Günther Herbig began his musical training with Hermann Abendroth at the Franz Liszt Academy in Weimar, Germany. He continued his studies with Hermann Scherchen and was one of only a few students chosen for intensive study with Herbert von Karajan, with whom he worked for two years. In 1972 he became General Music Director of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1977 until autumn 1983, held the same position with the Berlin Symphony. In 1979 he was invited to become Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. It was only in 1984, after he had left East Germany, that Günther Herbig was able to conduct regularly in Western Europe. Very quickly he was invited by the other major British orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then he has conducted most of the major European orchestras and has toured Japan, South America and Australia many times.

Please click here for Günther's full biography.

James Ehnes  - violin

James Ehnes was born in 1976 in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. He began violin studies at the age of four, at age nine he became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin. He studied with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music, then in 1993 at The Juilliard School. He graduated from Julliard in 1997, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music. James first gained national recognition in 1987 as winner of the Grand Prize in Strings at the Canadian Music Competition. The following year he won the First Prize in Strings at the Canadian Music Festival, the youngest musician ever to do so. At age 13, he made his orchestral solo debut with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. He has won numerous awards and prizes, including the first-ever Ivan Galamian Memorial Award, the Canada Council for the Arts' prestigious Virginia Parker Prize, and a 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant. In October 2005, James was honoured by Brandon University with a Doctor of Music degree (honoris causa) and in July 2007 he became the youngest person ever elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada. In 2008 James won the GRAMMY and JUNO Awards for his recording of concertos by Barber, Korngold and Walton with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Please click here for James's full biography.
 

‘Die Meistersinger’ had first taken shape in Wagner’s mind in 1845 but it was in March 1862 that Wagner composed the Overture, or Prelude as he later named it. He had just moved to Biebrich near Mainz: ‘One evening from the balcony as I watched a fine sunset light up the view of Mainz and the majestically flowing Rhine, the Prelude to my Meistersinger suddenly sprang up clearly in my mind… and I proceeded to draft the Prelude precisely as it appears today in the score, that is setting forth very definitely the main motives of the whole drama’.

The ‘whole drama’ was to be completed some five years later, but before that event the Prelude, or Overture, had been performed in concerts a number of times. 

The Overture opens with the ceremonial theme of the Mastersingers themselves. Two other themes dominate the work, one of which, the March of the Mastersingers, is an authentic march dating from 1697. Another motive is incorporated into the victorious ‘Prize Song’ and yet another is recognisable by the words in the English translation of the libretto: ‘Surely she’ll refuse him’.

The combination of three themes (the Prize Song, the Meistersinger’s theme and one of the march themes) builds up to a masterly climax in which the whole orchestra  takes part. 

‘I listen to it as intently as I can i.e. as often as I can stand it.’
Brahms in 1870 re. ‘Die Meistersingers’
 

The great violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim had known Brahms for many years by the time the composer decided to write a concerto for him. Being a pianist rather than a violinist, Brahms asked the advice of his friend when it came to the technicalities of the solo part. ‘Naturally I wanted you to correct it [the solo part]’, Brahms wrote in a letter of August 1878, ‘but I shall be satisfied if you just write me a word or two here and there in the music – words like ‘difficult’, ‘awkward’, ‘impossible’ etc.’.

Joachim took great pains over the part and indicated many technical difficulties he felt would hinder the performance and suggested changes that would be of benefit. Brahms read all the advice and altered virtually nothing. 

The concerto was completed in the little Austrian resort of Pörtschach on the shores of the Wörthersee where he had completed his Second Symphony the previous year. Joachim gave the first performance in Leipzig on New Year’s Day in 1879 and it was he who championed the work throughout Europe. 

I Allegro non troppo (quick and lively but not too much) – the first movement is lyrical and relaxed as its long orchestral opening prepares for the solo violin which, after opening with a flourish, settles into the prevailing mood of the movement. 

II Adagio (slow, deliberate) – one celebrated violin virtuoso is said to have refused to ever play ‘The Brahms’: ‘While the oboe plays the best tune, why should I stand doing nothing?’ Indeed, one of the composer’s best melodies opens the movement on the oboe (‘as the soloist stands doing nothing’!). After this wind serenade, the solo violin joins in this ‘celebration of melody’, decorating and embellishing it in the most delightful fashion. 

