Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868):

Overture from Semiramide (1813)

Indisputably one of the great composers in any format, Rossini made opera his specialty at a time when Italian opera was fast becoming one of the most popular art forms. In those days, however, opera was not treated with the hushed reverence we are accustomed to today. On the contrary, the audiences were talkative, fiercely partisan and were inclined to behave more like modern sports spectators. Rossini's answer to this was the overture - by creating energetic melodious music, punctuated with sudden crescendos and diminuendos, he was able to capture the attention of the audience. In so doing, he elevated the status of the overture (and orchestra) to being almost on a par with the arias (and singers). Of his 35 operas, only a few are ever staged now, but about a dozen others, of which Semiramide is a prime example, live on as popular concert pieces. Notwithstanding his tremendous success in music, which was appreciated at the time, his composing career was over before his life was even half over! It remains a mystery why he forsook composition, but one of his culinary endeavors from that period is immortalized as Tornedos Rossini.

As with most of his overtures, this one is not just a rehash of the arias to follow, although there are some common themes. The opera itself is a serious opera adapted from a Voltaire story.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937):

Piano Concerto in G major (1931)

Allegramente

Adagio assai

Presto

Although French by nationality, Ravel was a native of the Basque region, ethnically more closely related to Spain. Regardless of politics, however, the quality and quantity of his music make him the greatest of the French school (devotees of his mentor Berlioz may reasonably disagree). However, as happened with several other great composers, his name has become most closely identified, at least among the general public, with one work: Bolero., which is not really representative of his exceptional skill in orchestration. In fact, he was a brilliant composer of many diverse works, particularly for the piano, but including many for orchestra. This work is one of the two which combine the best of the piano and the orchestra, the other being the concerto for Left Hand in D. These two works were written in the same year and were the last of his major compositions. Ravel regarded them as his most important works.

The present concerto is an exuberant piece full of fast-paced, jazz-inspired fun in the outer movements flanking a beautiful, lyrical movement given over mainly to the piano, with the lightest of orchestration such as the haunting English Horn accompaniment. Ravel had originally intended this concerto for himself, but it proved to be a little too virtuosic even for him. Ravel explained that it was written in the spirit of concertos by Mozart and Saint-Saëns, however it would appear that his recent tour of the USA (in 1928) must also have had a significant influence.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856):

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 ("Rhenish")

Lebhaft lively)

Scherzo: Sehr mäbig (very moderate)

Nicht schnell (not fast)

Feierlich (solemn)

Lebhaft

Schumann's place in the musical pantheon is secure but he tends to be overshadowed among German-speaking composers by the likes of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and his own protégé Brahms. Robert [Schumann] was born in Zwickau in Eastern Germany, not far from Bohemia. His early interests were literature and music, but his mother was intent on his becoming a lawyer. He began to play the piano at six, and started composing almost immediately. It was primarily as a performer that he launched his musical career in 1829, overcoming his mother's objections with the aid of his future (albeit reluctant) father-in-law, Friedrich Wieck.

The next ten years were to prove terribly frustrating for him - first on account of his inability to overcome some rigidity in his fourth finger. His efforts to correct the condition led to paralysis of the finger and brought his inchoate concert career to an abrupt end before it had even begun. Even worse was the opposition to his relationship with Clara Wieck who was nine years his junior and launching a very successful concert career. Her father vigorously opposed the match and the couple were only united after a long court battle when she was 21. Soon, however, his health began to fail, especially his mental health. One cold winter's night in 1854 he jumped into the Rhine but was rescued and sent to an insane asylum, where, soon after he turned 46, he died.

Before 1840, he wrote only piano music. His first symphony was completed in 1841 and the Third was finished in 1850, soon after Schumann took the position of Music Director for the city of Düsseldorf. Like Beethoven's 6th, it is in five rather than the usual four movements, and it depicts everyday life, in this case from the Rhine region. Since most of the fourth symphony had been written before even the second, this symphony is really his last. It is the only one which is programmatic and is also the most complex. Not perhaps as well-known as the first and fourth symphonies, it is nevertheless arguably his best.

The scoring is characteristically "thick", especially in the first movement, which opens with a majestic and joyful theme in the full orchestra. A more reflective second theme is introduced by oboe and clarinet. The rather boisterous main theme of the second movement, in the cellos, violas and bassoons, derives from an old German song. Is it imagination which suggests a little drunkenness in this setting? The third movement, a romanza, opens with an elegant melody in the clarinets and bassoons, followed by a rather pleasing melody in the violins and flutes.

The fourth movement is the central movement whence the others partially derive. It was in turn inspired directly by a visit Schumann made to Cologne Cathedral. The music is somewhat ecclesiastical, emphasized by the addition of the trombones. A Rhenish festival, complete with folk dancing, is the model for the last movement, which concludes the work in a most uplifting manner.