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mahoningvalley.info
September 29th, 2008
The Warren Philharmonic Concert of September 29, 2008
By Jerome K. Stephens
“Philharmonic honors veterans.” So read the headline in the Warren Tribune Chronicle of Monday, September 29, 2008. The focus of the article was on the color guard and with quotes from some of the veterans. Only passing mention was made of the selections that Maestra Susan Davenny Wyner and the Warren Philharmonic played Sunday, September 28, at the Packard Auditorium. These were, in addition to the Light Cavalry Overture of Franz von Suppé, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and the Armed Forces Salute arraigned by Robert Lowden, the Symphony No. 8, (Unfinished), by Franz Schubert, and Samuel Barber’s Adagio for String Orchestra.
The program was well organized, and the musical selections very appropriate. After the posting of the colors by the American Legion Color Guard, and the playing of the National Anthem, the main program opened with the sprightly overture to von Suppé’s operetta, Light Cavalry.
Franz von Suppé was a composer of light operas who once considered studying medicine. He also had an early reputation as a serious composer, and did compose some grand operas. Examples of these include Paragraf drei (1858). Other compositions were a Requiem (1853), 3 masses, and secular choral works. Other accomplishments include successful appearances as a singer.
He composed many light operas during his career, including parodies on Wagner and Meyerbeer. The comic operetta, Light Cavalry (Leichte Kavallerie), was first performed on March 21, 1866. It is an operetta in three acts by Franz von Suppé, with a libretto by Hans Bodenstedt. It was first performed in Carlstheater, Vienna, in March, 1866. While much of the operetta lies in relative obscurity, the overture is one of von Suppé's most well-known pieces. Many orchestral groups have the piece in their repertoire (including the Boston Pops Orchestra, which made a popular recording of it), and the main theme of the overture has been quoted numerous times by musicians, cartoons and other media. The overture to that stage work remains the most popular of von Suppé’s compositions heard today. Like the majority of operetta overtures, it was probably arranged from selections from main body of the operetta. The term, “Light Cavalry” actually refers to a ballet company maintained by one of the principle characters in the operetta. Despite the musical quality of the overture, which was given its just due by the Warren Philharmonic (no surprise under a director of Maestra Wyner’s quality) the plot of the operetta is too sappy for today unless it is extensively reworked.
Franz von Suppé was one of several composers whose main work was for the light opera stage. One of the best known was Jacques Offenbach, some of whose works hold the stage today. For those who are interested in seeing these in live performance, I would suggest looking into the Ohio Light Opera. They perform these every summer at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. It is well worth the trip to Wooster.
The Warren Philharmonic followed the Light Cavalry Overture with Robert Lowden’s arrangement of the official songs/marches of the U. S. armed forces. This is a frequently played staple of July 4th and other patriotic concerts, and honors the Army, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Navy. There are connecting passages between each song. It is common practice to have those in the audience who have served in the various branches to stand when their own song is being played. The Packard Band in Warren, Ohio, has added the U. S. Merchant Marine’s song, “Heave Ho.”
Robert Lowden was trained at Temple University as a musical educator, and served with a U.S. Army band during World War Two. He then became an arranger (alongside Gerry Mulligan) for Claude Thornhill's big band. He was then hired by Somerset label’s owner and impresario, D.L. Miller, to write for the label's hot new group, 101 Strings, which was beginning to churn out a steady outpouring of records. Lowden occasionally was able to venture into more adventurous territory. He arranged and conducted one excellent percussion showcase album, Motion in Percussion, which includes a wide range of stereo sound effects and a respectable sample of space age pop standards such as "Caravan". The performance was very much appreciated, especially by the veterans in the audience.
Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B Minor (Unfinished) completed the first part of the afternoon’s musical offerings. This was composed during a period when Schubert was apparently attempting to find a new musical voice – one that would break decisively with the continuation of the Haydn/Mozart, plus, to a lesser extent Beethoven, traditions that influenced his first 6 symphonies (though Haydn was himself showing signs of breaking with the past in his final symphonies and masses). There were many false starts that showed his struggles during this period of 1818 to 1822.
