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Mendelssohn Octet

While we commonly think of the Octet as the pinnacle of the chamber music repertoire, Mendelssohn (who composed it at the ripe old age of 16) did not view it as a chamber composition. In fact, he viewed it as a condensed symphony. This is reflected in both the structure of the piece and the inscription that Mendelssohn placed at the beginning of the manuscript: The Octet must be played in the style of a symphony in all parts; the pianos and fortes must be precisely differentiated and be more sharply accentuated than is ordinarily done in pieces of this type. These words clearly place the Octet within a symphonic framework, which is helpful when thinking about how to listen to it.

For instance, the structure of the Octet unfolds like a symphony. You will hear a brilliant first movement allegro leading to a lush andante. The third movement, a scherzo, frolics through chamber-music-like textures before the presto finale explodes into a fully symphonic finale. You’ll also hear Mendelssohn utilizing the full range of expressive qualities available to this combination of instruments, much like a symphony might do. You can also sense Mendelssohn’s movement away from the Classical traditions of his predecessors (Mozart, Haydn, etc.) an into the Romantic style of his contemporaries. This can be heard in the dreamy, enchanted quality in the second movement and the frenetic restlessness of the third movement (of which he wrote that it “is to be played staccato and pianissimo… the trills passing away with the quickness of lightning”).

Enjoy!

T

P.S. Check out the new Archives feature at the bottom of every page! It lists all of the past posts in a condensed and chronological order.

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Brahms Symphony #3

Hello all,

In our first two installments of the symphonies of Johannes Brahms, we learned about the difficulty he had escaping the shadow of the great Beethoven. We saw how he agonized over his first symphony for more than a decade largely because of his fear of not measuring up to Beethoven’s standard. We then saw how his second symphony was the beginning of his liberation from this shadow. His third symphony, however, convinced even his most vocal critics that he was on par with Beethoven. One of them even wrote that this third Symphony was “Brahms’ Eroica.” (The Eroica Symphony is one of Beethoven’s most monumental compositions). Another hailed it as being “as close to musical perfection” as he had ever heard.

Here are a few things to listen for:

  • You may recall that the second symphony began with a very simple three-note motif: D, C sharp, D. As it turns out, Brahms utilized three-note motifs many times throughout his composing career. For instance, he wrote an entire sonata for the great violinist Joseph Joachim based on the notes F, A, and E (we actually still refer to the sonata as the “F-A-E Sonata”), which he took from Joachim’s life motto: “Free, but lonely” (in German, Frei Aber Einsam). Before writing the third symphony, Brahms declared himself “Free, but happy” (Frei Aber Froh) and subsequently based the entire symphony off of a three-note motif that consists of the notes F, A, and F.
  • Most compositions involving orchestras end in dramatic fashion, with trumpets blasting and timpani clamoring. This symphony is wonderful because it ends the symphony in pianissimo.
  • Brahms must truly have been high on life when he wrote the symphony, for he throws the listener an abundance of musical “curveballs.” For instance, there is no slow movement in the symphony; all of the movements are at roughly the same tempo. In all my years of ensemble performance, I can’t think of another symphony in which that is true.
  • The third movement is the most famous and well-loved part of the symphony. If you listen to anything, listen to that. It starts at minute 22.

Enjoy!

T

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Brahms Symphony #2

Hello all,

We are returning this week to our series on the symphonies of Johannes Brahms. This week we will hear his second symphony, performed by Kurt Masur and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

Brahms composed this symphony in less than a year, which is astonishing given that the first symphony took fifteen years to complete. It seems that Brahms gained confidence after publishing his first symphony, perhaps because it finally freed him from the shadow of Beethoven.

The symphony begins very simply. The cellos carry the first three notes (D, C sharp, D), and the French horns lay a melody over this foundation. Throughout the course of the symphony, Brahms expands on these three notes in a variety of ways. Listen for the many ways he uses this miniature motif (hint: it gets recycled quite often in the winds and brass). The cellos also open the second movement, but this time the theme is darker and more complex. The third movement, much like many of his violin and cello sonatas, departs completely from the somber tones of the earlier movements and juxtaposes a solo oboe line with cheerful pizzicato in the strings. The fourth movement combines the dark atmosphere of the second movement with the energy of the third.

