St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Richard Strauss. Schumann


PERFORMERS:
Alexander Buzlov (cello)
The Mariinsky Orchestra
Conductor: Nikolaj Znaider


PROGRAMME:
Richard Strauss
Don Juan, symphonic poem, Op. 20

Robert Schumann
Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129

Richard Strauss
Also sprach Zarathustra, symphonic poem, Op. 30

Following the premiere of his symphonic poem Don Juan the twenty-five year-old conductor Richard Strauss woke up the next day as the greatest conductor in Germany, a worthy heir of Wagner and Liszt. It is true that his patron Cosima Wagner (the widow of one genius and the daughter of another) did not approve of the flippancy of its theme as well as its embodiment. But that doesn’t alter anything: Strauss succeeded in continuing the tradition of Liszt’s symphonic poems and masterfully controlling Wagner’s huge romantic orchestra. Moreover, in his music one can hear light echoes of Venus’ grotto scene in Tannhдuser.
It is believed that the source of Richard Wagner’s plot came from a poem by Nikolaus Lenau, the melancholic and trumpeter of “world grief”. In 1844 Lenau began to write his own Don Juan, hopelessly and unrequitedly in love with the wife of his friend. The same year he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital where he ended his days, while only a fragment remains of his last work.
Richard Strauss, “the last Romantic”, always expressed a certain share of irony when dealing with romantic excesses. Perhaps the reference to Lenau was just a joke. Because in this dazzling poem by the young composer the energy bursts forth on every front. The music is sparkling and light and the sense of measure never lets Strauss down – as would later be the case.

In 1850 Robert Schumann became the Director of Music in Dusseldorf. On 24 October he conducted the first subscription concert of the local Musikverein and, the same day, completed the sketchfor his Cello Concerto. The concerto was first performed ten years later – following Schumann’s death. The composer himself named the piece somewhat differently – Konzertstück – thus stressing that this was a one-movement piecefor a virtuoso. In fact, there are three movements that are performed without interruption, revealing the cello’s immense monologue in which the laconic orchestral tutti appear as a series of punctuation marks.
Schumann’s concerto is the quintessence of the romantic image of the instrument. The cello part demands perfect “song” from the instrument with a flawlessly beautiful sound, and it is adorned with elegiac hues. The concerto was orchestrated with a very light hand. The lyricism of Schumann’s music, particularly in the first movement, at times brings to mind certain pages of Tchaikovsky’s scores –for example, the transposition to the second movement conjures up the Letter Scene from the opera Eugene Onegin.
Although Schumann himself was against virtuoso skillfor its own sake, the cello concerto is certainly not devoid of such features: there are passages in the first movement and songful double notes in the second. The cadenza in the concerto’s finale, however, seems to be too modestfor many soloists, and they expand it significantly.

In his grandiose symphonic poem Also sprach Zarathustra (1896) Richard Strauss took the genre to extreme levels. The basis of the work was Friedrich Nietzsche’s eponymous philosophical poem in prose that tells of a superman. The composer selected certain episodes from it and arranged them in an order of his own choosing (Sonnenaufgang – Von den Hinterweltern – Credo – Von der großen Sehnsucht – Magnificat – Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften – Das Grablied – Von der Wissenschaft – Der Genesende – Das Tanzlied – Nachtwandlerlied). Did the music submit to the literature? No, its powerful current flows across the borders of the various episodes. The vivid and aphoristic themes, memorable from the first time we hear them, imbue the entire poem.
Strauss combined the extreme romantic soaring flights with a healthy dose of irony. When depicting the dance of a superman, he composed a Viennese waltz, as he did every time that he wished to imitate Johann Strauss. In another episode, the song of the strings and the organ clearly parody religious music of the late romantic composers.
The finale of the poem is as brilliant as the opening. The low and high instruments perform in two different tones, symbolising nature and mankind, moreover the “human” chord is gently and without sharp dissonance embedded in the overtone range of the “natural” tone.
Anna Bulycheva

Age category 6+

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