PROGRAM

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOURTH SEASON Chicago Symphony Riccardo Muti Zell Music Director Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Thursday, May 21, 2015, at 8:00 French Friday, May 22, 2015, at 1:30 Saturday, May 23, 2015, at 8:00 & Esa-Pekka Salonen Conductor Festival Samuel Coles Flute Jean-Yves Thibaudet Valérie Hartmann-Claverie Ondes Martenot SAMUEL COLES Ravel Piano in G Major Allegramente Adagio assai Presto JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET

INTERMISSION Messiaen Turangalîla-symphonie Introduction. Modéré, un peu vif Chant d’amour 1. Modéré, lourd Turangalîla 1. Presque lent, rêveur Chant d’amour 2. Bien modéré Joie du sang des étoiles. Vif, passionné, avec joie Jardin du sommeil d’amour. Très modéré, très tendre Turangalîla 2. Un peu vif Développement d’amour. Bien modéré Turangalîla 3. Bien modéré Final. Modéré, presque vif, avec une grande joie JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET VALÉRIE HARTMANN-CLAVERIE

The CSO thanks Julie and Roger Baskes, lead sponsors of the Reveries & Passions Festival concert programming. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional sponsorship support for the Reveries & Passions Festival has been provided by: The Jacob and Rosaline Cohn Foundation, Mr. & Mrs. Richard J. Franke, The Gilchrist Foundation, Jim and Kay Mabie, and Burton X. and Sheli Rosenberg. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to WBEZ 91.5FM for its generous support as a media sponsor of the French Reveries & Passions Festival. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. COMMENTS by Phillip Huscher Roger Nichols

Claude Debussy Born August 22, 1862, Saint Germain-en-Laye, France. Died March 25, 1918, , France. Syrinx

In 1913, the year of two water’s edge, admire themselves. At intervals big revolutionary works— they all pause, astonished, listening to the Stravinsky’s Sacre du syrinx of the invisible Pan, moved by the printemps and Debussy’s song that escapes from the hollow reeds. final orchestral score, —Debussy’s friend In a single thread of music—a little more Gabriel Mouray contacted than two hundred notes—Debussy seems to the composer about encompass an entire world. Deeply expressive, providing incidental music volatile, and endlessly mysterious, Syrinx quickly for his three-act dramatic became one of the anchors of the poem, Psyché. Mouray asked for a number of and was recognized as one of the landmarks of pieces, including “the last music Pan plays before twentieth-century music. Syrinx is the ultimate his death,” which he wanted performed from the descendant of the famous sinuous flute melodies wings of the stage. In Greek mythology, Syrinx is that open Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un the nymph pursued by the god Pan; she is faune, composed two decades earlier, in which ultimately transformed into a water reed in order “the flute of the faun brought new breath to the to escape Pan’s amorous advances. Finally, at the art of music,” as Pierre Boulez wrote. But it also water’s edge, Pan cuts the reeds—making the set the stage for a long line of flute monologues first pan pipe—and plays his dying lament. As it in the future, including Edgard Varèse’s seminal turned out, Debussy wrote nothing for Mouray’s Density 21.5. play but Pan’s little solo, originally titled Flûte de Over the years, Syrinx has been analyzed, Pan and later published as Syrinx. Yet seldom debated, and discussed extensively, quite out have three minutes of music had such of proportion to its tiny size. Yet, like so much long-reaching influence. of Debussy’s music, its true magic and power Here are Mouray’s stage directions for the continue to defy explanation. Perhaps no one opening of act 3: has captured the essence of the score better than Mouray himself, who called it “a real jewel of The moon spreads over the country- restrained emotion, of sadness, of plastic beauty, side . . . . In the clearing, the nymphs of discreet tenderness and poetry.” dance . . . adorned in white . . . . Some collect flowers . . . some, stretched out at the Phillip Huscher

COMPOSED INSTRUMENTATION APPROXIMATE 1913 solo flute PERFORMANCE TIME 3 minutes FIRST PERFORMANCE December 1, 1913; Paris, France

