Program Notes-Castro Valley Chamber Orchestra
May 30, 2010 Concert
by Todd Wetherwax

The Baroque period (ca 1600-1750) saw the beginning of new musical forms (opera, concerto, symphony) and institutions such as public theaters and concert halls. With the rise of a middle class in Europe, there was discretionary income for musical instruments, sheet music, lessons, etc. Composers, publishers, instrument makers, performing musicians, and concert impresarios (among others) recognized the potential for making a lot of money. Most musicians worked under the patronage system for a court, town, or church. Their contracts often restricted the type or scope of their musical activates and they could not leave to take another position without permission. Their compositions were often the property of their employer, although manuscript copies were circulated. As there was no copyright in the modern sense, publishers who were eager to cash in on the popularity of a particular composer or genre, sometimes issued unauthorized or pirated edition based on manuscript copies. Composers were also not averse to using the music of others in a composition. Handel’s music often contains major borrowings both from his own works and the music of others. Mozart wrote about having to quickly arrange one of his operas for wind octet so that he would not lose this income to another. After 1815 the political upheavals in Europe were over (for a time) and composers were able to better control the marketing of their music and get a larger share of the biggest potential moneymaker – opera.

George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) went to England in 1710 with the intention of writing Italian opera and making a lot of money doing it. Handel’s concerto in Bb (no. 1) that the orchestra will be playing today is probably the earliest of a set of six concertos published in London in 1734 as Opus 3., probably written between 1710 and 1717. The piece has some interesting musical peculiarities. Usually, the first and last movements of a piece share the same key, but here the first movement is in the key of Bb and the second and third movements are in g minor. Also there are two flute or recorder parts in the second movement, but nowhere else in the work. Perhaps the concertos were intended as interlude or background music for choral concerts.

The concerto is very festive in nature and features oboes and bassoons in pairs together with a solo violin. The “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” music from the oratorio Solomon uses this same device The second movement is especially operatic with written out embellished parts in the solo oboe and violin parts. In the final allegro, Handel uses the oboes to answer the string theme and adds a pair of obbligato bassoon parts as additional contrast to the strings.

The premiere of Mozart’s Symphony #38 in D (1787) was one of the high points of the composer’s life. Due to the overwhelming popularity of his opera The Marriage of Figaro in Prague, Mozart was invited to give a concert of his own music for his financial benefit. Along with the symphony, the concert featured Mozart as the soloist in the brilliant piano concerto #25 in C major (K. 503). He also improvised alone on the piano for an hour and a half. The concert was a great success. Mozart returned to Vienna with not only with the proceeds of this concert (and other private performances) but also with 1,000 gulden in his pocket as deposit for a new commissioned opera – Don Giovanni.

While Mozart had composed dozens of symphonies in his career, he intended this one to be taken more seriously, not just a piece to get the audience into their seats and be quiet. He also knew that the Prague audience was very sophisticated, and they would expect something quite new and different. Mozart did not disappoint. In terms of formal structure, all three movements are in sonata form (exposition, development, recapitulation) with many mood and texture changes. The music is also very contrapuntal which requires the listener to pay attention or become quickly lost. This is one the criticisms of Mozart during his lifetime; his music is complex and many things are happening at the same time. As the Emperor said about Mozart’s music, “…too many notes…!” Also, Mozart did not compose a Minuet or dance movement for this symphony as was the norm. Possibly he felt that adding a court dance would undercut the serious nature of the piece.

The symphony begins with a slow introduction in which the key is not firmly established until the third measure. There is a sudden shift to minor with dark and eerie harmonies before modulating back to the main key for the allegro. Here, as in the finale, Mozart makes use of syncopation and counterpoint (fugue) to keep up the musical interest. There are at least six different themes that are intertwined. The middle movement (andante) is lyrical, yet has an underlying drive. Given the sonata form structure, bold modulations, and difficult writing for both the winds and strings, Mozart created something entirely new that would only be equaled by Haydn’s last symphonies and those of Beethoven. The finale is lively and is taken from Susanna's aria "Aprite, presto aprite” from Act 2 of The Marriage of Figaro, a gesture that was not lost on his Prague audience.

Like Mozart, Schubert lived a very short time and produced an astonishing amount of high quality music. His output includes over 1,000 compositions including 600 songs (Lieder), chamber music, opera and symphonies. Schubert’s music brims with singable melodies, while still remaining true to traditional forms.

Schubert’s musical career began as a chorister in the Imperial Chapel in 1808. He was dismissed from the choir in 1811 after his voice broke and then entered school to be trained as a music teacher. After completing his training, Schubert reluctantly taught at his father’s school but quit in 1817, and for the remainder of his life was without any formal position or income. The year 1816 was an important one for the 18 year old Schubert. First he was turned down for a position as a music teacher and was forced to end his engagement to his first love, Therese Grob. The two events are related in that Austrian law forbade marriages by men of Schubert’s class unless they could show the ability to support a wife and family. By the end of the year Schubert was offered, and accepted, limited support by a financially secure friend from school, Franz von Schober, which allowed Schubert to concentrate on composition. This year also saw Schubert’s first commissioned composition, the cantata “Prometheus, as well as the 4th and 5th symphonies and over 100 songs. While it would be over two years before any of Schubert’s orchestral music was presented in a public concert, manuscript copies of his compositions circulated among his friends and admirers.

The Symphony #5 (D. 485) is scored for a small orchestra – no clarinets, trumpets, or tympani. It is more related in scope and structure to symphonies of Haydn and Mozart rather than to his contemporary Beethoven, who by this time had already completed eight symphonies as well as his opera, Fidelio. Schubert’s symphony begins with a quick scale in the strings followed by a series of melodies that become the fabric of the musical structure. The slow movement (andante) is an excellent example of Schubert’s melodic gifts. The final iteration of the melody is embellished just as a singer would add ornamentation. The third movement is marked Minuet, but in reality is a Scherzo. It is closely modeled on the Minuet in Mozart’s Symphony #40 in g minor both with the melody and harmonic modulation. The Trio section, by contrast, is an Austrian country dance (Ländler) featuring the flute, oboe, horns, and bassoon. The finale is a Rondo, where the main theme keeps returning, between dark minor mode episodes. As a symphonic composer, Schubert is not particularly concerned with formal structures. He uses daring modulations and key centers (C-flat in one instance) and lots of melodies to keep his listeners off guard. We are forever indebted to Schubert’s family and friends for preserving his music and to Mendelssohn and Schumann for bringing it into the concert repertory.