Masterworks 6 Program Notes

FANNY MENDELSSOHN-HENSEL

Overture in C (ed. JoAnn Falletta) FANNY MENDELSSOHN-HENSEL:

BORN: November 14, 1805, in Hamburg, Germany DIED: May 14, 1847, in Berlin WORK COMPOSED: 1832 WORLD PREMIERE: 1834 in her home; publicly in Berlin on June 15, 1834, with the composer conducting the Königstadt Theatre Orchestra PERFORMANCE HISTORY: Tonight marks the first DSSO performance of any music by Fanny Mendelssohn. INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. DURATION: 11 minutes.

Fanny Hensel née Mendelssohn Bartholdy was one of the most prolific female composers of the 19th century, among the first women to compose a string quartet. She was a life-long proponent of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and her brother, Felix Mendelssohn.

She was a very talented pianist and her impressive memory amazed private audiences at her concert series in her Berlin home. Due to the social expectations related to her highclass status, she struggled her entire life with claiming authorship of her music and only one year before her death she decided to publish her music. Part of her hesitation was a result of her dutiful attitude towards her father, her intense relationship with her brother, and her awareness of the societal views of a women’s place in the public milieu. Her brother’s success overshadowed Fanny throughout her life, and only lately have her compositions (over 450 completed compositions and drafts) became known and appreciated.

Fanny was born into a family that was full of highly educated and musical women. She followed in that vein and received education in humanities and music, excelling in both. At the age of 13, Fanny performed 24 of Bach’s Preludes from the Well-Tempered Clavier from memory.

This was most likely for her father’s birthday and was enjoyed privately by the family, not violating her approved role in society. However, at her young age she most likely experienced difficulty in understanding why she could not follow her ambitions like her equally talented brother. In the summer of 1820, in a response to a letter from Fanny, her father wrote:

What you wrote to me about your musical occupations with reference to and in comparison with Felix was both rightly thought and expressed. Music will perhaps become his profession, whilst for you it can and must only be an ornament, never the root of your being and doing. We may therefore pardon him some ambition and desire to be acknowledged in a pursuit which appears very important to him, because he feels a vocation for it, whilst it does you credit that you have always shown yourself good and sensible in these matters; and your very joy at the praise he earns proves that you might, in his place, have merited equal approval. Remain true to these sentiments and to this line of conduct; they are feminine, and only what is truly feminine is an ornament to your sex.

It is indeed sad that, while acknowledging his daughter’s talents, her father extinguished Fanny’s professional hopes and dreams. The awareness of her abilities versus society’s restrictions resulted in Fanny’s eternal struggle.

On October 3, 1829, Fanny married artist Wilhelm Hensel (1794-1861), whom she had met in 1821 when she was sixteen and Hensel was twenty-seven. When he left in 1823 for a five-year trip to Italy, Fanny’s mother Lea forbade any correspondence between them, partly due to their age difference and also because she feared that he might return from Italy a Catholic. By the time of their marriage, Fanny had completed over half of what would be her surviving oeuvre. Because of all the reservations of the family and social conventions, a number of her works were published under Felix’s name in his Opus 8 and 9 collections. In 1830 the Hensel’s had their only child, Sebastian.

Fanny began her Overture in C in late March 1832 and completed it by late April or early May. It is her only known work for orchestra. After a premiere in her home in 1834 (possibly as a piano solo), she programmed it for a concert that same year on June 15 with the Königstadt Theatre Orchestra. The conductor, Julius Amadeus Lecerf, invited Fanny to the podium and insisted she conduct her composition. She wrote to Felix of the evening:

Mother has certainly told you about the Königstadt Orchestra on Saturday and how I stood up there with a baton in my hand. Had I not been so shy, and embarrassed with every stroke, I would’ve been able to conduct reasonably well. It was great fun to hear the piece for the first time in two years and find everything the way I remembered. People seemed to like it - they were very kind, praised me, criticized a few impractical passages, and will return next Saturday. Thus I took part in anunexpected pleasure. From my knowledge of Fanny I should say that she has neither inclination nor vocation for authorship. She is too much all that a woman ought to be for this. She regulates her house, and neither thinks of the public nor of the musical world, nor even of music at all, until her first duties are fulfilled. Publishing would only disturb her in these, and I cannot say that I approve of it.

