The 'City of Dreams', Vienna is referenced more or less in all the works in this programme, which features the phenomenal young Korean cellist, Jaemin Han. The Auckland Philharmonia's Principal Guest Conductor Shiyeon Sung is on the podium.
Cellist Jaemin Han Photo: Shin-joong Kim
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BEETHOVEN: Coriolan Overture Op 62
Coriolanus was a Roman general of the 5th Century BC, whose exploits were written down by Livy and Plutarch among others. Current scholarship remains undecided on whether he actually existed however – he could be just a figure of legend.
Shakespeare rewrote the story for his play Coriolanus. Beethoven, however, wrote his overture for a now pretty much forgotten play by Austrian writer Heinrich Joseph von Collin.
In the stories, Coriolanus is heroic in the siege of the Volsci, enemies of Rome. But later he is exiled, he swaps sides and leads the Volsci in a counter attack back onto Rome.
The main theme depicts Coriolanus’s courageous nature and the more gentle second theme represents his mother’s pleading for him not to attack Rome.
HAYDN: Cello Concerto No 1 in C HobVIIb:1
Haydn was employed for about 30 years by Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy to compose music and lead his orchestra of crack musicians. And he composed this concerto early on in that period for the principal cellist – also a good friend of Haydn’s – Joseph Franz Weigl.
Although Haydn made a note of this concerto in the catalogue of works he put together in 1765, the manuscript of the work was not found until 1961 when it turned up in the Prague National Museum.
Being an earlyish work of Haydn’s, it has some lingering aspects related to the baroque Concerto Grosso – the ensemble is small, there’s a basso continuo part (although it's not always played as such), and the structure still reflects the “ritornello” form of alternating tutti and solo parts.
But there are hints of the emerging classical sonata form as well with its dramatic interplay between keys.
In fact, as Gregory Camp points out in his programme notes for the concert, the work is “a textbook example of the galant style, a mid-18th century style that juxtaposes emotional complexity with harmonic clarity.”
After re-discovery, the work has been warmly welcomed by cellists into their repertoire – and by audiences around the world to become one of the most-frequently performed works for cello and orchestra.
BACH: Sarabande, from Cello Suite No 1 in G BWV1007
An encore from Jaemin Han.
KORNGOLD: Dance in the Old Style
The Dance in the Old Style was written when Korngold was around 20 years old – that is about 1917. But it lay unknown for many years and was only published in 2000. It’s since become quite a popular short concert opener or interlude.
The dance style that Korngold is using is the 18th century Minuet. Think Haydn or Mozart perhaps, but Korngold’s treatment is a bit more like the Richard Strauss of Der Rosenkavalier – harking back, yes, ... but adding in a good dose of romantic opulence.
Listen out in particular for the sumptuous cello solo in the middle section (here played by Ashley Brown) ... we can definitely hear a hint of the Hollywood composer that Korngold would later become.
HINDEMITH: Mathis der Maler, Symphony
In the early 1930s, Paul Hindemith was working on his opera Mathis der Maler based on the life of the German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald.
The subject matter of the opera – the title character Mathis’s struggle for creative freedom at a time of political and religious turmoil, the German Reformation – was not likely to be a popular one for the ruling Nazi party at the time. Hindemith was happy then when the conductor Wilhelm Fürtwängler asked him for a new work for an upcoming Berlin Philharmonic tour. He could create a symphony out of some of the music that he was writing for the opera and have it performed when a production of the full opera would be unlikely in Germany.
The sections of the opera that he chose for the three movements were sections that were inspired by parts of Grünewald’s multi-panel masterpiece, the Isenheim Alterpiece.
The first movement, developed from the overture of the opera and the first part of the 6th Scene, is titled ‘Angels’ Concert’ from a panel depicting various angels playing viols. It sits alongside the depiction of the nativity.
The short second movement is from an interlude in the final scene of the opera and is inspired by Grünewald’s depiction of the 'Entombment of Christ'.
And the third movement also uses music from the 6th Scene in which the character Mathis experiences a series of visions – it’s inspired by the alterpiece’s Hieronymus Bosch-like panel depicting 'The Temptation of St Anthony'.
The symphony was well received at its first performances in 1934, but the conductor Wilhelm Fürtwängler, who had commissioned the work, faced severe criticism from the Nazi government for performing the work, given that other Hindemith scores had been denounced by the party as "degenerate".
Hindemith thought he would be able to hide behind the “absolute” music of a symphony, rather than be outed by the plot of the opera, which revolves around an artist’s obligations to pursue their own vision rather than follow a line dictated by political considerations. The Nazi’s were suspicious though. Hindemith finished the opera a year later and Fürtwängler defended it in the press but it was banned by Goebbels. It wasn’t performed in Germany until 1956. It had its premiere in 1938 in Zürich.
The Isenheim Altarpiece – Matthias Grünewald’s multi-panelled painting which was the inspiration for both symphony and opera – is currently in the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, France. It was originally created for the nearby Monastery of St Anthony which was set up as a hospital for victims of ergot poisoning or St Anthony’s Fire caused a fungus that infected cereal crops in mediaeval times. The alterpiece has two sets of hinged wings that can be opened – thereby giving three different viewing configurations. With both wings open, the panels show scenes of St Anthony’s life and allowed patients to venerate their very own patron saint.
That third movement was inspired by one of these panels depicting 'The Temptation of St Anthony' ... a grotesque Bosch-like image with St Anthony being tormented by monsters.
Recorded by RNZ Concert
Producer: Adrian Hollay
Engineer: Rangi Powick
