2 July 2022 SSO Concert Programme
W.A. Mozart (1756-91), Overture: Idomeneo, K. 366
Idomeneo was Mozart’s first mature opera, composed in 1780-81 as a commission for the Elector of Bavaria. It is the culmination of eighteenth-century ‘opera seria’, but also transcends its genre, with unprecedentedly tight dramatic continuity and orchestral virtuosity. The opera was composed for the court opera at Munich. The quality of singers and orchestra at Mozart’s disposal was probably the best in world at the time, and Mozart revels in their abilities. He was involved deeply in adapting the libretto, derived originally from a French play of 1705 by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, re-writing sections of the opera several times to ensure maximum dramatic continuity and coherence.
The overture establishes opera’s epic character but also its dreadful pathos. Derived from Apollodorus of Athens’ 2nd-Century BC Chronicle, the story tells of the return of King Idomeneo of Crete (grandson of King Minos) at the end of the Trojan War. So anxious is Idomeneo to return home safely from Troy that he has made a Faustian bargain with Neptune, god of the sea, to sacrifice the first living being he meets on arrival. Unbeknown to him at first, this person proves to be his son, Idamante. The opera must resolve this dreadful dilemma.
Idomeneo was Mozart’s first mature opera, composed in 1780-81 as a commission for the Elector of Bavaria. It is the culmination of eighteenth-century ‘opera seria’, but also transcends its genre, with unprecedentedly tight dramatic continuity and orchestral virtuosity. The opera was composed for the court opera at Munich. The quality of singers and orchestra at Mozart’s disposal was probably the best in world at the time, and Mozart revels in their abilities. He was involved deeply in adapting the libretto, derived originally from a French play of 1705 by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, re-writing sections of the opera several times to ensure maximum dramatic continuity and coherence.
The overture establishes opera’s epic character but also its dreadful pathos. Derived from Apollodorus of Athens’ 2nd-Century BC Chronicle, the story tells of the return of King Idomeneo of Crete (grandson of King Minos) at the end of the Trojan War. So anxious is Idomeneo to return home safely from Troy that he has made a Faustian bargain with Neptune, god of the sea, to sacrifice the first living being he meets on arrival. Unbeknown to him at first, this person proves to be his son, Idamante. The opera must resolve this dreadful dilemma.
Giovanni Punto / Jan Václav Stich (1746-1803), Horn Concerto No. 5 in F
Lisa Ridgway, horn soloist
I: Allegro moderato - II: Adagio - III: Rondo en chasse
Giovanni Punto was born in Zehušice, Bohemia as Jan Václav Stich, studying singing, violin and horn in Prague, Munich and Dresdent. Working first in the orchestra of Count Thun, his local estate-owner, aged 20 he decided to leave, despite his employer’s objections – sufficiently strong to send soldiers after him with orders to knock out his front teeth so he could not play the horn again. Stich evaded his pursuers and escaped into territory of the Holy Roman Empire, where he Italianised his name to Giovanni Punto.
After playing in orchestras in Hechingen and Mainz, Punto developed a reputation as the greatest horn play of his time, and began a touring solo career throughout Europe, including three visits to London. Audiences were astonished by his virtuosity, especially his unprecedented skill in hand-stopping technique, which increased substantially the effective range of notes available. Mozart, who met him in Paris in 1778, wrote to his father Leopold that ‘Punto plays magnifique’, composing a now-lost Sinfonia Concertante (K. 297b) for him. Later in Punto’s life, he developed a parallel career as a violinist and orchestral director, including for Paris’ Théâtre des Variétés Amusantes (1789-99), moving to Munich and Vienna, where he met Beethoven, who wrote his Horn Sonata Op. 17 for them to perform together.
Punto composed sixteen horn concertos, of which five are lost, a two-horn concerto, clarinet concerto, horn sextet, 21 horn quartets, 57 trios and 103 duos, and a book of studies. His Horn Concerto No. 5, first published in Paris in 1797, has become better known thanks to a several excellent recordings including one from 1995 by Barry Tuckwell with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Lisa Ridgway, horn soloist
I: Allegro moderato - II: Adagio - III: Rondo en chasse
Giovanni Punto was born in Zehušice, Bohemia as Jan Václav Stich, studying singing, violin and horn in Prague, Munich and Dresdent. Working first in the orchestra of Count Thun, his local estate-owner, aged 20 he decided to leave, despite his employer’s objections – sufficiently strong to send soldiers after him with orders to knock out his front teeth so he could not play the horn again. Stich evaded his pursuers and escaped into territory of the Holy Roman Empire, where he Italianised his name to Giovanni Punto.
After playing in orchestras in Hechingen and Mainz, Punto developed a reputation as the greatest horn play of his time, and began a touring solo career throughout Europe, including three visits to London. Audiences were astonished by his virtuosity, especially his unprecedented skill in hand-stopping technique, which increased substantially the effective range of notes available. Mozart, who met him in Paris in 1778, wrote to his father Leopold that ‘Punto plays magnifique’, composing a now-lost Sinfonia Concertante (K. 297b) for him. Later in Punto’s life, he developed a parallel career as a violinist and orchestral director, including for Paris’ Théâtre des Variétés Amusantes (1789-99), moving to Munich and Vienna, where he met Beethoven, who wrote his Horn Sonata Op. 17 for them to perform together.
