Preconcert Recital the Organ Music of Paris Paul Jacobs Organ

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

Wednesday, March 5, 2014, at 5:30 Thursday, March 6, 2014, at 7:00 Friday, March 7, 2014, at 12:15 Saturday, March 8, 2014, at 7:00

Preconcert Recital The Organ Music of Paris Paul Jacobs Organ

Paul Jacobs introduces and performs a selection of late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century French works by Paris-based composers. Louis Vierne (1870–1937) Final from Symphony No. 1, Op. 14 Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986) Sicilienne from Suite, Op. 5 Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) Prière après la communion from Livre du Saint-Sacrement Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911) Final from Sonata in D Minor, Op. 42 Program

Wednesday, March 5, 2014, at 6:30 Afterwork Masterworks Charles Dutoit Conductor Mathieu Dufour Flute Paul Jacobs Organ Connesson Pour sortir au jour, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra Danse processionnelle— Entrée dans la Douat— Danse de la Justification— La Balance des Dieux— Danse dans les champs de Ialou Mathieu Dufour CSO Co-commission World premiere

Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 (Organ) Adagio—Allegro moderato—Poco adagio Allegro moderato—Presto—Maestoso—Allegro Paul Jacobs

There will be no intermission.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to WBBM Newsradio 780 and 105.9FM for its generous support of the Afterwork Masterwork series.

2 Program

Thursday, March 6, 2014, at 8:00 Friday, March 7, 2014, at 1:30 Saturday, March 8, 2014, at 8:00

Charles Dutoit Conductor Mathieu Dufour Flute Paul Jacobs Organ Dukas La Péri Connesson Pour sortir au jour, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra Danse processionnelle— Entrée dans la Douat— Danse de la Justification— La Balance des Dieux— Danse dans les champs de Ialou Mathieu Dufour CSO Co-commission World premiere

Intermission

Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 (Organ) Adagio—Allegro moderato—Poco adagio Allegro moderato—Presto—Maestoso—Allegro Paul Jacobs

Saturday’s concert is sponsored by DLA Piper. 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.

3 commenTs by Phillip Huscher

Paul Dukas Born October 1, 1865, Paris, France. Died May 17, 1935, Paris, France. La Péri, fanfare and poème dansé

Paul Dukas is known an adventuresome musical thinker. Despite primarily as the composer the brevity of his career and the paucity of his of Th e Sorcerer’s Apprentice, compositions, he managed to wield a certain an orchestral scherzo infl uence. Although the Technicolor theatrics based on a poem by of a work like Th e Sorcerer’s Apprentice can seem Goethe (today it is more passé today, both Stravinsky and Debussy were often identifi ed with quite taken with the piece at the time of its Mickey Mouse, who premiere in 1897, and admired his later music starred in Walt Disney’s as well. Debussy wrote an eff usive review of movie version). Although Dukas’s piano sonata when it appeared in 1901, he lived a long life in good health, Dukas left and later said it was worthy of standing along- only seven major compositions, each a single side Beethoven’s—it was the only one that was example in a diff erent genre—an overture “representative of our time.” Stravinsky dropped (Polyeucte, his fi rst published work), a symphony, an almost literal quotation of Th e Sorcerer’s a piano sonata, a set of piano variations, one Apprentice in his 1908 orchestral piece, Fireworks. opera (Ariane et Barbe-Bleu), the tone poem Th e (Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique, written the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and the ballet score per- previous year, also is indebted to Dukas.) formed at these concerts—La Péri. Dukas composed La Péri in 1910. Although Th ose works span just two decades of Dukas’s he lived until the mid-1930s and witnessed nearly seventy years. La Péri is the last of Schoenberg’s breakthrough with the twelve-tone them; although he lived nearly another quarter system, Stravinsky’s romance with neoclassicism, century, Dukas composed very little during and Bartók’s adventures in non-Western music, those years and destroyed virtually everything Dukas remained aloof from these developments; he wrote. (Not even Brahms, who threw out apparently he was no sympathizer. “Where are his unfi nished fi fth symphony, saved so little: we going?” he is said to have asked his com- among Dukas’s projected and discarded works position students at the Paris Conservatory in are three operas, including a Tempest drawn 1912. “Everything has been done,” he declared, from Shakespeare.) although, in a few years, one of his own stu- Dukas was a fi ercely self-critical and fastidi- dents, Olivier Messiaen, would prove otherwise. ous craftsman, an exemplary orchestrator, and (Dukas was not unsupportive, however: in 1929, comPoseD October 31 & November 1, 1968, insTrumenTaTion 1910 Orchestra Hall. Jean Martinon three ﬂ utes and piccolo, two oboes conducting (Fanfare) and english horn, two clarinets and firsT Performance bass clarinet, three bassoons, four april 22, 1912; Paris, France. The mosT recenT horns, three trumpets, three trom- composer conducting cso Performances bones and tuba, timpani, side drum, December 7, 8, 9 & 12, 1995, Orchestra bass drum, tambourine, cymbals, firsT cso Performances Hall. Pierre Boulez conducting (Fanfare triangle, xylophone, celesta, two april 9 & 10, 1920, Orchestra and poème dansé) harps, strings Hall. Frederick Stock conducting December 9 & 20, 2007, Orchestra Hall. (Poème dansé) aPProXimaTe Mark Ridenour conducting (Fanfare) Performance Time July 23, 1960, Ravinia Festival. Jean [SCP CSO Brass ensemble concert] 21 minutes Martinon conducting (Fanfare)

