CITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ORCHESTRA
                               
                          Concert programme notes


These were written by me (Chris Anthony)
I am not a music scholar so much of these were put together from other sources such as Wikipedia and some programme notes provided by Making Music

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Click names below for the programme notes.  
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Brahms: Tragic overture

Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad

Elgar: 1st Symphony 

Gipps: Horn concerto 

Glazanov: Saxaphone concerto

Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Weber

Holst: Fugal Overture

Nielsen: Helios Overture

Nielsen: 2nd Symphony

Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No. 2

Shostakovich: 9th Symphony

Rachmaninov 3rd Symphony

Tchaikovsky: 5th Symphony

Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957) En Saga (Op. 9) (1982)           Download as WORD document
Jean Sibelius is widely regarded as Finland’s greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia.  After a couple of years studying music in Vienna and Berlin Sibelius returned to continue his studies in Helsinki and fell in love with his future wife, Aino. They married in June 1892, spending their honeymoon in Karelia, the home of the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland which inspired his En saga (a saga or legend), and his Karelia Suite, two of his earliest published works. En Saga, completed in 1892, is a relatively short single-movement tone poem for conventional orchestral forces and was his first to have a distinctively Finnish character. It has many of the features that will appear in so much of his compositions – the plaintive woodwinds, the scurrying scales and arpeggios  of tremolo strings , the long Finnish-sounding tunes, all moving together toward magnificent orchestral climaxes.
Although it might seem obvious to relate the parts of En Saga to particular ‘stories’ from the Kalevala, Sibelius wrote that “En Saga is psychologically one of my most profound works. I could almost say that the whole of my youth is contained within it. It is an expression of a state of mind and in no other work have I revealed myself so completely. It is for this reason that I find all literary explanations completely foreign to my way of thinking”. He is also credited with an appropriate response to critics – “Pay no attention to what critics say. No statue has ever been put up to a critic."
The single-movement tone poem opens in an expectant atmosphere, with a dreamy theme and swirling misty “sound effects” from the strings which evolve into the contrasting tones of the woodwinds and horns. A melancholy but noble melody inspired by, but not borrowed from, Finnish folk music soon appears in the bassoons, cellos and basses. This melody carries the music forwards with passion, growing to a climax dominated by the French horns. The next theme is a simple but rhythmically-charged song on the violas, alternating with a rather martial string tune. A violently rhythmic passage for full orchestra then announces the triumphant return of the first main idea in the horns, gradually building to a sustained climax dominated by the brass. After a reflective melody shared between the two oboes, it is left to a lonely clarinet followed by a dull,  bass throbbing to bring the work towards its tranquil close.J

Alexander Glazunov (1865 –1936) Concerto in E flat major for alto saxophone and string orchestra, Op. 109 (1934)
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Gllazunov was a relatively conventional composer compared with other well-known Russian composers of the period (Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich), strong influences being Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, his first teacher.  Younger composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich considered his music old-fashioned, while accepting his stabilizing influence in a time of transition and turmoil. He was born in St Petersburg and lived in Russia most of his life, being appointed director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, navigating the institution through the tumultuous times of the 1917 revolution. It is said that he was categorically opposed to government interference in cultural and musical matters and felt compelled to leave the Soviet Union in 1928, eventually settling in Paris. He always claimed that the reason for his continued absence from Russia was "ill health", enabling him to remain a respected composer in the Soviet Union, unlike Stravinsky and Rachmaninov, who had left for other reasons.
Glazunov seemed entirely immune to the well-established role of the saxophone in Jazz. He particularly enjoyed the tone of the instrument against a rich string section, explaining why the concerto is written specifically for a string orchestra. His exploration of the sonorous possibilities of the saxophone has significantly contributed to establishing this Concerto, his final and one of his best compositions, as the most famous ‘classical’ work for saxophone ever written.

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov  (1873 – 1943) Symphony No. 3  in A minor, Op. 44
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1. Lento – Allegro moderato – Allegro (A Minor)
2. Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro vivace (C-Sharp Minor)
3. Allegro – Allegro vivace – Allegro (Tempo primo) – Allegretto – Allegro vivace (A Major)
Rachmaninov was born in 1873 into a Russian aristocratic family. Following the 1917 revolution he left with his family from Saint Petersburg, going by train to the Finnish border, then travelling through Finland on an open sled to Helsinki, carrying what they could pack into their small suitcases. In 1918 they settled in New York City. Rachmaninov’s final symphony was composed between 1935 and 1936, much of it in his Villa Senar on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. After the first performance he wrote “ Both audiences and critics responded sourly. Personally I'm firmly convinced that this is a good work. But - sometimes the author is wrong, too! However I maintain my opinion". The public is now more inclined to accept his evaluation and the symphony is frequently played and recorded.
        Rachmaninov devised a novel structure for the symphony in which the long 1st movement is followed by a combined slow movement and scherzo, finishing with an energetic finale.  In its tunes and rythms it is his most ‘Russian’ symphony. particularly in the dance rhythms of the finale. Its ‘sparer’ style Is more like his tuneful Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini than his two earlier symphonies.