Enjoy!

T

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Brahms Symphony #1


 

Hello all, 

We are continuing our series on the symphonic works of Johannes Brahms this week with his first symphony.

Brahms was a perfectionist. He would regularly destroy his compositions and left hundreds of them unpublished because he was not satisfied with them. The first symphony is no exception – it appears that he drafted it no less than ten different times over the course of eight years. Since it was his first symphony, Brahms felt an incredible amount of pressure to live up to the legacies of Haydn and Beethoven, the two composers to which he was most often compared.

It would be difficult to find a more dramatic and emotional theme then the opening of the first movement of the symphony. It is perpetually building, a gradual but never-ending ascent. The timpani and brass provide a sense of overwhelming power unmatched in any of his other symphonies. Listen for the way that Brahms contrasts this awe-inspiring explosion with the delicacy of the woodwinds when they show us the initial melody for the first time at around 2:05. You may also notice the significant tonal change to B major around the 9:57 mark. This is Brahms’ way of throwing the listener a curveball, but he mercifully incorporates elements of the main theme into the transition so that we don’t get too confused 🙂

Enjoy!

T  

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Brahms Requiem

Hello all,

Our music for this week is the second movement of the German Requiem by Brahms. This week also marks the beginning of a new series on the music of Johannes Brahms. In particular, I want to focus on his larger works, such as the Requiem and his four symphonies.

The Requiem is based on the following set of verses:

Blessed are they that mourn

Behold, all flesh is as the grass

Lord, let me know mine end

How lovely are thy dwellings

Ye now have sorrow

For we have here no abiding city

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.

The verses above, which Brahms chose himself from both the Old and New Testaments, is clearly focused on themes of death and mourning. However, there is a consistent message of hope throughout the Requiem, and there is a widespread consensus that Brahms intended this piece to be a comfort for the living rather than a memorial for the dead.

It is likely that he wrote this piece in memory of both his mother and his dear friend Robert Schumann, both of whom died shortly before the composition of this piece. In fact, Brahms wrote the following words about the Requiem after its first performance:

“If you were to consider the situation and how it relates particularly to me, you would know how much and how profoundly a piece like the Requiem is altogether Schumann’s and how, in the secret recesses of my mind, it therefore had to seem quite self-evident to me that it would indeed be sung to him.”

The second movement, written in the especially dark key of B-flat minor, is the funeral march portion of the Requiem. While the later movements of the Requiem (which you are more than welcome to listen to at your leisure) depict the acceptance stage, this movement is fully saturated in the despair of loss. The tenor and bass parts are the foundation of the funeral march, and they repeatedly sing the words “Behold, all flesh is as the grass.” There is a persistence emphasis throughout this movement on the inevitability of our fate.

However, Brahms provides the listener with a brief respite during the middle of the movement, when he transitions to a lighter and more uplifting episode focused on the words “But yet the Lord’s word standeth forever.” These words and the brightness of this section are an excellent example of Brahms’ desire to, as noted above, comfort the living rather than mourn the dead.

The ending of this movement is particularly interesting. You will notice that it does not end in the somber darkness in which it begins. In many ways, this ending is the beginning of the transition from grief to acceptance. It is interesting to note that, despite the persistent focus on fate and grieving in the previous verses, the last words of this movement are simply “Eternal Joy.”

Enjoy!

T

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Tchaikovsky in a Circle

Hello all,

Our music for this week is the Finale of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony.

This symphony is somewhat of an odd-ball. It is the only one of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies that was composed in a major key and the only one that contains five movements rather than four. The Finale that you will hear is particularly unique because it is composed in a “polonaise” form that earned the symphony the nickname “Polish.” This nickname was controversial at the time, however, because it carried a cultural connotation of Russian dominance over Poland. It is very possible that Tchaikovsky did this on purpose, since he knew that in order for his music to be popular, his music would need to appeal to the political and cultural tastes of the aristocracy that funded his musical endeavors.