4 he used his name to get Messiaen’s eight piano her jeweled robe. A star sparkled above her head; preludes published.) her lute rested on her breast; in her hand shone the flower. a Péri, Dukas’s last published work, was And it was a lotus like unto an emerald, radi- composed to pay off a bet he had lost, ant like the sea in the morning sun. and he might have destroyed this, too, Iskender noiselessly leaned over the sleeper had his friends not intervened and insisted on its and, without wakening her, snatched the flower. Lmerit. Dukas dedicated his score to the Russian Which suddenly became, between his fingers, ballerina Natalie Trouhanova, who danced the like the noonday sun over the forests of Ghilan. title role at the Paris premiere in 1912, on a The Peri, opening her eyes, clapped the palms stage decorated with golden mountains, crim- of her hands together and uttered a loud cry. son valleys, and trees laden with silver fruit. For she could not now ascend toward the light (The evening, which featured the premieres of Ormuzd. of three other ballets, by Vincent d’Indy, Iskender, regarding her, wondered at her face, Florent Schmitt, and Maurice Ravel—each which surpassed in deliciousness even the face of conducted by its composer—was unsurpassed Gurda-ferrid. in excitement and news value until Stravinsky In his heart he coveted her. unleashed his Rite of Spring the following year.) The Peri knew the thought of the king; For his only ballet, Dukas chose the designa- For in the right hand of Iskender, the lotus tion poème dansé (danced poem)—which Debussy grew purple and became as the face of longing. would later borrow for Jeux. The music is an opu- Thus the servant of the pure knew that this lent tapestry of delicate, atmospheric effects and flower of life was not for him. rich, sumptuous colors, with two themes, like the To recover it, she darted forward like a bee. two characters of the story, engaged in a drama The invincible lord bore away from her the of confrontation. Much of the score depicts the lotus, torn between his thirst for immortality and passionate dance of the Peri. The opening brass the delights he beheld. fanfare, which was added as an afterthought and But the Peri danced the dance of the Peris. bears no thematic relationship to the ballet, is Always approaching him until her face often performed on its own. touched the face of Iskender. Here, in Dukas’s own words, is the story of And at the end he gave back the flower with- La Péri: out regret. It happened at the end of his youthful days; the Then the lotus was like unto snow and gold, as Seers having observed that his star was dimming, the summit of Elbourz at sunset. Iskender went about Iran seeking the flower The form of the Peri seemed to melt in the of immortality. light coming from the calix, and soon noth- The sun sojourned thrice in its dozen dwellings ing more was to be seen than a hand raising without Iskender finding the flower. At last he the flower of flame, which faded into the arrived at the end of the earth, at the point where realm above. it becomes one with the sea and the clouds. Iskender saw it disappear. There, on the steps that lead to the hall of And knowing from this that his end drew near. Ormuzd, a Peri [a fairy] was reclining, asleep in He felt the darkness surround him.

