THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 9, 1995 TAG: 9511090012
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 127 lines
BOOKS ARE NOT the only things that shouldn't be judged by their covers. Take this weekend's program by the Virginia Symphony.
It's an all-Viennese bill that doesn't include the first note of ``The Blue Danube'' - or any waltz - by Johann Strauss. Instead, Music Director JoAnn Falletta has reached deeper into the storied roster and come up with:
Wolfgang Mozart, who suffered through the worst 10 years of his life in Vienna.
Arnold Schoenberg, the vilified architect of atonality who paved the way for the music of this century.
Gustav Mahler, whose grandiloquent, marathon symphonies most often addressed death and the afterlife.
``Of all the programs we're doing, this is my favorite just because the repertoire is so extraordinary,'' Falletta said. ``It's a very illustrious school, so I tried to put a program together that would feature three composers, one very early and two who really were at the cusp at the turn of the century, which is an interesting time.''
That brings up what most everyone knows about appearances. They can be deceiving.
Schoenberg's ``Transfigured Night,'' composed in 1899 when he was 25, is the program's most radical departure. Based on a poem by the German Richard Dehmel, he clearly drew on the influences of Wagner and Richard Strauss.
In the poem, as a man and woman walk through a forest on a frosty evening, she makes a painful confession: Convinced that she would never find true love, she had given herself to another and now carries his child. His response is unexpected: Don't be troubled, our love will transfigure this little stranger.
Originally written for a string sextet, the music reflects anguish and resolution, Falletta said.
``As she's telling the story, there's a moment of silence as the cellists hold a low B-flat for a long time,'' she said. ``Then, there's this fantastic, warm B-major chord when the man responds. The strings play this beautiful little evaporating figure as guilt evaporates.
``Sometimes people stay away when they see Schoenberg on a program. It's because of the kind of music he wrote later in his life. That's why I'm always pleased to do `Transfigured Night.' This is the piece of his young life. Most people cannot believe it's Schoenberg, because it's so lush and beautiful.''
Mahler's Symphony No. 4, also written in 1899, may get the same reaction.
Its theme is the same that preoccupied Mahler throughout his life - psychiatrists have speculated he had a death fixation - but the symphony clocks in at just over 60 minutes. His first three symphonies were sprawling marathons that, including the chorus, might require 150 people on stage.
He deliberately pulled back with the Fourth, and not only in length.
``This is the only symphony he wrote that is small,'' Falletta said. ``It's a small orchestra. It's very intimate in scope. And I think it's because he based it on the last movement, which is a very simple song (about) a child's view of heaven.''
Mahler, who would become one of Schoenberg's mentors, intended to conclude his Third Symphony with the song, called ``A Heavenly Life,'' but it would have added a seventh movement to a piece that was already nearly two hours long.
``But he wouldn't give up on it,'' Falletta said. ``It was so important to him that he structured the whole Fourth Symphony on it. And then he was very careful to keep the symphony within the boundaries of this very intimate movement. So it's much shorter and very tender in scope.''
In the song, a child recounts the bounties of heaven - the food (``All manner of good vegetables / Flourish in heaven's garden!'') and music (``St. Cecelia and her kin / Are splendid court musicians!''). Soprano Linda Hohenfeld joins the symphony for the final movement.
``Mahler was always sort of struggling with death, and at the end, he almost always comes to some kind of acceptance and tranquillity,'' Falletta said. ``This is not any different, but if they're (the audience) expecting the 12 trumpets and the chorus, it's not that.
``It's much more innocent and childlike. It's the only one of his symphonies that is like this at all, and for that reason, for some people, it's their favorite.''
``Don Giovanni'' is regarded with such reverence today that it's hard to imagine Mozart's masterpiece ever being greeted with anything but acclaim. And the opera was a resounding success at its 1787 premiere in Prague.
Not so in Vienna.
If audiences didn't complain about the music being too complicated - the story goes that Emperor Joseph said, ``Too many notes, Mozart,'' to which the composer replied, ``Just as many as are needed, your majesty'' - they faulted it for being immoral.
Falletta will lead the symphony through the overture.
``People felt it was incomprehensible, inaccessible,'' she said. ``Almost the same thing we sometimes say about contemporary music, they said about `Don Giovanni.'
``At the time, it was very controversial. The Viennese were used to having operas that were based upon great historical legends and heroes. Mozart was the first person to break away from that and write about the simple person.''
The opera also broke form in its style, mixing comedy and tragedy. Don Giovanni seduces a woman then kills her father as he makes his escape. At the end, he is dragged to hell by a statue of the father.
``The Viennese didn't know what to make of this,'' Falletta said. ``Even psychiatrists have talked about this piece for many, many years, saying it has something to do with Mozart's relationship with his father, whom he adored but was always very displeased with him.
``We'll never know, but the music is great.''
While this weekend's performances represent a sort of history lesson in the Viennese school - Mozart and Schoenberg could be regarded as its bookends - Falletta hopes audiences will see there is something even more tangible tying the works together.
``All great music is inspired by great human emotions, and I think these three pieces show it very well,'' she said. ``Mozart writing about Don Giovanni in a sympathetic way but knowing he has to pay for what he's done. Schoenberg writing about this great love of the man and the anguish of the woman. And Mahler dealing with people's fear of death and the unknown.
``It makes us realize everyone can understand this music because all it's about is the same feelings we have every day of our lives. That strikes me in seeing these pieces together - the great human spirit.'' MEMO: AT A GLANCE
What: The Virginia Symphony, JoAnn Falletta conducting; with soprano
Linda Hohenfeld
Program: Mozart's overture to ``Don Giovanni,'' Schoenberg's
``Transfigured Night,'' Mahler's Symphony No. 4
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Chrysler Hall, Norfolk
Tickets: $17 to $40; order at 671-8100
Information: 623-2310 ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Schoenberg
Mahler
by CNB