opportunity to hear string quartets of these composers played. His labor paid off, as Schumann wrote the three quartets of his opus 41 in two months. In a span of but six months in 1842, Schumann had written these quartets plus three other chamber works.

Schumann's first string quartet is in 4 movements:
I. Introduzione: Andante espressivo - Allegro - The first movement begins with a short introduction with the 4 instruments entering one after another until the first theme of the movement proper begins in the 1st violin, in of all things, the key of F Major. This theme is treated fugally, after which what at first appear to be snippets of other themes appear, but in actuality they are but fragments of the main theme. Schumann makes good use of his counterpoint study as the theme is developed this way throughout the movement. As this movement is in sonata form, there is a recapitulation of the opening material.

II. Scherzo: Presto - Intermezzo -  The music of this movement (in A minor) at first seems Mendelssohnian, but Schumann gives his own 'bite' to the music as the strings spit out the notes of the dominant rhythm of the scherzo. The trio section of most scherzos remains 3-in-a-bar like the scherzo itself, but Schumann changes it to an alla breve two-in-a-bar.

III. Adagio - A short introduction leads to the main theme played by the violin. The main theme is then taken up by the cello. A central section adds contrast before the opening theme returns.

IV. Presto - The finale begins with an energetic first theme. The second theme also bristles with energy. Themes are developed, after which a contrasting section slow in tempo and consisting of chords accompanying a different theme. The energy of the opening returns in a short coda.

Couperin - Passacaille

The music of the Frenchman François Couperin was well-known and appreciated by many composers of his era, the most notable being J.S. Bach. He came from a very musical family and was called Couperin The Grand by his contemporaries to differentiate him from the rest of the family.  Couperin's influence spanned the centuries as Brahms and R. Strauss were also influenced by his music.

Couperin is best known for his works for solo harpsichord, published in Paris between 1713 -1730. There are over 200 pieces in four volumes, with pieces arranged similar to the Baroque dance suite, but Couperin called his sets of pieces ordres. The first and last pieces of these ordres were in the same key with the middle pieces in closely related keys. There are a total of 27 ordres in the four volumes of harpsichord pieces.

Couperin was a virtuoso keyboard performer and wrote a treatise called 'The Art Of Harpsichord Playing'  that remains a valuable source of information about performance practices of his time. Couperin delighted in giving some of his pieces descriptive titles that suited his music. He could be bold with his harmony for his time, and was fond of peppering his pieces with passing dissonances. Couperin was born in Paris and died there in 1733.

The Passacaille (French for passacaglia) was published in his second book of piano pieces, and was included with nine other pieces in the 8th ordre.  It is labeled a passaglia by the composer, the piece is also labeled rondeau in the music:

The first four bars of the piece are played and repeated. After these eight bars, there is an episode of different material, and the beginning eight bars return. The piece follows this pattern throughout. So is this piece really a passacaglia? In its simplest form, a  passacaglia  is a set of continuous variations played with a ground bass accompaniment throughout. This piece by Couperin is actually in a type of rondo form, as the variations are not accompanied by a ground bass, and Couperin says as much right before the music starts. But Couperin didn't use a musical form as a rigid form to pour their notes into, but as a tool to help express themselves, and they gave no thought to changing the form to fit the music. Perhaps the name is used because of the character of the piece, as passaglias are usually slow and serious. The repeating eight measures are certainly slow and serious. They return after each interlude (of varying moods themselves) with a plodding inevitability, as if there is no escaping whatever fate they represent .

Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15

Dmitri Shostakovich has been called one of the most influential composers, especially of symphonies, of the 20th century.  His 15 symphonies were composed from 1924 when he was seventeen, to 1971 when he was 65, covering most of his career and life as a composer.  His last symphony was written a few years before his death, and since its premiere there has been much written about it, good and bad.  The symphony is in 4 movements:

I. Allegretto -  This movement was originally labeled by Shostakovich as 'The Toyshop'. It begins with the tinkling of the glockenspiel, and the music unrolls in the type of nervous humor that Shostakovich was known for.  Shostakovich was also known for his quoting of other composers music (and in this symphony even his own) and the most obvious quote in this movement is the familiar one from The William Tell Overture by Rossini, which Shostakovich uses four times in the movement. The music twists and turns into more than 'toyshop' music as the nervous humor changes to something tinged with sinister sounds. With punctuation provided by castanets, and two sections of quite complex polyrhythms (one for strings, one for woodwinds) the movement stumbles its way to the end.

