Bassoon Concerto (Weber)

Last updated

Carl Maria von Weber's Concerto for Bassoon in F Major, Op. 75 (J. 127) was composed in 1811 for Munich court musician Georg Friedrich Brandt, was premiered on December 28, 1811, and then revised in 1822. [1] Primarily an opera conductor and composer, Weber had only arrived a few months earlier in Munich, where he was extremely well received. The concerto is one of two pieces written for bassoon by Weber, the other being Andante e Rondo Ungarese, Op. 35 (J. 158). A typical performance lasts 18–20 minutes.

Contents

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for solo bassoon and an orchestra consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two horns, two bassoons, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. [1]

Significance

This work and the Mozart Bassoon Concerto are the two concertos most often played in the bassoon repertoire. William Waterhouse asserts, “The bassoon concerto by Weber ranks second only to that of Mozart in importance.” [1] The concertos by Mozart and Weber were in the repertoire used for the famous playing exams at the Paris Conservatoire, along with newly commissioned works by French composers. [2]

History

In February 1811, Weber embarked on an international concert tour that was to include such cities as Munich, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, Copenhagen, and St. Petersburg. [3] It was on March 14 that he arrived in Munich, the first city of the tour. [3] There he composed the clarinet Concertino, Op. 26 (J. 109) for Heinrich Bärmann, a well-respected virtuoso clarinetist in the Munich court orchestra who would become a lifelong friend. [4] The Concertino was wildly popular, which caused Maximilian I, the king of Bavaria, immediately to commission from Weber two full clarinet concertos (No. 1 in F minor, Op. 73: J. 114 and No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 74: J. 118). [4] Many musicians of the court orchestra begged Weber to write concertos for them as well, but the only one who convinced him was the bassoonist Georg Friedrich Brandt. [5] A student of the famous soloist Georg Wenzel Ritter (Mozart's favorite bassoonist), [6] Brandt convinced the King to commission a bassoon concerto from Weber. [7]

The concerto was written from November 14 to 27, 1811. [8] Brandt played the premiere in the Munich Hoftheater on December 28, 1811, but Weber had already left for Switzerland, the next destination on his concert tour. [7] Brandt had the opportunity to perform the concerto three more times, in Vienna (December 27, 1812), Prague (February 19, 1813), and Ludwigslust (March 21, 1817). [7] Weber was able to attend the concert in Prague, and before he sent the concerto to the Berlin publisher Schlesinger in 1822, he made revisions as a result of this hearing. [7] Around 40 years following the 1823 publication, Schlesinger released a heavily edited edition for bassoon and piano which obscured the composition with new articulations, altered notes, added dynamics and misprints. [7] Bassoonist and pedagogue William Waterhouse wrote a scholarly article in 1986 comparing all editions and detailing the changes Weber made in his 1822 revision, and then Waterhouse prepared and edited the Urtext edition in 1990, bringing back to light all of the composer's original intentions. [9]

According to John Warrack, the title of the first printed copy read “Primo Concerto,” but no second concerto followed, unless one counts the Andante e Rondo Ungarese, which was originally written for viola. [10]

Movements

The concerto consists of three movements in the standard fast-slow-fast pattern:

  1. Allegro ma non troppo (F major)
  2. Adagio (B flat major)
  3. Rondo: Allegro (F major)

I. Allegro ma non troppo

Bassoon Concerto (Weber)
Movement I, first theme
Bassoon Concerto (Weber)
Movement I, second theme

In the key of F major, this first movement is in the classical sonata form (also known as first movement form) and carries the time signature 4/4. It begins with an orchestral tutti introduction, wherein fragments of the first theme and most of the second theme are stated. The composer's harmonic language is simplistic, focusing heavily on dominants and tonics. [11] Chiefly a composer and conductor of operas, Weber had a flair for the theatrical, which he used to great effect to introduce the soloist by the orchestra. At the end of the introduction the orchestra plays five measures of a cadential six-four while raising a massive crescendo from piano to fortissimo, lands on a root-position dominant seventh chord, then drops out, leaving a solo timpani playing the tonic F at a pianissimo for two measures of alternating eighth notes and eighth rests, creating what Waterhouse calls “theatrical expectancy.” [12] The bassoon enters triumphantly with the first full statement of the movement's militaristic first theme. This heightened sense of drama is a compositional trait often associated with Weber. [13]

Weber's talent for characterization is well suited to a piece featuring the bassoon. The bassoon is capable of a wide range of characters and emotions, and in his concerto Weber captures them all. While the first theme is cocky and triumphant (aided by the dotted rhythm), [10] the second theme, marked dolce , is calm and reflective. Mercurial mood shifts pervade the movement, with markings of brillante , dolce, con fuoco , dolce again, and a brillante for the dramatic finish. Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns, the man who catalogued all of Weber's known works (giving us J numbers in addition to opus numbers), states in his catalog that the qualities evoked in this movement are seriousness, dignity, and power. [1]

Using any technique he can to heighten drama and showcase the virtuosity of the soloist, Weber quickly alternates between notes in very low and very high registers, and right before the flashy arpeggios, scales and trills that lead to the final cadence, the bassoon ascends dramatically to a high D (D5), then the highest note a bassoon could reach. [14] The modern bassoon can play higher, but not without great effort.

