Program Notes for Lincoln Center Since 1982
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Tuesday and Wednesday Evenings, August 1 8–19, 2015, at 6:30 m a r g Pre-concert Recital o Tyler Duncan, Baritone r Erika Switzer, Piano P e h SCHUMANN Liederkreis, Op. 24 (1840) Morgens steh’ ich auf und frage T Es treibt mich hin Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen Lieb Liebchen Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann Berg’ und Burgen schaun herunter Anfangs wollt’ ich fast verzagen Mit Myrten und Rosen Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off. These performances are made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center. Steinway Piano Avery Fisher Hall 15 Mostly Mozart Festival I Notes on the Program By David Wright m Liederkreis, Op. 24 (1840) a ROBERT SCHUMANN r Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany g Died July 29, 1856, in Endenich, Germany o r Approximate length: 23 minutes P The son of a bookseller and author, Schumann had literary aspirations that eventually found expression through his music. In an effort to make e Schumann upwardly mobile, his parents sent him to law school, but on his h way there the 18-year-old student made sure to pay a call on the famous t poet Heinrich Heine, whose recently published Buch der Lieder had made a powerful impression on him. Over a decade later, as his wedding to the n young pianist Clara Wieck drew near, Schumann went on a song-composing o spree, writing 138 lieder—over half his eventual output of songs—in 1840 alone, often to texts by Heine. s e Both Robert and Clara Schumann were pianists and composers, and during t the periods when Clara’s father prevented the couple from seeing each o other, they communicated by writing piano music based on each other’s themes and motives. It is unlikely that the love-besotted Schumann shared N the bitterness so often expressed in Heine’s love poetry, which may explain why he usually avoided the obvious tactic of throwing in a musical change wherever the words took an ironic twist. His settings let the poet’s words speak for themselves; the irony, in fact, is often in the disconnect between Schumann’s jaunty music and the poet’s dark text. Although Schumann’s best-known settings of Heine’s poetry are collected in Dichterliebe, Op. 48, attention should also be paid to the nine songs of Op. 24, which the composer called simply Liederkreis , literally “song cycle.” The term can also mean “song circle,” which is why Liederkreis is the name of many choral societies in Germany and German-American communities. Schumann apparently considered it a generic term; his collection of songs to poems of Joseph von Eichendorff, Op. 39, is also titled Liederkreis . Besides the piano’s prominent role, the Op. 24 songs are notable for their extreme variety of expression, from frozen to frantic. The well-known song that closes the set, “Mit Myrten und Rosen,” is so protean in mood and shape that it sounds almost like four songs combined into one. See song texts on page 25. —Copyright © 2015 by David Wright 16 Mostly Mozart Festival I Tuesday and Wednesday Evenings, August 1 8–19, 2015, at 7:30 m a r g Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra o Andrew Manze, Conductor r Joshua Bell, Violin and Leader P e h MOZART Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K.546 (1788) T BACH Violin Concerto in E major (before 1730) Allegro Adagio Allegro assai BACH/MENDELSSOHN (arr. MILONE) Chaconne, from Partita No. 2 in D minor (1720) Intermission SCHUMANN Symphony No. 2 in C major (1845–46) Sostenuto assai—Allegro, ma non troppo Scherzo: Allegro vivace Adagio espressivo Allegro molto vivace Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off. These performances are made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center. Avery Fisher Hall 17 Mostly Mozart Festival The Mostly Mozart Festival is made possible by Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon, Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, Chris and Bruce Crawford, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, S.H. and Helen R. Scheuer Family Foundation, and Friends of Mostly Mozart. