Christoph W. Gluck, Orpheus and Eurydice / "Dance of the Blessed Spirits"

Although he enjoyed wide recognition during his lifetime as a composer of operas and music for the stage, the German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, born in Erasbach in 1714, is today practically unknown to the "general public". His works are rarely performed, although he is recognized as the great reformer of the operatic genre, advocating and establishing a new balance between music and drama. Away from the Italian model, prodigal in fiorituras and chilling warbles, Gluck abolished forever the strict distinction between recitatives and arias, endowing the music with the ability to maintain an uninterrupted flow of dramatic action.

The first elements of reform were manifested in his work Orpheus and Eurydice, of 1762, although it was only completed when the work was translated into French in 1774 (dedicated, incidentally, to Marie Antoinette), with the replacement of the castrato by a tenor in the role of Orpheus, among other important modifications.

As was customary for the time – and particularly for Gluck –  the work draws on Greek mythology, recreating the myth of Orpheus, which, in a nutshell, goes as follows, although, to please the Viennese public, in its time the work featured a happy ending.

The myth of Orpheus

Christoph W. Gluck (1714 - 1787)

The shepherd Orpheus, from Thrace, played the lyre in a sublime way, so it was easy for him to enchant with his music his beloved Eurydice who, to Orpheus' misfortune, would soon die from the bite of a snake. Tormented by grief, the shepherd, son of a muse and a god, managed to reach Hades, the place of the dead, to which end he had to enchant with his music the canine Cerberus, the three-headed dog in charge of guarding the gates of the world of shadows. Once inside, he humbly asked the king and queen of the dead to allow him to return with Eurydice to the world of the living. 

The tragedy
As he accompanied the request with the singing of his lyre, he quickly obtained consent, but on one condition: he would return to the world of light, holding Eurydice by the hand, but never turning his head back. So he did, until he was seized with the doubt that he had been deceived. And then he turned around, only to see Eurydice disappear before his eyes, her arms outstretched.

Dance of the Blessed Spirits

In three acts, the opera had its premiere at the Burgtheater in Vienna on October 5, 1762, on the occasion of Emperor Franz I's holy day. A short ballet accompanying the second scene of Act II in the original version became a dance in the French version of 1774, in four movements, containing a beautiful flute solo, the Dance of the Blessed Spirits, presented here in an orchestral version (audio only) by the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Andras Korodi.

Dvorak, Symphony No. 8, in G major

 
When in 1891 the University of Cambridge decided to award Antonin Dvorak an honorary doctorate in music, the composer sent a Symphony composed in Vysoka, his summer residence, between August and November 1889. Symphony No. 8 was published by an English publisher due to disagreements with his usual publisher, who was betting on shorter works that, in his opinion, were more profitable. Its premiere took place on February 2, 1890, in Prague, conducted by the author. A year later he conducted it in London, on the occasion of receiving his doctorate.

Villa Vysoka
In 1880, when he was under forty years old, the Czech composer was already an internationally recognized musician, so he would travel through Europe with increasing frequency, to stage and conduct his works. However, what really pleased him was to remain in his homeland, working on his compositions, hopefully in a serene and motivating environment.

In 1877, his wife Anna's older sister married a count who enjoyed the possession of a beautiful villa 50 km from Prague, where a small mansion stood in the middle of a forest. Dvorak was amazed with the place, the first time he saw it, in the ocassion of the marriage. He received a new invitation in 1880 and then, for three more summers, Dvorak stayed with his wife in a smaller building in the proximity of the mansion.

Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904)

A second home

The villa was named Vysoka and it would play an important role in the composer's personal and professional life. Thanks to the income from tours and the publication of his works, Dvorak was able to buy a portion of the villa from his relative, the Count. He settled there in a house that would become his second home, to rest from touring and Prague. There he would produce an important number of works, among which stand out his opera Rusalka, the second series of the Slavonic Dances, and Symphonies No. 7 and No. 8.

