Program Notes: Beethoven & Barber

UNSUK CHIN  
subito con forza for orchestra 
BORN: July 14, 1961, in Seoul, South Korea 
WORK COMPOSED: 2020 
WORLD PREMIERE: September 24, 2020, by Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Klaus Mäkelä conducting.  

What to Listen For:  

• The jolts of forceful energy that contrast with quiet murmurs and the sheer amount of activity packed into a short, compact work.

The jolts of forceful energy that contrast with quiet murmurs and the sheer amount of activity packed into a short, compact work.

South Korean-born Unsuk Chin moved to Hamburg, Germany, in 1985 to study with György Ligeti and currently lives in Berlin. She composes in genres ranging from electronic to orchestral and is known for her depth of imagination and magical tonal colors. The author Paul Griffiths writes that her music is full of “clarity, fascination, capricious energy and sheer sonic beauty.” 

Chin’s subito con forza, which translates to “suddenly, with power,” was written in 2020 to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday. As Beethoven’s hearing declined — he was completely deaf by the age of 45 — he got into the habit of using small notebooks to communicate with friends and colleagues. Over 100 of these conversation books have survived and give a fascinating glimpse into Beethoven’s daily life; shopping lists, errands and thoughts are mixed in with notes from his social visits. Chin took inspiration from these books for her homage to the composer and was especially drawn to the line, “Dur und Moll. Ich bin ein Gewinner.” (“Major and minor. I am a winner.”) In an interview with musicologist Thea Derks, Chin explained that Beethoven is one of her favorite composers because “he was constantly looking for new directions. He was the first consciously modern composer, in the sense that every piece asked for original solutions, even if this meant breaking through existing forms … What particularly appeals to me are the enormous contrasts: from volcanic eruptions to extreme serenity.” 

The five-minute work is scored for an orchestra typical of Beethoven’s early symphonies, with pairs of wind and brass, timpani, and strings. The added array of percussion instruments lends brilliant colors to the texture. Many references to Beethoven’s music are hidden throughout the piece while others appear in plain sight, most noticeably the brass intoning the famous opening of his Fifth Symphony.  

SAMUEL BARBER  
Violin Concerto, Op. 14 
BORN: March 9, 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania  
DIED: January 23, 1981, New York City 
WORK COMPOSED: 1939–1940 
WORLD PREMIERE: February 7, 1941, with Albert Spalding on violin and Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.  

What to Listen For:  

• Soaring, lyrical and plaintive melodies in the first two movements are in striking contrast to the nonstop rush and complexity of the final movement.    

Soaring, lyrical and plaintive melodies in the first two movements are in striking contrast to the nonstop rush and complexity of the final movement.    

Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto was commissioned by a wealthy industrialist, Samuel Fels, best known for manufacturing Fels-Naptha laundry soap. The idea was for Barber to write a piece for the Ukrainian-born violinist Iso Briselli to promote the soloist’s fledgling career. Briselli had come to the U.S. as a 12-year-old to study at The Curtis Institute of Music and Fels, who was a founding trustee of the school, sponsored the child and served as a surrogate parent and staunch supporter.  

Barber had also attended Curtis and though he was much older than Briselli, they graduated in the same class of 1934. Five years later, when Fels approached him about the concerto, Barber was well on his way to a successful career. His famous Adagio for Strings had just premiered with the NBC Orchestra, solidifying his reputation for wondrously lyric phrases and 19th-century tonality.  

The story surrounding the Violin Concerto is thorny. Fels promised Barber $1,000 and offered $500 upfront with the remainder due upon completion of the work. Barber finished the first two movements while traveling in Switzerland, but the onset of the Second World War forced him to sail home. He completed the final movement months later during a retreat in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania.  

Briselli was said to be happy with the opening movements but thought the third movement was unplayable and did not match the rest of the work. Fels demanded a refund of his $500, which Barber had already spent in Europe, and he was never paid the remainder of the commission. Meanwhile, Barber enlisted a student violinist at Curtis to learn the part, proving that it was indeed playable. This story stood firm until musicologist Barbara Heyman published a definitive biography of Barber in 1992. Her research, including an interview with Briselli, concluded that it was more a matter of differing tastes between performer and composer. Despite the apparent drama, the two remained friends until Barber’s death in 1981.  

