January 18, 2020 - Program Notes
- Arthur Honegger - Pacific 231
- Erich Korngold - Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35
- Jean Sibelius - Symphony no. 2
Arthur Honegger - Pacific 231 (Mouvement Symphonique)
Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) is generally considered a Swiss composer, since his parents were Swiss, but he spent most of his creative career in Paris. In the 1920s he was recognized with several other cutting edge French composers in a group that came to be known as known as 'Les Six'. He was one of the first film composers, most notably for 'Napoléon' in 1927 (the score for which is lost). He excelled in combining the most current modern trends with traditional forms.
Honegger loved trains. He would hang around rail yards and learn all he could about the latest locomotives. 'Pacific 231' was premiered in 1924 at the Paris Opéra to great acclaim. 'Pacific' refers to a specific type of engine. The '231' refers to the alignment of the axles: 2 pilot, 3 driving, 1 trailing (In the United States we usually count the wheels instead of axles).
Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) is generally considered a Swiss composer, since his parents were Swiss, but he spent most of his creative career in Paris. In the 1920s he was recognized with several other cutting edge French composers in a group that came to be known as known as 'Les Six'. He was one of the first film composers, most notably for 'Napoléon' in 1927 (the score for which is lost). He excelled in combining the most current modern trends with traditional forms.
Honegger loved trains. He would hang around rail yards and learn all he could about the latest locomotives. 'Pacific 231' was premiered in 1924 at the Paris Opéra to great acclaim. 'Pacific' refers to a specific type of engine. The '231' refers to the alignment of the axles: 2 pilot, 3 driving, 1 trailing (In the United States we usually count the wheels instead of axles).
Erich Korngold - Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35
notes by Svend Rønning, Violin
Of the great childhood prodigies in music, which include William Bolcom, Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Camille Saint-Saëns, it is perhaps Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) that was the most astonishingly precocious of all of them. Born into the most musically advanced society of his time, late nineteenth century Vienna, Korngold (whose father, Julius Korngold was the most esteemed and most feared music critic of the city) was already writing mature works in the post-romantic style of Strauss and Mahler before he had reached his teens. Korngold was ten years old when he first met the great composer Gustav Mahler, who declared him “a genius” upon hearing his cantata Gold. In the early years of the twentieth century, Erich Wolfgang Korngold would become the toast of Vienna’s musical elite, composing works of astonishing complexity and ravishing beauty. Korngold also became fluent in the emerging languages of impressionism, expressionism, and neo-classicism, and many of his “early mature” works of chamber music in particular show his amazing gift to appropriate almost any musical style and make it his own.
Yet it was in the realm of lyricism and drama that Korngold felt most at home. Like his fellow Jewish prodigy composer Felix Mendelssohn, composition came so easily to him that he could produce works with extraordinary speed and this led to a successful career as a composer of operetta and stage music. In the course of his career, he became associated with Max Reinhardt, who invited him to come to Hollywood to arrange the music of Korngold spiritual godfather, Felix Mendelssohn, for the cinema in Reinhardt’s film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1934). Korngold would eventually settle in Hollywood where composed some of the most influential soundtracks in history. Indeed, he was the first composer in history to win the Academy Award for music—for Anthony Adverse in 1936— and later won another Oscar for The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938.
Korngold saw himself as fighting Hitler in writing film music as he used his success and money to buy members of his family (and others) out of Nazi occupied Austria. One of the beneficiaries of Korngold’s campaign was his own father, Julius, who escaped to Hollywood and to live a long life “exiled in paradise.” Julius never really approved of Korngold’s Hollywood career, but he did understand it to be a necessary evil under the circumstances and he did acknowledge that his son’s music for the cinema was of the highest quality. Korngold himself felt otherwise about music for the cinema, stating “I have never drawn a distinction between music for films and for operas or concerts.”
