Set in the 16th century, the play focused on the Flemish noble Count Egmont, who was chosen as governor of Spanish-occupied Flanders. He challenges the Spanish king to give freedom to the region and is executed for his betrayal, but his death sparks a war of independence that leads to a victory for the Flemish. The play was based on an actual historical figure.

The play would likely have appealed to Beethoven for a variety of reasons. He was also of Flemish descent, but more importantly it would have resonated with his political views. With Fidelio he had already demonstrated an interest in storylines involving political freedom and liberation. He may also have been reacting to the French occupation of Vienna.

Composed in 1810, the overture has become the most frequently performed piece from the Egmont incidental music. It has been suggested that the opening of the work is meant to depict the suffering of the people under their Spanish oppressors while the faster section represents the spirit of revolt that burns inside them and the climactic closing section portrays their inevitable victory over the oppression. The sonata form of the overture begins with a slow introduction emphasizing weighty, powerful chords and a mournful theme in the woodwinds. The tempo increases and the themes of the exposition express, in turn, urgency and optimism. As in the 5th Symphony, the stirring final sections modulate to a major key to signify triumph. At the end of the play, the coda section returns under the title “Siegessymphonie” or Symphony of Victory.

Euphonium Concerto by Vladimir Cosma
Vladimir Cosma was born into a family of musicians on April 13, 1940, in Bucharest, Romania. He attended the National Conservatory in Bucharest, studying violin and composition and, in 1963, went on to study at the Paris Conservatory with Nadia Boulanger. His diverse style originates from many influences including classical, jazz, folk, and film music. His music demonstrates great attention to melody and combines contemporary with more traditional music using subtle and unusual instrumentation.

He was fortunate to meet film composer Michel Legrand, who influenced his future career path and in 1967 he began a long partnership with director Yves Robert. The first movie he scored was Robert’s 1968 film “Alexandre le bienheureux” and he has worked as a composer ever since. Two of his biggest successes were the soundtracks for “Diva” and “Le Bal” for which he won Césars, the French equivalents of Oscars, in 1981 and 1983. Cosma was also awarded the 1983 Cannes Grand Prix du Disque for lifetime achievement in film music. He is now recognized as one of Europe’s most distinguished film composers having scored more than 200 movies for film and television. His works also include ballets, concertos, chamber music, songs, orchestral music, and an opera.

The Euphonium Concerto is a relatively new work, written in 1997 for the final round of the World Euphonium Competition in Guebwiller, France, but it has quickly earned an important place in the euphonium repertoire. This virtuosic work is infused throughout with a Spanish flavor. Cosma feels Spanish music is “one of the richest in terms of melody and rhythm.” The concerto opens dramatically and develops into an expressive dance reminiscent of a paso doble evoking images of a bullfighter. The mood briefly calms with the simple, song-like Andantino. The final movement plays with a rollicking melody full of syncopated accents, jazz influences, and virtuosic displays in a frenzied drive all the way to the end.

Rumanian Folk Dances by Béla Bartók
Suite from the opera Háry János by Zoltán Kodály
Béla Bartók (1881-1945) was especially interested in Romanian folk traditions because he felt they had been more isolated from outside influence and were therefore more authentic. The Rumanian Folk Dances are based on materials he collected in 1910 and 1912 in Transylvania, which was part of Hungary before being annexed to Romania. The arrangements have undergone timbre and tempo alterations but still retain the flavor of the original folk dances.

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) was born in Kecskemét, Hungary, but his father worked for the Austro-Hungarian Imperial-Royal Railways so the family moved a great deal and he grew up in many small Hungarian and Slovakian towns. Kodály used these experiences to learn about the different parts of his country and absorb the local folk music. As a child he learned to play the violin, viola, cello, and piano and he taught himself to compose. Kodály studied at the Budapest Academy of Music, earning diplomas in composition and teaching and he wrote his doctoral thesis on Hungarian folksong.

Kodály went into the field on collecting tours, as did Béla Bartók, to transcribe, study, and edit folk music. They both wanted to preserve Hungarian folksongs for future generations, and a lasting friendship developed between the two even though their music differed stylistically. The basis and beginning of their collaboration was “[t]he vision of an educated Hungary, reborn from the people….” Their first joint project was the publication of Hungarian folksongs in 1906.

In 1907, a grant permitted Kodály to study in Berlin and Paris and there he encountered Claude Debussy’s music. Upon his return, he was appointed professor at the Academy of Music. In 1926 and 1927, the Psalmus Hungaricus and the Háry János Suite were enthusiastically received, giving him an international reputation as a nationalistic composer.

Kodály became very interested in the musical education of the young. He grew to feel that there needed to be radical changes in elementary school music education. To address this he created a new way to teach music to children from childhood to adulthood producing vocal exercises and composing choruses because he believed the voice was the center of everything musical. The books and educational materials he developed, known as the “Kodály Method,” are still in use today throughout the world.

Háry János is Kodály’s most popular work. He composed the opera in 1925-6 and extracted the six movement concert suite the following year. Much of the music composed for Háry János and the common people comes from folk and traditional music while the music for the courtly characters is original. The score calls for the use of alto saxophone and cimbalom, a Hungarian dulcimer, instruments not commonly heard in the orchestra.

Háry János is based on a veteran of the Napoleonic wars who came from Abony, 35 miles southeast of Budapest. Kodály said in the preface to the opera: "Háry is a peasant, a veteran soldier, who day after day sits in the tavern, spinning yarns about his heroic exploits…. That his stories are not true is irrelevant, for they are the fruit of a lively imagination, seeking to create, for himself and for others, a beautiful dream world." Háry’s tales involve Marie Louise, Napoleon’s second wife, falling in love with him, defeating Napoleon single-handedly and restoring order to Vienna before ultimately returning to his native village with his sweetheart, Örzse.

Prelude: The Fairy Tale Begins
It is Hungarian superstition that if a listener sneezes during the telling of a story, it must be true. Both the opera and the suite begin with a musical sneeze. So in the same way that he sought to preserve folk music, he was preserving his culture with a tongue-in-cheek reference to this Hungarian superstition.

The Viennese Musical Clock
Háry is remembering a beautiful clock that he saw at the court of the Austrian Emperor. When it chimed noon, the doors would open and a procession of clockwork soldiers would march out.

Song
This is the tender love duet between Háry and Örzse who long to return home. The cimbalom is added because the music represents the common folk of Hungary rather than life at court in Vienna.

The Battle and Napoleon’s Defeat
A processional leads to a battle scene that is caricatured with sudden accents, brass fanfares, glissandos, grotesque effects, and a spoof of the Marseillaise. In the final section the saxophone plays a mocking melancholy theme representing Napoleon’s lament about his loss.

Intermezzo
The music is in the style of a verbunkos, a dance used by the Hussars to recruit new soldiers, and it is meant to evoke Hungarian pride so the cimbalom figures prominently in the scoring.

Entrance of the Emperor and His Court
The humor and mockery returns in this final movement along with fanfares and sudden dynamic changes as Háry colorfully evokes the entrance of the nobility for his audience of peasants.

Notes by Kristin Hauser
February 21, 2008