Program

One Hundred Twenty-Third Season Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Music Director Pierre Boulez Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Thursday, February 13, 2014, at 8:00 Tuesday, February 18, 2014, at 7:30 Nicholas McGegan Conductor Vivica Genaux Mezzo-soprano Handel Concerto grosso in G Major, Op. 6, No. 1 A tempo giusto— Allegro Adagio Allegro Allegro Four Arias Vivaldi Alma oppressa da sorte crudele from La fida ninfa Porpora Oh volesser gli Dei . . . Dolci, freschi aurette from Polifemo Porpora Or la nube procellosa Broschi Qual guerriero in campo armato from Idaspe Vivica Genaux Intermission J.C. Bach Symphony in G Minor, Op. 6, No. 6 Allegro Andante più tosto adagio Allegro molto Haydn Symphony No. 100 in G Major (Military) Adagio—Allegro Allegretto Moderato Presto

These are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first performances of all the works on this program except Haydn’s Military Symphony.

CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to 93XRT, RedEye, and Metromix for their generous support as media sponsors of the Classic Encounter Series. This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. CommeNts by Phillip Huscher george Frideric Handel Born February 23, 1685, Halle, Saxony, Germany. Died April 14, 1759, London, England. Concerto grosso in g major, op. 6, No. 1

Unlike his contemporaries borrowed from works he had written in Italy), Bach (born just nineteen but also real spectacle as well, including, in one days later), Vivaldi, and aria, the release of a fl ock of sparrows that set the Telemann, Handel has audience buzzing. Opera after opera, hit after hit never gone out of fashion. followed. But by the late 1730s, Handel realized His oratorio Messiah has that the London public was losing interest in helped to keep his name Italian opera. In 1738, he decided to conclude alive, of course. But other his career as an opera composer; Serse, with its pieces, such as the hit Largo, was supposed to be his last opera. It majestic aria “Ombra mai wasn’t quite, as it turned out, but Handel had fu,” from the opera Serse (better known to decisively shifted his attention to oratorio and amateur pianists and greatest-hits record produc- instrumental music. ers as Handel’s Largo), the lively set of pieces he wrote to accompany an evening of fi reworks, and n October 29, 1739, the London his engaging suites of Water Music, also have been Daily Post advertised twelve “Grand widely performed, even in times when baroque Concertos” by Handel which would music was neither well known nor appreciated. Obe printed on “good Paper” and delivered to Handel was among the most popular compos- subscribers in April. One hundred subscribers ers of his day, and, particularly after he visited replied, enough to fund the undertaking, and the London in 1710 and then moved there for following spring, Handel’s op. 6 was released, good in 1712, he commanded a huge following quickly becoming one of his most popular and was in great demand both as a composer works. Handel was not only prolifi c; he was fast. and a performer—he excelled on organ and Apparently he composed the entire set—twelve harpsichord—for the rest of his life. (After he concertos, each with four to six movements, for became a British subject in 1727, he started a combined total of sixty-two movements—in a spelling his name George Frideric Handel rather single month. (And, despite Handel’s reputation than the Georg Friederich Händel which appears as an avid recycler, who was particularly apt to on his birth certifi cate.) reuse older material on a tight deadline, most of Raised in northern Germany, where he the music in this collection appears to be entirely received a thorough music education (and became new.) Th e set was consciously modeled on the a friend of Telemann), and later trained in the op. 6 collection of concerti grossi by Arcangelo operatic business in Italy, Handel arrived in Corelli, which had become a hit with London London an unusually cosmopolitan composer. audiences after its publication in 1714. Handel’s Determined to make a name for himself with concertos are even scored for Corelli’s preferred London’s opera-going public, he succeeded solo ensemble (the concertino) of two violins and with his fi rst attempt, Rinaldo, which not only cello set against an orchestra entirely of strings. included much dazzling music (some of it (Handel later added oboes to selected concertos,

ComPoseD First Cso PerFormaNCes aPProXimate October 1739 These are the fi rst CSO performances. PerFormaNCe time 12 minutes First PerFormaNCe iNstrumeNtatioN date unknown concertino (two violins and cello); two oboes, strings, and continuo 2 including the first one that is performed this adagio that is a kind of grand opera aria week; they essentially double the orchestral without words. The concerto begins with violins.) Like Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, the stately music that apparently was originally set as a whole is not only a brilliant distillation planned as the overture to the opera Imeneo. of the various kinds of music of its day, but it It is followed directly by a vigorous alle- shows its composer at the peak of his powers. gro characterized by the lively and often unpredictable interplay between concertino ach of Handel’s twelve concertos and full ensemble. After the central adagio, has its own form. The first one, Handel places a rapid fugal movement and, E in G major, centers on a dignified to conclude, a brilliant dancelike finale.

