THE NEW WORLD, TO AND FROM

Program Notes

Overture: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Otto Nicolai (1810 - 1849)

Otto Nicolai was a child prodigy who did not begin his musical education until age 16, when his adoptive parents sent him to Berlin to study, and, by the age of 21, he had composed two symphonies. He then began working for the Prussian Embassy in Rome, composing opera librettos that were commissioned, as well as composing his own operas, most of which were tragedies and melodramas. He was known for blending German and Italian influences and focusing on lyricism and lightness. The Merry Wives of Windsor was his only comedy and his only opera written in German.

Nicolai's life was short, only 38 years. He was able to conduct the first orchestral performance of his great work by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra but died from a stroke only two months after that, never having seen an actual staged performance of the completed work. The Vienna Philharmonic still devotes one concert each year to the music of Nicolai, who founded that organization in 1842 and was its first musical director.

The opera is based on the Shakespeare play of the same name, and the overture is entirely drawn from the opera. The overture introduces the main themes and characters of the opera, which chronicles Sir John Falstaff's attempt to woo two married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. It describes his shameless treatment of them, and their cleverness in outwitting him, leaving him humiliated and shamed at the end. The music serves to make it lighthearted and comedic. It begins with a slow introduction, setting down the atmospheric mood of midnight in Windsor Great Park. It is followed by a lively Allegro section, incorporating the themes of the opening section and establishing the main musical theme, which is then cleverly inserted into the remaining music of the overture. The work finishes in a boisterous coda section written in the Italian style.

Beryl McHenry

Cello Concerto in E Minor
Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934)

By the time his Cello Concerto was composed, Elgar had already gained considerable reputation and popularity in the musical community. His Enigma Variations, 20 years earlier had finally gained him the recognition he sought, although he had been composing for many years before that. He had composed a violin concerto 10 years earlier which was well received, but he feared that by 1918 his late romantic style was beginning to bore his listeners. He decided to try something very different.

During the years of World War I, Elgar's health had deteriorated. He was profoundly depressed by the war and had written only a few minor pieces since then. His wife, Alice, suggested a move to the country, where he continued to write some of his most beautiful compositions. The story goes that Elgar underwent surgery for a throat ailment, and while coming out of the anesthesia, he requested pencil and paper and sketched the opening theme of his cello concerto. He completed the work in 1919 and premiered it in London with the London Symphony Orchestra. The premiere did not go well (Elgar felt it had been under-rehearsed), but Elgar made several recordings after that with other cellists. In 1965, Jacqueline Du Pré recorded it and since then the piece has been a staple for solo cellists.

Elgar used an unusual movement plan, one that he had never used before. The first two movements and the last two movements are connected, The work begins slowly with a cello solo, continues at a moderate pace, then moves into the graceful main theme in the orchestra. The cello returns briefly, introduces the second, faster movement. The next set, also slow, uses a cello recitative to ease into the fast and very spirited finale. Earlier themes reappear and the work ends with a last reminder of the main theme.

Critic Donald Tovey writes that the work is “…a fairy tale, full, like all Elgar's larger works, of meditative and intimate passages; full also of humor, which, in the second movement and finale, rises nearer to the surface than Elgar usually permits.”

Beryl McHenry

Enigma Variations
Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934)

A young Edward Elgar had the advantage of growing up in a music shop. The shop was his father's, in their village in the English West Midlands, and Edward spent many hours studying the music that his father sold in his shop and teaching himself to play the instruments. He also taught himself to compose. His abilities were not recognized for many years, however, because of the culture and the time into which he was born. The musical community was slow to accept an English composer. The last English composer of international status was Henry Purcell, in the 17th century. Edgar was a Roman Catholic in a Protestant country. He was the son of a tradesman in a society where class consciousness was primary. He struggled for recognition for most of his early life, in spite of composing continually. He was not able to gain that recognition beyond his native Worcestershire until he had turned 40. He premiered Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma) in 1899, dedicating it to "my friends pictured within."

The work consists of a theme and fourteen variations. The theme is the enigma. In the author's own words, "The enigma I will not explain - its 'dark saying' must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme goes, but is not played…” There has been much speculation over this theme, with some commenters saying they hear God Save The Queen, Pop Goes The Weasel, and Rule Britannia. One interesting suggestion is that the theme is a musical representation of the concept of PI, pointing out that the first four notes are represented numerically as 3,1,4,2 - the first four numerals of PI.

The Variations are not a mystery, but refer to Elgar's friends and acquaintances, with glimpses into their peersonalities. C.A.E. is Elgar's wife, Alice. H.D.S-P was a pianist friend with whom he played. R.B.T. was an explorer, prospector and author. W.M.B. was an acquaintance of unpredictable temperament. R.P.A. was the son of poet Matthew Arnold, whimsical and witty. Ysobel is Isabel Fitton, whom Elgar taught to play the viola. A.T.G. was an architect and trusted friend. W.N. was the owner of an eighteenth century house that Elgar admired. Nimrod was a friend and music editor whom Elgar relied upon. Dorabelle was a dancer who devised dances to Elgar's piano performances. G.R.S. was organist at Hereford Cathedral, but the variation is apparently about his bulldog. B.G.N. was a friend at Oxford. Her variation includes the throbbing of a ship's engine as it takes her to Australia. E.D.U. is a self portrait, presenting a composer finally confident of his stature. The first performance of Enigma was an instant success.

Beryl McHenry