LPO Summer Sessions programme: Session 4 Beethoven - 26 August 2020

Programme notes

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SESSION 4: BEETHOVEN 250 WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST 2020 - 7.30PM Beethoven Trio for piano, flute and bassoon in G major, WoO 37 Beethoven Septet in E flat, Op. 20 (excerpts) Beethoven Quintet for piano and wind instruments in E flat major, Op. 16 Tonight’s concert, the last of our four ‘Summer Sessions’ performances, is an all-Beethoven programme to celebrate the composer’s 250th anniversary. This concert features LPO players alongside four musicians from the Orchestra’s Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme. The Foyle Future Firsts (FFF) programme offers an annual opportunity for 17 aspiring orchestral musicians to develop their talent and core professional skills. As part of the scheme, the FFF members rehearse, study and perform with LPO members in addition to receiving individual advice and mentoring from their LPO Principal.

The 2019/20 Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme is generously funded by the Foyle Foundation with additional support from the Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust, The Fidelio Charitable Trust, the Idlewild Trust and the Thriplow Charitable Trust.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Trio for piano, flute and bassoon in G major, WoO 37

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Allegro Adagio Thema Andante con Variazioni

Piano Catherine Edwards Flute Juliette Bausor PRINCIPAL Bassoon Jonathan Davies PRINCIPAL / CHAIR SUPPORTED BY SIR SIMON ROBEY The autograph of the Trio in G major, WoO 37, for flute, bassoon and piano, has the title Trio concertant a clavicembalo, flauto, fagotto, composto da Ludovici van Beethoven organista di S.S.Electeur de cologne, which provides a date between 1786 and 1790, from Beethoven’s years in Bonn. It has been suggested that it may have been written for Count von Westerholt, who played the bassoon, his flautist son and pianist daughter.

Continued overleaf

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The first movement opens with a G major ascending arpeggio, suggesting the so-called ‘Mannheim rocket’ figuration familiar in the heyday of the famous Mannheim orchestra. In concertante style, the sonata-form movement continues with instrument rivalling instrument in rapid scale figuration.

The second movement is a G minor Adagio, the interplay of the instruments leading to a concluding D major chord and a short bridging passage that allows the piano a short cadenza before the final theme and variations. The piano introduces the theme, joined by the other instruments, leading to a first variation in which the piano is prominent. The second variation centres on the bassoon, with triplet figuration, followed by a version for the flute, tracked by the piano. The fourth variation, in G minor and 6/8, centres on the bassoon and piano in thirds, returning to G major for a fifth with the piano in demisemiquavers, and the figuration taken up by the flute in the sixth treatment of the material. The final variation is led principally by the flute, and the work concludes with a lively version of the theme.

Programme note by Keith Anderson, taken from Beethoven: Works for Flute, Vol. 2 (Naxos 8.573570) Reproduced by kind permission of Naxos Records: www.naxos.com

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Septet in E flat, Op. 20 (excerpts)

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Adagio – Allegro con brio Tempo di Menuetto and Trio Scherzo and Trio: Allegro molto e vivace

Clarinet Holly Isherwood* Horn Joel Roberts* Bassoon Patrick Bolton* Violin Pieter Schoeman LPO LEADER / CHAIR SUPPORTED BY NEIL WESTREICH Viola Richard Waters CO-PRINCIPAL Cello Tamaki Sugimoto* Double Bass Sebastian Pennar CO-PRINCIPAL * LPO FOYLE FUTURE FIRST 2019/20

Beethoven’s Septet is the culmination of a series of works from the early part of his career for or including wind instruments. It was written in 1799, and given its first public performance in April 1800 in a concert in Vienna which also included the first performance of the First Symphony. It quickly became a favourite with the Viennese public, and remained so for many years, at the expense of Beethoven’s later works – something that caused him considerable annoyance. The piece is scored for clarinet, horn and bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass: almost an orchestra in miniature, with the upper, middle and lower registers represented in both the wind and string sections, and the double bass as a firm foundation. The combination, for which Beethoven had no exact model, allows for great variety of colour, both in different groupings of instruments and in the highlighting of various soloists – most frequently the violin.

