Program Notes | Beethoven’s “Eroica”

Hector Berlioz
Born: December 11, 1803, in La-Côte-Saint-André, Isère, France
Died: March 8, 1869, in Paris, France
Composed: 1844, using materials from his 1838 opera
World Premiere: February 3, 1844, in Parisa
Duration: 8 minutes
Instrumentation: two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes (second doubling English horn), two clarinets, four horns, two bassoons, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, timpani, cymbals, tambourines, triangle and strings

Italian topic for a French opera
In the nineteenth century, Paris was music's Mecca, and the Paris Opéra was a proving ground for all composers of every nationality. Success there was the ultimate goal. For most of his career, Hector Berlioz was better known as a music critic than he was as a composer, like most of his contemporaries he sought the recognition and prestige that only a grand opera could give him. With the ground-breaking Symphonie fantastique (1830) and other successes under his belt, he set to work in the mid-1830s on an opera based on the memoirs of the colorful sixteenth-century Florentine-born goldsmith, rake, and memoirist Benvenuto Cellini. Through political connections and with a considerable amount of lobbying, Berlioz secured a production at the Opéra, where Benvenuto Cellini opened in September 1838.

The opera bombed. Critics lambasted it; the singers hated it; the conductor François Habeneck was disinclined to put in the extra effort that the complex and difficult music required. After only a handful of feeble performances the opera was withdrawn. Benvenuto Cellini languished in ignominy until the late twentieth century, when the renaissance of interest in Berlioz's music drew attention to its fiery and imaginative music.

Salvage operation: rescuing an overture
Berlioz knew that he had excellent musical material within the score. Both a businessman and an energetic self-promoter, he decided in 1843 to draw some music from Benvenuto Cellini and compile it into a concert overture, which might in its turn be parlayed into a successful performance vehicle. At the same time, the new compilation would provide an orchestral introduction to the opera's second act, should a revival outside France take place. The result was the Roman Carnival Overture, which did little for the failed stage work, but has become one of the most popular of all Berlioz's orchestral works, surpassed only by the splendid Symphonie fantastique.

Superb showpiece
Like most of Berlioz's overtures, it opens with a brilliant orchestral flourish that shows off the virtuoso capabilities of the large ensemble and seizes audience attention immediately. It then cedes to a more lyrical section, in this case with an English horn proclaiming the melody from the first act love duet between the hero Cellini and his love interest, Teresa. The balance of the overture derives mostly from a lively saltarello (the same dance with which Mendelssohn concludes his "Italian" Symphony) that forms the core of Benvenuto Cellini's great carnival scenes. In the opera, it is a full-blown ensemble. While the overture follows the original quite closely, it finds a natural habitat in Berlioz's colorful orchestration. An increasing emphasis on brass as the piece gathers momentum adds to the effectiveness. The overture is a superb showpiece that makes it easy to understand why it strengthened Berlioz’s reputation as a brilliant orchestrator.

Anna Clyne
Born: March 9, 1980, in London, England
Composed: 2023
World Premiere: March 28, 2024, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas; Fabio Luisi conducted the Dallas Symphony Orchestra with Jeremy Denk performing solo piano
Duration: 30 minutes
Instrumentation: two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets (second doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons (second doubling contrabassoon), two horns, two trumpets, trombone, tuba, timpani, a large percussion complement, solo piano and strings

Still in her early forties, Brooklyn-based Anna Clyne has already served as composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, l’Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, and the Orlando Philharmonic. She currently teaches at Mannes/The New School in Manhattan, and stays busy fulfilling commissions. In 2022 she was the most frequently performed female British composer – and the eighth most frequently performed living composer worldwide.

Clyne completed her first composition at age 11, subsequently pursuing formal music study at the University of Edinburgh. She earned a Master’s in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music, where her teachers included Marina Adamia, Marjan Mozetich and Julia Wolfe.

Clyne works in both acoustic and electro-acoustic music. In summer 2023, the Cabrillo Festival of International Music premiered Clyne’s Wild Geese for orchestra, a work merging conventional orchestra with computer-controlled processes, a project she developed in collaboration with audio engineer Jody Elff. She has also collaborated with choreographers, filmmakers, and visual artists.

