National Symphony Orchestra
Part of: Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice and Carnegie Hall Live on WQXR
Performers
National Symphony Orchestra
Gianandrea Noseda, Music Director and Conductor
James Ehnes, Violin
Program
BERG Selections from Lyric Suite
KORNGOLD Violin Concerto
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"
Encores:
YSAŸE Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, "Ballade"
J. S. BACH Largo from Solo Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.This Concert in Context
When Berg composed his Lyric Suite in 1925 and 1926, the Weimar Republic enjoyed a period of much-need support and stability. With the introduction of the Rentenmark currency in November 1923, the shock of Weimar’s disastrous hyperinflation receded ever further from view, while the signing of the Locarno Treaties in October 1925 held the promise of restoring relations between Germany and its former enemies Great Britain and France. But warning signs lingered just under the surface. The rise of German nationalist Paul von Hindenburg to the presidency following the untimely death of the Republic’s first leader Friedrich Ebert in 1925 introduced an authoritarian streak into the country’s political leadership.
In the musical sphere—while we today associate Weimar with modernism in all its various guises—traditional German composers from J. S. Bach and Haydn to Beethoven were a regular staple of concert fare. The year 1927, which marked the centennial of Beethoven’s death, saw music organizations across the country hold festivals dedicated to the composer’s works as various figures from across the political spectrum claimed Beethoven and his legacy for themselves. His Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” offers an illustrative case in point: Beethoven’s initial dedication of the work to Napoleon was cited by the socialist left as evidence of the composer’s revolutionary sympathies. But these cultural battles did not survive beyond 1933 when the Nazis took power. Erich Korngold was among the first artists to flee the country, taking up residence in Hollywood, where he immediately set to work as a prolific film composer. His Violin Concerto—written in 1937, revised in 1945, and premiered in 1947 by the St. Louis Symphony with virtuoso Jascha Heifetz—represented his first foray back into art music.
—Brendan Fay, author of Classical Music in Weimar Germany