With Hitler defeated, Korngold decided to return to composing concert music (though he would continue to composer film scores into the 1950s), but to borrow from the music that he had written for the screen for the concert stage. All through his time in Hollywood, the famed violinist (and founder of the Israel Philharmonic) Bronislaw Huberman had needled Korngold asking him, “Erich! where’s is my concerto?” When, in 1945, he began making sketches for the desired work, he discovered that Huberman’s abilities on the violin were no longer a match for his conception. He considered simplifying the work, but in the meantime showed it to his neighbor, Jascha Heifetz, who gave specific suggestions on how to make the violin part even more elaborate and virtuosic. The result is a work that is fearsomely virtuosic while at the same time being unabashedly lyrical. Korgold himself wrote in describing the work:
In spite of the demand for virtuosity in the finale, the work with its many melodic and lyric episodes was contemplated more for a Caruso than for a Paganini. It is needless to say how delighted I am to have my concerto performed by Caruso and Paganini in one person: Jascha Heifetz.
And—if the work sounds as if it is a Hollywood soundtrack, that is because Korngold borrowed the soundtracks from several of the films he had composed during his self-imposed hiatus from composing concert music. The first theme of the first movement is taken from his film Another Dawn (1937), while the second them is borrowed from Juárez (1939). Themes from his Oscar winner Anthony Adverse (1936) appear in the lyric second movement, while the theme to The Prince and the Pauper (1937) becomes the merry (and frequently wild) jig of the third movement.
Ultimately, the concerto was premiered by Heifetz and the St. Louis Symphony on February 15, 1947 where it is said that it received the most enthusiastic ovation for any concerto in the St. Louis Symphony’s history. Korngold wrote: “The reception of the Violin Concerto in St. Louis was triumphal… a success just as in my best times in Vienna. One reviewer even predicted that my concerto would remain in the repertoire for as long as Mendelssohn’s. I do not need more than that!!”
Interestingly, Heifetz played the ‘David’ Stradivari, once owned by Ferdinand David, the violinist that had collaborated with Mendelssohn on his Violin Concerto just as Heifetz had collaborated with Korngold. Could it be this this same violin breathed life into both of these gems of the concerto repertoire?
notes by Svend Rønning, Violin
Of the great childhood prodigies in music, which include William Bolcom, Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Camille Saint-Saëns, it is perhaps Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) that was the most astonishingly precocious of all of them. Born into the most musically advanced society of his time, late nineteenth century Vienna, Korngold (whose father, Julius Korngold was the most esteemed and most feared music critic of the city) was already writing mature works in the post-romantic style of Strauss and Mahler before he had reached his teens. Korngold was ten years old when he first met the great composer Gustav Mahler, who declared him “a genius” upon hearing his cantata Gold. In the early years of the twentieth century, Erich Wolfgang Korngold would become the toast of Vienna’s musical elite, composing works of astonishing complexity and ravishing beauty. Korngold also became fluent in the emerging languages of impressionism, expressionism, and neo-classicism, and many of his “early mature” works of chamber music in particular show his amazing gift to appropriate almost any musical style and make it his own.
Yet it was in the realm of lyricism and drama that Korngold felt most at home. Like his fellow Jewish prodigy composer Felix Mendelssohn, composition came so easily to him that he could produce works with extraordinary speed and this led to a successful career as a composer of operetta and stage music. In the course of his career, he became associated with Max Reinhardt, who invited him to come to Hollywood to arrange the music of Korngold spiritual godfather, Felix Mendelssohn, for the cinema in Reinhardt’s film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1934). Korngold would eventually settle in Hollywood where composed some of the most influential soundtracks in history. Indeed, he was the first composer in history to win the Academy Award for music—for Anthony Adverse in 1936— and later won another Oscar for The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938.
Korngold saw himself as fighting Hitler in writing film music as he used his success and money to buy members of his family (and others) out of Nazi occupied Austria. One of the beneficiaries of Korngold’s campaign was his own father, Julius, who escaped to Hollywood and to live a long life “exiled in paradise.” Julius never really approved of Korngold’s Hollywood career, but he did understand it to be a necessary evil under the circumstances and he did acknowledge that his son’s music for the cinema was of the highest quality. Korngold himself felt otherwise about music for the cinema, stating “I have never drawn a distinction between music for films and for operas or concerts.”
