Symphony No.2 | |
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by Felix Weingartner | |
![]() Felix Weingartner around 1890 | |
Key | E-flat major |
Opus | 29 |
Period | Romantic |
Composed | 1897-99 |
Dedication | Franz Wüllner |
Published | 1901 |
Publisher | Breitkopf und Härtel |
Duration | 47 min |
Movements | 4 |
Felix Weingartner's Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 29 is a musical composition that Weingartner started in 1897 and completed in 1899. [1] The overall musical language of the piece is late-romantic although with a high emphasis on Schubertian melodicism. Furthermore, as with other contemporary Austrian composers of the end of the 20th century such as Gustav Mahler or Hans Rott, [2] his second symphony heavily uses a Brucknerian treatment of simple motifs through extensive repetition and grand orchestration. [3]
Composed between 1897 and 1899, his Second Symphony was premiered in Germany 1900. [4] In the following years it was performed several times across Europe, usually under Weingartner's own baton. In 1901 it was premiered in London by Sir Henry Wood at the Proms, [5] the only symphony by the composer performed there. [6] The same year it was premiered in Paris and Munich under Weingartner's direction, and in 1905 he premiered it in Berlin. The symphony received generally cold responses, which are said to have distressed the composer. The German musicologist Hugo Goldschmidt opined that it demonstrated "an embarrassing mismatch between intention and ability". [4] A less adverse French reviewer said the work was not so much a symphony as an orchestral suite, whose movements are in no way linked together. All agreed that it was an unoriginal effort. [7]
There is no recorded public performance of the work after World War I, and the composition was generally forgotten until CPO released a recording of the work in 2006, with Marko Letonja conducting the Basel Symphony. [3]
The work is scored for a Symphony orchestra consisting of the following assemble: [1]
There are four movements: [8]
A typical performance lasts between 45 and 50 minutes.
The first movement consists of a sonata form with a slow introduction. A brass outburst starts the symphony, which is responded by pianissimo pizzicatos in the strings.
The second movement is a simple scherzo and trio in the form of the traditional Austrian ländler similar to the scherzos of his contemporaries Mahler and Rott, [9] who they in turn where inspired by the ländler-scherzos of Bruckner and even earlier Schubert. [10] If the first movement ended in E-flat major, the tonality of the scherzo shifts to C major; the parallel major of the submediant of E-flat major (C minor). [11] Marked "giocoso", the mood is joyful and lively. From all the movements of the symphony, the second is the most outwardly Brucknerian, creating extensive textures based upon simple ostinatos. Nevertheless, this motivic treatment is usually contrasted with strong melodicism both in the strings and horns.
The main theme of the scherzo section is played first in the violins:
This leaps of the fifth and the octave becomes an essential motif for the development of the movement which provides the rhythm and feel of the ländler:
The scherzo section ends with an ostinato played in unison:
The trio quickly changes the musical texture, now with the ostinato played in the flute and a pastoral melody in the violas:
The third movement is molded after Beethoven's 9th Symphony's slow movement. [3] A clarinet solo establishes the key of A-flat major (the subdominant of E-flat major) which in consequence leads to an extended Beethovenian hymn-like melody for the strings: [7]
After a solo violin, the second theme in the clarinets and bassoons is presented:
Alike the doble variations of the slow movement of Beethoven's 9th, with these two themes established, a short set of doble variations follows.
The fourth movement cycles back and reuses material of the 4-minute slow introduction of the first movement. Nevertheless, Weingartner synthesizes the 4-minute introduction into a condensed 1-minute prelude for the fugal section that follows.
The Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler was composed in 1901 and 1902, mostly during the summer months at Mahler's holiday cottage at Maiernigg. Among its most distinctive features are the trumpet solo that opens the work with a rhythmic motif similar to the opening of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, the horn solos in the third movement and the frequently performed Adagietto.
The Symphony No. 1 in D major by Gustav Mahler was mainly composed between late 1887 and March 1888, though it incorporates music Mahler had composed for previous works. It was composed while Mahler was second conductor at the Leipzig Opera in Germany. Although in his letters Mahler almost always referred to the work as a symphony, the first two performances described it as a symphonic poem and as a tone poem in symphonic form, respectively. The work was premièred at the Vigadó Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary, in 1889, but was not well-received. Mahler made some major revisions for the second performance, given at Hamburg, Germany, in October 1893; further alterations were made in the years prior to the first publication, in late 1898. Some modern performances and recordings give the work the title Titan, despite the fact that Mahler only used this label for the second and third performances, and never after the work had reached its definitive four-movement form in 1896.
The Symphony No. 4 in G major by Gustav Mahler was composed from 1899 to 1900, though it incorporates a song originally written in 1892. That song, "Das himmlische Leben", presents a child's vision of heaven and is sung by a soprano in the symphony's Finale. Both smaller in orchestration and shorter in length than Mahler's earlier symphonies, the Fourth Symphony was initially planned to be in six movements, alternating between three instrumental and three vocal movements. The symphony's final form—begun in July 1899 at Bad Aussee and completed in August 1900 at Maiernigg—retains only one vocal movement and is in four movements: Bedächtig, nicht eilen ; In gemächlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast ; Ruhevoll,poco adagio ; and Sehr behaglich.
