Beethoven - Overture: Egmont
Wagner - Siegfried Idyll
von Weber - Andante and rondo ungarese
Mendelssohn - Overture: A Calm Sea and a Prosperous Voyage
Bizet - Symphony in C

Overture: Egmont, Op. 84

Beethoven famously wrote only one opera but he also composed much music for the theatre of which only the overtures are commonly heard. His music for ‘Egmont’ for instance includes four entr’actes and two songs.

The subject of Goethe’s play would have appealed especially to Beethoven. Egmont was a 16th century Flemish nobleman, famous at first for defending his country against the French, but increasingly resistant to King Philip’s attempts to rule the Netherlands as merely a dependency of Spain. He was arrested, tried for treason and condemned to death.

In the overture one can hear Egmont’s grim resolve, his wife’s pleading and, in a succession of slow soft chords, his death followed by a final awakening of the nation and victory march to freedom. This last was Egmont’s vision in the final scene of the play. Beethoven may also have known that the Duke of Alva, King Philip’s governor, ordered the trumpets to play at Egmont’s execution so that his final speech from the scaffold should not be heard.

RICHARD WAGNER (1813-83)

Siegfried Idyll 

This music was composed secretly as a present for Wagner’s second wife Cosima and performed on the morning of Christmas Day 1870 on the stairs of their villa on Lake Lucerne by a group of 15 musical friends. The Wagners had at last been able to marry the previous August but their son, Siegfried, was already 15 months old.

The main musical ideas are from his opera ‘Siegfried’ which still awaited performance. He also incorporates an old German cradle song, presented very simply by the oboe. Also prominent at the climax, on the trumpet, is the call of the bird which, in the opera, directs Siegfried where to find Brunnhilde.

CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786 – 1826)

Andante and rondo ungarese (for bassoon and orchestra)

Soloist: Nina Ashton 

The Webers were a musical family and Carl Maria’s father was sure that he had a young Mozart-style prodigy on his hands. Consequently they were on the move a great deal, living a rather rackety life, developing habits which got young Weber into trouble in later years. However, at 17 he had his first opera performed and he was appointed to his first conductorship at 18. His reputation grew, especially in the world of opera.

Though he is mostly thought of as the founder of German romantic opera, Weber wrote quite a number of works for solo instruments and orchestra – piano, clarinet, horn, and bassoon. This piece was originally written for viola for his brother to play, but was later adapted for the bassoon.

The bassoon gives out the main theme of the Andante in a minor key above pizzicato strings. It is then taken over by the violins over a running accompaniment by the soloist. This pattern continues with the solo part becoming increasingly florid. After an expectant hush the bassoon launches into the ‘Hungarian’ rondo. Hungary was part of the Austrian Empire at that time and Hungarian dances were popular in Austria, Weber being only one of many composers who wrote pieces ‘all’ungarese’. Particularly characteristic is the second melody with its dotted rhythms and octave leaps.

Like the two composers in the second half of this evening’s programme Weber did not reach the age of 40, a victim partly of the London smog.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-47)

Overture: A Calm Sea and a Prosperous Voyage 

As in ‘Egmont’, this music owes its inspiration to the poetry of Goethe, in this case two short contrasted poems. Beethoven had set the words in a cantata a few years previously, but the 18-year-old Mendelssohn preferred to illustrate them by what a later generation would have called a ‘tone poem’. It is certainly not an overture to anything.

One should remember that in the days of sailing ships a calm sea could spell danger as the ship could drift out of control onto a dangerous shore and this anxiety is expressed in the music and in the original poem. The ‘calm sea’ section comes to a close and the first wisp of wind is heard on the flute. It gathers strength and the ship bounds along joyously. Finally it reaches port, triumphantly hailed by trumpet fanfares. An official reception it has been suggested? Part of the main theme was used, at a fraction of the speed, by Elgar in one of the ‘Enigma’ variations, the subject being on her way to Australia at the time. The final three bars have a surprise for us.

GEORGES BIZET (1838-75)

Symphony in C 

Allegro vivo - Adagio - Allegro vivace - Allegro vivace

Bizet came from a musical family who early on recognised his talents and he was enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire (which was conveniently near home) at the age of 9. He became a brilliant pianist with phenomenal sight-reading ability and numbered Gounod among his teachers. At the age of 19 he won the coveted Prix de Rome but he had already the previous year completed this symphony. His sights however were on a career in the opera house and the theatre and he wrote little purely orchestral music. Consequently the score of the symphony languished in the library of the Conservatoire until it was rediscovered and performed for the first time in 1935.

The first movement gets us off to a brisk start. In the second it is the oboe that introduces the main theme. The third is in fact a traditional scherzo and trio. The last sets off in the style of a perpetuum mobile but, luckily for the players, relaxes at intervals into a more melodic mode.

Having received formative musical training as a violinist, Leon studied conducting at the Birmingham Conservatoire under Jonathan Del Mar. Further studies ensued in the Czech Republic, at Dartington with Diego Masson, and with British Youth Opera under Peter Robinson.

As British Arts Council Young Conductor, Leon was appointed founder Music Director for the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (1991-94). Subsequent guest engagements have included the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Shanghai Symphony, as well as many of this country’s leading non-professional orchestras. He has also served as Music Director for orchestras including the Northampton Symphony Orchestra, British Police Symphony Orchestra and, most recently, the Oxford Symphony Orchestra (1996-2005). 

Leon has recorded for BBC Radio and has performed at many of the UK’s leading venues including London’s Royal Festival Hall and Symphony Hall, Birmingham. He has worked with distinguished soloists including Artur Pizarro, Lars Vogt, Anthony Marwood, Freddy Kempf, Robert Cohen, Lucy Parham, Susannah Glanville, Barry Tuckwell, Tom Poster and Jack Gibbons. 

Much in demand with younger orchestras, recent and ongoing work in this field includes conductorship of Junior Guildhall Symphony, Oxford University Orchestra, Pro Corda and Hampshire County Youth Orchestra. In 1996 Leon was conferred an Honorary Member of the Birmingham Conservatoire, where he has appeared as guest conductor since 1993, more recently also supervising postgraduate conductor training. Leon is currently Conductor of the Worcestershire Youth Orchestra and has recently been appointed to the staff at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

During the 2005-6 season Leon is Guest Conductor with the Windsor and Maidenhead Symphony Orchestra and he will be making his debut with the Isle of Wight Symphony and Berkshire Youth Orchestra.

NINA ASHTON (Bassoon)

Nina Ashton was born in Hertfordshire in 1989 and started learning the bassoon with Sarah Burnett in 2000 and the piano in 2002 with Charlotte Tomlinson. Nina joined The Purcell School in 2002 where she receives a scholarship under the Government’s Music and Dance Scheme and continues her studies with Sarah Burnett. 

Nina made her solo début on the South Bank, in the Purcell Room, in 2003 and has also performed chamber music in the Wigmore Hall. She has performed in master classes with Roger Birnstingl, Carlo Colombo, Jaime Martin and Froydis Ree Wekre. In 2004, her chamber music group took part in a workshop on leadership skills at the National Headmasters’ Conference and Nina performed in Prague with five other pupils of the Purcell School as part of an exchange with the Music School there. She performed a piece of music theatre (written for her by her brother) in the 2005 Nyland Midsummer Festival in Sweden. At the end of 2005 Nina reached the finals of the 2005 Purcell School Senior Concerto Competition.

Nina has been principal bassoon of several national orchestras, including the National Youth Sinfonia, and is now 2nd Bassoon in the National Youth Orchestra.

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