PROGRAM

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

Thursday, January 22, 2015, at 8:00 Friday, January 23, 2015, at 8:00 Saturday, January 24, 2015, at 8:00

Riccardo Muti Conductor Alisa Kolosova Mezzo- Sergey Skorokhodov Chicago Symphony Chorus Duain Wolfe Chorus Director Scriabin Symphony No. 1 in E Major, Op. 26 Lento Allegro dramatico Lento Vivace Allegro Andante ALISA KOLOSOVA SERGEY SKOROKHODOV CHICAGO SYMPHONY CHORUS First Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances

INTERMISSION

Prokofiev Nevsky, Op. 78 under the Mongolian Yoke A Song about The Crusaders in Arise, People of Russia The The Field of the Dead Alexander’s Entry in Pskov ALISA KOLOSOVA CHICAGO SYMPHONY CHORUS

The appearance of the Chicago Symphony Chorus is made possible by a generous gift from Jim and Kay Mabie. Saturday’s concert is endowed in part by the League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association.

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

Alexander Scriabin Born January 6, 1872 [December 25, 1871, old style], , Russia. Died April 27, 1915, Moscow, Russia. Symphony No. 1 in E Major, Op. 26

From his youth, when he That influence is reflected not only in his reper- interpreted the signifi- toire, but in the titles and nature of the music he cance of his birth on wrote at the time—sets of preludes, impromptus, Christmas Day as a sign etudes, and even Polish mazurkas. To study the that he should do great first nineteen opus numbers in Scriabin’s catalog, things, Scriabin believed all pieces for piano solo, one would never predict he would play a decisive the important orchestral music that would role in the history of quickly follow. music. But his early death The move away from writing solo piano at the age of forty-three music was a tough and decisive step for all the cut short his career just as he was venturing into pianist-composers of the nineteenth century, pioneer territory. Like many composers of a less but Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms revolutionary bent, Scriabin started his musical already were mature artists with individual and life as a pianist and his composing career writing recognizable styles when they stopped composing only piano pieces. In 1884, he began to study exclusively for the piano. But when Scriabin piano with Nicolai Zverev, who already had wrote a piano in 1896—the first of accepted Sergei Rachmaninov as a pupil. The two his works to call for orchestra—he had not yet students became good friends—Scriabin was discovered the voice that would ultimately make older by just one year—though they were his music unique. The Chopinesque concerto sometimes later portrayed as rivals once their scarcely hints at the direction Scriabin’s career musical ambitions ventured in different direc- would take. Then, three years, later, he began tions. At the time they met, both Scriabin and his first symphony, and a new world of complex Rachmaninov were beginning to compose piano sounds and philosophical ideas opened up before pieces for themselves to play. In 1888, Scriabin him. He was now on the path to becoming, as entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he the novelist Boris Pasternak later said of him, excelled equally as a pianist and composer. When “more than just a composer.” he graduated in 1892, he was awarded the second In retrospect, knowing the pioneering orches- gold medal in composition (Rachmaninov took tral works that would quickly follow from his first place, for his Aleko). pen, Scriabin’s First Symphony sounds like After Scriabin left the conservatory, he began a throwback, a last vestige of romanticism. a career as a concert pianist. While his recital But more importantly, it is a score that shows programs often included music by Schumann and Scriabin mastering the language of his day, and, Liszt, two composers who also started out as pia- at the same time, yearning to break free of its nists, Scriabin’s particular favorite was Chopin. conventions and limitations.

