Euryanthe overture program notes

Carl Maria von Weber has barely survived that process, and he, one of the most well-known conductors and members of the musical community of the first half of the nineteenth century, is now remembered for only a few of his voluminous compositions.

The overture to his penultimate opera, Euryanthe , is one of them. During his heyday he composed in almost every genre, held important positions as a conductor he is considered one of the fathers of modern conducting , traveled widely, wrote respected music criticism and essays, and knew almost every important continental musician. Furthermore, he is considered one of the most important composers as late musical classicism moved into the romantic age. Of course, the towering figure of Beethoven obscured many like folks of the time.

It is generally considered a major step leading to the creation of German romantic opera, and an important precursor of Meyerbeer and Wagner. On receiving the commission from Barbaia, he began to search in earnest for a librettist. It was—to put it mildly—a bomb. The spooky music for muted violins that follows is associated the ghosts Emma and Udo—a pair of frustrated lovers who had committed suicide rather than live apart.

Their main role in the opera is in fact to explain the tortured plot to the audience, and to act as a deus ex machina in the final scenes.

Weber wraps the overture up with a rather solemn fugal development and a rousing recapitulation. Igor Stravinsky Petrushka Suite version. In , Stravinsky published a suite for concert performance.

The suite has appeared twice previously on these concerts, in and In , the Parisian public expected great things of young Igor Stravinsky. There was an ongoing craze for Russian music and ballet, fueled by the shrewd impresario Serge Diaghilev, who had brought Stravinsky to Paris two years earlier. According to his autobiography, his second work for the Ballet Russe, Petrushka , began as a sort of compositional coffee break between Firebird and Rite of Spring :.

In composing the music, I had in mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggi. The orchestra in turn retaliates with menacing trumpet blasts. The outcome is a terrific noise which reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet. Having finished this bizarre piece, I struggled for hours, while walking beside Lake Geneva, to find a title which would express in a word the character of my music and consequently the personality of this creature.

I had indeed found my title— Petrushka , the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries. Soon afterwards, Diaghilev came to visit me in Clarens, where I was staying. He was much astonished when, instead of sketches of the Rite , I played him the piece Petrushka. The scenario that Stravinsky and Diaghilev created is set at a Shrove-tide fair Mardi Gras or Carnival season in our part of the world in St. Petersburg, complete with gypsies, dancing bears, masqueraders, and a puppet show.

The puppets— Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Blackamoor—suddenly come to life. The ballet, which was partly done in pantomime, is a tragic love triangle between these three characters, in which Petrushka is killed. The ballet ends as the Showman flees in terror. Petrushka was a hit in Paris, and again a year later in England. Duration Despite some severe cuts by local censors, this performance matched the reaction to the Berlin premiere six months earlier, and Weber promptly received a commission from the impresario Domenico Barbaia for a new opera to be performed during the season in Vienna.

On receiving the commission from Barbaia, he began to search in earnest for a librettist. It was—to put it mildly—a bomb. The spooky music for muted violins that follows is associated the ghosts Emma and Udo—a pair of frustrated lovers who had committed suicide rather than live apart. Their main role in the opera is in fact to explain the tortured plot to the audience, and to act as a deus ex machina in the final scenes.

Weber wraps the overture up with a rather solemn fugal development and a rousing recapitulation. Igor Stravinsky Petrushka Suite version. In , Stravinsky published a suite for concert performance. The suite has appeared twice previously on these concerts, in and In , the Parisian public expected great things of young Igor Stravinsky.

There was an ongoing craze for Russian music and ballet, fueled by the shrewd impresario Serge Diaghilev, who had brought Stravinsky to Paris two years earlier. According to his autobiography, his second work for the Ballet Russe, Petrushka , began as a sort of compositional coffee break between Firebird and Rite of Spring :. In composing the music, I had in mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggi.

The orchestra in turn retaliates with menacing trumpet blasts. The outcome is a terrific noise which reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet. Having finished this bizarre piece, I struggled for hours, while walking beside Lake Geneva, to find a title which would express in a word the character of my music and consequently the personality of this creature. I had indeed found my title— Petrushka , the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries.

Soon afterwards, Diaghilev came to visit me in Clarens, where I was staying. He was much astonished when, instead of sketches of the Rite , I played him the piece Petrushka. The scenario that Stravinsky and Diaghilev created is set at a Shrove-tide fair Mardi Gras or Carnival season in our part of the world in St. Petersburg, complete with gypsies, dancing bears, masqueraders, and a puppet show.

The puppets— Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Blackamoor—suddenly come to life. The ballet, which was partly done in pantomime, is a tragic love triangle between these three characters, in which Petrushka is killed.