Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No 29 in A Major
Duration: 24:03
1. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso
0:00
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky begins his First Piano Concerto (written in 1875) with a sharp call of a French horn. The piano interrupts with gracefully undulating sounds. In a later version, Tchaikovsky changed these to solid blocks of sound.
0:53 pizzicato
While the strings pluck softly, the piano gallops heroically over them. This first melody, with its generous, swelling sound, is only a prologue. Later in this work, it disappears completely.
1:56 high, fast, soft piano
Tchaikovsky, who was homosexual, seems to express his delicate and elegant side in his piano part too. Brutal accents alternate with pearly, sensitive solos alternate.
2:31 Block chords piano
Tchaikovsky - already a successful composer in 1875 - was insecure. He submitted this work to pianist Nikolai Rubinstein, who so insulted and humiliated him that he vowed not to change a single note.
3:26 horns
Suddenly, we find ourselves at a funeral. Solemn horns reverberate, interrupting the heroic melody. From afar, a funeral orchestra seems to be marching in.
4:22 piano fast
The piano will not let itself be led astray by the solemn mood. The melody starts bumping away erratically. The orchestra can barely keep up with his hopping rhythms.
5:00 flute melody
Freed from the orchestra or conductor, the melody moves like a wild horse, always roaring to respond with a new, virtuoso whim. It is not easily caught!
5:49 pizzicato accompaniment
The version of the concerto we are hearing is the second one, from 1879. Despite his determination to change a single note of it, Tchaikovsky revised the concerto twice, but on his own terms.
6:31 piano second theme
Tchaikovsky's delicate piano part is indebted to Chopin's equally tender piano music. In this gentle melody, the pianist seems to be breathing in and out wistfully.
7:27 piano arpeggios
Gliding sounds like that are known as ‘arpeggios’, in short: playing like a harpist. Composers often use them to give body to and envelop their piano melodies.
8:22 orchestra away
In classical piano concertos, there is often a dialogue between piano and orchestra. Here, the rendezvous is far from peaceful. The orchestra is a suffocating opponent the pianist wants to escape.
9:19 piano and flute
To dispel rumours of his homosexuality, Tchaikovsky married Antonina Milyukova a few years after the premiere of this work. Though they remained married until his death, they were together only 6 weeks.
10:30 timpani
There is nothing left of the sighing, delicate melody. Nervously, the orchestra pumps forward with a parody of the piano melody. The orchestra and the piano just can't get along.
11:21 piano solo soft
The piano sinks into a daydream. Dazed, each fragment of the melody seems to wander further away from its origins. Later composers like Scriabin would deepen this dreamy style.
12:18 strings
Now it is the piano's turn to parody the violins. As they gently try to swell, the piano storms over them, as if to prove its power.
13:03 piano high
After being rejected by his teachers, Tchaikovsky gave this work to pianist Hans von Bülow for his tour of the United States. While it was a great success with the public, the critics reacted coolly.
13:50 pizzicato accompaniment
A quiet agreement is reached between the piano and the orchestra as to who will accompany and who may take the lead for a while. After they have long drowned each other out, there is a glimmer of hope.
14:39 violins and flute melody
Tchaikovsky is famous for his melodies; this is very much evident in this piece of music. Even today, many can whistle along to his ballet music for ‘The Nutcracker’, ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’.
15:20 piano and violins melody
If there was a conflict, it has now been resolved. The flowing sounds of the piano add depth to the orchestra, while the orchestra has the upper hand on the melodic side.
16:23 piano solo
Everything now sounds so peaceful, that the orchestra gives the soloist his moment. The pianist, too, is delighted with the interaction, and dares to dream away for a while in this solo.
17:08 piano trill figure
Although Tchaikovsky was not a fantastic pianist, he was surrounded by a number of them. Both his teacher Anton Rubinstein and Anton’s brother Nikolai (who mocked this work) were concert pianists.
18:02 left-hand melody
In the meantime, the soloist has regained the energy he had at the beginning. Where his furious fever initially represented a competition with the orchestra, here it turns into a plea for a reunion.
19:13 fast runs
The piano seems to wink quickly and flashily at the orchestra. Then it calmly joins in with rippling notes that serve as accompaniment for the oboe.
20:21 tutti with timpani
However heroic the beginning of this movement, the soloist and orchestra now realise that heroism is not a competition. They no longer interrupt one another, but help move to a glorious conclusion.