5 guillaume connesson Born 1970, Boulogne-Billancourt, France. Pour sortir au jour, concerto for flute and orchestra

Guillaume Connesson orchestra being premiered this week, draws on was born in a suburb of ideas associated with Th e Egyptian Book of the Paris, trained in the Dead. Connesson, who has written for large French conservatory orchestra since the beginning of his career, has system, and won several composed concertos for cello (in 2008), piano major French prizes, (Th e Shining One, 2009), and viola (Constellations, including the Nadia and 2009). Last year, he wrote a concertino for piano Lili Boulanger Prize in and chamber orchestra. Th is new fl ute concerto 1999, named for the two was co-commissioned by the Chicago Symphony, sisters who had a power- and Connesson has dedicated the score to its fi rst ful infl uence on French musical life in the early performer, CSO principal fl ute Mathieu Dufour. twentieth century. He currently is professor of orchestration at the Conservatoire National de guiLLaume connesson on POUR SORTIR AU JOUR, concerTo for fLuTe anD orchesTra Région d’Aubervilliers. Despite his proper French resume, however, Pour sortir au jour (Going forth by day) is the Connesson has made his name as a composer original name of Th e Egyptian Book of the Dead. who refl ects an unexpectedly wide range of Th ose papyrus scrolls were placed near the global infl uences—“the complex mosaic of the mummy in order to help it achieve its journey modern world,” as he has said. His earliest works, to the hereafter and attain the light of Osiris. such as Disco-toccata and Night-Club for orches- Th is book consisted of a series of prayers, magic tra, composed in the 1990s, were grounded in formulas for opening doors, invocations, and pop music. Sextour is indebted to the pioneering fabulous tales in service of the deceased. For in work of so-called American minimalists, such order to live this second birth and see the bright- as Steve Reich and John Adams. Connesson ness of the Justifi ed, a series of trials awaited also has long been inspired by fi lm—he even has the dead person. It is this spiritual journey that written a full-length score for F.W. Murnau’s my concerto evokes: a journey from shadow and classic 1927 silent fi lm L’Aurore (Sunrise). light to the land of Amenti, the paradise of the Connesson has never shied away from tackling ancient Egyptians. big subjects: the Cosmic Trilogy he composed My score is laid out in fi ve linked movements, from 1997 to 2007 explores the Big Bang (in in which is found the classic three-movement Aleph), the appearance of light (in A Glimmer structure except for the fact that movements 1 in the Age of Darkness), and the explosion of and 2 are preceded by two ritual dances. Th ese a star (in Supernova). Th e composition of the call for a small ensemble accompanying the solo trilogy was inspired by sources as disparate as fl ute like a memory of the baroque concerto Kandinsky’s early-twentieth-century paintings grosso. I chose the instruments by analogy with and the theories of physicist Stephen Hawking. the ancient instrumentarium: the two oboes and Pour sortir au jour, his new concerto for fl ute and trumpet portray the aulos, the two harps and comPoseD insTrumenTaTion aPProXimaTe 2013–14 solo ﬂ ute, two ﬂ utes, two oboes, two Performance Time clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, 22 minutes firsT Performances three trumpets, timpani, two harps, These are the world pre- percussion, strings miere performances Co-commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France 6 percussion (in which I favor period instruments: last variation (Light of the god-of-the-stopped- crotales, sistra, drum, whip . . . ) and four solo heart) the deceased finds himself before Osiris, violas evoke the sonorities of the hydraulic organs whose light invades the whole orchestra like a of the late period. tidal wave. 1. Danse processionnelle (Processional dance): 3. Danse de la Justification (Dance of The funeral cortege crosses the Nile, taking the Justification): In this hesitant, mysterious dance, remains to the west bank of the river accom- we again find the small ensemble from the panied by this dance in seven beats. The whole beginning and the Shri mode, but without the movement, in which the solo flute is supported solo flute. Written on a five-beat ostinato, this is by the polyrhythms of the “Egyptian ensemble,” music of expectation preparing for the Judgment. is written on a Hindu Shri mode abundantly 4. La Balance des Dieux (The scales of the gods): transposed. Achieving the trance, the ensemble This slow movement, which reflects the capital is suddenly covered by the large orchestra, which moment of psychostasis when the dead person’s makes its entrance like a lightning bolt marking destiny will be decided, unfolds like an inter- the passage from the other side of the mirror to rupted song: a serious theme will come back three the land of the dead. times and, each time, the flute’s lyrical élan seems 2. Entrée dans la Douat (Entrance into Duat): to break on a mechanical clock in the form of an This long movement is made up of six sections. ostinato vanishing into silence. Then judgment is The first evokes the difficult separation of the rendered, and, on a gentle G-flat major chord, the soul from its body. The solo flute seems increased flute is welcomed into the splendor of Osiris. by the flutes in the orchestra in the play of mir- 5. Danse dans les champs de Ialou (Dance in the rors. The second section states the main theme fields of Ialou): In this final dance, the “Egyptian of this movement in the soloist’s middle register, ensemble” carries on a dialogue with the large a theme of mystery and anxiety that will be orchestra for the first time. A nervous, rhythmic followed by four variations. The first (The World theme in the Shri mode is stated by the soloist of the 12 Regions) uses the mirror theme set with answered by a second theme—this one tonal— a complex polyrythm. The next variation (The declaimed by the whole orchestra. This dance of Flight of the Soul Bâ) is a light scherzo in which joy is that of the Justified who, in the fields of the Bâ twirls and joyously visits its new universe. Ialou, will see souls take possession of their legs But very quickly, it hears the weeping of those to run toward the happy sojourns, experience the unable to escape the serpent Apophis and the winds bearing the fluids of the infinite thanks to terrible Amut, the devourer of souls, this new which the heavens unite with the planets, hear variation (The Serpent Apophis) being based on the souls of the pharaohs clucking like the geese a motif in inflection like a lament. Finally, in the of Geb, and dive into the celestial Nile.