Four Arias Antonio Vivaldi Born March 4, 1678, Venice, Italy. Died July 28, 1741, Venice, Italy. Alma oppressa da sorte crudele from La fida ninfa

First performance January 6, 1732; Verona, Italy

Nicola Porpora Born August 17, 1686, Naples, Italy. Died March 3, 1768, Naples, Italy. Oh volesser gli Dei . . . Dolci, freschi aurette from Polifemo

First performance February 1, 1735; London, England Or la nube procellosa, added to Johann Hasse’s Artaserse

First performance 1734, London

Riccardo Broschi Born ca. 1698, Naples, Italy. Died 1756, Madrid, Spain. Qual guerriero in campo armato from Idaspe

First performance 1730; Venice, Italy

3 here have been several so-called golden his patron. He quickly became not only the most ages of singing, but there has been no era admired of all the Italian castrato singers—that to rival the early years of the eighteenth long-ago abandoned century.T Th is was a time when singers developed tradition which, through astounding technical skills that have rarely been the art of surgery on matched since, and composers vied to write their prepubescent boys, allows fi nest music to accommodate and challenge the them to continue to sing great stars’ abilities. Th e public simply could not easily and brilliantly get enough of it. Th e most celebrated singers, in the female range as like the legendary castrato Farinelli, were adult men—but the idolized in a way that has rarely been matched greatest opera sensation in later times—arguably only by Paganini, the in Europe. Beginning virtuoso violinist, and Liszt, the titan of the in 1729, Farinelli turned Antonio Vivaldi keyboard—until such widespread popularity, down several off ers to audience pandemonium, and full-scale celebrity appear in England— treatment became the province of pop superstars. including one from All four of the arias performed at this concert Handel—but in 1734, he were composed around 1730—the very heart of fi nally added that great this great virtuoso era. Of the many composers music center to his list writing opera at the time, Antonio Vivaldi is the of conquests. Farinelli one whose music is still most highly regarded retired from the stage today. He was certainly the most original, in 1737 and moved to popular, and infl uential Italian composer of his Madrid, at the request time. Today, Vivaldi’s fame rests mainly on his of the queen, who hoped many concertos, especially Th e Four Seasons, that his singing could Nicola Porpora but Vivaldi thought of himself primarily as an cure the depression of opera composer. He was one of the most prolifi c Philip V. Every night composers of opera in his time; his output is even until the king’s death in 1746, Farinelli sere- larger than Handel’s. La fi da ninfa was written naded him with arias—three to nine, according for the opening of Verona’s Teatro Filarmonico to various accounts, and reputedly always in January of 1732. Its remarkably fl orid aria, including the same two arias by Johann Hasse. “Alma oppressa,” composed for the soprano (Reports on the king’s improvement also vary.) Giovanna Gasparini, shows Vivaldi’s genius for Farinelli, who was himself used to being treated placing an almost-instrumental kind of virtuoso like royalty, was now a “royal servant” to the vocal line—often propelled by long, unbroken king, and he lived out his days in luxury. strings of rapid-fi re sixteenth notes—completely J.J. Quantz, who was celebrated as the fi n- at the service of dramatic expression. est fl ute player in Europe and was the author of an important performance treatise, fi rst he greatest star of the day was Farinelli, heard Farinelli in the 1720s: “His intonation among the earliest of music’s one-name was pure, his trill beautiful, his breath control sensations; the remaining three arias extraordinary, and his throat very agile, so that onT this program were all identifi ed with him. he performed even the widest intervals quickly Born Carlo Broschi in January 1705, in Andria, and with the greatest ease and certainty.” Not Apulia, he studied primarily with Nicola only was his technique unparalleled—there Porpora, in whose Angelica e Medoro he made was, apparently, no music too ornate for him to his stage debut in Naples in 1720, in the small master—but his vocal range was huge: in the role of a shepherd. (He may have received some same opera he might sing one aria in the alto early training at home from his older brother, register and another as a high soprano. Riccardo Broschi, the composer of the fi nal aria Farinelli became a legend even during his life- on this program.) He took his stage name from time. Impresarios fought over him and compos- a Neapolitan magistrate, Farina, who later was ers vied to write music for him to sing. Women

