Leon Botstein and American Symphony Orchestra Present “The Remains of Romanticism” at Lincoln Center on November 15

By -

Program Includes Richard Strauss’s Second Symphony and Works by Robert Fuchs, Siegmund von Hausegger, Hermann Goetz and Ludwig Thuille, Including the US Premiere of a Fuchs Serenade

With “The Remains of Romanticism”, their second Lincoln Center concert of the season (Sunday, November 15 at Avery Fisher Hall), Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra present proof positive that the alleged death of Romanticism through the advent of modernism around the turn of the 20th century was a myth – at least musically speaking. If Romanticism seemed in danger of becoming obsolete, music of this persuasion by many serious and successful composers saved it from extinction. Some of the greatest composers of the age tried to revive Romanticism through formal innovation, others by connecting it to a narrative or programmatic scheme. Unexpected examples by composers Robert Fuchs, Hermann Goetz, Friedrich von Hausegger, Ludwig Thuille, and Richard Strauss – at least one of which has never been heard before in the United States – are to be performed at the afternoon concert.

All tickets to the ASO’s Lincoln Center concerts are just $25 and are available by calling (212) 868-9276 (9ASO) or visiting www.americansymphony.org.

Leon Botstein’s program note for “The Remains of Romanticism” discusses the term “Romanticism” and its history in music:

“When we try to identify the features of the romantic in music beyond neat chronological boundaries, we find that though romantic elements make their appearance most famously in middle-period Beethoven, they may also be found in Mozart. Romanticism also did not lose its hold after its “era” had supposedly ended; well into the twentieth century, “conservative” composers continued to write in the Romantic tradition, and the familiar conventions of late nineteenth-century Romanticism inspire film music well into our own time. Since the mid-1970s, a more conscious revival of Romanticism in musical composition has flourished. “Having said that, a set of interconnecting characteristics stand out in the music on today’s program, all of which was composed in the twilight years of the romantic tradition.”

Hermann Goetz, the earliest of the five contemporaneous composers on the program, was born in 1840 and died young, a few days before his 36th birthday, from a long-existing case of tuberculosis. He originally studied mathematics and physics, but switched full-time to music, studying at Berlin’s Stern Conservatory. Despite his short composing career, he managed to write operas, choral and chamber music, two piano concertos, and a violin concerto (to be performed by soloist Mira Wang, who made her US debut with the American Symphony Orchestra in 2001 playing Roberto Gerhard’s concerto).

Robert Fuchs (1847-1927) was a relatively obscure composer in Vienna, but his Symphony No. 1 in C won him the 1886 Beethoven prize in composition given by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Fuchs was a highly influential teacher of composition, with Mahler, Sibelius, Schreker, Wolf and Zemlinsky among his pupils. His Serenade No. 1, Op. 9 (1874) – according to Grove, a “decisive success” at its first performance – is receiving its United States premiere at this concert.

Siegmund von Hausegger (1872-1948), born in Graz, Austria, was the son of Friedrich von Hausegger, a lawyer and writer on music and a passionate early advocate of Richard Wagner. Siegmund was influenced by the German master from an early age. Although better known in later life as a conductor and scholar than as a composer, Hausegger wrote music for the church as well as choruses, songs, operas and symphonic poems. Hausegger conducted in Graz, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Hamburg, and after World War I he served as conductor of the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Wieland der Schmied, a 1904 symphonic poem, was inspired by a Wagner libretto for which he never composed a score.

Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907) began studying music seriously in Innsbruck, just over the Brenner Pass from his birthplace of Bolzano. Further education in Munich followed, and he eventually earned a professorship there. Among his students at Munich’s Akademie der Tonkunst were Ernst Bloch, Paul von Klenau, and Walter Braunfels. Thuille rescued the sparkling overture from his failed opera, Theurdank, turning it into the Romantic Overture, in which, according to Byron Adams’s program note, he “casts an affectionate backward glance towards the more innocent pre-Wagnerian romanticism of his beloved Schumann.”

While Richard Strauss (1864-1949) needs no introduction, his earliest works have received little or no exposure, including his Symphony, Op. 12, which is being performed in the place of honor at this ASO concert: at the end of the program. The young composer thought it a bit daring for the time, and a possible affront to his well-connected and conservative horn-soloist father.

Last season Maestro Leon Botstein began delivering pre-concert talks, starting 75 minutes before each concert; this policy continues this season. Don’t miss this illuminating talk, at 1:45 pm, in Avery Fisher Hall.

Sunday, November 15, 3:00 pm
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center
The Remains of Romanticism

Robert Fuchs (1847-1927)    Serenade for Strings, No. 1, Op. 9 (1874) US premiere
Siegmund von Hausegger (1872-1948)    Wieland der Schmied, symphonic poem (1904)
Hermann Goetz (1840-1876)    *Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 22 (1868/80)
Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907)    Romantische Ouverture, Op.16 (1899)
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)    Symphony in f minor, Op.12 (1884)

American Symphony Orchestra
*Mira Wang, violin
Leon Botstein, conductor

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more