The polonaise is a type of Polish dance that resembles a march or a processional. Perhaps in an effort to challenge himself, Tchaikovsky cleverly mixes this dance form with a fugue format. In other words, the dance is layered onto itself many times through different instrumentations. You will hear the opening theme of the movement repeated several times throughout; each time it is handled by different instrument and is played in a different key. As the piece progresses, Tchaikovsky creates even more complexity by having different instruments play this melody in a staggered progression, which gives listeners the impression that they are listening to a round.

Enjoy!

T

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Beethoven’s 9th

Our music for this week is the famous Ninth Symphony by Beethoven.

We’ve all heard this piece before. It is on the Mount Rushmore of classical music. It is as familiar as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons or Bach’s Ave Maria. I would even venture to guess that we all have similar images in our head when we hear its themes. We see the dark portrait of an angry-looking Beethoven glaring at the viewer; we picture a massive choir filling a cathedral with the sounds of “Ode to Joy”; or perhaps we picture Leonard Bernstein conducting it in Berlin as the Berlin Wall came crashing down. Although we’ve heard it time and again, I think there are a few nuances worth mentioning that could make our understanding of it more complete.

As you can imagine, the Ninth Symphony was Beethoven’s greatest struggle. Faced with near-complete deafness and a receding circle of friends, he was wracked by despair and loneliness throughout many of the months he spent composing this piece. The sheer size of the symphony is mind-blowing, but what is perhaps even more impressive is the fact that it is based entirely on a simple German folk tune. “Ode to Joy” was nothing more than a popular countryside poem before Beethoven catapulted it into posterity.

Listening to the entire symphony in one sitting is highly recommended. It is a complete journey in and of itself. Although we can see these types of journeys in Beethoven’s earlier symphonies, none are as developed as the Ninth Symphony. Beethoven takes us with him on his journey from darkness to light, and we begin to see his gradual acceptance of his deafness as well as his constant struggle to remain relevant. None of Beethoven’s compositions have such a strong sense of fate and destiny, and given that this was Beethoven’s final symphony, we can easily conclude that he knew his life was nearing its end. These new and powerful themes, however, cannot displace the elements of Beethoven that are so characteristic of his works. For instance, the second movement showcases his typical explosion of furious energy, but the third movement reminds us of his uncanny ability to reduce a simple theme to an even more simple prayer. Over all of this complexity reigns the unmistakable and incredible “Ode to Joy,” unmatched in both its glorious power and its youthful serenity.

Enjoy!

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Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 2

Hello all,

Our music for this week is the Symphony No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The Mariinsky Orchestra performs this symphony under the guidance of renowned conductor Valery Gergiev. The performance took place in Russia in 1992.

 

 

After his first symphony was met with a wave of public disapproval in 1896, Rachmaninoff decided that he would never write another symphony and focus solely on piano music. Over the course of the next few years, he composed some of his most popular and beloved works, such as the second piano concerto. However, by 1906, Rachmaninoff found himself again trying to ignore the impulse to write for a full orchestra. For two straight years, he labored day and night over his second symphony, plunging in and out of depression on a regular basis and (reportedly) even hiring a personal hypnotist to help him remain stable. At its first performance, Rachmaninoff was overcome with relief to hear the audience’s widespread approval and embarked on a spree of symphonic writing that eventually garnered him the coveted Glinka Prize for the Arts. Unfortunately, Rachmaninoff was so afraid of this symphony’s possible failure that he never published a set of program notes with it, so we have no knowledge of his thoughts while composing this symphony.

There are four movements, and I thought it might be helpful to offer you something to listen for in each of them.

(1) The first movement is a dense, dark, mysterious Largo. You can listen for two themes – a magical, ethereal melody at the very opening and an agitated, stormy melody soon afterwards.

(2) The second movement, a Scherzo, is an exercise in contradictions. The form and melodic material for the movement are upbeat and active, but the thematic material ironically comes from the traditional Roman Catholic mass for the dead, Dies Irae. (This theme, by the way, must have had some sort of extraordinary significance for Rachmaninoff, for scholars have identified elements of it in every single one of his compositions).