4 craved his attention and men—aside from unfounded the novelist Henry Fielding, who called him accusations “Fairbelly”—admired his popularity and envied that he has his appeal. After he retired, his fame diminished, murdered the but it has never died. Right up to our own time, king. For a he has been the subject of books, novels, and performance even operas—many of them surprisingly loose in 1734 that with the facts, given how extraordinary and riv- introduced eting the true tale of his life and career is. A 1994 Farinelli to film,Farinelli, recounted and further embellished London audi- his story (it won the Golden Globe for Best ences, Hasse’s Foreign Film in 1995). The trappings of celebrity opera was apparently never went to Farinelli’s head. As turned into a the great historian Charles Burney wrote: “Of pastiche, with almost all other great singers, we hear of their inserted arias intoxication by praise and prosperity, and of their by several Farinelli caprice, insolence, and absurdities, at some time composers, or other; but of Farinelli, superior to them all in including “Or talents, fame, and fortune, the records of folly la nube procellosa” by Porpora, to give Farinelli among the spoilt children of Apollo furnish not an even bigger showcase. Porpora’s bright, dance- one disgraceful anecdote.” like aria was intended as the work’s finale, as the two young lovers look toward a cloudless future, s Farinelli’s main singing teacher, the after the turmoil they have survived. composer Nicola Porpora was ideally Riccardo Broschi is best known as Farinelli’s suited to write music precisely tailored brother and as a composer of music custom-made toA his former student’s voice and rare technical to showcase the family superstar. Like Artaserse, abilities. In 1735, Farinelli created the role Broschi’s opera Idaspe was written for the 1730 of the mythical shepherd Acis in Porpora’s Venice Carnevale. Farinelli starred as a prince Polifemo, an opera that suited the current rage who has gone undercover as a Persian general. for pastoral subjects. In his extended recitative His showstopper aria, “Qual guerriero in campo and the aria “Dolci, freschi aurette,” Acis prays armato,” in which he depicts his love-torn heart that these “sweet, fresh breezes” will calm him as a warrior on the battlefield, is an Olympian and bring his beloved Galatea back to his side. display that was clearly designed to exhibit every In 1730, the German composer Johann Hasse technical feat in Farinelli’s arsenal—agility, had a huge success in Venice with his opera breath control, range—and produce the kind of Artaserse, starring Farinelli as Arbace, who faces vocal fireworks that are a rarity in any era.

Alma oppressa da sorte crudele from La fida ninfa

Alma oppressa da sorte crudele A soul weighed down by cruel fate Pensa invan mitigare il dolore in vain thinks of lessening its grief Con amore, ch’è un altro dolor. with love, which is another grief. Deh raccogli al pensiero le vele, Collect your thoughts, E se folle non sei, ti dia pena and if you are not foolish, then let your pain La catena del piè, e non del cor. come from chains round your feet, not your heart. —Scipione Maffei

5 Oh volesser gli Dei . . . Dolci, freschi aurette from Polifemo

Recitative Recitative Oh volesser gli Dei, Ah, would only the gods al senno ed all’valor d’uomin’ sì fieri, who proudly look at human sense and valor, dell’empio mostro destinar la morte. decree the godless monster’s death. Ma già il carro del sol segue l’aurora, But already the sun is following dawn, e sovra la conchiglia inargentata and yet I cannot see in silvery shell galleggiar su la calma fair Galatea float la bella Galatea non veggio ancora. across the placid waves. Quella selvetta è l’amato suo soggiorno, This grove is her beloved resting place, e quel sasso muscoso, and here, this mossy boulder, onde il ruscello il piè d’argento scioglie, where the stream gets on its way with silver foot, spesso a fresco riposo often receives the white goddess la bianca diva accoglie. for cool repose. Deh, seguimi o Fortuna, Oh, Fortune, follow me, dov’ella vien per semplice diletto. where she enjoys her simple leisure. Ahi lasso! e me trae disperato affetto. Alas! I’m drawn along by desperate passion. Dolci freschi aurette grate Sweet, cool, pleasant breezes, Invitate sulla calma Invite to calm Il bel Idol di quest’alma The lovely idol of my soul, Ch’io la torni a vagheggiar. That I may gaze upon her fondly once more. Fronde tremule sussuranti Whispering aspen leaves, Onde limpide mormoranti Clear murmuring waters, La mia diva all’ombra amate Entice my goddess to return Allettate a ritornar. To the beloved shade. —Paolo Antonio Rolli —Charles Johnston

