Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5

Claus Peter Flor, conductor
Stefan Jackiw, violin

MAURICE RAVEL
Le tombeau de Couperin

Vital Stats

Composer: born Mar. 7, 1875, Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, France; died Dec. 28, 1937, Paris

Work composed: Originally a six-movement work for piano in 1914-17; each movement is dedicated to the memory of a friend killed during World War I. The orchestrated version, which does not include either the Fugue or the Toccata of the original piano suite, was completed in June 1919.

World premiere: Marguerite Long played the piano suite at the Salle Gaveau on April 11, 1919 in Paris. Rhené-Baton led the Pasdeloup Orchestra in the premiere of the orchestra version on Feb. 28, 1920, also in Paris.

Oregon Symphony premiere: Nov. 16, 1931, with Willem van Hoogstraten conducting

Most recent Oregon Symphony performances: Oct. 19-21, 2002, with Jonathan Pasternack conducting

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes (one doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, harp and strings

Estimated duration: 16 minutes

World War I took its toll on Maurice Ravel; a number of his friends were killed in action, and he himself agonized about enlisting, even though he was 39 years old when the war began. Gerald Larner’s biography describes some of Ravel’s thoughts during this period:  “[Ravel] wrote to [a friend] to express the anguish aroused in him by ‘those weeping women, [and] above all the horrible enthusiasm of the young men and all my friends who have had to join up and my not knowing what is happening to them’.”

Ravel wrote Le tombeau de Couperin as an homage to François Couperin, one of the major composers of the French Baroque era “and to 18th century French music in general.” Tombeau literally means “tomb,” but it also refers to a work or collection of works, either musical or poetic, written in homage to a dead colleague or master. Tombeaux of this sort are a part of French musical and literary tradition dating back to the Renaissance. Musicologist Gerard McBurney points out, “Beneath the formality of this music is an elegy for French culture, which was being deeply threatened and might well have been destroyed by a world war which was turning the north of France into a blood bath … [Le tombeau] doesn’t talk directly about the war at all; it talks about eternal values: beauty, elegance, the things that we want to preserve … in other words, the opposite of war.” For Ravel, however, Le tombeau de Couperin was also a personal memorial to friends and colleagues killed during the war; he dedicated each movement to a fallen comrade.

Pianist Marguerite Long, whose husband was one of those to whom Ravel dedicated a movement of the tombeau, and who premiered the original piano suite in 1919, resolutely defended Ravel when Le tombeau was criticized for its lack of solemnity. “The dead are unhappy enough as they are,” said Long. “Is it necessary to dedicate laments to them forever? When a musician of genius gives them the best of himself and at the same time something they would have enjoyed, isn’t that the most moving tribute he can make?”

Le tombeau employs several dance styles, in the manner of a Baroque suite. The second movement forlane is a dance from northern Italy, the third is the popular Baroque menuet, and the final movement’s dance, a rigaudon, hails from Provence.

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218

Vital Stats

Composer: born Jan. 27, 1756, Salzburg, Austria; died Dec. 5, 1791, Vienna

Work composed: Summer 1775; finished in October of that year

World premiere: Undocumented

Oregon Symphony premiere: Nov. 23, 1959, with Piero Bellugi conducting; Maichael Rabin, violin soloist

Most recent Oregon Symphony performances: Dec. 4-6, 1999, with James DePreist conducting; Elissa Lee Koljonen, violin soloist

Instrumentation: Solo violin, 2 oboes, 2 horns and strings

Estimated duration: 24 minutes

Our appreciation of Mozart’s abilities as a violinist is sometimes obscured by his accomplishments as a composer and pianist. However, it is worth noting not only Mozart’s skill with the instrument but the instruction he received from his father Leopold. Mozart began playing violin at the age of 6 and made his solo violin concerto debut at s7. Leopold Mozart was known in his own right for his influential Essay on the Fundamental Principles of Violin-Playing, still referenced by violinists today, which was published the year Mozart was born.

In 1777, Mozart (somewhat ironically) reported to his father on a performance he had given of one of his serenades for solo violin, “I played as if I were the greatest fiddler in Europe.” Leopold wrote back, “You yourself do not know how well you play the violin; if only you will do yourself credit and play with energy, with your whole heart and mind, yes, just as if you were the first violinist in Europe. Many people do not even know that you play the violin, since you have been known from childhood as a keyboard player.”

Mozart wrote four of his five violin concerti between Apr. 14 and Dec. 20, 1775, at the age of 19. We do not know precisely whom they were written for, although it is possible Mozart intended them for himself. His mastery of the violin and his comprehension of its technical and musical potential is a player’s understanding.

