Alderley Edge Orchestra March 2016
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) - The Snow Maiden suite (1881)
1. Introduction
2. Dance of the Birds
3. Cortège
4. Dance of the Tumblers
The Snow Maiden was written by Rimsky-Korsakov as a four-act opera which ruminates on the relationships between humans and the supernatural, culminating in the particularly Wagnerian theme of redemption through love. Although it was some years before Rimsky-Korsakov encountered Wagner’s music for the first time, his use of leitmotifs is similar to the great German’s, and Rimsky’s characteristic supreme skill as an orchestrator is in abundant evidence in the score. The opera is now seldom performed, though the composer’s own four movement suite remains a popular concert work.
Snegurochka, the eponymous immortal Maiden, is the daughter of Frost and Spring Beauty, whose union has been punished by the Sun God with eternal winter. She remains protected from the Sun God’s powers while she lives without love, though she longs to leave the icy world of her upbringing and experience human life and emotion. Thus she falls for a mortal, the merchant Mizgir. The consequences of this are tragic: The Maiden melts into the lake, Mizgir drowns himself out of despair, and the perpetual winter lifts, thus redeeming the world through love.
Frost and Spring Beauty are represented in the Introduction as icicles (piccolo and violins) and glowing warmth (horns and cellos) respectively. In the Dance of the Birds, originally for ladies’ chorus and soprano solo, we find further graphic depictions of the natural world. This is at fierce odds with the world of the Tsar, which seems bizarre and unnatural to the naive and innocent Maiden in the Cortège. Finally, the thrilling Dance of the Tumblers is a riot of exotic orchestral colour from Act III, before the tragedy of Act IV.
Joseph Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) - Trumpet Concerto (1803)
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Allegro con spirito
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Andante
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Rondo
Born in the modern Bratislava and a contemporary of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, Hummel achieved in his lifetime the sort of popular success which his peers only attained posthumously, although today, other than the Trumpet Concerto, his works are seldom heard in concert. Similarly neglected is the trumpet itself, an instrument which has remained scarcely furnished with concertos for centuries. Recent advocates such as Alison Balsom and Håkan Hardenberger have attempted to change this with adventurous concert programmes, but the concerti by Haydn and Hummel remain two staples of the repertoire. Both wrote their concertos for the Viennese virtuoso Anton Weidinger (inventor of the keyed trumpet), in 1796 and 1803 respectively. Hummel’s concerto was first performed on New Year’s Day 1804 to mark his ascension to the position of Kapellmeister of the Esterhazy court orchestra, succeeding ‘Papa’ Haydn.
The concerto, which is usually performed in E-flat major (like Haydn’s) to suit modern instruments, is in classical three-movement form. It takes every opportunity to demonstrate the remarkable technical faciilties of the keyed trumpet, which permitted a far greater range of effects than its father, the ‘natural’ trumpet. These are particularly in evidence in the majestic first movement and bravura third, between which sits a richly coloured, languorous slow movement.
Robert Schumann (1810-56) - Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, 'Rhenish' (1850-51)
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Lebhaft
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Scherzo: Sehr mäßig
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Nicht schnell
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Feierlich
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Lebhaft
Schumann suffered mental illness throughout much of his adult life, and in early 1854 found himself tormented by demonic visions and mental turmoil more than ever. On a cold February night, he set out alone from his home in Dusseldorf towards the Rhine, paid his way onto a toll bridge with a silk handkerchief, and threw himself into the river. He was rescued by boatmen, and at his own request spent his last years confined to a mental asylum in Endenich, where he succumbed to self-starvation two years later. Biographers have bickered over his diagnoses since death; schizophrenia and neurosyphilis are two of the more plausible theories, and would certainly be an explanation for the angelic voices and music he reported hearing at various times in his life.
Schumann’s Rhenish, the last of his four symphonies, was completed in 1851, inspired by a visit to Cologne with his wife Clara the previous year, in what was probably one of the last happy times of his life. It is notable for its five movements, a departure from the more conventional four, and its E-flat major key, a particular sound associated with heroism since Beethoven’s Eroica symphony. Richard Wagner also later used E-flat major to depict the swirling waters of the Rhine in the opening minutes of the Ring.
The first movement opens directly with a stirring theme which strides forwards across the bar lines, with syncopated rhythms seeming to evoke the gushing waters of the great river, which of course came to hold such significance for the composer. A bucolic Scherzo follows, originally titled Morning on the Rhine and featuring the famed German Ländler dance, before an intimate Intermezzo. Schumann then gives us a deeply haunting and moving ‘extra’ movement. He later wrote that his inspiration lay in the austere grandeur of Cologne’s remarkable cathedral, and the ceremonies celebrating the city’s new Archbishop. The choice of key for this reverential music is again noteworthy: he had also recently employed E-flat minor to depict the mentally tormented Manfred’s crisis and impending suicide in his setting of Lord Byron’s poem. Perhaps this sombre key offers a window onto the composer’s darkest moments of nocturnal despair.
The finale is a more leisurely return to earlier moods, growing steadily in stature to reach a bold climax for tutti brass. The horns then lead a dash to a rambunctious conclusion, closing a masterpiece of the early romantic repertoire.
© Rohan Shotton 2019. Programme notes may not be reproduced or edited without permission. Please contact me if you would like to use these notes.