Mendelssohn and Schubert

Program

More about the concert

Grand symphonic landscapes take center stage as the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra performs works by Mendelssohn and Schubert. These two works, in different ways, demonstrate Romantic music’s belief in the power of melody and music’s ability to encompass both the grand and the intimate.

First up is a shorter orchestral work that serves as a prelude to the evening’s two main works. Anton Webern’s Symphony, Op. 21, from 1928, is a short but intense work that lasts only about ten minutes. Despite this, the music is dense and meticulously crafted, with small motifs and timbres that are interwoven with the whole.

The Austrian Webern was born in Vienna in 1883 and was an innovator. To break with the 19th-century approach to composing music, he and other composers began experimenting with new systems in the early 20th century. The most radical of these was the twelve-tone technique, in which all notes were considered equal and no note could be repeated until all the others had been played. Symphony, Op. 21, is an example of the twelve-tone technique.

The symphony is written for a small orchestra and consists of two movements. In the first movement, Webern employs canon-like patterns, in which the instruments take up and mirror each other’s music in various ways. The music is serene and clear. The silences and the small details become just as important as the notes themselves.

The second movement is structured as variations on a short theme. Here, musical ideas recur in new forms. Webern was fascinated by symmetry and by how a large-scale work could emerge from something very small. The result is a dense symphony in which small motifs constantly reappear in new forms.

The German composer Felix Mendelssohn lived from 1809 to 1847 and is considered one of the most prominent and highly regarded composers of the Early Romantic period. His Violin Concerto in E minor is one of the most frequently performed works for violin and orchestra. The concerto premiered in 1845 in Leipzig and was written for Mendelssohn’s close friend, the violinist Ferdinand David. Even today, it is considered one of the showpieces of the violin repertoire.

The concerto consists of three movements: the passionate “Allegro molto appassionato,” the delicate “Andante – Allegretto non troppo,” and the lively “Allegro molto vivace.” Together, they form a journey through longing, peace, joy, and sorrow.

Mendelssohn innovated the concerto form in several ways. The soloist enters almost immediately, without the long orchestral introduction that had previously been the tradition, and the three movements flow together without a pause.

The conductor is Eduardo Strausser, artistic director of the Norrlandsoperan. The soloist is violinist Liya Petrova, who grew up in Bulgaria and is now based in Paris.

After the intermission, Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 in C major, often called “The Great,” awaits. Schubert lived from 1797 to 1828 and was an Austrian composer and one of the most important composers of the early Romantic period. Although he died at the age of 31, his body of work was both extensive and significant.

Symphony No. 9 was composed during the final year of Schubert’s life. The composer himself never lived to see the symphony’s success; it was not discovered and performed until several years after his death. When Robert Schumann visited Vienna in 1838, he came across the score, and in 1839 his friend Felix Mendelssohn conducted the work’s premiere in Leipzig.

The symphony opens with a solitary horn motif that grows into something grand and powerful. From there, the music is filled with contrasts: both tranquility and drama, explosiveness and fragility. Schubert’s Ninth is a work that demands endurance and precision from the orchestra. For us in the audience, all we have to do is enjoy it.