Beethoven, Piano Concerto No 2

The Conquest of Vienna
Sometime after settling permanently in Vienna in November 1792, Beethoven realized that in order to captivate the Viennese public he had not only to show himself as the skilled pianist he was but also as a composer, even if he was in his early stages –if that could be said of the twenty-two-year-old master. To this end, he had to gather a good number of compositions, either wholly new or unheard by a broad audience, to face the stage on which his debut before the Viennese public was to take place.

1795, the year of his debut
So along with his aspiration to become a master of counterpoint – for which he took classes with Haydn and other masters – Beethoven collected for three years his own works in various genres – solo piano, piano with accompaniment, strings, songs, and piano concertos – with the determination to approach the conquest of Vienna from all possible sides.
The maestro's debut took place one Easter weekend, on Sunday, March 29, 1795, at the Burgtheater in Vienna, which was available for instrumental concerts because the Catholic faith of the Habsburgs did not allow theatrical performances during Lent. On the occasion, he presented one of his Piano Concertos.

Bust made on a mask
during his lifetime

Beethoven Piano Concerto nº 2, in B-flat major, Op. 19 

It is still debated today whether the "new concerto" presented on the occasion was No. 1 or No. 2, although most opinions are in favor of the latter, composed many years before the "first", between 1787 and 1789. At least this was the case with respect to its first two movements because for the 1795 performance Beethoven rewrote the final movement, a modification arising from his studies with Haydn. Three years later, for a performance in Prague, the composer revised the work again, writing another finale for the occasion, finally discarded because the version published in 1801 and the one that has come down to us is the one heard in Vienna in 1795, according to the most reliable testimonies.

Although considered by scholars (an opinion joined by Beethoven himself) as a rather weak and conventional work, clearly tributary of Haydn and Mozart, it contains as a whole a sense of drama and contrasts that clearly announces the magnificent master of the later concertos. Surely, its beautiful Adagio must have made a deep impression on the audience attending that Easter Sunday.

Movements:
00        Allegro con brio
15:28   Adagio
25:10   Rondo. Molto allegro
Encore:
(34:51  "Bailecito", from the pianist and composer Carlos Guastavino)

Arriaga: "Los Esclavos Felices" - Overture

On February 27, 1806, exactly 50 years after Mozart's birth, the composer Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga was born in the Basque city of Bilbao, Spain. He was called "the Spanish Mozart" due to his precocious musical intelligence and, of course, to the aforementioned coincidence, in addition to his premature death. The young musician did not reach the age of twenty, dying of a lung infection ten days earlier.

At the Paris Conservatory
At the age of fourteen, Arriaga was already a skilled violinist, although it is not certain whether his technical abilities were an innate skill or the result of the teachings of some unknown maestro he may have had in Bilbao.
What is certain is that at the age of fifteen he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory to continue his violin studies, and acquire the necessary knowledge in counterpoint and harmony. Two years later, he won the second prize in the Conservatory in fugue and counterpoint, and soon after he became an assistant instructor of a harmony course. He was seventeen.

J. C. de Arriaga (1806 - 1826)

His works
It is not surprising then that at the age of eighteen he had already composed three string quartets, and had begun to dabble in vocal and choral music. His Stabat Mater is one of his most successful large-scale works. His last two years of life were devoted to finishing his extensive Symphony in D major.

Of course, his musical production was scarce, and this resulted in his oblivion for almost eighty years, until at the end of the 19th-century scholars noticed this great musical promise that simply did not give its full potential.

Opera "Los Esclavos Felices" (The Happy Slaves)
Among his early works, those that justly earned him the title of a child prodigy, stands out an opera in two acts, entitled Los Esclavos Felices, composed and produced in Bilbao when the author was only thirteen years old. When the work came to the knowledge of his teachers at the Conservatory, they could only point out that the young Arriaga had composed "a Spanish opera full of original ideas and harmonic richness without having any knowledge of harmony".

With a clear Italian influence and tributary of the purest Viennese classicism, the Overture is presented here (7:30 min) in a performance by the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, from Madrid. 

