Israel Philharmonic Orchestra & Lahav Shani @ George Enescu Festival 06.09.2023 (FULL CONCERT), 1st night, Bucharest Palace Hall
ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC
LAHAV SHANI conductor
GIL SHAHAM violin
0:26 Louise Farrenc: Overture No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 24
9:01 Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D major, H. 1/104
39:37 Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
1:21:52 (Gil Shaham encore) Fritz Kreisler: Three Old Viennese Dances: No. 3, Schön Rosmarin
SEPARATELY:
• Farrenc: Overture No. ...
• Haydn: Symphony No. 10...
• Brahms: Violin Concert...
Recorded from public broadcast. Enjoy!
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Until recently Farrenc has been practically unknown to symphonic audiences-especially in this country-but in her time she was held in high regard in the first half of the nineteenth century in France. Unlike so many women composers of the past, she suffered little obscurity during her lifetime. She evinced immense talent early on as a pianist, and after study with some of the most august teachers, began a career as performer and composer while in her teens. By the age of thirty-eight she was appointed a professor of piano at the prestigious Paris Conservatory, and had a long and distinguished career. All the while she was a busy composer, working in all major genres except opera. Her best works are considered her chamber music, and they enjoyed substantial recognition.
While she was primarily a pianist and professor of piano, the Overture No. 2 in Eb sounds like the work of a master of the orchestra-it rocks! A concert overture, meaning not associated with an opera, but a standalone work, it is nevertheless a reflection of the operatic scene in Paris during her lifetime. We must remember that opera was the far-preferred genre in that century in France, and the decades before and around the middle of the century were totally dominated by French Grand Opera. The most celebrated composers were Meyerbeer (from whom Wagner stole many of his ideas), Auber, Halévy, and Rossini (for his William Tell Overture). Every night the Paris Opera presented these large, long, spectacular operas, operas that the more violent, sordid, and colorfully and elaborately staged, the better. And, the vivid action on the stage was supported in the orchestra pit by virtuoso performers (usually professors from the Paris Conservatory) performing exciting scores. Scores that featured new instruments such as valved trumpets and horns, the bass clarinet, the English horn, and others-as well as an immoderate use of the piccolo. (William E. Runyan)
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The Symphony No. 104 in D major (H. 1/104) is Joseph Haydn's final symphony. It is the last of the twelve London symphonies, and is known (somewhat arbitrarily, given the existence of eleven others) as the London Symphony. In Germany it is commonly known as the Salomon Symphony after Johann Peter Salomon, who arranged Haydn's two tours of London, even though it is one of three of the last twelve symphonies written for Viotti's Opera Concerts, rather than for Salomon.
The work was composed in 1795 while Haydn was living in London, and premiered there at the King's Theatre on 4 May 1795, in a concert featuring exclusively Haydn's own compositions and directed by the composer. The premiere was a success; Haydn wrote in his diary "The whole company was thoroughly pleased and so was I. I made 4,000 gulden on this evening: such a thing is possible only in England."
The autograph manuscript of the symphony is preserved in the Berlin State Library. (Wikipedia)
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The Violin Concerto was first performed in Leipzig on New Year’s Day 1879 by Joachim, the dedicatee, who composed the cadenza that is still played by many violinists today. Never fond of waste, Brahms presents his first movement’s main theme as a bare unison at the very start of the work, based on a D-major triad. Eight measures later the oboe offers something nearer to a scale; eight measures further on the full orchestra dwells on leaping octaves. Gradually the thematic material finds its place, some presented by the orchestra, more provided by the soloist after he has flexed his muscles (46 measures of - yes - display). Eventually we reach a gloriously lyrical second subject, which seems to express the very soul of the violin. The finest moment is reserved for the coda, after the cadenza, when the soloist soars higher and higher in dreamy flight before a final resumption of the main tempo. - Hugh Macdonald (laphil.com)
28 фев 2024