The Overture in C never went beyond a few, if any, subsequent performances and was relegated to collect dust. Judith Rosen, a board member of the nowdefunct Women’s Philharmonic of San Francisco, obtained permission to make copies of the score from a library in Germany. Conductor JoAnn Falletta edited the music and in 1992 it was recorded for the first time. Fanny Hensel passed away on May 14, 1847, after experiencing a series of strokes. She felt the first loss of sensations when she was in the middle of a rehearsal of Felix’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht for her concerts she presented in her home. She tried to return to the rehearsal but suffered another stroke shortly thereafter and lost consciousness. She died as she had wished; with no lasting illness, happy in her home and surrounded by family, friends and music. She was buried the next day before her brother even knew of her passing. Upon receiving the news of her death, Felix screamed, fainted and hit his head on the floor. He passed away from a series of strokes about five months later on November 4, 1847. We can only imagine how her life would have been had she lived today.

Music historian Richard Taruskin wrote that “the life of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel is compelling proof that women’s failure to ‘compete’ with men on the compositional playing-field has been the result of social prejudice and patriarchal conventions (which in the nineteenth century granted only men the right to make the decisions in bourgeois households).” Although Felix was privately supportive of his sister, he was cautious for her to publish works under her own name. He wrote to their mother:

FRANCIS POULENC

Concerto for Two Pianos in D minor, FP 61 FRANCIS POULENC:

BORN: January 7, 1899, in Paris, France DIED: : January 30, 1963, in Paris WORK COMPOSED: 1932 WORLD PREMIERE: : September 5, 1932, at the International Society for Contemporary Music, in Venice, Italy; Poulenc and Jacques Février, pianos, with the La Scala Orchestra, Désiré Defauw conducting PERFORMANCE HISTORY: The Orchestra performs this concert for the fourth time this evening. It was also heard on: October 20, 1950 with duo-pianists Arthur Whittemore and Jack Lowe (on the opening concert of the seventeen-season tenure of Music Director Hermann Herz); October 23, 1970 with Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale (Joseph Hawthorne conducting); and on September 21, 1996, with twin sisters Julia and Irina Elkina (Yong-yan Hu conducting). Each occasion was the opening concert of the season. INSTRUMENTATION: Flute and piccolo, two oboes (one doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, tuba, percussion (shallow snare drum, snare drum, military drum, bass drum, tambourine, castanets, triangle, suspended cymbal) and strings and two pianos. DURATION: 20 minutes. Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos is often described as the climax of his early period. He wrote to Belgian musicologist Paul Collaer, “You will see for yourself what an enormous step forward it is from my previous work and that I am really entering my great period.”

The Concerto was commissioned by and dedicated to the American-born arts patron Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac (1865-1943), heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Her Paris salon was a gathering place for the musical avant-garde and a number of early-20th century works were dedicated to her, including Stravinsky’s Renard, Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, Kurt Weill’s Second Symphony, and Satie’s Socrate.

The 1931 Exposition Coloniale de Paris included an exhibit with a Balinese gamelan. The gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese peoples of Indonesia. Made up of predominantly percussive instruments, the most commonly used are metallophones (tuned metal bars) played by mallets, and a set of twoheaded hand drums called kendhang, which register the beat. The Concerto for Two Pianos is clearly inspired by Poulenc’s encounter with this ensemble. In January 1932, Ravel’s G major Piano Concerto premiered in Paris and its instrumentation and ‘jazziness’ also influenced Poulenc. The Larghetto is reminiscent of the Andante of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466. Poulenc admitted that he chose for the opening theme to go back to Mozart, “I have a veneration for the melodic line and because I prefer Mozart to all other composers.”

The Concerto is in three movements and forgoes the conventional orchestral introduction. From the very first notes the action begins in a furious moto perpetuo that features, at times, a ‘call and response’ between the orchestra and pianos. The first movement’s furious opening dissolves into a calm solo with light accompaniment from sections of the orchestra. A cymbal crash introduces the return to the frantic moments of the opening. Towards the end of the first movement we are treated to an ethereal atmosphere that confirms the influence of the gamelan. Poulenc introduces the second movement with a complete Mozartean style that shortly develops into some of his most sublime writing. I enjoy how Poulenc treats this simple melody; his modern touches do not detract a bit from its beauty. The Finale is a synergetic Rondo that has the sonorities of a gamelan ensemble. Poulenc, like Mozart, introduces new themes with nearly each section and the energetic rhythms and patter produce a vivacious effect.

