“A  beautiful little Sinfonietta with fanfares” was how Leoš Janáček in a letter to female companion described a composition inspired by a military band they had listened to in a park in Písek, in southern Bohemia. Yet there was nothing “little” about it. Apart from it being the longest purely orchestral work Janáček composed (about 25 minutes’ worth), his Sinfonietta is scored for just about the largest brass section you’ll ever see in any orchestral work including nine trumpets in C, two bass trumpets, and two tenor tubas all underpinned by a pounding two-measure phrase in the timpani. 

The music of fellow countryman Antonin Dvořák in contrast is often filled with a quiet, wistful nostalgia, and an embrace of nature. We hear all of this in the Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, a work of profound depth and monumental scale which Dvořák composed in 1887 following his unsuccessful and discarded earlier piano quintet. Contrasts notwithstanding, the compositions of Dvořák and Janáček were deeply inspired by the folk songs and speech patterns of their Bohemian homeland known today as Czechoslovakia.  Such was the first of our two October programmes.

“Tragic”  was Schubert’s name for his 4th symphony, but we don’t know why. We do know that only two of his symphonies were written in minor keys (the other was the “Unfinished Symphony”). The nickname may have more to do with youthful drama then actual tragedy - Schubert was only 19 years old at the time of its composition, by which time this young genius had already written four symphonies and over a hundred musical works in all. Nothing tragic about Robert Schumann’s Three Romances Opus 94. Written on December 7, 11, and 12th 1849, the pieces - according to Schumann himself - were given to his wife Clara, whom he once described as his own "right hand", as a Christmas present. How romantic is that?

Bookending these two works in the second October session was Paul Schoenfeld’s Café Music and Mozart’s Quartet for Oboe and Strings.   In 1985 Schoenfeld was asked to fill in for the pianist at a restaurant which employs a house trio that plays entertaining dinner music in a wide variety of styles. “My intention, Schoenfeld said, “was to write a kind of high-class dinner music — music which could be played at a restaurant but might also (just barely) find its way into a concert hall”. Centuries earlier Mozart was invited to Munich to visit Elector Karl Theodor, who had commissioned the opera Idomeneo for a carnival celebration. While in Munich, Mozart renewed an acquaintance with Friedrich Ramm, a virtuoso oboist in the Munich orchestra and the most celebrated oboist of the day. It was for Ramm that Mozart composed the quartet. The year was 1781, the pivotal year of Mozart’s life. This was the year when he cut his ties with his family and hometown of Salzburg and struck out on his own as a freelance musician in Vienna. Reflecting his growing adulthood, the quartet was his first really mature piece of chamber music.

All this and more, including recordings, can be viewed by clicking on the links below.

Bill Squire.

Session Notes 10th October
Wagner - Flying Dutchman Overture
Dvorak - Piano Quintet No.2
Janacek - Sinfonietta
Sibelius - Finlandia
 
Session Notes 24th October
Schoenfeld -Cafe Music
Schubert - Symphony No.4
Schumann - Three Romances Opus 94
Mozart - Oboe Quartet
​

When Erik Korngold was serving in the first world war as music director for his regiment, the General once remarked: “Isn't it a little fast, Korngold? The men can't march to that”. To which Korngold replied: “Ah yes, well, you see Sir, this was composed for the retreat”. Being Austrian by birth , but of Jewish descent, Korngold, a few years later, was to organise his own “retreat”, escaping to the USA when the Nazi regime came to power. Although composing scores for opera was his forte, Korngold was persuaded by Warner Brothers to write incidental music for films. He regarded his films as ‘operas without singing’, and it is said of him: “he was the musical prodigy who brought the sound of Wagner and Puccini to Hollywood”. Sensing, however, that when a film left public view so did his music, Korngold returned to more serious composition. His violin concerto nearly didn’t make it past its premiere. Panned by critics as “more corn than gold” it rocketed to fame when no less a violinist than Jascha Heifitz took it on board, and the rest is history, as they say. Interestingly the opening melody is the flight/love theme from the film “Another Dawn” – which Korngold had envisaged as a concerto theme years before the film. This concerto was the foundation on which the second of our sessions for June was based: a Cuban Overture by George Gershwin, a Spanish dance by Maurice Ravel, and the Symphonic Suite from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story making up the programme.

The month’s earlier session was somewhat more traditional, although Brahms’ 3rd Symphony was not regarded by the composer as such, casting it as ‘contemporary’. Seen by some as ‘modernist’ and ‘romantic’, the symphony does break away from common convention ever so slightly - its successive movements, for example, each end quietly. Dvorak’s Carnival Overture, a Chopin Polonaise, and a piano concerto by Felix Mendelssohn scintillatingly played by Stephen Hough, served, however, to keep the programme in ‘traditional’ mode. Session notes and recordings played may be accessed by clicking on the relative links below.

