2011 Anniversary Brochure - Paxos Festival Trust

Concert 1 Thursday 8 September at 8.30 Loggos Schoolhouse
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91): Serenade No. 13 in G Major, K.525, Eine Kleine
Nachtmusik
Allegro Romanze: Andante Menuetto: Allegretto Rondo: Allegro
It is not known why Mozart wrote this serenade, which has become one of his most popular
works. There are no records of it having been commissioned, and it was not published
until long after the composer’s death. He wrote ‘Eine kleine Nacht-Musik’ (‘a little serenade’,
or, literally, ‘a little night music’) next to its entry in his personal catalogue, which is
the source of the piece’s unofficial title, though Mozart probably intended it only as a
general description. According to the catalogue, its composition was completed on 10
August 1787.
The original scoring was for string quintet, as performed here, with an optional double
bass, but it is also commonly performed in arrangements for string orchestra.
A number of musicologists regard this serenade as the most popular Mozart piece
of all time. If so, it is not hard to see why. Its beauty is immediate and striking, from the first
famous theme—a classic example of the ‘Mannheim Rocket’ technique (setting soaring
arpeggios to a dramatic crescendo)—through to the thrilling final Rondo. Naturally there
are hidden depths also, as well as a degree of structural perfection that seems to mark
the piece out as more than a mere jeu d’esprit.
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924): Le Bonne Chanson
Une Sainte en son auréole Puisque l'aube grandit La lune blanche luit dans les bois
J'allais par des chemins perfides J'ai presque peur, en vérité Avant que tu ne t'en ailles
Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été N'est-ce pas? L'hiver a cessé
Fauré composed this song cycle between 1892 and ’94, and in ’98 produced this version
for voice, piano, and string quintet. The poems are taken from a set by Paul Verlaine (1844-
96), which celebrate his engagement to Mathilde Mauté. Graham Johnson and Richard
Stokes suggest that the ‘unremitting happiness’ of these poems ‘represents a retreat into
fantasy visions of an ideal married life where [Verlaine] is safe from his homosexuality.’ As
for Fauré, he was in love when he wrote these songs, with their dedicatee, the soprano
Emma Bardac. Bardac, however, was married to somebody else at the time, and would
eventually remarry not to Fauré but to Claude Debussy.
The incredibly rich, constantly changing harmonies of this piece were too much for
some more conservative listeners, including Fauré’s teacher, Camille Saint-Saëns, who remarked
that the composer had lost his mind. But they delighted many others, including
the author Marcel Proust. The piece also contains quotations from many of Fauré’s earlier
works, most notably the song Lydia (1870), which Fauré hinted that he may also have
come to associate with Emma Bardac.
Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759): ‘Ombra mai fu’ from Xerxes
‘Ombra mai fu’ is the opening aria to Handel’s opera Serse (Xerxes). The opera was commissioned
in 1737 and first performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket on 15 April 1738.
The libretto was adapted from one written by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera by
Giovanni Bononcini. It tells the story of a Persian king, very loosely based on Xerxes I, who,
looking up one day from the contemplation of his favourite plane tree, sees Romilda, the
daughter of his vassal, and falls in love with her. Romilda, however, is in love with Xerxes’
brother, and Xerxes himself is already married to somebody else. Thus the usual operatic
complications follow, happily ending in a peaceful resolution.
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This aria occurs before all these complications begin, when Xerxes is lost in a love of a more contemplative
and less troublesome kind, wishing Fate to always smile upon his beloved tree and remarking
on its superiority to all other trees. The tune is very popular and is often performed in an
orchestral version that has come to be known as ‘Handel’s Largo’ (although the tempo marking of
the aria is ‘larghetto’).
Mozart: ‘Fuor del Mar’ from Idomeneo
This aria is from Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante (Idomeneo, King of
Crete, or Ilia and Idamante). The opera was commissioned in 1780 and first performed at the Cuvilliés
Theatre of the Munich Residenz on 29 January 1781. The opera is set just after the end of the Trojan
War. Idomeneo is washed up on the shore of Crete after managing to survive a shipwreck and
promises to reward Neptune by sacrificing the first living creature he sees. Tragically, this turns out to
be his own son, Idamante. Idamante is also in love with Ilia, the captured daughter of the Trojan
king Priam, and their proposed marriage promises to ensure the peace between Crete and Troy.
Idomeneo is counselled to send Idamante into exile rather than to sacrifice him. But when he learns
of Ilia and her love for Idamante, he is doubly tormented about his decision, and sings this aria,
wondering whether he has been saved from one treacherous sea only to be plunged into another.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Piano Quintet in A Major ‘The Trout’, D.667
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante
III. Scherzo: Presto
IV. Andantino – Allegretto
V. Allegro giustio
Schubert composed this work at the age of 22, in 1818. It has at least as good a claim to be Schubert’s
most popular piece as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik has to being Mozart’s. It receives its name
from the fourth movement, which presents a series of variations on Schubert’s song, Die Forelle (The
Trout). These endlessly inventive variations work by adding ever new ornaments and counterparts
to the melody, rather than, as was more common in Romantic composition, by creating permutations
of the thematic material.
The song describes an angler, unable to catch a clever trout who continually evades his
hook in a clear stream, who resorts to the villainous subterfuge of muddying the waters, much to
the narrator’s indignation. It ends by drawing a moral for young maidens, that they are more often
caught by deception than by skill. Though the whole piece, besides the fourth movement, does
not seem to be musically based on the song in any direct way, perhaps the images of the clear
brook, the dancing trout, and the crafty angler are evoked at various places. Schubert wrote the
piece while on holiday in Steyr, an arts colony in the Alps to which he had been taken by the famous
baritone Johann Vogl. Many have commented that the piece appears to reflect Schubert’s
holiday mood and his enjoyment of the countryside, which, having lived his whole life in the city, he
was probably experiencing for the first time.
The quintet is scored not for the usual string quartet and piano; instead of a second violin
part there is a part for double bass. A linking motive through all the movements except the Scherzo
is the rising sextuplet figure in the piano, also present in the accompaniment part to Die Forelle as
the representation of the bubbling brook. While not as structurally unified as other of Schubert’s
chamber works, the piece has an unmistakable emotional coherence.
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