COMPOSED FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES four horns, three , three 1899 These are the Chicago Symphony , , , percussion, Orchestra’s first performances. harp, strings FIRST PERFORMANCE November 11, 1900; , INSTRUMENTATION APPROXIMATE Russia (without soloists or chorus) mezzo-soprano and tenor soloists; PERFORMANCE TIME mixed chorus; an orchestra consisting 51 minutes March 16, 1900; Moscow, Russia of three and piccolo, two (complete) , three , two ,

2 criabin writes six movements and calls he first five, relatively short movements for two soloists and a chorus in his finale, represent Scriabin’s vision of the late a grand ode to the power of art. Its for- nineteenth-century symphony. The first, Smal design alone makes it a work of unusual luxuriouslyT scored—there is a particularly rich ambition. The music came to him quickly. He solo—and majestically paced as its rises worked on nothing else during the summer of and falls, acts as a kind of a substantial slow 1899. “He would write a measure and rush to introduction. It is followed by four movements the piano to make certain the sound was exactly that suggest the outlines of a standard sym- as he wanted it,” his friend, the composer Lev phony, crowned by a big chorale finale (which, Konyus, said. He took the score to bed with like Beethoven’s before it, recalls themes from him at night. “All summer long he kept saying earlier in the symphony). The second movement, this was his best music yet,” Konyus recalled. an Allegro, is colored by music of high drama But when the symphony was first performed in and governed by the powerful contrast and Saint Petersburg in November 1900, conducted development of sonata form. Next, Scriabin by Anatoly Liadov, it fell flat. There were boos writes a magnificent and spacious slow move- and catcalls. Scriabin complained that the ment, followed by a fast, delicate, and playful tempos were too slow and Liadov’s interpretation scherzo. A surging Allegro—with wonderfully “flabby.” Since the Saint Petersburg choral soci- lyrical episodes—suggests an air of climax and ety had refused to perform for no fee, Scriabin’s finality, but it merely paves the way for Scriabin’s finale was done without voices, depriving it of big last movement. This unusual finale with both its message and its blazing musical impact. voices—echoing those by Beethoven, Liszt, and, However, Vasily Safonoff, the director of closer to Scriabin’s own time, Mahler—begins the Moscow Conservatory and the conductor with mezzo-soprano and tenor soloists singing later credited as the first to lead without using a alternately, and then blossoms, in its last pages, baton, declared the score a “divine creation,” and into music for full chorus and orchestra. (The gave a second performance, for the full forces, entry of the chorus is underlined by the switch in Moscow the next March. “Safonoff had the from the symphony’s prevailing triple meter— look of a man opening a treasure and displaying throughout five and a half movements—to it,” recalled the composer Leonid Sananeyev, common time.) This is a glorious hymn to the who sat in on the rehearsals. But still it failed to sovereignty of Art, one of the themes that is impress the public. “The reason is the complexity integral to Scriabin’s entire output. Once, when of this brain child,” wrote one of the critics. “The the directness of Scriabin’s text was criticized, average man is not prepared for it.” Scriabin he defended the grand rhetoric of his finale: “I reportedly threw the score across the room the wanted something simple, something inter- next day. But, within little more than a decade, national, common to all peoples.” The poem, the symphony was played and even acclaimed in shared by soloists and chorus, is Scriabin’s own: Europe, as well as in Russia. Like all of Scriabin’s visionary orchestral works, it has since fallen in O wonderful image of the Divine, and out of favor. (Because of the unusual forces Harmony’s pure Art! Scriabin calls for, the symphony is not often To you we gladly bring programmed, and, in fact, these are the Chicago Praise of that rapturous feeling. Symphony’s first performances. The first work You are life’s bright hope, by Scriabin the Orchestra played, oddly, was his You are celebration, you are respite, final completed score, Prometheus, in its U.S. pre- Like a gift you bring to the people miere in 1915. The performance of such advanced Your enchanted visions. and unconventional music drew hisses from the In that gloomy and cold hour, Orchestra Hall audience, which one critic said When the soul is full of tumult, proved “the dynamic vitality of the composer.” Man finds in you Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy, however, soon became The spry joy of consolation. a Chicago favorite: Frederick Stock, the CSO’s Strength, fallen in battle, you second music director, programmed it almost Miraculously call to life, annually for nineteen years, from 1922 to 1941.) In the exhausted and afflicted mind 3 You breed thoughts of a new order. After his Fifth Piano Sonata, composed in An endless ocean of emotion you 1907, he broke with tonality. A single dissonant Breed in the enraptured heart, chord, the so-called mystic chord, provided the And sings the best songs of songs, foundation for all of his final compositions. He Your high priest, by you enlivened. had, in effect, created a new system of tonal On Earth gloriously reigns organization to replace traditional harmony. Your spirit, free and mighty, After his death, no one truly followed his path Man lifted by you (Prokofiev and Szymanowski briefly came Gloriously conducts the greatest feat. under his spell), and, in the end, despite the Come, all peoples of the world, urgency and fierce passion of his ideas, he did Let us sing the praises of Art! not—to use current parlance—make a difference. Glory to Art, Stravinsky, who disliked both Scriabin and his Glory forever! music, once commented, “Although his death was tragic and premature, I have sometimes Translation: © David Kettle wondered at the kind of music such a man would have written had he survived into the 1920s.” n the fifteen years he had left after writing Scriabin’s original language was, in its own his First Symphony, Scriabin ventured way, as revolutionary as that of Mahler, Strauss, farther into the great unknown, where Schoenberg, or Debussy, all of whom were Imusic and color are closely linked and where writing at the same time. It is difficult to know “art must unite with philosophy and religion where Scriabin was headed, and how he might in an indivisible whole to form a new gospel.” ultimately have changed the course of music.

