Pam and I went to The Royal Festival Hall to see this fabulous concert which was put on to celebrate the conductor Sir Charles Groves’ 70th Birthday. The orchestra playing was The RPO and they were conducted by Sir Charles himself. The soloist on the night was the fabulous guitarist John Williams and so I was really pleased to find a film of him playing the same concerto with Daniel Barenboim and The Berliner Philharmoniker in 1998.

Programme:-

Smetana – Vltava (From Ma Vlast)

Berlioz – Royal Hunt And Storm (From The Trojans)

Rodrigo – Concierto de Aranjuez 

Interval – Time for a quick cuppa

Vaughan-Williams – Symphony No. 2 “A London Symphony”

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Smetana – Vltava (From Ma Vlast)

Má Vlast meaning “My Homeland” is a set of six symphonic poems composed between 1874 and 1879 by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. While it is often presented as a single work in six movements and – with the exception of Vltava – is almost always recorded that way, the six pieces were conceived as individual works. They had their own separate premieres between 1875 and 1880; the premiere of the complete set took place on 5 November 1882 in Žofín Palace, Prague, under Adolf Čech, who had also conducted two of the individual premieres.

In these works Smetana combined the symphonic poem form pioneered by Franz Liszt with the ideals of nationalistic music which were current in the late nineteenth century. Each poem depicts some aspect of the countryside, history, or legends of Bohemia. Since 1952 the works have been performed to open the Prague Spring International Music Festival on 12 May, the anniversary of the death of their composer.

Vltava, also known by its English title The Moldau, and the German Die Moldau, was composed between 20 November and 8 December 1874 and was premiered on 4 April 1875 under Adolf Čech. It is about 13 minutes long, and is in the key of E minor.

In this piece, Smetana uses tone painting to evoke the sounds of one of Bohemia’s great rivers. The initial writing for the flutes definitely gives you the sense of a flowing river. Smetana himself said:

“The composition describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small springs, the Cold and Warm Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes where a farmer’s wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the night’s moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins aloft. The Vltava swirls into the St John’s Rapids; then it widens and flows toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the distance, ending at the Labe”

Very, very evocative music.

Berlioz – Royal Hunt And Storm (From The Trojans)

The Trojans is a French grand opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself from Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid; the score was composed between 1856 and 1858. It is Berlioz’s most ambitious work, the summation of his entire artistic career, but he did not live to see it performed in its entirety. Under the title Les Troyens à Carthage, the last three acts were premièred with many cuts by Léon Carvalho’s company, the Théâtre Lyrique, at their theatre (now the Théâtre de la Ville) on the Place du Châtelet in Paris on 4 November 1863, with 21 repeat performances. After decades of neglect, today the opera is considered by some music critics as one of the finest ever written.

The piece we have here comes from Act 4 Scene 1 and is popularly known as Royal Hunt and Storm. The scene is a pantomime with primarily instrumental accompaniment, set in a forest with a cave in the background. A small stream flows from a crag and merges with a natural basin bordered with rushes and reeds. Two naiads appear and disappear, but return to bathe in the basin. Hunting horns are heard in the distance, and huntsmen with dogs pass by as the naiads hide in the reeds. Ascagne gallops across the stage on horseback. Didon and Énée have been separated from the rest of the hunting party. As a storm breaks, the two take shelter in the cave. At the climax of the storm, nymphs with dishevelled hair run to-and-fro over the rocks, gesticulating wildly. They break out in wild cries of “a-o” (sopranos and contraltos) and are joined by fauns, sylvans, and satyrs. The stream becomes a torrent, and waterfalls pour forth from the boulders, as the chorus intones “Italie! Italie! Italie!”. A tree is hit by lightning, explodes and catches fire, as it falls to the ground. The satyrs, fauns, and sylvans pick up the flaming branches and dance with them in their hands, then disappear with the nymphs into the depths of the forest. The scene is slowly obscured by thick clouds, but as the storm subsides, the clouds lift and dissipate. All very dramatic.

Rodrigo – Concierto de Aranjuez

The Concierto de Aranjuez is a guitar concerto by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is by far Rodrigo’s best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the most significant Spanish composers of the 20th century.

