Concert V Program Notes

by Robert Hurwitz

The scoring of the Introduction and Allegro for solo string quartet and orchestra might well bring to mind a relationship to the baroque concerto grosso. Donald Francis Tovey, however, calls the comparison "misleading," correctly asserting that Elgar's use of form bears a closer relationship to the concerto of the Romantic period than to any earlier musical genres.

This fine work opens with a highly dramatic introduction, in which the themes appear first as fragments in a dialogue between orchestra and quartet. Following this, members of the solo quartet take off on flights of fancy, the most extended of which is performed by the viola. After an exchange of the viola theme with the full orchestra, the Allegro begins. It is a piece in sonata form, incorporating a fugue in place of a development section. The symmetry is established by a recapitulation that includes the material of the Introduction, and the work ends with the return of the viola theme in a grand coda.

An interval of two years separates the completion of Beethoven's Fourth symphony from that of the Third, the famous Eroica. The composer had intended to follow his Third Symphony with the Symphony in C minor (the famous Symphony No. 5), two of whose movements had already been composed, and when he received a commission from Count Franz von Oppersdorf to compose a symphony, he first thought to provide him with a completed C Minor. Exactly what caused Beethoven to change his mind is not clear. (Perhaps his instinct told him there was an advantage to inserting a highly contrasting work between the symphonies in E-flat and C minor. Hindsight shows us that all the rest of his symphonies seem to conform to this pattern.) What is known is that Beethoven ultimately decided to dedicate the C Minor symphony jointly to Prince Lobkowitz and Count Rasoumovsky, and to provide von Oppersdorf with what came to be the Symphony No. 4.

Beethoven's B-flat symphony was composed in 1806, in a village in Hungary where his friend Count Brunswick owned a castle. Beethoven was at the time a houseguest of the Hungarian aristocrat and his family, and it turned out to be a most happy time for him. The Count, his mother and his sisters were all musically gifted people who had met Beethoven in Vienna, and the invitation to visit with them gives some indication as to how well they got along together.

The pleasure of this visit seems to be reflected in the music of the symphony. The Fourth Symphony is among the merriest and most immediately appealing of Beethoven's major works. In texture, content and size it returns to the style of Haydn's works. Even the orchestration is relaxed in size, with only one flute required, rather than the normal two, and only two horns, rather than the four called for in the Eroica.

The slow introduction to the first movement has little in common with those Beethoven employed in his earlier symphonies. Mysterious and fateful, it suggests a veiled brooding similar to that which Schubert employs in the Finale of his Octet. Only in the last few moments of the introduction does the mood brighten. Then, as if a yoke had been cast off, the allegro vivace proceeds in joyful manner, with great vitality and Beethovenian momentum.

The slow movement is unique in Beethoven. Its themes connect with one another in an almost seamless manner. It is entirely free of tension, and is full of imaginatively conceived details. Berlioz found it "so pure in form, the melodic expression ... so angelic and of such irresistible tenderness, that the prodigious art of the workmanship disappears completely."

The scherzo is a good humored but argumentative dialogue between woodwinds and strings. Its angular and syncopated rhythms offer an abrupt contrast to the smoothly flowing trio section, which appears twice.

The finale is a large piece in sonata form, whose relentless sixteenth notes give the impression of a perpetual motion. The second theme provides some moments of comparative relaxation, but the main theme carries the day, galloping home, full of high spirits and boundless energy.