Sergei Prokofiev Born April 23, 1891, Sontsokva, Ukraine. Died March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia. Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78

During a stay in Denver, That May, within days of his return to Russia, on his American tour in Prokofiev was approached by the great Russian February 1938, Prokofiev director . Each man was already received a phone call from at the peak of his powers. Eisenstein had directed a Hollywood agent who two of the defining silent film classics of the wanted to sell the rights 1920s—Battleship Potemkin and October: Ten Days to Prokofiev’s Peter and that Shook the World. Eisenstein proposed collabo- the Wolf to . rating on a film about the thirteenth-century By chance, the composer military hero Alexander Nevsky. It would be his had just seen Disney’s first film in nine years and his first with sound. newest release, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, They started work early that summer. Prokofiev and was excited by its seamless integration of began to sketch music before production started. sound and image. Prokofiev boarded a plane to As the two men worked together, they quickly three days later. His meeting with developed an unusually close and responsive Disney went well—“le papa de ,” creative process. The highly detailed contract as the composer dubbed him, was highly Prokofiev signed allowed him “to participate impressed with the Peter and the Wolf score—and directly in the film’s production through the Prokofiev left town boasting that Hollywood had entire process.” During one particularly exhaus- shown “unusual interest” in his modern music. tive planning meeting with Eisenstein, Prokofiev Ultimately nothing came of that project, but annotated nearly all eighty-four typewritten Hollywood had renewed Prokofiev’s interest in pages of the director’s script with specific ideas writing film music. about the nature of music needed (on the first 4 page he noted that one meter of film required greatest achievement, and, for all the technical two seconds of music, the equation that made sophistication of the movie industry in recent clockwork synchronization possible throughout years, it is still unrivalled in the brilliance of its the film). linking music and film—what Eisenstein called Sometimes music was recorded before a scene “the organic cinematographic fusion of sound was shot, so that Eisenstein took his cues directly and image.” from the score. (It has been suggested that this method appealed to Prokofiev ever since watching lexander Nevsky recalls a signal moment Disney’s films, where the imagery is precisely in Russian history—one that had unmis- matched to precomposed music.) But more often takable applications to the Soviet situa- the process was reversed. Prokofiev visited the tionA at the time, as Hitler’s threat was mounting. film locations and then reviewed footage with (The studio did not hide its propagandistic Eisenstein that evening, taking detailed notes desire to “prepare every Russian man, woman, about the shape and rhythm of each scene. As and child to meet with optimism any war that they wrapped up work late, Prokofiev would came.”) The historical Alexander Nevsky was invariably turn to Eisenstein and say that he’d the thirteenth-century prince Alexander of have the music by noon the next day. “Although Novgorod, who became a national hero after it is now midnight, I feel quite calm,” Eisenstein leading a successful revolt against Swedish later wrote, reliving those nights. “I know that invaders at the River in 1240 (earning him at exactly 11:55 a.m. a small dark blue car will the name Nevsky—of the Neva). Eisenstein was bring to the studio and that in intrigued by the fact that Nevsky was a famous his hands there will be the necessary pieces of Russian about whom very little was known, music for Alexander Nevsky.” It was a relationship which allowed him to create his own portrait of of exceptional sensitivity to each other’s needs. a leader capable of stirring his people to extraor- “Eisenstein’s respect for music was so great,” dinary actions. The film centers around the Prokofiev later wrote, “that at times he was pre- historical Battle on the Ice, when Nevsky and his pared to cut or add to his sequences so as not to forces defeated invading Teutonic Knights on the upset the balance of a musical episode.” Eisenstein frozen surface of , on April 5, 1242. recognized that Prokofiev’s score “never remains At the peak of the fight, as the ice began to give merely an illustration, but reveals the movement way under the weight of so many heavily armored and the dynamic structure in which are embodied men, countless soldiers of the invading army the emotion and meaning of an event.” were swallowed by the freezing water. (This scene The result is one of the rare occasions when was filmed during a July heat wave on a vast field a great film not only boasts a great score, but is covered with sodium silicate to simulate ice.) made infinitely more powerful and meaningful by that score. Although Eisenstein and Prokofiev he film was released in December of collaborated one more time, on , 1938, to great acclaim. Shortly after- it is Alexander Nevsky that remains their T wards, Prokofiev decided to make a COMPOSED MOST RECENT tenor saxophone, four horns, three 1938, as film score CSO PERFORMANCES trumpets, three trombones, tuba, February 17, 18 & 20, 1977, Orchestra timpani, percussion, two harps, strings 1939, adapted as a cantata Hall. Lucia Valentini-Terrani as soloist, Chicago Symphony Chorus APPROXIMATE FIRST PERFORMANCE (Margaret Hillis, director), Claudio PERFORMANCE TIME May 17, 1939; Moscow, Russia Abbado conducting 42 minutes (cantata). The composer conducting INSTRUMENTATION CSO RECORDING FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES mezzo-soprano soloist; mixed chorus; 1959. Rosalind Elias as soloist, Chicago March 5, 6 & 10, 1959, Orchestra Hall. an orchestra consisting of two flutes Symphony Chorus (Margaret Hillis, Rosalind Elias as soloist, Chicago and piccolo, two oboes and english director), Fritz Reiner conducting. RCA Symphony Chorus (Margaret Hillis, horn, two clarinets and , director), Fritz Reiner conducting two bassoons and contrabassoon,

