Theatre
-
Tanglewood
Concert Hall
EIGHT CONCERTS OF CHAMBER MUSIC
Wednesday Evenings at 8:00
July
18
Music from Marlboro
MARLBORO ORCHESTRA
Directed by
ALEXANDER SCHNEIDER
RUDOLF SERKIN,
Pianist
M
BOSTON
SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
CHARLES
MUNCH
CMusic Director
BERKSHIRE FESTIVAL
1962
THIRD CONCERT OF THE CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES
Music from Marlboro
Marlboro Orchestra
Directed by
ALEXANDER SCHNEIDER
PROGRAM
VIVALDI
Largo
Concerto in
C
major, "Per la solennita di
S.
Lorenzo"
— Allegro molto — Largo e cantabile — Allegro
MICHAEL TREE and SHMUEL ASHKENASI,
DAVID SOYER, 'Cello
VIVALDI
Concerto in
Allegro non molto
for
Two
Violins,
and
Symphony
and
in
SHMUEL ASHKENASI,
F minor, No.
49,
Strings,
with Figured Bass
— Adagio — Allegro molto
MICHAEL TREE
HAYDN
D minor,
Violins
Violins
"La Passione"
Adagio
Allegro di molto
Menuetto
Finale: Presto
INTERMISSION
VIVALDI
Sinfonia in
Adagio molto
VIVALDI
minor, for Strings ("Al Santo Sepulchro")
— Allegro ma poco
Concerto in E minor, for Strings and Figured Bass
Allegro moderato
VIVALDI
B
— Andante — Allegro
Concerto in E major, for Violin and Strings ("II Riposo")
Allegro molto moderato
— Adagio — Allegro
ALEXANDER SCHNEIDER,
MOZART
Piano Concerto in
Violin
A major, K. 414
Allegro
Andante
Allegretto
RUDOLF SERKIN, Piano
Steinway Piano
Columbia Records
FIVE CONCERTOS
By Antonio Vivaldi (circa 1669-1741)
The music of Antonio Vivaldi was never so widely cultivated, so enjoyed and honored as it is today. The "Red Priest" as he was called (He
was an ordained priest and seems to have inherited red hair from his father)
was respected in Venice, where he was born and spent most of his life. His
fame extended further and his concertos, as we know, became a pattern for
Bach. But he was not long remembered. He was buried in a pauper's grave in
Vienna, as was also Mozart in that city.
The enormous bulk of his compositions, probably over five-hundred, including many operas, was largely unregarded until recent years. The greater
part of his manuscripts lay in stacks of crumbling paper, untouched for two
centuries, or until most of it was acquired from private collections by the
National Library of Turin. From this treasure items have been extracted and
made performable by such knights in the cause of Vivaldi as Molinari,
Casella, Fasano. Young enthusiasts have established an Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi for their publication, with the cooperation of Malipiero and
the Ricordi Company.
The true extent of Vivaldi's genius is only now beginning to be recognized. Marc Pincherle, his principal biographer, has written: "A man who
initiated Bach, who popularized, one might almost say invented
not only
a new form in L'Estro Armonico, one of his very first masterpieces, but an
entirely new instrumental style
a precursor of the symphony, a dramatic
composer of greater importance than is usually accorded him Vivaldi, even
when he was profoundly neglected, has exercised a powerful influence on
the destinies of music. But we must be grateful even more directly because
—
—
—
he created poetry."
— i—
•
i
SYMPHONY IN F MINOR, NO. 49, "LA PASSIONE"
By Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Although this Symphony, like three others* in the minor tonality, antedated Klinger's Sturm und Drang and Goethe's Wertberleiden by a few
years, having been written in 1768, the four have been attributed to the
"storm and stress" impulse then rising among German youth. Haydn was
then thirty-six. (Mozart was seventeen when in 1773, apparently influenced
Haydn, he composed his Symphony, K. 183, the
minor.) t(La Passione" is pervaded by F
of his two symphonies in
minor, with only the momentary relief of F major in the Trio of the Minuet.
H. C. Robbins Landon calls it "The climax of these efforts to give greater
depth of feeling to his symphonies" at this time. "This work displays, particularly in the second movement, a feverish fierceness of expression that
few musical or poetical works of the eighteenth century surpassed." The
title was added by a publisher in later years.
by
this pathetic strain in
G
first
PIANO CONCERTO IN A MAJOR, NO.
By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
K. 414
(1756-1791)
12,
This concerto was one of three (K. 413, 414, 415) which Mozart composed in Vienna between the autumn of 1782 and the new year in preparation
for concerts in Lent. The composer wrote to his father on December 28 while
*No. 34
No. 44
in
in
D
minor and major,
c.
1765;
a succession of
slow movements on
No. 26
in
D
minor {"Sinfonia Lamentatione" )
1768. The Choral "Seven Last Words," in
the Passion of Christ, was not composed until 1785.
E minor ("Trauersympbonie")
D
1768;
minor,
he was at work upon the three: "These concertos are at a happy half-way
point between what is too easy and what is too difficult; they are very brilliant, pleasing to the ear and natural, without being empty. Here and there
the connoisseurs alone will find satisfaction; but at the same time the less
learned (J'Unkenner") cannot fail to be pleased, though without knowing
why."
Apparently Mozart already knew his Viennese public well, for the concertos were enthusiastically received. This Concerto in A major had much
to please both kinds of hearers on account of the attractiveness of its themes,
the individual handling of its solo part, and the importance of the orchestra
which not only supports but can take over, inter-change, and swell to a
climax. In a word, Mozart is very much his lively self.
The first theme of the orchestral exposition wins us and the second,
announced softly (one should always watch for those gentle second themes),
is entrancing. The two become the principal, but not the only, subjects of
the development. The harmonized theme of the Andante as stated by the
piano might have been composed by the early Beethoven (indeed Mozart's
piano concertos often point to Beethoven's indebtedness). Its extended
pianissimo cadence is magic, and is to be developed later by the soloist
through a movement which holds the hearer enthralled. The subject of the
final rondo, Allegretto, is one of those sparkling, playful tunes of the kind
to be found in the piano sonatas, and this is one of the best of them. Mozart
never wrote in a more consistently cheerful A major.
Tanglewood
honored in having
neighbor in Marlboro, Vermont,
a school of high distinction devoted to the advanced study of chamber music.
The Marlboro Music School and Festival, whose artistic director is Rudolf
Serkin, is now holding its twelfth session. Through seven weeks (June 28August 20) there are "informal concerts by fellow participants" and weekend Festival Concerts. There are special programs of Bach Cantatas and
others with emphasis upon the works of Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and
Dvorak. Pablo Casals has been conducting master classes through the first
two weeks. Alexander Schneider is one of an impressive list of practicing
is
as a
artists.
school began in 1950 when the facilities of Marlboro College were
offered to the late Adolf Busch, his brother Herman, Rudolf Serkin, Marcel
Moyse, and his son and daughter-in-law Louis and Blanche Moyse to start a
The
summer music program.
J.N.B.
CONCERTS TO FOLLOW:
Boston Arts Quartet
July 25
August
1
August 8
New York Chamber Soloists
Beaux Arts Trio of New York
The
The Nova Arte Trio
August 15
Gary Graffman, Piano,
and Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Flute)
(Assisted by
August 22
The Kroll Quartet