7 camille saint-saëns Born October 9, 1835, Paris, France. Died December 16, 1921, Algiers, Algeria. symphony no. 3 in c minor, op. 78 (Organ)

Franz Liszt never heard Saint-Saëns’s own musical life had a this piece—it was Mozartean beginning. At the age of two, as he premiered in London two later recalled, he observed “the symphony of the months before his kettle,” with “its slow crescendo so full of sur- death—but he had prises, and the appearance of a microscopic oboe admired the score during whose sound rose little by little until the water his last visit to Paris, had reached a boiling point.” At four, he per- while Saint-Saëns was formed part of one of Beethoven’s violin sonatas still working on it. In July in a Paris salon, and he began to compose at six. 1886, when Saint-Saëns He made his public debut in the Salle Pleyel in learned that Liszt had died (in Bayreuth, where Paris at ten, playing a piano concerto by Mozart he had gone to visit his daughter Cosima Wagner and a movement from Beethoven’s C minor and to attend Tristan and Isolde and Parsifal), he piano concerto, and off ering, as an encore, to decided to publish this new symphony with a perform from memory any one of the thirty-two dedication to the older composer’s memory. Beethoven sonatas the audience requested. “Th is Liszt’s music served as a model to Saint-Saëns young man knows everything, but he lacks throughout his career. Th e unconventional form inexperience,” Berlioz wrote. of this C minor symphony, with two movements Saint-Saëns quickly grew into an artist of folded into each of its two main sections, and maturity and taste, both as a performer and as its use of a signature theme that is transformed a composer. Berlioz called him “an absolutely as the work proceeds, are clearly indebted to the shattering master pianist,” and Proust wrote that innovations of Liszt’s own scores. Saint-Saëns his playing was free of the “writhings, shakings may even have taken the idea of including of the head, and tossing of hair that adulterate the organ in a piece of symphonic music from the purity of music with the sensuality of dance.” one of Liszt’s tone poems, Battle of the Huns. (Saint-Saëns played his Second Piano Concerto (Saint-Saëns never misunderstood Liszt’s true with the Chicago Symphony in November 1906.) importance to the history of music: “Th e world Saint-Saëns lived a full half century longer persisted to the end,” he wrote, “in calling him than Mozart, however, and he kept composing the greatest pianist in order to avoid the trouble and performing to the very end. (He played in of considering his claims as one of the most public for the last time just four months before remarkable of composers.”) his death.) His career is one of music’s longest comPoseD mosT recenT aPProXimaTe 1886 cso Performances Performance Time October 8, 9 & 10, 2009, Orchestra Hall. 34 minutes firsT Performance Henry McDowell as soloist, yan Pascal May 19, 1886; London, england Tortelier conducting cso recorDings 1975. Gaston Litaize as soloist, firsT cso Performances insTrumenTaTion Daniel Barenboim conducting. October 30 & 31, 1891, auditorium three ﬂ utes and piccolo, two oboes Deutsche Grammophon Theatre. Clarence eddy as soloist, and english horn, two clarinets and Theodore Thomas conducting bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, piano, strings, and a prominent part for organ