The first movement opens with a motto theme, underlying much of the symphony, orchestrated for solo clarinet, muted horn and high solo cello. An outburst for full orchestra, leads into the main Allegro theme, given to oboes and bassoons. The cellos typically introduce the second theme, a big-tune, warm, loving and capable of almost infinite variations typical of the old Rachmaninov. The development reveals his exploitation of the full palette of orchestral sounds, as well as his ability to combine various themes in simultaneous development. The motto theme makes a reappearance in the trumpets which gives way to an unusual bit of scoring, with the melody provided by piccolo, bassoon and xylophone above the supporting horns, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, and lower strings. The motto theme appears again in trumpets and trombones, before the recapitulation begins with the cello's big tune leading into a coda, the movement ending with two restatements of the motto theme, one quietly in the brass and one even more quietly in the strings.

The second, Adagio, movement starts with a long solo horn melody followed by two new themes, the first for solo violin then given to all the violins, and the second theme for solo flute, over tremolo strings and harp. Both themes are taken up by the woodwind and are developed up to an expressive climax. Nervous quavers then take over the orchestra and the scherzo emerges. This is urgent, quicksilver music, full of wonderful touches of orchestration, with sudden solo moments for celesta, percussion and harp. The music is swept up to a huge climax and then dies away. A series of trills floats mistily across the orchestra, as the pace gradually slows down, and out of this haze an oboe reintroduces the opening theme of the Adagio. The violins expand this theme and a solo violin echoes it wistfully over mysterious, stalking bass pizzicatos, the movement ending with another quiet restatement of the motto theme.
 
The energy and vigour of the Finale sweeps all before it, in a great rush of strings and woodwind. The violins take up a broad melody which leads to a long bassoon solo. The orchestra is then launched into a virtuoso fugue based on the main theme of the movement. A relative of the initial motto theme from the start of the first movement appears – in the form of a Rachmaninov favourite, the Dies Irae (The Day of Wrath), which weaves itself into the remainder of the piece. A full orchestral declamation of the Dies Irae leads to the return of the first theme. This is not a straightforward recapitulation, the development continuing into the coda. where the motto is transformed into a string accompaniment for the 'hornpipe' flute solo. The virtuoso writing that characterizes the entire symphony now all meet in the final pages to produce one of the most exciting and colourful endings in symphonic music.

Carl Nielsen (1865 - 1931) Helios Overture Op. 17        Download as WORD document
Carl Nielsen is the most honoured Danish composer. He composed this short work in 1903, placing it between his 2nd and 3rd symphonies.  During a winter spent in Greece he was inspired by the myth of Helios, the Greek god who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day.  When it was published, Nielsen attached this description: “Stillness and darkness — Then the sun rises to joyous songs of praise — Wanders its golden way —quietly sinks in the sea.”  The work begins with strings, divided horns and woodwind sounding a melody as the sun ascends out of the darkness over the Aegean Sea. The trumpets then fanfare across the full orchestra, in a theme, which returns later in the piece. From there woodwinds begin a graceful tune, joined by strings and full orchestra, leading to a reprise of the fanfare theme. In the final measures, the music subsides as the sun sinks beneath the horizon.  

Jean Sibelius  (1865 –1957) Violin concerto in D minor, Op. 47      Download as WORD document
1. Allegro moderato
2. Adagio di molto
3. Allegro, ma non tanto

Jean Sibelius (1865 –1957) is widely regarded as Finland’s greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped his country to develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia. He was, himself, a violinist and this concerto, first performed in 1905, is considered by many to be the greatest violin concerto in the repertoire. In its scope it is more like a symphony than a typical concerto. The first movement, as long in duration as the other two put together, takes in a wide variety of moods, from the cool opening to the stormy end and includes an extended cadenza for the soloist instead of a development in the first movement. It begins with brooding muted strings, above which the soloist plays a haunting melody echoed by a lone clarinet. This theme gives way to virtuoso passages for the violinist above an increasingly stormy orchestral accompaniment which leads to a mini-cadenza, Then the orchestra joins in, eventually subsiding from furious march music to peaceful darkness. out of which the main cadenza erupts, an occasion for staggering virtuosity. An extended, orchestral passage leads back to the expressive second theme, later joined by the violin. Eventually an intense cascade of octaves from the violin leads to a dramatic conclusion to the first movement. The second movement starts with a brief introduction from the woodwind, the soloist entering with a long melody whose character has been compared to that of many of Sibelius’ songs for voice and piano. This melody gives way to a brooding central section, which builds to the return of the main theme in the orchestra as the soloist overlays it with virtuoso ornamentation. The movement fades away as the soloist climbs to a serene high note. Of the last movement, Sibelius remarked, “It must be played with absolute mastery ”. Those seeking a thrilling finale full of violin pyrotechnics will not be disappointed; the movement ranks among the most challenging and exciting written for the violin. It appears that all writers of programme notes must quote Donald Tovey who described the final movement as a "polonaise for polar bears" which is, presumably, not what the composer had in mind. The movement opens with excited lower strings playing difficult semiquaver figures. The violin boldly enters with the first theme on the lowest (G) string followed by a brilliant display of violin gymnastics that leads into the first full orchestral contribution which includes the second theme, taken up enthusiastically by the violin. Clarinet and low brass introduce the final section which include more violin heroic feats which become more and more astonishing as the music builds to the concerto’s vibrant, life-affirming conclusion.

Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934) A Fugal Overture                 Download as WORD document
Gustav Holst was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the elder of the two children of Clara who was of mostly British descent, and Adolph von Holst, a professional musician whose side of the family was of mixed European ancestry. Gustav was taught to play the piano, which he enjoyed, and  the violin which he hated. At the age of twelve he took up the trombone at his father's suggestion, thinking that playing a brass instrument might improve his asthma. He started to attend Cheltenham Grammar Schook in 1886 where he began composing, his main influences at this stage being Mendelssohn, Chopin, Grieg and above all Arthur Sullivan.
                He left Cheltenham in 1895 to study under Stanford at the Royal College of Music, where, money being tight he became a vegetarian and teetotaller. To support himself he played the trombone professionally, at seaside resorts and London theatres. Wagner supplanted Sullivan as the main influence on his music, and for some time, as his daughter put it, "ill-assimilated wisps of Tristan inserted themselves on nearly every page of his own songs and overtures”. He wanted to devote himself to composing and thought that playing in light orchestras was a waste of time. His friend Ralph Vaughan Williams disagreed, saying that that the sure touch which distinguishes Holst’s orchestral writing is due largely to the fact that he has been an orchestral player. From 1898 he made his living as a trombone player in various orchestras including the Carl Rosa Opera Company. He married Isobel Harrison in 1901. He became music master at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in 1905 and director of music at Morley College in 1907 retaining both of these teaching posts until the end of his life. In 1917 his Oratorio  the Hymn of Jesus was a success and The Planets, premiered  by the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra in 1918 brought Holst widespread recognition for the first time.
   A Fugal Overture was published as his Opus 40 in 1922. It provides a good demonstration of what a great composer can achieve with a large orchestra playing for only about five minutes. It starts with the full orchestra introducing a tricky rhythm with which it rarely loses touch.

Ruth Gipps MBE (1921 –1999) Horn Concerto Op. 58    Download as WORD document
I. Con moto
II. Allegretto
III. Allegro ritmico
Ruth Gipps was an English composer, oboist, pianist, conductor, and educator. She composed a wide range of music, including five symphonies, seven concertos, and many chamber and choral works. Gipps’s music is unashamedly Romantic, rejecting trends in avant-garde modern music such as serialism and twelve-tone music. She saw her work as ‘a follow-on’ from composers including Vaughan Williams (her tutor at the College), Bliss, Walton, Bax and Bridge. She claimed that her music was ‘obviously and incurably English,’ a quality that to her was extremely important and, like George Butterworth, she was heavily influenced by the English pastoralist school of the early 20th century, drawing on English folk tunes and historical English composers such as Byrd, and taking inspiration from the English countryside. Her style was well-suited to music for the cinema and In her early career, she wrote a substantial number of incidental scores for BBC radio, although she took a dim view of this work. Gipps’s refusal to embrace modernism impacted on her reception as a composer both during and beyond her lifetime and her compositions are only now starting to be more fully appreciated.
Ruth was born in Bexhill-on-Sea in 1921 to Bryan Gipps, a businessman, an English teacher in Germany, and eventually an official at the Board of Trade; he was also a trained violinist. Ruth’s mother, Hélène, was born in Switzerland; she was a piano teacher and the family home was the Bexhill School of Music, of which Hélène was principal. Ruth had two elder siblings, both musicians. Ruth was a child prodigy; after she performed her first composition at the age of 8 in a music festival, the work was bought by a publishing house. In 1937, she entered the Royal College of Music where she studied oboe, piano, and composition with Gordon Jacob, and Vaughan Williams and where several of her works were first performed. She continued her studies at Durham University where she met her future husband, clarinettist Robert Baker and where, at the age of 26, she became the youngest British woman to receive a doctorate in music. In 1945, she performed Glazunov's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the City of Birmingham Orchestra as the piano soloist while, in the same program, playing the cor anglais in her own First Symphony. However, when she was 33 a shoulder injury ended her performance career, and she concentrated on conducting and composition.