5 concert piece from the score. He later said he Arise, People of Russia is another call to found this process more difficult than com- arms as the citizens of Novgorod prepare to posing the film music, because he now had to defend their land. The lyrical melody at its heart give form to music that was no longer tied to becomes the signal musical theme of the score. visual imagery. He also reorchestrated it, since Prokofiev’s concert version of the film’s it originally was written for a small studio climactic Battle on the Ice is thrillingly dramatic, orchestra. The cantata, as he labeled it, recon- and, even without structs a new work, in seven movements, from imagery, highly cin- the sixty-some minutes of music Prokofiev had ematic in its place- supplied for Eisenstein’s 107-minute film. ment of sounds from Prokofiev’s cantata opens with an orchestral faraway and nearby, prelude: spare, icy music of desolation written for and its rapid cutting the beginning of the film. In Eisenstein’s words: from one scene to “Woeful traces of the ravages wrought on Russia another—the distant by the —heaps of human bones, swords, crusader’s battle rusty lances. Fields overgrown with weeds and chant, the rhythmic ruins of burned villages.” Prokofiev’s keening hoof beats of the first theme, played by instruments four octaves German horses apart, with no sound between them, at once surging forward, reveals the composer’s uncanny ability to match the clamor of the Sergei Eisenstein imagery with sound. fighting, the rousing The people’s Song about Alexander Nevsky— marching music, in the film, it is sung by fishermen on the shores the retreat of the invaders back onto the lake, of a tranquil lake—recalls the leader’s victory the catastrophe as the ice breaks, and finally the over the two years earlier. It ends with a stillness of horror. call to arms. A lone girl sings The Field of the Dead as she In The Crusaders in Pskov, the invading searches for her lover, surveying the vast stretches Germans, who have successfully taken over the of dead and wounded. city, prepare fires in which they threaten to burn Their victory complete, Alexander Nevsky’s those who do not convert to their religion. The men return to the city of Pskov in proud, clan- crusaders repeatedly chant in Latin: Peregrinus gorous triumph. expectavi pedes meos in cymbalis est (A foreigner, I expected my feet to be shod in ). Prokofiev and Eisenstein considered adapting medieval music here to underline the ancient setting, but decided it “was far too remote and emotionally alien to us to be able to stimulate the Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago imagination of the present-day film spectator.” Symphony Orchestra.