2 Maurice Ravel Born March 7, 1875, Ciboure, France. Died December 28, 1937, Paris, France. Piano Concerto in G Major

Ravel wrote home from glory and delight of his beloved country, a man his first tour of the United mighty with talent both lively and tender, who States in 1928, “I am persuades the learned that Pan is not dead.” But seeing magnificent cities, Ravel would only live to compose three more enchanting country, but major works—a ballet, Boléro, which quickly the triumphs are exhaust- became so popular it embarrassed him, and two ing.” In Chicago, at the piano . matinee concert of the Chicago Symphony that he concertos, one for the left hand, he conducted on and this one in G major, were written January 20, Ravel accepted thunderous applause simultaneously. The left-hand concerto throughout the afternoon, a standing ovation at wasT commissioned by the Austrian pianist Paul the end of the program, and a fanfare from the Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm during orchestra itself. But Ravel hated the subzero the first weeks of the war. Ravel originally temperatures here and throughout the Heartland intended to play the other concerto himself, but (he shivered in Minneapolis, Omaha, and by the time he put the final touches on the score, Denver, too) and was happy to move on to Los he realized that his health was rapidly declining Angeles, where he had lunch with Douglas and he would never perform it. (He was soon Fairbanks (who spoke French) and declined diagnosed with the brain tumor that ultimately breakfast with Charlie Chaplin (who did not). made it impossible for him even to sign his The greatest thrill of his “crazy” American tour name.) For years, Ravel had contemplated was meeting George Gershwin, who wanted to writing a concerto for Marguerite Long, who study with him. Ravel turned him down flat. had studied with him (as well as with Debussy), “You would only lose the spontaneous quality of and it was she who played the first performance your melody and end up by writing bad Ravel,” in Paris, with the composer conducting. The pre- he said. miere was a triumph (although Ravel’s conduct- Ravel returned home to France weary and ing lacked “clarity and elasticity,” in the words famished—he found American food virtually of one critic). Ravel subsequently ignored his inedible—but assured that his fame was truly doctor’s orders and went on a four-month tour international. Later, in 1928, Oxford University with Long to introduce the concerto through- gave him an honorary doctorate, calling him “the out Europe. (They also recorded it together.)

COMPOSED MOST RECENT INSTRUMENTATION 1929–November 14, 1931 CSO PERFORMANCES flute and piccolo, and english November 29, 30, December 1 & 4, horn, B-flat and E-flat clarinet, FIRST PERFORMANCE 2007, Orchestra Hall. Yundi Li as two , two horns, , January 14, 1932; Paris, France. The soloist, Semyon Bychkov conducting , timpani, triangle, snare composer conducting drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, August 7, 2012, Ravinia Festival. woodblock, whip, harp, strings Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist, James FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Conlon conducting July 6, 1944, Ravinia Festival. APPROXIMATE Leonard Bernstein conducting from PERFORMANCE TIME the keyboard 23 minutes January 18, 19 & 23, 1951, Orchestra Hall. Leonard Bernstein conducting from the keyboard

3 Ravel described the work as “a concerto in the begun around 1914. It opens with an allegro that truest sense of the word: I mean that it is written suggests a Spanish fiesta spiked with American very much jazz. Occasional blue notes and trombone smears in the same confirm how carefully Ravel had listened when spirit as those he and Gershwin visited Harlem jazz spots of Mozart and together. A frequently repeated melodic tag Saint-Saëns.” recalls the opening tune of Gershwin’s own (He had orig- Rhapsody in Blue. The velvety slow movement, inally thought for all its lush harmonies and French sonorities, of calling is deeply indebted to Mozart; in fact, Ravel told the work a Marguerite Long that he wrote it slowly and divertissement, painstakingly, “two measures at a time, with to emphasize frequent reference to Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.” its lighter The opening, uninterrupted melody is much lon- qualities.) ger than any phrase in Mozart—an unadorned The concerto piano solo that unfolds slowly, twisting and turn- makes use of ing in unexpected ways, all in one huge breath. long- The third movement was an afterthought—an discarded exhilarating, saucy finale composed shortly material for before the premiere and designed to leave the a “Basque audience in high spirits. Ravel and Marguerite Long fantasy” Ravel had Phillip Huscher

