2015 Program Notes, Book 1 |
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form, its greatest appeal arises from the melancholy nature of its themes, a quality
at which Rachmaninov excelled from his earliest works, and the virtuosic pianism
required of the soloist, most notably in the mountainous solo cadenza that occurs
near the end. The brief
Andante
is rhapsodic in spirit and lyrical in style, with the
piano strewing sweeping arabesques upon the subdued orchestral accompaniment.
The finale is aggressive and virtuosic, with a quiet center section to provide contrast
before the work’s brilliant closing pages.
SYMPHONY NO. 7 IN A MAJOR, OP. 92
(1811-1812)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 is scored for pairs of woodwinds,
horns and trumpets, timpani and strings. The performance
time is 36 minutes. The Grant Park Orchestra first performed
this Symphony on August 17, 1938, Hans Lange conducting.
The Seventh Symphony is a magnificent creation in which
Beethoven displayed several technical innovations that were to have a profound
influence on the music of the 19th century: he expanded the scope of symphonic
structure through the use of more distant tonal areas; he brought an unprecedented
richness and range to the orchestral palette; and he gave a new awareness of rhythm
as the vitalizing force in music. It is particularly the last of these characteristics that
most immediately affects the listener, and to which commentators have consistently
turned to explain the vibrant power of the work. Perhaps the most famous such
observation about the Seventh Symphony is that of Richard Wagner, who called
the work “the apotheosis of the Dance in its highest aspect ... the loftiest deed
of bodily motion incorporated in an ideal world of tone.” “Beethoven,” John N.
Burk explained, “seems to have built up this impression by willfully driving a single
rhythmic figure through each movement, until the music attains (particularly in
the body of the first movement and in the Finale) a swift propulsion, an effect of
cumulative growth.”
A slow introduction, almost a movement in itself, opens the Symphony. This
initial section employs two themes: the first, majestic and unadorned, is passed
down through the winds while being punctuated by long, rising scales in the strings;
the second is a graceful melody for oboe. The transition to the main part of the
first movement is accomplished by the superbly controlled reiteration of a single
pitch. The
Allegretto
scored such a success at its premiere that it was immediately
encored, a phenomenon virtually unprecedented for a slow movement. In form, the
movement is a series of variations on the heartbeat rhythm of its opening measures.
In spirit, however, it is more closely allied to the austere chaconne of the Baroque
era than to the light, figural variations of Classicism. The third movement, a study
in contrasts of sonority and dynamics, is built on the formal model of the scherzo,
but expanded to include a repetition of the horn-dominated Trio (Scherzo – Trio –
Scherzo – Trio – Scherzo). In the sonata-form finale, Beethoven not only produced
music of virtually unmatched rhythmic energy (“a triumph of Bacchic fury,” in the
words of Sir Donald Tovey), but did it in such a manner as to exceed the climaxes of
the earlier movements and make it the goal toward which they had all been aimed.
So intoxicating is this music that some of Beethoven’s contemporaries were sure he
had composed it in a drunken frenzy. An encounter with the Seventh Symphony is
a heady experience. “I am Bacchus incarnate,” boasted Beethoven, “appointed to
give humanity wine to drown its sorrow.... He who divines the secret of my music is
delivered from the misery that haunts the world.”
©2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
