Overture Magazine: 2016-2017 Season September - October 2016 | Page 21

Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes,
two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon,
two horns, two trumpets, three trombones,
timpani and strings.
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, Copyright ©2016

Featuring the Ballet Theatre of Maryland
with the award winning choreography by Artistic Director, Dianna Cuatto
Danced to Tchaikovsky’s score
played live by the

CONCERT ARTISTS
OF BALTIMORE
EDWARD POLOCHICK,
Artistic Director
MICHAEL REPPER,
Conductor

PHOTO © DONNA COLE

The Andante con moto second
movement might be called Beethoven’s
“War and Peace.” In an original treatment
of the double-variations form devised by
Haydn (two different themes alternating
in variations), he mixes variants on a
peaceful, pastoral melody with episodes
of martial might in C Major that foretell
the victory to come. Ultimately, even
the pastoral music is trumpeted forth in
military splendor. The movement closes
with a haunting, visionary coda.
E.M. Forster’s novel Howard’s End
contains one of the most evocative
passages ever about classical music
as it describes the Fifth’s quirkily
ominous Scherzo. “The music started
with a goblin walking quietly over
the universe, from end to end. Others
followed him. They were not aggressive
creatures … They merely observed in
passing that there was no such thing
as splendor or heroism in the world.”
Horns respond to the cello goblins with
a military fanfare derived from the Fate
motive. After the comical trio section in
which Beethoven asked double basses to
be agile melodists (a feat beyond players’
capacities in his period, though not
today), the goblins return, even more
eerily in bassoons and pizzicato strings.
Then ensues one of Beethoven’s greatest
passages: a dark, drum-filled journey
groping toward the light.
The music finally emerges into
C-Major daylight with the finale’s
joyful trumpet theme. This is
the grandfather of all symphonic
triumphant endings and remains the
most exhilarating and convincing. In
a masterstroke, Beethoven brings back
the Scherzo music to shake us from
any complacency. E.M. Forster again:
“But the goblins were there. They could
return. He had said so bravely, and that
is why one can trust Beethoven when he
says other things.”

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September–November 2016 |

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