The Program:


Weber: Overture to Oberon


Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1


Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique"




Overture to Oberon by Carl Maria von Weber



Composer, conductor, pianist, and music critic Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) was most important as an opera composer and the success of Der Freischütz led to the establishment of German Romantic Opera. He inspired Berlioz and Liszt among others, and he directly influenced the development of the concert overture and symphonic poem.



Born in Eutin, Germany, Weber’s father tried to develop his son into a child prodigy. When he was only eighteen, Weber became the conductor at the theater in Breslau. He was a very progressive opera conductor, but because he was so young he encountered resistance to his reforms. The Estates Theatre of Prague offered Weber the position of Music Director in 1813 in the hope that he could revive opera in their city. Isolation, poor health, and a heavy workload contributed to his unhappiness with this post. Weber hoped to leave for a position in Dresden and was eventually hired in 1817 as Kapellmeister. It was there that he would compose and stage Der Freischütz, which would finally enjoy popularity equal to that of even the most frequently performed French and Italian operas.







Oberon (The Elf King’s Oath), his last opera, was commissioned in 1824 by the Covent Garden Theater. The opera’s plot was based on a story by Christoph Martin Weiland, a retelling of a 13th century French tale. In this romance, the fairy king Oberon argues with his queen Titania and they cannot reconcile until he finds a couple willing to die for love. Oberon gives the French crusader Huon of Bordeaux a magic horn for protection to aid him on his quest to win the hand of Rezia, the daughter of the Caliph of Baghdad. Huon abducts Rezia and together they flee the Caliph’s palace. Oberon subjects the lovers to numerous tests, culminating in a death sentence for both, before he appears and saves them because they’ve proven they would die for love. It premiered successfully in April of 1826 in London with Weber conducting. Less than two months later, at the age of thirty-eight and exhausted after the production and premiere, Weber succumbed to tuberculosis before he was able to return to his family in Germany.



The overture utilizes themes from the opera and from incidental music he wrote in 1818 for Eduard Gehe’s Heinrich IV. The horn in the opening represents the magic horn given to Huon while the descending woodwind chords paint a light-hearted, whimsical picture of the fairy kingdom. The energetic main theme in the violins depicts Rezia’s abduction and the frantic flight of the two lovers. The clarinet solo signifies Huon’s prayer for Rezia after she is injured during a shipwreck and the closing theme returns later in the opera in Rezia’s Act 2 aria. Oberon is best known for this overture, which was an immediate success and had to be repeated on opening night.







Piano Concerto no. 1 in E-flat by Franz Liszt



Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was the leading pianist of his day, captivating audiences with his skill and personality. As a composer, conductor, and teacher, he was influential in developing new techniques, inventing the symphonic poem, and anticipating modern musical ideas.



Liszt’s first piano teacher was his father, a gifted amateur musician. Shortly after making his first public appearances at the age of nine, a group of Hungarian counts offered the Liszt family an annual annuity to further the boy’s musical education, allowing them to move to Vienna. There he began to study piano with Czerny and composition with Salieri.



He had already begun to tour when he heard Paganini perform for the first time in 1831. Liszt was so impressed with the violinist’s technique that it inspired him to duplicate the brilliant effects and create virtuosic solo piano compositions. Berlioz commented that Liszt could “rival the skillful bow in swiftness.” He continued touring until 1848, and it was during this time that he met and began an affair with Countess Marie d’Agoult, with whom he had four children.



Liszt settled in Weimar, Germany, to become the conductor of the Court Theater. This allowed him much more time to compose. The desire for orchestral pieces prompted Liszt to return to some earlier concerto sketches, and with the assistance of Joachim Raff, the first version of the Piano Concerto no. 1 in E-flat was completed in 1849. It was premiered in February of 1855 with the composer as the soloist and Berlioz conducting.



Liszt moved to Rome in 1861 and his focus turned to religious music. Four years later, he took the minor orders of the Catholic Church, but never became a priest. In 1886 while visiting Bayreuth, Germany, Liszt developed pneumonia and died during the night of July 31st.



