PCO Presents Beethoven

Premiered 3 pm, Sunday, October 25, 2020

Today’s Program

Timothy Farrand, PCO Assistant Conductor

Welcome by Maestro Attar

Interview with Timothy Farrand, PCO Assistant Conductor

Ludwig van Beethoven - Coriolan Overture, Op. 62

Franz Joseph Haydn - Symphony No. 6 in D Major, Hob.I:6

I. Adagio - Allegro

Closing comments by Larry Mroz, PCO Board President


Program Notes

Beethoven knew and admired the works of Shakespeare, but his Coriolan Overture was not inspired by the Bard’s Coriolanus. He composed it for a play by Matthäus von Collin that had enjoyed a brief success in Vienna from 1802–1805. Originally the play was performed with music adapted from Mozart’s Idomeneo. Beethoven apparently admired Collin’s tragedy and the author was, in any case, a friend of his and an influential one at that since he served as Imperial Court Secretary.

The year of composition is 1807 and we know that the overture had been performed by March of that year at two subscription concerts given at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz. The program of the two subscription concerts sponsored by Lobkowitz included Beethoven’s first four symphonies, a piano concerto, arias from Fidelio, and the new Overture.

The Overture must have made a strong impression, because by April 24 the management of the Imperial Theater mounted a single performance of Collin’s drama, using Beethoven’s Overture, so as to unite the play with the music that it inspired. It is most likely that this happened at the suggestion of Prince Lobkowitz himself, who was a director of the theater.

It appears that Collin’s play has not been performed since but Beethoven’s Overture, recognized from the first as being “full of fire and power,” is one of his most admired short orchestral works.

The themes the overture follow the play generally. The main theme represents Coriolan’s resolve and war-like tendencies He is about to invade Rome, his own homeland, having abandoned his country to fight for the enemy Volscians. The more tender and melodic second theme represents the pleadings of his mother to desist and repent. Coriolan eventually gives in to tenderness, but since he cannot turn back, having led an army of his former enemies to Rome's gates, he takes his own life. The overture’s conclusion describes the scene as the spirit leaves Coriolan’s body. (In the play Coriolanus by William Shakespeare he is murdered.)

Life as a member of the orchestra at the court of Esterházy differed radically from the lives of musicians today. The ensemble, including Franz Joseph Haydn, was effectively the sole property of the court. At the beginning of his employ, not even the nobles knew who he was. According to popular legend, Haydn composed a symphony for the birthday of Prince Paul Anton on April 22, 1761, just prior to his formal employment. During the performance, the prince was so impressed that he interrupted the orchestra to inquire who had written the beautiful music. After he was told the composer was Haydn, he said, “But you are already in my service, how is it I have not seen you?” Haydn did not know how to respond, so the prince ordered, “Go and get dressed like a Maestro.” From that point forward, Haydn wore the white wig of a courtier.

Haydn was well known by the time he composed the Symphonies 6, 7, and 8 a few months later, and it may even have been the prince who suggested the topic of “Times of the Day.” In 1755, a fashionable pantomime ballet premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna where the Prince had a regular box, Les quatres parties du jour en quatres ballets différens (The four parts of the day in four different ballets, subtitled “Le matin,” “Le midi,” “Le soir,” “La nuit”).

Subtitled “Le Matin,” (Morning) Symphony No. 6 opens with a sunrise, a pastoral-sounding melody punctuated with the songs of birds and suggestions of morning fog. The operatic slow movement for solo violin and cello might be a late morning singing lesson taught by the Maestro.

Program notes by Conductor Laureate, Douglas Meyer.

Video produced by CW Studios.