Cristian Macelaru Conductor Yefim Bronfman Piano Debussy Prelude

Please note that Pierre Boulez has withdrawn from these concerts due to illness. the Cso welcomes Cristian macelaru, who has graciously agreed to conduct. Please note that Bartók’s Divertimento for string orchestra replaces messiaen’s Chronochromie. Program oNe HuNDreD TweNTY-SeCoND 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, March 7, 2013, at 8:00 Saturday, March 9, 2013, at 8:00 Tuesday, March 12, 2013, at 7:30 Cristian macelaru Conductor Yefim BronfmanPiano Debussy Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun Bartók Piano Concerto No. 2 Allegro Adagio—Presto—Adagio Allegro molto YefiM BroNfMAN IntermIssIon Bartók Divertimento for String orchestra Allegro non troppo Molto adagio Allegro assai stravinsky The Song of the Nightingale CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines. 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 Claude Debussy Born August 22, 1862, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. Died March 25, 1918, Paris, France. Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun he year Debussy returned to and the lively exchange of ideas, TParis from Rome—where and in time he and Mallarmé he unhappily served time as the became friends. In 1898, he was upshot of winning the coveted Prix among those first notified of the de Rome—he bought a copy of poet’s death. Stéphane Mallarmé’s The Afternoon Mallarmé’s poem, The Afternoon of a Faun to give to his friend Paul of a Faun, was published in 1876, Dukas, who didn’t get beyond the in a slim, elegantly bound volume preliminary round of the competi- with a line drawing by Edouard tion. Eventually Dukas would Manet on the cover. We don’t establish his credentials with The know when Debussy first thought Sorcerer’s Apprentice, but by then of interpreting Mallarmé’s faun Debussy was already famous for his and his dreams of conquering Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun. nymphs, nor to what degree he and By 1887, Stéphane Mallarmé had Mallarmé discussed the prospect. begun hosting his famous gather- As late as 1891, Mallarmé was ings every Tuesday evening in his still contemplating some kind of apartment, where his daughter dramatized reading of his text, Geneviève served the punch. and perhaps Debussy was meant Debussy sometimes dropped in at to fit into that scheme. Debussy 89, rue de Rome (an unfortunate began sketching his music in reminder of a city he had hap- 1892. In 1893 and again in 1894, pily left) to partake of the punch announcements promised “Prélude, ComPoseD most reCent Cso aPProxImate 1892–october 23, 1894 PerFormanCe PerFormanCe tIme february 26, 2011, 10 minutes FIrst PerFormanCe orchestra Hall. esa-Pekka December 22, 1894; Paris, Salonen conducting Cso reCorDIngs france 1976. Sir Georg Solti InstrumentatIon conducting. London FIrst Cso three flutes, two oboes and 1990. Sir Georg Solti PerFormanCe english horn, two clarinets, conducting. London November 23, 1906, two bassoons, four horns, orchestra Hall. frederick two harps, cymbals, strings Stock conducting 2 interludes et paraphrase finale” for detractors, yet even his put down— The Afternoon of a Faun, but the full “It’s as much a piece of music as orchestral score Debussy finished the palette a painter has worked on October 23, 1894, contained from is a painting”—suggests an only the prelude. understanding that Debussy was Mallarmé first heard this music in Debussy’s apartment, where the composer played his score at the piano. “I didn’t expect anything like this,” Mallarmé said. “This music prolongs the emotion of my poem, and sets its scene more vividly than color.” The first orchestral performance, on December 22, was an immediate success (despite poor horn playing), and an Portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé by Manet encore was demanded. Mallarmé was there; he later said constructing a piece of music in a that Debussy’s music “presents no radical way. (Saint-Saëns’s words dissonance with my text: rather, recall Mallarmé’s own famous, it goes further into the nostalgia often misunderstood mission “to and light with subtlety, malaise, paint not the thing but the effect it and richness.” produces.”) Toward the end of his Revolutionary works of art are life, Maurice Ravel remembered seldom granted such instant, easy that “it was [upon] hearing this success. Inevitably, there was some work, so many years ago, that I first question about the score’s program- understood what real music was.” matic intentions, to which Debussy Pierre Boulez would later date the responded at once: “It is a general awakening of modern music from impression of the poem, for if music Debussy’s score. were to follow more closely it would Saint-Saëns might well have run out of breath, like a dray horse noted how the now-famous open- competing for the grand prize