Her early career was affected strongly by discrimination against women in the male-dominated ranks of music by professors, judges and critics, leading to a fierce determination to prove herself through her work. She founded the London Repertoire Orchestra in 1955 to provide opportunities for young professional musicians to become exposed to a wide range of music. She later founded the Chanticleer Orchestra which included a work by a living composer in each of its programs. Among these was the first London performance in 1972 of Bliss’s Cello Concerto in which Julian Lloyd Webber made his professional debut. She later took faculty posts at Trinity College London, the Royal College of Music, and Kingston Polytechnic.  In 1967 she was appointed chairwoman of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain.
Gipps’s wrote six concertos - for clarinet, oboe, violin, piano, and violin plus viola, and horn, all of which were dedicated to family members or close friends. Her Horn Concerto, composed in 1968, was dedicated to her son, Lance Baker, and was premiered by him, with Gipps herself conducting the London Repertoire Orchestra. The piece is known for being a very difficult work for the horn, with its technical difficultes together with the stamina required to perform it. Gipps uses a colorful orchestration with prominent woodwind interacting with the solo horn, perhaps revealing the influence of Ravel, whilet the Brass section is almost exclusively used for climaxes. Gipps’s concerto lacks a heroic first movement as as was usual in the well-known concertos by Richard Strauss, Paul Hindemith or Gordon Jacob. The horn is not dominant, either blending or contrasting with the orchestral sound and its restless energy alternating between melancholy and joy.
The first movement is opened by the horn with a quiet sighing syncopated theme, the orchestral accompaniment providing stability through its steady beat. The long tuneful lines are paired with spectacular jumps in range coupled with swirling orchestral sounds, the woodwind and soloist intertwining around each other. During the central section the horn part becomes more challenging, requiring a virtuoso player. The movement concludes with a brief cadenza that brings together all the themes of the movement into one concise statement before a tranquil ending.
The second movement Scherzo provides a distinct contrast to the first movement
through its infectious energy and forward motion. The main theme is played by all the members of a traditional woodwind quintet and much of the movement is orchestrated solely for woodwinds. The Scherzo often feels like a genuine joke with time signatures swapping between 7/8 and more traditional 6/8. Gipps use of dynamic changes creates light and shade within the music, which is sometimes accentuated by the use of percussion. A lyrical middle section shows the beauty of the horn as it soars above the orchestra. The movement concludes with some very high and very low quiet notes from the soloist.

The third movement Finale, marked Allegro ritmico—giocoso is, as it is labelled, rhythmical and playful, alternating between an energetic rhythmic theme and a rather dreamlike theme. It finally delivers the heroism that is found in better-known horn concertos. The orchestration contributes to this heroic effect, the percussion section becoming more pervasive, highlighting key moments throughout. The finale starts quickly with the woodwind leading the theme. The horn takes this up and immediately develops it with great virtuosity. The mystical theme from the opening movement reappears near the end of the movement accompanied by the tuned percussion. The final part of the concerto is bold and leads to a big climax led by the soloist’s last top note before the orchestral flourish which finishes this rare and exciting concerto.

Edward Elgar, the fourth of seven children, was born in a small village, outside Worcester where his father, William,  had a shop selling sheet music and musical instruments. Edward’s mother, Ann, had recently converted to Roman Catholicism and he was baptised and brought up as a Roman Catholic. William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard and was organist at St. George's Church, Worcester, from 1846 to 1885. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures. He left school at the age of fifteen to work in a solicitors office but soon abandoned this and set off on his musical career, giving piano and violin lessons and working in his father’s shop. His only advanced musical training involved violin studies in London with Adolf Pollitzer who said that he felt Elgar could become a great violinist; Elgar himself doubted this and chose to concentrate on composition
For five years from the age of 22 he was the conductor and instrumental coach of a small local Worcester orchestra and during this time he played bassoon in his brother’s wind quintet for which he made arrangements of the great classical composers. For seven years, from the age of 25, he played violin in every concert in a professional orchestra which also gave the first professional performance of one of his compositions – Serenade mauresque.
In 1989 he married Alice Roberts, who for the rest of her life was a warm companion and business and social secretary as well as a valued music critic.  

During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands but also of works such as Salut d’Amour, Chanson de Matin, the Froissart Overture, The Serenade for Strings and the Bavarian Dances. Critic’s reviews were polite rather than enthuisastic until In 1899, at the age of forty-two, Elgar published the Enigma Variations and, soon after, the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius. Both were well-received at home and abroad, especially in Germany, and they  remain popular in concerts throughout the world. Although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer most of his musical influences were from continental Europe, and his orchestral music shares much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss, a leading composer of his day, who was so impressed that he proposed a toast to the success of "the first English progressive musician, Meister Elgar” who was knighted at Buckingham Palace in 1904.
As Sir Edward Elgar approached his fiftieth birthday, he began work on his First Symphony, a project that had been in his mind for nearly ten years. After its first performance in 1908 it became a national and international triumph; the critics and the public were equally enthusiastic  and there were a hundred performances in Britain, continental Europe and America within just over a year of its première.