Punto composed sixteen horn concertos, of which five are lost, a two-horn concerto, clarinet concerto, horn sextet, 21 horn quartets, 57 trios and 103 duos, and a book of studies. His Horn Concerto No. 5, first published in Paris in 1797, has become better known thanks to a several excellent recordings including one from 1995 by Barry Tuckwell with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), Pavane
In 1887, Fauré was introduced to the Comtesse Greffulhe, through her aesthete nephew, the poet Robert de Montesquiou. The Comtesse, one of era’s leading musical patrons, invited the composer to stay at her summer villa, ‘La Case’, on the cliff-tops overlooking Dieppe. Fauré was soon organising the concerts she hosted at her grand Paris salon at 8, Rue d’Astorg, and referred to her in gratitude as his ‘King of Bavaria’, alluding to Ludwig II’s generous support for Wagner. In return, she received the dedication of the famous Pavane, which was first performed in Paris at the Concerts Lamoureux on 28 April 1888.
Greffulhe arranged for the Pavane to be played according to Fauré’s wishes by an invisible orchestra at a nocturnal party she threw on the island in the Bois de Boulogne on 21 July 1891. On this occasion, the Pavane was accompanied by a pageant of mime, dance and chorus devised by Montesquiou, with a Verlaine-inspired text, in which male and female lovers enact a mythic festival, teasing each other with suggestive elegance. Fauré insisted, however, that all the above was ‘optional’, and normally the work is played in the orchestra-only version.
In 1887, Fauré was introduced to the Comtesse Greffulhe, through her aesthete nephew, the poet Robert de Montesquiou. The Comtesse, one of era’s leading musical patrons, invited the composer to stay at her summer villa, ‘La Case’, on the cliff-tops overlooking Dieppe. Fauré was soon organising the concerts she hosted at her grand Paris salon at 8, Rue d’Astorg, and referred to her in gratitude as his ‘King of Bavaria’, alluding to Ludwig II’s generous support for Wagner. In return, she received the dedication of the famous Pavane, which was first performed in Paris at the Concerts Lamoureux on 28 April 1888.
Greffulhe arranged for the Pavane to be played according to Fauré’s wishes by an invisible orchestra at a nocturnal party she threw on the island in the Bois de Boulogne on 21 July 1891. On this occasion, the Pavane was accompanied by a pageant of mime, dance and chorus devised by Montesquiou, with a Verlaine-inspired text, in which male and female lovers enact a mythic festival, teasing each other with suggestive elegance. Fauré insisted, however, that all the above was ‘optional’, and normally the work is played in the orchestra-only version.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Symphony No.3 in D
I: Adagio maestoso – Allegro con brio
II: Allegretto
III: Menuetto (vivace) – Trio – Menuetto
IV: Presto vivace
Schubert’s Third Symphony was composed in 1815 when the composer was eighteen years old. Its four movements are full of youthful exuberance, charm, and intimations in miniature of the wide emotional range explored further in his later music. The closest model for Schubert’s six early symphonies is Haydn rather than Beethoven, but Schubert’s distinctive charm and lyricism is already unmistakable. The first movement’s slow introduction presents concisely the music’s principal ideas and moods, before the clarinet initiates the allegro con brio section’s spirited main theme; the first full orchestral statement has more than a reminiscence of Mozart’s ‘Paris’ Symphony, also in the key of D major, a link deepened when this idea returns with the higher and lower instruments imitating each other. The second subject, introduced by the oboe, is no less lively; a fragment from this melody then dominates a more dramatic Romantic-sounding development section before the original ideas return, sweeping along to a grand conclusion.
The graceful second movement also features a boisterous clarinet solo at its centre; a short hint of Schubert’s later string quintet is audible in the first violins soon afterwards. The minuet is anything but graceful: with its powerful third-beat accents, it is a rumbustuous explosion of sound, with powerful third-beat accents; it frames a ländler-style ‘trio’ section: a lilting duet for oboe and bassoon. The tarantella-inspired Finale is even faster, with Schubert playfully imitating Rossinian high spirits.
Programme notes by James Ross
I: Adagio maestoso – Allegro con brio
II: Allegretto
III: Menuetto (vivace) – Trio – Menuetto
IV: Presto vivace
Schubert’s Third Symphony was composed in 1815 when the composer was eighteen years old. Its four movements are full of youthful exuberance, charm, and intimations in miniature of the wide emotional range explored further in his later music. The closest model for Schubert’s six early symphonies is Haydn rather than Beethoven, but Schubert’s distinctive charm and lyricism is already unmistakable. The first movement’s slow introduction presents concisely the music’s principal ideas and moods, before the clarinet initiates the allegro con brio section’s spirited main theme; the first full orchestral statement has more than a reminiscence of Mozart’s ‘Paris’ Symphony, also in the key of D major, a link deepened when this idea returns with the higher and lower instruments imitating each other. The second subject, introduced by the oboe, is no less lively; a fragment from this melody then dominates a more dramatic Romantic-sounding development section before the original ideas return, sweeping along to a grand conclusion.
The graceful second movement also features a boisterous clarinet solo at its centre; a short hint of Schubert’s later string quintet is audible in the first violins soon afterwards. The minuet is anything but graceful: with its powerful third-beat accents, it is a rumbustuous explosion of sound, with powerful third-beat accents; it frames a ländler-style ‘trio’ section: a lilting duet for oboe and bassoon. The tarantella-inspired Finale is even faster, with Schubert playfully imitating Rossinian high spirits.
Programme notes by James Ross