Bill Squire.
​
 
13th June

Session Notes
Dvorak - Carnival Overture
Brahms - Symphony No.3
Chopin - Polonaise Opus 44
Mendelssohn - Piano Concerto No.1

27th June

Session Notes
Gershwin - Cuban Overture
Korngold - Violin Concerto
Ravel - Alborada del Gracioso
Bernstein - Symphonic  Dances from West Side Story

Albert Einstein once said: “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new”. Robert Schumann made a grave mistake in experimenting with a device to strengthen his fingers for his planned future as a concert pianist. It so damaged his fingers that it ruined any chance of his becoming a pianist. This led to his turning to a career in musical composition. The outcome of this decision to try something new was his being acclaimed one of the most important composers of the nineteenth century. Schumann succeeded in a magnificent manner by composing what is acclaimed “probably the most beautiful of Romantic concertos. This flawless masterpiece is one of the most outstanding and romantically inspired concertos in the repertoire”.

Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg thought Brahm’s 1st Piano Quartet was something of a “mistake” because the piano tended to overwhelm the other instruments. 70-plus years after the event he decided to do something new with it by arranging it for Orchestra so that the other instruments could be heard. Schoenberg’s transcription has been variously described as a “masterpiece” and as “an over-rated travesty”.

Antonin Dvorak began his working life as a butcher. At the age of 13 he was inducted into the Butcher’s Guild of Zlonice. Thankfully for us, and audiences the world over, his musical talent shone through and he changed career path. in 1889 he was inducted into the Bohemian Academy of Science, Literature and Arts. His 8th symphony was composed in celebration of his election.

These compositions were the prime focus of our June sessions. More detail and description of other works plus links to the recordings played are available below.


​Bill Squire.

14th June
Session Notes
Glinka - Overture Ruslan and Ludmilla
Brahms -  Piano Quartet No. 1
Tchaikovsky -  The Seasons (Complete)
Telemann - Flute Concerto in D


28th June
Session Notes
Schumann - Manfred Overture
Dvorak - Symphony No.8
Schumann - Piano Concerto

Our following of the planned MSO concert schedule for July kicked off with a couple of pleasant surprises in Dvorak’s “legends” – 10 piano pieces for four hands and a Beethoven concert aria “Ah Perfido”! To balance out these little known works, a scintillating rendition of an old favourite in Brahms’ Violin Concerto, and maybe “the greatest graduation piece of all time”, in Shostakovich’s First Symphony, rounded out the first session for this month.

“An Anthem for our Time” and “A message of consolation and hope in times of tragedy” is how Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem” has been described. This was the feature work of the second of our programmes for this month. In a sense then, an appropriate work to listen to and think about as so much of our world is engulfed currently with tragedy and grief on a huge scale. In keeping with that sentiment, Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” bookends our programme – a memorial to a departed friend. In between there was Elgar’s lengthy Violin Concerto - a work steeped in mystery – and a little-known (or not so often played) Beethoven Overture.

Here are the links to the programme notes, which include  the YouTube links to the music performances:
​
10th July  Beethoven 2020; Anton Dvorak: Johannes Brahms: Dmitri Shostakovich
24th July: Beethoven 2020; Johannes Brahms, Edward Elgar; Modest Mussorgsky

​Interested in joining in the Beethoven Celebrations!  Enjoy the video links from the Beethoven catalogue suggested in the notes.

​
Bill Squire
​27 July 2020
​

What’s in a Name?
Camille Saint-Saens and Anton Dvořák suffered a common complaint – their respective names:  Saint-Saens’ from mispronunciation, and Dvořák’s from misspelling. Other that they were music contemporaries in the late romantic period.

Saint-Saens was music’s Renaissance man, a former child prodigy whose genius extended beyond music to linguistics, literature and science. A restless creative spirit given to constant travelling - making trips to some 27 countries - it was in North Africa that he found his spiritual home — and his physical home too. There he documented many of his travels in musical works that he composed using themes collected along the way.
 
He was one of the most precocious musicians ever, beginning piano lessons with his aunt at two-and-a-half and composing his first work at three. At age seven he began studies in composition, and at the age of ten, gave a concert that included works by Beethoven and Mozart. Curiously, Saint-Saëns' music was regarded with some condescension in his homeland, while in England and the United States he was hailed as France's greatest living composer well into the twentieth century.

“A peasant in a frock-coat”, as one conductor called him, Dvořák was one of a new breed of nationalist composers who emerged during the 19th century, which included Grieg (Norway), Tchaikovsky (Russia), Liszt (Hungary), Chopin (Poland) and Sibelius (Finland). “I am just a plain Czech musician,” he reflected towards the end of his life. I remain what always was: a simple Czech musician”. Although he travelled widely his heart was always in his homeland. Hence, much of the music he composed reflected his native Czechoslovakia. He spent his final years as one of the most sought-after composers in Europe. Brahms even went as far as to offer him his entire personal fortune in an attempt to get him to settle in Vienna.

These are the two composers whose lives and music we studied in October. You can read more about them in the notes linked below and listen to their music by following the YouTube links highlighted in the notes.  Some examples follow!
​
Bill Squire

Class Notes:  11th October  - Camille Saint-Saens 1835 - 1921
A sample from the video links in the notes:  

Class Notes:  25th October -  Antonin Dvorak - 1841 - 1904
Enjoy Dvorak's Serenade for Strings - just one of many YouTube links to his music included in the class notes: