Sunday, February 17, 2019

Project 366 – German Symphony Collections

Project 366 continues in 2019 with "The Classical Collectionss - A Continued journey through the Western Classical Music Repertoire". Read more here.


In this installment of our Classical Collections, we will focus on the symphonies of four composers of the German tradition: Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Haydn the Symphonist (SOURCE: Handel + Haydn Society)

Joseph Haydn is popularly known as the “Father of the Symphony” ; born nearly 25 years before Mozart, but living 18 years longer, Haydn’s life spanned nearly the entire Classical era. His early works were key in establishing the Classical style, while his mentorship of the young Beethoven laid the foundation for the subsequent Romantic era.

Haydn’s music had become very popular in France, and so he wrote a series of symphonies for the Concert de la Loge Olympique in Paris. The French orchestra was very good and very large, and Haydn made full use of it in crafting his Paris symphonies.

Symphony No. 82 in C major, L'Ours                                         [Guide #255]
Symphony No. 83 in G minor,L a Poule                                     [Guide #256]
Symphony No. 84 in E major, In Nomine Domini                    [Guide #256]
Symphony No. 85 in B major, La Reine                                    [Guide #165]
Symphony No. 86 in D major                                                      [Guide #255]
Symphony No. 87 in A major                                                      [Guide #165]

Listener Guide # 255 – L’Ours
[Symphonies nos. 82 & 86] As with the nicknames of all Haydn's symphonies, “The Bear” did not originate with the composer. Instead, the name derives from a recurring feature from the last movement (including its famous opening), in which Haydn intimates the tonality of bagpipes: a low sustained drone, accentuated by a grace-note on the downbeat. This curious tonality prompted an 1829 piano arrangement of the symphony to be entitled Danse de l'Ours, the earliest known printed appearance of the nickname. (ITYWLTMT Montage #106 – 24 May 2013)



Listener Guide # 256 – La Poule
[Symphonies nos. 83 & 84] The Symphony no. 83, "the Hen", sees its nickname come from the clucking second subject in the first movement, which reminded listeners of the jerky back-and forth head motion of a walking hen. (ITYWLTMT Montage #105 – 17 May 2013)



His set of London symphonies, sometimes called the Salomon symphonies after the man who brought Haydn to London, were composed during a four-year period in the 1790s.  One set was written during Haydn's first visit to London; the other was composed in preparation for his second visit to the city.

Symphony No. 93 in D major                                       [Guide #257]
Symphony No. 94 in G major, The Surprise                 [Guide #258]
Symphony No. 95 in C minor                                       [Guide #69 & 161]
Symphony No. 96 in D major, The Miracle                  [Guide #258]
Symphony No. 97 in C major                                        [Guide #31 & 166]
Symphony No. 98 in B major                                      [Guide #258]
Symphony No. 99 in E major                                      [Guide #257]
Symphony No. 100 in G major, Military                      [Guide #257]
Symphony No. 101 in D major, The Clock                   [Guide #257]
Symphony No. 102 in B major                                    [Guide #166]
Symphony No. 103 in E major, Drumroll                   [Guide #166]
Symphony No. 104 in D major, London                       [Guide #259]

Listener Guide # 257 – Scherchen/Haydn - Four More London Symphonies
[Symphonies nos. 93, 99, 100 & 101] Hermann Scherchen was musically self-taught. Early in his career, he played viola, and for a time he accompanied Arnold Schoenberg on tour. Interned in Russia during the First World War, he returned to Berlin after the war and founded in 1918 the Neue Musikgesellschaft ("Society for New Music"). In 1933, he fled Germany for Belgium, and conducted in Spain, France and elsewhere in Europe during and after the Second World War. (Once Upon the Internet #61 – 5 June 2018)




Listener Guide # 258 – In Memoriam: Sir Jeffrey Tate (1943 - 2017)
[Symphonies nos. 94, 96 & 98] In 1985 Tate was appointed the first Principal Conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra and began a major recording programme for EMI which included the complete Mozart symphonies as well as a number of Haydn's. Tate's Haydn and Mozart are in a class of their own. Using modern instrumental forces and often adopting tempi which are much broader than we have come to expect from period orchestras, Tate achieves a lightness and lyricism which make every note compelling. (ITYWLTMT Montage #265 – 24 November 2017)


Listener Guide # 259 – London
[Symphony no. 104] The last symphony of the set (and, in fact, the last symphony of the Hoboken catalog) has the subtitle “London”, and is possibly the most modern of Haydn’s symphonies. I may be alone to think this, but I find quite a few similarities between this symphony and Mozart’s Jupiter, in particular the finale. (ITYWLTMT Montage #64 – 27 July 2012)



Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies
Beethoven remains one of the most well-known composers in the modern world. It is, no doubt, made possible by his ground-breaking symphonies. Beethoven's symphonies number only nine; each one unique, each one preparing the way for the next. Beethoven’s most popular symphonies, numbers 3, 5, and 9, have graced the ears of millions of listeners.

Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21                                       [Guide #177]
Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 36                                       [Guide #30]
Symphony No. 3 in Eb, Op. 55, Eroica                        [Guide #83]
Symphony No. 4 in Bb, Op. 60                                     [Guide #30]
Symphony No. 5 in C-, Op. 67                                      [Guide #69 & 180]
Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68, Pastoral                        [Guide #180]
Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92                                       [Guide #122]
Symphony No. 8 in F, Op. 93                                        [Guide #120]
Symphony No. 9 in D-, Op. 125, Choral                      [Guide #260]

Listener Guide # 260 – Musikalische Akademie der 7. Mai 1824
[Symphony no. 9] This montage is a reconstruction of the concert programme from 7th May 1824, held at Vienna’s Kärntnertortheater, where Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 was first performed. This was the composer's first on-stage appearance in 12 years; a Beethoven "Akademie," was more of a benefit concert for the composer himself. (ITYWLTMT Montage #54 – 4 May 2012)



Felix Mendelssohn’s five numbered symphonies (he composed 12 string sinfonias as student works) make a motley collection: a piece of precocious juvenilia, three ‘named’ symphonies, only one of which (the Scottish) the composer deemed worthy of publication, and the Lobgesang, a ‘symphony-cantata’ that found its way into the canon as No 2. Once criticised for being a pale simulacrum of Beethoven’s Ninth, the Lobgesang, like the Reformation, has benefited from performances set on stripping the music of Victorian complacency and grandiloquence.

Symphony No. 1 in C-, Op. 11                                      [Guide #261]
Symphony No. 2 in Bb, Op. 52 Lobgesang                  [Guide #48]
Symphony No. 3 in A-, Op. 56 Scottish                       [Guide #195]
Symphony No. 4 in A, Op. 90 Italian                           [Guide #262]
Symphony No. 5 in D-, Op. 107 Reformation              [Guide #261]

Listener Guide # 261 – Felix Mendelssohn: Symphonies no. 1 & 5
[Symphonies nos. 1 & 5] Aside from the youthful String Symphonies, Mendelssohn composed five "mature" symphonies, numbered approximately in the order that they were published, rather than the order in which they were composed. The order of actual composition is: 1, 5, 4, 2, 3. The placement of No. 3 in this sequence is problematic because he worked on it for over a decade, starting sketches for it soon after beginning work on No. 5, but completing it after both Nos. 5 and 4. So, although the two symphonies we feature today appear to book-end Mendelssohn's symphonic output, they are in fact his first two "mature" symphonies. (ITYWLTMT Montage #179 – 2 January 2015)


Listener Guide # 262 – Italian Symphony
[Symphony no. 4] The Fourth symphony results from Mendelssohn's European travels in the late 1820's, which also gave us his Scottish Symphony. Completed in Berlin, the symphony was first performed in London in 1833 and - from what we can read - didn't completely please Mendelssohn. He planned to do complete rewrites of several of its movements but - thank Goodness - he never got around to it! (ITYWLTMT Montage #156 – 16 May 2014)


Johannes Brahms was one of the romantic period's most conflicted musical characters, and his symphonies are the perfect way to find out why... The image of Brahms the curmudgeon with his hands firmly behind his back is how most people see this most quietly influential of composers. But particularly in his symphonies, this image is proven to be a complete myth. Few symphonic composers have done so much with so few works, but Brahms four symphonies have lasted through the centuries thanks to their verve, their freedom and their complexity.
Symphony No. 1 in C-, Op. 68                                      [Guide #198]
Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 73                                       [Guide #199]
Symphony No. 3 in F, Op. 90                                        [Guide #263]
Symphony No. 4 in E-, Op. 98                                      [Guide #32]

Listener Guide # 263 – Third Symphony
[Symphony no. 3] To many, the Third symphony is Brahms' best: it has a very heroic flavour to it, and the well-known third movement Allegretto is somewhat reminiscent of the funeral march of Beethoven's Third - or is it just me? Unlike the jubilant theme and variations that end the Eroica, however, the Third chooses to end with a tad more drama, giving the third a lasting tragic overtone. (ITYWLTMT Montage #88 – 18 January 2013)




No comments:

Post a Comment