ATLAS is the most recent example of her work with artists. Clyne took her impetus from the German contemporary artist Gerhard Richter. Her composer’s note elaborates:

“Set in four movements, my first piano concerto is inspired by (and titled after) the monumental, four-volume publication ATLAS, which maps the ideas, processes, and inspirations of the German artist Gerhard Richter. Conceived and closely edited by Richter himself, this comprehensive compendium cuts straight to the heart of the artist’s thinking, collecting more than 5,000 photographs, drawings and sketches that he has compiled or created since the moment of his creative breakthrough in 1962. My music responds to the imagery contained in these four volumes to create a musical montage and a lucid narrative. Examples of the imagery are listed below.”

VOLUME I (1962-1974)

Photographic Experiments 1969
Stars 1968
Spheres 1968
Fire 1968
Photographic Details of Colour Samples 1970
Cities (in Sketches of a Room) 1968
Clouds (in Sketches of a Room) 1970

VOLUME II (1966-1988)

Sketches (Constellations) 1967
Sketches (Numbers) 1978
Sketches (Colour Charts) 1966
Colour Fields 1973
Still Lifes (Skull) 1983
Abstract Pictures 1977
Still Lifes (Apples and Bottle) 1984-88

VOLUME III (1978-2006)

Various Motifs 1978/84/88
Cathedral Corner 1984/88
Sketches (Connecting Piece) 1989
Sketches (Frames) 1990
The Black Forest 1991
Railway Embankment 1990-94
Houses in the Snow (Sils-Maria) 2004

VOLUME IV (2002-2013)

Tree Trunks 2002
Beach and Tideland 2002
Sun 2002
Glass Planes 2006
Various Structures and Silicate 2006
Structure “Pearls” 2006
Strip Studies 2010

                                                                        — Anna Clyne

Clyne’s four movements are vivid evocations. Volume I alternately sparkles and swirls with big chords, bold gestures, and cascades of sound. Its construction is a collage of four principal ideas, which furnish the material for a quasi-improvisatory solo cadenza toward the end of the movement. Volume II has a Wagnerian expanse, with waves of sound and swell and subside. Some repetitive patterns are reminiscent of minimalism, but constant variation in the orchestral complement adds aural interest. Much of the piano part consists of octave unison between the two hands.

Volume III opens with an orchestral introduction in driving irregular rhythms. Clyne escalates her montage-like approach, shifting moods in kaleidoscopic dialogue between piano and orchestra. The piano’s initial entrance is sardonic, establishing a circus atmosphere that recurs later as what Clyne calls a “tipsy waltz.” Her percussion includes high-hat, emphasizing her connection to the vernacular. Counterbalancing the popular aspect is a Bach-like melodic figure that alternates with a chorale.

Volume IV begins atmospheric and dream-like, before morphing into a jazzy imitative passage. Clyne is masterful at fading into and out of different images in her cinematic approach. Another Bachian figure develops into a fugato at the end, merging with a chorale for an amped-up close.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Born: December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany
Died: March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria
Composed: 1803–1804
World Premiere: Private performances in 1804 for Prince Lobkowitz; Beethoven conducted the first public performance in Vienna on April 7, 1805 at the Theater an der Wien
Duration: 47 minutes
Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings

When Beethoven began his Third Symphony, Napoleon Bonaparte was First Consul of France. Beethoven idealized Napoleon, perceiving him as the hero of revolutionary France, and planned to dedicate the symphony to the French leader. The work's original subtitle was "Bonaparte." That changed when Napoleon declared himself Emperor in May 1804. Beethoven exploded in protest. According to his amanuensis Ferdinand Ries, he cried out:

"Is he then, too, nothing more than an ordinary human being? Now he, too, will trample on all the rights of man and indulge only his ambition. He will exalt himself above all others, become a tyrant."

He then tore the title page of his new symphony in pieces. When he recopied it, he wrote "Sinfonia eroica." It was published 1806 with the subtitle “To celebrate the memory of a great man.”

"Eroica" means "heroic" in Italian, and the symphony is monumental in every sense. When Beethoven completed it in summer 1803, it was the longest symphony ever written. The "Eroica" was pivotal in Beethoven's development not only as a symphonist but also as a composer. With this one work, he divested many 18th-century conventions and vaulted forward into uncharted territory.

