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Home , Alfred Brendel, Barbara Hannigan, Die Soldaten, Edison Award, Le Grand Macabre, Pli selon pli

27 Season 2012-2013

Thursday, May 16, at 8:00 Saturday, May 18, at 8:00 The Philadelphia Sunday, May 19, at 2:00 Conductor

Webern Passacaglia, Op. 1

Berg Three Fragments from , Op. 7

Intermission

Ligeti Mysteries of the Macabre First Philadelphia Orchestra performances

Beethoven No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (“Pastoral”) I. Allegro, ma non troppo (Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arriving in the country) II. Andante molto moto (Scene by the brook) III. Allegro—Presto (Merry gathering of peasants)— IV. Allegro (Tempest, storm)— V. Allegretto (Shepherds’ hymn—Happy and thankful feelings after the storm)

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes.

The May 16 concert is sponsored by the Hassel Foundation.

Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 2 PM. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.

3 Story Title 29 The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin

Renowned for its distinctive vivid world of and Orchestra boasts a new sound, beloved for its choral music. partnership with the keen ability to capture the National Centre for the Philadelphia is home and hearts and imaginations Performing Arts in Beijing. the Orchestra nurtures of audiences, and admired The Orchestra annually an important relationship for an unrivaled legacy of performs at not only with patrons who “firsts” in music-making, and the Kennedy Center support the main season The Philadelphia Orchestra while also enjoying a at the Kimmel Center for is one of the preeminent three-week residency in the Performing Arts but in the world. Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and also those who enjoy the a strong partnership with The Philadelphia Orchestra’s other area the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Orchestra has cultivated performances at the Mann Festival. an extraordinary history of Center, Penn’s Landing, artistic leaders in its 112 and other venues. The The ensemble maintains seasons, including music Philadelphia Orchestra an important Philadelphia directors Fritz Scheel, Carl Association also continues tradition of presenting Pohlig, , to own the Academy of educational programs for , Riccardo Music—a National Historic students of all ages. Today Muti, , Landmark—as it has since the Orchestra executes a and , 1957. myriad of education and and Charles Dutoit, who community partnership Through concerts, served as chief conductor programs serving nearly tours, residencies, from 2008 to 2012. With 50,000 annually, including presentations, and the 2012-13 season, its Neighborhood Concert recordings, the Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin Series, Sound All Around is a global ambassador becomes the eighth music and Family Concerts, and for Philadelphia and for director of The Philadelphia eZseatU. the United States. Having Orchestra. Named music been the first American For more information on director designate in 2010, orchestra to perform in The Philadelphia Orchestra, Nézet-Séguin brings a China, in 1973 at the please visit www.philorch.org. vision that extends beyond request of President Nixon, symphonic music into the today The Philadelphia 4 Music Director

Jessica Griffin Yannick Nézet-Séguin triumphantly opened his inaugural season as the eighth music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra in the fall of 2012. From the Orchestra’s home in Verizon Hall to the Carnegie Hall stage, his highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. has called Yannick “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.”

Over the past decade, Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. Since 2008 he has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic, and since 2000 artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain. He has appeared with such revered ensembles as the and Berlin philharmonics; the Boston Symphony; the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; the Dresden Staatskapelle; the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; and the major Canadian orchestras. His talents extend beyond symphonic music into opera and choral music, leading acclaimed performances at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, London’s Royal Opera House, and the .

In February 2013, following the July 2012 announcement of a major long-term collaboration between Yannick and Deutsch Grammophon, the Orchestra announced a recording project with the label, in which Yannick and the Orchestra will record Stravinsky’s . His discography with the Rotterdam Philharmonic for BIS Records and EMI/Virgin includes an -winning album of Ravel’s orchestral works. He has also recorded several award-winning albums with the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued studies with renowned conductor and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster College. In 2012 Yannick was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors. His other honors include Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec; and an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec in Montreal.

