No. 2050 Subscription (Program B)

The German composer Robert Schumann (1810–1856), although opting to be a musician, took after his bookseller-author father in literary aptitude. Not surprisingly, his compositions owe a great deal to literature, the fine examples being Papillons and Kreisleriana for piano respectively inspired by Romantic writers Jean Paul and E. T. A. Hoffmann, not forgetting Scenes from Goethe’s Faust for voices and orchestra.
The incidental music Manfred was penned in 1848 during the Dresden years (1844–1850) of Schumann who had recovered from a serious nervous breakdown. His Piano Concerto (1845), Symphony No. 2 (1846) and only finished opera Genoveva (1848) also date from this fruitfully creative period.
The dramatic poem Manfred (1817) by the English poet Lord Byron, very likely inspired by Goethe’s Faust (Part One: 1808 / Part Two: 1832), is said to have influenced Nietzsche’s concept of “Übermensch (Superman).” Set in the medieval Alps, the poem features the Faustian title role who feels terribly guilty about having driven his lover to her death. Aspiring to forget the sinful past, Manfred summons spirits with his supernatural power but they are unable to grant him oblivion.
Schumann’s Overture captures torments and sorrows covering the overall story concluded by Manfred’s death. Three-chord blows open the slow introduction. Trumpets eventually announce the start of the main Allegro section in sonata form, of which the first theme with syncopated rhythms (displacement of accents) is especially passionate and dramatic.

[Kumiko Nishi]

Highly gifted but short-lived, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) is known first and foremost for his divinely inspired works of timeless beauty. On top of that, he blazed a trail for the new lifestyle of composers of coming generations when he went freelance in 1781 after serving the Salzburg court.During the last decade of his life before his death in 1791, he, now based in Vienna, earned his daily bread by composing, performing concerts, giving private lessons and having his works published.
Concerto for piano solo was the most important genre for Mozart to shine in the city’s music scene both as a composer and pianist (since he was a wunderkind, piano was the instrument he excelled at the most). Incidentally, he left us about fifty concertos, almost half of which are written for solo piano. For himself to serve as the soloist, he wrote in Vienna as many as six numbered piano concertos (No. 14 [K. 449] – No. 19 [K. 459]) only in 1784 and six more (No. 20 [K. 466] – No. 25 [K. 503]) in 1785–1786 to stylistically perfect the Classical piano concerto. They will be followed sporadically by No. 26 Coronation (K. 537, 1788) and No. 27 (K. 595, 1791).
Completed in December 1786, No. 25 in C major (K. 503) thus crowns this series of piano concertos penned in quick succession. Its stark tonal contrast with the previous Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor is noticed at times, while its grand powerfulness and the key is often linked to Mozart’s last symphony No. 41 in C major Jupiter (1788). The majestic character of No. 25’s opening movement in sonata form is immediately confirmed at the outset by the orchestra giving the forceful, fanfare-like first theme. The slow movement in F major with the two contrastive themes, lets the piano sing gracefully as if improvising. The finale is a rondo sonata without cadenza. The danceable recurrent theme given at the start evokes the ballet music Gavotte, that Mozart wrote for his opera Idomeneo (1781).

[Kumiko Nishi]

While Mozart is frequently likened to the celestial due to his heavenly fine compositions, the composer whose music is tied to the notion of the hero most tightly is surely Beethoven (1770–1827). He even named his third symphony (1803) Eroica (Heroic) reusing a theme from his Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus (The Creatures of Prometheus), a ballet about the heroic Greek god. Beethoven himself embodies the hero as well for he fought against deafness – a vital blow to a musician – to create revolutionary and philanthropic works.
In the Romantic period, Richard Strauss (1864–1949) who was already a big name both as a composer and conductor followed Beethoven’s footsteps. The Bavarian composer created what brilliantly closed his achievements in the genre of the symphonic poem, choosing the same subject, heroism, the same home key (E-flat major) and the same central instrument (horns) as Beethoven’s Eroica. After this mighty work entitled Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) (1898), Strauss would never compose a symphonic poem to forge a new path as an opera composer (according to him, Symphonia Domestica [1903] and Eine Alpensinfonie [An Alpine Symphony] [1915] are, though programmatic, not categorized as symphonic poems).
Strauss equivocated on the identification of “a hero.” However, it is generally believed that Ein Heldenleben is autobiographical, except that it was too early for the then-thirty-four-year composer to “look back” at his latter life as he would live to eighty-five. The work consists of six sections (performed seamlessly without pause) with titles, although Strauss didn’t allow them to be printed on the published scores.
I Der Held (The Hero) begins with horns and low strings announcing the high-spirited passionate theme of the hero. II Des Helden Widersacher (The Hero’s Adversaries), a sort of scherzo, ridicules critics who lashed out against the hero, then III Des Helden Gefährtin (The Hero’s Companion), a slow section, lets the violin solo depict Pauline, Strauss’ variable but lovable wife. A trumpet fanfare opens IV Des Helden Walstatt (The Hero at Battle) where the “companion (Pauline)” theme supports the hero’s fight against his hostile critics. The spectacular victory of the couple is followed by V Des Helden Friedenswerke (The Hero’s Works of Peace) where Strauss “auto-quotes” about ten of his previous pieces including the symphonic poems Don Juan, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Macbeth and Don Quixote. With an opening English horn solo, VI Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung (The Hero’s Retreat from the World and Completion) invites us to a pastoral setting the old hero retreats to, where he thinks back on what he has done. The music comes to a calm climax with the horn solo and the violin solo melodies staying together, prior to the stately brass closing.

[Kumiko Nishi]