The issue of Classical versus Romantic styles should be addressed. In his article entitled “The Romantic Spirit in Music,” Edward J. Dent expresses the view that, “We should all unhesitatingly agree that Weber is the first of the great Romantics.” [15] Whether or not one agrees with Dent, and if Weber is a Romantic composer, why then does he use Classical forms for the two clarinet concertos and the bassoon concerto? The answer according to John Warrack is that Weber thought it best to avoid innovation in these royal commissions, thinking “effectiveness within understood forms a more certain passport to success.” [4] Weber actually disliked and struggled with sonata form, finding it to be a limit on his creativity rather than a conduit through which his creativity could flow. [4] His first movements tend to not match the other two, probably because he dreaded writing them and often composed them last. [16] Warrack finds the following difference between Ludwig van Beethoven’s and Weber’s treatment of sonata form:

However lofty and far-reaching the extensions Beethoven made, however profoundly he matched it, from the Eroica Symphony right on to the last quartets, to the infinitely varied expression of a new movement of the human spirit, sonata was for him the natural inheritance, the source from which the vast river of his invention might swell. With Weber we immediately sense a lack of belief in the form. [17]

Weber so disliked conventional standard sonata cycles that sometimes he omitted the first movement altogether. [18] This is how Warrack explains the seemingly odd form of Andante e Rondo Ungarese: the Andante and Rondo are the attacca second and third movements of a concerto without a first movement. [18] A more likely explanation for the form of that work, however, is that Weber followed the cabaletta form that was so standard in arias of the day. Perhaps this less rigid slow-fast form better catered to Weber’s Romantic spirit.

II. Adagio

Bassoon Concerto (Weber)
Movement II, main theme

Operatic lyricism saturates this movement, which is in the subdominant B flat major and in 3/8 time. Composed first, [8] the slow movement reminds one strongly of Italian opera. Of the Adagio, Waterhouse says, “The theatrical atmosphere is maintained by an almost operatic cantilena, which should be compared with certain slow soprano arias from his operas.” [14] The melody could easily be sung and is arguably one of the most beautiful melodies written for the solo bassoon. Characteristic of Weber's compositional style in general is his frequent use of the appoggiatura. [19] According to Dent, this is one of Weber's “two favourite mannerisms,” the other being the dotted rhythm featured heavily in the first movement. [19] The appoggiatura began as a nuance to express great emotion when singing, [19] so it is appropriate and moving in its use here. Weber was also adept at experimenting with timbre and color in his orchestration. [20] In a middle section of this movement, the solo bassoon plays in a three part texture with two horns, and the sound is unusual but striking. The movement ends with the work's only cadenza, which is decidedly operatic and which Weber wrote himself. [21]

III. Rondo: Allegro

Bassoon Concerto (Weber)
Movement III, main theme

The final movement returns to F major and is a lighthearted rondo in 2/4 time. The main theme is impish and catchy, which makes it easy to identify when it appears many times later in the movement. We return to the mercurial mood swings of the first movement, alternating dolce and con fuoco sections like before, but with the new markings espressivo and scherzando as well. Jähns names humor as the governing quality of this movement. [8] Perhaps the most interesting moment is the transition before the third iteration of the opening theme. Of this spot, Waterhouse states that “devices such as augmentation, fragmentation, [and] hesitation make this return to the main theme perhaps the most witty section of the entire work.” [22] At the end of the piece after the final statement of the theme, the bassoonist engages in a flurry of scales and arpeggios, showing off in one of the bassoon repertoire's flashiest and most virtuosic finales.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jähns, p. 150
  2. ↑ Fletcher, p. 55
  3. 1 2 Warrack, p. 116
  4. 1 2 3 4 Warrack, p. 118
  5. ↑ Warrack, p. 122 and 128
  6. ↑ Griswold, p. 106
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Waterhouse 1986
  8. 1 2 3 Jähns, p. 151
  9. ↑ See Waterhouse 1986 and Weber Concerto, Universal Edition.
  10. 1 2 Warrack, p. 128
  11. ↑ Dent, p. 91
  12. ↑ Waterhouse 2005, p. 217
  13. ↑ Dent, p. 88
  14. 1 2 Waterhouse 2005, p. 219
  15. ↑ Dent, p. 86
  16. ↑ Warrack, p. 119 and 128
  17. ↑ Warrack, p. 118-119
  18. 1 2 Warrack, p. 119
  19. 1 2 3 Dent, p. 90
  20. ↑ Warrack, p. 120-121
  21. ↑ Warrack, p. 122
  22. ↑ Waterhouse 2005, p. 221