The Concierto de Aranjuez was inspired by the gardens at Palacio Real de Aranjuez, the spring resort palace and gardens built by Philip II in the last half of the 16th century and rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century by Ferdinand VI. The work attempts to transport the listener to another place and time through the evocation of the sounds of nature.

According to the composer, the first movement is “animated by a rhythmic spirit and vigour without either of the two themes… interrupting its relentless pace”; the second movement “represents a dialogue between guitar and solo instruments (cor anglais, bassoon, oboe, horn etc.)”; and the last movement “recalls a courtly dance in which the combination of double and triple time maintains a taut tempo right to the closing bar.” He described the concerto itself as capturing “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains” in the gardens of Aranjuez.

Rodrigo and his wife Victoria stayed silent for many years about the inspiration for the second movement, and thus the popular belief grew that it was inspired by the bombing of Guernica in 1937. In her autobiography, Victoria eventually declared that it was both an evocation of the happy days of their honeymoon and a response to Rodrigo’s devastation at the miscarriage of their first pregnancy. It was composed in 1939 in Paris. Rodrigo, nearly blind since age three, was a pianist. He did not play the guitar, yet he still managed to capture and project the role of the guitar in Spanish music.

Interval – Time for a quick cuppa

Vaughan-Williams – Symphony No. 2 “A London Symphony”

A London Symphony is the second symphony composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The work is sometimes referred to as Symphony No. 2, though it was not designated as such by the composer. First performed in 1914, the four-movement symphony was lost, reconstructed and later modified by Vaughan Williams.

The work is scored for:

• Woodwinds: three flutes (the third doubling piccolo), two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon
• Brass: four horns, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, tuba
• Percussion: timpani, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, tam-tam, sleigh bells, cymbals, glockenspiel
• Strings: harp, and strings.

Vaughan Williams said that while the title may suggest a programmatic piece (and the work includes sounds heard in London such as the Westminster Chimes), it was intended to be heard as absolute music. In a programme note in 1920, he suggested that Symphony by a Londoner might be a better title. However, he allowed the conductor Albert Coates to provide elaborate descriptions for the 1920 performance.

The symphony is in four movements.

1. Lento – Allegro risoluto

The symphony opens quietly, and after a few nocturnal bars, the Westminster Chimes are heard, played on the harp. After a contrasting gentle interlude scored for string sextet and harp, the vigorous themes return and bring the movement to a lively close, with full orchestra playing fortissimo.

2. Lento

The movement opens with muted strings playing ppp. Vaughan Williams said that the slow movement is intended to evoke “Bloomsbury Square on a November afternoon”. Quiet themes led in turn by cor anglais, flute, trumpet and viola give way to a grave, impassioned forte section, after which the movement gradually subsides to its original quiet dynamic.

3. Scherzo (Nocturne)

In the composer’s words, “If the listener will imagine himself standing on Westminster Embankment at night, surrounded by the distant sounds of The Strand, with its great hotels on one side and the “New Cut” on the other, with its crowded streets and flaring lights, it may serve as a mood in which to listen to this movement.” In the definitive score, the movement revolves around two scherzo themes, the first marked fugato and the second straightforward and lively. The piece closes with muted strings playing pppp.

4. Finale – Andante con moto – Maestoso alla marcia – Allegro – Lento – Epilogue

The finale opens on a grave march theme, punctuated with a lighter allegro section, with full orchestra initially forte and appassionato. After the reappearance of the march, the main allegro theme of the first movement returns. Following this, the Westminster Chimes strike again, this time the harp plays the first three-quarters of the hour chimes, and there is a quiet Epilogue, inspired by the last chapter of H.G. Wells’s novel Tono-Bungay: 

“The last great movement in the London Symphony in which the true scheme of the old order is altogether dwarfed and swallowed up … Light after light goes down. England and the Kingdom, Britain and the Empire, the old prides and the old devotions, glide abeam, astern, sink down upon the horizon, pass – pass. The river passes – London passes, England passes.”

As a Londoner I LOVE this piece. I hope you do too.

Smetana – Vltava (From Ma Vlast)

Berlioz – Royal Hunt And Storm (From The Trojans)

Rodrigo – concerto de Aranjuez

Interval – Time for a quick cuppa

Vaughan-Williams – Symphony No. 2 “A London Symphony”