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Programme note

Programme note to follow.

Programme note

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Symphony No 5 in D major, Op 107, ‘Reformation’ (1832)

Andante – Allegro con fuoco
Allegro vivace
Andante –
Chorale: Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott – Andante con moto – Allegro vivace - Allegro maestoso

In the 'Reformation' symphony, Mendelssohn forged an orchestral link between church and concert hall without the assistance of a choir. The chorale-like orchestration of Martin Luther’s setting of Psalm 46, Ein’ feste Burg (‘A Safe Stronghold’), and the quoting of Johann Naumann’s Dresden Amen half a century before Wagner employed it in Parsifal, were conceived symphonically with a brilliance and solemnity entirely suited to the occasion that was the work’s raison d’etre. Indeed the tercentenary of the Augsburg Protestant Confession of 1530, through which the Lutheran Church displaced Catholicism in Germany, could not have found a composer better equipped than Mendelssohn to celebrate it.

Young though he was when he wrote this wrongly-numbered work (it was the second, not the fifth, of his mature symphonies) Mendelssohn’s grasp of what was needed was audaciously assured. Yet it never had the auspicious send-off it deserved. The 1830 premiere was postponed. A performance in Paris was cancelled because the players deemed it too didactic. Not until Mendelssohn made revisions was it finally unveiled in Berlin in November 1832, with the composer himself conducting. Even today it falls short of the Italian and Scotch symphonies in popularity. But this at least has the advantage of making every good performance of it a revelation.

In addition to its religious back-references, the work also contains a famous symphonic one, declaimed in the slow introduction to the first movement in conjunction with the Dresden Amen. So recognisable is this as the opening of Haydn’s London symphony that the resemblance hardly seems coincidental. The main allegro section is in Mendelssohn’s stormiest vein, with swirling anticipations of the Hebrides overture, but the poetic highpoint is the softly inspired reappearance of the Dresden Amen just before the subdued start of the recapitulation.

The two central movements are intermezzi, first a gracefully swaying scherzo, next a rather operatic song – or recitative - without words, serving as introduction to the finale, which is announced with a gradually swelling delivery of Ein’ feste Burg. It’s towards this sonorous chorale that the work has clearly been heading. The ending is grand and exuberant.

© Conrad Wilson

Programme note

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Symphony No 5 in D major, Op 107, ‘Reformation’ (1832)

Andante – Allegro con fuoco
Allegro vivace
Andante –
Chorale: Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott – Andante con moto – Allegro vivace - Allegro maestoso

In the 'Reformation' symphony, Mendelssohn forged an orchestral link between church and concert hall without the assistance of a choir. The chorale-like orchestration of Martin Luther’s setting of Psalm 46, Ein’ feste Burg (‘A Safe Stronghold’), and the quoting of Johann Naumann’s Dresden Amen half a century before Wagner employed it in Parsifal, were conceived symphonically with a brilliance and solemnity entirely suited to the occasion that was the work’s raison d’etre. Indeed the tercentenary of the Augsburg Protestant Confession of 1530, through which the Lutheran Church displaced Catholicism in Germany, could not have found a composer better equipped than Mendelssohn to celebrate it.

Young though he was when he wrote this wrongly-numbered work (it was the second, not the fifth, of his mature symphonies) Mendelssohn’s grasp of what was needed was audaciously assured. Yet it never had the auspicious send-off it deserved. The 1830 premiere was postponed. A performance in Paris was cancelled because the players deemed it too didactic. Not until Mendelssohn made revisions was it finally unveiled in Berlin in November 1832, with the composer himself conducting. Even today it falls short of the Italian and Scotch symphonies in popularity. But this at least has the advantage of making every good performance of it a revelation.

In addition to its religious back-references, the work also contains a famous symphonic one, declaimed in the slow introduction to the first movement in conjunction with the Dresden Amen. So recognisable is this as the opening of Haydn’s London symphony that the resemblance hardly seems coincidental. The main allegro section is in Mendelssohn’s stormiest vein, with swirling anticipations of the Hebrides overture, but the poetic highpoint is the softly inspired reappearance of the Dresden Amen just before the subdued start of the recapitulation.

The two central movements are intermezzi, first a gracefully swaying scherzo, next a rather operatic song – or recitative - without words, serving as introduction to the finale, which is announced with a gradually swelling delivery of Ein’ feste Burg. It’s towards this sonorous chorale that the work has clearly been heading. The ending is grand and exuberant.

© Conrad Wilson

Programme note

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Symphony no 4 in D minor, Op 120 (revised version, 1851)

1. Ziemlich langsam – lehaft –
2. Romanze. Ziemlich langsam –
3. Scherzo. Lebhaft –
4. Langsam – lebhaft

In 1838, during a visit to Vienna, Schumann discovered the autograph score of Schubert’s Symphony no 9, the so-called ‘Great’ C major Symphony, neglected and still unperformed. The discovery made him “tingle to be at work on a symphony”. Up until 1840 he composed little but solo piano music. His long-delayed marriage to Clara Wieck that year coincided with a torrent of song-writing, and 1841 saw him devote himself, with equal single-mindedness, to orchestral music.

The D minor Symphony was intended as a present for Clara’s birthday on 13 September. In March he noted in his diary his intention to write a ‘Clara’ symphony: “in it I will paint her picture with flutes and oboes and harps.” Together with the overture, scherzo and finale, the D minor Symphony was first performed in Leipzig in December, but it was given a cool reception, prompting Schumann to withdraw the work.

