SCHUBERT AND WAGNER
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
By James M . Keller
Franz Schubert
Born January 31 , 1797 in Vienna , Austria Died November 19 , 1828 in Vienna , Austria
SYMPHONY NO . 8 IN B MINOR , UNFINISHED [ 1822 ]
Because Franz Schubert died very young , at the age of 31 , popular conception has sometimes fixed on the idea that his B-minor Symphony was unfinished because his time ran out . It is possible that if he had lived longer , he might have gotten around to filling out his piece to the standard four movements that made up the typical symphony of his era ; but the fact is that he had already set the score aside long before his death .
In the last decade of his life , Schubert accumulated a sizable stack of incomplete large-scale works , including several symphonic “ torsos ” and aborted sonatas . The Unfinished Symphony , which he wrote in 1822 , is the most superb of them all . That October he sketched out three movements of the piece in piano score , and the following month he completed the orchestration of the first two movements plus a fragment of the ensuing , incomplete scherzo . There it ended . Various theories have been proposed to explain why he left the work in mid-stream . The most credible is that in late 1822 , precisely when he would have moved on to the “ missing ” movements of the piece , Schubert was diagnosed with syphilis . The disease was incurable at the time , and the attendant treatments were as unpleasant as they were ineffective . It seems possible that the news threw him out of kilter vis-à-vis this piece , disrupting his concentration entirely .
The following year , Schubert sent the manuscript to his friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner , who put it in a desk drawer , where it languished for 40 years . Hüttenbrenner eventually liberated the piece from its dark , silent recess and presented it to the conductor and choral composer Johann von Herbeck , who oversaw its first performance , in Vienna in 1865 , 43 years after it was written .
The influential Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick , writing about the work ’ s premiere , said , “ With a few horn figurations and here and there a clarinet or oboe solo , Schubert achieves , with the most simple , basic orchestra , tonal effects which no refinement of Wagnerian instrumentation can capture .” Hanslick carried out his role as an anti-Wagnerian with missionary zeal , and his swipe at the later master does come off as demeaning his point just a bit . Nonetheless , he was right about the sonic beauty of Schubert ’ s Unfinished Symphony . It would be hard to think of an earlier symphony , including even those of Haydn , Mozart , and Beethoven , in which the use of symphonic sounds is so consistently evocative .
Instrumentation Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , three trombones , timpani , and strings .
Richard Wagner
Born May 22 , 1813 in Leipzig , Saxony ( Germany ) Died February 13 , 1883 in Venice , Italy
EXCERPTS FROM GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG [ 1848 ] Dawn and Siegfried ’ s Rhine Journey Siegfried ’ s Death andFuneral March Final Scene : Brünnhilde ’ s Immolation
Richard Wagner ’ s operatic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung ) is a complicated web spun out of Germanic-Nordic mythology and unified by the composer ’ s overarching musical conception and his detailed interweaving of melodic motifs . It comprises the four operas Das Rheingold , Die Walküre , Siegfried , and Götterdämmerung — or , as Wagner liked to think of it , three operas with Das Rheingold serving as a prologue . The tetralogy occupied him for 26 years , from 1848 , when he made the first prose sketch for the libretto , until 1874 , when he placed final details in the score of Götterdämmerung . The four operas together include some 15 hours of music , making The Ring the most imposing single work in the canon of classical music of the Western world .
One way to get a grip on Wagner ’ s cycle is to follow the magical ring of the title as it moves through telescoping generations , through landscapes subterranean and terrestrial , through a universe of gods and mortals and creatures , through what Sir Arthur Sullivan ( of operetta fame ) described as an array of “ thieves , liars , and blackguards .” Everybody thinks they want the ring , but when they get it , it leads to no good . It was originally forged by a dwarf of the Nibelung race out of gold he stole from the Rhine Maidens , denizens of Germany ’ s aquatic aorta . In Die Walküre , we meet Brünnhilde , a Valkyrie ( a warrior maiden ) whose father is Wotan , the chief god . She has gotten herself mixed up with an incestuous couple — things do get complicated in the Ring — and tries to rescue the male of the pair , defying her father ’ s orders . Wotan punishes her by plunging her into a profound sleep and surrounding her with a circle of fire , where she is condemned to remain until she is saved by the bravest of all heroes . Fortunately , she had already managed to shepherd to safety the pregnant woman of the incestuous couple , and that woman ’ s baby , Siegfried , grows up to become that hero . He rescues Brünnhilde from her fire-encircled slumber and they fall in love . ( Please understand that this plot summary leaves out almost everything .)
We eventually reach Götterdämmerung ( Twilight of the Gods ), the longest of the four operas , the source of the excerpts performed here . The Norns ( deities who shape the course of destiny ) have foreseen that the world , and also Valhalla ( the castle-fortress of the gods ), will be consumed by fire . Morning dawns on Brünnhilde and Siegfried . The cellos ’ deep darkness leads to a brass fanfare indicating Siegfried and yearning clarinet and bass clarinet figures suggesting Brünnhilde . ( Wagner ’ s music is shot through with perhaps
Maximilian Franz
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