Programme Notes

Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Vaughan Williams was the most important English composer to emerge after Elgar. He received his musical education at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music. The Wasps overture is a fairly early work composed in London shortly after his famous Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910).

This often played overture is the first movement from a suite for orchestra, completed in 1912. The Wasps was originally incidental music for tenor, baritone, male chorus and orchestra composed in 1909 for Cambridge University´s production of Aristophanes´ play Sphekes (Wasps). Vaughan Williams then arranged the music into an orchestral suite three years later.

Aristophanes (c.448-c.385 BC) was a Greek comic dramatist and this play, written in 422 BC, is a satire about a juror named Philocleon who becomes obsessed with courtroom drama. His son Bdelucleon becomes rather concerned about his father´s fanatical behaviour and confines him to the house. Philocleon then tries various ways of escaping his "prison" until the other jurors, represented by a swarm of wasps, attempt to rescue him.

The overall mood of the overture is bright and cheerful, an illustration of the jurors as they mill around chatting about the trials in the courtroom. The buzzing sound of the "wasps" can be heard at the beginning through a series of trills played by the full orchestra. Subsequent themes each represent a character in the play and therefore have their own particular style: happy, serious, or soft and gentle. Later on, two principal themes are heard in counterpoint before the final reprise of the "wasps" theme.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Soloist: Michael Whight, clarinet

• Allegro
• Adagio
• Allegro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart showed extraordinary musical talent from infancy. By the age of five he was a virtuoso keyboard player and had started composing. In his early years Mozart travelled widely until 1781 when he decided to settle in Vienna as a freelance composer.

The Clarinet Concerto dates from October 1791, shortly before the opera The Magic Flute K.620. It was composed for Anton Stadler, a clarinettist Mozart had met through his involvement in the freemasons. The composer´s earlier Clarinet Quintet K.581 was probably also written with Stadler in mind.

Information about the scoring of the concerto is rather unclear as the original manuscript has been lost. However, it is now generally accepted that Mozart composed the solo part for basset-horn, a form of clarinet capable of playing lower notes. This is most likely to be the instrument used by Stadler, but as the instrument soon fell out of popularity the majority of contemporary performers including Benny Goodman, Jack Brymer and Emma Johnson have played the work on a modern standard clarinet.

The work has a smooth and easy flow throughout, with reduced scoring in the solo passages. In the first movement, quick scale passages are discussed between soloist and orchestra. Elsewhere, wide leaps can be heard which would have been very difficult to perform on Stadler´s instrument. The second movement is in ternary form and the low basset-horn notes can clearly be heard in the middle section. The sprightly finale is a rondo, the principal theme recurring a number of times.

Over the years many writers have said this concerto is beautiful and soothing. The music no doubt reflects the aims and wishes of the composer who said,

"Nevertheless, the passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as to reach the point of causing disgust; and music, even in situations of great horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music."

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Felix Mendelssohn was also a child prodigy who at the age of seventeen composed one of his most best-known works, the overture to A Midsummer Night´s Dream Op.21. From 1826-9 he attended Berlin University and after completing his studies decided to earn his living as a composer. In this profession Mendelssohn saw the importance of being well travelled, visiting many countries, including ten visits to Britain.

In 1829 Mendelssohn visited Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh and wrote a letter to his parents telling them:

The chapel beside it has now lost its roof. It is overgrown with grass and ivy, and at the broken altar Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything is ruined, decayed and open to the sky. I believe I have found there the beginning of my Scottish Symphony."

The ruins of the chapel can still be seen to this day. Mendelssohn also found inspiration to compose another piece about Scotland: the overture The Hebrides Op.26 written in 1830. The Scottish Symphony was started the same year and he continued working on it in 1831 but then laid aside the score and concentrated his efforts on Symphony No.4 in A Op.90 "Italian". Mendelssohn admitted in a letter that he could no longer capture the atmosphere of misty Scottish highlands while working in Italy. His opportunity to finish the symphony probably came some years later when Queen Victoria invited him to England. After finally completing it in 1842 the first performance took place at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig in March 1843 with the composer conducting. The symphony was later dedicated to Queen Victoria.

The opening theme, sometimes known as the Holyrood Chapel theme, rises above soft harmony, evoking a still and lonely atmosphere. This is the most important theme in the symphony as other themes are based on it. It has been said that the ebb and flow of the Allegro that follows is representative of the restless sea around the Scottish mainland. The movement ends with a return to the introductory tempo and the Holyrood Chapel theme. This is unusual, but the restatement shows Mendelssohn´s sensitivity to the overcast mood.

The middle two movements are reversed from their normal positions. The second movement Scherzo is the lightest part of the symphony, a contrast from the more pensive mood of the earlier music. Here a dance-like melody is chased around the orchestra, always playful and very rhythmic. The beginning of the slow movement displays Mendelssohn´s mastery of the song-like genre portrayed in his well known Songs Without Words for piano. First violins´ calm melody is marked cantabile (in a singing style). However, the second theme played by the wind is more animated and develops into loud chords on full orchestra. Could this be a reminder of stormy Scottish weather?

The finale is in traditional sonata form; two contrasting themes stated, developed and restated in slightly modified form. Mendelssohn writes in the score guerriero (warlike) urging the orchestra to play with great fortitude. After this there is a final coda where tensions are released. With all pomp and nobility the symphony comes to a close - a royal conclusion.

After its lengthy gestation this symphony went on to become one of the greatest post-Beethoven symphonies. The music is not Scottish in style but is Mendelssohn´s own, inspired by the people, places and landscape of Scotland

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