To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor. 30 Conductor

Simon Fowler Simon Rattle made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1993 Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 and has been a familiar presence on the podium with the Philadelphians ever since. He has been chief conductor and artistic director of the since 2002. From 1980 to 1998 he was principal conductor and artistic adviser, then music director, of the City of Birmingham Symphony, recording and touring extensively with the ensemble. Recent season highlights have included projects with the , the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Metropolitan Opera, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. An exclusive EMI artist for many years, Mr. Rattle has made over 70 recordings for the label that have received numerous international awards. Recent releases with the Berlin Philharmonic include Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Bizet’s . Other recordings include Brahms’s , which won a Grammy Award in 2008 for Best Choral Performance; Stravinsky’s , which won the 2009 Grammy for Best Choral Performance; Berlioz’s ; Mahler’s Second and Ninth ; and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9. With the Vienna Philharmonic he has recorded the complete Beethoven symphonies and concertos with . Born in Liverpool, Mr. Rattle studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He was knighted in 1994 by the Queen of England and has received many other distinctions in recognition of his artistic activities. Since taking up his appointment with the Berlin Philharmonic, he has broken new ground with the educational program Zunkunft@ Bphil. He and the Philharmonic were appointed international UNICEF ambassadors, the first time the honor has been conferred on an artistic ensemble. In 2013 Mr. Rattle and the Philharmonic begin a residency at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival, performing Mozart’s The Magic and a series of concerts. Highlights of upcoming seasons include opera performances in Vienna, Berlin, London, and at the Salzburg Festival; extensive touring with the Berlin Philharmonic; and projects with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Vienna Philharmonic, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. 31 Soloist

Marco Borggreve Soprano Barbara Hannigan makes her Philadelphia Orchestra debut with these performances. A frequent guest of the Berlin Philharmonic, she has also appeared with most of the other leading orchestras worldwide, with such conductors as Simon Rattle, , , Vladimir Jurowski, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kurt Masur, Alan Gilbert, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Ms. Hannigan made her own conducting debut in 2010 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, leading Stravinsky’s Renard. Much sought after in contemporary music, Ms. Hannigan has given over 75 world premieres. Her operatic repertory has recently expanded to the roles of Agnes in George Benjamin’s , created for the Aix-en- Provence Festival in July 2012 and recently performed to much acclaim at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Berg’s at La Monnaie in Brussels. She has sung the title role in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol, Gepopo/Venus in Ligeti’s , and Armida in Handel’s , and she will make role debuts as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Melisande in Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande, and Marie in Zimmermann’s in the coming seasons. Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, a tour de force for soprano and orchestra, has become a signature work, which she has sung—and sometimes also conducted—at Lincoln Center, Disney Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Théâtre du Châtelet, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Salzburg Festival. Ms. Hannigan’s talent for programming has also been widely recognized, most recently in London as co-curator of the Southbank Centre’s innovative festival “The Rest is Noise,” based on Alex Ross’s seminal book of the same name. Last season saw her undertake an acclaimed European tour with Boulez’s conducted by the . Born and brought up in Canada, Ms. Hannigan received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the , studying with Mary Morrison. She continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague with Meinard Kraak and privately with Neil Semer. 32 Framing the Program

