Don Juan
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Richard Strauss may have felt some personal identification with his subject when he began composing Don Juan. Here was a 20-year-old Wunderkind who had recently become Hans von Bülow’s assistant conductor at Meiningen. He was attractive, immensely gifted in music and held a position of high esteem (though without pay). Also, Strauss was away from his parents for the first time. It was natural, then, that he would have a string of love affairs. Reflecting deeply on them and projecting them into his music was also natural for Strauss. “As a vehicle for the expression of sexual desire, he chose the greatest erotic subject of all time, the Don Juan legend,” states biographer Norman Del Mar.
The version of the legend that Strauss set in 1887 was a “dramatic poem” from 1844 by Nikolaus Lenau. Lenau’s work begins tracing the Don’s exploits from the point where his father attempts to fetch him home from his vacuous life of sensuality. It ends with the final duel in which Don Juan allows himself to be killed because he has become satiated with what life has to offer.
Don Juan’s swashbuckling theme is the mainstay between romantic episodes and other scenes. The opening section portrays Don Juan himself “in all his passionate glory and lust for life.” ( Del Mar) A transition leads to his first romantic adventure, announced by a solo violin. Following the love scene, Don Juan recovers himself through his main theme, only to become spellbound by a new love. This is a longer, more intense section. Don Juan’s recovery this time comes through a new and memorable theme. He is now at a masked ball full of the glitter and excitement of developing previous themes. Soon, however, comes the fall when he wanders through a graveyard and invites the statue of a nobleman he has killed to dinner. In the statue’s place comes the nobleman’s son, who challenges the libertine to a duel to the death. Although Don Juan is the better swordsman, he realizes how hollow the victory would be and drops his guard long enough to receive his adversary’s sword. Little by little, Don Juan’s life, once full of splendor and excitement, now recedes into oblivion, leaving behind only two empty-sounding notes.
Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
The re-assimilation of Sergei Prokofiev into the Soviet Union was gradual, spanning the years 1932-1936. During that time, he accepted more and more commissions from agencies of the Soviet government, while his backlog of commissions from the West slowly wound down. The overlap was heaviest during the summer of 1935, spent in the U.S.S.R., when he simultaneously finished his ballet Romeo and Juliet, the Second Violin Concerto and Music for Children for piano.
The commissioning, composing and premiere of the concerto, though, were symbolic of Prokofiev’s indecisive period in Western Europe before the final to return to his homeland. French Violinist and friend, Robert Soetens, had commissioned the work and Prokofiev later wrote,
Reflecting my nomadic concertizing existence, the concerto was written in the most diverse countries: the main subject of the first movement was written in Paris, the first theme of the second movement in Voronezh [Russia], the instrumentation was completed in Baku [Azerbaijan] and the premiere took place in December of 1935 in Madrid.
Conforming to the U.S.S.R.’s artistic policies, Prokofiev had developed in the concerto a “new simplicity.” Harlow Robinson writes, “. . . What is most different about the Second Concerto is its predominantly cantilena character: its melodies are some of the most beautiful, flowing and lyrical that Prokofiev ever wrote.”
This tendency is clear from the first notes of the violin solo, which open the first movement. Here we have a beginning that sets the tone for most of the concerto as one of lyricism and restrained virtuosity. To biographer Israel V. Nestyev, the first theme “evokes an image of the snow-covered plains of Russia,” while the second is cut from the same broadly romantic cloth as love themes in Romeo and Juliet.
The tranquil, nocturnal background that dominates the concerto’s Andante simultaneously recall Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and forecasts the slow movement of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony (1944), which the Rhode Island Philharmonic will perform on April 5, 2008. This is the concerto’s most “classical” movement, with its strict form and interweaving of melodic lines.
With a spirit of the dance, the festive finale counterbalances the song feeling of the first two movements. Prokofiev’s witty and original use of percussion combines with the violin to create what Robinson calls “a slightly ironic ‘Spanish’ atmosphere.” Growing ever more feverish, the movement arrives at a more purely “Russian” coda. Its asymmetrical rhythm, derived from Russian folk music, sets the pace for a tumultuous ending to the work that would be Prokofiev’s bridge to a new Soviet life.
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Beethoven’s plans for a C Minor Symphony went as far back as 1804, four years before its completion. His sketchbook that year shows the famous first movement rhythmic idea and the earliest version of the Andante theme. Beethoven completed the Fifth in the spring of 1808, and it premiered at the famous all-Beethoven concert of December 22 of that year.
“Thus fate knocks at the door!” Beethoven reportedly declared as he pointed to the first measures of the symphony. The reporter, however, was Anton Schindler, who had a vivid, Romantic imagination concerning the details of Beethoven’s life. Whatever its meaning, the famous opening motive has become synonymous with Beethoven’s name, even among school children. The first notes are not a theme per se, but a rhythmic motto ( . . . — ) that generates much of the opening movement and appears in some guise during each succeeding movement. The singing second theme is accompanied by the motto, and soon Beethoven is exploring various patterns and extensions of the motto. A short oboe solo momentarily suspends the rhythmic drive, but this only makes the remainder of the movement more exciting. It ends with something like an epilogue, necessarily long as a climax to all the excitement the music has built up.
Beethoven may not have been by nature a composer of melodies you can whistle, and his struggle through 14 different versions of the Andante main theme supports that idea. What he finally arrived at, however, fills the movement with an unmatched grace and nobility. This theme is in two closely related parts. The perceptive listener will recognize the motto rhythm here and there in both. Beethoven goes back through his theme three more times, and with each repetition, new enhancements and novelties are heard. So as not to bog things down (presumably), Beethoven accelerates the tempo near the end.
The Scherzo’s theme, too, is in two parts: the first mysterious and very soft, the second a blaring horn-call that vividly recalls the symphony’s motto rhythm. This terse statement leads to a rushing, expansive central section, beginning in the low strings. When the main idea reprises, all is hushed, leading to a dark and restless transition to the finale.
Beethoven made history with that transition and with the explosive chords that are its target. His Fifth was the first symphony to join two movements without a break — the third and the fourth. The chords include the first symphonic appearance of trombones. Beethoven’s idea was to add sheer power to the full orchestra, for at the same moment he also amplifies the sound with a piccolo and a contrabassoon. If we were to title the last movement, it might be “Final Triumph,” for it is a climax to the cumulative emotional power of all that has come before. The most striking feature of the finale, however, is a brief reminiscence of the Scherzo just before the final wind-up. The dramatic effect is perfect. It gives the audience a “breather” before the onslaught of a climactic ending that concludes with an athletic Presto section, which is a fitting finish not only to the last movement but also to the entire symphony.
Program Notes by Michael Fink and Notes, Inc.