2. Andantino semplice
0:00
There is not much left of the first movement’s showdown. Gently plucking strings accompany a lively flute. Tchaikovsky shows his most soothing side here: the melody sounds like a lullaby.
0:40 piano
The pianist’s virtuoso fireworks of the first movement seem te be melting away now. Emotions are more essential than technique in this well-ordered solo melody.
1:20 oboe melody
Tchaikovsky has the oboes and clarinets - and later the piano - sound similar to a Ukrainian bagpipe, a volynka. Like a bagpipe, we hear nasal bassoons as a ‘drone’ (sustained tone).
2:16 cello melody
Russian colleagues disapproved of Tchaikovsky's 'too Western' style. What's more, the composer was not of purely Russian descent: his mother was French and his father Ukrainian.
3:18 piano fast
What suddenly appears like a mercurial wandering light in a swamp is in fact a French cabaret song. We hear the melody in the strings: ‘You must have fun, dance and laugh!’
4:13 piano away
The piano once again proves to be an unpredictable playing partner. With its fast runs, it challenges the orchestra, which can't keep up. It's not about serious competition but a wild game of catch.
5:04 piano trill
Tchaikovsky instructs the musicians to play this movement ‘semplice’ (simply). The melody needs no embellishment to be simply hummed or whistled after.
6:01 piano gone
Despite the vitality in the middle of this movement, this lullaby seems to have ist effect - not least on the piano itself. Soloist and orchestra end this second movement with wavering, calm sounds.
3. Allegro con fuoco
0:00
The music that can now be heard stems from a Ukrainian folk song: ‘Ivanka, come out to sing as spring begins’. The rhythm is similar to the Polish folk dance, the mazurka.
0:45 tutti without piano
The orchestra stomps along in a hard-edged folk dance, accompanied by pounding timpani. After the calm middle movement, is the rivalry of the graceful piano and the energetic the orchestra back?
1:24 piano arpeggios
Although Tchaikovsky called himself a ‘thoroughly Russian’ composer, much of his music reveals Ukrainian influences. He spent a lot of time in Ukraine and was inspired by its folk music.
2:09 soft violins
The violins now seem to understand the piano’s intention in the first movement. Whilst the orchestra could barely follow the rhythm in the first movement, the violins now take the lead in the repetition.
3:02 piano solo
If there is one thing that Tchaikovsky's music is not, it is 'folksy'. He came from a wealthy, cosmopolitan environment. Consequently, his music always tends more towards delicacy and sentiment.
3:50 beginning theme
Tchaikovsky understood that the pianist Nikolai Rubinstein considered this work to be ‘unplayable’. However, after initial reservations, Rubinstein played it brilliantly.
4:54 Orchestra away
Russia claims Tchaikovsky as a national symbol, and used this work as a ‘neutral’ anthem after being banned from the Olympics. And yet it is full of foreign influences: Ukrainian, French and German.
5:56 orchestra back
The bitterness between piano and orchestra has completely disappeared. The skilfulness of the soloist and the power and sonority of the orchestra only complement each other.
6:30 fast tempo
Tchaikovsky's music is rarely short of fireworks, and this is no exception. His First Piano Concerto is brought to a worthy conclusion as piano and orchestra build to a triumphant, joyous climax.
Text: Rick van Veldhuizen
Richard Strauss
Suite from ‘Der Rosenkavalier’
Duration: 25:39
0:00
Fiery horns open this selection from Richard Strauss’s opera comedy ‘Der Rosenkavalier’, a story about the love intrigues of a lady (the Marschallin) in eighteenth-century Vienna.
0:41 flute trill
Strauss had acquired a reputation for modern, dramatic operas. But in ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ he uses an almost old-fashioned style. He even writes that this tune should sound ‘like a parody’.
1:43 oboe melody
This music forms the introduction to the opera narrative, in which the Marschallin has a steamy rendezvous with her much younger lover Octavian (who, by the way, is played by a woman).
2:32 violin melody
The violins play a sensual melody that depicts the Marschallin, answered by soft horns, representing Octavian. This is how Strauss portrays the sexual entanglement of the two characters.
3:20 forte initial motif
Conductor Arthur Rodziński compiled this selection from ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ in 1944. Since its premiere in 1911, the opera has been immensely popular, and this suite has resonated as orchestral music.
