A Mozart Wind Ensemble

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Gregory Vajda, conductor
David Buck, flute
John Cox, French horn
Martin Hebert, oboe
Carin Miller, bassoon

FELIX MENDELSSOHN Overture to "Die schöne Melusine," Op. 32 (The Fair Melusina)

Vital Stats

Composer: born Feb. 3, 1809, Hamburg; died Nov. 4, 1847, Leipzig

Work completed: Nov. 14, 1833; revised 1835-6

World premiere: Apr. 7, 1834, in London

Oregon Symphony premiere: Apr. 4, 1982, with Norman Leyden conducting

Most recent Oregon Symphony performance: At the April 1982 concert

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings

Estimated duration: 10 minutes

“I wrote this overture to an opera by Conradin Kreutzer that I heard last year at this time at the Königstädter theater [in Berlin],” wrote Felix Mendelssohn to his sister Fanny on Apr. 7, 1834. “The overture (Kreutzer’s, that is) was encored and displeased me thoroughly – as did the rest of the opera. … So I got the idea of making an overture of my own, one that people wouldn’t encore, perhaps, but that would have more soul to it.” Fanny had asked Felix which version of the “Fair Melusina” story he had set to music, which prompted his exasperated reply: “Now I really must be cross. Oh, Fanny, you ask me which tale you are to read? How many are there, pray? And how many do I know? And don’t you know the story of the ‘fair Melusina?’ And wouldn’t it be better to wrap oneself up in all sorts of instrumental music without titles?”
            As Mendelssohn’s answer suggests, several versions of the “Fair Melusina” existed. However, what really annoyed Mendelssohn was the suggestion that his music adhere to a strict narrative (hence his desire to “wrap oneself up in all sorts of instrumental music without titles.”).
            The story centers on the water nymph Melusina, who falls in love with Prince Raimund. They marry, which forces Melusina to abandon her aquatic habitat in order to live with her new husband. However, she must return to the water to resume her watery form periodically. One day Raimund, unaware of Melusina’s dual nature, discovers her secret. Feeling betrayed, Raimund and Melusina part ways, and Melusina returns to the fairy realm. (The 1984 Ron Howard film Splash, starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, is Hollywood’s version of the story, albeit with a typically Hollywood happy ending).
            The overture begins with Melusina’s theme, a gently burbling ascending clarinet melody (Wagner later borrowed it to depict the Rhine river in Das Rheingold). Melusina’s music contrasts markedly with the agitated string anguish meant to represent Raimund, presumably his emotional state upon discovering Melusina’s true character.

            In a review of this overture, Robert Schumann wrote, “Someone once asked Mendelssohn what the overture Die schöne Melusine was actually about. He promptly answered, ‘Hmm … a mésalliance.’”

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major, K. 297b
(Levin reconstruction)

Vital Stats

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

Work composed: Apr. 5 to c. Apr. 20, 1778

World premiere: Undocumented; first published in 1886

Oregon Symphony premiere: At these concerts

Instrumentation: Solo flute, solo oboe, solo bassoon, solo horn, 2 oboes, 2 horns and strings

Estimated duration: 30 minutes

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
                                                                                                            — Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II

         Was Juliet right? Names have an inherent value, and in music, perhaps none more so than Mozart.
As listeners, would we enjoy this piece as much if it were written by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, a lesser-known contemporary of Mozart, rather than Mozart himself? The question is particularly pertinent, because until the 1960s, the Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major for Flute, Oboe, Bassoon and Horn was widely believed to have been composed by Mozart. Since then, however, its authorship has generated great debate and even controversy.
             In the autumn of 1777, Mozart and his mother left Salzburg for a musical tour. They spent five months in the city of Mannheim, known throughout Europe for its famous orchestra. While in Mannheim, Mozart befriended the orchestra’s principal wind players, flutist Johann Baptist Wendling, oboist Friedrich Ramm and bassoonist Georg Wenzel Ritter. The three men encouraged Mozart to join them in Paris, where they were planning to perform with a well-known horn player Johann Wenzel Stich, (better known by his Italian name Giovanni Punto). Mozart, impressed by their musical skill, agreed.
             When Mozart arrived in Paris in March 1778, he received a commission from Joseph Legros, director of the Concerts spirituel, for a sinfonia concertante, which Mozart composed with his new friends in mind. Mozart sent his manuscript to Legros, assuming the impresario would get the orchestra parts copied in time for the first performance, scheduled for the latter part of April 1778. However, as Mozart reported to his father Leopold, the Sinfonia concertante was mysteriously absent from the program, with no explanation from Legros. Moreover, Mozart’s manuscript of the score disappeared. No trace of the original has ever been found.
             A version of the Sinfonia concertante, K. 297b, first surfaced in the papers of Otto Jahn, one of Mozart’s biographers, in the mid-1800s. Two of the solo instruments differed (oboe and clarinet replaced flute and oboe). Moreover, the writing is not in Mozart’s hand. Nonetheless, the writing for all four solo instruments seems authentically Mozartean, displaying a true understanding and appreciation for each instrument’s particular qualities and capabilities. Scholars have questioned whether the orchestra accompaniment is Mozart’s, and the discrepancy between the original solo instruments and Jahn’s version has also sparked debate. Another problematic issue is the matter of key; all three movements are written in E-flat major, but Mozart typically employed a related but contrasting key for his middle movements.
             Pianist and musicologist Robert Levin, who performed with the Oregon Symphony three years ago, has exhaustively researched the Sinfonia concertante in his 1988 book Who Wrote the Mozart Four-Wind Concertante? Levin concluded that the solo parts and a rough outline of the orchestration were indeed Mozart’s, although the orchestral accompaniments likely are not. In that spirit, Levin “reconstructed” the orchestra parts in the version you hear tonight.
             But with regard to your enjoyment of the music, does any of this matter? What is in a name, after all?

