Niccolò Paganini
Violin Concerto No. 1
The Violin Concerto No. 1,
Op. 6, was composed by Paganini in Italy, probably between 1817 and 1818. The
concerto reveals that Paganini’s technical wizardry was fully developed.
Contemporary audiences gasped at the extended passages of double-stop thirds,
both chromatic and in harmonics.
Paganini intended the
Concerto to be heard in E-flat major: the orchestral parts were written in
E-flat, and the solo part was written in D major with instructions for the
violin to be tuned a semitone high (a technique known as scordatura), so that it would therefore sound in E-flat. This
enables the soloist to achieve effects in E-flat which would not be possible
with a normal D tuning (for example, the opening of the third movement, where
the violin plays a rapid downward scale A-G-F♯-E-D, both bowed and pizzicato. This is possible on an
open D-string, but is not possible in the key of E-flat), because two strings
would be required. The key of E flat would mute the sound of the orchestra,
whose strings would play fewer tones on open strings, and this would make the
solo part emerge more clearly from the orchestral accompaniment.
Contemporary audiences did
not realize that Paganini had re-tuned his instrument, and were thus all the
more amazed at what he appeared able to play. (The more musical members of the
audience would have recognized the distinctive sound of a violin's open string,
and would have observed that this fell on the keynote of the work (E-flat), and
would have therefore realized that Paganini had re-tuned his violin.)
More about Paganini
More about Paganini
Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini
(27 October 1782 – 27 May 1840) was born in Genoa, Italy, and was one of the
most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time. He left his mark as one of the
pillars of modern violin technique.
His fame spread across Europe
with a concert tour that started in Vienna in August, 1828, stopping in every
major European city in Germany, Poland, and Bohemia until February 1831 in
Strasbourg. This was followed by tours in Paris and Britain. His technical
ability and his willingness to display it received much critical acclaim.
Throughout his life, Paganini
was no stranger to chronic illnesses. His frequent concert schedule, as well as
his extravagant lifestyle, took their toll on his health. He was diagnosed with
syphilis as early as 1822, and his remedy, which included mercury and opium,
came with serious health and psychological side effects. In 1834, while still
in Paris, he was treated for tuberculosis. Though his recovery was reasonably
quick, his future career was marred with frequent cancellations due to various
health problems, from the common cold to depression, which lasted from days to
months. In September 1834, Paganini put an end to his concert career and
returned to Genoa. Contrary to popular beliefs involving him wishing to keep
his music and techniques secret, Paganini devoted his time to the publication
of his compositions and violin methods.
Paganini was in possession of
a number of fine string instruments. More legendary than these were the
circumstances under which he obtained (and lost) some of them. While Paganini
was still a teenager in Livorno, a wealthy businessman named Livron lent him a
violin, made by the master luthier Giuseppe Guarneri, for a concert. Livron was
so impressed with Paganini's playing that he refused to take it back. This
particular violin came to be known as Il
Cannone Guarnerius. On a later occasion in Parma, he won another valuable
violin (also by Guarneri) after a difficult sight-reading challenge from a man
named Pasini.
Paganini composed his own
works to play exclusively in his concerts, all of which profoundly influenced
the evolution of violin technique. Generally speaking, Paganini's compositions
were technically imaginative, and the timbre of the instrument was greatly
expanded as a result of these works. Sounds of different musical instruments
and animals were often imitated. However, his works were criticized for lacking
characteristics of true polyphonism.
Another aspect of Paganini's
violin techniques concerned his flexibility. He had exceptionally long fingers
and was capable of playing three octaves across four strings in a hand span, an
extraordinarily difficult feat even by today's standards. His seemingly
unnatural ability may have been a result of Marfan syndrome.
Ludwig van Beethoven
From
the genius of Beethoven comes three rousing works on May 10. Two will be
musically brilliant overtures—one to the play Egmont, Op. 84, and the other from the opera Fidelio, Op. 72—and the complete incidental music to the play The Ruins of Athens, Op. 113. (An
“overture” is generally a short musical piece that precedes a longer work, such
as an opera, a play or a musical comedy, and often comprises themes from the
main work. “Incidental music” functions as background
music and accompanies the action of a movie, play, or television program.)
The
first overture that will be performed by Valentin Radu and the Ama Deus
Ensemble orchestra on May 10 originally was written to open an 1810 play
entitled Egmont. Written about 20
years earlier by the famed poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, this play related
the heroic story of Lamoral, Count of Egmont, who was a popular 16th century
Dutch nobleman and patriot who unsuccessfully fought for Dutch independence
against the occupying Hapsburg Spanish. Although Egmont paid for his beliefs
with his life, his beheading in 1568 was the spark that led to Dutch
independence about 80 years later. Now flash forward to the early 1800s. With
Napoleon Bonaparte’s imperial armies marching about all of Europe, the story of
the valiant Egmont was a timely and popular one. And, as is well known,
Beethoven grew to despise Napoleon.