II.Adagio - Largo - Adagio - Allegretto - In contrast to the goings-on of the previous movement, the second movement begins with the solemn playing of the brass section. A solo cello plays a mournful theme that utilizes a very large part of the range of the instrument. The brass section enters once again, the solo cello continues where it left off with its lament, but is twice interrupted by a harsh, dissonant chord by the woodwinds (these chords will appear again later in the symphony). Flutes play a new theme, a solo trombone plays its version of the lament. After more from the flutes, solo trombone and solo violin, the dissonant woodwind chords lead to a tremendous outburst from the entire orchestra. After the outburst, combinations of instruments play quiet snippets of themes heard before, with a wood block clopping in the background. A solo vibraphone plays with a solo double bass. The opening music for brass reappears and the movement quietly draws to a close with the timpani and strings.

III. Allegretto - The third movement begins without pause with music of nervous humor like the opening of the first movement. Trombone glissandos are added as the music gads about and around a solo violin. It ends abruptly with the clacking of percussion.

IV. Adagio - Allegretto - Adagio - Allegretto -  The movement begins with another quote, this time from Wagner's Fate leitmotif from Der Ring des Nibelungen. This theme is heard sporadically in the first section of the movement. The music drifts to a theme that sounds similar to the theme from the first movement of his Seventh Symphony 'Leningrad'.  There is a tremendous crescendo, and the seventh symphony theme is heard again. The music winds down with a dissonant chord in the orchestra. Violins play another Wagner quote, the grief  leitmotif from Tristan And Isolde.  The dissonant woodwind chords of the second movement reappear, after which Shostakovich has the strings play a long pedal point chord while the celesta, glockenspiel, side drum, and castanets take turns clacking out soft rhythms reminiscent of the end of the third movement while the timpani plays the seventh symphony theme. This final section is similar to the ending of his 4th Symphony (which was withdrawn by the composer from the premiere in 1936, just after Shostakovich was denounced the first time, and not premiered until 1961) The dialog of the percussion instruments (and the symphony) ends with the glockenspiel and celesta together sounding a note over the evaporating pedal point of the strings.

The 15th Symphony is a work of complexity, both musical and emotional. Outside of the percussion section, the orchestra is large but not as large as some of Shostakovich's other symphonies.  Instruments are used frequently in smaller groupings that are seasoned with the salt-and-pepper of the percussion section. The symphony has an almost chamber music sound to it.  A friend of the composer, Isaak Glikman, quoted what the composer told him about the many quotes from other composers in the work:

"I don't myself quite know why the quotations are there, but I could not, could not, not include them."

Dmitri Shostakovich has been dead for almost 40 years, and in death as in life his music is still creating controversy.  He was a complex man, capable of writing deep, soulful music and also capable of writing loud, boisterous clap-trap, sometimes within the same composition. In essence, his music will always carry a sense of mystery, of literal or perceived extra-musical meaning, which can be said of many composers.

Call Shostakovich's music what you will, like it or hate it, it's hard to ignore either way. While he most certainly can be morose in the extreme,  his best compositions are written from the heart. He is a composer that I admit I have to be in a certain mood to hear. It just doesn't sit well in my ear sometimes, which says as much about me as his music. But at other times, Shostakovich's music is what I need to hear.

Wieniawski - Violin Concerto No. 1 In F-sharp Minor

Henryk Wieniawski was one of the great violin virtuosos of the 19th century who was born in Poland and showed such great ability that at the age of nine he was admitted into the Paris Conservatory of Music. There were many Polish exiles in Paris at the time due to the political circumstances of their homeland, with Chopin being one of them. The young Wieniawski met Chopin, who became an artistic influence on him. After he graduated (about twelve or thirteen years of age) he began giving concerts and recitals. Wieniawski's contemporaries thought highly of his abilities and compared him to Paganini.

In 1860 when he was 25 years old he accepted an invitation from Anton Rubinstein to go to St. Petersburg, Russia. He accepted the invitation and lived there until 1872.  He taught many students, participated in string quartets and led orchestras during his time there. In 1872-1874 he toured The United States with Rubinstein. Rubinstein wrote about the tour:

"During the time I remained in America we traveled through the United States as far as New Orleans, and I appeared before an audience two hundred and fifteen times. It often happened that we gave two or three concerts in as many different cities in the same day. The receipts and the success were invariably gratifying, but it was all so tedious that I began to despise myself and my art. So profound was my dissatisfaction, that when several years later I was asked to repeat my American tour, with half a million guaranteed to me, I refused point blank. It may be interesting to note that the contract was fulfilled to the letter. 

Wieniawski, a man of extremely nervous temperament, who, owing to ill health quite often failed to meet his appointments in St. Petersburg, - both at the Grand Theater and at the Conservatory, - never missed one concert in America. However ill he might be, he always contrived to find strength enough to appear on the platform with his fairy-like violin. The secret of his punctuality lay in the fact that by the terms of the contract he must forfeit one thousand francs for every non-appearance." 

