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Program Notes |
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Program Notes |
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Mozart:
Overture to
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In the last year of
his life, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) received a
commission to write an opera to celebrate the coronation of the King of Bohemia.
Mozart was actually the second choice; Mozart's rival Salieri was offered the
commission first, but declined it because he was too busy to meet the tight
deadline. In less than two months, Mozart whipped up La Clemenza di Tito,
an "opera seria" about a plot to murder the Roman emperor Titus. The Bohemian
king's opinion of it is not known, but his queen apparently did not think much
of it, calling it as "porcheria tedesca" (German swinery). Modern critics are
kinder, but the opera is not among Mozart's best known. The overture, on the
other hand, with its noble melodies, remains a popular concert work in its own
right.
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Beethoven:"Ah! perfido," op. 65"Abscheulicher! wo eilst du hin?"
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The young Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was greatly influenced by Mozart's style. In 1796, Beethoven tried his hand at a concert aria for soprano, written for Josepha Duschek, for whom Mozart had composed the technically similar aria "Bella mia fiamma, addio." But Beethoven's genius would not allow him to be a mere imitator. His special talent for drama makes "Ah! perfido" ("Ah! wicked one") a masterwork of the vocal repertoire. It is a setting of verses by the Italian poet Pietro Metastasio, in which a woman, abandoned by her lover, invokes the vengeance of the gods upon him, but ends by pleading for mercy for him and pity for herself.
Fidelio is Beethoven's only opera. He began it in 1805, at a time when he was preoccupied with ideas of political liberty and heroism. (Napoleon, whom Beethoven had once admired but came to despise as a tyrant, had by this time occupied much of Europe.) It is the story of Leonore, the faithful wife of a political prisoner, who disguises herself as a man — Fidelio — in order to free her husband. The aria "Abscheulicher! wo eilst do hin?" ("Abominable man! Where are you going?") is prompted by Leonore's first sight of the evil prison warden, Pizarro. Her anger gives way to hope in the thought that, through her love, her husband will be freed.
Translation of "Abscheulicher! wo eilst du hin?"
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Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor ("Scottish"), op. 56 1. Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato |
"When God himself takes to panorama painting, the result is something immense," wrote 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) during a walking-tour of Scotland. "Everything looks so stern and robust here, even if it all is half obscured by steam or smoke or fog." Mendelssohn, entranced by Scotland's wild coasts and ruined castles, composed two Scotland-inspired works, the Hebrides Overture and the Third Symphony, known as the "Scottish." The immediate impetus for the symphony was a twilight visit to the ruins of Holyrood Palace, where Mary Queen of Scots had been crowned. Mendelssohn jotted down the opening notes on the spot. The "stern and robust" landscape of the Highlands is beautifully evoked in the symphony, which uses no actual Scottish folk tunes but is, instead, Mendelssohn's own Romantic impression of Scotland's dark, brooding beauty.
Program Notes by Linda Cantoni
Sources:
Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians (Grove 1995)
Kramer, Jonathan D.,
Listen
to the Music (Schirmer 1991)
Wikipedia
The Life of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, by Wilhelm Adolf Lampadius
(1887)