Jenő Hubay - Petőfi Symphony

[britishcomposer]

Dear members,

I have uploaded a recent Hungarian radio broadcast of Jenő Hubay's Petőfi Symphony, written in 1922 on poems of Sándor Petőfi. In 1923 Hungary celebrated the 100th birthday of the poet. Another 100 years on this broadcast marks his 200th birthday. However, I did cut out the extensive readings of his poetry between the movements.
You can find the original broadcast here:
https://mediaklikk.hu/radio-lejatszo-bartok/?date=2023-08-27_19-34-14&enddate=2023-08-27_22-10-10&ch=mr3

[Mark Thomas]

Wow! Thank you very much. It should be a fascinating listen.

[Alan Howe]

Google translation of accompanying notes:

BUDAPEST CONGRESS CENTER 2023-08-27 Sunday 19:30

Hubay: Petőfi Symphony

Directed by: Gábor Káli
The Hungarian Rádió Symphony Orchestra, Choir (conductor: Zoltán Pad), Children's Choir (conductor: Soma Dinyés) and the Honvéd Men's Choir (conductor: Richárd Riederauer) will take part.
László Boldizsár (tenor), Zsuzsanna Ádám (soprano), Csilla Csővári (soprano), István Kovács (bass)

The centenary of Petőfi's birth was celebrated by all Hungarians in 1923, and among the commemorations, one of the most significant events was the performance of Jenő Hubay's Petőfi symphony. In the spring of 1922, the president of the Petőfi Society, Gyula Pekár, asked the most famous Hungarian musician of the time, Jenő Hubay, to create a large-format, representative work. Hubay decided on an oratorical symphony, as this genre gave him the opportunity to sing the poems of the poet he has admired since childhood, in addition to playing the orchestra. Hubay completed the composition by the summer of 1922, and the arrangement by the end of the year.
   The presentation of the symphony on February 26, 1923 was an exceptional social event, a kind of demonstration in a country that was just getting back on its feet after the World War, which wanted to show the rest of the world that, if not militarily, it was still considered a great power in the field of culture. The City Theater (today Erkel Theater) was chosen as the venue because it was possible to accommodate the exceptionally large performance apparatus, the singing soloists, the enlarged symphonic orchestra and three choirs (mixed choir, men's choir and children's choir). According to reports from the time, about 550 performers took their seats on the stage converted for this purpose: the audience could experience an exceptional combination of Hungarian musical life, as hundreds of bands joined the Philharmonic Society and the Academy of Music Orchestra, the Choir of the Opera House, the Palestrina Choir and the Buda Dalárda a musician from the capital joined to pay his respects to the poet giant.
   The highlight of the concert was the presence of Governor Miklós Horthy, who assumed the patronage, Royal Archduke József and Prince-Primate Cernoch, as well as Prime Minister Count István Bethlen, Minister of Culture Kunó Count Klebelsberg, Mayor Jenő Sipőcz and Gyula Pekár. The presentation was also attended by many of the country's political and ecclesiastical leaders, ministers, state secretaries and company managers, the best of Hungarian cultural life (actors, musicians, writers, poets) and members of the aristocracy. The event became truly international because, in addition to the visiting celebrities, almost all embassies and consulates in Budapest were represented. Therefore, a five-language program booklet, Hungarian, English, French, German and Italian, was printed with the full text of Petőfi's poems in the work.
   The performance of the symphony was preceded by a short joint singing and an introduction by Gyula Pekár, and the poem "At the end of September" was recited by Mari Jászai in English, Nelli Huszka in French, Grill Lola in German and Erzsi Paulay in Italian. After that, Jászai also recited the poem in Hungarian, which was received with great enthusiasm by the audience.
   Further performances of the Petőfi Symphony were also considered a celebration of Hungarian culture. In 1926, Hubay himself again conducted the presentation in Finnish in Helsinki, in 1928 he performed this piece at the 150th jubilee concert of the Budapest Singing and Music Association, and in 1930 it was used to celebrate in Debrecen the inauguration of the Déri Museum by Minister of Culture Klebelsberg - then the concert was broadcast live by Magyar Rádió.

László Gombos is a music historian

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks Alan. At 80 minutes it promises to be a bit of a leviathan but, considering the date and Mahler's earlier contributions to the genre, I suppose it wasn't too excessive for its time.

[Ilja]

For those interested, the movement titles and timings:

Jenő Hubay, Petőfi Symphony (Symphony No. 4), Op. 119: in four parts, for four solo voices, large orchestra, mixed, male and children's chorus

1. Birth, Nation's Joy, Patriotism (0:00)
2. Homeland (14:56)
3. Julia (37:59)
4. Freedom fight, Farewell, Death, Glorification (1:02:22)

Your timings may be slightly off from mine, as I made some edits in the recording, particularly to remove some coughing and rustling between the movements.

