NEC Philharmonia + Hugh Wolff: Beethoven, Langer, Strauss

Ludwig van Beethoven | Leonore Overture No. 2 in C Major, op. 72a

Program note

“Of all my children, this one gave me the worst birth pains and brought me the most sorrow.”  Thus Ludwig van Beethoven described the composition of his only opera, Fidelio.  He began work on it as Leonore in 1804, finally finishing Fidelio in 1814.  In between were two unsuccessful productions.  The Leonore Overture no. 2, despite its number, was the first one he wrote and was performed at the disastrous premiere of November 1805.  Perhaps Beethoven’s most original orchestral composition, it is a through-composed fantasia on the themes and feelings of the opera.  The opening fortissimo unison Gs and slow descending scale conjure up the slamming of the prison door and slow descent into the basement dungeon.  Within eight measures Beethoven moves from C major to B minor, then abruptly to A-flat major, and the woodwinds quote the above-mentioned aria of Florestan.  A mysterious pianissimo transition leads to an Allegro ­–– rescue music that starts more as dream than reality.  Minutes later, a distant trumpet signals the impending arrival of rescuers.  Virtually every measure of this astounding overture describes one of four emotions: the cruelty of the oppressor, the fear and frailty of the oppressed, the dream of a better world, or the drama of rescue.

Elena Langer | Leonora's Dream (2022)

World premiere

Program note

I am mostly a composer of operas, so it was particularly nice that the New England Conservatory asked me to write an orchestral response to Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. Fidelio is a she in the story, a woman called Leonora who, disguised as a man, frees her husband from prison. My piece is written, so to speak, from Leonora’s point of view. I wanted to express her indomitable spirit,  her feelings of joy and hope, alongside moments of softness and lyricism.
        Beethoven wrote several overtures to his Leonora story. Since all three Leonora overtures share one musical element, the first phrase of Florestan’s aria 'In des Lebens Frühlingstagen' ('In the springtime days of life') from the opera's second act, I wanted to include and play with some musical elements from that aria. I use Beethoven’s motif at the beginning, but stretch it in time and let it ring and tinkle, using high orchestral instruments combined with glockenspiel and flexatone; then the music gradually develops into an imaginary chorus of songbirds. In the fast section I played with the idea of a major triad, and you will hear a lot of ‘jumping’, fast-changing, percussive orchestral triads. 
        It was important for me to know I was writing for young musicians. I enjoyed giving each orchestral player a little song, so there are many solos and divisi passages, but sometimes the orchestra plays in a happy, strong unison.”                        
– Elena Langer

INTERMISSION

Richard Strauss | Don Quixote (Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character), op. 35 (1897)

Introduction          
Thema: Don Quixote, the Knight of Sorrowful Countenance; Maggiore: Sancho Panza
Variation I: The Attack on the Giant (actually windmills)
Variation II: The Attack on a Hostile ArmY (actually sheep)
Variation III: Dialogue of the Knight and the Squire (meditations on chivalry)
Variation IV: The Rescue of the Abducted Maiden (actually pilgrims with an icon of the Virgin Mary)
Variation V: Don Quixote’s Vigil (nocturnal meditation on love and loneliness)
Variation VI: The Encounter with the beloved Dulcinea (actually a peasant girl)
Variation VII: The Ride through the Air (firmly anchored on the ground)
Variation VIII: The Adventure in the Enchanted Boat                         
Variation IX: The Combat with the Two Satanists (actually monks)
Variation X: The Defeat of Don Quixote by the Knight of the White Moon
Finale: The Death of Don Quixote