(3) The third movement is an Adagio, and here you should listen for the very opening theme, a slowly descending and marvelously delicate melody in the violins and cellos. If you listen carefully, you will hear the strings pass this melody off to the clarinet. The clarinet then passes it to the oboe, who, by the end of the piece, then passes it back to the strings.

(4) The fourth movement, an Allegro, is where Rachmaninoff finally seems to come out of his melancholy mood. I would encourage you to listen particularly well at the end, which is where Rachmaninoff brings back the themes that he laid out at the beginning of the first movement. However, he incorporates them into the jubilant atmosphere of the fourth movement and masterfully weaves them into a furious coda (or finale).

Enjoy!

 

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Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade

Hello all,

Our music for this week is the famous Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

 

This composition is based on a story about a storyteller. Scheherazade is the name of a young bride of a murderous Sultan who threatens to have her executed. In order to escape death, she captivates the Sultan by telling him fascinating stories. He is so amazed by the stories that he is unable to kill her for fear of never hearing the end of the story. After 1,001 nights of story-telling, the Sultan finally has a change of heart and decides to let her live.

The opening of the piece represents the burly, gruff Sultan. However, the solo violin line (played by the concertmaster) enters soon afterward, representing Scheherazade’s weaving, winding stories. It is introduced by the hypnotic striking of three chords by the harp, signaling the entry into a new world of fantasy and story-telling. The first story is hard to miss – The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship. You will hear the rolling waves and pounding surf right away. The second movement is called the “Tale of the Kalendar Prince,” and the woodwinds create a very exotic atmosphere of foreign mystique. The third movement is the best of all, for it is a love story – “The Young Prince and Young Princess.” This movement is simple yet lyrical, innocent yet emotional. The love story is abruptly ended by a crashing cymbal strike, which leads to the final movement, “The Festival at Baghdad,” in which the Sultan urges Scheherazade to finish the story and eventually decides to spare her life.

Enjoy!

 

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Triple Concerto

Hello all,

Our music for this week is the Triple Concerto by Beethoven.

You will notice that the recording is from 1970. I am sure that there are many other excellent recordings out there, but this one is head-and-shoulders above the rest because of the musicians involved. David Oistrakh (violin), Mitslav Rostropovich (cello), and Satislav Richter (piano) are three of the best musicians to ever live, and the ability to hear them in their prime is much better than a more recent recording with lesser musicians. This performance was in the Great Tchaikovsky Hall at the Moscow Conservatory, where all three of them studied.

This concerto is rarely played or heard. Part of the reason for that might be relatively unimpressive piano part. Beethoven intentionally made the piano part much simpler because he was writing it for his patron the Archduke Rudolf, who was not a particularly excellent pianist. Beethoven clearly wanted to avoid the embarrassing possibility of writing something that his patron could not play. The violin and cello parts, however, are quite challenging.

Another reason that this concerto is not often played is the clearly inferior thematic material it contains, particularly when compared to his famous 9th Symphony or his magnificent violin concerto. The themes are hard to decipher, and when they can be identified, they tend to wander. The first movement is often criticized because the listener tends to leave the movement wondering what exactly the main melody of the movement was.

However, despite these weaknesses, the Triple Concerto has several things to offer us. First of all, the instrumentation is unique – it is a solo concerto, but the solo part is played by three instruments, rather than one. There are also a number of delightful conversations between each of the soloists and the orchestra. In addition, it is quite impressive that Beethoven was able to maintain his masterful interplay between soloist and orchestra even when dealing with three separate solo parts. I believe that the second movement is the true strength of the work. Listen for the poetic opening line in the cello, and notice how the violin and cello spend most of the movement in a conversation based on that theme. The piano, as expected, maintains a background role in the second movement, and some critics argue that the second movement is the best because it basically eliminates the piano part. The third movement is notable for one unique episode in the middle of it. Right around 27:56, there is a random Polonaise (a Polish dance form). Why Beethoven felt the need to insert this strange addition into the music, we’ll never know.

Enjoy!