Program Notes - Out of This World - March 17

Program Notes
March 17, 2012
By Composer in Residence
Bruce Brown

Tonight’s concert by the JSO takes us “Out of This World” with music by two composers whose music storms the heavens and a dynamic, fanciful look at the planets of the solar system.

Richard Wagner famously said “I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven.” The Swiss philosopher Henri Frédéric Amiel once wrote “Mozart has the classic purity of light and the blue ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai.”

Gustav Holst may have a more humble place in history, but his epic work, The Planets, is a stunning tour de force and one of the most enduring creations of the past century.

These great works certainly promise to lift us to a higher realm!

Overture to Idomeneo K. 366

Idomeneo, is generally considered Mozart’s first mature opera, even though it was his twelfth. Mozart conducted the premiere two days after his 25th birthday, on January 29, 1781, in the palace of Karl Theodor, the Elector of Bavaria, who commissioned the work for a court carnival.

The opera relates the story of King Idomeneo who is returning to Crete after fighting on the losing side in the Trojan War. When a terrible storm threatens the ship, he swears to the gods that he will sacrifice the first person he meets on land. Naturally, this turns out to be his own son, Idamante. In the end Neptune allows Idomeneo to save his son, but forces him to give up his throne in return.

Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 61

Beethoven’s landmark violin concerto and his seventh symphony - which the JSO performed in February - both come from the fertile middle period of his creativity, which was a defiant reaction to his increasing deafness. Much of Beethoven’s music of this time reflects his energetic “heroic” style, but this concerto is often described as lyric and genteel.

There is a famous quote in which Beethoven scolds a member of the Schuppanzigh Quartet by saying "Do you think I care about your wretched fiddle when the spirit takes hold of me?" The truth is, he knew the capabilities of the instrument very well, and he used that knowledge to great effect whenever he wrote for the violin.

Beethoven wrote his concerto for the 26-year-old violinist Franz Clement, who performed it for the first time on December 23, 1806, in Vienna’s famous Theater an der Wien, with Beethoven himself conducting. Beethoven wrote the concerto very quickly – some reports say in as little as two days – which is even more remarkable since it is by far the most extensive violin concerto written up to that point.

Clement had very little time to rehearse and was practically sight reading the music! To make the evening complete, he inserted a little piece of his own - which some say involved playing the violin upside down - between the first and second movements of Beethoven’s concerto! It’s hard to imagine such a thing today, but it was far more common then.

The initial reaction to the new concerto was lukewarm, and it didn’t enjoy great popularity at first. That all changed in 1844, almost 20 years after Beethoven’s death, when another young genius of the violin, 12-year-old Joseph Joachim, championed the piece on a tour of Europe with conductor Felix Mendelssohn. Joachim played the piece many times during his illustrious career, and it quickly became one of the most important concertos in the repertoire.

The Planets

In August of 1914, as the great conflagration of World War I was erupting in Europe, British composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was finishing the first movement of his suite, The Planets, in his rural cottage in Thaxted. Like so many others, Holst tried to enlist, but several medical conditions made him unfit for duty.

Holst wrote the remaining six movements of The Planets over the next two years. There was no reason to rush. It would probably have been impossible to perform his piece, which calls for a huge orchestra, during the conflict.

The first full-blown performance of The Planets was hastily assembled on September 29, 1918, as the war was ending. Holst was about leave for the Greek city of Salonika to entertain the troops, when his friend Henry Balfour Gardiner arranged for a performance in The Queen’s Hall in London.

The orchestra only the got the music a couple of hours ahead of time, and only about 250 people attended, but Holst was so delighted he wrote in the conductor’s score "This copy is the property of Adrian Boult who first caused The Planets to shine in public and thereby earned the gratitude of Gustav Holst."

Over time The Planets became so popular that Holst began to resent the attention it received, feeling that his other works were being ignored.

The movements of the suite are named after the planets of the solar system, but Holst said his inspiration for the music was astrological, not astronomical. Holst developed a great interest in astrology, and in his music he interpreted the ideas and emotions associated with each planet, but in his own way and very freely. His daughter Imogen later wrote that once the basic idea for each movement was decided “… he let the music have its way with him.”

The subtitles for the movements vividly describe the character of the music. Mars, the Bringer of War beats out a harsh five-beat ostinato as dissonant harmonies evoke all-too-prophetic images of massive war machines. The serenity of Venus, the Bringer of Peace could hardly be a more dramatic contrast. Mercury, the Winged Messenger is a lightning fast scherzo that Holst felt mirrored quickness of human thought. Uranus, the Magician is playful and boisterous. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age, Holst’s favorite movement, plumbs the mystery of the stages of life and ends with the serenity of wisdom. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity draws on Holst’s interest in British folk music to create a jovial spirit of celebration.