Program note

Richard Strauss was a musical storyteller, whether through the more obvious form of opera, or – less intuitively – the symphonic poem.  Till Eulenspiegel, Don Juan, and Also sprach Zarathustra all have the written word as their starting point.  The most elaborately literary of all is his Don Quixote, fancifully subtitled “Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character”, and based on the classic 17th century novel by Cervantes.  The role Don Quixote de la Mancha is taken by the solo cello; his trusty sidekick and manservant Sancho Panza, by the solo viola with help from the unlikley duo of bass clarinet and tenor tuba. 
        In Cervantes’ story, the aged Don has read too many books about the wonders of knighthood, filling his addled brain with such fantasies that proper judgment goes by

the wayside.  A lengthy introduction depicts this loss of sanity with complex, contrapuntal music that veers toward the atonal (especially striking for 1897).  The knight then introduces himself (Thema: solo cello) followed by Sancho Panza (Maggiore: solo viola).  The ten knightly “adventures” that follow are misadventures with unfortunate outcomes.  First (Variation I), the pair come across windmills.  Thinking they are giants, the knight charges, only to be dumped unceremoniously from his steed.  Next (Variation II) is a flock of sheep (depicted with astounding originality and accuracy by flutter-tonguing muted brass), mistaken for a hostile army.  Again, the knight charges and again he is rudely separated from his horse.  What follows is a long two-part Variation III.  First the Don and Sancho Panza in dialog: the former expounding on idealism and chivalry, the latter responding with ever more banal platitudes (silly solo viola melodies with four-square phrasing and harmonies).  Finally, the Don loses patience with his servant and chastises him for lack of ideals.  What follows is an exquisite slow movement, rich in voluptuous Straussian melodies, as Don Quixote waxes rhapsodic on the wonders of knighthood.  Sancho Panza’s reaction is a puzzled “Huh?” from the bass clarinet which elicits another frustrated outburst from the Don.  Off they go again (Variation IV), this time encountering a group of pilgrims carrying an icon of the Virgin Mary.  Thinking they are bandits with an abducted maiden, the Don challenges them with similarly predictable results.  Quixote picks himself up off the ground, and Sancho Panza laughs in delight that his master is still in one piece.  Night falls and the Don keeps a vigil over his armor (Variation V).  He dreams of Dulcinea, the idealized and unattainable woman, in a deeply felt and melancholy variation for solo cello, supported simply by the orchestra cellos and occasional harp glissandi.  A passing peasant girl with a tambourine awakens him from this reverie (Variation VI).  Thinking her Dulcinea, turned by wizards from goddess to strumpet, he attempts her “rescue.”  Not the least interested in being “rescued,” she casts him aside.  Next is a trip on flying horses (Variation VII), in fact hobby horses rooted to the ground.  A wind machine conjures speeding through the air, while a pedal point D in the timpani, tuba, and double basses, firmly held for the entire variation, confirms that liftoff was never achieved.  From the air to the water, the Don and Sancho Panza now board an “enchanted” boat (Variation VIII), only to have it capsize (the tenor tuba’s leitmotif is literally inverted).  Sopping wet, the pair shake off the water (stuttering pizzicati in all strings) and quickly offer a prayer of thanks (quiet woodwind phrase).  Next up (Variation IX), the pair see a couple of monks chanting in Latin (another bit of orchestrational magic from Strauss: two bassoons in close quasi-renaissance counterpoint).  Sure they are Satanists, the Don creeps up on them and sends them running for their lives.  Variation X, the wild battle with the Knight of the White Moon, ends with the Don’s final and most dramatic defeat.  Accepting his fate, the Don’s sanity and judgment return.  In a heartfelt Finale, full of longing, regret, and – finally – acceptance, the solo cello gives us Don Quixote’s final thoughts.  With a quiet descending octave glissando, the knight breathes his last.  As Cervantes writes, “never has a mind died so mildly, so peacefully.”

