Ravinia 2025 Issue 4

his lifetime; the published score appeared in print only after his death. Many composers seemed to have influenced Mendelssohn’s musical style. His interest in “archaic” composers—Bach, Scarlatti, and oth- ers—contributed contrapuntal elements to his writing. Beethoven exerted some influence over Felix, as he did over most composers of the age. Mendelssohn scholar Philip Radcliffe points out that “it may be said in general that, of his prede- cessors, Beethoven was probably the one whom he was most eager to emulate, and with whom he had least in common temperamentally.” Radcliffe argues further that he “certainly could never achieve the peculiarly dynamic collabora- tion of heart and mind that enabled Beethoven to explore so astonishingly wide an emotional range without a loss of balance.” Mendelssohn nearly always appeared of good countenance, even amidst great external turmoil. Spiritual fire, like that of Beethoven’s character, was nev- er part of his demeanor. Perhaps Mendelssohn’s style more closely approached that of Mozart, with its cool, polished beauty. The opening of his four-movement “Italian” Sym- phony lacks the dramatic intensity with which Beethoven began the Fifth Symphony, for ex- ample. The hunting-horn call presents a rustic, folk-like atmosphere. By movement’s end, there have been no large emotional swings, not even contrasts in intensity as would have been present in a Mozart symphony. The song-like Andante con moto bears a slight Beethovenian solemnity. A fast-tempo minuet follows. The only musical remembrance of Italy appears in the final move- ment: the Saltarello , a fast triple-meter dance characterized by vigorous leaping steps. This dance was popular in several regions of Italy during the 18th and 19th centuries, and Mendels- sohn likely heard the music during his sojourn. AARON COPLAND (1900–1990) Clarinet Concerto Scored for string orchestra, harp, piano, and solo clarinet Benny Goodman (1909–86)—the Chicago-born clarinetist and bandleader whose impecca- ble technique, virtuoso improvisations, and high-energy jazz rhythms earned him the title “King of Swing”—cultivated a parallel career in the “legit” arena of classical music. As a boy, Goodman took private clarinet lessons from Franz Schoepp, a faculty member at Chicago Musical College, who might have substituted occasionally with the Chicago Symphony Or- chestra. The weekly lessons at Schoepp’s home near Wrigley Field emphasized technical preci- sion and tone quality. Goodman later credited his aged German-American mentor with doing “more for me musically than anybody I ever knew.”This formal instruction came to an end af- ter two years, when the young clarinetist’s inter- est in jazz took precedence over classical music. In the mid-1930s, after Goodman had developed a national following with his big band and com- bo performances and recordings, the famous clarinetist turned his attention again to classical music. John Hammond, the emerging hot young jazz record producer, coaxed Benny into a pri- vate performance of Mozart’s clarinet quintet (Hammond played viola) in the spring of 1935. One year later, Goodman made an unsuccessful attempt to record that work with the Pro Arte Quartet. His public classical debut came on The Camel Caravan radio show aired on January 18, 1938, just two days after the Benny Goodman Orchestra’s unprecedented jazz performance in Carnegie Hall. The Coolidge String Quartet joined the clarinetist on the radio broadcast. Buoyed by the success of that performance, Goodman immediately scheduled a recording session with the Budapest String Quartet and spent the next three months studying Mozart’s score, practicing obsessively, and seeking ad- vice from respected colleagues. “Looking back,” Goodman later reflected, “I suppose that it was at this moment that my [double] musical life started in earnest. Once I had become even slightly familiar with the other world of music, it was quite impossible for me to dismiss it.” The Budapest ensemble invited Goodman to make his official public recital debut on their Novem- ber 5, 1938, program at New York’s Town Hall. The pursuit of a classical career deepened when Goodman took lessons with Russian-American clarinetist Simeon Bellison of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and, later, English clarinetist Reginald Kell. The “King of Swing” led a dual musical life through the remainder of his career, maintain- ing a narrowly focused classical repertory that included works by Bernstein, Brahms, Debussy, Milhaud, Nielsen, Poulenc, Stravinsky, and We- ber. This multitalented musician also published Benny Goodman’s Clarinet Method . Goodman died on June 13, 1986—just days after his final jazz performance at Wolf Trap—while taking a nap during rehearsals for an upcoming appear- ance at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. Aaron Copland at Tanglewood Goodman made lasting contributions to the clarinet repertoire by commissioning sever- al important scores. The first new work, Béla Bartók’s trio for clarinet, violin, and piano called Contrasts , received its world premiere perfor- mance at Carnegie Hall in January 1939. Eight years later, Goodman extended concerto com- missions to two major composers working in the United States: Paul Hindemith and Aaron Copland. The final work requested from a clas- sical composer was Morton Gould’s Derivations for clarinet and band (1956). Copland described his Clarinet Concerto as a two-movement structure—a “languid song form” and “a free rondo”—played without pause and connected by a cadenza. He composed the first movement during his 1947 tour of Latin America but ran short on ideas for the fast sec- ondmovement. Hollywood beckoned with a film score project, an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony , and Copland set aside the concer- to until the following summer at Tanglewood, where it was completed. His opening movement ( Slowly and expressively ) is a weightless lyrical essay in waltz time, which the composer believed “will make everyone weep.” The written-out ca- denza “gives the soloist considerable opportunity to demonstrate his prowess” while previewing motives from the finale. The Rather fast move- ment incorporates elements of jazz (including slap-bass effects) with Brazilian-style melodies. EDWARD ELGAR (1857–1934) Variations on an Original Theme, op. 36 (“Enigma”) Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, side drum, triangle, bass drum, cymbals, organ, and strings English audiences had grown familiar with the sacred choral works, songs, light chamber and orchestral pieces, and large-scale oratorios of Edward Elgar years before he burst into the international spotlight with his first orches- tral masterpiece, the Variations on an Original Theme, op. 36. The idea of writing a set of vari- ations seems to have taken root on October 21, 1898, as Elgar smoked a cigar and improvised at the piano for his wife, Alice. Three days lat- er, Elgar described his evolving idea to August Johannes Jaeger, publication manager for the music publisher Novello: “The variations have amused me because I’ve labeled ’em with the nicknames of my particular friends— you are ‘Nimrod.’ That is to say I’ve written the vari- ations each one to represent the mood of the ‘party’—I’ve liked to imagine the ‘party’ writing the var. him (or her) self.” Enthused by this orchestral variations project, Elgar completed his sketches in early 1899, be- gan scoring the music on February 5, and ap- plied final pen strokes to the manuscript two RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 65