Stockport Symphony Orchestra 26 January 2019
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) – Overture The Magic Flute (1791)
Die Zauberflöte was first performed in Vienna in 1791, written to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. Its child-friendly facade forms a thinly-veiled allegory of enlightenment and self-improvement through trials, with strong influences from Oriental folklore and Freemasonry. Both Mozart and Schikaneder were active Masons, and it isn't hard to identify Masonic themes in the wise Sarastro's noble brotherhood, with its initiation rituals and trials. Some have even identified the opera's sinister Queen of the Night as representative of Empress Maria Theresa, who reputedly harboured anti-Masonic views.
The Overture is a sparkling study in the development of a simple theme using counterpoint. Masonic significance associated with the number three has led to conclusions being drawn from the very opening notes, a trio of grand chords on the triad of E-flat major, a key characterised by three flats. The solemn introduction gives way to an allegro which fizzes through the string section, the woodwinds adding a simple second theme either side of a reappearance from those three chords. The overture's climax appears twice, rising out of a chromatic figure which hints impishly at the abstruse themes of the opera.
Jonathan Dove (born 1959) – The Magic Flute Dances (1999)
Written for the Welsh flautist Emily Beynon, now Principal with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the premise of Jonathan Dove's flute concerto is intriguing: what happens to the eponymous flute after the end of the opera? In Mozart's original, the flute helps guide Tamino through his initiation trials of fire and water into Sarastro's brotherhood. Dove imagines it reflecting upon themes of the opera in patchwork style.
The concerto's opening bars hint at Tamino's trials, but the complicatedly evil Queen of the Night quickly comes to the soloist's attention. The piece seems curiously fascinated with the Queen through the repeated, almost obsessive use of her dizzyingly high aria from Act 2, Der Hölle Rache. Orchestra and soloist then elaborate on various themes from the overture in erratic time signatures before some noisy timpani interjections herald the end of the first section.
The soloist plays a short cadenza, followed by hints of various scenes from the opera in no particular order, as if idly encountered in a dream. We are reminded of Tamino fleeing a terrifying serpent at the beginning of the opera, followed by the rapturous music from Tamino's first glimpse of Pamina's portrait. Themes of solitude are briefly explored through Papageno's unanswered calls to Papagena, and Pamina necessarily being ignored by Tamino whilst the latter is bound to silence in his first trial.
The third passage of the concerto, marked 'Angry' in the score, is announced by further timpani fireworks. Some rapid flute scales for soloist and orchestral flutes are capped by whipcracks. A long, reflective passage featuring vibraphone chords then recalls the 3 young spirits who guide Tamino and Pamina on their journey to enlightenment, while the flute adds flutter-tongued ornaments. A long crescendo leads to a series of gong-strokes, perhaps alluding to the libretto's origins in Oriental fairytales. A dancing scherzo returns to the irregular time signatures heard earlier, but the last word of the concerto is given to the Queen of the Night. In a passage marked 'Entranced', fragments of her aria theme are repeated with metronomic insistence until the very last bar.
Richard Wagner (1813-1883), arr. Lorin Maazel (1930-2014) – The Ring Without Words (Der Ring des Nibelungen 1848-1874; arr. 1987)
Wagner's Ring tetralogy remains one of the greatest cultural achievements of recent centuries. More has been written about The Ring than almost any other piece of music. Loved, despised and (mis)interpreted by musicians, philosophers and dictators since its premiere, it examines in 15-hour macrocosm the relationship between insatiable power-lust and the redemptive power of love.
Wagner's life reflects a readily identifiable pattern in his development from youthful radical on the barricades of the 1849 Dresden uprising to an archly establishment figure in later life. His early life and the operas Die Fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin are defined by Hegel's philosophies, and the proposition that in the quest of the spirit to realise itself, the arts, politics and science of the old world must die, to be replaced by 'the new'. In 1854, however, Wagner discovered the ultra-pessimist Arthur Schopenhauer, and became obsessed with the idea that human events and existence are an unfulfilled and ultimately irrelevant striving. Music, supreme and unique among the arts, however, is offered as an escape from the bleak pessimism of life. Through immersion in the aesthetics of music, we can be freed from the dark reality of life. Wagner's later operas, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger and Parsifal, are intrinsically post-Schopenhauerian works.
The Ring, however, was composed over the course of twenty-six years, during which time the composer discovered his revered philosopher. The poem of the Ring was composed backwards, long before reading Schopenhauer or writing any music. Taking inspiration from the same Nordic sources which similarly moved JRR Tolkien, Wagner began in 1848 by writing a standalone entitled Siegfrieds Tod (Götterdämmerung). This was followed by Der junge Siegfried (Siegfried), Die Walküre and Das Rheingold. Although Wagner toyed with a new Schopenhauer-inspired ending, there is ultimately little evidence of clear influence of the philosopher on the poem of The Ring.
Schopenhauer's influence instead lies in the music of The Ring. In creating the Gesamtkunstwerk ('total artwork'), Wagner sought to combine music, drama, art and poetry into an unprecedentedly superior package. The discovery of Schopenhauer came after he had completed the score to Das Rheingold, and from this point on, music is elevated to a level far beyond the other artforms. Early in Die Walküre we are swept into the heady richness of Siegmund's hymn to love (Winterstürme). Although there is still an absence of the arias and recitatives from the French Grand Opera tradition which so repelled Wagner, the music is unmistakeably more powerful from this point. Wagner's radical elevation of orchestral music to the limelight of opera also owes a debt to Greek tragedy and his particular fascination with the Greek chorus. He saw the orchestra as a very attractive modern successor to the Greek chorus' commentatory role, and through leitmotifs (short musical themes representing people, objects, places or ideas), the orchestra is able to paint vivid pictures which elaborate, temper or contradict the text to create the true meaning of the piece.
