SHOSTAKOVICH: Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a

Chamber Symphony for Strings in C minor, Op. 110a (after String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110) (1960; arr. 1967) (Arranged by Rudolf Barshai)

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)

In July 1960, Shostakovich was in Dresden composing the score for a joint Soviet–East German film about the Second World War called Five Days, Five Nights. So moved was he by the subject of the story and by the still-unhealed scars of the city, which the Allies had reduced to rubble in 1945 in a single night of the most fearsome bombing in the history of warfare, that he poured his feelings into the musical form that he had entrusted with his most personal thoughts — the string quartet. The Eighth Quartet was composed in three days in Dresden and dedicated to “the memory of the victims of fascism and the war.” It was premiered on October 2nd in Leningrad by the Beethoven Quartet, though the composer had to miss the performance because he was hospitalized to treat a broken leg he had suffered in September at the wedding of his son, Maxim.

In Testimony, Shostakovich’s purported memoirs, the composer stated that the Eighth is “an autobiographical quartet.” Without giving elucidating details, he implied that its essential message is carried by the title of a well-known song of the Russian Revolution that he quoted in the fourth movement: Exhausted by the Hardships of Prison. The chief motive running through the Quartet, and providing the germ for much of its thematic material, is Shostakovich’s musical “signature” — DSCH, the notes D–E-flat– C–B. (The note D represents his initial. In German transliteration, the composer’s name begins “Sch”: S [ess] in German notation equals E-flat, C is C, and H equals B-natural.)

The Quartet is in five continuous movements. The DSCH motive is heard immediately in imitation in the somber opening of the first movement. Three other themes provide contrast: a quotation in dotted rhythms from the First Symphony; an eerie descending chromatic scale; and a reminiscence of the Fifth Symphony. The four thematic elements are recapitulated and lead without pause to a furious toccata, brutal, hammering music depicting the destruction of war. The third movement is a scherzo, by turns sardonic and lyrical. The slow fourth movement explodes with an accompaniment figure transmogrified into gunshots. The three lower voices in unison play a melody from the Eleventh Symphony (“The Year 1905”) of 1957. After a repetition of the gunshots, the Russian song Exhausted by the Hardships of Prison is intoned by the first violins. The gunshots, the Russian Revolutionary song, and the Eleventh Symphony motive in condensed versions serve as the movement’s coda. The finale eschews Romantic apotheosis in favor of 20th-century doubt. The austere mood and the DSCH theme of the first movement return, and the music seems hardly able to maintain its forward motion. Its energy dissipated, perhaps through catharsis or just from weariness, the music dies away on an inconclusive, open-interval harmony.

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 Eroica

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, “Eroica” (1803-1804)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

The “Eroica” (“Heroic”) is a work that changed the course of musical history. There was much sentiment at the turn of the 19th century that the expressive and technical possibilities of the symphonic genre had been exhausted by Haydn, Mozart, C.P.E. Bach and their contemporaries. It was Beethoven, and specifically this majestic Symphony, that threw wide the gates on the unprecedented artistic vistas that were to be explored for the rest of the 19th century. For the first time, with this music, the master composer was recognized as an individual responding to a higher calling. After Beethoven, composers came to be regarded as visionaries — special beings lifted above mundane experience — who could guide benighted listeners to loftier planes of existence through their valued gifts. The modern conception of the Artist — what they are, their place in society, what they can do for those who experience their work — stems from Beethoven. Romanticism began with the “Eroica.”

The vast first movement opens with a summons of two mighty chords. At least four thematic ideas are presented in the exposition. The development is a massive essay progressing through many moods, all united by a sense of titanic struggle. It is in this central portion of the movement and in the lengthy coda that Beethoven broke through the boundaries of the 18th-century symphony to create a work not only longer in duration but also more profound in meaning. The beginning of the Marcia funebre (“Funeral March”), with its plaintive themes intoned over a mock drum-roll in the basses, is the touchstone for the expression of tragedy in instrumental music. A development-like section, full of remarkable contrapuntal complexities, is followed by a return of the opening threnody. The third movement is a lusty Scherzo; the central section is a rousing trio for horns. The Finale is a large set of variations on two themes, the first of which provides the bass line for the other. The second theme, introduced by the oboe, also appears in Beethoven’s ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, Contradanse No. 7 and Variations and Fugue, Op. 35. The variations accumulate energy, and, just as it seems the movement is whirling toward its final climax, the music comes to a full stop before launching into an Andante section that explores first the tender and then the majestic possibilities of the themes. A brilliant Presto led by the horns concludes this epochal work.

Jaap van Zweden, Conductor

Conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents over the past decade.  The 2018-19 season marks his first as the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic.  He continues as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a post he has held since 2012.   Guest engagements this season include the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, San Francisco Symphony, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra where he is Conductor Laureate. 

He has appeared as guest conductor with many other leading orchestras around the globe, among them the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, Orchestre national de France, and London Symphony Orchestra. 

In his inaugural season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, Jaap van Zweden conducts repertoire ranging from five World Premieres to symphonic cornerstones. He also presides over three major season pillars that contextualize music through a variety of programs complemented by citywide collaborations. Music of Conscience explores composers’ responses to the social issues of their time, with music by Beethoven, Shostakovich, John Corigliano, and David Lang. New York Stories: Threads of Our City looks at musical expressions of the immigrant experience in New York, with music by Julia Wolfe. The Art of Andriessen spotlights the music of Dutch composer Louis Andriessen.  Maestro van Zweden also welcomes New Yorkers to Phil the Hall — special concerts for the community — and to the Annual Free Memorial Day Concert, as well as the Concerts in the Parks. 

Jaap van Zweden has made numerous acclaimed recordings, the most recent of which are live New York Philharmonic performances of Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 released on CD and for streaming and download in February 2018; this release launches the Philharmonic’s partnership with Decca Gold, Universal Music Group’s newly established U.S. classical music label. In 2018 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, he completed a four-year project conducting the first-ever performances in Hong Kong of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, which have been recorded and released on Naxos Records.  His highly praised performances of Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger and Parsifal, the latter of which earned Maestro van Zweden the prestigious Edison award for Best Opera Recording in 2012, are available on CD/DVD. 

The Amsterdam-born van Zweden was appointed at age nineteen as the youngest concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and began his conducting career nearly twenty years later in 1996. He remains Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, where he served as Chief Conductor from 2005-2013. He also held the Chief Conductor post of the Royal Flanders Orchestra from 2008-11.  Van Zweden was named Musical America's 2012 Conductor of the Year in recognition of his critically acclaimed work as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and as guest conductor with the most prestigious US orchestras. 

In 1997, Jaap van Zweden and his wife Aaltje established the Papageno Foundation, the objective being to support families of children with autism. Now, 20 years later, the Foundation has grown into a multi-faceted organization which, through various initiatives and activities, focuses on the development of children and young adults with autism.  These initiatives include: providing music therapy to children in their own homes via a national network in The Netherlands of qualified music therapists; opening the Papageno House, in August 2015 with Her Majesty Queen Maxima in attendance, for young adults with autism to live, to work and to participate in the community; creating a  research  center at the Papageno House for early diagnosis and treatment of autism and for analyzing  the effects of music therapy on autism; developing funding opportunities to support autism programs; and most recently launching a new app, TEAMPapageno, which allows children with autism to communicate with each other through music composition.

Photo: Bert Hulselmans