Program Notes

April 25, 2009

Richard Strauss – “Don Juan”

Richard Strauss was only 19 years old when, in 1885, he met the composer and violinist Alexander Ritter. A proponent of the philosophical ideas of Schopenhauer and the musical ideals of Wagner and Liszt, Ritter became something of a mentor to Strauss, introducing him to what Strauss would come to call the “music of the future.” Today, few remember the name of Ritter; but all classical music listeners recognize the name of Richard Strauss, who took Ritter’s principles and put them to music that changed the course of Western music history.

The principles that Ritter espoused and Strauss adopted can be summed up in Strauss’ analysis of Liszt’s music: “New ideas,” Strauss said, “must seek new forms.” The traditional sonata form, with its conventions of structure and harmony, is nothing but “a hollow shell” inhabited by abstract musical ideas that have no grounding in the world, in Strauss’ view. Subsequent to his first encounters with Ritter, the young Strauss endeavored to create music that followed its own organic, intuitive narrative to its logical conclusion. Strauss called these compositions “tone poems.”

Strauss' first tone poem of importance was Don Juan, written in 1888. This work had both a literal and a subtextual storyline to it. At one level, it depicts scenes from a fragmentary poem about the legendary womanizer, Don Juan, by Lenau. But at another level, the work expresses Strauss' then-blossoming love for the soprano Pauline de Ahna.

From the outset of the music, it is clear that Strauss’ feelings for Pauline (who would eventually become his wife) were passionate indeed. Beginning with a melody that leaps ecstatically upward, and carrying forth with a turgid excitement that bordered on concupiscence, Strauss’ depiction of the Don’s amorous misadventures left little to the imagination.

“Before (Strauss’) Don Juan, explicit musical portrayals of sexual pleasure were rare,” wrote historian Tim Ashley. “Don Juan’s hedonism, bursting into the atmosphere of seriousness that characterized the debate as to whether the future of music lay with Wagner or Brahms, broke new ground.”

To be sure, Strauss’ composition wasn’t a complete break from the past. In fact,

Don Juan could be seen as a clever combination of the Rondo and Sonata form, employing a central melody over a series of episodes (the Don’s conquests) until the pictorial ending, in which Don Juan is stabbed by the son of a man he has murdered.

The work's premiere in 1889 cemented the composer's fame as the leading progressive composer in Germany. Today, those who celebrate – or denigrate – the inventive paths taken by composers of the 20th century have Strauss to thank for opening the ears of the world to this “music of the future.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Sinfonia Concertante

It is perhaps revealing to note that at the same time Washington was crossing the Delaware and colonial patriots were shooting it out with the Red Coats, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composing his great operas and symphonies and performing for Viennese royalty. Though separated geographically by an ocean and most of a continent, both events set the stage for world history to come. Indeed, to this day, Mozart's influence on western music remains as significant as the American revolutionaries' influence on world politics.

What is that influence? Well, it's hard to sum up. For one thing, Mozart combined in his music elements of German, Italian, and Viennese music--the three most significant traditions of the 19th and early twentieth century. He pioneered new

styles and forms, wrote the first opera sung in German, and led the way into the classical era.

It's even harder to sum up the magic of Mozart's music. His dances sparkle with an inner light; his marches exude the majesty of Viennese royalty; his adagios invoke pastoral scenes hard to imagine in our industrial world. And to think: the world's most celebrated composer never even saw his 35th birthday.

By the time he'd reached his early twenties, Mozart was already a widely respected and well-traveled musician. His journeys to Mannheim and Paris, during the years 1777-8, were notably influential on his music of that period, including the Sinfonia Concertante of 1779. Composed during his tenure as the archbishop's Court Organist in Salzburg, this work was written in a form popular in Mannheim and Paris at the time.

But Mozart's view of the sinfonia concertante form is uniquely his own, perhaps closer to a double-concerto than an ensemble-concerto, with violin and viola exchanging material over an orchestral accompaniment. Musicologist Eric Blom aptly describes this composition as "a beautiful, dark-coloured work in which a passion not at all suited to an archiepiscopal court, and perhaps disclosing active revolt against it, seems to smoulder under a perfectly decorous style and exquisite proportions." This brilliant composition presents the dual soloists in conversation, rarely echoing each other, often augmenting or "replying" to each other's musical statements.

Johannes Brahms – Violin Concerto 

Among the many great works for solo voice or instrument in the repertoire, a great number were penned for friends of the composer -- some simply as gifts; some as tributes to the unique talents of the inspirational friend. Mozart's solo clarinet works, for example, were tailored to the talents of his lodge brother, Anton Stadler. Mendelssohn intended his e-minor Violin Concerto for Ferdinand David, a life-long friend who was also concertmaster of Mendelssohn's Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Benjamin Britten's works featuring solo french horn were written for the great player Dennis Brain; his works for solo voice -- and many of his operas as well -- were aimed to the remarkable and unique musical skills of the tenor Peter Pears.

Johannes Brahms also composed with friends in mind, particularly when it came to violin works. His Violin Concerto, Double Concerto for violin and cello, and three violin sonatas were all created for the very same man, Joseph Joachim, Brahms' recital partner, musical advisor, and long-time friend.

By the time he got around to the Violin Concerto, Brahms had known Joachim for quite some time -- and had, to a certain degree, ridden the violinist's coattails to his own fame. During the 1850s, Brahms began his professional musical career as a piano accompanist to better-known musicians, including Joachim. It was Joachim who later introduced Brahms to the composers Robert and Clara Schumann, who took an interest in Brahms and helped spread his music around the European continent.

It was thus rather inevitable that Brahms would eventually write a concerto especially for Joachim. That inevitability came to pass in the summer of 1878, while Brahms was vacationing in the Austrian village of Pörtschach. But Brahms, a lifelong self-doubter, struggled through the work, worried that his own inexperience with the violin would result in unplayable music. Throughout the composition of the concerto, Brahms sent copies of the work to Joachim, entreating the violinist: "You should correct it, not sparing the quality of the composition... I shall be satisfied if you will mark those parts that are difficult, awkward, or impossible to play." Joachim readily complied -- he was a bit of a composer himself -- and thus, throughout the three-month composition process, Joachim had a strong hand in sculpting the finished product.   

The Violin Concerto was premiered in Leipzig on New Year's Day, 1879. Initial reaction was skeptical -- both of the music's quality, and its playability. The influential conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow went so far as to call it a concerto "against the violin." Later, the Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate refused to play the work. "Do you think that I would stand there with my violin in my hand and listen while the oboe plays the only melody in the entire piece?" he asked sardonically, referring to the second movement's oboe solo.

Such criticisms were far outlived by the music itself, thankfully. Today, it's hard to fathom why Brahms' work was ill-received, so packed is it with beautiful melodies, acrobatic instrumentation, and lush orchestration.

Program notes written by Joe Nickell