Nicolai, Otto

Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai – Sinfonie No. 2 in D Major, WoO 99

b.9 June 1810 (Königsberg, East Prussia on the Baltic Sea; now Kaliningrad, Russia) –
d. 11 May 1849 (Berlin, Prussia; now Berlin, Germany)

Andante – Allegro p. 1
Adagio p. 64
Scherzo: Presto op. 89
Finale: Allegro vivace p. 132

Original version: composed 1835; revised 1845
Original version: performed 1838, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, 1838*
1909, Dessau: “first performance” of the “long-lost” symphony
1912, Sonderhausen* summer concerts
both reconstructed from orchestral parts found in Leipzig

Revised version: 1845
Instrumentation: double winds, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings
Revised version: Premiere: 30 November 1845, Groβen Redoutensaal, Vienna
Publication: Berlin: Bote & Bock, c1938, score reissued (plate A8174) and orchestral parts
Duration: 40 minutes

Preface
Otto Nicolai was the founder of the Vienna Philharmonic Concerts and an important early Romantic composer who wrote five operas, works for orchestra, chorus, Lieder, and chamber music. His Die Lustige Weiber von Windsor (based on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor) is one of the finest German comic operas. Nicolai’s Symphony in D is a festive, playful take on the symphonic form, with many references to those of Beethoven. It features many of the same evocations of water, storms, and dance rhythms as Bedřich Smetana’s famous symphonic poems (Má Vlast, composed three decades later). Nicolai’s gift for dramatic music contrasts here with subtle, intimate solo writing for woodwind soloists. The work is a crowd-pleaser, ending each movement with energetic and uplifting themes. Stephen Haller, writing in Classical Music: The Listener’s Companion (2002), lauded the work as “richly melodic, with a rhythmic elan and range of colors that elicited praise from Berlioz,” featuring “one of the great hunting horn finales in all music.”…

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