Weekly SpinOn: Sounds Like Spring

Now that spring is finally knocking on our doors, it’s time for the right music to accompany the sprouting flowers and singing birds. Many composers have been inspired by this time of year and have translated the annual reawakening of nature into music.

 

Track 1 – Frühlingsstimmen Walzer / Voices of Spring, Op. 410, Johann Strauss II

When Karajan was invited to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert in 1987, he accepted the offer immediately and gladly, even though it was a very difficult time for him. In an interview with Richard Osborne on his 80th birthday, he recalled that he was in so much pain at the time because of his back problems that he could not sleep for nights on end. Nevertheless, he was delighted to have the opportunity to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which was so close to his heart, especially during the very close collaboration with the orchestra in the 1980s.

“…For three weeks I had nothing to do and I sat down and decided – I have recorded all the pieces before – to see if there was not something more behind the music. So for three weeks, six hours a day, I played the music. And suddenly I was changed in myself. When I came before the orchestra, I had nothing to explain. It was just there. And from this time I knew I had to give up so many things – my sailing and so on – but the music came back 100 times better.”¹ This is how Herbert von Karajan remembered this once-in-a-lifetime event.

The program contained exclusively compositions by the Strauss family, as well as an absolute rarity that remains unique in the history of the New Year’s Concert to this day: Kathleen Battle sang the text of the Spring Voices Waltz, penned by the librettist and long-time Strauss collaborator, Richard Genée, who wrote the lyrical text that poetically celebrates springtime nature, the twittering of birds and the blossoming feelings of love. To this day, vocal interludes are extremely rare at the New Year’s Concert and when they are, they are choral works, but never solo singing. In fact, the waltz was originally written for coloratura soprano and orchestra and Johann Strauss II’s composition was also premiered in this version by his brother Eduard in 1883.

Die Lerche in blaue Höh entschwebt,der Tauwind weht so lau;sein wonniger milder Hauch belebtund küßt das Feld, die Au.Der Frühling in holder Pracht erwacht…..

The lark floats away into the blue heights,the dewy wind blows so balmy;its blissful mild breeze enlivensand kisses the field, the meadow.Spring awakens in its beautiful splendor…..

Frühlingsstimmen, Walzer Op.410 (Musik: Johann Strauss, Text: Richard Genée)

 

Battle’s brilliant coloratura singing, which has the effect of birdsong, and her spring-like red dress were enthusiastically received and the performance remains legendary to this day.

 

Track 2 – The Four Seasons, RV 269 “Spring”: II. Largo e pianissimo sempre, Antonio Vivaldi

This piece also has spring in its name. When you think of music and the depiction of the seasons, the first thing that comes to mind is probably Antonia Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, which is one of the most popular works of classical music. What is less well known, however, is that this work also has a textual basis that came from Vivaldi himself. He wrote a sonnet for each season, making the work program music in more ways than one. Vivaldi faced several challenges at the same time, which is probably what makes this work so appealing. He reconciled a dramatic, extra-musical program with the demands of a three-movement concerto form with the purely musical requirement for harmony and balance. The total of 12 movements (4 concertos of 3 movements each) have a very different character due to the program (the musical representation of the respective season), but the musical structure within each concert remains the same.
For this playlist, I have chosen the 2nd movement of “Spring”, which is, like every other 2 movement of the 4 concerts, in the form of an instrumental aria. That means that instead of human voice, the text is sung by a solo instrument.

In this particular recording with Herbert von Karajan the young Anne-Sophie Mutter played the solo violin. Karajan had recorded the work before with the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, Michel Schwalbé playing the solo violin. In 1984, however, he was determined to record the work again with his protégé, the then 21-year-old Anne-Sophie Mutter.

 

In a discussion of the recording in the online magazine “Pizzicato” I found a very interesting passage, that Karajan had put a major focus on the literary basis:

“Herbert von Karajan endeavors to present the literary text on the basis of which Vivaldi composed and which does not refer to the seasons in general, but to humans and animals, to the flora and the sky that experience these seasons. We hear birds, we hear winds, we ‘see’ flowers. We hear the lament of the goatherd, recognize swarms of mosquitoes, dancing peasants, hunters and dying game, ice skaters and much more.”²

So, let’s look at the words, Anne-Sophie Mutter is playing in the 2. movement of Spring, in this very lyrical and as requested by Vivaldi “always quiet” part of the work:

E quindi sul fiorito ameno pratoAl caro mormorio di fronde e pianteDorme ‘l Caprar col fido can’ à lato.

