Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony

MASTERWORKS

BEETHOVEN’S “EROICA” SYMPHONY NOVEMBER 21, 2024 / 7:30 PM / THE NOORDA AT UVU NOVEMBER 22 & 23, 2024 / 7:30 PM / MAURICE ABRAVANEL HALL MARKUS POSCHNER, conductor BENJAMIN GROSVENOR, piano

BRITTEN

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 13 (33’) I. Toccata: Allegro molto e con brio II. Waltz: Allegretto III. Impromptu: Andante lento IV. March: Allegro moderato, sempre alla marcia BENJAMIN GROSVENOR, piano INTERMISSION

BEETHOVEN

CONCERT SPONSOR

Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica” (47’) I. II. III. IV.

Allegro con brio Marcia funebre: Adagio assai Scherzo: Allegro vivace Finale: Allegro molto

GUEST ARTIST SPONSOR AT THE NOORDA

HARRIS AND AMANDA SIMMONS

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ARTISTS’ PROFILES — BEETHOVEN’S “EROICA” SYMPHONY

Markus Poschner Conductor

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ince taking over as principal conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz in 2017, Markus Poschner and the top Austrian ensemble have been delighting audiences and the international press alike. His vision is to find new Bruckner interpretations. 2020 Bruckner Orchestra Linz was named “Orchestra of the Year” and himself “Conductor of the Year” in Austria.

Since winning the German Conductors Award, Markus Poschner has made guest appearances at many internationally renowned orchestras and opera houses, including Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberger Symphoniker, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, The Konzerthausorchester Berlin, RSB Berlin, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, The Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, NHK Tokio, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra as well as being present at Opera houses in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Zurich.

CONDUCTOR SPONSOR

JOANNE SHIEBLER GUEST ARTIST FUND

Benjamin Grosvenor Piano

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ritish pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is internationally recognized for his sonorous lyricism and understated brilliance at the keyboard.

His virtuosic interpretations are underpinned by a unique balance of technical mastery and intense musicality. Grosvenor is regarded as one of the most important pianists to emerge in several decades, with Gramophone recently acknowledging him as one of the top 50 pianists ever on record.

Concerto highlights of the 2024–2025 season include debuts with Bamberg and NHK Symphony Orchestras alongside a UK tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Karina Canellakis and returns to Montreal, Utah, Seattle, Bern, Dallas, BBC, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Grosvenor is also a featured artist at the Theatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, appearing for both concerto and solo recital performances during the same week in February 2025.

GUEST ARTIST SPONSOR

LAWRENCE T. AND JANET T. DEE FOUNDATION

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HISTORY OF THE MUSIC

Piano Concerto, Op. 13 Duration: 33 minutes in four movements.

THE COMPOSER – BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-1976) – Britten lost someone and gained someone in 1937. His mother passed away that year, a hard moment for him, but he also met the person who would become the most important in his life. This was the tenor Peter Pears, and their intense connection would grow quickly from professional to personal. Both men were pacifists. So, when it became difficult in 1939 to speak out against war in Britain, they left for North America. Not much of the concert music Britten wrote during the years just before his self-imposed exile has had any lasting popularity, or even the momentary kind. The one exception to this disappointing rule is the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge for string orchestra.

THE HISTORY – Work as a movie scorer and radio show composer with the GPO Film Unit (strangely, a division of the UK Postal Service) kept Britten busy from 1935 to 1937.

He wrote some 40 works for the group and was introduced there to W. H. Auden, who became a trusted friend and collaborator. In early 1938, perhaps finally ready to move on from all the film music, Britten began work on a Piano Concerto that he himself would premiere at the Proms that summer. It was his first major piece for the piano and, though he was only 24 at the time, there wouldn’t be many others. Pianist Steven Osborne, in an excellent video essay on the Britten Pears Arts website, posits that Britten was an outstanding pianist in his own right, but not a showman, and that maybe he shied away from soloistic piano writing throughout his life because of his introverted nature. It is also possible that Britten never wrote another concerto for his instrument because the first one didn’t stick. The original version (which he did hopefully call “No. 1”) had four movements. Osborne describes them as “character pieces”, completely without pretentions of grandness. In order, they are Toccata, Waltz, Recitative and Aria, March.