6 ALEXANDER NEVSKY

1. RUSSIA UNDER THE MONGOLIAN YOKE

2. A SONG ABOUT ALEXANDER NEVSKY Chorus of Russians

A i bїlo dyelo na Nyevyeryekye, It happened on the Neva River, Na Nyevyeryekye, na bolshoi vodye. on the Neva, the great water. Tam rubili mї zloye voinstvo, There we slaughtered the evil army, Zloye voinstvo, voisko shvyedskoye. the evil army of the Swedes. Ukh! kak bilis mї, kak rubilis mї! Oh, how we fought, how we slashed! Ukh! Rubili korabli po dostochkam. Oh, we chopped their boats into kindling! Nashu krov’rudu nye zhalyeli mї We did not spare our golden blood za vyelikuyu zyemlyu ruskuyu. in defense of the great Russian land. Gde proshol topor, bїla ulitza. Where the axe passed, there was a street, Gde lyetyelo kop’yo pyerye ulochek. where the spear flew, an alley. Polozhili mї shvyedovnemchinov, We mowed down our Swedish enemies Kak kobїl’travu na sukhoi zyemlye. like feather-grass on dry soil. Nye ustupim mї zyemlyu russkuyu. We shall not yield up the Russian land. Kto pridyot na Rus’, budyet nasmyert’ bit. Whoever invades Russia shall be killed. Podnyalasya Rus’ suprotiv vraga, Russia has arisen against the foe; podnimis’ na boi, slavnїi Novgorod! arise for battle, glorious Novgorod!

3. THE CRUSADERS IN PSKOV Crusaders

Peregrinus expectavi pedes meos in cymbalis est. A foreigner, I expected my feet to be shod in cymbals.

4. ARISE, PEOPLE OF RUSSIA Chorus of Russians

Vstavaitye, lyudi russkiye, Arise, people of Russia, na slavnїi boi, na smyertnїi boi, for the glorious battle, for the deadly battle, vstavaitye, lyudi vol’nїe, arise, free people, za nashu zyemlyu chestnuyu. to defend our honest land. , Basses

Zhivїm boitsam pochyot i chest’, To living warriors, respect and honor, a myortvїm slava vechnaya. and to the dead, eternal glory. Za otchii dom, za russkii krai For our fathers’ home, our Russian territory, vstavaitye, lyudi russkiye. arise, people of Russia.

(Please turn the page quietly.) 7 Chorus

Vstavaitye, lyudi russkiye, Arise, people of Russia, na slavnїi boi, na smyertnїi boi, for the glorious battle, for the deadly battle, vstavaitye, lyudi vol’nye, arise, free people, za nashu zyemlyu chestnuyu. to defend our honest land. Women, then Men

Na Rusi rodnoi, na Rusi bol’shoi In our native Russia, in great Russia, nye bїvat’ vragu. let no foe exist. Podnimaisya, vstan’, Raise yourself up, stand up, mat’ rodnaya Rus’! our own mother Russia! Women