4 Olivier Messiaen Born December 10, 1908, Avignon, France. Died April 27, 1992, Clichy, France. Turangalîla-symphonie for Piano, Ondes Martenot, and Orchestra

This symphony, written destruction, and love. Where turanga urges between July 1946 and ever onward, lîla holds up or at least articu- November 1948—that is, lates the flow of time with dramatic incident. in Messiaen’s late Each depends on the other for its significance, thirties—was one of his as death gives meaning to life, or as an ocean earliest commissioned is defined by its surrounding continents. works. It was also one of The symphony stands as the second part of the most satisfactory from what Messiaen called his Tristan trilogy, between his point of view, since the song cycle Harawi and the Cinq rechants for Serge Koussevitzky, in mixed chorus, and the opposition of love and asking him to write something for the Boston death is central to all three, although, as already Symphony Orchestra, allowed him total freedom explained, opposition here includes justification. as to the kind of work, its length, the forces Messiaen claimed not to be concerned with the involved, and—ultimate generosity—gave him as “eternal triangle” aspect of the Tristan story and much time as he wanted to write it. Messiaen responded forcefully, and, without any doubt, took him at his word over the first three clauses, truthfully, when an interviewer tried to make but two years and a bit was hardly over the odds a connection between the myth and the com- for composing such an enormous score. Not that poser’s own situation, tending a very sick wife he was in general a particularly fast composer, at the same time the young Yvonne Loriod had but the ideas behind this symphony were already appeared as the ideal interpreter of his piano gestating, and one gets the feeling that maybe music. What drew him to the story was the the relaxed terms of the commission removed any portrayal of a love that was willing to sacrifice inhibitions there might have been. Leonard everything, “a love that is stronger than death”: Bernstein conducted the Boston Symphony he regarded the Tristan story as the legend Orchestra in the first performance on that came nearest to depicting the love of God December 2, 1949. even if, as he said, it would be blasphemous to see it as any more than the palest reflection of he title is made up of two Sanskrit such love. So, although the score itself gives words: turanga signifies “time,” in the only the vaguest intimation that this is not a sense of time passing, rhythm, move- purely secular work, it is questionable whether ment;T lîla means “play,” and includes in this it can be fully understood apart from Messiaen’s the notions of opposition, resistance, creation, religious belief.

COMPOSED MOST RECENT INSTRUMENTATION July 1946–November 1948 CSO PERFORMANCES solo piano and ondes martenot, two November 23, 25 & 27, 1988, Orchestra flutes and piccolo, two and FIRST PERFORMANCE Hall. Pierre-Laurent Aimard and english horn, two and bass December 2, 1949, Boston Jeanne Loriod as soloists, Zubin clarinet, three bassoons, four horns, Mehta conducting three , piccolo trumpet FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES and cornet, three , tuba, July 19, 1998, Ravinia Festival. January 20, 21 & 22, 1977, Orchestra percussion, celesta, strings Marc-André Hamelin and Jean Hall. Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Laurendeau as soloists, Christoph Jeanne Loriod as soloists, André APPROXIMATE Eschenbach conducting Previn conducting PERFORMANCE TIME 78 minutes