Or la nube procellosa

Or la nube procellosa Now the stormy cloud Di minaccie, e sdegni piena Full of angry menace Dalla fronte tua serena From your clear brow, Mio bel sole sparirà. My lovely sun, will vanish. I disastri più crudeli For the most cruel of calamities Compensato m’hanno i Cieli The heavens have compensated me Con la vaga tua beltà. With your charming beauty. —Metastasio —Charles Johnston

Qual guerriero in campo armato from Idaspe

Qual guerriero in campo armato Like an armed warrior on the battlefield Pien di forza e di valore Full of strength and courage, Nel mio core innamorato In my love-stricken heart Sdgeno e amor fanno battaglia. Disdain and love do battle. Il timor del dubbio evento Fear of the doubtful outcome, Il dolore ed il cimento Grief and hazardous trial, L’alma mia confonde ed abbaglia. Confuse and delude my soul. —G.P. Candi and D. Lalli —Charles Johnston

6 Johann Christian Bach Born September 5, 1735, Leipzig, Germany. Died January 1, 1782, London, England. symphony in g minor, op. 6, No. 6

Th e Bach family was the and they became friends. Years later, after most astonishing musical Mozart’s death, his sister Nannerl recalled how dynasty we have ever “Herr Johann Christian Bach, music master of known. For three centu- the queen, took Wolfgang between his knees. He ries, men named Bach would play a few measures; then Wolfgang would (and sometimes Baach) continue. In this manner they played entire sona- were village fi ddlers, town tas. Unless you saw it with your own eyes, you musicians, court organ- would swear that just one person was playing.” ists, and kapellmeisters. When the two composers met again in Paris in From Veit Bach, a 1778, Mozart, now a mature composer himself, sixteenth-century baker who was the fi rst wrote home to his father praising Bach’s music. member of the family to show musical talent, to Johann Christian Bach and his compositions were Johann Philipp Bach, an organist who died in highly regarded in London, and in the mid-1770s, 1846, one can trace the lives of eighty-some Bach sat for his friend and master painter Th omas musicians on the family tree. Th e family’s Gainsborough, who preserved the face of London achievement peaked in the eighteenth century society on canvas for posterity (Gainsborough’s with the music composed by Johann Sebastian portrait of J.C. Bach appears left). Bach and his sons. Th e last years of Bach’s life were unhappy. His housekeeper absconded with most of his money, ohann Christian was the eleventh of thirteen and for the fi rst time, he found himself in fi nan- children born to Johann Sebastian Bach cial diffi culty. His health began to decline and and his second wife, Anna Magdalena. He his music dwindled in popularity. After his death wasJ their youngest son. At the age of eight or in 1782, London was more interested in the nine, Johann Christian began to study music newer scores by Haydn and Mozart. In the words with his celebrated father; he was only fourteen of a certain Mrs. Papendiek, Johann Christian when his father died in 1750 (he inherited a Bach “was forgotten almost before he was called sizeable portion of the estate, including three to the doom of us all, and every recollection of harpsichords). He then went to Berlin to live him seems buried in oblivion.” Queen Charlotte with his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Sophia, the wife of George III, paid for his and to study composition and keyboard play- funeral and guaranteed his widow a pension. ing with him. Four years later, he set off for Mozart saw in the death of the “English Bach,” Italy, where he studied with the renowned as he called him, “a loss to the musical world.” Padre Giambattista Martini, whose pupils included Gluck and Mozart. In 1760, Bach lthough Johann Christian Bach excelled was named organist at the Milan Cathedral. at writing operas—unlike his famous In 1762, Bach went to London to write operas father—he also was the composer of and ended up staying for the rest of his life. worksA for keyboard, church music and oratorios, When the Mozart family passed through London and music for orchestra. During Bach’s lifetime, in 1764, Bach met the eight-year-old Wolfgang the distinction between opera overtures and

ComPoseD First Cso PerFormaNCes aPProXimate before 1769 These are the fi rst CSO performances. PerFormaNCe time 16 minutes First PerFormaNCe iNstrumeNtatioN date unknown two oboes, two horns, strings, and continuo 7 orchestral symphonies was ambiguous; both that all three of its movements are in the minor were in three movements (fast-slow-fast) and mode. Its centerpiece is an unusually expansive, both contained music of significance. His set graceful, and expressive slow movement. The two of six short symphonies later published as op. 6 brisk outer movements are full of high drama. dates from his early years in London. The last Bach’s symphony is one of the first important symphony in the set, in G minor—it is Bach’s pieces in G minor that has come down to us, only symphony in a minor key—is one of the soon followed, perhaps not coincidentally, by most remarkable works in his output. For a Mozart’s so-called Little G minor symphony, composer who almost always wrote music in K. 183, composed in 1773 and often considered a major key, this symphony is exceptional in a turning point in his own development.

