Sibelius & Brahms
Zadar Chamber Orchestra
Ivan Repušić, conductor
Roman Simović, violin
J. Sibelius: Concerto for violin and orchestra
J. Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op. 98
For many years now, the central event of Musical Evenings at St Donatus’ is the concert of Zadar Chamber Orchestra, directed by the greatest Zadar-born and, definitely in the near future, the greatest Croatian conductor, Ivan Repušić. A regular guest at the summer concerts by Repušić and Zadar Chamber Orchestra, for many years now, is also Roman Simović, a musician of Ukrainian and Montenegrin origin, with a London address and the flattering title of the concertmaster of London Symphony Orchestra. With this year’s concert, Repušić and Zadar Chamber Orchestra are completing the integral performance of Brahms’ symphonies, which will be, after having presented the Zadar audience with Beethoven’s symphonies, the second integrally performed cycle of an author’s symphonic oeuvre within the Musical Evenings at St Donatus.
Jean Sibelius(1865 - 1957) is the greatest Finnish composer and his violin concerto is one of his most famous works. Sibelius has remained in concert programmes thanks to his rich symphonic oeuvre of seven great works, for which he has been labelled the greatest Scandinavian composer of symphonic music. His composing style was strongly influenced by his stay in Berlin and Vienna, where he got acquainted with Richard Strauss’ works. The soloist part of his Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, reveals that Sibelius was also a skilled violinist. The first performance of the Concerto took place on 8 February 1904 in Helsinki, directed by the author himself, while the solo part was played by the violinist Victor Nováček. Already a year later, the Concerto was heard by the Berlin audience, this time directed by Richard Strauss. In accordance with the traditional structure, the Concerto has three movements in the following tempos: Allegro moderato, Adagio di molto, and Allegro ma non tanto. Although it is counted among the greatest violinist achievements of the 20th century, Sibelius’ Concerto is a late child of late Romanticism. Due to its marked melodiousness, it has a secure place not only in the violinist repertoire, but in the overall classical music repertoire, too.
Johannes Brahms(1833 - 1897) belongs entirely to the 19th century, both with his life and oeuvre. After his childhood in Hamburg and a short period of time in Düsseldorf, he moved to Vienna in 1863, where he spent the second half of his life. Wider audience know Brahms for his charming Hungarian Dances, for which he is sometimes counted into the category of 19th-century national schools. However, Johannes Brahms did not feel music as Wagner, Verdi, Smetana, or Lisinski; he sought inspiration for his pieces exclusively in music itself, not in extramusical sources. The central part of his oeuvre is held by four symphonies, which may be temporally grouped into two categories: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, and Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, were premiered in 1876 and 1877, respectively; while Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90, and Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98, were first performed in 1883 and 1885, respectively. The entire Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 is based on the initial theme from the first movement, which is repeated several times within the piece. The basic motif of the first movement’s first theme, and the manner in which it is varied in the following bars, irresistibly reminds of the music material from the recitative of Bach’s cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140. Structurally, Brahms builds on the standard form of a four-movement symphony: the first movement is built in the form of a sonata, followed by a slow and tuneful Andante moderato and the third movement as Allegro giocoso – Poco meno presto – Tempo primo, in the tradition of Beethoven’s scherzos. The final movement again returns not only to Johann Sebastian Bach’s material (the theme of the symphony’s finale is a pure reminiscence of the final choral movement of the cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150), but also to the baroque form of passacaglia with thirty variations and a coda.
(Domagoj Marić)