Vstavaitye, lyudi russkiye, Arise, people of Russia, Men na slavnїi boi, na smyertnїi boi, for the glorious battle, for the deadly battle, Women vstavaitye, lyudi vol’nye, arise, free people, Men za nashu zyemlyu chestnuyu. to defend our honest land. Women

Vragam na Rus’ nye kazhivat’, Let no foe march through Russia, polkov na Rus’ nye vazhivat’, let no regiments rove across Russia, putyei na Rus’ nye vidїvat’, let them not see the paths to Russia, polyei Rusi nye taptїvat’. let them not tread on the fields of Russia. Chorus

Vstavaitye, lyudi russkiye, Arise, people of Russia, na slavnїi boi, na smyertnїi boi, for the glorious battle, for the deadly battle, vstavaitye, lyudi vol’nye, arise, free people, za nashu zyemlyu chestnuyu. to defend our honest land.

5. THE BATTLE ON THE ICE Crusaders

Peregrinus expectavi pedes meos in cymbalis est. A foreigner, I expected my feet to be shod in cymbals. Vincant arma crucifera. Hostis pereat! May the arms of the cross-bearers conquer! Let the enemy perish!

8 6. THE FIELD OF THE DEAD A Russian Woman

Ya poidu po polyu byelomu, I shall go over the white field, polyechu po polyu smyertnomu. I shall fly over the deadly field. Poishchu ya slavnїkh sokolov, I shall seek the glorious falcons, zhenikhov moikh, dobrїkh molodtsyev. my bridegrooms, the sturdy young men. Kto lyezhit, myechami porublyennїi, One lies hacked by swords, kto lyezhit, stryeloyu poranyennїi, one lies wounded by the arrow. Napoili oni krov’yu aloyu With their crimson blood they have watered zyemlyu chestnuyu, zyemlyu russkuyu. the honest soil, the Russian land. Kto pogib za Rus’ smyert’yu dobroyu, Whoever died a good death for Russia, potseluyu togo v oghi myertvїe, I shall kiss upon his dead eyes, a tomu molodtsu, shto ostalsya zhit’, and to that young man who remained alive, budu vyernoi zhenoi, miloi ladoyu. I shall be a faithful wife, a loving spouse. Nye voz’mu v muzh’ya krasivovo: I shall not marry a handsome man; krasota zyemnaya konchayetsya. earthly beauty comes to an end. A poidu ya za khrabrovo. But I shall wed a brave man. Otzovityesya, yasnyi sokolyi! Cry out in answer, bright falcons! 7. ALEXANDER’S ENTRY INTO PSKOV Chorus of Russians

Na vyelikii boi vïkhodila Rus’. Russia marched out to mighty battle. Voroga pobyedila Rus’. Russia overcame the enemy. Na rodnoi zyemlye nye bїvat’ vragu. On our native soil, let no foe exist. Kto pridyot, budyet nasmyert’ bit. Whoever invades, will be killed. Women

Vyesyelisya, poi, mat’ rodnaya Rus’! Be merry, sing, mother Russia! Na rodnoi Rusi nye bїvat’ vragu. In our native Russia, let no foe exist. Nye vidat’ vragu nashikh russkikh syol. Let no foe see our Russian villages. Kto pridyot na Rus’, budyet nasmyert’ bit. Whoever invades Russia will be killed. Men

Nye vidat’ vragu nashikh russkikh syol. Let no foe see our Russian villages. Kto pridyot na Rus’, budyet nasmyert’ bit. Whoever invades Russia will be killed. Na Rusi rodnoi, na Rusi bol’shoi In our native Russia, in great Russia, nye bїvat’ vragu. Let no foe exist All

Na Rusi rodnoi, na Rusi bol’shoi In our native Russia, in great Russia, nye bїvat’ vragu. let no foe exist. Vyesyelisya, poi, Be merry, sing, mat’ rodnaya Rus’! our own mother Russia! Na vyelikii prazdnik sobralasya Rus’. At the mighty festival, all Russia has gathered together. Vyesyelisya, Rus’! Be merry, Russia, rodnaya mat’! mother of ours! © 2015 Chicago Symphony Orchestra 9