The primacy of orchestral music in The Ring has always encouraged creation and programming of purely orchestral excerpts. The American conductor and Wagner veteran Lorin Maazel was thus commissioned in 1987 to create a symphonic suite, distilling 15 hours of music and singing into a neatly packaged 70-minute medley for orchestra. It consists of 22 excerpts, containing (almost) all of the best music from the operas and no Maazelisms whatsoever.
The vast journey of The Ring begins figuratively at the beginning of space and time in the Greenish Twilight of the Rhine. An astonishing 4-minute E-flat major chord is slowly built up, depicting the swirling river. The dwarf Alberich steals the Rheingold from the Rhinemaidens, renouncing love in the process. The scene then ascends to The Home of the Gods, where a noble theme for Wagner tuba depicts Valhalla, the gods' castle in the sky. This has just been built by two giants, to whom Wotan, chief of the gods, recklessly promised his sister-in-law as payment. After she protests, it is agreed that Wotan will instead pay with Alberich's newly-forged Ring, which has given him complete dominion over the dwarfs. Wotan descends into Nibelheim past Dwarfs Smithying Away, with anvils conjuring stark images of ruthlessly capitalist industry. Alberich is tricked into transforming himself into a toad; he is promptly captured and curses the Ring after it is taken from him. Wotan reluctantly yields the Ring to the giants, whereupon one, Fafner, immediately murders the other. Donner's Thunderbolt (trombone) clears the air, and the gods cross a rainbow bridge into Valhalla.
The Prologue of Die Walküre sees an exhausted Siegmund fleeing from enemies. He takes refuge in a house in the forest where his Loving Gaze falls upon Sieglinde. After Siegmund pulls the sword Nothung from a tree, the two fall wildly in love, despite realising they are long-lost siblings and that Sieglinde's husband, Hunding, is the very enemy from whom Siegmund was fleeing. The two men must meet in battle the next day. Wotan, father of the young lovers, is strong-armed by his wife into ordering another daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, to fight for Hunding in order to uphold divine laws of marriage. Brünnhilde defies her father and defends Siegmund, but, in Wotan's Rage the god arrives and kills both Siegmund and Hunding. Terrified of her father, Brünnhilde and Sieglinde flee in the famous Ride of the Valkyries. Sieglinde, discovering that she is pregnant with Siegmund's child, escapes into the forest with the remains of the sword Nothung. Wotan arrives to deal with his disobedient but previously favourite daughter, and in perhaps the most searingly moving passage of the whole cycle, Wotan's Farewell, he agrees to put her to sleep atop a mountain in a ring of fire, so that only the bravest hero could rescue her. The Magic Fire Music depicts the flames dancing around his beloved warrior daughter with harps, woodwinds and glockenspiel.
Siegfried begins deep in the forest, where Sieglinde's son, the petulant Siegfried, lives in the care of the dwarf Mime, Alberich's snivelling brother. Siegfried hates the dwarf and threatens him with a bear (Mime's terror), before Reforging the Magic Sword of his father and running away into the forest. Here, in Forest Murmurs, Wagner paints birdsong and rustling leaves with woodwind and shimmering divisi violin writing. Siegfried finds Fafner, the Ring-bearing giant who has turned himself into a huge dragon, and wakes him with a horn call. Siegfried Slays the Dragon and takes the Ring. With his dying words, Fafner's Lament warns Siegfried of the danger of the Ring. Siegfried pays no attention, kills Mime and learns about the sleeping Brünnhilde from a Woodbird. Breaking Wotan's spear on the way, he finds the Valkyrie on her mountaintop, wakes her with a kiss, and the two giddily fall in love.
Götterdämmerung begins with three Norns predicting the burning of Valhalla and the end of the world. Dawn breaks from a long crescendo into a brassy sunrise, and Siegfried and Brünnhilde emerge spectacularly from their cave. Siegfried sets off with a bold horn call in pursuit of further adventures (Siegfried's Rhine Journey). He meets Hagen, Alberich's son, who plots to obtain the Ring for himself with the aid of siblings Gutrune and Gunther. Hagen poisons Siegfried, making him renounce Brünnhilde and fall in love with Gutrune. Siegfried leads Gunther to Brünnhilde, where she is forcefully relieved of the Ring and claimed as Gunther's wife. Furiously, she reveals Siegfried's one weakness. Hagen Summons his Clan to determine how to resolve the situation. Siegfried and the Rhinemaidens discuss return of the Ring to the river to save the world, but he refuses. Hagen restores Siegfried's memory, and the hero perjures himself by remembering his love for Brünnhilde. Hagen kills Siegfried (Siegfried's Death and Funeral March) and then Gunther. Brünnhilde realises what has happened and orders a funeral pyre to be built beside the Rhine. She instructs the Rhinemaidens to return the Ring to the Rhine, and burns Siegfried's body. Finally, redeeming the world in a post-Hegelian act of sacrifice, she rides her horse and the Ring into the fire in the Immolation Scene. Valhalla burns to the ground, and the Rhine overflows its banks, healing and cleansing the world.