老司机传媒 Orchestra Concert
March 7, 1998
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 | Tchaikovsky:
Variations on a Rococo Theme |
Beethoven: Symphony
No. 7
Wolfgang A. Mozart
(1756-1791)
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K.
219 "Turkish"
Adagio
Rondeau
Allegro
As a child, Mozart's reputation as a prodigy was primarily due to his
prowess at the keyboard. When he grew too tall to continue as a prodigy,
his first regular position was as a violinist -- concertmaster of the archbishop's
court at Salzburg. Since this position encouraged composition
as well as performance, it was during this time that Mozart's five violin
concertos were born. The first four concertos follow the standard
three-movement form of Vivaldi, but in the fifth, the Concerto in A
Major, K.219, completed in December of 1775, the listener is greeted
with a number of surprises. The first movement begins with a rather
ordinary orchestral tutti that could have come from the pen of a number
of 18th century composers. Usually, this would be followed by the
soloist joining the orchestra for a reiteration of the opening theme. Instead, the solo enters with a slow arioso accompanied by a running line. When the first theme is restated with the solo, the listener discovers
that the tutti exposition was just the accompaniment for the real main
theme. Following the poetically beautiful second movement, the final
rondo begins with a charming minuet. After two episodes in rather
normal sequence, the listener is again surprised with a boisterous dance
in "Turkish" style. The concerto's common nickname is derived from
this section. Mozart creates the effect of percussion by asking the
cellos and basses to strike the strings with the wood of the bow. The concerto concludes with a return to the elegant rondo.
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Peter I.
Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 22
Written a century after the first work on this program, the Variations
on a Rococo Theme is one of several of Tchaikovsky's works that pay
homage to the music of his beloved Mozart. One of four pieces for
solo cello and orchestra (2 original and 2 arrangements), the variations
were commissioned by a colleague at the Moscow Conservatory. This
colleague, the German cello virtuoso Wilhelm Karl Friedrich Fitzhagen,
played the piece on concert tours to great acclaim. The composer
gave him license to make adjustments to the solo part, but the cellist
didn't stop there, and in the end made significant musical revisions as
well. The original version was finally published in Russia, but is
not well known in the west; therefore it is the Fitzhagen version that
we hear tonight. Regardless of which version is performed, the piece
sparkles with elegance and beauty, the solo cello soaring above the light
orchestral texture of double woodwinds, horns and strings.
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Ludwig van
Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op.
92
Allegretto
Presto
Allegro con brio
Poco sostenuto - Vivace
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Beethoven himself said on more than one occasion that his Symphony
No. 7 in A Major was one of his best. Completed in the spring
of 1812, it was first performed in conjunction with the premiere of Wellington's
Victory on December 8, 1813 at a Vienna concert to benefit Austrians
and Bavarians wounded in the battle against Napoleon at Hanau. The
concert, with the composer conducting and several famous musicians of the
day participating, was such a great success that it had to be repeated
four days later. Although Wellington's Victory was the hit
of the evening, the symphony was well received, and the second movement,
Allegretto (even today one of Beethoven's most popular works) was
encored on the spot. While this symphony is constructed in the "classical"
arrangement of four separate movements, with the slower movement placed
second, it stretches the genre in new directions. The slow introduction
is extensive -- almost a movement in itself. In the third movement
Beethoven outdoes the scherzo (with which he had replaced the minuet in
previous symphonies) with presto. The final movement engages players
and listeners alike in its tremendous energy. In disagreeing with
a critic who thought that Beethoven was drunk when composed the finale,
French writer and Beethoven's biographer, Romain Rolland, remarked, "It
was indeed the work of an intoxicated man, but one intoxicated with poetry
and genius."
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Program notes by Linda Mack. Copyright 1998.
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