Manfred Overture

The Chicago Symphony Chorus has a special place on this program, not only in the Holst, but also in Schicksalslied, a short but eloquent piece by Brahms.

And we'll start off with Schumann's Manfred Overture.

All of that plus a choral landmark by Stravinsky is ahead on this week's CSO program.

I'm Lisa Simeone.

Nevertheless, the Dresden period saw the creation of some of his greatest works, the completion in 1845 of the A minor piano concerto by the addition of the intermezzo and the finale to the fantasy written in 1841, the magnificent C major symphony with its melting adagio, its breathless scherzo, its resplendent finale, the scenes from Faust, the overture and the incidental music to Byron's Manfred, and the opera Genova.

Limitations of space forbid us to consider in any detail works like the piano concerto, the C major symphony, and the rugged Manfred overture, so different in its somber, muty character from the romantic effusions of Schumann's earlier day.

But the opera Genova, though branded a failure, contains superb music, beginning with the overture which in its different fashion ranks with the one to Manfred.

The prayer of the fated Genova in the last act is a long scena comparing in its far-fung lyric line with the noblest vocal pieces Schumann ever wrote.

Robert's taciturnity had been growing on him for years, but it finally took utterly fantastic forms.

We are told that in Düsseldorf he could not say, Ladies and gentlemen, our next rehearsal will be tomorrow at seven, without breaking down once or twice.

In another case, a certain Carl Witting was commissioned to visit Schumann in order to settle a debated point about the tempi in the Manfred Overture.

After putting his question to the composer, who was smoking a cigar, Robert had been an inveterate smoker from his youth, he received for an answer only the query, Do you smoke? Witting said he did, and waited respectfully.