Symphony No. 8 in G major, opus 88
With his Eighth Symphony, the composer once again reveals his passion for Slavic folk music. In conjunction with a vigorous national language, the work presents varied moods, ranging from pastoral images, dances, and marches to highly dramatic moments. It adheres to the "classical" structure of the symphony, with four movements:

00:00   Allegro con brio

10:42   Adagio

22:10   Allegretto grazioso - Molto vivace

28:00   Allegro ma non troppo

The performance is by the Radio Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Manfred Honeck.

Mozart, Symphony No 41, "Jupiter"

In replacement of Christoph Gluck, the court composer who had died the previous year, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was finally given in 1788 what he and his father had yearned for so long: a full-time position at the imperial court in Vienna. But the salary was not much, although it was enough to pay the rent and, most importantly, it was a regular income. Mozart was already 32 years old and had to support a house, wife, and children. In order to alleviate the situation, the family decided to look for a hopefully cheaper residence, moving to the suburbs of Vienna.

Three symphonies in eight weeks
In the new home, and in the incredible span of eight weeks, Mozart wrote one after the other his last three symphonies, No 39 in E-flat, No 40 in G minor and, perhaps his greatest creation in the genre, Symphony No 41 in C major, also called "Jupiter". Whether something triggered the creation of this triptych, we do not know.
Mozart composed his symphonies at very irregular intervals and it is very likely that the unusual devotion put into these last three symphonies was due, on the one hand, to the fact that he had a little more time because he had almost no students at that time. On the other hand, his performances in concerts for his own benefit no longer aroused the popular enthusiasm of a few years before. To make matters worse, it is quite possible that Mozart never heard them.

"Jupiter", the nickname
For a couple of years Mozart had been keeping track of the start and completion dates of his works, so we know precisely that Symphony No. 41 in C major was completed on August 10, 1788. Its nickname Jupiter is somewhat more imprecise, but it is likely due to the violinist and music impresario Johann P. Salomon (who years before had taken Haydn on tour to London) to symbolize the majesty of the work with the name of the maximum divinity of Roman mythology.

Movements
Regarded as a paradigm of the classical symphonic form, the work is in four movements, the first and last in fast tempo, the second slower, and the third, the usual minuet with trio. The work lasts about 49 minutes.

00        Allegro vivace - With impressive pomp, it manages to create a ceremonial atmosphere.

13:28  Andante cantabile - Serene, loose movement in sonata form. A sarabande in the style of JS Bach's French suites.

23:43  Menuetto (allegretto) - A refined study of contrasts, setting the mood for the finale.

29:22  Molto allegro - Lavish in contrapuntal techniques, including fugato (a fugue inserted in the middle of another form), stretto (overlapping entries) and canon. The coda includes a fugato treatment of the five main themes, which are heard simultaneously.

The performance is by Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, conducted by maestro Lorin Maazel.

Beethoven First Piano Sonata, Opus 2 No 1

In 1793, at the age of 23, Beethoven left Bonn to settle definitively in Vienna with the desire to expand his knowledge under the guidance of the most conspicuous masters of the time. Among them stood out Joseph Haydn who, passing through Bonn, had offered to accept the young genius as a pupil in the capital of the empire if he ever happened to be there.

Haydn's pupil
But the Esterházy musician and Beethoven did not get along. Their temperaments were completely opposite. The old master acknowledged that the young Beethoven had genius, but suggested that perhaps he could do better with an education of the spirit than a musical one. On hearing his first works, he would have said to him:

"You are very talented, and will progress further in the future. You possess great inspiration and will never sacrifice a beautiful thought to a tyrannical rule, which seems reasonable to me; but you will sacrifice rules to your fantasy, for it seems to me that you are a man who has several heads, several hearts, several souls. I believe that one will always discover in your works something unexpected, unusual, somber, because you yourself are a little somber and strange, and the musician's style always reveals the man."

