BRAHMS SYMPHONY NO. 1 WITH HEYWARD
Compared to, say, the violin or piano, whose standard-repertoire concerti number in the dozens, the cello has but a few that are regularly performed: one each by Dvořák, Elgar, Saint-Saëns, Shostakovich, Schumann, and two from“ Papa” Haydn( a third being tragically lost in a fire).
Fortunately for us, the book is not yet closed on the history of classical music, a point underscored by the vital presence in recent months of James Lee III, Composer in Residence for the BSO’ s 2024-25 season. With Renewed Mind, Lee III makes a welcome addition to the oeuvre of solo works for cello, an instrument whose voice surely deserves more time in the spotlight.
Says Lee III:“ My cello concerto, Renewed Mind, is in four movements with the titles,‘ From the heart’ s depth,’‘ Screen Impacts,’‘ Soulful Crucible,’ and‘ Renewal.’ The first movement is partially inspired by a biblical text, which comments on humanity and the resulting habits and actions that emerge from what is buried in the heart of the individual. Some of the musical passages from this first movement try to evoke a longing and desire for a change of character and a spirit of overcoming metaphoric and mental obstacles. At times, the cello sings in a manner that images moving in a beautiful dreamworld. The cadenza presents heroic moments of striving for the supremacy and self-control over one’ s actions.
“‘ Screen Impacts,’ the second movement, musically comments on our interactions and distractions with social media. This movement serves as the scherzo and begins with, what I call, the“ dopamine”( a feel-good chemical) chord. The musical conversations and gestures in this movement are in ternary form, which seeks to evoke moments of pleasure that society has in its use of various forms of social media. Some of the percussion instruments are meant to imitate notification sounds that try to lure the cello away from its course of concentration on the tasks at hand. The B section of the movement conveys moments of an artificial reality and dream chord. When there’ s a filter applied to the digital world, it can be hard for teens to tell what’ s real and what isn’ t, which comes at a difficult time for them physically and emotionally. People tend to make comparisons such as,“ Did I get as many likes as someone else?” or“ Why didn’ t this person like my post, but this other person did?” After this section, the dopamine chord returns near the end, however, the music portrays a sense of anxiety and loneliness.
“ In the third movement,‘ Soulful Crucible,’ the cello’ s melodies are presented in a manner that interacts with the orchestra in a way that evokes an image of a place or situation that forces people to change or make difficult decisions.
“ The last movement,‘ Renewal,’ begins with a short cello cadenza that represents self-directed neuroplasticity, which is the ability of individuals to intentionally change their brain structure and function through conscious effort and specific practices. As the music continues, it journeys through moments of soulful“ soul-searching,” deliverance, satisfaction, fulfillment, and moments of celebratory victory in the newly found, as well as hard-fought victory in a transformation of character.”
— James Lee III
Instrumentation: Flute, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, bassoon, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.
Johannes Brahms
Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria
SYMPHONY NO. 1, OP. 68 [ 1876 ]
“ I stay sitting here, and from time to time write highly useless pieces in order not to have to look into the stern face of a symphony.” So wrote Johannes Brahms to a friend in the summer of 1875. If the symphony indeed presented Brahms with a face, it would surely be the scowling visage of Ludwig van Beethoven, whose death in 1827 cast the form into a decades-long existential crisis.
From the early days of his career, Brahms’ contemporaries and friends dubbed the younger composer heir apparent to the Beethovenian tradition.( In 1853, Robert Schumann declared him the“ young Messiah” of musical Romanticism.) So suffocating was the weight of those expectations— inflicted, no less, on a sensitive composer with something of a perfectionist streak— that Brahms did not complete a symphony until 1876, at age 43.
The First had been in gestation for over two decades, from long before Brahms possessed his famous beard and moustache. Initial sketches probably date back to 1854; Brahms showed a draft of the first movement in 1862 to Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim( for whom he would write his 1878 violin concerto); and in 1868, Brahms sent Clara Schumann a postcard upon which he scribbled the famous alpenhorn theme that eventually found its way into the finale. When, in 1876, Brahms finally completed his First, comparisons with Beethoven came swiftly and predictably, with the influential pianist, conductor, and composer Hans von Bülow designating the work“ Beethoven’ s Tenth.”
Like his forebear’ s Fifth Symphony, Brahms begins the First in C minor and ends in C major. Beethoven’ s famous opening derives its impact through downward angularity; Brahms’ introduction, by contrast, achieves an equally visceral effect through searing horizontal tension through which strings slowly struggle upwards in incremental half steps, urged onwards by a steady timpani beat. With onset of the Allegro comes the movement’ s two main ideas, one determined and insistent with quintessentially Brahmsian syncopations and offbeat emphases, the other lyrical and expansive.
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