Anton Rubinstein

Wieniawski moved to Brussels in 1875 and became professor of violin at the Conservatory there. His heart condition (the illness spoken of by Rubinstein) became worse, but he continued giving concerts, sometimes suffering attacks of angina so sever he had to pause in the middle of the concert. He began yet another concert tour in 1879 in Russia, but before finishing the tour he was taken to a hospital in Odessa after a concert.  He died of a massive heart attack a few weeks later. He was 44 years old.

Wieniawski began composing early and his first composition was published in 1847 when he was twelve years old. His opus numbers only went to 24, but he wrote some very important works in the violin literature, including two published violin concertos (a third has been lost).
The first concerto is in three movements:
I. Allegro moderato -  The clarinet begins the movement and the rest of the orchestra follows with the playing of the first theme. The cellos announce the second theme that is taken over by the violins that soar into their high register before the soloist enters with the violin's take on the first theme. The violin is naturally the dominant voice as it explores both themes while also playing some new ones of its own. Roughly in the middle of the movement the violin spits out aggressive down-bowed double stops in a section that ultimately leads to a repetition of the first theme by the orchestra which soon gives in to the cadenza for the soloist. With notes in the stratosphere and fireworks galore, the cadenza segues into a repetition of the second theme, which is followed by a varied repeat of the middle section. A coda follows played with fire by the violin that contains a repetition of the opening theme and the ending of the movement.

II. Preghiera: Larghetto -  Preghiera means prayer in Italian, and gives an indication of how the composer meant this music to be played. It is in direct contrast to the preceding movement as it is lyrical and calm. It is also very short.

III.  Rondo: Allegro giocoso -  There is no pause between the preceding movement as the brass play a fanfare to begin the finale.  The violin dances with the orchestra through this movement save for a contrasting section that is more mellow in nature. There are no fireworks for the soloist in this last movement as in the first, but it still demands much of the violin and player. The violin increases speed and wraps up the concerto with another note in the stratosphere before the final chord.

The second violin concerto of Wieniawski is played more often in concert than the first, with the first being criticized as being out of balance because of the weaknesses of the last two movements as compared to the first movement. No doubt Wieniawski was feeling his way with his first concerto as it was his first attempt at a full-blown concerto, and he obviously learned a lot from the experience of the first to make the second more balanced and agreeable with audiences. The first movement of this concerto is the star, but the other two movements aren't terrible music. Wieniawski was one of the 19th centuries great violinist composers along with musicians such as Paganini, Joachim and others that had a tremendous influence on violin playing and used their compositions to show off their technique and musicianship.

The argument can be made that the truly great violin concertos were written by composers that were not virtuosos (I'm thinking primarily of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms), but that doesn't mean concertos written by virtuosos are not without merit. The concertos of Wieniawski are great in their own way and are worth listening to and studying .

Liadov - The Enchanted Lake, A Fairy Tale Scene

Anatoly Liadov was a supremely gifted musician and composer that lacked the inner drive to write music equal to his potential. It wasn't that he was exactly lazy. He was kept busy as a teacher at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (one of his students was the young Prokofiev), a conductor that premiered Scriabin's first two symphonies, an editor that along with Rimsky-Korsakov edited the music of Glinka for publication, and an admired pianist.

His father was chief conductor of the Imperial opera Company, his grandfather was also a conductor. with many other family members involved in music, ballet and theater, so at a very early age Liadov was exposed to the late night gatherings frequented by musicians and actors. This upbringing probably contributed to his unreliability and a certain lack of inner drive.

Liadov was a conservative, very precise, meticulous composer who paid an extraordinary amount of attention to detail. This trait may have also contributed to his meager compositional output, especially with works for orchestra. His talent was more suitable for miniature pieces for piano.  But there were exceptions.

After Liadov married into money in 1884, his compositions got even fewer in number but it was after his marriage that he wrote three miniature tone poems for full orchestra, some of his finest works in any genre. Baba Yaga and Kikomora are based on folktales, while The Enchanted Lake has no direct inspiration besides Liadov's imagination. He called it a Fairy Tale Scene and described it to a friend:

“How picturesque it is, how clear, the multitude of stars hovering over the mysteries of the deep. But above all no entreaties and no complaints; only nature -  cold, malevolent, and fantastic as a fairy tale. One has to feel the change of the colors, the chiaroscuro, the incessantly changeable stillness and seeming immobility.”

The work is scored for a large orchestra minus trumpets and trombones. It is pure mood painting and conveys a sense of mystery that pleased the composer very much. of all his compositions, it was his favorite. The piece lasts under eight minutes, and contains some of the most beautiful music ever written .