On a personal note, it is worth mentioning that our orchestra members have found this work has many technical challenges, but working on these has been a very rewarding experience. It is a huge privilege to be participating in, and sharing with you, our audience,  this performance of one of the greatest works of 20th century civilisation. 
The first movement starts with a theme which Elgar said is intended to be simple and noble, elevating us above every day and sordid things. After this motto theme has been played twice, Elgar plunges into a turbulent stream of music in the remote key, D minor, a stream that continues almost unchecked until the subdued end of the movement. According to the conductor Sir Adrian Boult, the clashing keys arose because someone made a bet with Elgar that he could not compose a symphony in two keys at once. It has also been speculated that the contrast was intended to represent two sides of Elgar's own personality - the successful and popular composer of Pomp and Circumstance contrasting with the inner worries that continually troubled him. Towards the end of the movement the "nobilmente" motto theme returns in the back desks of the strings, an effect Elgar deliberately asked for to obtain a "soft, diffused sound".

The second movement is a brisk allegro which some critics have found restless and even sinister. It is essentially a scherzo, with its rushing violin semiquavers, and a march followed by a trio, this section being softer and more delicate, with flute, harp and solo violin representing what Elgar's wife called "the wind in the rushes". 

The third movement  Adagio flows directly from the second movement with a long- melody of breathtaking beauty, which actually consists of the same notes that began the rushing semiquavers of the scherzo. A friend of Elgar described this as one of the greatest slow movements since Beethoven, a beautiful and perfect message of peace.

The fourth movement Finale starts with a slow introduction, showing Elgar in one of his most dreamy and mysterious moods, featuring an echo of the First movement motto theme in the back desks of the strings. This is followed by a restless Allegro, with a succession of themes including one with a restless march-rhythm, later heard at half speed with a gentle string melody accompanied by harp arpeggios. The movement builds to a triumphant climax, ending with the noble opening theme of the symphony, orchestrated with glittering splendour and with  a dissonant brass fanfare surging up against it to bring the work to a gloriously confident conclusion.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893 ) Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64    Download as WORD document
Andante – Allegro con anima
Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza – Moderato con anima
Valse (allegro moderato)
Andante maestoso – Allegro vivace

Tchaikovsky is the most popular Russian composer of all time because of his tuneful, open-hearted melodies, impressive harmonies, and colourful, picturesque orchestration, all of which evoke a profound emotional response. He was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, a small industrial town about 450 miles East of Moscow. He was the second of six surviving children of Ilya Tchaikovsky, a manager of the local metal works, and Alexandra Assier, a descendant of French émigrés. He manifested a clear interest in music from childhood; at the age of five he began taking piano lessons with a local tutor. Because music education was not available in Russian institutions at that time, his parents chose to prepare the gentle, sensitive boy  for a career in the civil service. In 1850, with this is mind, he entered the prestigious Imperial School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg, a boarding institution for young boys, where he spent nine years, proving a successful and popular student. During his time at the school he he was able to conitinue his piano lessons and other musical studies. In 1861 he visited Germany, France, and England, and when St. Petersburg Conservatory opened Tchaikovsky was among its first students, resigning from the Ministry of Justice, where he had been employed as a clerk. After graduating in 1865, Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow to teach music theory at the Moscow Conservatory. Within five years he had produced his First Symphony (Winter Daydreams), and his overture Romeo and Juliet which became the first of his compositions eventually to enter the standard international classical repertoire.
         In 1871 he produced his successful first string quartet and in the next few years he composed a number of operas  but these did not convince the critics with whom Tchaikovsky ultimately agreed. However, his instrumental works began to earn him his reputation, and in 1874, he wrote his First Piano Concerto, a work destined for fame. Soon after, Tchaikovsky left Russia to travel in Europe where he was greatly impressed by Bizet’s opera Carmen in Paris, but left cold by Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle, which he attended in Bayreuth, Germany. In the next two years he produced his symphonic fantasia Francesca da Rimini and the first of his famous ballets, Swan Lake.
The growing popularity of Tchaikovsky’s music inevitably resulted in public interest in his personal life. Although homosexuality was officially illegal in Russia, the authorities tolerated it among the upper classes. Social and family pressures, led to Tchaikovsky’s hasty decision in 1877 to marry but, perhaps predictably, the marriage lasted only a few weeks.
          The year 1876 saw the beginning of an extraordinary 14-year relationship between Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck, the widow of a wealthy railroad tycoon. Although they never met she became his patroness, providing him with a regular monthly allowance that enabled him to resign from the conservatory and devote himself to writing music. Thereafter he could afford to spend the winters in Europe and return to Russia each summer. The period after Tchaikovsky’s departure from Moscow proved very productive, when he composed several of his most famous compositions—the opera Eugene Onegin, the Fourth Symphony and the Violin Concerto.  Over the next ten years Tchaikovsky produced his operas Mazepa and The Enchantress, as well as the Manfred Symphony and, in 1888, his Symphony No. 5. His other major achievements of this period include Serenade for Strings, Capriccio Italien  and the 1812 Overture.
At the beginning of 1885, Tchaikovsky settled down in a rented country house near Klin, outside Moscow, and he finally overcame his longstanding fear of conducting. He embarked upon his first European concert tour as a conductor, which included Leipzig, Berlin, Prague, Hamburg, Paris, and London. It was a great success and he made a second tour in 1889. In the next four years he composed his second ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, his opera The Queen of Spades and his ballet Nutcracker.
          In 1893 his world stature was confirmed by triumphant European and American tours and by the award of an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge. In October of that year he conducted the premiere of his great Sixth Symphony (the Pathetique), dying nine days later from cholera. It is probable that this was suicide driven by problems associated with his sexual orientation but there is insufficient documentary evisence to be certain. 
          The Fifth Symphony is one of the most straightforward of all Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, while containing elements of intensity that look forward to the emotionally draining Sixth Symphony.
         The first movement opens with a solemn and forbidding theme, presented by bassoons and clarinets in their low registers. Tchaikovsky described this slow introduction as "complete resignation before Fate…”, and this Fate motif crops up in several guises throughout the piece. After the fateful opening a lively allegro contains four distinctive themes. The first starts out as a kind of intense danse macabre. The second blossoms into a pessimistic, yearning melody. The third theme, prefaced by a playful pizzicato arpeggio, is a rustic  passage for woodwinds and strings, forming a natural link into the fourth theme, a luscious, passionate, sunny melody. These four themes undergo extended development, followed by a long coda based on the first theme, descending into the bass section of the orchestra as the strains of the danse macabre die away.
          The slow movement is remarkable for its constant changes of time. It opens with a series of chords in the low strings, followed by one of Tchaikovsky's most familiar tunes, given to the principal horn. A second light melody, on the oboe is then echoed by the horn. The lower strings soon take up the horn's first theme, followed by the violins, and the haunting sound of clarinet and bassoon, building to an emotionally intense climax.  This is interrupted by a brass passage based on the Fate motif from the first movement. This passage ends with a pizzicato figure that generates the accompaniment for a return of the original horn theme, heard this time in the violins. Once more the emotion builds up  before the brass crash in with their statement of the Fate motif. The movement subsides with a final reference to the horn theme after which the movement closes calmly.
          In place of a scherzo, Tchaikovsky gives us one of his most beautiful waltzes; the graceful tune is launched immediately by the first violins, then is passed around the orchestra and developed. The trio section, more texture than melody, is made up of a delicate tracery of semiquavers. The first waltz theme returns, but the movement closes with a reminder of the Fate motif.
           The nationalstic finale of the Fifth Symphony opens in the manner of a march with a statement of the Fate motif transformed into the less doom-laden major key by the lower strings. Out of this emerges a brisk, Russian dance, the music of which presents four main melodic ideas to be developed during the course of the movement. The Fate motif makes two returns, the first time played by the brass section supported by a swirling string accompaniment, the second in the form of a triumphant march heard in brass and wind over strings playing in triplets. In a final fast and furious passage, a reminder of the start of the Russian dance provides a magnificent finish to this magnificent symphony.

