Alderley Edge Symphony Orchestra 17 November 2018

 

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Overture, The Creatures of Prometheus (1801)

 Beethoven wrote his music for the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus between his first and second symphonies, and though the full ballet score is now uncommonly performed, its finale is unmistakeable in using the same theme the composer went on to use in the finale of his third symphony, the Eroica. At the opposite end of the ballet, its overture is a vigorous display of charm and wit. Just like the first symphony, the overture beings with a 'wrong' note: while the rest of the orchestra plays a wholesome C major chord, the bassoons and lower strings play a jarring B-flat. After the seven fortissimo chords which begin the ballet, a slow, warm introduction restores aesthetic sensibilities. A sparkling Allegro then sets off in the violins, pursued by the second theme, an optimistically ascending figure for woodwinds. The overture loosely follows sonata form in developing these themes in Sturm und Drang style before recapitulating them and hammering home a good-hearted C-major coda.

 

George Butterworth (1885-1916) – Rhapsody, A Shropshire Lad (1912)

 

Though many musicians were killed, wounded, traumatised or inspired by the madness of World War I, George Butterworth was the most notable English composer not to return from the trenches. Born in London, he was educated at Eton before going up to Oxford, where he befriended Ralph Vaughan Williams. The two spent time travelling the English countryside collecting folk songs before war broke out, and the latter's London symphony was suggested by Butterwoth and dedicated to his memory. After being awarded the Military Cross for his actions in the Somme in July 1916, Butterworth was killed by sniper fire the next month, his body hastily buried in the side of a trench by his men, never to be recovered.

 

Butterworth is best known for his Banks of Green Willow and his settings of 11 of the 63 poems in A.E. Housman's collection, A Shropshire Lad. Housman wrote his poems with recurring themes of young soldiers not returning from war, and they gained popularity in the aftermath of the Second Boer War. Vaughan Williams also produced a song cycle based on the same collection. Butterworth's eleven songs were written for piano and voice, but he prepared an orchestral postlude to the cycle in 1912, quoting his own music for The Loveliest of Trees and With Rue My Heart is Laden.

 

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) - Songs of Travel (1904)

1. The Vagabond

2. Let Beauty Awake

3. The Roadside Fire

4. Youth and Love

5. In Dreams

6. The Infinite Shining Heavens

7. Whither Must I Wander

8. Bright Is the Ring of Words

9. I Have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope

 

Despite his relatively advanced age for active service, Vaughan Williams served as a stretcher bearer and ambulance driver in World War I. His duties in tending and collecting the wounded or dead left deep marks on him, which he expressed eloquently in Dona Nobis Pacem and his Pastoral symphony. The Songs of Travel were written before the war but are similarly moving.

 

As a song cycle chiefly concerned with themes of wandering, isolation and comfort from nature, Songs of Travel has frequently been likened to Winterreise and Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen by Schubert and Mahler respectively. Vaughan Williams' cycle is wholly different in its expression of the same themes, though. Whereas Mahler's Wayfarer is tortured to the point of distraction by his love's blue eyes, and Schubert's wanderer is even more psychologically complex, Vaughan Williams's music is altogether warmer, more nostalgic and melancholic. Originally written for baritone and piano, the composer orchestrated numbers 1, 3 and 8, leaving his assistant Roy Douglas to prepare numbers 2, 4-7 and 9.

 

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 (1812)

 

1. Poco sostenuto – Vivace

2. Allegretto

3. Presto and assai meno presto (trio)

4. Allegro con brio

 

The vast majority of Beethoven’s orchestral output was produced in his ‘middle period’ (c. 1803-14). The period began with his writing of the ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’, a letter to his brothers in which he notes his suicidal ideation due to encroaching deafness, but resolves to live for the sake of his art. Beethoven was beset by health problems again in the winter of 1811-12, but managed to focus his energies on the seventh symphony. It is a work as distinctive as his other best pieces, chiefly characterised by the repeated rhythmic patterns which propel each movement along. No programme note for this symphony would be complete without quoting the cliché of Wagner describing it ‘The apotheosis of the dance’. The critic Friedrich Wieck remarked that it must have been composed in a drunken state, composer Carl Maria von Weber identified the bass line of the last movement coda to signal Beethoven to be ‘Ripe for the madhouse’, and conductor Thomas Beecham likened it to ‘A lot of yaks jumping about’.

 

In the classical style of Haydn, Beethoven begins with a slow introduction to the first movement. In this instance it is uncommonly long, and makes excursions into the distant keys of C and F, perhaps pre-empting their prominence later in the symphony. A few bars of tit-for-tat between flute and violin precede the arrival of the Vivace, the music suddenly taking on a bouncing rhythm in the memorable first theme. The irrepressible rhythmic propulsion of the movement owe a great deal to the dotted ‘Amsterdam’ rhythm, which occurs in almost every bar of the movement. The ‘Dam’ of ‘Amsterdam’ seems to bounce boisterously on to the next beat, whilst the short ‘Ster’ provides a skipping sensation. It is a simple idea, but used so extensively it makes for one of the most energetic passages of music Beethoven wrote. After a repeat of the theme, a tempestuous development exploits the familiar rhythm to the point of brutality. A feature of this symphony, arising from the technicalities of 19th century horns, is the stratospherically high pitched writing for the instrument, requiring prodigious skill and stamina from the two players. It makes for a powerful effect, reinforcing climactic moments such as the coda of the first and final movements. In the former, they peel triumphantly after a hard-fought search for A-major resolution.

 

The Allegretto second movement has been particularly famous since its first performances, when it was immediately encored. Modern 'historically-informed' performance practice favours a brisk pace, adding a certain element of terseness to the atmosphere. Again, insistent rhythms (long–short–short) form the basis of a simple theme, which is extensively repeated and embellished. A contrasting, altogether more lyrical second subject appears to offer some hope, but is quashed by an unsettled return of the theme above.

 

The third movement scherzo romps along at a quick pace. It uses the F major key first predicted unexpectedly in the opening minutes of the symphony, and thus recalls the Pastoral symphony. Prominent use of solos for flute and oboe give a birdsong quality to the music. A contrasting, slightly slower and reverential passage in A major, based on an Austrian pilgrims’ hymn tune, appears twice. In keeping with the folksy atmosphere, Beethoven frequently employs drone basses through the central passage, and again later in the symphony. A whirling finale is heralded by two thunderbolts, followed by a dashing violin melody, remarkably similar to an Irish folksong Beethoven was arranging at the time of composition. Once more, clear rhythmic repetition is obvious. Joyous horn and woodwind outburst punctuate the whirling theme. Further forays away from the home key are attempted, and it takes a large fortissimo, all bounding horns and flying bows, to drive the dance breathlessly back into the home key. The music plunges on, though, with the string sections bouncing a single bar of the theme between themselves. Finally, a searing triple-forte (exceptionally rare for Beethoven) and further horn heroics take the symphony to a galloping close.

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© Rohan Shotton 2018. Programme notes may not be reproduced or edited without permission. Please contact me if you would like to use these notes.