 III Allegro gracioso, ma non troppo vivace (quick, lively and humorously, but not too briskly) – Brahms was very particular that this finale wasn’t ravaged by violinists determined to play it as fast as they dare!

There are elements of Hungarian folk music to this finale, probably in tribute to Joachim’s native country. Apart from the opening theme that returns a number of times there are two other main themes: a march and a lilting waltz. Brahms keeps his main surprise for immediately after the striking cadenza, near the end of the movement, with a new tempo and a new guise as the main theme becomes more wild and dashing, propelling the music towards what promises to be a boisterous ending. But Brahms again has something new – the music slows, relaxes and stops ‘rather like a good old fashioned steam train coming to rest at the buffers at the end of a long haul’.
 

Celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the death of Martinu 

Martinu’s father was the bell ringer and watchman in the Bohemian town of Polička. The family lived up in the bell tower of the church of St. James and Bohuslav was born there on 8^th December, a local public holiday, so he was surrounded by the sound of bells from the outset. He tended to be a sickly child and often had to be carried up and down the 193 steps in the bell tower. This location influenced him in life as he saw from this great height ‘space, which I always had in front of me’. 

His talent for music quickly became apparent and he gave his first violin recital in 1905. Soon after this he started composing and nothing else really interested him. He went to the Prague Conservatoire but preferred to spend his time reading and going to the theatre. In 1909 he moved to the organ school but was expelled through lack of effort. The 1920s saw him playing violin in the Czech Philharmonic and he moved to Paris in 1923 where, in 1931, he was married. His wife worked hard to enable Martinu to spend time composing.

He fled to New York in 1941, having had to spend many months sleeping rough after leaving Paris in 1940 as the Nazis neared the French capital. His time in New York was difficult – he didn’t speak English and he was an unknown musician/composer who had had to leave all his scores behind in Europe. Life settled down somewhat and he taught and composed in the USA for 12 years. In 1953 Charles Munch, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, commissioned Martinu to write a piece celebrating the 75^th anniversary of the orchestra. Tonight’s 6^th Symphony was the result. Earlier in his time in the USA he had had a near fatal fall, which left him with a constant noise in his head; this affected his general health causing him to leave the USA to retire to Nice. He eventually moved to Switzerland where he died in 1959. 

His output is prolific: 16 operas; 15 ballets; 6 Symphonies; 7 string quartets; and many choral works as well as a great number of compositions for all kinds of ensembles.  

‘Fantaisies symphoniques’ (Symphony No. 6) has three movements and was composed in New York and Paris. It was the first symphonic music he had written for a number of years, the previous five having been composed in a burst of inspiration between 1942 and 1946. 

I  Lento–Allegro – common to all three movements is the amazing orchestral sound that opens the first movement. It has been described variously as ‘buzzing insects’, the sound of winds like the ‘mistral’ and the noise ever present in Martinu’s head as a result of his near fatal fall. This mysterious and eerie sound builds up to a climax after which a cello introduces a new theme that propels the music into the quicker part of the movement. Here various components appear, including a grotesque march and a folk-like Czech hymn. Ideas from the ‘buzzing’ appear on both solo and groups of instruments throughout and after all this agitation, the final bars of the movement end in calm. 

II  Poco Allegro – a variation of the ‘buzzing’ evolves into a lively scherzo, with sections of more hymn-like ideas as a contrast. The music is often delicate though sometimes noisy and gritty, but the ending of the movement decides to be delicate.

III  Lento – all of the elements present so far in the work are featured in the finale – the swirl of the ‘buzzing’ music, the hymn-like phrases and melodies and some ‘sonic grotesqueries’. There is one particularly colourful passage as solo woodwind, horn and subdued strings remind us of the roots of Czech music in Smetana and Dvořák. These are the ideas and effects to listen out for, as the music makes its way to an ending of magical tranquillity – three gentle chords over held horn notes, almost Brahmsian in its effect. 

Yesterday, we picked up a concert from Prague on the radio . . .my beloved Czech Philharmonic conducted by Ančerl did the Fantaisie, which they call the Sixth Symphony. They played it most beautifully. I must send them a card, they must know I listened’.
From a letter of November 7^th 1956

© Barry Sharkey 2008