Program Notes
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
In the South (Alassio), Op. 50
Duration: ca. 20 minutes
England was a proud musical nation long before
many other countries had developed their own
identity, in part because of its strong choral
tradition honed in the country’s many cathedrals.
Composers such as William Byrd, Thomas Tallis,
John Dowland, Henry Purcell, and John Dunstable
injected England with a musical richness that forms
an arch reaching modern musicians and listeners.
The first important English opera, Purcell’s Dido and
Aeneas, is one of the oldest in the repertoire and
continues to be widely performed today.
But English music began to wane, and for two
centuries only minor composers ruled the land.
The public also began a fascination with things
foreign: Handel operas and oratorios, symphonies
by Haydn, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. By the late 19th
century, English music was playing catch up, and its
national repertoire paled compared to the rugged
individualism of Russia, Germany, and France. The
running joke in Europe was that England was a
“land without music.’’
Elgar helped get the country back on track, albeit
with a conservative playbook that appealed mostly
to the upper class. Along with Ralph Vaughan
Williams, Ethel Smyth and Gustav Holst, Elgar
helped spawn an English musical Renaissance
that continued with Benjamin Britten and other
prominent composers of the later 20th century.
Elgar’s place in today’s concert hall stands on music
of refined, noble, melodic, and proudly national
intent. The conductor Hans Richter called Elgar’s
First Symphony the “greatest symphony of modern
times,” and the list of masterpieces continues with
the Enigma Variations, Cello Concerto, Pomp and
Circumstance marches (remember your high school
graduation music?), the Serenade for Strings, and
Dream of Gerontius.
Less known but just as luxuriant is the 20-minute
postcard tone poem, In the South, also known as
Alassio for the small Italian town that inspired Elgar
during a family vacation there in 1903. “In a flash, it
all came to me,’’ he said that year. “The conflict of
the armies on that very spot long ago, where I now
stood; the contrast of the ruin and the shepherd;
and then, all of the sudden, I came back to reality.
THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2018-2019
In that time I had composed the overture; the rest
was merely writing it down.’’
Set in the key of E-flat, the work includes as its
centerpiece a cantor popolare, or folk song, played
on the solo viola. Elgar made use of traditional
sonata form for his scaffolding, and the atmosphere
hints of the music of Richard Strauss in its expansive,
wave-like flow of material and barrages of brass.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Duration: ca. 26 minutes
At the tender age of 17, when most of us are
struggling through high school, Mendelssohn was
putting the finishing touches on his overture to A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, a marvel of musical art
that placed him in the pantheon of the most gifted
composers of any era. Educated, cultured, skilled
in the visual and literary arts, Mendelssohn had
prepped for greatness, and included in his circle of
friends such giants as Goethe and Schumann.
Like Mozart, Mendelssohn died young and at the
height of his power. For years he had suffered from
severe headaches that left him bedridden, but it
took the death of his beloved sister, Fanny, to hasten
his end. Mendelssohn exposed his tormented soul
in his last major work, the tragic String Quartet in F
minor, and died at age 38 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Mendelssohn left a remarkable legacy in almost all
forms of music. His best-loved work is undoubtedly
the Violin Concerto, a cornerstone of the concert
hall and a must for any violin virtuoso. Audiences
love its sweetly lyrical opening melody, set against
a veil of hushed tension, and the organization of its
three movements – including a surprise cadenza
that appears before rather than after the orchestra
restates the main themes.
Perhaps most intriguing about the concerto is its
mood: a mix of pathos, melancholy and exuberance.
There is something childlike about this music, but how
could a child so effortlessly blend pathos, melancholy
and exuberance? It is the first major violin concerto in
which the soloist enters before the orchestra develops
its initial themes. The violin writing is virtuosic
throughout the first movement, serene in the middle
andante, and a dash of bravado involving the entire
orchestra brings it to a close.
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