Swiss Orchestra

Program: Victor Herbert: Serenade for String Orchestra, Op. 12
Edward Elgar: Serenade in E Minor, Op. 20
Edvard Grieg: Two Nordic Melodies, Op. 63
Conductor: Bernadette Schmutz

For the summer concert, the Swiss Orchestra Frohnleiten has chosen three works from the Romantic era: two serenades for string orchestra and two Nordic melodies. In this varied concert, all the emotions associated with "romanticism" will be addressed: dances and evening songs, a love scene, idyllic rural life, and dark melancholy, followed by exuberant joy of life. All pieces were celebrated successes at their premieres in the late 19th century and have lost none of their highly emotional vibrancy to this day. The Swiss Orchestra, under the direction of Bernadette Schmutz, will surely guide you through all the highs and lows of emotional life until you finally emerge from a sea of melodies and moods.

The composer Victor Herbert, born in Ireland, became famous in the USA primarily for his operettas. His piece "Babes in Toyland" was adapted into a film featuring the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, while "Naughty Marietta" was made into a Hollywood film in 1935. Herbert studied cello at the Stuttgart Conservatory of Music and played in the orchestra of Eduard Strauss in Vienna. As a composer of a cello suite and a cello concerto, both premiered in 1882, he gained initial recognition. In 1886, he moved to New York—freshly married—to support his wife Therese's engagement at the Metropolitan Opera and made a name for himself as a sought-after soloist and cellist of the New York String Quartet. Just two years later, his Serenade for Strings premiered at Steinway Hall. Critics were enthusiastic, and the piece and parts of it were performed across the continent in the following years. The fourth movement, the "Canzonetta," was also published in an arrangement for violin and piano. Herbert's "Serenade" offers a wide range of techniques and excellently executed romantic contrasts over its five varied movements. The changing timbres, the highly varied dynamics, and the knowledgeable use of the different string groups are certainly due to the composer’s experience in orchestral and string quartet playing. Particularly successful at the premiere was the third movement, the passionate "Love Scene," which the New York Times praised as "warm in theme and powerful in expression."

At the age of 20, Edward Elgar, the son of an organist and a bassoonist and violinist, was not yet the famous composer of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches or the Enigma Variations, but a musical young man from the English province of Worcester. He was fascinated by the legendary figures of English medieval times and wrote cantatas such as "The Black Knight" and "King Olaf." At the Three Choirs Festival in his hometown, he presented three pieces for string orchestra titled "Spring Song," "Elegy," and "Finale." Presumably, from these three pieces, he created the Serenade in E Minor in 1892, with which he would also conquer the concert halls in London. Although the movements now have different titles, the prevailing mood remains unmistakably the same: The first movement (Allegro piacevole) cannot hide its pastoral inclinations, the slow movement (Larghetto) bears elegiac traits, and the finale (Allegretto) provides a cheerful conclusion. The fact that the first movement echoes again shortly before the end was inspired by Dvořák's Serenade Opus 22, under whose direction he had once played in the orchestra of the Three Choirs Festival. For the perfectionist Elgar, this serenade was the first work with which he was satisfied, and posterity shares his assessment, as the piece remains one of the most performed to this day.

As in many other works, Edvard Grieg also draws on traditional Norwegian folk music in the "Two Nordic Melodies." Fredrik Due, a Norwegian diplomat working in Paris, conveyed to him the melody of the first melody. The theme is melancholic and dark, developing into warmer harmonies, yet remains connected to a dark singing tone despite its enchanting beauty. The themes of the second melody had already been used by Grieg in a collection of piano works Op. 17, but are now executed in much more detail in the orchestral version. One can imagine the calls of the shepherds bringing the cattle back to the valley at the end of the grazing season and celebrating the success with a joyful dance. These dance melodies were later used by Igor Stravinsky in his orchestral work "Four Norwegian Impressions."