Concerts & Tickets
Schumann 200 - Romantic Spring
- Weber
Programme note
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Overture, Der Freischütz (1821)Der Freischütz is the one Weber opera that is as good as the promise of its overture - unlike, say, Euryanthe or Oberon which are so disastrously let down by inept libretti. An instant success on its first performance in Berlin in 1821, within a few years Der Freischütz had been performed in every major opera house in Europe. Johann Friedrich Kind's libretto has its weaknesses, too, but it is effectively designed for the stage and it presents a clear conflict between the forces of good and evil against the romantic background of the great German forest. The duality is no less clear in Weber's score, which is based on a corresponding long-term conflict between the keys of C major and C minor.
The Overture condenses the narrative complexities of the three acts of the opera into a masterfully constructed miniature tone poem. The Adagio introduction sets the scene in the forest with mysteriously slow moving lines on strings and woodwind and idealised hunting calls on the four horns. Just before the tempo changes, the sinister sound of the forces of evil are heard in eerie harmonies on strings and clarinets and dull thuds on the timpani - material derived from the famous 'Wolf's Glen' scene in the second act. The Molto vivace begins in C minor with anxious syncopations on the strings and an unhappy theme to be sung by the forester hero Max in the first act. The force of good enters only as a second subject when, after a clarinet solo that spreads light into the prevailing gloom, a brilliantly radiant melody associated with Max's betrothed Agathe is introduced by violins and clarinet and then taken up by other woodwind. Dramatic exchanges between the main themes are interrupted by a change of scene back to the 'Wolf's Glen', at which point the forces of evil seem to be in the ascendant. But, after a long pause and a massive chord of C major, Agathe's redemptive melody makes its exuberant and ultimately triumphant return.
© Gerald Larner
- Wagner
Programme note
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Wesendonck Lieder (1857-8)Der Engel (The Angel)
Stehe still! (Remain still!)
Im Treibhaus (In the Conservatory)
Schmerzen (Agonies)
Traume (Dreams)
While still married to the reproachful Minna, and with his marriage to the sterner, more enduring Cosima still thirteen years in the future, Wagner became temporarily involved with Mathilde Wesendonck, who served as his muse during his spell of impoverished political exile in Switzerland. The young wife of a wealthy German silk merchant who had retired to Zurich, she was a would-be poet five of whose very Wagnerian effusions inspired the composer’s 'Five Songs for a Female Voice.'In this way she achieved an immortality that would otherwise have been denied her.With her husband Otto Wesendonck as one of Wagner’s most generous sponsors of the period - he even provided the composer with free accommodation in premises next door to his villa - it could be said that Wagner was paid well for his efforts. But the songs, in any case, were masterly, not least because two of them supplied vivid foretastes of Tristan and Isolde, which by then was looming on the horizon and would be staged in Munich in 1865. In the Wesendonck Lieder, Wagner’s love for Mathilde was, in the words of one Wagner authority, “celebrated and idealised,” even if, as seems likely, her arrival in his life simply confirmed that Tristan was already present in his mind.
Though originally for solo voice and piano, the songs benefited - as later would so many of Mahler’s - from the colouring of their orchestral adaptations. Yet only one of them, the haunting Traume, was orchestrated by Wagner himself. The distinguished Austrian conductor Felix Mottl supplied, with the composer’s approval, all the others, before eventually collapsing and dying in the middle of a performance of (ironically) Tristan in 1911. Modern performers now have access to a second version, for chamber orchestra, of all five songs, made by Hans Werner Henze in 1976.
Of the two songs described as 'studies' for Tristan and Isolde, employing thematic material that would be fully developed in the opera, Im Treibhaus (In the Conservatory) suggests the infinite desolation of the prelude to Act Three, and Traume (Dreams) clearly anticipates the love music from Act Two. Though these are obviously the most significant of the Wesendonck Lieder, all five of them possess an emotion and a glowing beauty of line which make it seem a pity that Wagner did not venture more often into the realm of song writing.
© Conrad Wilson
1 Der Engel
In der Kindheit frühen Tagen
hört ich oft von Engeln sagen,
die des Himmels hehre Wonne
tauschen mit der Erdensonne,
daß, wo bang ein Herz in Sorgen
schmachtet vor der Welt verborgen,
daß, wo still es will verbluten
und vergehn in Tränenfluten,
daß, wo brünstig sein Gebet
einzig um Erlösung fleht,
da der Engel niederschwebt
und es sanft gen Himmel hebt.