4:23 fortissimo F sharp major chord
In this scene Octavian, decked out in silver, has to present a rose to Sophie, the fiancée of the jocular Baron Ochs. We hear the shininess of Octavian’s silver costume in the celesta.
5:36 oboe melody
Naturally, Octavian and Sophie fall in love instantly, which leads to many intrigues in the plot of ‘Der Rosenkavalier’. In the tender oboe, we hear how the smitten youths make hesitant advances.
6:42 high horn and clarinet
The ice is broken, and Octavian and Sophie declare their love for each other. Here, their delicate love duet is played by the horn and clarinet, whose caressing melodies gently intertwine.
7:44 horn melody
‘Der Rosenkavalier’ brought Strauss such success that, according to writer Simon Callow, in his later operas he ‘was forever harking back to it … but the composer was never again to create an opera as successful or as satisfying
8:30 tutti melody
The love melody swells. But Octavian and Sophie must still hide their passion, so the orchestra reins itself in. The oboe continues its song as if the young lovers are whispering in each other’s ears.
9:27 change of tempo
Then Sophie’s fiancée, Baron Ochs, storms in and approaches his fiancée full of lust. He calls her a ‘virgin foal’, but she shakes him off. Once he’s gone, she vows not to marry him.
10:16 waltz accompanying figure
The baron begins to waltz lustfully. He receives a letter from the Marschallin’s beautiful chambermaid, ‘Mariandel’, but does not realise that ‘Mariandel’ is actually his rival Octavian in drag.
11:25 oboe’s staccato
A second waltz plays. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, writer of the opera lyrics, suggested the ‘sweet, spicy’ atmosphere of the Viennese waltz, although it didn’t yet exist at the time the opera took place.
12:33 sixteenth notes strings
The Viennese waltz may not quite fit into the eighteenth-century setting, but Strauss also references the voluptuous waltzes and mischievous operettas of Johann Strauss Jr. (no relation).
13:38 clarinet and bass clarinet
In the story, Octavian grazes Baron Ochs with his sword in the fight for Sophie. The squeamish baron slurps on a bottle of port. Does the reeling rolling rhythm of the waltz give a sense of him drunkenly floundering around?
14:43 dissonant tutti
The whole orchestra passionately plays the climax of the waltz. Then the music ebbs away with a gently repeating fragment of the waltz tune, while the baron drunkenly dozes away.
15:38 tutti
Arranger Rodziński suddenly chooses to insert a fragment from earlier in the opera, a turbulent foreplay on the second act, which dissolves as quickly as it appeared.
16:34 solo violin and oboe
The melody of the oboe and violin comes from a scene in which the older Marschallin realizes that she will lose the young Octavian to Sophie. Melancholically, she muses about her age and love.
17:23 horn melody
Octavian, represented by the horn, and Sophie (the clarinet) also sing of love. In contrast to the resentful baron, the Marschallin selflessly grants the two young people their new love.
18:14 high note solo violin
In the solo violin, we hear the yearning love melody from earlier, between Octavian and Sophie. This love song, which forms the final part of the opera, is sung by the two young lovers as a duet.
19:32 tutti E major
Because of his rich harmonies and elaborate melodies, Strauss is regarded as the last great romantic. ‘This is where the handkerchiefs come out,’ jokes writer James Keller.
20:41 flutes and violin tremolo piano
‘Der Rosenkavalier’ is modelled on Mozart’s light, bright operas. Strauss, however, bathes his melodies in lush orchestral sounds, which are also characteristic of his earlier, dramatic operas.
21:34 violins (Mozart pastiche)
This violin melody is a pastiche on the charming, clear tunes of Mozart. This uncomplicated, ‘gallant’ style was popular in the courts of the 18th century, where this opera takes place.
22:24 drum roll
Suddenly, the whole orchestra bursts into a carousel waltz, complete with cymbal clashes. This is the last waltz of the vanquished baron, who drips off ingloriously having been led in a masquerade by Octavian.
23:24 hemiola percussion
The boisterous high horn that now plays the melody represents Baron Ochs as a clumsy caricature. In desperation he even tries to blackmail the Marschallin about her affair with Octavian.
24:03 hemiola whole orchestra
In ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ the lovers triumph, but the suite ends with the antics of the baron. To the sounds of pompous orchestral bangs and triangles, he leaves the stage: defeated, but not without a fuss.
Text: Rick van Veldhuizen