MENDELSSOHN & BARTÓK
isolated in his new surroundings , and he was plagued by exhaustion and ill health , the first symptoms of the leukemia that would kill him . By the summer of 1943 , he was in such precarious condition that he was confined to a hospital . His weight had fallen to 87 pounds , and he was all but bankrupt when the conductor Serge Koussevitzky commissioned a new symphonic work , the Concerto for Orchestra , one of the great masterpieces of symphonic music .
This served to jump-start Bartók ’ s creativity and he judiciously committed himself to a few new projects , of which his Piano Concerto No . 3 — his first two having been completed in 1926 and 1931 — held special personal significance . He hoped to present it as a gift to his pianist-wife , Ditta Pásztory-Bartók , for her 42 nd birthday on October 31 , 1945 , imagining that she could use it as a performing vehicle that would ensure concert bookings after he was gone . He nearly made it . His condition deteriorated as he labored on the piece during the summer of 1945 , and on September 22 he was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he died four days later . He had worked on the concerto through his last evening at home and managed to finish all but the final 17 measures of its orchestration . These were supplied by his pupil and friend Tibor Serly . Ditta soon returned to Hungary , where she lived in semi-seclusion for a couple of decades before she ever played this piece in public . By and large , her role in this spectacularly beautiful concerto — greatly lyrical , sometimes prayerful , often mysterious , appealingly naturalistic , even incorporating quotations of bird songs in the “ night music ” of its middle movement — was limited to serving as Muse .
Instrumentation : Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion ( xylophone , triangle , snare drum , cymbals , bass drum , tam-tam ), and strings , in addition to the solo piano .
Felix Mendelssohn
Born February 3 , 1809 , in Hamburg , Germany Died November 4 , 1847 , in Leipzig , Germany
SYMPHONY NO . 5 IN D MINOR , “ REFORMATION ” [ 1829 – 1830 , REV . 1832 ]
Although it is designated Symphony No . 5 and carries the seemingly late opus number of 107 , these numbers reflect the belated publication of Felix Mendelssohn ’ s Reformation Symphony , which was actually the second of his five full-scale works in the genre . He began it in 1829 and completed it in April 1830 , intending it as a celebratory piece for the tercentenary of the Augsburg Confession , which would fall on June 25 , 1830 . Drawn up in 1530 to codify Martin Luther ’ s beliefs and defend them from misrepresentation , the 28 articles of the Augsburg Confession stand to this day as the basic expression of Lutheran tenets and strongly influenced the later creeds of the Anglican and Methodist Churches .
As often happens , affairs of church and state did not go hand in hand . In 1830 , political upheaval swept across Germany with such disrupting effect that the Augsburg commemoration had to be cancelled , and Mendelssohn ’ s premiere along with it . The performance was rescheduled for Paris , but this was also scrapped when members of the Parisian orchestra expressed antipathy , the work ’ s staunchly Protestant theme proving unwelcome in a staunchly Catholic country . Mendelssohn ’ s symphony did not receive its first performance until November 15 , 1832 , when it was offered to a Berlin audience under the title Symphony for the Celebration of a Religious Revolution . Its fate did not much improve after that hard-won premiere . Audiences in London , generally receptive to Mendelssohn , received it coolly , and the composer seemed content to let it fade into oblivion . This engaging , powerful piece was not published until 1868 , 21 years after his death .
Bach was on Mendelssohn ’ s mind when he embarked on the Reformation Symphony ( as it came to be called ). Less than a year earlier , he had directed the groundbreaking “ modern premiere ” of Bach ’ s St . Matthew Passion . The forthright clarity of the Lutheran chorale , so central to that masterwork , also inspired Mendelssohn in this symphony , along with a Bachian delight in counterpoint . He announces the Lutheran occasion at the work ’ s outset by quoting the “ Dresden Amen ,” a well-known response formula written by the 18 th -century composer Johann Gottlieb Naumann ; it makes multiple appearances in the hard-driving first movement . Following a scampering scherzo and a telescoped slow movement ( essentially just a prelude to the finale ), the symphony ’ s last movement opens with another Lutheran quotation — the famous chorale “ A Mighty Fortress is our God ” (“ Ein ’ feste Burg ist unser Gott ”), its phrases resurfacing through to the emphatic end .
Instrumentation : Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons and contrabassoon ( or serpent , a twisting brass instrument that is now effectively extinct ), two horns , two trumpets , three trombones , timpani , and strings .
JAMES M . KELLER , the longtime Program Annotator of the San Francisco Symphony and for 25 years Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic , is the author of Chamber Music : A Listener ’ s Guide ( Oxford University Press ).
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