César Frank, Sonata for violin and piano

Covering their heads with a Phrygian cap, César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck and his fiancée and former student Eugénie Desmousseaux crossed the streets of Paris on February 22, 1848, to arrive safe and sound at the church where they would be married. The Phrygian cap was intended to successfully circumvent the barricades and bonfires that the rioters had installed throughout the city to force the downfall of Louis Philippe I, also called "the king of the barricades" because through them he came to the throne and because of them he had to abandon it.

The origins
Born in Liege, Belgium, in December 1822, César Franck, together with his brother Joseph, arrived in Paris in 1835 when he was only thirteen years old at the hand of his father, who aspired that his two offspring would be recognized there as great virtuosos in the way Liszt and Paganini already were. It was not too much to ask since at least César was coming from successful but brief tours in which he had given undeniable samples of his extraordinary ability with the piano.

The father's aspirations

Like many other fathers in the history of music (Leopold Mozart being the most conspicuous), Franck's father subjected his son to exhausting workdays. After entering the Paris Conservatory, he imposed upon him the composition of at least one work a year so that he could perform it in public, thus facilitating the recognition of his talent among Parisian musical circles. This ambition did not bear the fruits his father expected, and after ten years the composer decided to rebel, abandoning his father's tutelage and forming his own family by marrying the aforesaid Eugene amidst the liberal and workers' revolt of February 1848.

César Franck (1822 - 1890)

Church organist

The years to come were sullen. With little production and relegated to the role of piano accompanist, as well as organist of a couple of churches in Paris, Franck and his family led an obscure and lackluster life for ten years. Then, in 1858 he was offered to take charge of a modern and grandiose organ in the church of St. Clotilde, a post in which he performed with pleasure and commitment until the end of his days.

The rebirth

It was the beginning of the rebirth of his life as a musician, when he finally saw the doors of the concert halls open and the period in which his masterpieces came to light began. Among them, the Prelude, Chorale and Fugue of 1885, the Symphonic Variations of 1886, and the beautiful Sonata for violin and piano of 1887 stand out.

The maestro

In the twilight of his life, César Franck produced music as never before, perhaps trying to make up for the lost time. This time he did bear fruit, mainly as a maestro, becoming the musician who would initiate the incorporation of French music into the great European tradition. Through D'Indy, Chausson, Dukas, and many other disciples or followers, this would culminate at the end of the century or the beginning of the next with the appearance of the illustrious figures of Debussy and Ravel.

Sonata for violin and piano in A major

It was composed as a wedding present for his friend the Belgian violinist Eugene Ysaÿe, who played it during the wedding celebrations and later became its main disseminator. The piece is a superb synthesis of three features the composer cultivated with ardor in the last stage of his career: the Viennese classical tradition, the "cyclical form" (the main theme reappears, conveniently varied, in each movement, a form that some have postulated as his invention) and the composer's very rich, characteristic and very personal harmonic language.

Movements:

00        Allegretto ben moderato

06:11   Allegro

14:30  Recitativo - Fantasia. Ben moderato - molto lento

21:46  Allegretto poco mosso

The rendition is by Dutch violinist Frederieke Saeijs and Georgian pianist Nino Gvetadze.

Boccherini, "Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid"

Luigi Boccherini, born in Lucca, Italy, on February 19, 1743, traveled all over Europe before settling permanently in Spain shortly after his 25th birthday. From 1757 to 1765 he lived in Vienna, with sporadic getaways to his native Lucca. In 1767 he arrived in Paris, where despite his already widespread fame as a cellist, his stay did not last long. Thus, the following year he was already in Spain, where he lived, between Madrid and Ávila, until his death on May 28, 1805.

In Paris, he had formed a chamber group that included as violinist his friend Filippo Manfredi, a native of Lucca like him. It was with Filippo that he set off for Madrid, both encouraged by the fortunate panorama that the fanciful Spanish ambassador in France presented to them about musical life in Madrid, where the competition – it was true – was far inferior to what they had experienced in Paris, a city that had nevertheless given them a good welcome.

In Madrid

But Madrid's musical life only disappointed them. There was less competition, of course, but that was simply a reflection of the fact that the city was far from the usual circles of artists on the European continent. Nevertheless, and interestingly, Luigi Boccherini would live there for no less than 37 years, most of them in the service of his protector, the Infante Luis de Borbón, brother of Carlos III.