With Hitler defeated, Korngold decided to return to composing concert music (though he would continue to composer film scores into the 1950s), but to borrow from the music that he had written for the screen for the concert stage. All through his time in Hollywood, the famed violinist (and founder of the Israel Philharmonic) Bronislaw Huberman had needled Korngold asking him, “Erich! where’s is my concerto?” When, in 1945, he began making sketches for the desired work, he discovered that Huberman’s abilities on the violin were no longer a match for his conception. He considered simplifying the work, but in the meantime showed it to his neighbor, Jascha Heifetz, who gave specific suggestions on how to make the violin part even more elaborate and virtuosic. The result is a work that is fearsomely virtuosic while at the same time being unabashedly lyrical. Korgold himself wrote in describing the work:
In spite of the demand for virtuosity in the finale, the work with its many melodic and lyric episodes was contemplated more for a Caruso than for a Paganini. It is needless to say how delighted I am to have my concerto performed by Caruso and Paganini in one person: Jascha Heifetz.
And—if the work sounds as if it is a Hollywood soundtrack, that is because Korngold borrowed the soundtracks from several of the films he had composed during his self-imposed hiatus from composing concert music. The first theme of the first movement is taken from his film Another Dawn (1937), while the second them is borrowed from Juárez (1939). Themes from his Oscar winner Anthony Adverse (1936) appear in the lyric second movement, while the theme to The Prince and the Pauper (1937) becomes the merry (and frequently wild) jig of the third movement.
Ultimately, the concerto was premiered by Heifetz and the St. Louis Symphony on February 15, 1947 where it is said that it received the most enthusiastic ovation for any concerto in the St. Louis Symphony’s history. Korngold wrote: “The reception of the Violin Concerto in St. Louis was triumphal… a success just as in my best times in Vienna. One reviewer even predicted that my concerto would remain in the repertoire for as long as Mendelssohn’s. I do not need more than that!!”
Interestingly, Heifetz played the ‘David’ Stradivari, once owned by Ferdinand David, the violinist that had collaborated with Mendelssohn on his Violin Concerto just as Heifetz had collaborated with Korngold. Could it be this this same violin breathed life into both of these gems of the concerto repertoire?
Jean Sibelius - Symphony no. 2
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) is considered the great national composer of Finland, even though strictly speaking he was of Swedish heritage and never spoke Finnish well. Programatic works like 'Finlandia' (1899) and dramatic works like 'Kullervo' (1892), based on the Finnish national epic, became extremely popular, both in Finland and outside, especially England and the United States. His seven symphonies are major 20th century contributions to the orchestral repertoire.
The 'Second Symphony' was premiered by the Helsinki Philharmonic Society in 1902 with the composer conducting. Although it follows the broad outline of a classical symphony and uses a 'standard' orchestra, it is quite unconventional in structure and harmony. Yet it is completely engaging the same way a sunrise or waterfall can totally capture our interest. The frantic third movement goes directly into the heroic last movement which was taken up by Finnish nationalists in the struggle for independence from Russia (and Sweden). Sibelius himself, however, never claimed any political intent, saying rather "My second symphony is a confession of the soul."
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) is considered the great national composer of Finland, even though strictly speaking he was of Swedish heritage and never spoke Finnish well. Programatic works like 'Finlandia' (1899) and dramatic works like 'Kullervo' (1892), based on the Finnish national epic, became extremely popular, both in Finland and outside, especially England and the United States. His seven symphonies are major 20th century contributions to the orchestral repertoire.
The 'Second Symphony' was premiered by the Helsinki Philharmonic Society in 1902 with the composer conducting. Although it follows the broad outline of a classical symphony and uses a 'standard' orchestra, it is quite unconventional in structure and harmony. Yet it is completely engaging the same way a sunrise or waterfall can totally capture our interest. The frantic third movement goes directly into the heroic last movement which was taken up by Finnish nationalists in the struggle for independence from Russia (and Sweden). Sibelius himself, however, never claimed any political intent, saying rather "My second symphony is a confession of the soul."