Program Notes

FANNY MENDELSSOHN HENSEL

born: November 14, 1805 in Hamburg, Germany - died: May 14, 1847 in Berlin, Germany

Overture in C Major (1830)

Fanny Mendelssohn was, like her brother Felix, a remarkably gifted composer, pianist, and conductor. But her fate as a musician, dictated by the times in which she lived, is reflected in this advice from her father, Abraham, given on Fanny’s twenty-third birthday: “become more steady and collected, and prepare more earnestly and eagerly for your real calling, the only calling of a young woman — I mean the state of a housewife.” The following year, Fanny married artist Wilhelm Hensel.

Despite barriers, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel composed many outstanding works. Among them is the Overture in C, composed in 1830, and performed as part of the private concerts the Mendelssohn family held in their Berlin home. It does not appear that the Overture received a public performance during the composer’s lifetime. For decades, the score resided in Berlin’s Mendelssohn Archive. Judith Rosen, a board member of San Francisco’s Women’s Philharmonic, visited the archive. There, she secured permission for release of the score for performance and recording. In May of 1992, the Women’s Philharmonic, conducted by Music Director JoAnn Falletta, gave the public premiere of the Mendelssohn C Major Overture. Those same artists recorded the work for Koch International Classics.

The Overture begins with an extended and graceful slow-tempo introduction (Andante). A scurrying string figure (Allegro di molto) and orchestral fanfares (L’istesso Tempo) herald the principal quick tempo section, featuring two principal themes. The first is a vibrant sequence, introduced by strings (Con fuoco). The violins also sing the flowing second principal melody. The first theme predominates the development section, and is also proclaimed fortissimo by the ensemble for the start of the recapitulation. The second theme returns as well, as the Overture in C propels to a rousing close.

Fanny Mendelssohn, sketched in 1829 by her husband, artist Wilhelm Hensel.

Self-portrait of Fanny’s husband Wilhelm Hensel (1794–1861).

The Music Room of Fanny Hensel, watercolor drawing by Julius Eduard Wilhelm Helfft (1818 - 1894)

MAX BRUCH

born: January 6, 1838 in Cologne, Germany

died: October 2, 1920 in Friedenau, Germany

Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor

Opus 26 (1866)

premiere: April 24, 1866 in Koblenz, Germany

Max Bruch began composition of his First Violin Concerto at the age of nineteen, finally completing the work nine years later. The first performance took place on April 24, 1866, at a concert of the Music Institute of Koblenz on the Rhine. Bruch, then Music Director of Koblenz, conducted the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne. The Orchestra’s concertmaster, Otto von Königslöw, served as soloist.

Shortly after the premiere, Bruch decided to revise the Concerto. He forwarded the score to the eminent Austro-Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim. Due to the improvisational spirit of the Concerto’s opening movement, Bruch had contemplated renaming the work a “Fantasy.” Joachim disagreed, commenting: “For a fantasy, the last two movements are too completely and symmetrically developed. The different sections are brought together in a beautiful relationship, yet and this is the principal thing— there is sufficient contrast.”

Bruch followed Joseph Joachim’s counsel. After penning extensive revisions, the composer dedicated the final version of his First Violin Concerto to Joachim, who gave its premiere in Bremen in 1868, with Bruch conducting. In 1906, at his 75th birthday party, Joachim stated: “The Germans have four violin concertos,” and named those by Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Bruch, and Johannes Brahms. While Joachim praised each of these magnificent works, he commented: “Max Bruch wrote the richest and most enchanting of the four.”

The Concerto is in three movements. The first (Vorspiel. Allegro moderato), which Bruch calls a “Prelude,” begins in dramatic fashion, with a dialogue between orchestra and soloist. The soloist introduces both of the principal melodies, highly contrasting in character. A reprise of the opening orchestra-soloist dialogue leads to a brief passage, serving as a bridge to the slow-tempo movement, which follows without pause. That second movement (Adagio) is based upon a pair of lovely melodies, again both introduced by the soloist. The Finale (Allegro energico) presents an almost continuous series of technical challenges for the soloist, who concludes the Concerto with a fiery, Presto sequence.

Sculpture of Bruch on the tower of the Cologne City Hall, restored after the Allied bombing of the city during World War II.

CÉSAR FRANCK

born: December 10, 1822 in Liège, Belgium died: November 8, 1890 in Paris, France

Symphony in D minor (1888)

premiere: February 17, 1889 in Paris

The Franck D minor, one of the most performed and beloved 19th-century French symphonies, had a decidedly inauspicious beginning. Franck was highly revered as a virtuoso organist, and professor at the Paris Conservatoire. His compositions, however, did not always inspire the same level of adulation. Franck’s disciple and champion, composer Vincent d’Indy, gave this unforgettable eyewitness account of the premiere of the D-minor Symphony:

The Symphony was given for the first time on February 17, 1889, by the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. The performance was quite against the wish of most performers of the famous orchestra, and was only pushed through thanks to the benevolent obstinacy of the conductor, Jules Garcin. The subscribers could make neither head nor tail of it, and the musical authorities were in much the same position. I inquired of one of them—a professor at the Conservatoire, and a kind of factotum on the Committee—what he thought of the work. “ That, a symphony?” he replied in contemptuous tones. “But, my dear sir, who ever heard of writing for the cor anglais in a symphony? Just mention a single symphony by Haydn or Beethoven introducing the cor anglais? (Annotator’s note: Haydn had in fact composed a Symphony that included not one, but two English horns, the 1764 “Philosopher,” No. 22 in E-flat major.) There, well, you see—your Franck’s music may be whatever you please, but it will certainly never be a symphony!” This was the attitude of the Conservatoire in the year of grace 1889.

At another door of the concert-hall, the composer of Faust , escorted by a train of adulators, male and female, fulminated a kind of papal decree to the effect that this symphony was the affirmation of incompetence pushed to dogmatic lengths. (Charles) Gounod must be expiating these words in some musical purgatory; for, coming from an artist such as he was, they can never have been sincere nor disinterested.

For sincerity and disinterestedness we must turn to the composer himself, when, on his return from the concert, his whole family surrounded him, asking eagerly for news. “Well, were you satisfied with the effect on the public? Was there plenty of applause?” To which “Father” Franck, thinking only of his work, replied with a beaming countenance: “Oh, it sounded well, just as I thought it would! ”

Over time, the strengths of the Franck D minor Symphony have revealed themselves to performers and audiences alike. The Franck D minor charts a dramatic symphonic journey that, as d’Indy observed: “is a continual ascent towards pure gladness and life-giving light, because its workmanship is solid, and its themes are manifestations of ideal beauty.”

The Franck D minor Symphony is in three movements. The first opens with a slow-tempo introduction (Lento) and the central three-note motif, reminiscent of both the “Muß es sein?” (“Must it be?”) theme in the final movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet, Opus 135, and the opening of Franz Liszt’s symphonic poem, Les préludes. That introduction leads to the orchestra’s tempestuous outburst (Allegro ma non troppo), also based upon the three-note motif. The second movement (Allegretto) serves the dual function of the Symphony’s slowtempo movement and lively scherzo. Over harp and pizzicato strings, the English horn sings a plaintive cantabile melody. A scurrying passage for muted strings inaugurates an episode that recalls the quicksilver charm of Felix Mendelssohn’s incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The triumphant finale (Allegro non troppo) reprises melodies from the Symphony’s earlier movements.