Johannes Brahms    (1833 - 1897)    Tragic overture Opus 81    Download as WORD document

Brahms's father, Johann Jakob Brahms, lived in Holstein in northern Germany where he worked as a jobbing musician. He was appointed as a horn player in the Hamburg militia and then a double-bass player in the Stadttheater Hamburg and the Hamburg Philharmonic Society. In 1830, he married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen, a seamstress and Johannes was born three years later. Johannes learnt to play the violin and the cello from his father but from the age of seven concentrated on the piano. Even at this early age, his teacher complained that "could be such a good player, but he will not stop his never-ending composing"; his parents also disapproved of his early efforts as a composer, feeling that he had better career prospects as a performer. Although he is now known as a great composer Brahms continued to be a very skilled pianist, and gave the first performances of many of his own works.

Brahms' works were labelled old-fashioned by the 'New German School' whose principal figures included Liszt and Wagner, both admired, however, by Brahms. Many of his own admirers (though not necessarily Brahms himself) saw him as the champion of traditional forms and 'pure music', as opposed to the 'New German' enthusiasm for programme music.His music is rooted in the structures and composing techniques of the Classical masters. While some contemporaries found his music to be too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship were much admired and the detailed construction of his works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. For three seasons he directed the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, often choosing less conservative music than might have been expected, and encouraging composers such as Dvorak, Mahler and Nielsen .

In the summer of 1880 Brahms was given an honorary doctorate by Breslau University. He was 46 years old and had already produced hundreds of songs, two symphonies, a piano concerto, his violin concerto, and the German Requiem. To say thank you he produced the Academic Festival Overture and the Tragic Overture, both being premièred in Vienna that year where he spent most of his professional life..
The two pieces could hardly be more different. Referring to his work on the Academic Festival Overture, he wrote "While I was at it, I could not resist giving the satisfaction to my melancholy temperament of also writing a tragedy overture". He could not think of an appropriate title and wrote to the conductor of the first performance that “You may include a ‘dramatic’ or ‘tragic’ or ‘Tragedy Overture’ in your concert program; I cannot find a proper title to fit it.” The Academic Festival Overture is an extrovert work, appropriately quoting student songs. In stark contrast, the Tragic Overture is seriously solemn. Although Brahms never disclosed what tragedy he had in mind, the music conjures up an image of the struggles of a hero against fate, and the nature of the music strongly suggests a conflict.