The two movements of the symphony that were completed were written in 1822. The question of why the symphony was "unfinished" has been debated endlessly and is still unresolved. Schubert made the existence of those two movements known in 1823 when he gave them to Anselm Hüttenbrenner, a representative of the Graz Music Society, which had given Schubert an honorary diploma. The movements were not performed until December 17, 1865, when Johann Herbeck conducted the work in Vienna. He had persuaded Hüttenbrenner to show him the score, and he added the last movement of Schubert's Third Symphony as the finale (the contrast must have been great).
It was with this Symphony No. 8 that Schubert began to find his new voice. It was in the key of B minor, one that was not ordinarily used for orchestral works at that time. He completed and orchestrated the first two movements, and sketched out a third scherzo movement, and then dropped the project. I myself wonder if, because of the nature of those two movements, Schubert found himself faced with a “what do I do for an encore” dilemma.
He finally found his new symphonic voice in the Symphony No. 9 in C Major (The Great) in 1825. It would be very interesting for the Warren Philharmonic to tackle that magnificent work.
The performance by Maestra Wyner and the Warren Philharmonic was, as usual, very well done. The sonorities and tempos conveyed the spirit of the work as perfectly as is possible. The sonorities on which a good performance of the composition depends were very evident. No surprise.
Barber's "Adagio for Strings" originated as the second movement in his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11, composed in 1936. In the original composition it follows a violently contrasting first movement
In January 1938 Barber sent the orchestral transcription to Arturo Toscanini. He returned the score without comment. Barber was annoyed, and avoided the conductor. Toscanini subsequently sent word through a friend that he was planning to perform the piece, and had returned it simply because he had already memorized it. It was reported that Toscanini did not look at the music again until the day before the premiere. The work was given its first performance in a radio broadcast by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra on November 5, 1938 in New York. I don’t doubt the basics of this account, but it does not explain how the orchestra members got their parts in time for the rehearsal. It was reported that at the end of the first rehearsal of the piece, Toscanini remarked: "Semplice e bella" ("simple and beautiful").
The composer also transcribed the piece in 1967 for eight-part choir, as a setting of the Agnus Dei ("Lamb of God"). That has since become renowned as a masterwork of the modern choral repertory.
The Barber Adagio has to be one of the more difficult works to perform, mostly because of its quiet lyricism. Sustaining interest at that tempo would be hard for many orchestras, even major ones. That task was well within the capabilities ob Maestra Wyner and the Warren Philharmonic.
The concert concluded with what, despite its origin, has become a staple of patriotic concerts, the 1812 overture of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Or to give the full title, Festival Overture "The Year 1812" in E♭ major, Op. 49. The Warren Philharmonic performed only the music, without the extras that were intended to be part of the original performance. That music, in itself, is not at all what one would consider to be “bombastic,” but since it has had the misfortune of being played at fireworks displays, it appears to be just that. Or maybe we should say, “boombastic.”
It was written to commemorate Russia's 1812 defense against Napoleon's advancing Grande Armée at the Battle of Borodino, during the French invasion of Russia. (This battle is also commemorated in Prokofkiev’s opera, War and Peace.”) The Overture debuted in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow in August, 1882. The overture is best known for its climactic volley of cannon fire and ringing chimes.
In 1880 the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, commissioned by Tsar Alexander II to commemorate the French defeat in 1912, was nearing completion in Moscow. Also, the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Alexander II would be in 1881; and the 1882 Moscow Arts and Industry Exhibition was in the planning stage. Tchaikovsky's friend and mentor Nikolay Rubinstein suggested that a grand commemorative piece be written for use in the related festivities. The work was commissioned by what we would call today the Red Cross. Tchaikovsky began work on the project on October 12, 1880, finishing it six weeks later.
The piece was planned to be performed in the square before the cathedral, with a brass band reinforcing the orchestra. The bells of the cathedral, and all the others in downtown Moscow, were to play "zvons" (pealing bells) on cue, with live cannon-fire as an accompaniment. The cannon were to be fired from an electric switch panel so that the precision demanded by the musical score would be achieved. This performance did not actually take place. The plan may have been too ambitious.
In 1882, at the Arts and Industry Exhibition, the Overture was performed indoors with conventional orchestration. The cathedral was completed in 1883.
Even without the cannon-fire, the music can hold its own under any competent conductor and orchestra, and here in Warren, we have a combination that far exceeds the merely competent. Those attending the Civic Music series should also include the Warren Philharmonic in their schedule. By not doing so, they are depriving themselves of a great experience. I attend and enjoy both.