5 essiaen was born to a Roman Catholic The composer uses four cyclic themes. The father and a nonbelieving mother, the first, the “statue” theme, is heavy and brutal, poet Cécile Sauvage. If this mixed heard nearly always, Minheritance caused him problems, there was no as in the first minute, sign of it, and throughout his life he would claim on trombones. For to have been “born a believer.” The majority of Messiaen, it recalls his works are commentaries on the Scriptures one of those impla- and on his wide reading of religious writers of cable Mexican heads his own time and earlier. Just as this fact marked carved in volcanic him out as distinct from such predecessors as rock, and no doubt Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel (all also partakes of atheists or agnostics), so the sounds and pro- that negative, even cedures of his music have nothing in common threatening quality with the cozy ecclesiasticism of a Gounod; that rocks and stones he thus managed to outrage nonbelievers and always seem to have believers alike by, respectively, his very attach- had for the composer ment to Roman Catholicism and his willingness as he sat composing Serge Koussevitzky to incorporate into religious music what had in the mountains hitherto been regarded as mundane, even vulgar of the Dauphiné. elements. The result, in the words of British The second, “flower” theme is of three phrases, scholar Richard D.E. Burton, could be heard as gently unfolding on two clarinets. Together they “a non-Catholic work by a believing, practicing represent one of the few traditionally symphonic Catholic that offends against every principle of attributes of the work: the contrast (if one is Catholic apologetics and ethics in its unabashed allowed to write this nowadays) of “masculine” exaltation of sensation, sensuality, and sentiment. and “feminine” themes. The third, the “love” An explosion of sound such as had not been theme, is not heard until the sixth movement; heard since Le sacre du printemps, saccharine it is developed from the first two, symbolizing and sleazy one minute, ethereal the next . . . .” the spiritual union of the two lovers. The fourth “theme” is not a melody, but a series of four essiaen’s approach to composition seven-note chords that serve a purely musical was also “catholic” with a small “c,” rather than symbolic function. The following and this tendency toward inclusivity outline of the ten movements may be helpful. could only have been encouraged by his pro- M 1. fession as organist, with the access that gives Introduction. Two sections linked by a piano to extremes of sound. In answer to a question cadenza. In the first section, we hear the first posed in the 1980s as to whether he had been two cyclic themes. The second section is built on through the hallowed Beethovenian “three superimposed rhythmic patterns. periods,” he said, “No, I have a very rich, well-supplied ensemble of materials which is 2. Song of Love 1. Sharp contrasts between growing all the time, but without renouncing passionate outbursts on trumpets and slow, what has been in the past or ignoring what will tender passages on ondes martenot and strings. be in the future.” This ensemble in Turangalîla The “love” movements all have even numbers: 2, includes not only diatonic chords, but system- 4, 6 & 8. atically derived chromatic modes and rhythms taken from ancient Indian music, while the 3. Turangalîla 1. Six sections, with lîla pro- orchestra includes a piano, ondes martenot, and moting many complex rhythmic games, mainly a large percussion section. The piano, pitched among unpitched percussion. The “turangalîla” percussion, and metal percussion—triangle, movements all have odd numbers—3, 7 & 9— cymbals, tam-tam, and bells—form a small and, through their dissonance and intensity, orchestra within the whole, its sound being symbolize the obstacles that both impede and modeled on that of the Balinese gamelan. nourish true love.

6 4. Song of Love 2. Scherzo with two slow trios. 8. Development of Love. Musical development The central section is one of the most complex in also, involving all the cyclic themes, especially the whole work, combining the scherzo, bird- the third. song, both trios, and, finally, the “statue” theme. A piano cadenza leads to a very slow coda ending 9. Turangalîla 3. Theme and variations of in a simple A major chord. increasing density. Finally the piano breaks through with a long crescendo. 5. Joy of the Blood of the Stars. The composer wrote: “In order to understand the extravagance 10. Finale. Messiaen marks this movement to of this piece, it must be understood that the be played “avec une grande joie.” After so many union of true lovers is for them a transformation, rhythmic complexities provoked by lîla, an and a transformation on a cosmic scale.” extended celebration of triple time and the free flow of turanga. Towards the end, the theme of 6. Garden of the Sleep of Love. The two lovers movement six returns in leisurely, untrammeled are themselves the garden, full of light, shade, splendor, before energy and triple time are and birdsong. “The lovers are outside time,” restored in a brief coda. wrote Messiaen, “let us not wake them.” It is surely relevant here to think of Tristan and Isolde Roger Nichols on their “bank of flowers.”

7. Turangalîla 2. By some way the shortest of the ten movements, it makes up in intensity what it lacks in length. Messiaen refers to Poe’s story “The Pit and the Pendulum,” in which a prisoner is threatened by a huge pendulum with Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago a tip “as keen as a razor” descending towards his Symphony Orchestra. breast. Ondes martenot and trombones enact this Roger Nichols is a freelance lecturer, pianist, translator, contraction of space, then expansion (relief for and reviewer, specializing in French music from Berlioz the prisoner?), then finally contraction again. up to the present day. © 2015 Roger Nichols

© 2015 Chicago Symphony Orchestra 7