Following the precedent of Mozart’s more extended orchestral serenades and chamber divertimenti, the Septet is in no fewer than six movements. Its ambitious scale is established at once by the imposing slow introduction which precedes the Allegro con brio. The Allegro itself features some touches reminiscent of Beethoven’s teacher Haydn: for example, a little idea derived from the upbeat of the first theme makes an almost casual first appearance just before the end of the opening exposition section, but then comes into its own in the development; and a downward scale figure derived in turn from that idea emerges as late as the coda. The third-movement Minuet has a theme borrowed from an early Piano Sonata which Beethoven later published as Op. 49 No. 2; the Trio highlights athletic horn and clarinet arpeggios.

The fifth movement, which in a Mozart divertimento would have been a second minuet, is here an up-to-date Scherzo, with one beat rather than three to the bar; the contrasting Trio consists of a soaring cello melody.

Programme note © Anthony Burton

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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Quintet for piano and wind instruments in E flat major, Op. 16

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Grave – Allegro ma non troppo Andante cantabile Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

Piano Catherine Edwards Oboe Ian Hardwick PRINCIPAL Clarinet Benjamin Mellefont PRINCIPAL / CHAIR SUPPORTED BY FRIENDS OF THE ORCHESTRA Horn John Ryan PRINCIPAL Bassoon Jonathan Davies PRINCIPAL / CHAIR SUPPORTED BY SIR SIMON ROBEY Beethoven composed this Quintet in 1796, and took the piano part in the first performance in Vienna in April 1797. The work is scored for the combination that Mozart had devised for his Quintet, K452, in the same key: piano with oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. Beethoven even seems to have modelled his Quintet on Mozart’s, by giving it the same formal outline, with a slow introduction to the first movement and a central slow movement in B flat major, and by writing for the wind instruments mostly in short phrases, the length of an easy breath, which are passed around the ensemble. But Beethoven’s Quintet does have a distinctive character of its own: among the wind instruments, it is the clarinet, rather than the oboe as in the Mozart, that most often takes the melodic lead; the piano part is more flamboyant and concerto-like than Mozart’s, very much a vehicle for the composer’s own piano playing; and this contributes to an expansion of Mozart’s tonal and expressive range, anticipating Beethoven’s later achievements in chamber and orchestral music.

The introduction to the first movement is in sharply dotted rhythms, harking back to the tradition of the Baroque overture. The main triple-time Allegro presents an easy-going sequence of melodies, but springs into life with a dramatic fortissimo eruption at the start of the development section. This development includes a Haydnesque false reprise, in A flat major; but to dispel any lingering doubt about where we have got to, Beethoven provides a long and elaborate build-up to the real recapitulation. The slow movement is in rondo form, with two subsidiary episodes led off by longer-than-usual wind melodies, the first for oboe and then bassoon, the second for horn. The principal theme is encrusted with increasingly rich decoration at successive reappearances. The Rondo finale, in ‘hunting’ 6/8 metre, is the most concerto-like of the three movements, with some virtuoso piano writing, especially at the lead-backs to the main rondo theme. (At one performance of the piece, Beethoven is said to have turned one of these into an extended flight of improvisation, to the increasing irritation of the waiting wind players.) The plan is that of many of Beethoven’s concerto finales: the main theme appears four times, the last time broken up to create a coda; the second, central episode is a development section; the first episode is recapitulated as the third. The third statement of the rondo theme is a good example of Beethoven’s rough, even crude, humour: spot the deliberate mistake!

Programme note © Anthony Burton

CHAIR SUPPORTERS The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present: David & Yi Buckley The Candide Trust The Chiltern Friends of the LPO Gill & Garf Collins Andrew Davenport William & Alex de Winton Donors to the 2019 Gala Player Appeal Sonja Drexler

Irina Gofman and Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave Roger Greenwood Dr Barry Grimaldi Countess Dominique Loredan Victoria Robey OBE Bianca & Stuart Roden Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett

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