The Concerto for Two Pianos demands more ensemble skills than technique from its soloists; the pianists play nearly continuously throughout the piece, predominantly in conversational interludes. Poulenc creates a charming work that has moments of heartfelt sensitivity interspersed with wild antics that whisk the listener away on a roller coaster ride.

However, the last notes confirm that this game of his is not to be taken seriously at all. After the premiere in Venice Poulenc wrote, “I must testify without any modesty at all that the first performance was flawless… It was a smashing success, for the work is gay and uncomplicated.”

ANTON BRUCKNER

Symphony No. 4 (1878/80 version) in E-flat major, “Romantic” ANTON BRUCKNER

BORN: September 4, 1824, in Ansfelden (then a village, now a suburb of Linz), Austria DIED: October 11, 1896, in Vienna WORK COMPOSED: 1874 and revised several times through 1888 WORLD PREMIERE: February 20, 1881, in Vienna, Vienna Philharmonic, Hans Richter conducting PERFORMANCE HISTORY: This is only the second DSSO performance of this work. Markand Thakar led the first performance on March 1, 2003. INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani and strings DURATION: 70 minutes

Josef Anton Bruckner was a composer, organist and music theorist who is best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The rich harmonic language, strong polyphonic character and considerable length of his symphonies are representative of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism. With his works, he helped to define contemporary musical radicalism with its dissonances and sudden modulations. Bruckner was a humble man who was very critical of his own works, so much so that there are several versions of many of his works. The conductor Hans von Bülow described him as “half genius, half simpleton.” He had many detractors, notably the influential critic Eduard Hanslick and other supporters of Johannes Brahms. However, he was also greatly admired by many later composers, including his friend Gustav Mahler.

Bruckner’s ancestral family of farmers and craftsmen can be traced back to the 16th century. His grandfather was schoolmaster in Ansfelden in 1776, succeeded by his son, Anton’s father, in 1823. The position of schoolmaster also included the responsibilities of organist and music director for the village church; he also supplemented his income by playing music at local taverns. Anton Bruckner, Sr. married Therese Helm and they had eleven children. Anton, Jr., the eldest, was born in 1824. Bruckner’s father was his first music teacher and he was taught to play the organ very early. He was so dedicated to the instrument that he would often practice twelve hours a day. Bruckner entered school at the age of six and was promoted to the upper class early due to his hard work as a student. While studying, he would help his father in teaching the other children. His father sent him to another school in 1833 where the schoolmaster, Johann Baptist Weiß, was a music enthusiast and respected organist. It was at this school in Hörsching where Bruckner refined his skills on the organ. Anton prematurely ended his studies when his father became ill in the autumn of 1836 and he had to return home to help in the school, church and tavern. His father died on June 7, 1837, when Anton was just thirteen years old. After Anton’s mother approached the Augustinian monastery in St. Florian, he was accepted as a choirboy and to the school. While at the monastery Bruckner studied violin with Franz Gruber (1787-1863), the composer of Stille Nacht (Silent Night).

By the autumn of 1840, when it was time for Bruckner to leave the monastery, his mentors decided that he should follow his father’s profession. After spending the academic year 1840-41 in Linz taking teacher training courses, he embarked on his new career as a school teacher. After a couple of appointments, Bruckner found himself back at St. Florian in September 1845 as assistant schoolteacher. He remained at the monastery for ten years until he was appointed a permanent position on January 25, 1856, as organist at the cathedral in Linz. Bruckner did not start seriously composing music until 1861, at age 37. Prior to that he was largely self-taught.

He began studies with Otto Kitzler, who introduced him to the music of Richard Wagner, which Bruckner studied extensively from 1863 onward. He considered his earliest orchestral works mere school exercises. He was a renowned organist, impressing audiences in France (1869) and England (1871), where he gave six recitals on the new organ at Royal Albert Hall in London and five more at the Crystal Palace. However, he did not enjoy fame or acceptance as a composer until he was over 60 and after the premiere of his Seventh Symphony in 1884.