Ja, es stieg auch mir ein Engel nieder,
und auf leuchtendem Gefieder
führt er ferne jedem Schmerz
meinen Geist nun himmelwärts!1 Angel
In my tender days of childhood
I would oft hear that angels
gave up the bliss of heaven
for earthly sun,
so there where some suffering heart
sighed, hidden from the world,
so there where it ran the risk of bleeding
to death in an outpoor of tears,
so there where its ardent prayer
emitted an impassioned plea for redemption,
an angel might descend
and elevate such heart towards heaven.
So I, too, have now been visited by an angel,
who carries upon the sparkling wings,
far from all pain,
my spirit up, to heaven.2 Stehe still
Sausendes, brausendes Rad der Zeit,
Messer du der Ewigkeit;
leuchtende Sphären im weiten All,
die ihr umringt den Weltenball;
urewige Schöpfung, halte doch ein,
genug des Werdens, laß mich sein!
Halte an dich, zeugende Kraft,
Urgedanke, der ewig schafft!
Hemme den Atem, stille den Drang,
schweige nur eine Sekunde lang!
Schwellende Pulse, fesselt den Schlag;
ende, des Wollens ew’ger Tag!Daß in selig süßem Vergessen
ich mög’alle Wonnen ermessen!
Wenn Aug in Auge wonnig trinken,
Seele ganz in Seele versinken,
Wesen in Wesen sich wiederfindet,
und alles Hoffens Ende sich kündet,
die Lippe verstummt in staunendem Schweigen,
keinen Wunsch mehr will das Inn’re zeugen:
erkennt der Mensch des Ew’gen Spur,
und lös’t dein Rätsel, heil’ge Natur!2 Stand still
You rushing, flying wheel of time,
you which are the measure of eternity;
you shining spheres in distant space
which surround the globe;
you primeval creature, stand still,
enough of growth, leave me alone!
Stand back, you fecund force,
you primal idea that constantly creates!
Hold your breath, calm down your agitation,
be silent for a single second!
You rushing pulses, restrain your pace,
come to an end, you endless day of desire!So that in charming sweet oblivion
I may fathom every delight!
Once an eye has been blissfully intoxicated with another eye,
once a soul has become immersed in another soul,
once a being has been reunited with itself in another being,
once the end of all hope has been announced,
once lips have grown dumb in the wonder of silence,
once the sould has ceased to nurture desire,
then man will discover the imprint of eternity,
and he will solve your riddle, holy nature!3 Im Treibhaus
Hochgewölbte Blätterkronen,
Baldachine von Smaragd,
Kinder ihr aus fernen Zonen
saget mir, warum ihr klagt?
Schweigend neiget ihr die Zweige,
malet Zeichen in die Luft,
und der Leiden stummer Zeuge,
steiget aufwärts süßer Duft.Weit in sehnendem Verlangen
breitet ihr die Arme aus,
und umschlinget wahnbefangen
öder Leere nicht’gen Graus.
Wohl, ich weiß es, arme Pflanze:
ein Geschicke teilen wir,
ob umstrahlt von Licht und Glanze,
unsre Heimat ist nicht hier!Und wie froh die Sonne scheidet
von des Tages leerem Schein,
hüllet der, der wahrhaft leidet,
sich in Schweigens Dunkel ein.Stille wird’s, ein säuselnd Weben
füllet bang den dunklen Raum:
schwere Tropfen seh’ ich schweben
an der Blätter grünem Saum.3 In the Glassouse
You arching leaf-clad treetops,
you emerald canopies,
you children from faraway lands,
tell me, why are you lamenting?
You bow your branches down in silence,
drawing signs in the air,
and a sweet scent is rising up,
as sorrow’s speechless witness.In ardent desire
you spread your arms wide open,
and, captives of delusion, embrace
the worthless demon of the baren void.
And yet I know, you miserable plant:
we share one fate,
though we may bask in light and brightness,
this is not our home!And as the sun joyfully parts
with the day’s empty light,
so he who genuinely suffers,
wraps himself in the dark of silence.Quiet prevails, the lightest murmur
wistfully fills the darkened space:
I perceive heavy dewdrops falling down
from leaves’ green borders.4 Schmerzen
Sonne, weinest jeden Abend
dir die schönen Augen rot,
wenn im Meeresspiegel badend
dich erreicht der frühe Tod;
doch erstehst in alter Pracht,
Glorie der düstren Welt,
du am Morgen neu erwacht,
wie ein stolzer Siegesheld!Ach, wie sollte ich klagen,
wie, mein Herz, so schwer dich sehn,
muß die Sonne selbst verzagen,
muß die Sonne untergehn?
Und gebieret Tod nur Leben,
geben Schmerzen Wonnen mir:
O wie dank’ich, daß gegeben
solche Schmerzen mir Natur!4 Pain
Sun, every evening
your eyes turn red from crying,
as, while taking a bath in the ocean’s waters,
you are overwhelmed by untimely death.
