CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 8:00 PM

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta, Conductor
Lang Lang, Piano

WAGNER Rienzi Overture
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21
J. STRAUSS JR. Overture to Die Fledermaus
J. STRAUSS JR. "Wo die Citronen blüh'n!," Op. 364
J. STRAUSS JR. "Annen" Polka, Op. 117
J. STRAUSS JR. "Unter Donner und Blitz," Op. 324
J. STRAUSS JR. Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437
J. STRAUSS JR. "Tritsch-Tratsch" Polka, Op. 214

Encores:
CHOPIN Polonaise in A-flat Major, Op. 53
HELLMESBERGER JR. Leichtfüssig
EDUARD STRAUSS Bahn frei Polka

A special non-subscription event to benefit the National Academy Foundation (www.naf.org). Please note that tickets cannot be exchanged for any other Carnegie Hall event.

Program Notes:

RICHARD WAGNER (1813–1883) Rienzi Overture

Der fliegende Holländer, completed in 1841, may rank as the first fully Wagnerian opera in Wagner’s output by virtue of its dramatic élan and the grandeur of its musical invention. Rienzi, composed between 1838 and 1840, is not so consistently characteristic a work. Yet it is a clear advance on the two operas Wagner had previously finished (Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot). This is the first of his works to have enjoyed any kind of currency in the repertoire, and its overture is heard fairly often in concert.

Wagner based his libretto for Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes on a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, published in 1835, which had already been adapted as a play by Mary Russell Mitford. Set in Rome in the mid-14th century, the story relates how the patriotic Cola Rienzi, a Roman Tribune, dreams of restoring the city to its former greatness by freeing it from the tyranny of corrupt nobles. He has a degree of success at first, but when the Romans people turn against him he is excommunicated by the Pope. In the end, Rienzi and his devoted sister Irene face their enemies together. The mob stones them, chases them into the capitol, and sets fire to the building. Rienzi and Irene die as the capitol collapses in ruins.

The reasons for Rienzi’s immediate success at its premiere are not hard to find. It is a truly grand opera, and well-calculated to appeal to the contemporary taste for the spectacular. The overture gives a good idea of the musical character of the whole. It opens atmospherically with a solo trumpet note, swelling from pianissimo to forte and then receding again, which in the opera represents the herald’s summons to the people. Bursting forth after a Molto sostenuto e maestoso (“very sustained and majestic”) introduction, the main Allegro energico is full-blooded and effectively scored. Some striking five-measure phrases lend flexibility to the rhythm, and one really fine tune, lithe in gait, is prophetic of the style of Holländer and Tannhäuser. The profundities of Tristan and the Ring cycle are still far away in Wagner’s future, but listeners not indissolubly wedded to the composer’s later manner may well enjoy Rienzi the more for its crisp, uncomplicated breeziness.

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810–1849)Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21

Chopin’s F-Minor Concerto is the work of a very young man. Known as No. 2, it was actually the earlier of his two piano concertos to be written: it was published after No. 1 in E Minor only because the orchestral parts were lost on Chopin’s long journey from Warsaw to Paris in 1830, and new materials had to be prepared. Composed when he was 19, the F-Minor Concerto received its first performance when he gave his first major concert on March 17, 1830, at the Warsaw National Theater.

That Chopin was already taking on the stature of a national hero can be seen from the tone of a contemporary review: “More than once these tones seem to be the happy echo of our native harmony. Chopin knows what sounds are heard in our fields and woods, he has listened to the song of the Polish villager, he has made it his own, and has united the tunes of his native land in skillful composition and elegant execution.” So successful was the concert that a repeat performance of the concerto occurred five days later.