Luigi Boccherini (1743 - 1805)

In Avila

Removed from the court because of his morganatic marriage, Prince Luis left for Avila with his chamber musicians, including Boccherini. The maestro complained daily of his isolation from Madrid's musical circles and had no choice but to devote much of his time to composing chamber music, the only genre for which he had performers. From those years are some of his most interesting quintets, the most popular being Quintet in C major, where he, captivatingly, pours out his longing for the sounds of the streets of Madrid's nightlife.

"Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid" — Quintet for two violins, viola and two violoncellos, in C major

The work doubles the violoncellos and not the violas, in accordance with the maestro's favorite formation... of course, if he was a cellist.

The piece, written in the key of C major, has five movements. Two short interlude-like passages separate the first movement from the second, and the fourth from the last. Each movement represents a different scene, but they all share a structure that is not very "classical" or traditional, which makes the piece quite unusual, even for Boccherini himself, who initially refused to publish it because he believed that no one who was not from Madrid could understand it.

Movements
I     00 Le campane dell'Ave Maria (call to the faithful to pray the Ave Maria)

II   01:20 Minuetto dei Ciechi (Minuet of the Blind, contains the author's indication for the cellists to place the instrument on their knees and "strum" them as if they were guitars).

III  03:21 Il Rosario

IV  07:55 Passacalle (piece also known as "Los Manolos", in allusion to popular pedestrians)

V   10:16 Ritirata (the soldiers retire to their barracks, having finished their night vigil).

The audio-only version, but with period instruments, is by the chamber ensemble Le Concert des Nations, conducted by Jordi Savall.

Haydn, Symphony No 101, "The Clock"

Since the death of the "Bach of London", Johann Christian Bach, in 1782, the music of Franz Joseph Haydn in that city had been progressively increasing to the point where "it was difficult to find a concert that did not include a piece by him", according to a historian of the time.

Therefore, numerous efforts had been made to arrange a visit of the illustrious composer, which always met with Haydn's refusal. The maestro did not want for anything in the world to bother his patron Nikolaus Esterhazy, whom he served for more than thirty years, as kapellmeister, even if it was in the court of a remote palace isolated in the Hungarian countryside.

A new patron
But with Nikolaus's death in 1790, the master's responsibilities were relieved. Nikolaus was succeeded by his son Anton, a prince with little interest in the arts. Anton got rid of most of the musicians, although he kept Haydn in his post, even increasing his pension, without asking for anything special in return. Faced with the new scenario, Haydn took the opportunity to leave for Vienna as soon as he could. Soon after, the Bonn-born violinist Johann Peter Solomon, who was making a career in London as a concert organizer and clamored for Haydn's competition, came to his house in Vienna. The maestro could not refuse: the conditions were magnificent. Thus, at age 58, Haydn left his native country for the first time. On January 1, 1791, he crossed the Channel and saw the ocean for the first time.

Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809),
painting from 1792

In London
The stay in London resulted in a series of resounding successes, from the professional and financial points of view. The visit had to be repeated two years later. Fruit of those two stays are the so-called "London Symphonies", twelve in all, which represent the pinnacle of the maestro's symphonic creation. Among them are several of the most popular ones born from his pen. For example, the symphony "The Surprise" (No. 94), the "Military" (No. 100), and the so-called "The Clock" (No. 101), the latter two belonging to the second London series, that is, the fruit of the second trip, in the years 1794-95.

Symphony No 101, in D major, Hob 1:101, "The Clock"
(Hob, after Antony van Hoboken, the author of the catalog).
The popular title comes from the quavers of the slow movement, Andante, which follow one after the other with the regularity of a clock. Its premiere took place in London on March 3, 1794, as part of a series of concerts of Haydn's works organized, of course, by his colleague and friend Solomon. The work was applauded with the usual enthusiasm reserved for the works of the "tireless, marvelous and sublime Haydn", as a London newspaper called him on the occasion.

Its movements are four, as usual for a symphony:

00        Adagio - Presto

08:42  Andante

16:23  Minuetto - Allegretto

23:53  Vivace

The performance is by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, conducted by Richard Egarr.