PROGRAM NOTES
CONLON PRESENTS BERNSTEIN ’ S KADDISH
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
BY JAMES M . KELLER
Johannes Brahms
Born May 7 , 1833 in Hamburg , Germany Died April 3 , 1897 in Vienna , Austria
TRAGIC OVERTURE , OP . 81 [ 1880 ]
Johannes Brahms spent the cold and rainy summer of 1880 in Bad Ischl , a charming town in Austria ’ s Salzkammergut . There he composed his two orchestral overtures , his only essays of the type . Brahms often worked simultaneously ( or in quick succession ) on pairs of pieces that complement each other in their complete emotional contrast . So it is that his sinewy Tragic Overture stands at 180 degrees from his jovial Academic Festival Overture , its exact contemporary . In fact , this work was included in the same program in Breslau ( on January 4 , 1881 ) at which the Academic Festival was premiered . That was not , however , the premiere of the Tragic , which had already been introduced by the Vienna Philharmonic more than a week earlier .
On August 28 , 1880 , Brahms wrote from Bad Ischl to his friend Dr . Theodor Billroth , “ The Academic has led me to a second overture which I can only entitle the Dramatic , which does not please me .” Three weeks later he informed the concert organizer Bernhard Scholz in Breslau , “ You may include a ‘ dramatic ’ or ‘ tragic ’ or ‘ Tragedy Overture ’ in your program …; I cannot find a proper title to fit it .” To his composer-friend Carl Reinecke he commented , “ One weeps while the other laughs .”
The composer ’ s early biographer Max Kalbeck felt that Brahms had a particular tragedy in his mind : Goethe ’ s Faust . Brahms was supposed to write incidental music for a production of that monumental work at the Vienna Burgtheater , though the project came to naught . For his part , Brahms maintained that this piece was not connected to any tragedy in particular . That should be the end of the discussion , but Brahms so often spoke evasively about his works , whether for ironic or other reasons , that one has trouble knowing when to believe him and when to shrug him off . The musical commentator Donald Francis Tovey , an enthusiast of this piece , took the composer at his word : “ Brahms ’ Tragic Overture is certainly not written at the dictation of any one tragedy , either in literature or in his own experience ; and any tragic characters of which it may remind us can be safely regarded as our own illustrations of its meaning .”
Instrumentation Two flutes , piccolo , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , and strings
Franz Schreker
Born March 23 , 1878 in Monaco Died March 21 , 1934 in Berlin , Germany
PRELUDE TO DIE GEZEICHNETEN ( THE STIGMATIZED ) [ 1913 ]
Franz Schreker was born in Monaco , one of the high-society centers that provided work for his father , a photographer who specialized in portraits of aristocrats . After graduating from
PEABODY
2022 – 23 CONCERT SEASON
Peabody ’ s FREE in-person and online performance season begins this fall , with programs from classical to contemporary , from jazz to dance .
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SEPT-OCT 2022 / OVERTURE 23