The Symphony No. 9 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1908 and 1909, and was the last symphony that he completed. A typical performance takes about 75 to 90 minutes. A survey of conductors voted Mahler's Symphony No. 9 the fourth greatest symphony of all time in a ballot conducted by BBC Music Magazine in 2016. As in the case of his earlier Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler did not live to see his Symphony No. 9 performed.
The Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, by Dmitri Shostakovich is a work for orchestra composed between April and July 1937. Its first performance was on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky. The premiere was a "triumphal success" that appealed to both the public and official critics, receiving an ovation that lasted well over half an hour.
The Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93, by Dmitri Shostakovich was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 17 December 1953. It is not clear when it was written. According to the composer, the symphony was composed between July and October 1953, but Tatiana Nikolayeva stated that it was completed in 1951. Sketches for some of the material date from 1946.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21, was dedicated to Baron Gottfried van Swieten, an early patron of the composer. The piece was published in 1801 by Hoffmeister & Kühnel of Leipzig. It is not known exactly when Beethoven finished writing this work, but sketches of the finale were found to be from 1795.
The Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77, was originally composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1947–48. He was still working on the piece at the time of the Zhdanov Doctrine, and it could not be performed in the period following the composer's denunciation. In the time between the work's initial completion and the first performance, the composer, sometimes with the collaboration of its dedicatee, David Oistrakh, worked on several revisions. The concerto was finally premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 29 October 1955. It was well-received, Oistrakh remarking on the "depth of its artistic content" and describing the violin part as a "pithy 'Shakespearian' role."
Sergei Prokofiev wrote his Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100, in the Soviet Union in one month in the summer of 1944.
Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759, commonly known as the Unfinished Symphony, is a musical composition that Schubert started in 1822 but left with only two movements—though he lived for another six years. A scherzo, nearly completed in piano score but with only two pages orchestrated, also survives.
The Symphony No. 5 by Robert Simpson was written in 1972 and "dedicated in admiration" to the London Symphony Orchestra, who gave the premiere on May 3, 1973, conducted by Andrew Davis. The second performance in England didn't take place until 1984.
The Sinfonietta in B major, Op. 5, is the first large-scale orchestral work written by the 20th-century Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Korngold began sketching the work in the spring of 1912, just before his 15th birthday and finished the sketches in August 1912. The orchestration of it dragged on for another year, until September 1913, by which time Korngold had composed his Violin Sonata, Op. 6, and had begun his first opera Der Ring des Polykrates, Op. 7. The Sinfonietta was premiered in Vienna on 30 November 1913 under the direction of Felix Weingartner, and was a sensational success, resulting in further performances all over Europe and America.
Rustic Wedding Symphony, Op. 26 is a symphony in E-flat major by Karl Goldmark, written in 1875, a year before his renowned Violin Concerto No. 1. The symphony was premiered in Vienna on 5 March 1876, conducted by Hans Richter. Johannes Brahms, who was a frequent walking companion of Goldmark's, and whose own Symphony No. 1 was not premiered until November 1876, told him "That is the best thing you have done; clear-cut and faultless, it sprang into being a finished thing, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter". Its first American performance was at a New York Philharmonic Society concert, conducted by Theodore Thomas on 13 January 1877.
The Symphony No. 3 is a symphony in five movements composed between 1988 and 1995 by Krzysztof Penderecki. It was commissioned and completed for the centenary of the Munich Philharmonic. Its earliest version, Passacaglia and Rondo, premiered at the International Music Festival Week in Lucerne, Switzerland, on August 20, 1988. It was performed by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and conducted by Penderecki. The full symphony premiered in Munich on 8 December 1995, performed by the Munich Philharmonic, again conducted by the composer.
The Symphony No. 2 in F minor was written by Richard Strauss between 1883 and 1884. It is sometimes referred to as just Symphony in F minor. He gave it the Opus number 12, and it also appears in other catalogues as TrV 126 and Hanstein A.I.2. It is not listed in von Asow's catalog.
Marcel Tyberg was an Austrian composer, conductor and organist. His music is late-Romantic in style.
The Symphony in D minor, WAB 100, was composed by Anton Bruckner in 1869 between Symphony No. 1 (1866) and Symphony No. 2 (1872). In 1895 Bruckner declared that this symphony "gilt nicht" and he did not assign a number to it. The work was published and premiered in 1924.
The Symphony No. 1 in G minor by Russian composer Vasily Kalinnikov was written from 1894 to 1895 and first published in 1900. The symphony is dedicated to Russian music critic and teacher Semyon Kruglikov.
The Sextet in C major for piano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet and horn, Op. 37, was composed by Ernst von Dohnányi in 1935.