As musicologist Neal Zaslaw points out: “We may guess how Mozart played the violin, for he valued in performers what we value in his music: beauty, clarity, logic, balance … once, after hearing a difficult violin concerto performed, he informed his father that he enjoyed it but added, ‘You know that I am no lover of difficulties.’ The paradox is that Mozart’s playing down of virtuosity for its own sake in his violin concertos makes them harder, not easier, to perform well.”

The performer’s musicianship is tested in the very first notes of the solo, which are played high up on the E string. The exposed melodic line allows no margin for errors of intonation or color. Throughout the concerto, Mozart’s writing emphasizes grace, artistry and a purity of tone that requires a heightened musical sensibility.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

Vital Stats

Composer: born Dec. 16, 1770, Bonn; died Mar. 26, 1827, Vienna

Work composed: 1804-08, originally commissioned by Count Franz von Oppersdorff for 500 florins, although Beethoven eventually dedicated the Fifth to Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz and Count Andreas Kyrillovitsch Razumovsky, patrons with whom he had a longer, more substantial relationship.

World premiere: Dec. 22, 1808, in an all-Beethoven program that included the Sixth Symphony and the Piano Concerto No. 4 in the Theater-an-der-Wien.

Oregon Symphony premiere: Feb. 7, 1915, with Harold Bayley conducting

Most recent Oregon Symphony performances: Feb. 21-23, 2004, with Carlos Kalmar conducting

Instrumentation: Piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and strings

Estimated duration: 36 minutes

“This symphony invariably wields its power over men of every age like those great phenomena of nature. … This symphony, too, will be heard in future centuries, as long as music and the world exist.”
                                                                                                                                      — Robert Schumann

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is arguably not only among the most iconic pieces of classical music ever composed (as well as one of the most iconoclastic), but it has also come to represent the very essence of classical music itself. Music lovers know it backwards and forwards, and even those who have never attended an orchestra concert nonetheless recognize the opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth, as it is generally known, immediately.

Since it was first performed, on a cold December night in 1808 in Vienna, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony has become a lens through which we have viewed music, society and culture. Early audiences heard in its notes an exhortation of victory and triumph, whether literal or of a more internal, personal kind. As the 19th century progressed, Beethoven’s music, particularly the symphonies, became the standard against which every subsequent composer’s music was measured. During WWII, the Allies used the famous four-note opening as a signal in radio broadcasts of victory over the Axis powers. The Fifth Symphony even became an unforgettable part of the 1970s with Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band’s disco version, A Fifth of Beethoven.

Beethoven is famously said to have likened the four opening notes to the hand of Fate knocking at the door. In all likelihood, however, this description was fabricated by Anton Schindler, one of Beethoven’s early biographers, known both for his poor memory and his penchant for invention. Whether a representation of Fate or not, these four notes are the rhythmic seed from which the rest of the symphony develops.
Beethoven, who left few clues as to his compositional process for the Fifth Symphony, did mention the creation of the theme that “begins in my head the working-out in breadth, height and depth. Since I am aware of what I want, the fundamental idea never leaves me. It mounts, it grows. I see before my mind the picture in its whole extent, as if in a single grasp.”

From a musician’s standpoint, the opening of the Fifth Symphony presents an intriguing, if difficult, challenge. When the conductor brings the baton down for the first beat, the orchestra is silent, but then they explode into sound on the upbeat. For a work this well known and frequently programmed, orchestra players never know what to expect, because each conductor does it his (or her) own way.

© Elizabeth Schwartz 2009

Program Notes by Elizabeth Schwartz

Elizabeth Schwartz is a Portland-based free-lance writer, researcher and musician. In addition annotating programs for the Oregon Symphony and other ensembles, she has also contributed to NPR’s Performance Today (now heard on American Public Media). Schwartz also co-hosts The Portland Yiddish Hour, heard at 10 a.m. Sundays on KBOO 90.7 FM. Email: schwartzelizabeth@yahoo.com.

Recommended Recordings by Michael Parsons

Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin
Paul Paray-Detroit Symphony
Mercury Living Presence 432003 or
Charles Dutoit-Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Decca 460214

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4
Arthur Grumiaux-Violin
Sir Colin Davis-London Symphony Orchestra
Philips 438323 or
Julia Fischer-Violin
Yakov Kreizberg-Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
Pentatone 5186064

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Carlos Kleiber-Vienna Philharmonic
Deutsche Grammophon 447400 or
Bernard Haitink-London Symphony Orchestra
LSO Live 90

These selected recordings are available at Classical Millennium, located at 3144 E. Burnside in Portland.