A young Beethoven, in 1803

Beethoven, a pupil of Socrates and Jesus Christ

A cold, if sharp analysis of Beethoven's personality. In the face of Haydn's simplicity, Beethoven's passionate and sometimes violent temperament was bound to clash. The young composer was then forced to look for other teachers. He had several (Salieri, among them), although later, when asked from what sources he had drawn, he used to answer, a little proudly: "I am a pupil of Socrates and Jesus Christ".

Sonata Opus 2 No 1

However, the first three piano sonatas, grouped in Opus 2, are dedicated to the first teacher he had in Vienna, Joseph Haydn.
And with them, the surprising cycle of the 32 piano sonatas that he would write during his lifetime is inaugurated.

Published in 1796, Sonata No. 1 of Opus 2, in F minor, was probably composed years earlier, while the master was still in Bonn. It is clearly an early piece, influenced – and somewhat more – by Mozart and Haydn. It is his first piano sonata.

Movements

In the complete cycle of his 32 sonatas, Beethoven did not always follow the Vivaldian three-movement structure. There are those with four movements (12 sonatas), three (13) and with two (7). It is therefore not surprising that this first sonata is in four movements:

00       Allegro  - The opening theme is apparently taken from the finale of Mozart's Symphony No. 40.

04:18  Adagio  - The first theme is derived from the slow movement of a quartet, by Beethoven himself.

09:54  Menuetto: Allegretto  - This is the movement that Beethoven has added to the Vivaldian structure, a minuet marked allegretto.

13:41  Prestissimo  - With a very energetic initial theme, it clearly marks the movement as the most "Beethovenian" of all. 

The rendition is by Daniel Barenboim, during his performance of the complete Beethoven sonatas at the Berlin Staatsoper in June and July 2006.

Borodin, "In the Steppes of Central Asia"

One year before he was assassinated by a bomb thrown at his feet, Tsar Alexander II decided to celebrate his twenty-five years at the head of the Russian Empire with a great event. For this purpose, several Russian musicians were summoned to provide the music for several short dramas that were to be staged in front of the Tsar and his court. Apparently, the only musician who responded to the summons was the composer and scientist Alexander Borodin, a musician member of The Five Group and holder of the chair of chemistry at the Russian Medical and Surgical Academy. The composer joined the celebrations with a short symphonic poem entitled "In Central Asia".

An immediate success
The great event envisaged by the Tsar never took place (the political situation was not the best, as can be inferred). But Borodin's work, first performed in St. Petersburg in April 1880 under the baton of Rimsky-Korsakov, became famous in its own right almost immediately. It was applauded in Russia and also in the rest of Europe, where it became known under the title " In the Steppes of Central Asia ".

The symphonic work is dedicated "with veneration" to the master of the symphonic poem, Franz Liszt, whom Borodin had met shortly before, in Weimar, to where he departed during a professional visit to Jena in his capacity as a man of science.

Alexander Borodin (1833 - 1887)

Crossing the steppes
Openly programmatic, the work illustrates the crossing of the steppes of Central Asia by a caravan of Asian merchants escorted by Russian soldiers, a frequent image, we imagine, after the eastward expansion of the Russian Empire by the assassinated Tsar.
Nothing could be more appropriate than Borodin's own words to describe the atmosphere evoked by the score, a scenario marked by an idyllic collaboration between conquerors and conquered —a politically correct review if it was meant to pay homage to the Tsar:

"In the silence of the monotonous steppes of Central Asia is heard the unfamiliar sound of a peaceful Russian song. From the distance, we hear the approach of horses and camels and the bizarre and melancholy notes of an oriental melody. A caravan approaches, escorted by Russian soldiers, and continues safely on its way through the immense desert. It disappears slowly. The notes of the Russian and Asiatic melodies join in a common harmony, which dies away as the caravan disappears in the distance."

The work lasts less than eight minutes.
The performance is by the Laurel Wind Orchestra conducted by Yoo Sejong.