At yesterday afternoon's matinee at Good Shepherd Church, the Jupiter Symphony Players performed works by Lachner, Schubert and Beethoven in a selection that traced the development of chamber music in the Biedermeier period (1815-1848) and beyond. As such, the afternoon provided a great deal of insight into the tastes of nineteenth century Viennese audiences. Essentially, this involved a broadening of musical appreciation in the newly emerged middle class. No longer was serious music the exclusive preserve of the aristocracy. Under the new social order, music was now being written to be played at home and in informal settings rather than solely in those venues where it could only be heard by a privileged few.
The program opened with Lachner's Nonet in F major for violin, viola, cello, double bass and wind quintet (1875). I had not expected to find much documentation online regarding this rather obscure work, but I did in fact come across a detailed analysis contained in a 2007 thesis by Andrew L. de Alvaré that provided an excellent context. Alvaré first pointed out the similarities between Lachner's 1824 Septet and the the much later Nonet, though he also made note of the fact that the structures of these two pieces differed to the extent that that of the five-movement Septet was akin to a classical divertimento while that of the four-movement Nonet more closely resembled that of a string quartet. While Lachner's Septet drew its inspiration from Beethoven's Septet as well as Schubert's Octet (composed the same year as Lachner's work), it altered the instrumentation by replacing the bassoon used in the two earlier works with a flute. There were other, more important differences as well. As Alvaré noted:
"However, he [Lachner] also incorporates numerous elements to accommodate Romantic era tastes, resulting in a different mood than presented in Beethoven’s Septet. The symmetry and balance of the old-fashioned style galant have been removed entirely, and the unequal phrase-lengths that Lachner uses in their place complement a more advanced harmonic style... Lachner includes movements in both the major and minor keys built on the sixth scale-degrees, while Beethoven and Schubert used neither in their chamber works for large ensembles."
It was more than fifty years after having written the Septet that Lachner composed the Nonet. But not only were there stylistic similarities between the two, there was also a common intent - to provide middle class audiences with attractive sounding light pieces imbued with a strong Romantic spirit. This continuity was not at all surprising in light of the change in circumstances that had occurred in the interim in Lachner's life. In 1864, Wagner had seen to it that Lachner was replaced as royal kapellmeister in Munich by his own protege Hans von Bülow, whose wife Wagner was later to steal. The move effectively ended Lachner's career and must have convinced him that his sympathies lay more with the common people than with Ludwig II and his court. The composer also had had time to absorb more musical influences. Interestingly, Lachner's Nonet makes use of the same instrumentation as that written by Louis Spohr.
After intermission, the program continued with Schubert's Ellen’s dritte Gesang “Ave Maria,” D. 839, Op. 52, No. 6 (1825). This was the sixth of seven songs Schubert based on Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake. Coincidentally, I had seen a wonderful performance of Rossini's La Donna del Lago just last month at the Met Opera and so was looking forward to hearing Schubert's adaptation of the same source material. Ironically, I found the music quite familiar. I had heard it often at church when I was a child, but with the original lyrics replaced by the Latin verses of the "Hail Mary." Gina Cuffari, who doubles as the ensemble's bassoonist, sang the piece wonderfully well.
The afternoon ended with one of Beethoven's most famous chamber works, the Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, nicknamed the "Archduke" (1811). In a sense, the work stood at an opposite pole from Lachner's Nonet. If the latter had been written for middle class audiences and was intended to be played by amateurs, Beethoven's work was, as witnessed by the dedication to Archduke Rudolf, meant for the enjoyment of aristocratic patrons and the playing of highly qualified professional musicians. (Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Josef Linke and Beethoven himself gave the first performance of the work. The 1814 premiere marked Beethoven's last public appearance as a pianist.) Nor was the work in any sense informal. This was a grand, symphonic piece in which Beethoven clearly intended to show off his skill as a composer. Not that the stateliness of presentation in any way undermined the bright cheerful nature of the work that was most evident in the closing movement.
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