Bruckner himself gave his Symphony No. 4 the descriptive subtitle, Romantic, the only one of his symphonies to have a title. Composed at the height of Teutonic Romanticism, it reflects sentimentalities found in works such as Wagner’s Lohengrin and Siegfried. His spotlighting the French horns, which are most associated with the hunt, evokes the atmosphere of the period. On an interesting side note: the Fourth Symphony was performed before the fall of Berlin in a concert on April 12, 1945. Albert Speer, German architect and a close ally of Hitler, chose the symphony as a signal that the Nazis were about to lose the war.

Bruckner’s letter to conductor Hermann Levi on December 8, 1884, gives a sense of what he had in mind for the Romantic Symphony: “In the first movement after a full night’s sleep the day is announced by the horn, 2nd movement song, 3rd movement hunting trio, musical entertainment of the hunters in the wood.” Another letter, from December 22, 1890, to Paul Heyse provides even more insights: “In the first movement of the Romantic Fourth Symphony the intention is to depict the horn that proclaims the day from the town hall! Then life goes on; in the Gesangsperiode [the second subject] the theme is the song of the great tit [a bird] Zizipe. 2nd movement: song, prayer, serenade. 3rd: hunt and in the Trio how a barrel-organ plays during the midday meal in the forest.” Others have attempted to give the Fourth Symphony a descriptive program, however the best scenario is left to the individual listener.

The first movement is similar to an extended form, but far removed from the tightness of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Indeed, it is rather unorthodox in its development of themes and harmonic structure. As a predecessor to composers such as Mahler and Sibelius, Bruckner is in no hurry to announce his opening theme, as if he needs to first completely create an appropriate atmosphere.Bruckner called the second movement a “rustic love-scene” in which “a peasant boy woos his sweetheart, but she scorns him” (echoing Bruckner’s personal life). There are glimpses of Schubert in the ‘walking rhythm’ that exists in so many of Schubert’s introspective songs and recalls a wistful nostalgic mood. The Scherzo is a replacement for the original third movement composed in 1874 for this symphony.

Bruckner did more revisions on the Fourth Symphony than any of his other symphonies. The result, for this movement, is much tighter and more dramatic. Bruckner calls the opening melody of the horns in the score a Jagdthema (Hunting Theme) and as it grows in volume, imagine a huge hunting party. In complete, relaxed contrast the Trio evokes a charming Ländler. Bruckner called his Scherzo The Hunting of the Hare and the Trio Dance Melody During the Huntsmen’s Meal.

One can imagine the composer at the organ during the opening of the Finale, which can only be completely enjoyed at full volume when one can thoroughly feel the music. Bruckner identified this movement as the Folk Festival, without any further elaboration. The second theme of the Finale is informed by the Ländler quality from the third movement’s Trio. Although there exists a sense of lightness, the predominant mood of the Finale is dark. Rising out of nothingness, the music builds into a powerful, exciting climax.

Bruckner has been characterized as a ‘simple’ provincial man. One biographer, Karl Grebe, said: “His life doesn’t tell anything about his work, and his work doesn’t tell anything about his life.” Bruckner was a lifelong bachelor who made numerous unsuccessful marriage proposals to teenage girls. His interest in teenage girls seems to have been motivated by his overwhelming fear of sin; unlike older women, he believed that he could be certain he was marrying a virgin. He continued in this pursuit past his 70th birthday. Bruckner also suffered from bouts of depression and his failed attempts at finding a wife only exacerbated his unhappiness.

After a rehearsal of the Fourth for the premiere, the conductor, Hans Richter, told of this event: “Bruckner came to me, his face beaming with enthusiasm and joy. I felt him press a coin into my hand. ‘Take this’ he said, ‘and drink a glass of beer to my health.’” Richter accepted the coin and wore it on his watch-chain ever after.

The premiere of the Fourth Symphony was the first premiere of his works that Bruckner did not conduct. It was also his first total success; after years of enduring insults and hisses, Bruckner finally heard real applause and he basked in it. He was called out for a bow after each movement.