THE STORY BEHIND: Berlioz's "Rob Roy"

On November 12, Kensho Watanabe and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra will present OLGA KERN PLAYS BEETHOVEN with pianist Olga Kern.

THE STORY BEHIND: Berlioz's Rob Roy
Title: Rob Roy
Composer: Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Last time performed by the Rhode Island Philharmonic: This is a RI Philharmonic Orchestra premiere. This piece is scored for flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, cornet, three trombones, timpani, harp and strings.

The Story: In his youth and early adult years, Hector Berlioz was an avid reader. His greatest interest seems to have been adventure and action. Some of these stories, novels, and Shakespearean plays inspired him later to compose music illustrating the source or expressing his own response to it. Well known examples include concert and dramatic overtures, such as Le Corsaire (James Fenimore Cooper), Le Roi Lear (Shakespeare) and Waverley (Sir Walter Scott). Rob Roy, also by Scott, was the inspiration for Berlioz’s concert overture of the same name.   

Berlioz composed the overture in 1831, by which time he had premiered the work that made him famous: his Symphonie fantastique (1830). However, he was never satisfied with Rob Roy, judging it “long and diffuse.” Yet, its material persisted, and he used one of its melodies in Harold en Italie.

The opening segments of Berlioz’s Rob Roy present us with a “hunting horn” sketch of the outdoors featuring the French horns. They are soon joined, then dominated, by strings. The unison string melody that follows is masculine and forceful. Now an underlying galloping rhythm supports new melodies and musical gestures. These gradually grow quieter, and a new, more lyrical, melody comes from a solo trumpet (or cornet) answered by the English horn. Then, more excitement brews as the strings lead the orchestra in a heroic romp that stops abruptly for a truly lyrical theme from the solo English horn and harp, punctuated by a few rude outbursts from the string section. However, the strings softly accompany a varied repeat of much of the English horn’s theme.

Softly, the strings revive the galloping character of previous music, which now Berlioz builds to support a triumphant reprise of themes. The brass instruments, naturally, are at the forefront but regularly give way to the strings when themes change. We hear snippets of a Scottish-style melody, alongside more personal Berlioz-style melodies, as the music approaches its exciting, climactic dénouement.



Program Notes by Dr. Michael Fink © 2022 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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