As was the case with most of Brahms' works, his first piano concerto was a long time in coming. Composing was not always easy for Brahms, mostly due to his meticulous nature and perfectionism. Brahms had in mind a weighty work for piano and orchestra, one that would be equal in stature and grandeur to a symphony. His final product is a piece that is highly virtuosic, although not flashy; a work in which the piano and orchestra work together as equal partners, rather than the orchestra assuming its usual subservient role; and a true Neo-Classic concerto in the tradition of Beethoven.

Brahms premiered the work himself in 1859 to a very unenthusiastic audience. Critics reviewed the work harshly, and Brahms had a difficult time not taking the ill-mannered hissing audience personally. The work was written not long after the death of his close friend and fellow composer Robert Schumann, and many believe the first movement is in homage to him. The second movement is thought to be a portrait of Robert's widow, Clara, who many suppose was the object of Brahms' affections.

This highly structured piece was atypical of the Romantic era, where many of the piano concertos are a bit more “fluffy-works” merely meant to showcase the superhuman techniques of Romantic virtuosos. But Brahms never sacrifices sound musical technique and musicality for mere show. In this concerto, the performer gets to play something just as difficult, but also gets to relish in Brahms' craftsmanship and exquisite attention to detail.

Immediately recognizable as the theme from “The Lone Ranger”, the William Tell Overture actually began not as a soundtrack for a hit TV show, but as an opener to the last and some say greatest opera by the legendary Italian composer, Gioachino Rossini. The opera is based on Schiller's re-telling of the legend of William Tell, a 14th Century Swiss hero whose acts of bravery in the name of independence from the encroaching Hapsburg Empire actually inspired the formation of the Swiss Confederation.

As the story goes, William Tell defied the enemy by not bowing to a hat in the market square. In order to placate the authorities and win back his freedom and his life, William Tell is forced to shoot an apple off the head of his own son with a crossbow. Being an expert shot, he is of course successful, and is able to continue fighting for independence.

The opera is grandiose in every sense of the word, and represents some of Rossini's best writing. The scope, length (six hours), and highly demanding lead role make it a logistical beast to perform. Consequently, the rousing overture is heard and performed much more often than the opera. The overture is unabashedly programmatic, beginning with a slow prelude for low strings. What follows is one of the best musical representations of a storm in all of music history. Next is the pastoral section, where the “call to the dairy cows” is made quite authentic by an actual quotation of a tune played by cowherds on Alpine horns in the Alps. Finally, the blaring trumpets call in the heroic riders in a brassy and stimulating ride to the finish line.

Hector Berlioz is one of the most dramatic, creative, and amusing composers from the Romantic era. He was not traditionally schooled in music—in fact, his family originally sent him to Paris to become a doctor. What Berlioz lacked in formal training he made up for in sheer ingenuity. He is especially known for his innovative programmatic works and creativity in how he uses the orchestra.

Symphonie Fantastique is a monument to program music—each movement of the symphony is given a little story. As a young man Berlioz became quite infatuated with a Shakespearean actress by the name of Harriet Smithson. He attended all of her plays, and had actually envisioned in his mind they had a relationship when none existed. Symphonie Fantastique was written at the apex of his Harriet Smithson obsession. Berlioz himself wrote his own program notes, in which he explains that a melody (he calls it an idée fixe, or “fixed idea”) represents Harriett. Harriett, as the melody, appears in each movement. In the first three movement of the symphony, her melody is sweet and forlorn, symbolizing unrequited love. He sees her at a ball, she appears in his dreams, and interrupts his pastoral solace.

By the time the story progresses to the fourth movement, the obsession has taken a turn for the worse. He imagines he has killed his beloved, and is now being marched to the scaffold. Quiet brass and timpani open the movement, establishing a sense of foreboding. As he marches to his death, the macabre march becomes more forceful. But even in death, he cannot forget his beloved. If you listen carefully at the end, you can hear how his thoughts turn to Harriet. The march stops, and a solo clarinet plays a bit of Harriett's yearning melody. But the slice of the guillotine's blade savagely interrupts his reverie and his rolling head, depicted by plucked strings, verifies that the execution has been successful.

In the last and final movement, our young composer wakes to find himself in the midst of a Witches' Sabbath, where witches dance and death bells toll. Symphonie Fantastique is truly representative of all that is wonderful and wonderfully horrible in the Romantic era.

Saint-Saens was an all-around Renaissance man.  He played the piano and organ, was an excellent writer, loved to travel and learn of new places, and of course, compose.  As a composer he was versatile and prolific, often compared to Mozart due to his level of natural ability. The “Danse Bacchanale”, from the opera Samson and Delilah, portrays the finale dance before the fatal end of the opera, where Samson receives a parting gift of strength and brings the temple down upon the Philistines. A “Bacchanale” is a dramatic musical composition associated with drunken revelry and the Roman holiday celebrating Bacchus.  As a traveling man, Saint-Saens was able to absorb exotic musical sounds and in this piece he incorporated foreign scales and percussion into the musical fabric to truly capture what he imagined was an authentic biblical sound.

Program Notes by Jessica Mecham