Today’s program is the culmination of our season-long Parallel Events focus on Leopold Stokowski and the 100th anniversary 1808 Music of his appointment as music director of The Philadelphia Beethoven Weber Orchestra. The concert offers a wide range of moods Symphony Silvana spanning darkness to light, from murder and mystery to No. 6 Literature ultimate “thankful feelings after the storm.” Goethe Faust, Pt. I and , together with their teacher Art , formed the so-called Second Viennese Ingres School and emerged in the early 20th century as central La Grande figures in musical Modernism. Webern’s lush Passacaglia, Baigneuse his Op. 1, generously displays the Romantic origins of History these . Stokowski and the Philadelphians France invades gave the U.S. premiere of the work in 1927. Berg’s opera Spain Wozzeck, a brilliant transformation of Georg Büchner’s searing play, made the composer’s international fame 1908 Music upon its Berlin premiere in 1925. (Again, Stokowski and Webern Elgar Passacaglia Symphony the Orchestra presented the U.S. premiere of the opera’s No. 1 staged version.) We hear three excerpts from the opera Literature that Berg had presented a year earlier—a sort of preview of Forster coming attractions. A Room with a The opposite happened in the case of Hungarian View composer György Ligeti’s thrilling opera Le Grande Art Macabre, which premiered in 1978. A decade later Chagall Nu rouge arrangements under the title Mysteries of the Macabre History were made out of the dazzling music sung by the Chief Ford produces of the Secret Political Police, a role Model “T” performed today by Barbara Hannigan. The “Pastoral” is Beethoven’s most explicitly programmatic 1974 Music symphony, excerpts of which were used in Disney’s Ligeti Carter Fantasia, recorded by Stokowski and the Orchestra in Le Grand Brass Quintet Macabre Literature 1939. Beethoven detailed his extramusical ideas in Benchley sketches and gave each of the five movements a title, Jaws tracing a walk through the country, strolling by a stream, Art hearing birds sing, encountering peasants’ dancing, and Warhol being caught in a furious downpour with thunder and Man Ray lightning before the concluding “Shepherds’ hymn—Happy History and thankful feelings after the storm.” Yet his ultimate aim, Nixon resigns he said, was “more an expression of feeling than painting.” 33 The Music Passacaglia

We pay so much attention to the iconoclastic tendencies of Arnold Schoenberg and his school that sometimes we forget how profoundly traditional they were. The very term Second Viennese School—the rubric with which Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern came to be identified—itself implied a debt to history. Schoenberg had nothing but deepest admiration for the music of the past, from Bach to Brahms, and those who studied with him attest that his classes consisted almost wholly of harmony and counterpoint exercises. His system of composing with Anton Webern 12 tones can in fact be viewed as an extension of earlier Born in Vienna, “mechanical” devices (, canon, variation) that had December 3, 1883 governed music for centuries. Died in Mittersill, Austria, September 15, 1945 Schoenberg’s foremost pupils, Berg and Webern, inherited this respect for history—it might be said that it was part of what attracted them to Schoenberg in the first place. Berg was powerfully influenced not only by Bach (one of Bach’s harmonizations forms the very essence of Berg’s Concerto) but also by the Romantics, from Schumann to Bruckner. A Reverence for Early Music But the member of the Second Viennese School who was perhaps most overly steeped in history was Webern, who began his career as a musicologist, with a doctorate from the University of Vienna. Webern maintained a reverence for early music throughout his life—his dissertation was on the music of the Renaissance composer Heinrich Isaac—and he frequently paid homage to the works of Bach, Mozart, and Schubert in his own compositions. Like Schoenberg, Webern embarked on his career immersed in a post-Wagnerian tonal language—with liberal influences from the tone poems of and the early symphonies of . The decisive event in his turnaround was of course his encounter with Schoenberg, under whose tutelage he fully embraced the idea of . But before this period of apprenticeship, which began around 1905, Webern composed with a Romantic lushness that hardly gave a hint of the spare, pointillistic style that would characterize his later music. Among his last works still anchored in tonality were the 34

Webern composed the Five Songs on Poems of Richard Dehmel and the tone Passacaglia in 1908. poem Im Sommerwind. Leopold Stokowski conducted But the early composition that expressed most overtly the United States premiere Webern’s devotion to the past was the Passacaglia, Op. 1, of the Passacaglia with the the piece that Schoenberg called Webern’s “journeyman’s Philadelphians, in March 1927. work.” Completed in Vienna in the spring of 1908, Most recently it appeared the piece was premiered later that year with Webern on subscription programs in February 1999, with Mark conducting. “Nothing appears accidental, nothing forced Wigglesworth on the podium. by a mania for originality,” wrote an unusually sympathetic critic about the performance, in the New Viennese Journal. The score calls for , two “The moods are felt, the sounds are heard.” , two , English horn, two , , A Closer Look The passacaglia was a method of two , , composition that flourished during the Baroque era, four horns, three , though its roots lay in techniques of Medieval and three , , , Renaissance music. (Another Baroque form, the ricercare, percussion (bass , would later inspire Webern as well—in his orchestration , tam-tam, triangle), of one of J.S. Bach’s works in this form.) A passacaglia is harp, and strings. essentially a set of variations on a “ground” (usually the Performance time is bass line) rather than on a top-voice melody. The subject approximately 11 minutes. of Webern’s piece can be heard at the outset, in the eight plucked notes, D, C-sharp, B-flat, A-flat, F, E, A, D, played ppp by dampened strings. There follow 23 variations on this ground (eleven in minor, four in major, then eight more in minor), in which these eight pitches can always be heard—in the bass, at the top of the texture, or sometimes in an inner voice. At times the theme is preserved only within the densest skeleton of the vertical sonorities, and is all but lost to the ear; yet some fragment of it usually survives the turmoil. Feverishly contrapuntal passages alternate with sections of rich melodic power and scintillating orchestral color. The piece ends as quietly and subtly as it had begun. —Paul J. Horsley 34A The Music Three Fragments from Wozzeck