Ten years later he revised and re-scored it. At first he called the new version Symphonic fantasy, but changed the title back to ‘Symphony’ before the first performance in March 1853, giving it the number by which we know it today. He also added repeat indications to the opening sections of the first movement allegro and the finale, and replaced the original Italian movement headings with German ones.

In its final form Symphony no 4 is Schumann’s most concentrated attempt at welding a multi-movement work into a unified whole. Themes recur across all four movements, which follow one another without breaks. The most important of the 1851 revisions are aimed at strengthening the links between the movements, smoothing the transition from the introduction into the first movement and from the scherzo into the finale. The other major difference is that the 1851 orchestration is thicker and heavier. Schumann erred on the side of caution in making sure that every important instrumental entry was covered as securely as possible but Brahms, for one, preferred the lighter scoring of the first version. There are gains and losses in both scores – the original’s clarity of orchestration against the more compelling sense of unity in the later version – and now that the original is being played more frequently it seems likely that the two will simply coexist side-by-side.

The slow introduction is based on a gently falling and rising idea out of which an upwardly arching little phrase for the violins coalesces, as the tempo quickens, into the bustling theme of the main section of the movement. The opening section of the allegro is marked to be repeated in the 1851, but not the 1841, score. Two contrasting ideas appear a little later: a tautly rhythmic theme for woodwind, and a smoother song-like melody for violins answered by oboe and clarinet.

The slow movement begins with an expressive melody for oboe and cellos. The music of the first movement’s introduction returns, leading to the central section, based on a new theme, lazily floating downwards on solo violin. The oboe/cello melody, now joined by bassoon, closes the movement.

The fiery, vigorous scherzo includes a central trio section which brings back the solo violin music from the second movement in a new rhythm. This comes round again at the end of the movement, settling on a gently rocking figure, out of which the finale begins to emerge, with music familiar from the transition to the first movement. Gradually the tension builds, the pace quickens, and after a dramatic pause a new version of the first movement’s energetic woodwind theme launches the finale. This exultant music is Schumann at his most celebratory. It accumulates irresistible energy and drive, swept along on a rhythmically propulsive current which twice accelerates towards the end to carry the symphony to its triumphant conclusion.

© Mike Wheeler

Programme note

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Symphony no 4 in D minor, Op 120 (revised version, 1851)

1. Ziemlich langsam – lehaft –
2. Romanze. Ziemlich langsam –
3. Scherzo. Lebhaft –
4. Langsam – lebhaft

In 1838, during a visit to Vienna, Schumann discovered the autograph score of Schubert’s Symphony no 9, the so-called ‘Great’ C major Symphony, neglected and still unperformed. The discovery made him “tingle to be at work on a symphony”. Up until 1840 he composed little but solo piano music. His long-delayed marriage to Clara Wieck that year coincided with a torrent of song-writing, and 1841 saw him devote himself, with equal single-mindedness, to orchestral music.

The D minor Symphony was intended as a present for Clara’s birthday on 13 September. In March he noted in his diary his intention to write a ‘Clara’ symphony: “in it I will paint her picture with flutes and oboes and harps.” Together with the overture, scherzo and finale, the D minor Symphony was first performed in Leipzig in December, but it was given a cool reception, prompting Schumann to withdraw the work.

Ten years later he revised and re-scored it. At first he called the new version Symphonic fantasy, but changed the title back to ‘Symphony’ before the first performance in March 1853, giving it the number by which we know it today. He also added repeat indications to the opening sections of the first movement allegro and the finale, and replaced the original Italian movement headings with German ones.

In its final form Symphony no 4 is Schumann’s most concentrated attempt at welding a multi-movement work into a unified whole. Themes recur across all four movements, which follow one another without breaks. The most important of the 1851 revisions are aimed at strengthening the links between the movements, smoothing the transition from the introduction into the first movement and from the scherzo into the finale. The other major difference is that the 1851 orchestration is thicker and heavier. Schumann erred on the side of caution in making sure that every important instrumental entry was covered as securely as possible but Brahms, for one, preferred the lighter scoring of the first version. There are gains and losses in both scores – the original’s clarity of orchestration against the more compelling sense of unity in the later version – and now that the original is being played more frequently it seems likely that the two will simply coexist side-by-side.

The slow introduction is based on a gently falling and rising idea out of which an upwardly arching little phrase for the violins coalesces, as the tempo quickens, into the bustling theme of the main section of the movement. The opening section of the allegro is marked to be repeated in the 1851, but not the 1841, score. Two contrasting ideas appear a little later: a tautly rhythmic theme for woodwind, and a smoother song-like melody for violins answered by oboe and clarinet.

The slow movement begins with an expressive melody for oboe and cellos. The music of the first movement’s introduction returns, leading to the central section, based on a new theme, lazily floating downwards on solo violin. The oboe/cello melody, now joined by bassoon, closes the movement.

The fiery, vigorous scherzo includes a central trio section which brings back the solo violin music from the second movement in a new rhythm. This comes round again at the end of the movement, settling on a gently rocking figure, out of which the finale begins to emerge, with music familiar from the transition to the first movement. Gradually the tension builds, the pace quickens, and after a dramatic pause a new version of the first movement’s energetic woodwind theme launches the finale. This exultant music is Schumann at his most celebratory. It accumulates irresistible energy and drive, swept along on a rhythmically propulsive current which twice accelerates towards the end to carry the symphony to its triumphant conclusion.

© Mike Wheeler