Utah Symphony

Instrumentation: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, harp, strings.

Duration: 9 minutes.

THE COMPOSER – RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883) – Though Wagner had created a prose version of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg as far back as 1845, he didn’t begin composition of the opera in earnest until the spring of 1862. Earlier that same year he wrote two new prose treatments of the libretto and also conceived the opera’s orchestral prelude during a train voyage from Venice. He conducted the Prelude as a concert work in the fall.

THE MUSIC – The full production of Meistersinger would not occur until 1868 but the ten-minute Prelude Wagner unveiled six years before hinted at something that would become rather unique in his catalogue – pure, uncomplicated optimism. The story details a 16th century singing contest put on by the Guild of Mastersingers in the town of Nuremberg. It speaks essentially to the eternal struggle between old and new, between the conservative musical traditionalists and the unbound forward-thinkers. Many of the characters in the opera were based on actual historical figures from the time and the Guild itself did in fact exist. The Mastersingers were skilled German folk vocalists, active from the very end of the mediaeval period to the 19th century and made up of common tradespeople with an intense devotion to music. Wagner’s life as a musician was also marked by a dissonance similar to the one he addressed, albeit quite lightly, in Meistersinger. His version centered on the battle between his own progressive compositional ideas and the rigidly anachronistic mindset of some of his critics. One of the most ardent was a man named Eduard Hanslick and some have posited that the dour character of Beckmesser was created as his unflattering caricature. The bright and agreeable Prelude to Die Meistersinger includes none of this presumed baggage however. It merely introduces the opera’s most important themes in the same beautifully self-contained fashion that makes every Wagner opera overture such a magnificent concert piece.               

THE WORLD – The Franco-Mexican War began in 1862. Otto von Bismarck became Prime Minister of Prussia that year, on his way to the Chancellorship of the German Empire. Back in America, Julia Ward Howe published The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

THE CONNECTION – Utah Symphony last performed the Meistersinger Prelude in the 2009-10 season. Christopher Seaman was on the podium.

Instrumentation: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, strings

Duration: 8 minutes.

THE COMPOSER – RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883) – When Wagner’s sixth opera LOHENGRIN was premiered in 1850, Franz Liszt was on the podium, not the composer himself. In fact, Wagner was not even in the same city, having been exiled in Switzerland since his role in failed Dresden insurrection necessitated a hasty flight from Prussian troops and an arrest warrant in 1849. It was a time of ill health and grave depression for Wagner, who even considered suicide.

THE MUSIC – LOHENGRIN was Wagner’s first internationally recognized masterpiece and the work that officially announced the arrival of a new operatic genius. Not surprisingly, the story is Nordic in its origin and heroic in its progression. The plot centers on a dispute over ducal succession in the Brabant region of the 10th century German Empire. Elsa is accused of murdering her brother, the rightful heir, and must find a champion to defend her claims of innocence. No one comes so she dreams of a knight in a boat drawn by a swan. The knight soon becomes manifest and agrees to aid her so long as she never asks his name. Too curious, she breaks the rule and he is revealed as Lohengrin, a Knight of the Holy Grail who can only live among men in secret. He departs but not before he restores Elsa’s brother, the swan all along, to human form and the dukedom. The Act I Prelude is a musical depiction of the Holy Grail as it descends to the Earth in the care of an Angelic host. It is a masterfully extended orchestral crescendo that builds to a brilliant climax then settles back into its original elemental murmur. Wagner weaves essentially one theme throughout the Prelude but he asks much of it during the course of the opera’s three acts, using it to speak for Lohengrin, Elsa and even the Grail itself at critical moments in the action.          

THE WORLD – U.S. President Zachary Taylor died after only 16 months in office in 1850. Also in 1850, the Don Pacifico Affair nearly led to war between Britain and Greece and German scientist Rudolf Clausius formulated the second law of thermodynamics.

 Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 6 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, snare drum, triangle, strings

Duration: 5 minutes.