Without introduction, the soloist opens the concerto with a captivating melody that develops freely with sinuous lyricism. The clarinet plays a second theme reminiscent of a melancholic folk song. A brief cadenza starts strong and fades away before wisps of the early themes return to end the first movement.  

The second movement begins with yet another beautifully unfolding melody, this time in the oboe, followed by cellos and violins. After a brief horn solo, the violin enters with its own yearning, improvisatory melody before finally playing the oboe’s theme from the opening. Throughout, the music is expansive, passionate and tender.  

The finale is a study in unrelenting perpetual motion. The soloist rarely stops for a breath as the meter makes frequent shifts between triplets and duplets. The orchestra scampers along, keeping pace with the violin and together they gather in speed to hurtle towards the exhilarating finish.  

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN  
Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21 
BORN: December 1770 in Bonn, Germany 
DIED: March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria 
WORK COMPOSED: 1800 
WORLD PREMIERE: April 2, 1800, in Vienna, with Beethoven conducting.  

What to Listen For:  

• Beethoven’s prominent use of woodwinds in an orchestral setting drew criticism at the time for its originality.  

Beethoven’s prominent use of woodwinds in an orchestral setting drew criticism at the time for its originality.  

In 1792, the 22-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven left his hometown of Bonn for Vienna, then the cultural capital of Europe, to study composition with the great Franz Joseph Hadyn. He brought with him a missive from his patron, Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, that read, “with the help of assiduous labor you shall receive Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands.”  

Mozart and Haydn were both revered for their brilliant orchestral writing and unparalleled in their development of the classical symphonic form. Beethoven spent a little over a year studying with Haydn and decided to stay on in Vienna against the wishes of the Elector of Bonn, who was partially financing his travels. But the young Beethoven was eager to make a name for himself as a performer and composer in the big city.     

During his first eight years in Vienna, Beethoven stayed away from composing symphonies, instead writing piano works that he could use in his own performances. With limited resources, producing a public concert with a full symphony orchestra was a challenge for any freelance composer of the time. Perhaps for this reason, Beethoven waited until he was 30 years old to write his First Symphony. After composing a horn sonata for a performance at the Vienna Burgtheater, he was allowed to organize his own concert using the space. On April 2, 1800, he premiered his symphony alongside a Mozart symphony and excerpts of Haydn’s oratorio, The Creation. By programming the works of the masters alongside his first foray into the symphonic realm, Beethoven was able to honor the traditions set before him while also setting himself apart as a bearer of modernity. A review in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung called the performance “the most interesting public concert in a long time.” 

Though Beethoven begins his First Symphony with a nod to the classical style of opening with a slow introduction, his imagination asserts itself from the very first notes. Instead of a C-major chord — the expected way to begin a symphony in C major — Beethoven adds an out-of-context B-flat to the sonority, creating a tension that resolves to the “wrong” key of F-major. More searching chords lead the way to the Allegro con brio and a vigorous violin melody. This is followed by a more lyrical melody passed playfully between the oboe and flute. The development uses the first-theme’s motif to explore various keys before returning in full force to the recapitulation and exuberant conclusion.  

The second movement is a graceful and stately dance that begins in the strings. A middle section moves from the opening key of C-major to C-minor, with woodwinds calling out gently in rising intervals. When the first melody returns, it is accompanied by delicate counterpoint.  

The third movement is titled Menuetto, after the courtly French dance in triple meter, yet this music bounds ahead with the dizzying speed of a scherzo. The pace slows down slightly in the middle as the woodwinds play a quiet theme of repeated chords. The strings, unable to shed the relentless energy of the opening, swirl around them. 

The finale begins, like the first movement, with a slow introduction, yet here the unfurling scale is less questioning and cheekier. Each gesture slowly rises, leading towards the top, where it unleashes a deluge of notes in a charming and rousing theme. Rising scales abound throughout the orchestra in this boisterous movement that ends in a confident declamation of C-major.  

All notes by Catherine Case © 2024