The
second overture on the May 10 concert in the Kimmel Center is from Beethoven’s
only opera, Fidelio. Beethoven was
not satisfied with Fidelio after its
debut on November 20, 1805, in Vienna. It had been a highly inauspicious night;
the opera house was filled with French military men glowing from their recent
conquest of Vienna! Beethoven modified Fidelio
for performances in the spring of 1806 and yet again for a May 1814 revival.
Over these nearly 10 years, Beethoven wrote four different overtures that
survive.
Fidelio
Fidelio (Op. 72) is Beethoven's only opera. The opera tells
how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named Fidelio, rescues her husband
Florestan from death in a political prison. This scenario fits Beethoven's
aesthetic and political outlook: a story of personal sacrifice, heroism and
eventual triumph (the usual topics of Beethoven's "middle period"),
with its underlying struggle for liberty and justice mirroring contemporary
political movements in Europe.
As elsewhere in Beethoven's
vocal music, the music is not especially kind to the singers. The principal
parts of Leonore and Florestan, in particular, require great vocal skill and
endurance in order to project the necessary intensity, and top performances in
these roles attract admiration.
Some notable moments in the
opera include the "Prisoners' Chorus", an ode to freedom sung by a
chorus of political prisoners; Florestan's vision of Leonore come as an angel
to rescue him; and the scene in which the rescue finally takes place. The
finale celebrates Leonore's bravery with alternating contributions of soloists
and chorus.
Like many other works in
Beethoven's career, Fidelio went through several versions before
achieving full success. The opera was first produced in a three-act version at
Vienna's Theater an der Wien on 20 November 1805, with additional performances
the following two nights. The 1805 and 1806 versions are referred to, by
academic convention, as Leonore in order to distinguish them from the
final two-act version. However all three versions were premiered as Fidelio.
In 1814 Beethoven revised his
opera yet again, with additional work on the libretto by Georg Friedrich
Treitschke. This version was first performed at the Kärntnertortheater on 23
May 1814 under the title Fidelio. The 17-year-old Franz Schubert was in
the audience, having sold his school books to obtain a ticket. The increasingly
deaf Beethoven led the performance, "assisted" by Michael Umlauf, who
later performed the same task for Beethoven at the premiere of the Ninth
Symphony.
Beethoven cannot be said to
have enjoyed the difficulties posed by writing and producing an opera. In a
letter to Treitschke he said, "I assure you, dear Treitschke, that this
opera will win me a martyr's crown. You have by your co-operation saved what is
best from the shipwreck. For all this I shall be eternally grateful to
you." The opera was published in
all three versions as Beethoven's Opus 72.
The Overtures to Fidelio
Beethoven struggled to
produce an appropriate overture for Fidelio, and ultimately went through
four versions. His first attempt, for the 1805 premiere, is believed to have
been the overture now known as "Leonore No. 2". Beethoven then
focused this version for the performances of 1806, creating "Leonore No.
3". The latter is considered by many listeners as the greatest of the four
overtures, but as an intensely dramatic, full-scale symphonic movement it had
the effect of overwhelming the (rather light) initial scenes of the opera.
Beethoven accordingly experimented with cutting it back somewhat, for a planned
1808 performance in Prague; this is believed to be the version now called
"Leonore No. 1". Finally, for the 1814 revival Beethoven began anew,
and with fresh musical material wrote what we now know as the Fidelio Overture.
As this somewhat lighter overture seems to work best of the four as a start to
the opera, Beethoven's final intentions are generally respected in contemporary
productions.
The Ruins
of Athens
The May 10 concert in
the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater will conclude in rousing style with a
highly enjoyable but infrequently performed work. The Ama Deus Ensemble
orchestra, chorus, and stellar, operatic vocal soloists, will present
Beethoven’s complete incidental music to the 1811 play The Ruins of Athens (Die
Ruinen von Athen). The play bemoans the capture of Athens by barbaric
Turkish forces who do not value Greek art—after all, this is only a few years
after Lord Elgin “saved” the Parthenon’s marbles for posterity! The
chauvinistic, pro-European plot line of The
Ruins of Athens inspired Beethoven to compose some marvelous music,
including a famed, rousing overture, stirring choruses and operatic vocal
scenes. Above all, there is the “Turkish March,” a distinctive type of jaunty
march music, replete with a preponderance of percussion instruments, clanging
triangles and piccolos, that captivated European audiences and composers,
including Mozart, Beethoven and others. Maestro Radu’s featured vocal soloists
will be soprano Julie-Ann
Green and basso Kevin Deas.