The concerto is a four-movement work performed without breaks. It possesses the freer form of his symphonic poems and derives influence from Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy for piano. The Allegro maestoso begins with a declamatory opening theme followed by the immediate entrance of the soloist. The clarinet presents a new melody echoed by the piano and the ensemble builds to a climax that is interrupted by the trombones playing the main theme. The music then retreats to the tranquil and romantic second movement, Quasi adagio. The gypsy-influenced Allegretto vivace features a prominent triangle solo that caused many critics to originally dub this the “Triangle Concerto.” This movement develops a darker quality that is interrupted, as in the first movement, by the trombones with main theme. A dramatic rallentando leads to the finale, Allegro marziale animato, which begins march-like and gradually recalls previous themes building to a fiery finish.







Symphony no. 6, “Pathétique” by Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky



The leading Russian composer of the late 19th century, Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is known especially for his beautiful melodies and his skill at orchestration. He mixed Western European symphonic tradition with Russian nationalism to create a unique and original voice.



Tchaikovsky entered the School of Jurisprudence in 1852 and took a post in the Ministry of Justice after graduation. While continuing to work for the Ministry, he began taking music classes from the newly formed Russian Musical Society. When denied a promotion, he quit his position to enter the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1865, he became the professor of harmony at the newly founded Moscow Conservatory.



In 1877, Tchaikovsky entered a disastrous marriage to former music student Antonina Milyukova. The couple separated after a mere two months but never divorced. He also struggled with the constraints of his teaching obligations and the time they took away from composition. The solution to this came in 1876 in the form of a letter from Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy widow who proposed to provide him with an annual annuity, allowing him to concentrate on composition. He quit his teaching position and embarked upon a fourteen-year relationship with von Meck, limited solely to correspondence.



Suddenly and unexpectedly in 1890, von Meck broke off their correspondence and the annuity. This amounted to more of a personal rather than a financial blow. Although always susceptible to self-doubt, Tchaikovsky was now at the peak of his creativity and famous far beyond Russia. Unfortunately, nine days after conducting the first performance of Symphony no. 6, he died from drinking unboiled water during a cholera epidemic. The funeral took place at the Kazan Cathedral with the royal family in attendance along with eight thousand other mourners.



In the early 1890s, Tchaikovsky struggled with composition, harboring fears that his abilities were dried up. After a triumphant conducting trip to Odessa, the compositional juices began to flow and Symphony no. 6 came together relatively quickly. Tchaikovsky was very proud of the work, claiming to “love it as I have never loved any other of my musical offspring.” It was his intent that the program be subjective and remain a mystery. Tchaikovsky’s brother suggested the subtitle “Pathétique” the day after the premiere. In Russian this term means “passionate” or “full of emotion and suffering.”



The sonata form first movement develops out of the somber sounds of low strings and a solo bassoon. This very slow introduction was added after the rest of the movement had been composed. At the Allegro non troppo, the strings take over, building the first theme before fading away. The melancholy second theme also rises up only to evaporate into dynamic nothingness after the clarinet solo. A brutal chord announces the beginning of the moody development. The tempest calms, dissolving into a chant from the Russian Orthodox Requiem played by the low brass. The music recovers and builds again reaching a powerful climax and restating the second theme but slowly fading away.



The second movement is an unusual waltz in 5/4 rather than the standard three beats per measure. A slow interior movement would be a normal expectation for the symphony but Tchaikovsky creates a march full of sustained energy and motion for the third movement.



The finale, marked Adagio Lamentoso - Andante, brings a return to the mood of the opening of the symphony and begins with despairing sighs from the strings coupled with a descending line played by bassoons, dragging the music downward until it fades out as in the first movement. The second theme is tragic, exuding quiet, aching desperation that grows ever darker and more painful. Like the first movement, the music of the finale seems to repeatedly build to a climax only to fall back as if grasping for an answer that is always just out of reach and ending in a slow descent that fades away for the final time.



Notes by Kristin Hauser
September 21, 2008