STRAUSS AND BEETHOVEN
Notes on the composers and the pieces
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 4
Richard Strauss
Eine Alpensinfonie
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was born in Bonn, the capital of the German Electorate of Cologne, on December 16 or 17. His family was a troubled one. His mother died a horrible death from tuberculosis. His father, an alcoholic singer who often roamed the streets of Bonn, was Ludwig’s first teacher and a tyrannical one who often beat his son as part of his teaching. Brother Kaspar Anton Karl served as Ludwig’s manager for a while, but his work was more burdensome than helpful.
Around age ten Beethoven withdrew from school to study music with organist and composer Christian Gottlob Neefe who freed him from his father’s tyranny, introduced him to Bach’s music, and influenced his humanistic political leanings. At fourteen, he worked as a court organist. Two years later he traveled to Vienna to study with Mozart, but soon after his arrival he returned to Bonn to take care of his dying mother. Her death left him with two siblings to care for while managing his career and trying to catch the attention of nobles who might support him. It was no secret to Beethoven that Mozart and Haydn were Vienna’s musical gods, and he was determined to join their pantheon. His first great work was Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II (1790), but it was not performed and was considered lost until Johannes Brahms rediscovered it in the 1880s. In 1792, Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein (the dedicatee of Piano Sonata No. 21) helped pave the way for Beethoven’s second visit to Vienna. Mozart had died by then, but Beethoven was able to study with Albrechtsberger, Salieri, and Haydn. In 1795, he made his Vienna debut as a pianist performing his Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major and produced his first published work, the Opus 1 Piano Trios.
Meanwhile, nobles such as Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz and Prince Karl Alois Johann-Nepomuk Vinzenz Leonhard aka Prince Lichnowsky helped Beethoven with financial support. He did not care for teaching, but he took on students from noble families. Still, his finances were shaky, and by 1808 indebtedness led him to consider leaving Vienna for a court position in Westphalia. Upon learning of Beethoven’s predicament, Rudolph Johann Joseph Rainier—the Archduke of Austria, son of Emperor Leopold II and Maria Louisa of Spain, and Beethoven’s only composition student—persuaded Lobkowitz and Count Franz Joseph Kinsky to pay Beethoven a salary so he could remain in Vienna. After Count Kinsky died and Lobkowitz went bankrupt, the archduke closed the financial gap and became Beethoven’s most frequent dedicatee (piano sonatas Les Adieux and Hammerklavier, Violin Sonata No. 10, the Archduke Piano Trio, and others). Much later, the composer wrote Missa Solemnis for Rudolph’s installation as Archbishop of Olmütz (Olomouc) but did not finish it in time for the occasion.
Beethoven’s medical problems have been pored over by scholars, though two centuries later it is difficult to be sure what some of his ailments were. One for certain was hearing loss that set in around 1796 and drove him to despair. In 1802, in what became known as his Heiligenstadt Testament, named after the Austrian village where he wrote it, he informed his brothers of his deafness, thoughts of suicide, and his determination to achieve his artistic destiny despite it all. He dealt with his deteriorating hearing by having visitors use notebooks, many of which have survived. By 1814 he was deaf or nearly deaf, yet he wrote some of his greatest works between that year and his death in 1827, including the last six piano sonatas, Missa Solemnis, the last three symphonies, and the last five string quartets.
Beethoven never married, partly because he was attracted to women who were married or above his station. His most famous relationship began in 1812 when he wrote a long love letter to a woman identified as “Immortal Beloved,” most likely Antonie Brentano, a prominent advocate of the arts and the dedicatee of Diabelli Variations. His life changed drastically in 1815 when his brother Kaspar died, leaving behind his nine-year-old son, Karl. Ludwig had never expressed much interest in his nephew, but his loathing for Kasper’s widow, Johanna, drove him to battle her in court for custody of her son. He succeeded, but the boy was so miserable living with his uncle that he shot himself in the head. After he recovered, he was taken to Johanna and gained his freedom.
Beethoven dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 (1805–1806) to Archduke Rudolph. Its first performance was played in 1807 at the home of Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz with the composer as soloist. The public premiere took place on December 22, 1808 at Vienna's Theater an der Wien, again with the composer as soloist.
Unlike most concertos of its time, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 does not begin with an orchestral opening but rather a striking statement from the piano alone: a G-major chord followed by a phrase that, like the opening to his Fifth Symphony, comes off an upbeat. Such a motif may seem awkward or out of place, but as in the Fifth Symphony, it serves as the device that propels the movement along, sometimes by itself as a rhythmic figure and other times as part of a melodic line. Thus, what seems like a brief, tentative, and rhythmic opening turns into a long melodic section for orchestra based on a deceptively simple rhythmic figure. The movement evolves in this fashion, until the piano returns to its earlier idea, and the two parties look back on earlier material exchanging ideas with the piano becoming more demonstrative. For most of the movement the orchestra tends to lyricism while the piano leans more decorative, sometimes florid, and often assertive. The cadenza near the end sums up the movement until both parties decide it is time to end the festivities.
The second movement begins with a brief, broadly taken march in the orchestra to which the piano quietly comments—alone for a while until the orchestra peeks in—and the two reach a quiet and final agreement.
The third movement begins with light almost perky march introduced by the orchestra. The two hold a brief conversation until a brief piano cadenza serves as a recapitulation of the movement. After a while, the orchestra quietly steps in, but the piano insists until the orchestra regathers itself and assertively restates the opening theme. Finally, the two parties nod at each other in agreement, discuss a few matters that have gone by, and proceed together to an assertive close.
—Roger Hecht
Roger Hecht plays trombone in the Mercury Orchestra. He is a former member of Bay Colony Brass (where he was also the Operations/Personnel Manager), the Syracuse Symphony, Lake George Opera, New Bedford Symphony, and Cape Ann Symphony, as well as trombonist and orchestra manager of Lowell House Opera, Commonwealth Opera, and MetroWest Opera. He is a regular reviewer for American Record Guide, contributed to Classical Music: Listener’s Companion, and has written articles on music for the Elgar Society Journal and Positive Feedback magazine. His fiction collection, The Audition and Other Stories, includes a novella about a trombonist preparing for and taking a major orchestra audition (English Hill Press, 2013).
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