The musical world in general has largely agreed on this favorable verdict, though the thought of these concertos as masterpieces “so often seems to escape notice,” suggests Peter Gould in The Chopin Companion edited by Alan Walker, for “people have been so concerned with the comparative inadequacy of the orchestration and the minor role given to the orchestra.” Chopin, in the Warsaw of 1829, had no opportunity to encounter the concertos of Beethoven, and as much as he admired Mozart, he had not yet attained an understanding of the subtleties of solo-orchestral interplay found in Mozart’s concertos. But the “people” troubled by such considerations tend to be limited to the ranks of critics, musicologists, and program annotators: pianists show little sign of reluctance to play the Chopin concertos, and audiences revel in them.

The reasons for this acclaim are simple and just. More than any composer before or since, Chopin seems to understand the very soul of the piano and to incarnate it in his music. Some of his later works bear this contention out with the backing of greater formal mastery, but even in the youthful concerto heard tonight the solo writing seems to grow inevitably out of the nature of the instrument. Using standard elements of melody and accompaniment, Mozart employs the left-hand part to spur the melodic flights of the right hand. As Gould noted, the crux of the style is “the use made of decoration which becomes more and more thematic and truly meaningful and less and less ornamental for its own sake.”

The indissoluble vertical unity of the two hands is most powerfully felt in the more lyrical sections of the score, notably the embellishments of the secondary theme in the first movement and the rapturous main theme of the central Larghetto. Chopin disclosed in a letter to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski that this middle movement was inspired by his love for a fellow student at the conservatoire, the young singer Konstancja Gadkowska. Once he reached Paris, however, more practical matters took precedence: when the concerto was published in 1836, it bore a dedication to the Countess Delphine Potocka.

The first two movements evoke, respectively, the idealized march-rhythm typical of many classical first movements and the melodic flexibility of Italian bel canto opera. In the finale, the propulsive power of the bass line pushes the music from song into explicit dance, and the third subject of this sparkling rondo is a fine example of the mazurka rhythm. This exuberant theme eventually leads to the one piece of really idiomatic orchestral writing in the work: to usher in the coda, the theme transforms into a horn-call. This guise sounds so natural that the listener is tempted to wonder whether it might not have been conceived for that instrument in the first place and then transferred to the piano. But, for the rest of the piece, the piano reigns as the undisputed monarch, and the soloist soon reestablishes proprietary rights over this theme in a coruscating dash to the finish.

JOHANN STRAUSS (1825–1899) Overture to Die Fledermaus; “Wo die Citronen blüh’n!,” Op. 364; “Annen” Polka, Op. 117; “Unter Donner und Blitz,” Op. 324; “Kaiser” Waltz, Op. 437; “Tritsch-Tratsch” Polka, Op. 214

In the light-music dynasty established around 1830 by Johann Strauss Sr., his eldest son, Johann Jr., was clearly “crown prince.” He duly succeeded, after his father’s death in 1849, to the informal title of “waltz king.” But the family had more strings than one to its bow: two other sons, Josef and Eduard, took prominent places as composers and performers alongside Johann Jr. in the glittering Viennese dance-music world, and in the 1860s all three brothers shared the direction of the Strauss Orchestra.

Partly through the sheer scope of his work, Johann Jr. boasts the biggest name in the collective memory of music-lovers. His output includes hundreds of dances and around 20 operettas, including Der Zigeunerbaron, Eine Nacht in Venedig, and the supremely popular Die Fledermaus, whose overture opens this evening’s Strauss-fest. Typical of the genre, this overture offers an appetizing medley of great tunes from the operetta itself.

The waltzes and polkas that follow on tonight’s program typify the composer’s mastery of a genre that remains just as alluring today, nearly a century and a half after its conception. Brahms regarded him as a master: inscribing the opening measures of the Blue Danube waltz in an autograph book, he added “unfortunately not by me—Johannes Brahms,” and commented once that Strauss’s “splendid” orchestration reminded him of Mozart.

The two waltzes heard tonight differ widely in character. Modest in scale, “Wo die Citronen blüh’n!” breathes an air of perfumed nostalgia. The composer conducted its first performance in Turin, during an extensive Italian tour in May 1874, with the title Bella Italia. For the Vienna premiere a month later, he gave it the title it now bears. Strauss took the name from Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, specifically a line from the Mignon’s song “Kennst du das Land” (“Do you know the land where the lemon-trees bloom?”). On a much grander scale, the “Kaiser” Waltz is perhaps the most imposing of all Strauss’ essays in the genre. This is truly symphonic dance-music, with an introduction in a different rhythm that neatly foreshadows the main theme of the waltz proper.

