This concert—our first-ever "Audience Choice" concert--was programmed in part by you.  Subscribers and musicians were asked to choose among symphonies by Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Corigliano.  The votes are in, and our winner is...Brahms's Symphony No.1, one of the most eagerly-anticipated symphonies of late 19th century, and one that clearly lived up to all expectations.  We begin with the brilliant Benvenuto Cellini overture by Berlioz.  British cellist Stephen Isserlis makes his Madison Symphony Orchestra debut with the fine cello concerto of Schumann--Brahms's great friend and mentor.
 

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Overture to Benvenuto Cellini, Op. 23

Berlioz's opera Benvenuto Cellini was first performed at the Paris Operá on September 10, 1838. Previous performances by the Madison Symphony Orchestra were in 1931, 1936, and 1941. Duration 11:00.

Shortly after completing his Symphonie Fantastique in 1830, Berlioz won the prestigious Prix de Rome from the Paris Conservatory. This award, given annually to the most promising young composer, was the "stamp of approval" from the Parisian musical establishment and would allow the student funds to study in Rome. Berlioz found Rome to be "stupid and prosaic," but fell in love with Florence, and was particularly taken with the work and the Memoirs of the Florentine goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571). He certainly sensed a kind of kindred spirit in Cellini: an artist little understood or appreciated in his time, and who lived a turbulent and extravagant life. In his own Memoirs, Berlioz wrote that "I had been greatly struck by certain episodes in the life of Benvenuto Cellini. I had the misfortune to believe that they would make an interesting and dramatic subject for an opera."

Misfortune indeed. Just getting the opera on stage was a tremendous feat that called for all of Berlioz's political skill: Parisian audiences were conservative, and Benvenuto Cellini was a fairly radical piece for its time. When it was premiered in 1838, it was a complete flop: the Opéra cancelled the production after only four performances. Berlioz said of the premiere that "…the overture was received with exaggerated applause, but the rest was hissed with admirable energy and unanimity." Berlioz blamed the conductor, Habeneck, for the opera's failure, but a certain amount of the blame must have rested with a mediocre libretto and tremendously difficult vocal parts. He resurrected parts of the opera a few years later in the concert overture The Roman Carnival, and Berlioz got a bit of vindication when Franz Liszt revived Benvenuto Cellini in Weimar in 1853. The opera never achieved more than moderate success, however, and is very rarely performed today.

While the opera never really caught on, the exuberant Benvenuto Cellini overture quickly took on a life of its own as a piece of concert music. The overture begins with a kind of jubilant orchestral flourish before a long slow section introduces pizzicato theme in the low strings. This theme, and most of the music used in the overture are cribbed from the opera--in this case, it is a solemn song of absolution sung at the very end by Pope Clement VII as he forgives Cellini's sins. (Benvenuto Cellini's Pope was later demoted to a Cardinal by a Parisian censor.). A more sprightly idea is borrowed from a masquerader's song from the Carnival scene in Act II. The chromatic theme introduced by the woodwinds is from a passionate love duet between Cellini and his beloved Teresa. In the conclusion, the Pope's music is combined with the opening theme before the overture closes with a brilliant coda.
 

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in A minor, Op.129

Schumann composed this work in 1850. Its premiere was on June 9, 1860 in Leipzig, with soloist Ludwig Ebert. It has been played twice at thee concerts, by Madeline Foley (1952) and Lynn Harrell. (1987). Duration 25:00.

In September 1850, Schumann moved from Dresden to the Rhine Valley town of Düsseldorf, to take up the post of municipal music director. Schumann and his wife, the piano virtuoso Clara Wieck Schumann, were welcomed rapturously by the town, with parties, nighttime serenades, and a concert of Schumann's music. They soon settled in to a comfortable existence, Robert as a conductor and Clara as a piano soloist. The Cello Concerto, written in a two-week period in October, shortly after they moved to Düsseldorf, was the beginning of a two-year burst of creativity that also included his fine "Rhenish" symphony (completed just two months later) and a host of smaller pieces. Sadly. his mental illness ended his compositional career, and in 1854, after a failed suicide attempt, he had himself committed to an asylum, where he died two years later.