Und dort, auf schöner, blühender Wiesebeim lieblichen Säuseln von Blättern und Gräsernschläft der Hirt, den treuen Hund zur Seite.

Sonetto Dimostrativo Sopra il Concerto Intitolato, La Primavera, Del Signore D. Antonio Vivaldi

 

Track 3 – Symphony No. 1, op. 38 “Spring”: I. Andante un poco maestoso – Allegro molto vivace, Robert Schumann

Unlike many other works of classical music with famous bynames, which were usually bestowed by shrewd publishers or the public, Robert Schumann gave his 1st Symphony the nickname “Spring” himself. Schumann, who was also a literary figure and a feared music critic, wrote the following about it:

“I wrote the symphony, if I may say so, in that spring urge that may well carry people into their old age and overcomes them anew every year. I did not want to describe or paint; but I do believe that the time in which the symphony was written had an influence on its form, and that it had an influence on why it turned out the way it did.”³

In just four days in January 1841, in “fiery hours”, as he himself described them, he sketched out his entire First Symphony. It was the first time that Schumann had dared to tackle this large-scale work, having previously composed almost exclusively for piano or voice with piano accompaniment. It may be that the energy-boosting spring fever combined with the happiness of the newlywed husband. Only a year earlier, in 1840, he had finally married his beloved Clara.

Schumann also initially gave the individual movements titles. The first movement, for example, was initially entitled: Beginning of Spring. But just like Mahler, he withdrew this again because he did not want to write program music. In this work, he was not concerned with a detailed musical representation of extra-musical content, but rather he wanted to musically capture the general atmosphere of awakening and new beginnings that the arrival of spring evokes. The first trumpet entries should sound like a call to awaken and gradually everything that belongs to spring should come together, from the first green that sprouts to the butterflies that begin to fly again.

Unlike many other works, Karajan played this special symphony by Schumann only one time and made only one recording of the piece in 1971, which makes this recording even more exceptional.

 

Track 4 – Dapnis et Chloé Suite No. 2, Maurice Ravel

The last work in our “spring playlist” is the only one that doesn’t have the season in the title. Maurice Ravel’s work is based on the late antique love novel by the Greek writer Longos. The story, which is dated to the 2nd century, is about the foundlings Daphnis and Chloe, who experience their childhood with shepherds on Lesbos, are separated from each other, find each other again, fall in love and finally find their parents and get married.

Commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes, Maurice Ravel began transforming the story into a “symphonie chorégraphique”. The work, originally conceived as a ballet, premiered in Paris in 1912 with the Ballet Russes. Unfortunately, Ravel’s longest work was not very well received, which was partly due to the discrepancy between Ravel’s extraordinarily lush harmonies and the minimalist staging. But Ravel had already compiled the work into a suite for the concert hall in 1911, even before the premiere. But it is the second suite, composed in 1913, that is most popular, including the one performed by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the track selected.

But what does this work have to do with spring? The action takes place in an idyllic natural setting and begins with a scene depicting a serene spring afternoon. In particular, the section “Lever du jour” (dawn) from Suite No. 2 musically captures the awakening of nature: birds are chirping, streams are babbling, and the sun is rising. These vivid depictions of nature and the representation of a new beginning are what thematically link the work to spring.

This vernal blossoming of Greek nature and young love was captured by the French painter Jean Francois Millet in 1865 in a painting that he characteristically called “Spring”.

The recording of Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 with the Berlin Philharmonic from 1986 shows Karajan’s mastery in rendering impressionistic orchestral textures especially well. The “Lever du jour” (Daybreak) segment, in particular, showcases Karajan’s ability to evoke the gradual emergence of light and showcases his legendary crescendo. The recording is a great example of his late-career focus on French orchestral repertoire. Enjoy!

—  Pia Bernauer (Karajan Institute, Salzburg)