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Maria von Weber</span> German Romantic composer (1786–1826)

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic of the early Romantic period. Best known for his operas, he was a crucial figure in the development of German Romantische Oper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Danzi</span> German conductor and composer (1763–1826)

Franz Ignaz Danzi was a German cellist, composer and conductor, the son of the Italian cellist Innocenz Danzi (1730–1798) and brother of the noted singer Franzeska Danzi. Danzi lived at a significant time in the history of European music. His career, spanning the transition from the late Classical to the early Romantic styles, coincided with the origin of much of the music that lives in our concert halls and is familiar to contemporary classical-music audiences. In his youth he knew Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom he revered; he was a contemporary of Ludwig van Beethoven, about whom he — like many of his generation — had strong but mixed feelings and he was a mentor for the young Carl Maria von Weber, whose music he respected and promoted.

Sonata rondo form is a musical form often used during the Classical and Romantic music eras. As the name implies, it is a blend of sonata and rondo forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bassoon Concerto (Mozart)</span>

The Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K. 191/186e, is a bassoon concerto written in 1774 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is the most often performed and studied piece in the entire bassoon repertory. Nearly all professional bassoonists will perform the piece at some stage in their career, and it is probably the most commonly requested piece in orchestral auditions – it is usually requested that the player perform excerpts from the concerto's first two movements in every audition.

E major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯, and D♯. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-flat major, has six flats and the double-flat B, which makes it impractical to use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto No. 1 (Mendelssohn)</span>

Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, was written in 1830–31, around the same time as his fourth symphony ("Italian"), and premiered in Munich on 17 October 1831. This concerto was composed in Rome during a travel in Italy after the composer met the pianist Delphine von Schauroth in Munich. The concerto was dedicated to her. Mendelssohn attended one party after another in Munich in October 1831, the month of the premiere, but he also played chamber music and taught double counterpoint. He performed the piece himself at the premiere, which also included performances of his Symphony No. 1 and the Overture from Midsummer Night's Dream. He had already written a piano concerto in A minor with string accompaniment (1822) and two concertos with two pianos (1823–24).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violin Concerto No. 3 (Mozart)</span> Violin concerto by W. A. Mozart

The Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Salzburg in 1775 when he was 19 years old. In a letter to his father, Mozart called it the "Straßburg-Concert". Researchers believe this epithet comes from the motive in the third movement's Allegretto in the central section, a local dance that already had appeared as a musette-imitating tune in a symphony by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Concerto No. 22 (Mozart)</span>

The Piano Concerto No. 22 in E♭ major, K. 482, is a work for piano, or fortepiano, and orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composed in December 1785.

The Concertino for Horn and Orchestra in E minor, J188, was composed in 1806 for the Karlsruhe player Dautrevaux, and revised for the Munich virtuoso Rauch in 1815 by Carl Maria von Weber. It is an extremely taxing work, whether played on the natural horn for which it was written, or on the modern valve horn. The soloist is accompanied by a small orchestra. It requires, among other feats, that the player produce what is in effect a four-note chord using the interplay between humming and the sound from the instrument, a technique known as multiphonics.

William Waterhouse was an English bassoonist and musicologist. He played with notable orchestras, was a member of the Melos Ensemble, professor at the Royal Northern College of Music, author of the Yehudi Menuhin Music Guide "Bassoon", of The New Langwill Index, and contributor to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Sonata No. 6 (Mozart)</span> 1775 piano sonata by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 6 in D major, K. 284 / 205b, (1775) is a sonata in three movements:

Carl Maria von Weber wrote his Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 73 for the clarinettist Heinrich Bärmann in 1811. The piece is highly regarded in the instrument's repertoire. It is written for clarinet in B♭. The work consists of three movements in the form of fast, slow, fast. It was premiered in Munich on 13 June 1811, with Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in attendance.

Carl Maria von Weber wrote his Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E♭ major, Op. 74, J. 118 in 1811, and premiered on December 25, 1813. It is composed of three movements:

  1. Allegro
  2. Romanze: Andante con moto
  3. Alla Polacca

Kjell Maale Roikjer was a Danish composer and bassoonist.

Ivor McMahon (1924–1972) was an English violinist. He played with notable orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra and is best known for playing second violin in the Melos Ensemble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josef Triebensee</span>

Josef Triebensee (Trübensee) was a Bohemian composer and oboist.

The Grand Duo Concertant, Opus 48, J204, is a three-movement work for clarinet and piano composed by Carl Maria von Weber from 1815 to 1816. It is a virtuosic piece for both instruments. Weber most likely composed the work for himself and his friend Heinrich Baermann, a leading clarinettist of the era, although it has also been suggested that the intended clarinettist was Johann Simon Hermstedt.

The bassoon repertoire consists of pieces of music composed for bassoon as a principal instrument that may be performed with or without other instruments. Below is a non-exhaustive list of major works for the bassoon.

References

Cited sources
Additional sources
Bassoon Concerto : Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.