with ing flute melody, all sinuous curves a thoroughbred.” and slippery rhythms, resembles the The music itself seems to have most popular melody he would ever ruffled few feathers, despite the way write, “Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix” it quietly, yet systematically, over- (known in English as “My heart turns tradition and opens new fron- and thy sweet voice”) from Samson tiers in musical language. Camille and Dalila. But where Dalila’s Saint-Saëns was one of the few aria is rooted in D-flat major and 3 common time, Debussy’s portrait rich and provocative sounds from of the faun eludes our attempts his winds (including three flutes, an to tap our feet or to establish a english horn, and four horns) that key; its insistence on the interval we scarcely notice the absence of from C-sharp to G-natural argues trumpets, trombones, and timpani. repeatedly against the E major key The only percussion instruments signature printed on the page. necessary are two antique cym- The whole of the Prelude can be bals, each allotted just five notes considered a series of variations on apiece—a triumph of artistry over a single theme, and we can simply cost-efficiency. listen to the ways it changes, almost In 1912, Sergei Diaghilev, who imperceptibly, and grows. There’s a would soon create a notorious more conventional middle sec- scandal with Stravinsky’s Rite of tion in D-flat, urgently lyrical and Spring, produced a ballet from more fully scored, which raises the Debussy’s music. It was danced and music to fortissimo for the only choreographed by the celebrated time in the piece and then sinks Nijinsky, who claimed never to down again with the sounds of the have read Mallarmé’s text, and flute melody. who caused a sensation by foisting Debussy uses the orchestra with heavy-duty eroticism on Debussy’s extraordinary finesse, drawing such delicate score. 4 Béla Bartók Born March 25, 1881, Nagyszentmiklós, Transylvania (now part of Romania). Died September 26, 1945, New York City. Piano Concerto no. 2 n 1939, when the Chicago he wasn’t considered a significant ISymphony gave the United States musical presence, his music wasn’t premiere of Béla Bartók’s new widely played, and when he toured piano concerto, the composer was the country as a pianist, he was still living in his native Hungary. hardly treated like one of the indis- For several more months, he would pensable giants of modern music. agonize over whether to leave Bartók began his career as a his homeland and move to the pianist, and he was an uncommonly United States to escape the threat gifted one, capable of playing not of fascism. Although Bartók had only his own brilliant and chal- played his Second Piano Concerto lenging scores, but—especially some twenty times following its at first—the works of Bach, Frankfurt premiere in 1933, he Beethoven, and Brahms (the other had refused to give the Budapest Bs). Both his parents were pia- premiere as a political protest, and nists—his mother gave lessons to now he let the United States pre- help feed her two children, and miere go to his student, Storm Bull. she was Béla’s first teacher. He Americans weren’t quick to recog- made his first public appearance nize Bartók’s importance. After he as a pianist at the age of eleven, did move to this country in 1940, playing Beethoven’s Waldstein ComPoseD Cso PerFormanCes and bass clarinet, three bas- october 1930–october 9, wIth ComPoser as soons and contrabassoon, 1931 soloIst four horns, three trumpets, November 20 & 21, 1941, three trombones and tuba, FIrst PerFormanCe orchestra Hall. frederick timpani, bass drum, triangle, January 23, 1933, frankfurt- Stock conducting military drum, cymbals, am-Mein. The composer tam-tam, strings as soloist most reCent Cso PerFormanCe Cso reCorDIng FIrst Cso January 11, 2005, 1977. Maurizio Pollini, piano; PerFormanCe orchestra Hall. Lang Claudio Abbado conducting. March 2, 1939 (u.S. Lang, piano; Daniel Deutsche Grammophon premiere), orchestra Hall. Barenboim conducting Storm Bull, piano; frederick aPProxImate Stock conducting InstrumentatIon PerFormanCe tIme solo piano, three flutes 28 minutes and piccolo, two oboes and english horn, two clarinets 5 Sonata. During his student days at in the correct sequence, but with the Budapest Academy (he gradu- each theme turned upside-down ated in June 1903), his friends and and backwards. teachers predicted a bright future Like many of Bartók’s works for him as a virtuoso pianist—his composed around this time (it gifts as a composer didn’t yet falls between the Fourth and Fifth merit comment. string quartets), the concerto is It was the Budapest premiere designed as a grand arch form: here of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach two fast, related outer movements Zarathustra in 1902 that sparked frame a central adagio.

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