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England to the sun-drenched island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. He also became an unofficial court composer for the Royal Family, creating the famous Crown Imperial March for the coronation of George VI and Orb and Scepter for Elizabeth II’ s crowning.
Walton’ s Violin Concerto, written for the limitless virtuosity of Jascha Heifetz, is extremely technically demanding as well as dramatic in style. The start of World War II nixed its planned London premiere; the first performance was given by Heifetz in Cleveland with The Cleveland Orchestra on December 7, 1939, with the composer unfortunately unable to cross the war-menaced Atlantic to attend.
The sonata-form first movement in B minor opens with a rocking motive on the solo clarinet, which soon infiltrates other instruments. Then the soloist launches the tenderly lyrical first theme( marked sognando or“ dreaming”), which is paired with a counter theme in the bassoons and cellos. A lushly harmonized, romantic melody, the second theme, is sung by the orchestral violins. The development section interjects drama with its faster tempo; it is split in two by a brief but demanding solo cadenza. The flute introduces the reprise of the soloist’ s opening theme, with the violin now on the companion bassoon-cello theme. But soon the violin has won back his theme and soars on high, with woodwinds shimmering exotically around him.
Though the Presto second-movement scherzo is predominantly driven by nervous excitement and rhythmic games, it also breathes the languid air of Ischia( where it was written) in its sensuous Trio section( Canzonetta or“ little song”). Here the solo horn sings the melody while the soloist swoops and soars around him like a seabird. This uncanny atmosphere intensifies as the woodwinds adopt the swirling patterns around the soloist, now singing the melody. Listen also for two slower interludes in the Scherzo, in which the violin plays gypsy-style in double-stopped fruity harmonies, Walton’ s salute to a Heifetz specialty.
One of Walton’ s favorite composers, Stravinsky, influenced the shifting rhythmic stresses as well as the scoring in the finale. A stealthy tread, beginning in low woodwinds and bassoons, is the movement’ s principal theme. The second theme is a true melody for the soloist, spacious, wide-ranging and full of big leaps. Although this theme opens the recapitulation, Walton has something even bigger in store: a return to the beginning of the concerto and its first tune, now sung in rich double-stops by the soloist. This grows into an accompanied“ dream cadenza”( Walton’ s homage to the finale of the Elgar Violin Concerto) in which the violin wafts away into other-worldly reverie. Then the orchestra abruptly wakes the dreamer and to a march-like rhythm spurs him on to a bold, bravura finish.
Instrumentation: Two flutes including piccolo, two oboes including English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, strings.
Symphony No. 7 in A Major
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born in Bonn, Germany, December 17, 1770; died in Vienna, Austria, March 26, 1827
Beethoven’ s Seventh Symphony is one of the most extraordinary expressions of physical energy and joy in symphonic music. Completed in 1812, the Seventh, in the words of Beethoven biographer Maynard Solomon,“ transports us into a sphere of laughter, play, and the exuberant
Beethoven release of bound energy.” This is a work without a shadow or a solemn thought or even a true slow movement. In any other hands, such unrelieved happiness might produce a feeling of triviality or monotony, but Beethoven instead shows us the dynamic variety of joy.
The Seventh was introduced to the world at a spectacular celebrity-studded concert on December 8, 1813.
Richard Wagner famously called the Seventh“ the apotheosis of the dance,” but it could more accurately be characterized as“ the apotheosis of rhythm.” Throughout Beethoven’ s music, themes are as much characterized by their rhythmic patterns as by their melodic shapes or harmonic coloring. Here rhythm is the primary building block; the first, second and fourth movements are all generated by one obsessive rhythmic figure announced at the opening. The scherzo has two such figures. The other striking characteristic of the Seventh is its sheer sound. In Jan Swafford’ s words,“ Low, epic basses and shouting horns: these are the distinctive voices in an orchestral sound more massive and bright than in any of his earlier symphonies.”
The Seventh was introduced to the world at a spectacular celebrity-studded concert on December 8, 1813, at the University of Vienna, the most successful of Beethoven’ s career. Organized by the composer’ s friend Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome, it was a benefit concert to raise money for soldiers wounded at the recent Napoleonic battle of Hanau. Both performers and audience were in high spirits, for by now it was clear that Napoleon’ s days were numbered. For the occasion, Beethoven had written one of his most notorious compositions Wellington’ s Victory, a military extravaganza calling for vast troops of musicians and a huge percussion battery. In one of his last appearances as a conductor,
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