Leland Philip Ko

Leland Ko is the kind of person who's always had an overflow of energy.  His restlessness has led him to various callings, from calligraphy and origami to competitive tennis and distance running, but so far he’s found that making music with and for others – and the process that goes into that – are the things that best keep him seated and focus his mind.  Though he has chosen to dedicate himself to classical music, he does his best to remember and live by a former mentor’s advice that music is about life, not the other way around.
        A cellist of Chinese-Canadian descent, yet born and raised in the Boston area, Leland was a long-time student of Ronald Lowry and Paul Katz before attending Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. in German Literature.  He went on to complete an M.M. at The Juilliard School under the teaching of Minhye Clara Kim, Timothy Eddy, and Natasha Brofsky, and began as an Artist Diploma candidate at New England Conservatory in the Fall of 2022 with Laurence Lesser.        Since the end of 2020, Leland plays on the ex-Peled, ex-Greenhouse Thomas Dodd from 1790.

Personnel

First Violin
Jaewon Wee
SooBeen Lee
Yulia Watanabe-Price
Qiyan Xing
Anatol Toth
Yebin Yoo
Caroline Jesalva
Anthony Chan
Felicitas Schiffner
Hila Dahari
Bella Jeong
Bree Fotheringham
Youngji Choi
Haerim Oh

Second Violin
Nick Hammel
Xiaoqing Yu
Eunha Kim
Joshua Brown
Hyeon Hong
Kristy Chen
Kathryn Amaral
Isabella Gorman
Minami Yoshida
Hannah O’Brien
Claire Byeol Kim
Nozomi Murayama
Eric Chen

Viola
Cara Pogossian
Aidan Garrison
Yeh-Chun Lin
Lisa Sung
Elton Tai
Samuel Zacharia
Bram Fisher
Kwong Man To
Njord Fossnes
Ayano Nakamura
Sophia Tseng
Adam Newman

Cello
Soobin Kong
Lillian Yim
Lily Stern
Bennet Huang
Daniel Kim
Youjin Ko
Dilshod Narzillaev
JungAh Lee
Seoyeon Koo
Hao Wang

Bass
Yu-Cih Chang
Gregory Padilla
Alyssa Peterson
Chiyang Chen
Yihan Wu
Willie Swett

Flute
Javier Castro
Jeong Won Choe *
Jay Kim
Amelia Libbey ‡
Yang Liu §
Subin Serena Oh

Piccolo
Chia-Fen Chang §
Anne Chao ‡

Oboe
Dane Bennett *
Donovan Bown
Kian Hirayama ‡
Sojeong Kim
Kelley Osterberg
Sam Rockwood §

English horn
Gwen Goble ‡
Alexander Lenser §

Clarinet
Tristan Broadfoot §
Hyunwoo Chun ‡
Chenrui Lin
Aleksis Martin
Soyeon Park *
Erica Smith

E-flat Clarinet
Erica Smith

Bass Clarinet
Thomas Acey §
Aleksis Martin ‡

Bassoon
Zoe Beck ‡
Andrew Brooks
Garrett Comrie
John Fulton
Miranda Macias *§
Julien Rollins

Contrabassoon
Adam Chen §
Matthew Heldt ‡

French horn
Logan Fischer ‡
Karlee Kamminga *
Huimin Mandy Liu
Yeonjo Oh §
Willow Otten
Paolo Rosselli
Jenna Stokes

Trumpet
Daniel Barak ‡
Michael Harms
Sarah Heimberg
Eddy Lanois §
Nelson Martinez
     off stage
David O’Neill
Alex Prokop
Dimitri Raimonde *

Piccolo Trumpet
Jon-Michael Taylor

Euphonium
Jack Earnhart

Trombone
Eli Canales
Puyuan Chen §
Lukas Helsel ‡
Alex Knutrud *
Noah Korenfeld
Quinn McGillis

Bass Trombone
Ki Yoon Park

Tuba
Masaru Lin §
David Stein ‡

Timpani
Eli Geruschat *
Hayoung Song §
Leigh Wilson ‡

Percussion
Eli Geruschat
Ross Jarrell §
Hayoung Song
Zesen Wei ‡
Leigh Wilson

Harp
Yvonne Cox ‡
Morgan Mackenzie Short §

Keyboard
Sung Ho Yoo

Principal players
*Beethoven
§Langer
‡Strauss