by David EllisSYMPHONY NO. 3 IN F MAJOR, OP 90Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)35 MinutesBrahms conducted the premiere of his Third Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1883; it was one of the greatest triumphs of his life, and the Third has been a staple of the repertory ever since. This is the shortest of the four Brahms symphonies and the only one to end quietly; in fact it was the first four movement symphony in the standard repertory to end softly.Allegro con brio. The symphony begins forcefully and dramatically with its first three chords spelling out a motto-FAF- which recurs throughout the symphony. Brahms meant this as an acronym for the words “Frei Aber Froh”, or “Free But Happy.” (This is in contrast to the motto of his friend Joseph Joachim- “Frei Aber Einsam”, which means “Free But Lonely” and is spelled musically as FAE.) The principal tonality is F Major.Andante. This C Major slow movement is among Brahms’ loveliest. Its second theme, played by the clarinets and bassoons after about two minutes, will recur at three important points in the final movement.Poco allegretto. Among the most recognizable sections of Brahms’ symphonies, this C Minor movement is slow and gentle and may remind some of Brahms’ famous Lullaby.Allegro. The finale’s main theme begins softly and mysteriously and leads to the first appearance in this movement of the theme from the second movement. The tempo and volume increase, with a climactic restatement of the second movement theme. The finale subsides and closes with the final recurrence of the second movement theme followed by a beautiful transfiguration of the FAF motto from the very start of the symphony.FOUR LAST SONGS (VIER LETZTE LIEDER)Richard Strauss (1864–1949) 24 MinutesRichard Strauss won quick fame in his twenties as a composer of symphonic poems such as Don Juan and Death and Transfiguration, followed by Also Sprach Zarathustra and Ein Heldenleben, among others. He then turned to opera and wrote such staples as Salome, Elektra, and Der Rosenkavalier. Few of his subsequent works are played with great frequency with the exception of those composed after World War II. Strauss had remained in Germany during the Nazi era, although not a supporter of the regime, and he was very unhappy with its destruction of German art and music. Strauss’ principal post-war works include the Oboe Concerto, the Metamorphosen for Strings, and his final composition, the Four Last Songs (1948).Strauss loved the soprano voice; he created his principal operatic roles for sopranos, and was married to one, Pauline De Ahna, for over fifty years. Pauline lived for only a few months after Strauss’ death in 1949, and died only nine days before the premiere of the Four Last Songs in 1950.The poems set in the Four Last Songs (texts and translations shown two pages farther on) are by Herman Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff. Strauss uses a large Romantic orchestra, but with great restraint and with important roles for the concertmaster, the two flautists, and the horn section. The first two songs begin with spring, followed by September and the last days of summer. At the end of the second of the three verses of “Going to Sleep” the concertmaster plays a soaring solo which is immediately followed by the soprano’s third verse to this same melody. The last word of the final song “At Sunset” is “tod” or “death”; here Strauss quotes in the violas and solo horn the “transfiguration” theme from his Death and Transfiguration of 60 years earlier. The last sounds from the orchestra are trills on two muted piccolos representing two larks circling in the twilight air.OVERTURE TO TANNHÄUSERRichard Wagner (1813–1883) 15 MinutesRichard Wagner was arguably the most influential composer of the 19th century, and certainly the leading composer of German operas, of which he wrote 13. Tannhäuser, premiered in Dresden in 1845, was his fifth opera and is set in a Middle-age milieu of knights and song contests, with Wagner’s customary theme of the redemption of a man through the love of a woman.The Overture to Tannhäuser is based on three important themes from the opera. The “Pilgrim’s Chorus” opens the overture, played first on pairs of clarinets, bassoons and horns before expanding into a majestic statement on the trombones. The central section of the overture consists of alternations of the sensuous music which accompanies Tannhäuser’s dalliance with the temptress Venus in her lair of Venusberg, and of Tannhäuser’s song praising Venus and carnal love. The final statement of the sensuous “Venusberg” music is marked by the entry of the tambourine, cymbals and triangle, and then leads through a long build-up to a final brassy climax of the “Pilgrim’s Chorus.” The concert piece known as the “Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser” replaces the final statement of the Pilgrim’s Chorus with the ballet music Wagner composed for the 1861 Paris performance of the opera. The eminent music writer Donald Francis Tovey assessed this later version as “a monster without its Loch Ness. Nobody can tell how many humps it has nor what purpose they serve.” He goes on to say about the original 1845 Dresden version of the overture “…where it means to be holy and humble it is predestined to a… tub-thumping end, and of that end I would not see it deprived. As a whole it is not good music, but it is very good bad music.” It is this “tub-thumping end” which concludes today’s concert.