Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season January-February 2016 | Page 20

{ program notes
of water, he also didn’t want to cross the
English Channel). And when in March
1879 the University of Breslau announced
it was making him an honorary doctor of
philosophy, he fired off a postcard to his
friend Bernard Scholz, asking him to convey to the university faculty his thanks and
acceptance, hoping that would take care of
the matter. Scholz informed him that this
was not sufficient; the University expected
him to appear in person and to create a
musical work for them in appreciation.
Brahms set to work in the summer of
1880. But he dipped into his streak of
irreverent humor for inspiration. In its doctoral citation, Breslau had proclaimed him
“present leader in Germany of music of
the more serious sort.” With his boisterous
Academic Festival Overture based on undergraduate drinking songs, Brahms set out to
stand this pompous phrase on its head.
Brahms had never enjoyed the luxury
of a university or even a conservatory
education. His only contact with student
life came in the summer of 1853 when
he spent two months staying with his
friend the great violinist Joseph Joachim
(for whom he wrote his Violin Concerto)
while Joachim studied at the University of
Göttingen. Only 20, he mingled with his
wealthier peers drinking in the taverns.
The songs he learned then filled the
Academic Festival.
Even the Overture’s opening is a spoof
of “artis musicae severioris”: music in
C minor full of earnestly chugging strings,
spooky woodwind arpeggios, and portentously dramatic chords. But this impression
slips away as as the key moves to
C major and the brass peal forth the
student hymn “We Had Built a Stately
House” in marching-band style. Soon the
strings soar upward with the nostalgic
“High Festival Song.” And Brahms fully
reveals his mischief by making his third
theme the freshman hazing song “Fuchsenritt” (“Fox Ride”), tootled comically by
two bassoons; he even uses this tune for
his development section. For the Overture’s Maestoso conclusion, he picks a song
known in universities worldwide, “Gaudeamus igitur,” and he tarts it up with all the
clashing cymbals and brass and percussion
bombast his large orchestra can muster.

18 O v ertur e |

www. bsomusic .org

Oboe Concerto

Christopher Rouse
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, February 15,
1949; now living in Baltimore

One of today’s greatest composers, Baltimore native Christopher Rouse continually
surprises us with his mesmerizing orchestral music. Early in his career when he was
the BSO’s composer-in-residence, he was
renowned for writing intricate, very fast,
and often extremely loud music, such as
The Infernal Machine and Gorgon, what he
called his “wild style.” But as he grew older,
he turned more to slower music expressing great intensity of feeling, such as his
Symphony No. 1 (winner of the prestigious
1988 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award)
cast in one long Adagio movement. And
his grim-visaged works dealing with the
tragedies of human life were gradually
infiltrated by more joyful pieces, such as his
Rapture heard here last season.
With his Oboe Concerto, we experience
music of often ravishing loveliness designed
to show off an instrument known for its
poignant tonal beauty. The Oboe Concerto
demonstrates the care and understanding
he brings to each solo instrument he writes
for. Throughout the score, the orchestra is
superbly balanced against this instrument,
whose tone is penetrating but not extremely
powerful. Wonderful colors are chosen to
complement the oboe, including the shimmering sounds of harp and celesta, and the
melancholy alto flute as a shadow companion to the brighter-voiced soloist.
The composer describes the Concerto
as follows: “Since 1985, I have composed
more than ten concerti, and I have noticed
that they seem to fall into one of two categories: ‘somber’ (e.g. trombone, violoncello) and ‘genial’ (guitar, clarinet). My Oboe
Concerto, commissioned by the Minnesota
Orchestra and completed in 2004, is of the
latter variety. …
“Unlike some of my other concerti, there
is no overt program to this piece. It aims,
of course, to explore th