Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra—February 5, 2019—CAMA's International Series at The Granada Theatre—Centennial Season

Unlike the holy trinity of Classicism—
Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—both Schubert
and Clement were actual native Viennese.
There was personal contact between Haydn
and Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, and
Beethoven and Clement, but more important
was the cross-pollination of musical influences
taking place in Vienna’s schools, concert
halls, and salons. Though the presence of
Beethoven looms large over Schubert’s
music, there is only circumstantial evidence to
suggest that they ever met. Young Schubert
played early Beethoven symphonies in his
school orchestra, and was keenly aware of
Beethoven’s towering presence. “I really hope
to be able to make something of myself, but
who can do anything now after Beethoven?”
he complained.
Lorenzo da Ponte (the other two were Don
Giovanni and Così fan tutte) the Figaro overture
is the only one that does not explicitly preview
themes to be heard in the opera. Rather it
bubbles up hesitantly before rushing headlong
into activity that doesn’t stop until the final
cadence. Cascading scales, vigorous repeated
notes, mounting crescendos, occasional
fanfares, and sharp accents ramp up energy
which is unrelieved by any conventionally
lyrical “second theme.” Since he left the
overture until last, Mozart certainly had the
themes of the opera in his head and could
easily—even more easily—employed them.
But since the opera itself opens in medias res,
with the amorous advances of a philandering
Count having already been rebuffed at least
once by his wife’s wily maid, perhaps we
should think of this overture as a depiction of
the frenetic activities of the characters taking
place before the curtain rises.
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Beethoven's violin concerto was therefore
not composed at the behest of one of his noble
supporters (of which he had many), but instead
was designed to showcase the talents of its
performer. Beethoven left room for cadenzas
in the two outer movements, plus he calls for
a cadenza to connect the second and third
movements. Clement was given a free hand
for these cadenzas, receiving no instruction
from Beethoven. The composer never wrote
(and therefore never published) his own violin
cadenzas for the piece, and Clement's cadenzas
have not survived. (Note: All cadenzas you will
hear at these performances were written by
Alana Youssefian herself.) Still, the influence of
the popular performer can be felt strongly in
the other solo sections—his admirers primarily
praised his expressive and elegant sound,
which Beethoven exploited at various points in
the piece. Yet Clement was not above certain
lead to weariness." However, the sense of organic
unity created in his compositions would
soon be prized by romantics. The timpani introduces
the most distinctive motive of the
concerto's opening Allegro movement. It consists
of five repeated quarter notes followed
by rests, or silence. According to Andreas
Moser, a late nineteenth-century violinist and
historian, this motive has intriguing origins:
MOZART:
Overture to The Marriage
of Figaro
Receiving their parts only two days before the
opening of Le Nozze di Figaro at Vienna’s court
theater on May 1, 1786, Mozart’s orchestra
must have been dumbstruck by the nonstop
profusion of sixteenth notes that blackened
their pages. The first of the “big three” operas
composed in collaboration with librettist
BEETHOVEN:
Concerto for Violin in D Major,
Op.61
Beethoven composed his only complete
violin concerto for Franz Clement, a
renowned performer who also conducted
the orchestra at the Theater an der Wien in
Vienna. Beethoven completed the work in
only a few weeks, and many contemporaries
reported that Clement had to play it virtually
at sight, although some evidence suggests
that he may have advised Beethoven as
the concerto took shape. The premiere
took place on December 23, 1806, at a
benefit concert for Clement himself—such
public concerts, given by self-supporting
musicians, were common throughout Europe
stage antics: at the concerto's premiere he
even played a short piece of his own in between
the first and second movements, while holding
his violin upside down, perhaps for some comic
relief.
Beethoven wrote the concerto following
the composition of his groundbreaking Eroica
Symphony (1803), and while he was working
on both the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. It
shares a number of features with these symphonic
works. The opening movement—like
that of the Eroica—is quite expansive, and
Beethoven creates a sense of unity by working
out a short rhythmic motive, a technique for
which he became famous—but one which did
not win the immediate favor of audiences. One
review even noted that "the endless repetitions
of a few commonplace passages could easily
[It] is said to have occurred to Beethoven
during the stillness of a sleepless night, on
hearing someone knocking at the door of a
neighboring house. The knocking consisted
always of five regular blows in succession, repeated
after a pause; and Beethoven, overjoyed
at being able to distinguish the sound so
clearly, for at this time his hearing was beginning
to be seriously impaired, used it as the
opening theme for the violin concerto.
Though it bears some similarities to the
famous opening motive of the Fifth Symphony,
which Beethoven reportedly described as
"fate knocking at the door," the opening motive
of the violin concerto is less ominous. Distinctive
and easily recognizable to the listener,
its various manipulations call attention to
Beethoven's compositional skills. It maintains
12 CENTENNIAL SEASON CELEBRATION CAMA AT THE GRANADA THEATRE - PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA 13