Schumann's motive for composing the concerto--in much happier times--seems to have been pure intellectual pleasure. He had started his career with aspirations to be a piano virtuoso, but a misguided attempt at using a finger-strengthening device ruined his right hand. He turned to the cello in the 1830s, but he could not have intended it as a solo piece for himself: he never reached a level where he was comfortable playing in public. The piece was in fact not published until 1854, and was not performed in public until 1860. His knowledge of the instrument shows in the fine idiomatic writing in the solo part, but there is no empty virtuosity here: this is a profound dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra. About a year after he completed the work, Clara played through the score on piano, and wrote in her diary: "I have played Robert’s cello concerto through again, thus giving myself a truly musical and happy hour. The romantic quality, the vivacity, the freshness and humor, also the highly interesting interweaving of cello and orchestra are indeed wholly ravishing, and what euphony and deep feeling one finds in all the melodic passages!"

Though it has the traditional three-movement outlines of a Romantic concerto, the three sections of the Cello Concerto are run seamlessly together. The opening section (Nicht ziu schnell - not too fast) is set in sonata form. The main theme, a long flowing Romantic melody, is introduced by the cello, while the second idea, equally lyrical is stated by the orchestra and then decorated in the solo part. Instead of a conventional closing cadenza, there is a long orchestral passage that serves as a bridge to the second movement (Langsam - slowly), which begins with a lovely duet for the solo part and the orchestra's principal cello. The mood begins to change at the end of this section, as the solo part heats up and the orchestra's pace quickens for a flashy final movement (Sehr lebhaft - quite lively). Here, the solo part truly takes over, with a magnificent solo cadenza at the very end.
 

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68

Brahms composed his Symphony No.1 in 1876. The first performance took place in Karlsruhe on November 4, 1876, with Otto Dessoff conducting. The Madison Symphony Orchestra has played the work on eight previous programs, beginning in 1939. Our most recent performance was in 2003. Duration 47:00.

When Brahms was only twenty, he met the composer and critic Robert Schumann for the first time. Schumann hailed Brahms's advent on the musical scene in an article in the journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, suggesting that Brahms was the long-awaited standard-bearer for one side in an ongoing aesthetic battle. Schumann saw the Classical lines of Brahms's music as an antidote to the more radical ideas of the "New German School" headed by Franz Liszt. Brahms was held up as the successor to Beethoven, and Schumann suggested that "…if [Brahms] directs his magic wand where the massed power in chorus and orchestra might lend him their strength, we can look forward to even more wondrous glimpses into the secret world of the spirits." The young composer had, up until then, composed only smaller works, and this challenge to write symphonies and other large works weighed heavily on Brahms's mind. He imposed a long musical apprenticeship upon himself before he would bring out a symphony--the first symphony was not completed until 1876, when Brahms was 43.

In listening to the large works he completed prior to 1876, we hear a steadily-increasing skill and self-confidence in the way in which Brahms composed for orchestra. He abandoned his first attempt at symphonic writing, a D minor symphony sketched out in 1856 (although he did recycle some of its music in later works). For his first published orchestral works, the Op.11 and Op.16 serenades (1857-59), Brahms chose a fairly simple suite form to practice orchestral writing, and he limited his performing forces to a relatively small chamber orchestra. The German Requiem of 1869 shows a much more confident control of orchestration, and the Variations on a Theme by Haydn of 1873 is an even more adventuresome work, featuring some striking orchestral effects.

