Toledo Symphony

Description:

The composer Robert Schumann was overjoyed at his ‘discovery’ of the young Johannes Brahms.  He proclaimed Brahms the heir to Beethoven, an eagle of music.  Stefan Sanderling leads the TSO in an exploration of these two musical titans.

When Beethoven wrote the first of his nine world-changing symphonies, he was primarily known as an extraordinary pianist with an exceptional improvisatory capability.  Premiered in March of 1800, the symphony ushered in a new century of music making.   Though indebted to the lessons of his teacher Haydn, the symphony was audacious – particularly in the third movement, where the “Menuet” that Beethoven refers to in the title is actually a lightning speed scherzo.

 
Whereas Beethoven was still a lesser-known phenom to audiences at the time of the premiere of his first symphony, Brahms was a household name by the time he put his second piano concerto before the public.  Brahms was always aware of the shadow of Beethoven, and in Brahms’s string quartets and symphonies, the influence of Beethoven is often strongly felt.  However, in this second piano concerto, Brahms creates a grand composition that is far beyond the scope (lengthwise, at any rate) of any of Beethoven’s concerti.  Nearly an hour in length, in the four-movement form traditionally associated with symphonies, the work is extraordinarily demanding for the pianist, a juggling act of technique, intellect, and emotion.  Marc-Andre Hamelin is Mr. Sanderling’s chosen performer for this exceptional concerto. 

Points of interest:

Brahms often referred to his most extensive and complex works in an ironically dismissive way.  In a letter to the dedicatee, Theodore Billroth, he described the concerto as “some little piano pieces.”

Marc-Andre Hamelin is the first prize winner of the 1985 Carnegie Hall competition, and a member of the Order of Canada, and is world-renowned for taming some of the most difficult pieces in the repertoire.  However, when he talks about the music that most influenced him growing up, he talks not about traditional piano music, but about Conlon Nancarrow’s music for player piano – an instrument that replaces the human executant with paper rolls and a player mechanism.  He describes the music as being of an unheard and radical complexity and density.

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Program:

Schonberg         Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene           

Beethoven         Symphony No. 1 in C Major                        28’

                                      Adagio molto – Allegro con brio

                                      Andante cantabile con moto

                                      Menuetto.  Allegro molto e vivace

                                     Adagio – Allegro molto e vivace

Intermission 

Brahms           Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major             49’

                                   Allegro non troppo

                                   Allegro appassionato

                                   Andante

                                   Allegretto grazioso

WGTE - FM 91 broadcasts the Toledo Symphony on FM 91 In Concert. Tonight's concert will be re-broadcast Thursday, October 9, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. through the generosity of the Edward H. Schmidt Musical Arts Fund.