Strauss’s sheer expressive variety is evident in the three polkas heard tonight: the mode ranges from poised wit in the “Annen” Polka, by way of rather more animation in “Unter Donner und Blitz” (the “Thunder and Lightning” Polka), to the irrepressible vigor of “Tritsch-Tratsch.”

—Bernard Jacobson

London-born Bernard Jacobson is program annotator for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Pacific Northwest correspondent for Opera Magazine.

© 2009 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

More Information:

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta, Conductor
There is perhaps no other musical ensemble more consistently and closely associated with the history and tradition of European classical music than the Vienna Philharmonic. In the course of its over 160-year history, the musicians of this most prominent orchestra of the capital city of music have been an integral part of a musical epoch which, due to an abundance of gifted composers and interpreters, must certainly be regarded as unique.
The orchestra’s close association with this rich musical history is best illustrated by the statements of countless preeminent musical personalities of the past. Richard Wagner described the orchestra as one of the most outstanding in the world; Anton Bruckner called it “the most superior musical association”; Johannes Brahms counted himself as a “friend and admirer”; Gustav Mahler claimed to be joined together through “the bonds of musical art”; and Richard Strauss summarized these sentiments by saying: “All praise of the Vienna Philharmonic reveals itself as understatement.”
The Vienna State Opera Orchestra holds a special relationship with the private association known as the Vienna Philharmonic. In accordance with philharmonic statutes, only a member of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra can become a member of the Vienna Philharmonic. The engagement in the Vienna State Opera Orchestra provides the musicians a financial stability that would be impossible to attain without relinquishing their autonomy to private or corporate sponsors.
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s mission is to communicate the humanitarian message of music into the daily lives and consciousness of its listeners. In 2005 the orchestra was named Goodwill Ambassador of the World Health Organization (WHO), and since 2006 the orchestra has also been Ambassador for the Phonak initiative “Hear the World.” The musicians endeavor to implement the motto with which Ludwig von Beethoven, whose symphonic works served as a catalyst for the creation of the orchestra, prefaced his “Missa Solemnis”: “From the heart, to the heart.”

Lang Lang, Piano
Lang Lang has played sold-out concerts in every major city throughout the world and is the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the top American orchestras. Over two billion people viewed Lang Lang’s performance in summer 2008 during Beijing’s opening ceremony for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, where he was seen as a symbol of the youth and future of China.

Lang Lang is holding residencies in six cities during the 2008–2009 season: Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, London, Rome, and Stockholm. The outreach events are organized in cooperation with the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, launched with support of the Grammys and UNICEF to support young talent and develop new audiences worldwide.

Lang Lang serves as global brand ambassador for Sony Electronics and continues his honored relationship with Audi Automobiles as their global brand ambassador. Journey of a Thousand Miles, Lang Lang’s biography, is published by Random House, who released a version specifically for younger readers entitled Playing with Flying Keys.

Lang Lang began playing piano at age three, and by age five, had won the Shenyang competition and given his first public recital. Entering Beijing’s Central Music Conservatory at age nine, he won first prize at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians Competition and played the complete 24 Chopin Études at the Beijing Concert Hall at age 13. His break into stardom came at age 17 when he was called upon for a dramatic last-minute substitution at the “Gala of the Century,” playing the Tchaikovsky concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Lang Lang is an International Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF, a Young Global Leader (selected by the World Economic Forum), and Chairman of the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award Project. He currently serves on The Weill Music Institute Advisory Committee and is a member of Carnegie Hall’s Artistic Advisory Board.

Lang Lang records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon / Universal. He received a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist in 2008. His latest recording is Chopin’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with Zubin Mehta conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.