But then in your old glory,
you rise anew, you halo of the woeful world,
awakened on this coming dawn,
a proud, triumphant hero!Oh, why should I complain,
why should you be so heavy, heart of mine,
if the sun himself is bound,
if the sun himself is bound to set?
And if life’s sole outcome is death,
if pain brings me delight,
Oh how grateful I am
that nature gave me so much pain!5 Träume
Sag’, welch wunderbare Träume
halten meinen Sinn umfangen,
daß sie nicht wie leere Schäume
sind in ödes Nichts vergangen?Träume, die in jeder Stunde,
jedem Tage schöner blüh’n,
und mit ihrer Himmelskunde
selig durch’s Gemüte ziehn?Träume, die wie hehre Strahlen
in die Seele sich versenken,
dort ein ewig Bild zu malen:
Allvergessen, Eingedenken!
Träume, wie wenn Frühlingssonne
aus dem Schnee die Blüthen küßt,
daß zu nie geahnter Wonne
sie der neue Tag begrüßt,
daß sie wachsen, daß sie blühen,
träumend spenden ihren Duft,
sanft an deiner Brust verglühen
und dann sinken in die Gruft.5 Dreams
Tell me, what strange dreams
are holding my mind captive,
that prevent it from dissolving like formless foam
to barren nothingness?Dreams which with every hour,
every new day yield sweeter blossoms,
and which, laden with their heavenly message,
happily unfurl in the mind?Dreams which, like brilliant rays,
penetrate deep into the soul,
there to imprint the eternal image:
Of all forgetting, and of recollecting!
Dreams such as when the sun in spring
raises by kisses flowers from the snow,
so that the new-born day
may welcome them to peerless delight,
so they may grow, so they may blossom,
so they may dreamily give out their perfume,
so they may fade upon your bosom,
and then fall into the grave. - Schumann
Programme note
Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)
Symphony No 1 in B-flat, Op 38 ‘Spring’ (1841)Andante un poco maestoso - Allegro molto vivace
Larghetto
Scherzo - Molto vivace
Allegro animato e graziosoSchumann was an impulsive, obsessive man and as a composer that manifested itself in the way he focused on one genre after another. For many years he wrote little more than piano music; then suddenly he had a great year of song, 1840-41, during which he wrote most of his vocal music and all of his great song-cycles. In 1841 he turned to the symphony and in the space of twelve months produced three works which were to become his first and fourth symphonies and a quasi-symphony called Prelude, Scherzo and Finale – a sort of symphony without a slow movement. The Fourth Symphony and the Prelude, Scherzo and Finale would later be revised - for better or worse is still a matter of debate – but the first symphony, the ‘Spring’ has all the energy of certainty about it. Schumann dashed it down in outline over just four days in January 1841, and completed it not long after. Perhaps he knew so clearly what he wanted to achieve because as a music critic, he had long reflected on other composers’ efforts. Here is a particularly revealing passage - part of an iffy review he gave of a symphony by Gottfried Preyer which had won a competition:
“Sometimes I wish that a young composer might give us, just once, a light merry symphony, in a major key, without trombones and doubled horns. But then, of course, that is even more difficult...”
He did not entirely follow his own advice in the ‘Spring’ Symphony - there are trombones and horns - but it is in a major key, full of energy and merriment, and notably lacking in the kind of worthy ‘great’ musical thought he had found distressing in Preyer’s work.
The title is drawn from a line by the German Romantic poet, Böttger: “Im Tale zieht der frühling auf” (“In the valley, spring approaches”). Schumann wanted the orchestra to play with all the freshness and yearning of new growth: to capture the excitement and relief at the end of winter. Originally, he gave all the movements poetic titles, but withdrew them later, having decided that Berlioz was wrong to tell a story too literally in his Symphonie Fantastique and that a symphony should be able to communicate its ideas without subtitles. Perhaps, at the back of his mind, there was also the risk of provoking too close a comparison to Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony. With or without subtitles, it is plain that the opening movement is very much an awakening - the trumpets give a call to which all respond - and that the flow of invention culminates in ‘High Spring’ in the finale.
© Svend Brown
- conductor
- mezzo-soprano
If there were a league table of Romantic composers, these three would never be out of the top six. Between them they created and evolved the musical language with which to express the quintessential Romantic bond with nature as a spiritual force, developing one of the most expressive and fertile art forms imaginable. The marvellous Scottish mezzo Karen Cargill performs Wagner’s passionate love songs.
Subscribe to concerts
Save money with an SCO concert subscription and get a free concert, £5 CD voucher and many other benefits.
Support Us
Become an SCO Patron, join the 250 Society, take advantage of sponsorship opportunities or our Corporate Members scheme.