Early in 1873, when he sent a few small works to his publisher Simrock, the publisher sent a cranky reply: "Aren't you going to do anything more? Am I not to have a symphony from you in 1873 either?" Indeed, it seems like everyone who knew Brahms was impatient for him to complete a symphony. In reviewing the first Vienna performance of Brahms's Symphony No.1, the critic Eduard Hanslick wrote that: "…seldom, if ever, has the entire musical world awaited a composer's first symphony with such tense anticipation." By 1873, Brahms had, in fact, already been working on the first symphony for a long time. The earliest sketches for this work date from the 1850s, and he had completed a draft of the first movement by 1862.
Brahms finally completed the Symphony No.1 in 1876, and it was first performed at Karlsruhe in November of that year. Those who had waited for so long for Brahms to continue the symphonic tradition of Beethoven were apparently well satisfied. The conductor Hans von Bülow declared that Schumann's prophecy had been fulfilled, and dubbed Brahms's symphony "The Tenth" (i.e., the symphony Beethoven would have written after his ninth). Clearly, Brahms had this image in mind in composing the Symphony No.1--there are too many subtle and overt references to Beethoven to deny. However, the style, conception, and spirit are Brahms's own: his first symphonic masterpiece.

The Symphony No.1 begins with a lengthy slow introduction marked Un poco sostenuto, which provides musical raw material for this entire work: from the stormy opening movement to the triumphant Finale. Tension builds towards the end of the introduction, and Brahms abruptly begins the exposition of his movement (Allegro), which is set in sonata form. The main theme, first heard in the violins, quickly gives way to a long transitional section, in which Brahms begins to explore the material outlined in his introduction. He reserves the second main theme--a powerful triplet melody--for the very end of the exposition. After a repeat of the exposition, there is another abrupt change of character, and the development begins with the first theme played above a hazy background. Gradually, the focus shifts to the triplet theme, which is combined and recombined with other material. A long pedal point in the timpani and a chromatic horn passage lead into the recapitulation. At the very end, just when it seems that the movement is concluding, Brahms inserts a rather mysterious passage in B-flat minor. The texture quickly thickens again, however, and the movement comes to a close with bright C Major chords.

Between the large opening and closing movements of the symphony, Brahms places two relatively quiet inner movements. The second movement (Andante sostenuto) begins as a conversation among the strings and solo woodwinds, singing a succession of lyrical melodies and countermelodies. The calm of this movement is threatened by a minor key passage in the center of the movement, and eventually by a brief reference to the stormy main theme of the first movement. This character subsides, however, and Brahms returns to the placid mood of the opening. In closing, the the main themes are overlaid by a lovely violin and horn duet. The brief third movement (Un poco allegretto e grazioso) is also in a three-section form. The opening alternates two flowing melodies, presenting them in both strings and woodwinds. The more agitated middle section is set in 6/8, and moves from a major key to a minor, and back again. At the end, Brahms presents decorated versions of his opening melodies.

The immense finale is Brahms's clearest homage to Beethoven in this symphony--its length, complexity, and even its musical form have precedents in Beethoven's longest symphonic movement, the finale of his ninth symphony. As in Beethoven's masterpiece, Brahms's finale begins with a vast introduction (Adagio) which gradually builds from tangled themes towards a climax, leading inevitably towards the main section of the movement. Here we have a succession of intertwined string and woodwind melodies, which suddenly give way to a stately melody played by solo horn. Brahms brings this theme to a climax and breaks the texture with a solemn trombone chorale (the trombones' first appearance in this score). Then follows what is, for this writer, the most profoundly moving passage in the symphonic repertoire: the introduction of this movement's main theme in the strings. This broad melody bears an clear resemblance to the famous "Ode to Joy" in Beethovens's Symphony No.9 (When one unfortunate concertgoer remarked on this resemblance to Brahms, the composer acidly remarked: "Any ass could see that."). It is presented a second time by the woodwinds and is then developed in a turbulent transitional passage. The second main theme, a more playful offbeat melody in the strings is touched upon briefly before Brahms brings the exposition to a close in a Beethovenian storm. The development begins with a clear statement of the main theme, but this quickly spirals off into a minor key. The development section moves towards a contrapuntal climax, and the horn theme from the introduction appears to usher in the recapitulation. Here, Brahms focuses on the playful second theme, allowing it a much more extensive treatment than in the exposition. For the coda, there is a shift to a fast duple rhythm, which reaches its peak with a fortissimo reappearance of the chorale, and a brilliant conclusion.
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program notes ©2007 by J. Michael Allsen