Britten reworked a good amount of the score in 1945 and changed out the third movement entirely in favor of an Impromptu, but the iteration he performed at Queen’s Hall in 1938 was very much a pre-war, as opposed to post-, experience for the audience. The invasion of Poland was still a year away at that time, but Hitler’s annexation of Austria was current news. With the Waltz and the March in particular, Britten’s music seemed to acknowledge the wistful lost innocence and creeping dread of the moment.

It is a pity the Concerto has not been a staple of virtuosic pianists since its premiere. It has everything they might need—technical bravura, fascinating historical subtext and emotional complexity to spare.

THE WORLD – Elsewhere in 1938, Turkish President Kemal Ataturk died, as did American Civil Rights Lawyer Clarence Darrow, Ireland elected Douglas Hyde as its first president and nuclear fission was discovered in Germany by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann.

THE CONNECTION – Britten’s rare Piano Concerto has not been heard on a Utah Symphony concert since 1948.

Jacques Abram was soloist and Maurice Abraanel conducted.

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 “Eroica” Duration: 47 minutes in four movements.

THE COMPOSER – LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (17701827) – The Heiligenstadt Testament, Beethoven’s great literary cry of despair, was penned in 1802. Though remembered today like a papal bull, it was simply a letter to his brothers Karl and Johann, in which he explained his recent retreat from the world because of his worsening deafness. “Ah,” he wrote, “how can I admit to an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than in others”. It is a heartbreaking statement grief, the Testament, but Beethoven was little more than a year removed from writing it when he began his world-changing 3rd Symphony. Such a work seems at odds with the agony he felt but Beethoven was a man capable of the firmest resolve when necessary. And he knew a “new path” needed finding.

THE HISTORY – The 3rd Symphony of Beethoven could have stood as a pivotal moment in the history of the symphony genre based solely on its musical merits.

It represents, after all, the beginning of the innovative “Middle” period of his compositional canon. But it was also blessed from the start with a legendary dedication story, a story so impossible not to mention, it has become impervious to scrutiny. We know without doubt that Beethoven originally entitled the symphony “Bonaparte” after Napoleon, who was then merely the impressive First Consul of France. When Napoleon declared himself Emperor in 1804, Beethoven apparently flew into a rage at the impertinence of such a tyrannical act and un-dedicated his new symphony by ripping the score’s title sheet in half and tossing it down in disgust. Another version of the tale only has him scratching out Napoleon’s name with a knife or perhaps an eraser. This latter option at least is

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HISTORY OF THE MUSIC borne out by some physical proof (search for the image on the web and you’ll see it), but the page-tearing scenario persists thanks to certain trusted biographies. He might well have done both! The one sure truth is that, by the time of its publication in 1806, Beethoven had no more love for Napolean. The symphony that briefly shared his name became known as “Eroica” and was dedicated to Beethoven’s patron Prince Lobkowitz. Symphony No. 3 represented a shocking upheaval in the world of music. It was longer, more forcefully complex and less emotionally comfortable than anything the 1805 Vienna audience (or any audience anywhere for that matter) would have heard before. Harsh complaints and upturned noses were plenty, but the air of artistic uprising must have been intoxicating for even the most traditional listeners. Beethoven found his

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“new path” in “Eroica”, and he was never again simply a composer. From then on, he was a creator of monuments.

THE WORLD – Elsewhere in 1804, Haiti became the first black republic to declare independence, Lewis and Clark began their expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase and Spain declared war on England (again).

THE CONNECTION – “Eroica” is performed quite often by the Utah Symphony on the Masterworks Series. The most recent concerts occurred in December 2020 under the direction of Thierry Fischer.