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts. Artist Catering provided by Zabar’s and zabars.com MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center United Airlines is a Supporter of Lincoln Center WABC-TV is a Supporter of Lincoln Center “Summer at Lincoln Center” is supported by Diet Pepsi Time Out New York is a Media Partner of Summer at Lincoln Center Mr. Duncan appears by kind permission of the Metropolitan Opera. UPCOMING MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL EVEN T: Friday and Saturday Evenings, August 21–22, at 7:30 in Avery Fisher Hall Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra Louis Langrée , Conductor Sarah Tynan , Soprano M|M Andrew Staples , Tenor M|M Brindley Sherratt , Bass M|M Concert Chorale of New York James Bagwell , Director HAYDN: The Creation Pre-concert lecture by Elaine Sisman on Friday, August 21 at 6:15 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse M|M Mostly Mozart debut For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit MostlyMozart.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about program cancellations or request a Mostly Mozart brochure. Visit MostlyMozart.org for full festival listings. Join the conversation: #LCMozart We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of pho - tographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. 18 Mostly Mozart Festival Welcome to Mostly Mozart I am pleased to welcome you to the 49th Mostly Mozart Festival, our annual celebration of the innovative and inspiring spirit of our namesake composer. This summer, in addition to a stellar roster of guest conductors and soloists, we are joined by composer-in-residence George Benjamin, a leading contem - porary voice whose celebrated opera Written on Skin receives its U.S. stage premiere. This landmark event is the first in a series of staged opera works to be presented in a new partnership with the New York Philharmonic. Written on Skin continues our tradition of hearing Mozart afresh in the context of the great music of our time. Under the inspired baton of Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra delights this year with the Classical repertoire that is its specialty, in addition to Beethoven’s joyous Seventh Symphony and Haydn’s triumphant Creation. Guest appearances include maestro Cornelius Meister making his New York debut; Edward Gardner, who also leads the Academy of Ancient Music in a Mendelssohn program on period instruments; and Andrew Manze with violin - ist Joshua Bell in an evening of Bach, Mozart, and Schumann. Other preemi - nent soloists include Emanuel Ax, Matthias Goerne, and festival newcomers Sol Gabetta and Alina Ibragimova, who also perform intimate recitals in our expanded Little Night Music series. And don’t miss returning favorite Emerson String Quartet and artists-in-residence the International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as invigorating pre-concert recitals and lectures, a panel dis - cussion, and a film on Haydn. With so much to choose from, we invite you to make the most of this rich and splendid season. I look forward to seeing you often. Jane Moss Ehrenkranz Artistic Director 19 Mostly Mozart Festival I Words and Music The Stillness of the World Before Bach By Lars Gustafsson There must have been a world before the Trio Sonata in D, a world before the A minor Partita, but what kind of a world? A Europe of vast empty spaces, unresounding, everywhere unawakened instruments where the Musical Offering , the Well-tempered Clavier never passed across the keys. Isolated churches where the soprano line of the Passion never in helpless love twined round the gentler movements of the flute, broad soft landscapes where nothing breaks the stillness but old woodcutters’ axes, the healthy barking of strong dogs in winter and, like a bell, skates biting into fresh ice; the swallows whirring through summer air, the shell resounding at the child’s ear and nowhere Bach nowhere Bach the world in a skater’s stillness before Bach. —By Lars Gustafsson, translated by Philip Martin, from The Stillness of the World Before Bach , copyright © 1977 by Lars Gustafsson, copy - right © 1983 by Yvonne L. Sandstroem. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. For poetry comments and suggestions, please write to [email protected]. 20 Mostly Mozart Festival By David Wright t o This evening’s program showcases two composers with a deep h respect for the past, plus the master they both revered most. s Mozart discovered the works of Bach late in his short life, but he made up for lost time with Bach-inspired works such as the p Adagio and Fugue in C minor. a n Bach himself liked to stay up to date, and few genres were as au courant in the 1720s as the exciting three-movement violin con - S certos of Vivaldi. In his own Concerto in E major, Bach mixes this flighty Italian style with his personal brand of solid German coun - terpoint. Bach’s famous D-minor Chaconne for solo violin—a set of richly imaginative and expressive variations on a theme—attracted the attention of Mendelssohn, who fitted it with a discreet piano accompaniment.