Schubert / Liszt, "Ave Maria"

 
Of the total number of lieder composed by Franz Peter Schubert during his short life of 31 years, those written for a single voice amount to an impressive 634, composed over a period of 13 years, between 1814 (at the age of 17) and 1827 (a year before his death). Schubert was not the inventor of the musical form, of course, but he was the one who took it to its highest peaks. This was greatly influenced by the composer's connection with the literary personalities with whom he shared a certain space and an era, the Vienna of the first quarter of the 19th century.

The poets
Some of them were his friends. Others, although far from his environment, were also a source of inspiration for his songs. This is the case of Schiller, or Heine, or Goethe, the latter a poet who, needless to say, did not bother to listen to the music that Schubert had created inspired by his texts.
But there was plenty to choose from, and the little master did not hesitate to draw inspiration from the great figures of world literature. Sir Walter Scott was one of them.

The Lady of the Lake
In 1810, the Scottish poet and novelist author of Ivanhoe and inventor of the romantic historical novel had published a narrative poem entitled "The Lady of the Lake," made up of three stories taken from folk tradition.
The last cantos narrate a war between the Lowland Scots led by King James V and the Highland clans following one of the heroes, Roderick Dhu, who also fights for the love of Ellen Douglas, the female character, the Lady of the Lake.

Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832)

Ellens Dritter Gesang
Translated into German, Schubert set three of Ellen Douglas's cantos to music. The last of these became the most successful and popular to this day, the lied "Ellens Dritter Gesang" (Third Song of Ellen). It is the prayer with which the protagonist cries for help for her and her father, victims of the conflict. Roderick was supposed to help her, but in the middle of the mountains, he does not listen to her. Ellen reinforces her prayer by invoking the Virgin Mary.

"Ave Maria"
The lied was composed in 1825 and published the following year. The piece was thus incorporated into the seven songs that make up the cycle of lieder "The Lady of the Lake" on the epic poem by Walter Scott. Some time later, taking advantage of the fact that Ellen's third song begins with the words "Ave Maria", Sir Walter Scott's text was changed to the traditional Catholic prayer in Latin that begins with the same invocation.

Piano transcription
By the middle of the 19th century, Franz Liszt had already invented the piano recital. He achieved this by greatly increasing the piano repertoire through transcriptions of orchestral works, opera arias, and, incidentally, lieder. Such was his musical inventiveness that he was able to make more than one transcription per work. For the lied "Ellens Dritter Gesang", the Hungarian master made three transcriptions. Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa presents here one of them.

Tchaikovsky, "Souvenir de Florence"

Shortly after the beginning of the relationship that would keep them in close epistolary contact for thirteen years, Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck sent Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky the first of many notes offering the composer her mansion at the Villa Oppenheimer, in Florence, so that he could enjoy its splendid comforts and compose at his leisure:

"My villa is surrounded by terraces and gardens with antique statues. The archangel Saint Michael stands guard over a fountain that discreetly breaks the silence... Beyond, stretches a beautiful olive grove and a little forest that autumn has dressed in silver, through which the bell towers of Florence peek out... On the horizon the Apennines are silhouetted... Come here, my dear friend, and you will have adequate shelter..."

Nadezhda von Meck (1831 - 1894)

The dazzling prospect kindled the composer's enthusiasm, and from then on Tchaikovsky visited Florence many times to spend a season at Oppenheimer, whose servants, butlers, and cooks were zealously instructed on how to behave and attend to the maestro, especially if the latter appeared there in a despondent mood, after confiding to Nadezhda, for example, that he could not get rid of "the melancholy that torments me".

P.I. Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)
One of his last portraits

But in the summer of 1890, having long since become a European celebrity, the composer chose to spend a few days of rest in his own country house. There he began to write a sextet full of memories of Florence, which he titled Souvenir de Florence. Unaware of what was coming, he sent a note to Nadezhda Filaretovna telling her about his plans:

"Knowing your great love for chamber music, I rejoice to think that you will undoubtedly hear my Sextet. It will not be necessary for you to attend any concerts, for it will be easy to prepare a good performance at home."