I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. Hubay knew how to think up a good melody, and his use of folk motifs is often inspired. Of course, the patriotic element on display so briefly after the very controversial Treaty of Trianon in 1920, determined much of the message (and scale!) of the piece, but it nevertheless offers a satisfying wallow for those who have an hour and a half to spare. And I'm getting interested in Hubay's other symphonies, particularly his Dante Symphony of the previous year (and opus number) which uses similar forces.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks for the movement titles, Ilja. A "satisfying wallow" - could be worse!

[eschiss1]

I'm interested in hearing his 1914 symphony, too.
Thanks!

[Ilja]

That one, dubbed the "War Symphony" for obvious reasons has been published by Breitkopf und Härtel. More information here. The fourth movement begins on page 93, so it seems that this one doesn't have brevity going for it either.

From the introduction to the score:

Jenő Hubay - Symphony No.2 in C minor op. 93 (1914–15)
(b. Pest, 15 September 1858 – d. Budapest, 12 March 1937)

• The Great Decision p.1
• In the Camp p.45
• Memories – Dream Pictures p.69
• Battle and Victory p.93

Supplement: Original finale of the version Sinfonie 1914 (1917)

Jenő Hubay was one of the foremost violinists and educators of his time, the formation of the Hungarian school of violin playing is linked to his name. In 1886 at the request of Franz Liszt he returned home from Brussels (he was successor to Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski as Professor at the Conservatoire), and for 50 years he directed Hungarian violin teaching in Budapest. In the first half of his life he primarily composed violin works (short Romantic character pieces and arrangements in the Hungarian style), initially for his own concerts and then to commissions from publishers. At the end of the century he increasingly turned towards large-scale compositions, along with concertos he began to write operas. He achieved his greatest success in 1894 with the premiere of The Violinmaker of Cremona, which received performances on more than 70 stages in Europe, and went on to New York. Amongst the later operas, Anna Karenina received several performances in Germany and Austria in the 1930s (it was revived in Braunschweig/Brunswick in 2014 and in Bern in 2016).

Hubay made use of the term 'Symphony' in connection with five of his works. As early as around 1885 during his Brussels period he begun his first piece, in B-flat major (op.26), which was performed in Budapest in 1888 and in St. Petersburg in 1893. The composer himself was neither satisfied with it nor did he submit it for publication (a revised version was premiered by Josef Krips in Budapest, 1941). Symphony No.2 in C minor (op.93) was premiered in 1915, then in the 1920s he produced two further large-scale works, this time also employing chorus and solo voices: the Dante Symphony (Vita nouva) of 1921 written for the 600th anniversary of the poet's death, and the Petőfi Symphony in 1923 marking the birth centenary of the Hungarian poet. The fifth work, Ara pacis (to words of Romain Rolland), begun at the time of the First World War and completed immediately before the composer's death, is a cantata, but was frequently referred to by Hubay under the title Friedenssymphonie. He intended this work as his 'magnum opus', a companion piece to the Symphony No.2, a War Symphony, to which the Ara pacis, a Peace Symphony, can be viewed as a sequel.

The Symphony No.2 in C minor (op.93) was performed under the composer's baton by a 100 member orchestra on 1 December 1915 in the hall of the Pest Redoute, and thanks to its huge success a repeat performance took place on the 20th in the Academy of Music. The final bars, where the Hungarian national anthem is heard, was received by a standing audience. The proceeds from both performances were donated to soldiers disabled in the war and members of their families. The composition appeared on the pages of the programme as 'Symphony 1914–15', and the critics hailed it as the first significant Hungarian work of music inspired by the Great War. Most of them placed it above Felix Weingartner's overture entitled Aus ernster Zeit, differentiating it from works which could be considered simply as occasional music, in the manner of Beethoven's 'Battle Symphony' (Wellington's Victory) and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. The journal Pester Lloyd compared it to Berlioz's Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale, and to the Triumphlied by Brahms of 1871.

The composer did not state any detailed explanation in connection with the symphony's poetic subject and 'events', merely the titles of the movements provide a programme. The first movement in the autograph score bears the inscription Der grosse Entschluss (The Great Decision), the scherzo Im Lager (In the Camp), the slow movement Erinnerung – Traumbilder (Memories – Dream Pictures), and the finale Kampf und Sieg (Battle and Victory). In addition, programme references are conveyed by the quoted melodies at the end of the 4th movement. On page 127 the instruments play a canon on a generally recognised symbol of the Hungarian freedom struggles, the first two bars of the Rákóczi March, constructed on the whole tone scale, in Lydian colours. Six bars later it is joined by the start of the contemporary Austrian national anthem, Gott erhalte, similarly treated. Both are clearly recognisable and repeated on several occasions, in turn as well as simultaneously and at various pitches. During the musical chaos the two melodies come to resemble one another, which could symbolize the unity of the two peoples, Hungarian and Austrian. But in the case of the strongly patriotic and separatist Hubay most likely the explanation is that everyone is distorted equally by the inhumanity of war.