Two fortissimo chords announce immediately that we are to sit up and take notice; this is not background music. More than two centuries later, their effect is still electrifying, setting the tone for the entire work. The development section is exceedingly long —the longest in Beethoven, in fact —and, directly after its climax, introduces an entirely new theme for flute and oboe, in the remote key of E-minor. Beethoven recalls that theme in the recapitulation, where it becomes the subject of a coda so extensive that it nearly matches the development in length.

The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge referred to the famous slow movement march as "a funeral procession in deep purple." It features one of the great oboe solos in the orchestral repertoire. Beethoven also provided rich material for bassoon and flute. In the quasi-military section in major mode, we can hear intimations of the Fifth Symphony, which would follow the "Eroica" by four years. Timpani is a powerful presence in this slow movement, functioning both as bass and even occasionally as a melodic instrument, rather than mere punctuation.

After a whirlwind scherzo that reduces three beats to one per measure (and features the entire horn section in its Trio), Beethoven ices his cake with variations. The theme was familiar to Viennese audiences from Beethoven's ballet score, The Creatures of Prometheus (1800). Nobility of spirit, capricious humor, funeral march, fugue, poignant tenderness: all these and more find their way into Beethoven's cosmic finale, his ultimate tribute to the unnamed hero.

Markus Stenz has held several high-profile positions including Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and most recently Conductor-In-Residence of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He was General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister for 11 years, conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Wagner’s Ring cycle, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as Janáček’s Jenůfa and Katya Kábanová and Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons.

Stenz made his opera debut in 1988 at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, where he has returned for numerous successful concert weeks with the Orchestra. Last season he conducted a new production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and will return in subsequent seasons for Ariadne auf Naxos and Lohengrin.

The 2023-2024 season also sees Stenz’s return to Orchestre National de Lyon and, following a very successful debut with the CBSO in Mahler Symphony No. 2 in 2022, he returns this season for Bruckner Symphony No 7. He conducts both Orchestra della Toscana and Fondazione Haydn di Bolzano in Italy, returns to the New Jersey Symphony on a program featuring Anna Clyne’s ATLAS, and makes his debut with Naples Philharmonic Orchestra in Florida.

While with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Stenz received the prize for ‘The Best Concert Programme of the 2003-2004 Season’ as well as initiating a number of youth and educational projects such as ‘Experiment Klassik,’ ‘3. Akt’ and the concert liverecording project ‘GO live.’

Markus Stenz studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne under Volker Wangenheim and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. He has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, and the ‘Silberne Stimmgabel’ (Silver Tuning Fork) of the state of North Rhein/Westphalia.

Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists, proclaimed by the New York Times “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs.” Denk is also a New York Times bestselling author, winner of both the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In the 2023-24 season, Denk premieres a new concerto written for him by Anna Clyne, co-commissioned and performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra led by Fabio Luisi, the City of Birmingham Symphony led by Kazuki Yamada, and the New Jersey Symphony led by Markus Stenz. He also returns to London’s Wigmore Hall for a three-concert residency, performing Bach’s Solo Partitas, as well as collaborating with the Danish String Quartet, and performing works by Charles Ives with violinist Maria Włoszczowska. He further reunites with Krzysztof Urbański to perform with the Antwerp Symphony and again with the Danish String Quartet in Copenhagen at their festival
Series of Four.

Denk is also known for his original and insightful writing on music, which Alex Ross praises for its “arresting sensitivity and wit.” His New York Times bestselling memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine, was published to universal acclaim by Random House in 2022, with features on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s Fresh Air, The New York Times, and The Guardian. Denk also wrote the libretto for a comic opera presented by Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, and the Aspen Festival, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung and on the front page of The New York Times Book Review.

Denk has performed multiple times at Carnegie Hall and in recent years has worked with such orchestras as Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra. Further afield, he has performed multiple times at the BBC Proms and Klavierfestival Ruhr, and appeared in such halls as the Köln Philharmonie, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Boulez Saal in Berlin. He has also performed extensively across the UK, including recently with the London Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and play-directing the Britten Sinfonia.