In its structure the Tragic Overture is essentially like the first movement of a symphony. Two powerful chords lead to a restless, brooding string theme, with ominous timpani. A simple march theme, beginning with a dotted figure, immediately answers the strings, and all this is elaborately developed throughout the orchestra, suggesting an intense  imaginary struggle. After a slightly altered version of the opening music a second theme is announced by a plaintive oboe with even beats of stalking trombones giving a feeling of resignation. The music now alternates between struggle and resignation as both main ideas are enlarged and varied. A third theme is introduced by horn calls and is taken over by flowing violins over a busy bass line. We can now sit back and let the complex development of these ideas, assertive, energetic, myserious and romantic, flood over us until the ‘tragic’ opening music reappears and crashes on to the tragic end.   

Camille Saint-Saens    (1835 – 1921 )   Piano Concerto No. 2 Opus 22      Download as WORD document
Andante sostenuto
Allegretto scherzando
Presto

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era, best known for this piano concerto, the First Cello Concerto, Danse Macabre,  The Carnival of the Animals and his great "Organ Symphony”. He was a musical prodigy, making his concert debut at the age of ten. After studying at the Paris Conservatoire he followed a conventional career as a church organist, from 1858 at La Madeleine, the official church of the French Empire. After leaving this post twenty years later, he was a successful freelance pianist and composer, in demand in Europe and the Americas. A nice story about this time: although he was already having an established reputation he entered the competion for the Prix de Rome leading one of the judges, Berliox, to say: "He knows everything, but lacks inexperience".  Although his own compositions were generally within a conventional classical tradition, as a young man, Saint-Saëns was enthusiastic for the most modern music of the day, particularly that of Schumann, Liszt and Wagner. He was a scholar of musical history, and remained committed to the structures worked out by earlier French composers bringing him into conflict with ‘more advanced’ composers and often regarded by them as a reactionary in the decades around the time of his death. Nevertheless, his five year period as a teacher in the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse in Paris, was important in the development of French music; Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel were strongly influenced by Saint-Saëns, whom they revered as a genius.
         In my 1908 edition Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians the writer says “Saint-Saëns is a consummate master of composition, and no one possesses a more profound knowledge than he does of the secrets and resources of the art; but the creative faculty does not keep pace with the technical skill of the workman. His incomparable talent for orchestration enables him to give relief to ideas which would otherwise be crude and mediocre in themselves “. A kinder summary was provided ten years later in his Obituary in The Times: “ The death of M. Saint-Saëns not only deprives France of one of her most distinguished composers; it removes from the world the last representative of the great movements in music which were typical of the 19th century. He had maintained so vigorous a vitality and kept in such close touch with present-day activities that, though it had become customary to speak of him as the doyen of French composers, it was easy to forget the place he actually took in musical chronology. He was only two years younger than Brahms, was five years older than Tchaikovsky, six years older than Dvořák, and seven years older than Sullivan. He held a position in his own country's music certain aspects of which may be fitly compared with each of those masters in their own spheres.

The Second Piano Concerto was premiered in 1868 with Saint-Saens at the keyboard and his friend Anton Rubinstein conducting. Its novelty and high spirits soon made it a popular favourite. He starts with brief homage to Bach, then a light scherzo and a final fast dance movement, leading to the comment that the work "begins like Bach and ends like Offenbach". One can hear the skill of Saint-Saens the pianist throughout this concerto, with its difficult scalar passages and arpeggios, ultimately leading to the finale’s pyrotechnics. 

The first movement begins with a solo cadenza that sounds like Liszt improvising on one of J.S. Bach’s preludes. After the orchestra’s entrance the soloist introduces a rather melancholy theme said to be taken from an exercise by Gabriel Fauré, one of Saint-Saëns’ pupils. This theme is developed brilliantly, with glittering crashing keyboard cascades, the virtuosity required being a challenge to Saint-Saëns himself at the first performance. The movement ends with another cadenza, into which the orchestra creeps as the soloist returns to the mystery of the opening introduction, with its homage to Bach.

The second movement Scherzo turns away from all of this drama, being marked leggiermente (“lightly, delicate”). It begins with a surprising pizzicato chord in the strings and a little timpani riff. The pianist comes in with a tune derived from the main theme of the first movement. A  second theme, first heard in bassoon and low strings – is central to this movement which bubbles along cheerfully, its humour making it favourite of the audience at the first performance

The final movement (Presto) is a furious saltarello (or tarantella) dance - derived from the verb saltare (“to jump”). The movement starts with four bars of introductory rumble by the soloist which comes back many times, punctuating the athletically leaping dance. Later, the ominous power of the first movement’s introduction returns in the form of monumental columns of sound  in the piano’s bass line. The final bars end in a fiery, virtuosic flash.

