April 2012 - Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Program Notes
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
(1770-1827)
Symphony No.8 in F, Op.93
Allegro vivace con brio
Allegretto scherzando
Tempo di minuetto
Allegro vivace
The Eighth must surely be a young man’s
symphony, bursting on us as it does with
the boundless energy of a frisky colt. Yet
Beethoven was in his forties by the time he
composed it in 1811 and 1812. The time
he was most busily working on it, following
the completion of Symphony No.7 in mid-
1812, is widely thought to have been the
occasion when he penned the rapt letter to
his unnamed ‘Immortal Beloved’.
Since the two symphonies were composed
virtually in tandem, and derived from the
same collection of sketches, it is hardly
surprising that they have characteristics in
common. But while the Seventh is relatively
relaxed and expansive, the Eighth is taut and
highly compressed. Wasting no time with
any sort of introduction, Beethoven launches
straight into the main theme, self-confident
and self-sufficient.
As in the Seventh Symphony, Beethoven
does without a true slow movement, but
here he adds a qualification to the Allegretto
marking: scherzando. This neat, deceptively
straightforward little movement can thus
be invested with the light-heartedness of
a scherzo, allowing the third movement to
be an ‘old-fashioned’ minuet rather than the
fierce Beethovenian scherzo which listeners
had come to expect.
A scurrying theme begins the finale, only to
be crudely dismissed by a loud and irrelevant
chord of C sharp. This immediately unleashes
the whirlwind. In a remarkable movement, by
dint of omitting formal repeats, Beethoven
manages (in Robert Simpson’s analysis) to
produce two complete developments and
two complete recapitulations, together with
a coda.
Beethoven conducted the first performance
of the Eighth Symphony before a packed
house in the Grand Redoutensaal in Vienna
on 27 February 1814. There are signs
among Beethoven’s sketches that he was
contemplating a symphony in D minor as
a companion to the pair of 1812, but as
the Napoleonic Wars neared their end, the
composer was entering a period during which
work would be difficult for him, and that
project was not to be realised for more than
a decade.
Abridged from an annotation by Anthony Cane
© 1998/2011
WOLFGANG AMADEUS
MOZART (1756-1791)
Oboe Concerto in C, K.314
Allegro aperto
Adagio non troppo
Rondo (Allegretto)
Alexei Ogrintchouk, Oboe
This concerto is more often heard, these
days, played on the oboe, however for years
it was known only as the Flute Concerto
in D. Scholars were aware that Mozart, in
1777, had composed a concerto for the
oboist Ferlendis, who had recently joined the
Salzburg Court Orchestra, but the work was
thought to be lost.
In 1920 Bernhard Paumgartner discovered
in the Salzburg Mozarteum library a set of
orchestral parts for a concerto in C major
for oboe by Mozart, which was obviously an
oboe version of his D major flute concerto.
The familiar flute version had been prepared
in 1778 to fulfil a commission for two flute
concertos. Most probably Mozart had
composed one (K.313) then, pressed for
time, adapted the oboe concerto.
The C major concerto is now central to the
oboe repertoire. A deft and refined essay in
the classical style, there are many ingenious
and witty touches, such as the mock-serious
cadence figure with repeated notes and a
descending arpeggio which the soloist later
extends. Donald Tovey finds opera buffa
malice from the second violins, and tuttis
crowded with contrapuntal and operatic life
– typical Mozartian concerto writing, but
never drawing attention to its skill.
The second movement is mainly a lyrical
cantilena for the soloist. A character in a
later opera by Mozart gives the feeling of
the Rondo: Blonde, the pert servant girl in
The Abduction from the Seraglio, in whose
aria Welche Wonne, welche Lust (Oh what
pleasure, oh what joy!) Mozart returned to
a variant of this rondo theme. In the second
episode of the Rondo, first and second violins
chase one another in a passage in threepart
canonic counterpoint, worthy of the
ingenuity of an improvising organist, and
underpinned by a pedal note on the horns.
Entertainment and the opportunity for
virtuoso display is the keynote here.
Abridged from an annotation by David Garrett
© 2002
10 2012 | QSO APRIL PROGRAM 2012 | QSO APRIL PROGRAM 11