It will be one of the last notes they will exchange. In September of that year, Pyotr Ilyich will receive the last and final one. Nadezhda has decided to end the epistolary relationship and, in passing, also the annual pension. She claims that her financial position is very bad, and adds she is sick and tired.

Tchaikovsky never fully learned the reason for the abandonment.

Sextet for Strings in D minor, Souvenir de Florence
Written for two violins, two violas, and two cellos, it was not premiered until the end of 1892, a few months before the death of its composer. Happy conjunction of Russian and Italian airs, it is a very beautiful work, stylized and elegant; it seems to be the fruit of happy days in Pyotr Ilyich's life.

The rendition is by Janine Jansen and Friends ensemble, led, of course, by the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen.

It lasts about 35 minutes, and its movements are:

00        Allegro con spirito  

10:50  Adagio cantabile e con moto 

21:12  Allegretto moderato 

27:47  Allegro con brio e vivace  

Berlioz, "Symphonie Fantastique"

 
The financial support that Hector Berlioz received from his father to study medicine in Paris was withheld several times. This was always the case each time his father learned he had left medicine aside to further his knowledge of music at the Paris Conservatory. The father, a highly cultivated physician, only gave his approval to his son's willing vocation when the latter premiered in 1825 a Mass that was an impressive success with audiences and critics. But he set one condition: Hector had to compete for the coveted Prix de Rome every year until he won it.

Harriet Smithson
in the role of Ophelia

The Muse
From the following year, Berlioz focused all his efforts on winning the famous prize that assured him a scholarship in Italy for two years. He would achieve it five years later, in 1830, with a lyric drama.
But before that, an innocent visit to the theater to watch a Shakespearean drama will leave him in a mess. Hector Berlioz would fall at the feet of Harriet Smithson, a small-time Irish actress who at the time – September 1827 –, she played Ophelia one day and Juliet the other. The composer, a glamorous romantic 24 years old, will fall in love first with the characters and then with the one who embodies them.

Hector Berlioz (1802 -  1869)
Portrait made in Rome, 1832

Episode in the life of an artist

But Harriet, three years older, refused him. Bizet's letters to her failed to enthuse her. The composer was forced to capitulate. But in the pain of unrequited love, he found the inspiration for a symphony that had occupied his thoughts ever since he met the actress. And so that there can be no doubt about its genesis, he will entitle it: "Episode in the life of an artist". Only in the subtitle, he will add the form: Symphonie fantastique... en cinq parties.
Premiered on December 5, 1830 – the same year he won the scholarship –, it was warmly received by the Parisian fans.

Movements
Regarded as the first successful example of "psychological music", its "five parts" (its movements, subtitled) move in a progression towards the catharsis of the protagonist, who is none other than the young Berlioz:

1. Daydreams and Passions
2. A ball  15:06
3. Scene in the country  21:29
4. March to the scaffold  43:16
5. Dream of a witches' Sabbath  46:33

The rendition is by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by South Korean conductor and pianist, Myung-whun Chung.

Epilogue: Berlioz had to fulfill the prize commitment, so he resided in Rome until May 1832. Upon his return, the Symphonie Fantastique reaped more triumphs, and Harriet learned that the muse was her. They married in October 1833, but the union was not a happy one. They broke up in 1840. So much effort for so little.

Webern, Variations for piano Op 27

A member of the Second Viennese School, a follower of Schoenberg, and one of the best known exponents of dodecaphonism, Austrian composer Anton Webern lived an extremely modest life and died an unfortunate death.
And while his influence and stature are now widely recognized, he left almost no followers, nor did he add many works to the standard repertoire.

Born in Vienna in 1883, he met Schoenberg at the beginning of the new century and worked with him for six years. Around that time he also became intimate with Alban Berg, who would be his great friend and atonalist colleague for many years. To earn a living after finishing his traditional studies, he began a career as a conductor in various and varied Austrian theaters, an activity that would be interrupted throughout the First War.

Interwar

In 1918 he took up the baton again, dedicating himself also to teaching while composing music that was never performed. In 1923 he took over the direction of a choral ensemble of Viennese workers, which lasted until 1934 when the association was banned by the Nazi authorities.

Black years begin for the composer who, married and with children, must work as a proofreader for music publishers.

World War II is on the horizon.

Anton Webern (1883 - 1945)

The fatality

At the age of sixty, he was mobilized. But he saved his life... until the war ended.

On September 15, 1945, at the home of one of his daughters, near Salzburg, he went out to smoke a cigarette, half an hour before curfew began. An American soldier shot and killed him by mistake.

Variations for piano op. 27

A considerable part of his work is devoted to voice and choirs, but he also wrote music for various instrumental groups or solo instruments. A work of special importance is his Variations for piano op. 27, composed in 1935-36, where his predilection for short forms is evident.

The work, constructed strictly according to twelve-tone procedures, consists of three minimal movements (just six minutes in total) in which, moreover, Webern dispensed completely with crescendos and diminuendos, marking the dynamic contrasts with frank and rough oppositions of forte and piano, the hallmark of almost all his work.

The rendition is by maestro Maurizio Pollini.

Brahms, Piano Concerto No 2

When he was about to turn forty and had become a renowned musician, Johannes Brahms – who did not feel comfortable with the "war of the romantics" led by Liszt, propelling the German romantic avant-garde – decided to settle permanently in Vienna, in 1872, far from the controversy. After a long search, he found two rooms for rent at No. 4 Karlsgasse. While there, he directed the most important music association of the city as well as made concert tours throughout Europe.

He also visited Italy on pleasure trips. In love with its landscapes, between 1878 and 1893 he made nine trips to the peninsula. After the first of them, he began the sketches of a second piano concerto, twenty-four years after the first, a youthful work composed at the age of 21. But he soon put it aside for the Violin Concerto of 1878. The piano concerto would be left for later.

Piano Concerto No 2

He would finish it three years later, in July 1881. A few months later, during the rehearsal of a different repertoire, he took the opportunity to play it with the orchestra of the pianist and conductor Hans von Büllow, the former son-in-law of Franz Liszt. The conductor sent the score to the seventy-year-old Hungarian celebrity asking for his opinion. Liszt, generous, replied directly to Brahms – who thirty years earlier had declined the invitation to join the romantic avant-garde – in the following terms:

Brahms (1833 -1897) by the time
of the 2nd concerto premiere

"At first reading, the work seemed a bit gray to me. But gradually I have come to understand it better. the work possesses the pregnant character of a distinguished work of art, in which thought and feeling move in noble harmony."

Premiere and diffusion
The public premiere took place in Budapest on November 27, 1881, to great success. Regarded as one of the two or three most difficult concertos in the piano repertoire, Brahms would obtain enormous satisfaction with it in the European cities where he made it known, usually in the company of von Büllow and his orchestra.

The rendition is by the outstanding Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado, also Italian, very young, both of them. Abbado is no longer in this world. Pollini, fortunately, still is.

Movements:

The work is in four movements. Brahms added a scherzo to the usual tripartite form:

00        Allegro non troppo - A lone horn calls out a simple eight-note melody, answered by the piano rising quietly from the lowest depths. An ensuing cadenza encompasses the entire keyboard.

17:40  Allegro appassionato (Scherzo) - It is the movement added to the usual three of the time. The reason Brahms gave was mere that the allegro was "too simple". And he was right because without it the lovely calm of the Andante would not have acted as an adequate contrast to the first movement.

26:40  Andante. The movement is initiated by the cello, the protagonist of an extended theme. Brahms will later use it to create a song.

39:20  Allegretto grazioso - Ebullient elegance and charm mark the finale’s main theme.