Two minutes after this passage the Rákóczi March is heard again, and the initial theme of the entire work returns as a triumphal march (p. 139–140). Presently a new quotation appears in the coda which represents the Germans (p.144, cello and bassoon) after the Hungarians and the Austrians. This is the 19th century patriotic melody Wacht am Rhein, from which Hubay didn't use the opening but the first four bars of the refrain (Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein...) played legato with a 'dolce' character. Additionally, three long notes at the end of the main theme, which match the German words "Wacht – am – Rhein" (see c-d-e notes on page 146 in bars 4-5), are played several times in significant places. Gott erhalte returns also slightly varied but no longer in the distorted form, finally (p.151), with the affirmation of the organ, the Hungarian national anthem is heard in a ceremonial C-major fortissimo from the full orchestra.

The composer himself stood the costs of the published music in the hope that the Hungarian or perhaps the German state would reimburse him. Maybe for this reason Hubay gave a current political programme to his work through its title and the titles of the movements, and made use of quoted national melodies. The dedication of the work also helped its publication, which Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany accepted in October 1916. A letter from Count Egon Franz von Fürstenberg–Stammheim, the German Consul General in Budapest, confirming the Kaiser's acceptance, was published in Pester Lloyd. Then he sent the autograph score to Breitkopf und Härtel adding a title page on which a quote from the ruler's famous 31 July 1914 speech is placed as a motto: "Man drückt uns das Schwert in die Hand..." ("A sword is pressed into our hand..."), a quote which had been noted by the world press at the time.

The score with the title 'Sinfonie 1914' appeared at the beginning of 1917, with the motto on the title page but without a dedication. In 1922 Hubay revised the second half of the Finale in order to eliminate the work's topical character. Beginning from page 127, where the first quotation of the Rákóczi March tune appears, he made changes to the parts voicing the national themes so that the motifs would not be recognisable. With the majority of the other parts, the number of bars and the harmonies remain unchanged. Breitkopf und Härtel printed the new version in 1925 with the title Sinfonie Nr. 2, and without the quotation from Kaiser Wilhelm II. Nothing referred to a new version, the plate number and the 1917 copyright remained.

Based on extant documents numerous questions arise in regard to the composer's motivation, intentions, as well as the dating of the work. Contemporaries thought wrongly Hubay had relinquished his earlier well-known pacifist position, since he felt sympathy for the war. Though on the level of art he couldn't avoid the reflection of historical events, in everyday life he was as far as it was possible to be from aggressiveness of any kind. Similarly to Haydn with his Missa in tempore belli, he had no wish to inspire people to armed conflict through his music, and in his symphony an imagined hero appears as in the Eroica. An antipathy towards war can clearly be seen in his letters and from other records. On 8 August at the very beginning of the war he wrote to the actor Sándor Góth, librettist of his opera Anna Karenina: 'Personally, I would like to hope for the best, though, unfortunately, I am prepared for the worst. Even if the Germans together with ourselves bring about a victory, everything that now I have to read, see and experience just disgusts me! If everything ends up 'fine', I would still need to sob and with me every civilized man! ... In every country a few hot-headed chauvinists, nationalists, and relentlessly ambitious rogues direct and mislead the people, and push them to their doom!'

At the beginning of the autograph score he wrote; 'I began / the terrible (1914) year October / the 11th day of the month', while at the end of the movement: 'I finished in the time of the terrible war on 7 Jan. 1915". Hubay only exceptionally referred to the work with the word 'war', in the publisher's draft contract sent in summer 1916 he crossed out the title 'Kriegs-Symphonie 1914/1915 für Orchester' and changed it to 'Symphonie 1914 für Orchester'.

In updating the title of the work to 1914 (for the premier to 1914–15), Hubay was driven by the practical reason that it presented the opportunity for the work to be performed. It is quite probable that the dating of the beginning of the score on 11 October 1914 and the ending on 15 July wasn't the time of composition but merely relates to the orchestration or reworking. The evidence of the existence of a work is already to be found in several documents from 1903: in July for example István Kerner, the conductor of the Philharmonic, congratulated Hubay on his symphony in a letter and asked for a copy of the score at his earliest convenience. Meanwhile the June 1904 Musikliterarische Blaetter lists Hubay's works, and in the final place with the opus number 93 was 'Sinfonie Nr. 2. pour grand Orchestre'. The works between op. 94 and 97, which certainly existed by 1904, were not contained in the list.

