Page 239 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

The Late Romantic Symphony and Concerto
The symphony orchestra is so called because it most often performs a type, or genre, of music called the symphony. Symphonic composers in the Romantic period generally continued to follow the four-movement format inherited from their Classical forebears—(1) fast, (2) slow, (3) minuet or scherzo, and (4) fast. Yet throughout the nineteenth century, the movements got progressively longer. Perhaps as a consequence, composers wrote fewer symphonies. Schumann and Brahms composed only 4; Mendelssohn, 5; Tchaikovsky, 6; and Dvorˇák, Bruck- ner, and Mahler, 9 each. No one approached the 40-odd symphonies of Mozart, to say nothing of the 106 of Haydn.
Similarly for the concerto, with expanded length came a reduction in num- ber. A Classical concerto may last twenty minutes, a Romantic one forty; Mo- zart gave us twenty-three piano concertos, but Beethoven only five. Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky penned just a single violin concerto apiece, yet each is a substantial showpiece for the soloist. Despite its growing length, the Romantic concerto retained the three-movement plan established during the Classical period—fast, slow, fast. To sum up, almost everything about an orchestral concert expanded during the Romantic period—the hall, the audi- ence, the performing forces, and the length of the pieces. Only the preeminent concert hall genres remained constant: symphony and concerto.
Appropriate for an era that glorified the individual, the nineteenth century was the age of the solo concerto. Vivaldi and Bach had written concertos for several soloists at a time (a genre called the concerto grosso), and both Bach and Mozart had composed a concerto for three keyboardists
at once. But during the Romantic era, the solo virtuoso, the star instrumentalist on whom the spotlight shone, took center stage.
Virtuosos such as pianist Franz Liszt (see Chapter 11, “Roman-
tic Piano Music”) and violinist Niccolò Paginini (1782–1840;
Figure 14.3) mesmerized audiences with their personal
charisma and technical razzle-dazzle. They spent long hours
practicing mechanical exercises—arpeggios, tremolos, trills, and scales
played in thirds, sixths, and octaves—to develop show-stopping hand
speed on their instruments. Naturally, some of what these wizards
played lacked musical substance; they were little more than taste-
less displays designed to appeal immediately to the audiences that
packed the ever-larger concert halls. Liszt sometimes played at the
keyboard with a lighted cigar between his fingers. Paganini secretly
tuned the four strings of his violin in ways that would allow him to
negotiate extraordinarily difficult passages with ease. So great was
his fame that Paganini’s likeness appeared on napkins, ties, pipes,
billiard cues, and powder boxes. “Celebrity marketing” had begun,
and it started with virtuoso musicians.
Showmanship was perhaps easy. Creating musical substance,
whether in the symphony or the concerto, was more difficult. And the problem
Figure 14.3
Niccolò Paganini
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Historical/CORBIS
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