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8 Joseph Haydn Born March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Lower Austria. Died May 31, 1809, Vienna. symphony No. 100 in g major (military)

London knew Haydn’s no. 99; and parts of nos. 100 and 101. Symphony music as early as 1765, no. 99 was played just fi ve days after he arrived; when some of his string Haydn quickly set to work preparing the other quartets were advertised two. No. 101 was ready fi rst and performed under the name “Haydri.” on March 3; Symphony no. 100 was given By the time he visited at Hanover Square on March 31, Haydn’s England for the fi rst time sixty-second birthday, and it off ered Haydn a in 1791, not only had the birthday present no money could buy: the great- printers got his name est single success of his whole life. Th e second right, but the public knew movement, a “slow” movement interrupted by the him as the greatest of composers. Th at visit, terrifying sounds of battle, gave the entire sym- which introduced six brilliant new symphonies— phony its Military nickname and sent the crowds the fi rst half of the set we now call the London into pandemonium. Even the critic at the April 7 Symphonies—was a huge, though not unex- repeat performance could not contain himself: pected, success. Th e concerts were the talk of London, and Haydn, who had spent the last Another new Symphony, by Haydn, was thirty years in private practice, writing to satisfy performed for the second time; and the the demands of the Esterházy family, now middle movement was again received with enjoyed great public acclaim. A second visit was absolute shouts of applause. Encore! encore! inevitable. encore! resounded from every seat: the Eighteen months separate Haydn’s two ladies themselves could not forbear. It is the London sojourns. Back in Vienna, where, advancing to battle; and the march of men, like so many important composers in history, the sounding of the charge, the thundering he was treated with indiff erence, he began to of the onset, the clash of arms, the groans of write the symphonies with which he would the wounded, and what may well be called reconquer London, perhaps even surpassing his the hellish roar of war increase to a climax fi rst success. Few external events in his life had of horrid sublimity! which, if others can stimulated him like the stay in London. He was conceive, he alone can execute; at least he full of fresh, new ideas. And he now knew that alone hitherto has eff ected these wonders. the audience there was as sophisticated as any in the musical world. We have heard a lot of music inspired by war since then, but this movement still packs aydn arrived back in London on a punch. One can only imagine the surprise of February 4, 1794, with his full-time the 1794 audiences who did not expect to fi nd copyist, Johann Elssler; abundant noisy military music—scored for the so-called Hbaggage; the completed score of Symphony Turkish ensemble of triangle, cymbals, and bass ComPoseD most reCeNt timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass 1794 Cso PerFormaNCes drum, strings June 7, 8 & 9, 1990, Orchestra Hall. First PerFormaNCe Klaus Tennstedt conducting aPProXimate March 31, 1794; London, england PerFormaNCe time iNstrumeNtatioN 22 minutes First Cso PerFormaNCes two fl utes, two oboes, two clarinets November 23 & 24, 1939, Orchestra [in the second movement only], two Hall. Hans Lange conducting bassoons, two horns, two trumpets,

9 drum, and joined by trumpets and timpani—in precisely because the preceding movement, the the middle of a new work by their beloved symphony’s official “slow” movement, is not. Haydn. The trumpet plays an actual army call, The finale, which eventually became as popular known at the time as the Austrian General as the military movement, includes a number of Salute and reportedly in use as recently as the surprises no less notable than the famous one 1930s. There also is a grand, ominous timpani that gave its name to Symphony no. 94. But even roll. The music which Haydn interrupts with to those who are well versed in the classical style, these sounds of battle is adapted from the slow Haydn always is the master of the unexpected, movement of a concerto for lira organizzata (a the composer who never ran out of ways to kind of hurdy-gurdy) he wrote in 1786 for the breathe new life into familiar forms. king of Naples. For at least a decade, this remained the most The other movements are less sensational, but popular symphony ever written. And, as the late no less admirable. Haydn begins with a slow Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins Landon suggested, introduction, by now the rule in all his major-key it is the last symphonic masterpiece in G major symphonies. The first theme of the Allegro until Dvořák’s Eighth, first performed in proper is scored for flute and oboes alone, an London nearly a hundred years later. arresting effect and further proof that, even after writing some one hundred symphonies, Haydn had not run out of new and catchy ideas. The minuet—the first movement Haydn wrote, Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago while still back in Vienna—is remarkably slow, Symphony Orchestra.

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