The opus number also makes likely the commencement date of 1902–1903: on 20 December 1901 Hubay gave the first performance of the 2nd Violin Concerto (op. 90) at a Music Academy teachers' concert, the 20 year old Béla Bartók played the piano. On 23 February the composer gave the first public recital of his melodrama Simon Judit (op. 91), also accompanied by Bartók. The next number in the concert, the song Ugy -e Jani (op. 92), was premiered by Hubay's wife, Hubay and Bartók. Hubay and Bartók met several times because of the rehearsals, maybe they exchanged some words about their common political and patriotic views and the compositions they were working on. We do not know what they knew of each other's forthcoming works, however, it couldn't have been completely by accident that the 'cacophonous' section of the fourth movement of Hubay's Symphony showed a close relationship with the battle scene from Bartók's tone poem Kossuth of 1903. In both works musical material Hungarian in character alternates with the symbol of the Austrians, Gott erhalte, played out of tune; the sound world is similar, but Hubay distorts both melodies.

Bartók set Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the 1848–49 Hungarian revolution, at the centre of his work. While Hubay's hero may have been Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II, leader of the war of independence against Habsburg rule, 1703–1711. The 200th anniversary of the Rákóczi freedom struggle in 1903 intensified the movement to bring home the ashes of the Prince which were buried in Turkey (this was realised in 1906, but the decision announcing it was already voted on in the Parlament in March 1904). In those years Hubay composed more compositions for chorus with a Rákóczi theme, in 1904 he began a Rákóczi opera also, so it isn't by chance that the Rákóczi March represents the voice of Hungary in the Symphony No. 2. We do not know to what extent this work of around 1903 differed from the later known version, but it is certain that a decade later Hubay was offered a suitable opportunity for the completion or reworking of his Hungarian 'Heldenleben', with the title 'Sinfonie 1914'. Hubay stated his opinion of the war in another of his compositions, with which he complemented and continued the symphony. In late December 1915 he read in Pester Lloyd Romain Rolland's hymn of peace, Ara Pacis, and immediately set to work composing a cantata with the same title (op.114, completed 1937). In the first section set down in the manuscript we read the inscription 'Der Chaos des Weltkrieges', this later became the second movement titled 'Le Chaos de la guerre'. The cantata continues with a funeral lamentation, whose character is missing from the Symphony No. 2; it then sings of the joy and hope of a fresh start.

László Gombos, Institute for Musicology, Budapest
Translated from Hungarian into English: by Malcolm Sharps
For performance material please contact the publisher Breitkopf und Härtel, Wiesbaden.

[eschiss1]

I'm assuming that's quoted from the preface at Musikproduktion Höflich. (Or perhaps that's also the introduction to the new Breitkopf score itself, in which case, I stand mistaken, perhaps it's a coproduction or the author of the preface used the same essay for the new Breitkopf issue...)

[Mark Thomas]

Returning to the Petőfi Symphony, I approached it with some trepidation but Hubay's gargantuan work proved to be more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Much of it is varied in pace, colourfully orchestrated, very melodic and exotically Hungarian-inflected - from that point of view I'm totally with Ilja in describing it as a "satisfying wallow". That said, it isn't a symphony by any stretch of the imagination (well, OK, it is in four movements), it's way too long for the material and this over-indulgence by Hubay is at it's worst in the huff and puff emptiness of large stretches of the outer movements - it's at its best in the middle two. Despite dating post-WWI it has nothing of the 20th century and must have seemed anachronistic even when it was premiered but if you feel like indulging in a colourful, melodic and undemanding romantic vocal work then it's certainly worth persevering with (the opening movement is the emptiest and noisiest). Just don't expect a masterpiece.

[eschiss1]

While there are some works by Hubay that (at least from what I can see on paper- I haven't heard them) incorporate "impressionist" and/or archaic ideas (maybe just the latter), and are less strictly Romantic than others (the whole-tone opening of opera The Venus of Milo is something that keeps recurring to me), he was, after all, strongly a Romantic composer, afaik.

[Alan Howe]

I'm sorry to say that, for me at least, this has been a painful listen - and I haven't yet managed to listen through to the end, which is a bad sign. Quite the opposite of the magnificent,  succinct (28-minute) Symphony by Adolphe Biarent which I have just acquired!

[Mark Thomas]

You couldn't get two more dissimilar works than Hubay's and Biarent's but the former is a symphony in name only and, despite it's title, I don't think should be judged solely on that basis.

[Alan Howe]

I found the opening 20 minutes pretty empty and gave up. Does the work improve after that, do you think?

[Mark Thomas]

That's what my review says: "it's certainly worth persevering with (the opening movement is the emptiest and noisiest)" and "it's at its best in the middle two"!