HENRI DUTILLEUX
Symphony No. 2, "Le Double"

Vital Stats

Composer:  born Jan. 22, 1916, Angers, France

Work composed: 1955-9, on a comission from the Koussevitzky Foundation to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “Dédiée a la mémoire de Serge et Nathalie Koussevitzky.”

World premiere: Charles Munch led the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 11, 1959.

Oregon Symphony premiere: At these concerts

Instrumentation: 3 flutes (two doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 2 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, tam tam, triangle, vibraphone, xylophone, celeste, harpsichord, harp and strings

Estimated duration: 31 minutes

“Dutilleux’s writing is very meticulous, very detailed. But what I respect, even if the sonorities are very complex, is that you still cannot let it become disorganized or chaotic. That is the sign of a really good, a really important composer – every note counts.”
 – conductor Valery Gergiev

Composer Henri Dutilleux’s second symphony, like Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante, may raise more questions than it answers, although in this instance the questions are not one of authorship but of meaning. Symphony No. 2, “Le Double,” suggests a Baroque concerto grosso; a small ensemble of 12 soloists is surrounded by the full orchestra. Given this arrangement, the title “Le Double” seems self-explanatory, but Dutilleux explains that the symphony’s title is not overtly literal. Rather, it is meant to convey the concept of “two characters in one, one being a reflected image of the other. … It’s a game of sound reflections … a game of colors in opposition. To take a very simple example, imagine a pianissimo played by the string quartet and set it against the same pianissimo on the full string orchestra; the ‘feel’ of the sound is quite different.”
When asked in an interview why he titled the symphony “Le Double,” Dutilleux replied, “My title refers not only to the two orchestras but to the spirit of the work, which asks a question. In Boston I visited the Museum of Fine Arts with [a friend]. … We found ourselves in front of Gauguin’s famous triptych D’où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous? (Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?) and she said to me, ‘It’s odd, but I thought of this great painting while I was listening to your symphony.’ I felt this was absolutely right because there is a kind of musical question mark at the end of each of the three movements.” While composing “Le Double,” Dutilleux admitted he was “in a period of exaltation. It’s actually a rather highly strung work and perhaps somewhat anguished in character.”
Much of Dutilleux’s music explores his fascination with orchestral colors, a compositional element central to “Le Double.”
 “In the second section in particular, a single, insinuating note acts as a pivot, a central point, and is ‘illuminated’ in an infinite variety of ways, irradiating the ensemble of instruments,” Dutilleux explains. This “pivot” is also heard in the coda of the final movement.

HECTOR BERLIOZ
Overture to Le Corsaire, Op. 21

Vital Stats

Composer:  born Dec. 11, 1803, La Côte-Saint-André, Isère, France; died Mar. 8, 1869, Paris

Work composed: 1844; revised c. 1851-2

World premiere: Berlioz conducted the original version in Paris on Jan. 19, 1845, under the title La Tour de Nice. Berlioz’ revised version, which he claimed never to have heard in performance, premiered on Apr. 4, 1854, as Le Corsaire.

Oregon Symphony premiere: Feb. 26, 1973, with Jacques Houtmann conducting

Most recent Oregon Symphony performance: Jan 4, 2004, with Hannu Lintu conducting

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani and strings

Estimated duration: 9 minutes

Berlioz began work on what became the Overture to Le Corsaire in Nice, where he went to recover from typhoid fever. In his Memoirs, Berlioz wrote, “It was a moving experience for me to see again all the places I had seen 13 years before a the outset of my Italian travels. … I enjoyed with delight a splendid view over the Mediterranean and a calm whose worth I appreciated more than ever.” The calm Berlioz refers to was welcome particularly after the final breakup of his turbulent marriage to actress Harriet Smithson.

In addition to contending with his crumbling marriage, Berlioz also spent the summer of 1844 organizing and conducting an immense concert, with more than 1,000 performers, of his own music for the Festival of Industrial Products in Paris on Aug. 1. Afterwards, ill and faint, Berlioz was ordered to rest, an order with which he thankfully complied. He noted that “thanks to my 800 francs from the festival, I spent a month [in Nice], as far as possible undoing the harm it had done to my health.”

The swashbuckling music of Le corsaire derives from its literary counterparts, James Fenimore Cooper’s short story, The Red Rover, and Byron’s poem The Corsair, both of which inspired Berlioz. Berlioz explained, “I followed the ‘Corsair’ [Byron’s hero] in his desperate adventures; I adored that inexorable yet tender nature – pitiless, yet generous – a strange combination, apparently contradictory feelings: love of woman, and hatred of his kind.” The overture combines a pirate’s musical swagger with a sensitive, intimate theme illustrating “that inexorable yet tender nature.”

© 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

Mendelssohn: The Fair Melusina Overture
Claudio Abbado-London Symphony Orchestra
Deutsche Grammophon 423104

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, K. 297b
Douglas Boyd, oboe; Richard Hosford, clarinet;
Robin O'Neill, bassoon; Jonathan Williams, horn;
Alexander Schneider-Chamber Orchestra of Europe
ASV 814 or
Diethelm Jonas, oboe; Sabine Meyer, clarinet;
Sergio Azzolini, bassoon; Bruno Schneider, horn;
Hans Vonk-Staatskapelle Dresden
EMI Classics 66949

Dutilleux: Symphony No. 2
Yan Pascal Tortelier-BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Chandos 9194 or
Hans Graf-Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra
Arte Nova 807860

Berlioz: Le Corsaire Overture
Charles Munch-Boston Symphony Orchestra
RCA Victor Gold Seal 61400 or
Sir Colin Davis-London Symphony Orchestra
Philips 442290

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