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

a constant presence throughout the long and
complex movement, building a sense of coherence
even as Beethoven experiments with
harmony and with the development of longer
melodic themes.
The second movement, Larghetto, is simple
and lyrical. Recent scholars have linked its
unorthodox structure to the romanze, a genre
that composers began to employ in slow concerto
movements in the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries. The romanze was
modeled after a poetic form, which gave it a
strong narrative quality. Beethoven's Larghetto
is more intimate in scale than the opening
movement, until its dramatic final bars, which
move very suddenly into the Rondo. To explain
the sudden shift in mood, listeners must
move beyond the symmetry and order that
dominated classical sensibilities, and consider
extra-musical associations, which therefore
allow the Larghetto to seem the most
romantic of the three concerto movements.
In contrast, the finale shifts back to Classical
models, using a standardized rondo form preferred
by Haydn (who had been Beethoven's
teacher) in his symphonies and Mozart in his
piano concertos. Its main melody is lighthearted,
with an almost folk-like quality. The
finale contains the most virtuoso passages for
the violinist, and it undoubtedly helped Clement
to win the audience over at the premiere
of Beethoven's challenging new work. n
— Kara Gardner
SCHUBERT:
Symphony No.6 in C Major
By the time this symphony—the first of
Schubert’s eight symphonies to be performed
in public by a professional orchestra—was
played on December 14, 1828, it was for his
memorial. He had died, aged 31, in the previous
month. He was caught between two “manias,”
one which lionized Beethoven, who had died
in Vienna the year before, and the other which
was mad for Gioachino Rossini, whose Italian
operas were creating a sensation in Vienna.
The diminutive and shy Schubert was known
primarily as a composer of songs (Lieder) with
piano accompaniment, mostly performed in
bourgeois salons in evening musicales known
as “Schubertiades.” Most of his symphonies
were not published until the critical edition of
his works in 1884-85.
The Sixth Symphony, sometimes known
as the “Little C Major” to distinguish it from
his final “Great C Major” symphony, was the
best and last in a series of early works in the
genre, and was written from October 1817 to
February 1818. It is Íand while Italian ebullience
pervades the piece, it is punctuated by the
occasional pathos of Beethoven.
The opening Adagio already juxtaposes
a grand gesture (Beethoven) with naive
simplicity (Rossini), complemented by
Schubert’s lifelong penchant of opposing
major and minor versions of the same phrase.
The following Allegretto opens with chortling
winds alternating with the strings in short,
repeated phrases. Schubert’s individuation of
the woodwind tone colors emancipates them
from their previous role to underscore the
harmonies of the strings. The critics noticed.
that the winds are all too richly provided
for; by comparison the string instruments,
in general, almost seem to play a
subordinate role.” This “rich provision” of
wind instruments, of course, is the one of
the characteristics that Schubert knew had
made Beethoven great.
The Andante is the most “Classical” of the
movements, with a symmetrically phrased
melody over a tick-tock accompaniment.
However, the emphatic midsection disturbs
the reverie like a Rossini thunderstorm,
accumulating energy through a mounting
crescendo. It is unsuccessful, however, in
putting a martial uniform on the persistent
tune.
The most “Beethovenian” movement by
far is the Scherzo, the term itself adopted by
Beethoven to replace Classical minuet, the
courtly dance of the ancien régime. The
breakneck repeated notes are punctuated
by jagged accents where we least expect
them, and, intended or not, there are also
distinct echoes of the distinctive rhythm
(. . . __) of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony,
composed ten years earlier. The middle
section (still called Trio, a leftover from the
minuet) starts with a rustic melody played
over the grinding drone of a hurdy-gurdy.
It gently morphs, however, into that latest
of dance crazes that kept the Congress of
Vienna partying until dawn: the waltz.
The final movement once again
begins with cheerful Classic propriety:
clearly delineated phrases decorated with
ornamental turns are tossed between the
winds and violins, ultimately becoming a
melodic component in themselves. The
startling entry of trumpets and timpani
in martial fanfares set off a speedy galop
and skittering of strings. The rest is as
mock-serious as the finale of a Rossini
comic opera (opera buffa), including the
brief interlude of cuckoos introducing the
recapitulation. Is it going too far to suggest
that Schubert was using this parade of toy
soldiers to mock the Napoleonic threat now
put to rest once and for all? n
One wrote, “One might criticize the fact
14 CENTENNIAL SEASON CELEBRATION CAMA AT THE GRANADA THEATRE - PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA 15