THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2017-2018 38 Program Notes HECTOR BERLIOZ
ROMAN CARNIVAL OVERTURE, OP. 9
Duration: ca. 8 minutes
The failure of Berlioz’s opera Benvenuto Cellini at its premiere
in September 1838 was nearly complete. Except for the
original overture to the opera, everything else, Berlioz
reported, “was hissed with admirable energy and unanimity.”
Five years later, he mined the opera for thematic material for
a new overture that he could use either as an independent
concert work or as the introduction to the second act of
Benvenuto. With the flavor of the opera’s setting and his own
Italian travels as guides, he named it Roman Carnival. The
Overture had a resounding success at its concert premiere in
Paris on February 3, 1844, and was encored. It immediately
joined the Symphonie Fantastique as the most popular of
Berlioz’s music, and it was one of the works he programmed
most frequently on the concerts he conducted. The two large
formal sections of the Roman Carnival Overture are based
on melodies from the opera. The first, presented by the
solo English horn, borrows Benvenuto’s aria O Teresa, vous
que j’aime (“O Teresa, whom I adore”). The other theme is
a bubbling saltarello reminiscent of the folk dances Berlioz
heard in Rome.
MAX BRUCH
CONCERTO NO. 1 FOR VIOLIN IN G MINOR, OP. 26
Duration: ca. 24 minutes
Overview
German composer, conductor and teacher Max Bruch, widely
known and respected in his day, received his earliest music
instruction from his mother, a noted singer and pianist. He
began composing at eleven, and by fourteen had produced
a symphony and a string quartet, the latter garnering a
prize that allowed him to study with Reinecke and Hiller in
Cologne. Bruch held various posts as a choral and orchestral
conductor in Cologne, Coblenz, Sondershausen, Berlin,
Liverpool and Breslau, and in 1883, he visited America
to conduct concerts of his own compositions. From 1890
to 1910, he taught composition at the Berlin Academy
and received numerous awards for his work, including an
honorary doctorate from Cambridge University.
What To Listen For
The G minor Concerto, a work of lyrical beauty and
emotional sincerity, opens with a dialogue between soloist
and orchestra followed by a wide-ranging subject played
by the violin. A contrasting theme reaches into the highest
register of the violin. A stormy section for orchestra recalls
the opening dialogue, which softens to lead directly into the
Adagio, based on three important themes, all languorous and
sweet, shared by soloist and orchestra. The finale begins with
hints of the upcoming theme before the soloist proclaims
the vibrant melody itself. A broad melody, played first by
the orchestra alone before being taken over by the soloist,
serves as the second theme. A brief development, based
on the dance-like first theme, leads to the recapitulation.
The coda recalls again the first theme to bring the work to
a rousing close.
FRANZ SCHUBERT
SYMPHONY NO. 8 IN B MINOR, D. 759,
“UNFINISHED”
Duration: ca. 25 minutes
Overview
The mystery surrounding the composition of the “Unfinished”
Symphony is one of the most intriguing puzzles in the entire
realm of music. It is known that Schubert composed the first
two movements of this “Grand Symphony,” as he referred to
it, in autumn 1822, and then abruptly stopped work. He sent
the manuscript to his friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner, who was
supposed to pass it on to the Styrian Music Society of Graz in
appreciation of an honorary membership that organization
had conferred upon Schubert the previous spring. Anselm,
described by Schubert’s biographer Hans Gal as a “peevish
recluse,” never sent the score. Instead, he squirreled it away
in his desk, where it gathered dust for forty years. It was not
until 1865 that he presented it for performance to Johann
Herbeck, director of Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.
Lacking conclusive evidence, writers on Schubert have
advanced a fascinating variety of explanations as to why
the young composer never completed the last two planned
movements of this Symphony. Among others: he was too
ill with syphilis; he could not be bothered with the labor of
writing down the last two movements; his friends believed he
was basically a song composer rather than an instrumental
composer, and their arguments caused him to lose faith
in this large work; the last two movements were lost; he
despaired of ever having a work of this scale performed; a
new commission intervened; Hüttenbrenner’s servant used
the manuscript to start a fire. All of these have been proven
false. The truth is that, despite exhaustive research, there