8 and most productive. During his lifetime, com- musical material. This theme is already changed, posers as diverse as Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and in character if not in content, by the first agi- Debussy were born and died. When Saint-Saëns tated measures of the main Allegro section that himself died, at eighty-six, he had made his mark follows. A second, more lyrical melody eventually as a writer of operas, symphonies, concertos, is combined with the main motif before the and a treasure trove of smaller, miscellaneous music loses momentum as it prepares the way for pieces. Today the public knows but a mere sliver the Poco adagio, reached without pause. Here, of this vast output—particularly the Carnival of an “extremely peaceful, contemplative theme,” the Animals he never took seriously and refused as the composer described it, is presented low to publish, two or three of his concertos, Samson in the strings over soft organ chords. The calm and Delilah (alone of his dozen operas), and this, and beauty are eventually disturbed, though not the so-called Organ Symphony. shattered, by the turbulence of the Allegro. The two dissimilar musical worlds coexist happily by his symphony was popular from the the end of the movement, when nervous pizzicato start. After Saint-Saëns conducted triplets from the Allegro accompany the Poco the Paris premiere, Charles Gounod adagio’s serene and untroubled melody. remarkedT “There goes the French Beethoven!”— The second movement begins with a scherzo- an indication more of Saint-Saëns’s status at like tempestuous transformation of the sympho- the time rather than a true barometer of his ny’s main material, dispelled briefly by “arpeggios musical vision or depth. Saint-Saëns himself and scales, swift as lightning,” on the piano. recognized that his considerable gifts—including (Saint-Saëns himself was a highly accomplished a genuine flair for sumptuous orchestral color, performer on the piano and organ, and this sym- suave and unforgettable melody, and brilliant phony includes substantial and prominent roles craftsmanship—while untouched by most of for both instruments.) This peculiar combination his contemporaries, were not those of a pioneer. of fury and “tricky gaiety” is later undercut by “First among composers of the second rank,” a powerful, “grave, austere” theme in the trom- was, reportedly, his own surprisingly honest bones, tuba, and basses. “There is a struggle for and self-effacing, if offhand evaluation. mastery,” Saint-Saëns writes, “which ends in the Neither a conventional symphony nor a true defeat of the restless, diabolical element.” tone poem, the Organ Symphony borrows This solemn theme rises “and rests there as in elements from both traditions. The form itself the blue of a clear sky,” signaling a significant is unusual. “This symphony is divided into two change in the symphony’s direction. A mighty parts,” Saint-Saëns wrote at the time of the chord from the full organ “announces the premiere. “Nevertheless, it embraces in principle approaching triumph of calm and lofty thought.” the four traditional movements, but the first is The initial theme, now entirely transformed altered in its development to serve as the intro- by the strings and shimmering piano chords, duction to the Poco adagio, and the scherzo is leads into a development of majesty, energy, and connected by the same process to the finale.” lyricism. There are several detours—including In other words, more experimentation with the an unexpected pastoral episode for oboe, standard chapters of symphony and sonata—with flute, english horn, and clarinet—and further the fusing of movements and the blurring of transformations, but Saint-Saëns’s triumphant, dividing lines—of the sort begun earlier in the heaven-storming destination is now in sight. nineteenth century and vigorously pursued by Liszt in particular. The score opens with a brief, slow introduction—just long enough to announce a Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago rising four-note motif that is Saint-Saëns’s main Symphony Orchestra.