"Immortal Beethoven"
September 23rd, 2012
Program Notes

Egmont Overture, Op. 84

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Last SEKSO Performance: April 4th, 2007
First Performed: June 15th, 1810

Beethoven was a great admirer of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of Germany's - indeed, the world's - greatest men of letters. He was also a fiery advocate of personal and creative freedom, equality, and liberty. Therefore, when he was offered a commission to write incidental music for a production of Goethe's historical drama Egmont, he leapt eagerly at the chance. The play's subject could not have been better designed to appeal to Beethoven. Set in the Netherlands during the Spanish invasion of the 16th-century, Count Egmont, despite his fervent Catholicism, leads the rebellion against the horrors and oppression of the Spanish Inquisition and is martyred for his cause.

Knowing of the admiration Beethoven and Goethe each had for the other's art, a mutual friend, Bettina Brentano-Arnim, arranged a meeting between the two giants in the Czech resort of Teplitz in 1812, but the association was doomed to failure. At first, all was well - Goethe characterized Beethoven as an "astonishing talent," if a somewhat "untamed personality," and the composer enjoyed performing for Goethe. However, Beethoven, already dealing with the anguish of encroaching deafness and never a particularly congenial man at the best of times, horrified the urbane court poet with his boorish disregard for the social niceties when they happened to meet the Empress and a group of nobles out for a stroll in the park. Goethe immediately stepped aside, bowing deferentially, but Beethoven, grump that he was, locked his hands behind his back, glared imperiously ahead, and forged his way along the path, forcing the royal party to scatter out of his way. Goethe was appalled, and it didn't help that Beethoven reprimanded him for being unbecomingly servile, pointing out that nobles came a dime a dozen, whereas artists such as themselves were rare and therefore far more valuable. The rift was never healed, and Goethe ignored the letter Beethoven wrote him later in life. The two men never met again.

All this was still in the future, however, when in 1809 Beethoven undertook the commission to provide music for Goethe's tragedy. The Egmont music is comprised of nine pieces: the ever-popular Overture; two songs for Klärchen, Egmont's (fictional) sweetheart who kills herself in despair after she is unable to rescue him; and a number of entr'actes. Beethoven actually did not have the score ready by the date of the first performance in May of 1810; the play was not presented with his incidental music until the fourth performance, on June 15th. The Egmont Overture opens forebodingly, with stern, ominous chords, and soon swirls into an energetic allegro depicting the turmoil of battle and Egmont's heroic defiance. A sudden, brief silence follows the stroke of the executioner's axe, but the symbolic death of one cannot subdue the righteousness of the cause, and ultimately the usurpers will be driven back in triumph. As the quiet commentary from the woodwinds swells rapidly into a Victory Symphony (labeled Siegessyphonic by Beethoven), the swirling lines are crowned by gestures from the piccolo, an instrument which Beethoven was the first to liberate from military bands and invite into symphonic repertoire.

Scored for: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 0 trumpets, timpani, and strings [2[1.2/pic] 222-4200-tmp-str]

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Last SEKSO Performance: April 14, 2002
Completed In: 1812
Premiered in: Vienna, December 8, 1813
Dedicated to: Count Moritz von Fries.

Completed in the spring of 1812, Beethoven's Seventh Symphony (later declared by Beethoven to be one of his best) was first performed in conjunction with the premiere of Wellington's Victory on December 8, 1813 in the hall of Vienna's Old University to benefit Austrians and Bavarians wounded in the battle against Napoleon at Hanau. The concert, with the composer conducting and several famous musicians participating, was such a great success that it had to be repeated four days later. Although Wellington's Victory was the hit of the evening, the symphony was well received, and the second movement, Allegretto, was encored on the spot.

The piece begins with a slow and proud introduction, almost a movement in itself, bearing no thematic relationship to the Allegro to follow. The ever-present "long, short, short" rhythm infuses the entire symphony and takes on a role as important as the musical themes.

The second movement is a set of variations on one of Beethoven's noted hymn-like themes, originally considered for a movement of his String Quartet in C, Op. 59 until he realized the possibilities of an orchestral treatment. This theme, in A minor, suggests a noble tragedy. Later, there are brighter sections in the major mode, and the movement reaches a highpoint in a fugato on the main theme.

The bright and sprightly Scherzo movement (perhaps Beethoven's version of a breathless "Modern Major General") fits well into the symphony, expecting the listener to keep up with it's hurried pace. The Trio appears twice, giving the whole movement the form of A-B-A-B-A. In contrast with the bouncy quality and humor of the main section, the sustained violin notes behind the Trio's theme give it a binding, protected quality.

Although the finale is in a sonata form, the main theme, an Irish folk-song Nora Creina, invokes a dance quality once again. Melodies and rhythms both spin and whirl around in an energetic and exhaustive dance, sometimes playful, sometimes intense and determined.

Scored for: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. [2222-2200-tmp-str]