Chamber Series I

From Wagner to Strauss to Weber, they have more or less covered German Romantic music from its early days to its heydays and to its final stage. However in this June H Edwards Chamber Concert, we will mainly perform some less played music from these three very popular German composers.

Richard Wagner was a composer who dominated the German High Romantic period with his extravaganza operas such as Gotterdammerung, Tannhauser, Siegfried, and Tristan und Isolde etc. Comparing with these large scale works, “Siegfried Idyll” is obviously very small in terms of its orchestration and its duration. Actually "Siegfried Idyll" was never intended for public, but it was published when Wagner was pressed by debt.

On the morning of Wagner’s wife Cosima's thirty - third birthday a small 15 pieces orchestra, that had been assembled by Wagner's resident student of several years, Hans Richter, crept onto the stairs of the Wagner's house, Tribschen in Lucerne Switzerland.  Wagner raised his baton and strings ushered in the soft music that would crescendo into a complete expression of Wagner's love for Cosima. What they would later refer to as the "Siegfried Idyll”, due to the birth of their son Siegfried and theme from opera” Siegfried", had fully achieved its desired effect.

Richard Strauss was only 18 and had yet to develop his own distinctive style when he completed his first horn concerto in 1883. He wrote it for his father, a professional horn player. But the elder Strauss found the work too difficult. In this piece the young Strauss had already demonstrated his bravura writing for the solo horn in the first movement. The second movement is rather lyrical and expensive. However its inspiration seems to be French opera.

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (I want to share his full name with you) was the first significant composer of the German Romantic School. The South Bend Symphony Orchestra has performed his popular works such as opera overture from "Der Freischutz" and "Oberon", Clarinet and Bassoon Concerto in past. But his symphony, especially Symphony No. 1 is not often performed. And this is definitely the very first performance of this piece for us.  I can describe this symphony in two words:

"Operatic" - Weber had held several posts of director at the Opera in Breslau and Prague, Dresden. Perhaps due his deep involvement in opera scene, this symphony certainly sounds like an opera overture or interlude from time to time. It is also very descriptive of certain dramatic scene with tempo shifts (beginning of the first movement) and drastic dynamic changes (fourth movement).

"Brilliant" - Weber's mastery of orchestration was equaled in his time only by Beethoven and Schubert. It is certainly with much evidence in this piece too. He was especially sensitive to the colors of woodwind. Please enjoy those flute, oboe, bassoon and horn’s beautiful passages along with contrasting stormy string sections. But all these brilliance was achieved in a seemingly easy and light mood.

Best Regards, Maestro Tsung Yeh

Location:
The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center