VIVALDI FOUR SEASONS the Civic Orchestra of Chicago . She has performed with the New World Symphony , at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival , at the Brevard Music Center and as a member of Washington D . C .’ s 21 st Century Consort . Finck has been a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center and holds a degree from Boston University School of Fine Arts . As a teacher and clinician , she has served on the faculties of Towson University , Brevard Music Center , the National Symphony ’ s Summer Music Institute and the BSO ’ s own BSO Academy . Beyond classical music , her interests include cooking , hiking and going to the park with her three young children .
Gabrielle Finck last appeared with the BSO as a soloist in March 2014 , performing Bach ’ s Brandenburg Concerto No . 1 , Jonathan Carney , conductor .
About the Concert
SELECTIONS FROM ROSAMUNDE
Franz Schubert
Born in Vienna , Austria , January 31 , 1797 ; died in Vienna , November 19 , 1828
It is one of music ’ s ironies that Franz Schubert , possibly the greatest song writer of all time and one who could pack a whole drama into one lied , should have been so unsuccessful writing for the theater . At the height of Rossini ’ s popularity in Vienna ’ s opera houses , Schubert longed to make his fame and fortune with operas of his own . His lack of success was no reflection on his musical ability ; instead , it was due to his careless choice of inept librettos that were laughed off the stage by contemporary audiences . Perhaps if he had lived past 31 , he would have corrected this problem and composed his own Barber of Seville or Magic Flute .
Today his theatrical and operatic scores are largely forgotten except for the charming incidental music he wrote for Rosamunde in 1823 and the vivacious overture mistakenly associated with it . Actually , the so-called
Rosamunde Overture was written for an earlier play with music , Die Zauberharfe (“ The Magic Harp ”) written in the summer of 1820 for Vienna ’ s Theater an der Wien . It was renamed when a publisher accidentally included it in a piano arrangement of the Rosamunde music in 1827 .
Here ’ s how the contemporary critic Schlecta described Die Zauberharfe : “ Take one good and one evil magician , who are at loggerheads with each other ; then take a lunatic young lady of noble ancestry living in the ruins of a castle , a blubbering father and a spell-bound son ; add a few absurd knights … and finally ten or twelve monsters , the more fantastic the better . Mix these ingredients with a bucket of tears , a handful of sighs and a solid lump of ridiculous magic . Stew the concoction until it is completely unintelligible — and the dish of nonsense is then ready to serve .”
Fortunately , this best-loved of Schubert ’ s overtures shines above this play ’ s absurdity . It includes a slow introduction containing a beautiful Italian-style aria for oboes and clarinets , followed by an energetic Allegro section featuring a dashing principal theme introduced by the violins .
The three pieces of incidental music we ’ ll also hear really are from Rosamunde , Princess of Cyprus , which unfortunately lasted for only two performances on the Viennese stage . First we hear the Ballet in B minor from Act II , which begins with brasspowered drama , but closes in beautiful , melancholy lyricism . One of Schubert ’ s most famous and enchanting lyrical melodies keeps returning throughout the Entr ’ acte following Act III , which also features particularly wonderful music for the woodwinds . The winsome Ballet Music in G major from Act IV captures the ingratiating charm of Austrian rural folk dance .
Instrumentation : Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , timpani and strings .
THE FOUR SEASONS
Antonio Vivaldi
Born in Venice , Italy , March 4 , 1678 ; died in Vienna , Austria , July 28 , 1741
So popular is Vivaldi ’ s The Four Seasons today that it seems incomprehensible that these four delightful concertos should have languished in the musical attic for more than 200 years before re-appearing around 1950 , just in time for the invention of the long-playing record . For it was the LP that spread the Seasons ’ fame throughout the world , making it probably the most recorded classical work of them all .
After a long and illustrious career in which he composed some 800 works — including 500 concertos for virtually every instrument extant in his time , as well as operas and church music — Vivaldi died a pauper in 1741 in Vienna , far from his native Venice . But in his prime , he was a celebrated violin virtuoso , and his dynamic concertos influenced many other contemporary composers , including J . S . Bach .
By the 1720s , Vivaldi was devoting some of his time to the service of Count Wenzeslaus von Morzin of Bohemia . In 1725 , he dedicated a remarkable new publication of 12 concertos , entitled Il cimento dell ’ armonia e dell ’ invenzione (“ The Trial of Harmony and Invention ”) to the Count — the first four of these concertos being The Four Seasons . But scholars believe the Seasons were actually composed a few years earlier , probably around 1720 , making them contemporaries of Bach ’ s Brandenburg Concertos .
Although Vivaldi had written other concertos with colorful titles , the Seasons took descriptive writing several steps farther by graphically illustrating four sonnets , possibly written by Vivaldi himself , which are included in the original printed edition . Moreover , Vivaldi added verbal cues in the scores so performers would know exactly what they were representing : whether a barking dog in the second movement of “ Spring ” or a drunkard
SEP – OCT 2018 / OVERTURE 29