Conductor's Notes: Concert 1 2009-2010

We open our 61st season with three very different expressions of Romanticism. From 1833 to 1840, Richard Wagner (1813-83), history’s greatest figure in musical theater, was still learning his craft. During this time he composed three derivative operas, each in a different style. In 1833 he composed Die Feen (The Fairies) in the German Romantic style of Weber. Next was Das Liebesverbot (Forbidden Love) after Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, in Italian style. Finally, in 1838 he began composing Rienzi, der Letze der Tribunen (Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes), completing it in 1840. It was fashioned in the French grand opera style in order to ingratiate himself with the Paris audience. This opera owes much to the influence of Giacomo Meyerbeer. (It is sad that after all the help and encouragement he received from Meyerbeer, Wagner turned on him because the elder composer was Jewish.) Because the Paris audience loved the sound of the Serpent, an unwieldy cross between a brass and a woodwind in the shape of a snake, Wagner included it in his instrumentation, though most orchestras have the good sense not to use it. The story of the opera, taken from a novel by E. Bulwer-Lytton, concerns a 14th century Roman tribune and papal notary named Cola di Rienzi. With the encouragement of the Church and the common folk, he comes to power on a populist platform. But politics are fickle and as popular opinion turns against him he is excommunicated and perishes as the people set fire to the Capitol. Wagner disliked the opera, though it was often performed in his lifetime. Now it is rarely performed and never in Bayreuth, though the overture has survived in the standard repertoire. It is full of bluff and bluster, of pomp and pageantry. It is a real barn-burner! After the tutelage of these three derivative works Wagner had the tools to craft the three great masterpieces, Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, and Lohengrin, that would culminate German Romantic opera.

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), at the height of his powers, composed a trilogy of concert overtures, connected thematically and known collectively as Nature, Life, and Love, in 1891. They soon became popular as individual pieces, In Nature’s Realm, Op. 91, the wildly popular Carnival, Op. 92, and Othello, Op. 93. In Nature’s Realm owes much to Wagner’s “Forest Murmurs” from “Siegfried“. It has a deeply spiritual component as Dvořák saw Nature as created by God and as generative in its own right, both in its beauty and its ugliness. In fact, the second theme derives from the Czech hymn, “Let Us Sing Joyfully, Praise God the Father.” The composer also approached this work with a poetic sensibility. It is also highly personal, evoking the spruce forest in which he conceived it. Though rhapsodic and narrative, it follows sonata form quite faithfully.

Georges Bizet (1838-75), composer of opera, most notably Carmen, was the typical child prodigy. Showing great talent at age four, having compositions published by age 15, he composed his delightful and well crafted Symphony in C days after his 17th birthday! The first movement is a fresh, taut sonata form full of youthful exuberance. The adagio is hauntingly beautiful. The middle section presents a fugue! So typical of young composers—they want to show they have learned their counterpoint lessons well. The third movement is a French country dance and the Finale offers a perpetuum mobile that stirs the blood! Bizet never expressed any interest in performing it and set it aside. It wasn’t until 80 years later that conductor Felix Weingartner discovered this gem and presented it to an eager public. The world is richer for the discovery of this musical treasure.