Overture Magazine: 2017-2018 Season FINAL_BSO_Overture_May_June

MOZART AND BRAHMS “ THIS WAS SUBLIME MUSIC-MAKING” — THE BALTIMORE SUN SUNDAYS @ 5:30PM SUBSCRIBE TODAY! ZUKERMAN TRIO Works by Arensky, Kodály, Beethoven Sep 23 PACIFICA QUARTET MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN, PIANO Works by Beethoven, Marc-André Hamelin, Schumann Oct 21 IMOGEN COOPER, PIANO Works by Haydn, Thomas Adès, Beethoven, Schubert Nov 11 JENNIFER KOH, VIOLIN SHAI WOSNER, PIANO Works by Beethoven, Vijay Iyer Jan 27 JOHANNES MOSER, CELLO TILL FELLNER, PIANO Works by Stravinsky, Webern, Beethoven, Debussy Mar 3 HAGEN QUARTET JÖRG WIDMANN, CLARINET Works by Dvořák, Jörg Widmann, Mozart section, which also features a dark, brooding treatment of the first theme led by solo horn. The movement’s concluding coda begins big, but surprisingly the masculine theme turns ten der and lyrical for a hushed close. Brahms scholar Malcolm MacDonald calls the second movement “one of Brahms’ most inspired sublimations of folksong style.” Clarinets and bassoons introduce the principal melody “of simple gravity and hymn-like seriousness.” But pay special heed to the second theme: a melancholy duet for clarinet and bassoon emphasizing undulating rhythms and accompanied by a persistent short-long rhythm—this music will appear again in the finale. The movement’s closing coda is exceedingly beautiful, exploiting the orchestra’s most diaphanous colors. Another intermezzo-style movement, the Poco Allegretto, features one of Brahms’ loveliest tunes. Sung first by the cellos, it is a bittersweet mix of romantic yearning and regret so characteristic of this composer. Brahms gives it many variants with radiant new orchestrations. The struggle between minor and major becomes fierce in the sonata-form finale, which mediates and resolves all that has gone before. It opens in F minor with a mysterious, scurrying theme, capped with punchy rhythms. This is followed by a solemn new version of the clarinet- bassoon theme from movement two. The development section tackles the first theme and its rhythm in moods both meditative and heroic. However, most of the drama is saved for the solemn theme, its short-long rhythm now grown monumental. In the closing coda, this theme is transformed yet again, played very slowly in the woodwinds over shimmering strings. From this miraculously floats the F-A-F motto and the work’s bold opening theme. Serenely, it ripples down through the orchestra like a benediction, stilling all strife. compelling reason to stay —a rich-voiced contralto named Hermine Spies. Brahms had just met her and was captivated by her marvelous voice and vivacious personality. Another of this confirmed bachelor’s romantic friendships ensued, even though Fräulein Spies was young enough to be the 50-year-old Brahms’ daughter. He wrote many songs for her, and she became his favorite interpreter of the Alto Rhapsody. And so, the summer of 1883 was a particularly happy one, and the Third Symphony, his shortest, was born with ease. Although it enjoyed a tremendous success at its premiere in Vienna in December of that year, today it is the least-often heard of Brahms’ four, although it is by no means inferior. Indeed, the Third is Brahms’ most refined and densely constructed symphony, one in which he distills the maximum possibilities from every motive and theme, even bringing them back in startling new guises in later movements. This sturdy intellectual foundation is overlaid with some of his loveliest melodies, clothed in exquisite orchestral colors. But it is easier for conductors and orchestras to dazzle audiences with the other symphonies than with this subtle creation, in which all four movements end quietly. The first movement opens with three rising chords that spell out F-A (flat)-F, a personal motto for Brahms that pervades much of the symphony. Years earlier, Brahms and his close friend, violinist Joseph Joachim, had experimented with musical mottos symbolizing their bachelor status. Joachim’s was F-A-E for “Frei aber einsam” (“Free but lonely”), and he soon married. Brahms countered with F-A-F, “Frei aber froh” (“Free but glad”). But now in his Third Symphony, the A has become an A-flat, shifting the F-major home tonality to minor. Is there perhaps a hint of ambiguity about his motto as Brahms pays court to Hermine Spies? The F-A-F motto spawns a ruggedly masculine principal theme, striding across a big range. But soon the music becomes more subdued and, shifting to three beats, proposes a romantic waltz, led by clarinet and bassoon, as the second theme. This melody is later taken up in the development Mar 24 PIOTR ANDERSZEWSKI, PIANO Works by Bach, Beethoven Apr 7 ARCANGELO JONATHAN COHEN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, HARPSICHORD, ORGAN JOÉLLE HARVEY, SOPRANO Works by Handel, Bach, Buxtehude May 12 Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, EXPLORE THE FULL SEASON! SHRIVERCONCERTS.ORG 410.516.7164 timpani and strings. Notes by Janet E. Bedell, © 201 8 M AY–J U N 2018 / OV E R T U R E 23

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