Carl Nielsen    (1865 - 1931)    2nd Symphony Opus. 16 The Four Temperaments     Download as WORD document
Allegro colerico
Allegro comodo e flemmatico
Andante melancolico
Allegro sanguineo — Marziale

Carl Nielsen is indisputably the most influential figure in Danish musical history. He was the seventh of twelve children in a poor peasant family, born in 1865 on the island of Funen in Denmark. His father was a house painter and also a fiddler and cornet player, in strong demand for local celebrations. From the age of six Carl studied violin and piano and wrote his first compositions at the age of eight. When he was 14 he learned to play brass instruments and became a bugler and alto trombonist in an army band, while continuing to play his violin at home to perform at dances with his father. He later began to take his violin playing more seriously, obtaining his release from the military band to study at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, graduating in 1886 with good but not outstanding marks in all subjects. Two years later his Suite for Strings, designated by Nielsen as his Opus 1 was performed at the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. By September 1889 he had progressed well enough on the violin to gain a position with the second violins in the prestigious Royal Danish Orchestra. From 1906 Nielsen increasingly served as conductor, being officially appointed assistant conductor in 1910. At first, Nielsen's compositions did not gain sufficient recognition for him to be able to support himself; during the concert which saw the premiere of his First Symphony in 1894 Nielsen played in the second violin section. The premiere of his Second Symphony in 1902, though enthusiastically received by the audience, was overshadowed by the first performance of his opera Saul and David three days earlier. Nielsen had begun writing the symphony the previous year and had worked on it in parallel with completing the opera, almost as light relief.The symphony was a great success when played in Berlin in 1896, contributing significantly to his reputation.

Nielsen’s 2nd symphony is very different from the 4th and 5th Symphonies which are well known for their depictions of violent fights between good and evil. Written in 1901–1902, it still belongs to the tradition of Brahms and Dvořák, but is more compact and concentrated. As indicated in the subtitle, each of its four movements is a musical sketch of the four temperaments (or medieval humours) thought to determine character and behaviour: choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine. Despite this apparent programme, the work is a fully integrated symphony with a traditional symphonic structure. Nielsen himself describes the background to the symphony in a programme note, summarised here: “I had the idea for ‘The Four Temperaments’ many years ago at a country inn. On the wall were comical coloured pictures, representing the Temperaments: Choleric’ (angry or impetuous), ‘Phlegmatic’ (laid-back, or simply lazy), ‘Melancholic’ (self-explanatory) and ‘Sanguine’ (cheerful).  For example Choleric was on horseback with a long sword in his hand, his eyes bulging and his face distorted by rage and diabolical hate. We were amused by the naivety of the pictures, their exaggerated expressions and their comic earnestness. But I later realized that these shoddy pictures still contained a kind of core or idea and I began to work out the first movement of a symphony, hoping of course that my listeners would not laugh at my interpretation”. Nielsen doesn’t present us with any value judgments here: the fact that the Sanguine character has the last word doesn’t mean that the composer sees him as in any way superior to the others. The range of human character is his subject here, portrayed sometimes ironically and sometimes with stirring emotional directness.

Nielsen provided substantial programme notes for the Second Symphony, which are quoted below, although in later years he was cautious about giving his audiences too many clues.

The first movement, marked Allegro colerico is the longest and most complex. Nielsen tells us that “it is at first dominated by furious energy. There are lyrical moments, but these are soon interrupted by violently shifting figures and rhythmic jerks … This material is worked over, now wildly and impetuously, like one who is beside himself, now in a softer mood, like one who regrets his irascibility”.

In the second, ‘Phlegmatic’ movement, the composer visualized “a fair young teenager who is loved by all: His expression was rather happy, but not self-complacent, rather with a hint of quiet melancholy, so that one felt impelled to be good to him... I have never seen him dance; he wasn't active enough for that, though he swung himself in a gentle slow waltz rhythm, so I have used that for the movement, Allegro comodo e flemmatico, and tried to stick to one mood, as far away as possible from energy, emotionalism, and such things. Nothing disturbs this character’s peaceful reveries—not even the loud drum tap and momentarily squawking woodwind near the end”.

“The ‘Melancholic’ third movement (Andante melancolico) may be at the other end of the scale, emotionally speaking, but the nobly tragic theme that begins it is based on the same musical interval that dominated the Phlegmatic’s daydreams—a reminder that we are all brothers and sisters under the skin.

The fourth movement – ‘Sanguine’ finale (Allegro sanguineo) brusquley brushes aside the peace of the third movement. “I have tried to sketch a man who storms thoughtlessly forward in the belief that the whole world belongs to him”, Nielsen tells us. “There is a point, again towards the end, where ‘something scares him’—more sharp timpani strokes (four this time), followed by a moment’s quiet reflection. But it’s only a moment. Irrepressible cheerfulness bounces back in the end”.