The first and second school of Vienna
Second appointment today, at 20 in San Giorgio, for the second edition of Salerno Classica, with the first season, the Primavera. Soloist cellist Danilo Squitieri
by Olga Chieffi
Second appointment for the Spring of Salerno Classica, today, in the usual setting of the church of San Giorgio, at 20 conceived by the Associazione Gestione Musica, an articulated project that saw the association compete and obtain funding from the Single Fund for the Entertainment . The theme of this second evening, which will greet the protagonists of the Italian Lyric Ensemble directed by Francesco D’Arcangelo and the solo cello by Danilo Squitieri, is a reflection in music on the first and second school of Vienna represented by its two leaders, Haydn and Arnold Schönberg. Haydn is the ideal of the new classicism in a complete and perfect form: it is evident from the quartets and symphonies, unsurpassable models of balance to which the subsequent great authors can only bring organic structural variants, within a form so complete in itself. not to leave room for further architectural inventions. Thus, only with the contrapuntism reinvented by Mozart, or with the rhythmic dematerialization and the syncretic sound intentionality of Beethoven, will it be possible to innovate that language that Haydn had determined a total and absolute level: the sound flow of an idea of finitude that to a time contemplates and materializes the paradigm of the world. A fundamental characteristic of Haydn’s works is the development of large and articulated structures starting from short and relative simple motifs. Regarding the melody, he preferred ideas that could be easily broken down into smaller parts, to be subjected to contrapuntal combinations: in this, he anticipated Beethoven’s opera in some way. Haydn was not as fascinated by the concert form as Mozart, yet he wrote over thirty for several. The first part of the program will greet the performance of the Concerto in C for cello Hob.XVII., Dated 1761, entrusted to the soloist Danilo Squitieri and the Ensemble Lirico Italiano, directed by Francesco D’Arcangelo, in which the glittering virtuosity is to be admired but not ostentatious, the natural balance between demonstration of skill and purely musical interest, the absence of those bright and dramatic contrasts between soloist and orchestra that will be typical of the nineteenth-century concert. The initial “Moderato” is in the balance between the form of the Baroque Concerto (an orchestral refrain was interspersed with the various solo episodes) and the classical form, which Haydn was elaborating at just then (the main theme is slightly elaborated at each return). The orchestral interventions are rhythmically marked, with an almost marching trend, while the solo episodes have a more lyrical and melodic character. The “Adagio” is in the form of a romance; the tone is austere but also intimate, with the soloist lightly accompanied by strings alone, while the oboes and horns are silent. The concluding “Allegro molto” is a splendid movement for vitality, wit and inventiveness, on which the minor key that appears in the final part of the orchestral introduction casts a light veil of shadow. The comparison between the first and the second Viennese school will arise from the performance of Verklärte Nacht originally composed for a string sextet by Arnold Schönberg, completed in December 1899, then transcribed for orchestra by the same author in 1917, a version that will be interpreted by ‘ensemble composed by Daniela Cammarano, Ilario Ruopolo, Giacomo Mirra, Michela Marchiana, Ledia Nikolla, first violins, Mattia Cuccillato, Eleonora Amato, Valeria La Vaccara and Sonia Tramonto, second violins, Piero Massa, Carmine Caniani, Giuseppina Niglio and Carmine Matino violets , Cristiana Tortora, Veronica Fabbri, Alfredo Pirone, celli, Luigi Lamberti and Giuseppe Di Martino, double basses. This is Schönberg’s first major work and its first performance in Vienna, on March 18, 1902, aroused numerous controversies. Verklärte Nacht is the first to try to adapt the idea of program music, hitherto exquisitely symphonic, to chamber music. The inspiration comes from a poem by Richard Dehmel, a very fashionable author in those years, Verklärte Nacht precisely, which is part of the Weib und Welt collection of 1896. A review of the time ironically summarized its content as follows: “a woman she meets the man of her soul after having conceived a child from the man of her body; the first, thanks to a beautiful moonlit night, declares his willingness to accept, without any remorse, a putative paternity “. It was probably the composer friend Alexander von Zemlinsky who suggested this choice to Schönberg: the two spent the summer of 1899 in Payerbach, near Semmering, just around the time when Mathilde, Zemlinsky’s younger sister, was about to become Schönberg’s girlfriend. who will then marry her two years later. Despite the explicit literary reference, the music of Verklärte Nacht has nothing descriptive at all, but rather intends to capture the moods that move the two characters. Verklärte Nacht is presented as an articulated piece without solution of continuity, i.e. as a single movement, in which, however, two macro-sections can be recognized (a first half in D minor and a second in D major) which are in turn divided into five episodes: the introductory episode (Very slow) represents the couple in the moonlight and exposes the main theme; the second introduces the second theme and describes in its long development the tormented confession of the woman, then leading to the short connecting section that re-presents the main theme in the ‘distant’ and placated key of E flat major. This third episode closes the first half of the work and acts as a bridge for the second: a major king who with his luminous thematic idea wants to portray the love put to the test that triumphs. This is where the references to Tristan and Isolde become more explicit. This section leads to a great coda (the fifth and final episode) that concludes the work very effectively: a hymn to nature and redemption through love.
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