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Bravo Brahms!
Saturday, January 12, 2007, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, January 13, 2007, 2:00 p.m.
 Program Notes
KÜNSTLERQUADRILLE, Op.201
"After Themes by the Celebrated Masters"
Johann Strauss II, 1825-1899
The Austro-Hungarian Empire never entirely recovered from the
devastation of the Napoleonic wars. Throughout the nineteenth century it
fought a rearguard action to maintain its integrity against nationalist
movements from within and encroachment by its neighbors, especially
Prussia and the Ottoman Empire, from without.
But in Vienna, the capital, you would have seen little of that
instability on the surface. For those at the Habsburg court, the
well-to-do and the upper class of civil service, it was a time of
glitter and joie de vivre, the most brilliant and prosperous
period of the empire.
Opulent parties, balls and dancing were all the rage. And nothing
reflects the age better than the era's dance music, especially the
waltz. The honor of making the waltz and other folk dances, such as the
polka, into the symbol of Viennese society fell primarily to Joseph
Lanner (1801-1843) and Johann Strauss I (1804-1849), the Father of
Johann Strauss II. They introduced these dances to the society's
ballrooms, making them respectable.
Johann Strauss II took over where Lanner and his father left off. He is
by far the best known of nineteenth century Vienna's composers of dance
music, adored by high society who fondly named him the Waltz King. He
was by nature shy, self-effacing and insecure, far removed in nature
from the light-heartedness and exuberance expressed in his music. He was
a close friend of Brahms, who always tried to convince him that
posterity would remember his music, but to no avail. Brahms, however,
got it right.
The quadrille originated in the seventeenth century as part of military
parades, during which four riders performed special square shaped
formations or "figures." In France during the mid-eighteenth century it
morphed into a dance for four to sixteen couples. By the nineteenth
century, the quadrille had become popular throughout Europe. Analogous
to the American square dance, the quadrille consisted of numerous steps
and formations that could achieve considerable complexity. The entire
dance consisted of four to six separate parts, or contredances, often in
different meters and with a set number of measures. Each contredance had
its own themes, creating a kind of medley of tunes
Strauss composed nearly 100 quadrilles, but surprisingly, none after
1870. He composed the Künstler Quadrille (Artists' Quadrille) in
1858. The music for the different parts is a potpourri of popular
classical themes reflecting that year's concert season.
Name that tune.
(No musical notes for this work)
CELLO CONCERTO IN C MAJOR, Hob.VIIb:1
Franz Joseph Haydn 1732-1809
The authenticity of Franz Joseph Haydn's cello concertos has been in
question for the last two centuries. The existence of the Cello Concerto
in C Major, however, has never been in doubt since Haydn listed it in
the Entwurf-Katalog (a thematic draft catalogue) of his works,
which he began compiling in 1765 after his patron, Nicolaus von
Esterházy, admonished him for "negligence." For nearly 200 years,
however, the Concerto was considered lost; neither the original
manuscript nor a copy of a printed edition was ever located. But in 1961
a copy was discovered in a collection in the Czech National Library,
bearing the signature of Joseph Weigl Sr., Haydn's cellist, who was in
the service of the Esterházy court from 1761 to 1768, and for whom Haydn
probably composed it. The score lacks a separate orchestral cello,
leading some scholars to surmise that the Esterházy orchestra had only a
single cellist. Considering both the technical and musical demands of
the work, Weigl must have been an outstanding musician.
 The first movement of the Concerto is dominated by a single theme, although the theme itself includes several motives that Haydn develops separately.
Haydn, who was always looking for ways to spice up conventional forms, begins rather sedately here until the cadenza, which includes unusual modulations and virtuosic tricks.
The lyrical second movement contains a certain pathos we have come to associate more with Mozart than Haydn. It seems entirely likely that the richness of the voice of the solo instrument may have inspired in the composer a more intense emotional outpouring.
The spirited Finale, written in sonata allegro form, represented another chance for Haydn to show what he could do in spinning out a single theme into a series of short motives and a large variety of rapidly changing moods.
The entire movement is also a real showpiece for the soloist, especially in its rapid, staccato bowings.
SYMPHONY No.2 IN D MAJOR, Op.73
Johannes Brahms 1833-1897
Unsure of his ability to compose symphonies,
Brahms took fourteen years to finish his first in 1876. Its critical and
popular success, while far from overwhelming, gave him the confidence to
try his hand at a symphony again, and this time with much greater
assurance; thus it took him just a few months in the summer and fall of
1877 to compose his second. The contrast between the two can be compared
to that between Beethoven's fifth and sixth symphonies, and the parallel
can be extended to the environment, which gave them birth. Brahms spent
the summer of 1877 in Pörtschach, an out-of-the-way village in the
Austrian countryside, from where he wrote to Eduard Hanslick: "So many
melodies fly about, one must be careful not to step on them". The
symphony's sunny spirit – especially the last two movements – and
relatively transparent orchestration harks back to the young Brahms of
the two orchestral serenades (1856-60), and has less of the dense
orchestration that permeates much of Brahms' symphonic writing. It
induced one of Brahms' friends to exclaim: "It is all rippling streams,
blue sky, sunshine and cool green shadows. How beautiful it must be at
Pörtschach!". But true to Brahms' nature, the symphony has its darker
moments. Clara Schumann commented on the somber mood in parts of the
first movement, and when a friend objected to the gloom and harshness of
the trombones in the second movement, the composer replied that it
reflects his habitual melancholy.
 The Symphony presents many original and ingenious variations on traditional symphonic forms, including ways of integrating the movements thematically. It opens with a gentle, lilting theme,
the opening three notes of which, in the cellos and basses, comprise a motivic element that pervades the first movement.
The motive appears sometimes in the melody, at others as an accompanying figure.
Yet, offsetting this persistent kernel is a considerable array of themes, some of which find the little motive embedded within them, as in this rhythmically varied version that opens the second theme.
Once audiences are attuned to listen for it, they can find it everywhere. The second theme in f-sharp minor is one of those places where Hanslick's perceived sunshine temporarily hides behind the clouds of Brahms's melancholy.
There is also a heart of darkness in the development. Nevertheless, good weather prevails by the end with a gentle coda recalling the recurring motto and ending with a restatement of the first theme.
Like the preceding movement, the Adagio non troppo is packed with thematic material, but this time the sunshine pretty much stays behind the clouds from the start.
Here Brahms breaks down two longer themes into fragments, using the three-note motto from the first movement as an integral part of the second thematic group.
The reprise of both sections is in free variation, reminiscent of the slow movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The movement concludes with a wistful coda.
The Scherzo opens with a beautiful allegretto grazioso solo for the reed woodwinds, accompanied by pizzicato cellos.
The Trio sets the traditional contrast of mood with a change from triple to duple meter and an abrupt increase in tempo and new orchestration emphasizing the strings. Brahms, however, does not use the customary new thematic material for the Trio, but rather a radical transformation of the Scherzo theme.
The Trio gradually winds down in tempo to blend smoothly into a free variation of the Scherzo reprise.
The Finale, the most festive movement Brahms ever wrote, begins, however, with a sotto voce rhythmic variation of the three-note motto from the opening movement, here once again in the cellos and basses.
The movement is in modified sonata-rondo form with the following second theme.
Brahms freely develops both themes in the intervening episodes, ending with an ebullient coda and a final trumpet fanfare.
Program notes copyright ©
Elizabeth and Joseph Kahn 2006
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