Alban Berg long lived in the shadow of Arnold Schoenberg, his charismatic, powerful, and demanding teacher. Born in 1885 into an affluent Viennese family, Berg did not display any unusual musical talent as a youth. At age 19 he began studying with Schoenberg, to whom he became obsessively devoted. He composed slowly and meticulously, produced relatively few works (as did fellow student Anton Webern), and for many years had difficulties getting pieces performed.

Alban Berg Berg’s fortunes began to change in 1923, as he Born in Vienna, approached age 40, when Webern conducted the February 9, 1885 premiere in Berlin of the first two of his Three Pieces Died there, December 24, for Orchestra (1914-15). Later that summer his String 1935 Quartet, Op. 3 (1910), was enthusiastically received at the first festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Salzburg. The prominent conductor Hermann Scherchen attended the concert and expressed interest in excerpting parts of the opera Wozzeck, as yet unperformed. Berg had conceived of the opera in 1914, after seeing the Viennese premiere of Georg Büchner’s play on which it is based, but delayed composition when he was conscripted into the Austrian War Ministry. He finishedWozzeck in 1922 and arranged a private printing of the vocal score. Alma Mahler, the great composer’s widow, helped raise the necessary funding and Berg dedicated it to her. Although people were becoming aware of the opera through the score and articles about it, the work itself had yet to be staged. Scherchen offered a new opportunity by presenting a concert suite for soprano and orchestra, a sort of preview of coming attractions. In Frankfurt in June 1924 he conducted the Three Fragments from Wozzeck, which Berg informed Webern was “a great triumph with the public, the musicians, and the press.” The next year Erich Kleiber premiered the complete opera in Berlin and the work was widely hailed as a masterpiece. Productions soon followed in Prague, Leningrad, and all over Germany (until the Nazis came to power). Leopold Stokowski led the American premiere in Philadelphia in March 1931. (He had already conducted the Three Fragments the previous November.) Wozzeck made Berg internationally 34B

famous for the last 10 years of his life; he died on Christmas Eve 1935 at age 50. From Play to Opera Wozzeck is hardly easy listening, either in the 1920s or today. Yet from the very beginning, as Berg recognized, not only composers, performers, and critics embraced the opera, but so too did a much broader public. Various factors have contributed to its enduring success and potent influence. One is the compelling story and brilliant . Büchner’s unfinished play, which Berg himself adapted, dates from 1837, the year the playwright died at age 23. The plot derives from a real-life crime in the early 1820s in which a poor soldier murdered his common-law wife. It took 76 years, until 1913, for Büchner’s gripping drama to be performed. From Büchner’s scattered fragments of some 25 scenes Berg crafted a tight opera that unfolds in three acts, each consisting of five scenes. Act I offers a series of character studies that introduce the principal figures in Wozzeck’s environment: the sadistic Captain who torments him; his friend Andres; Marie and the son Wozzeck fathered; the mad Doctor running experiments on him; and the Drum Major with whom Marie has an affair. (The “low” characters are named, the officials called only by their function.) The second act, structured as a five-movement symphony, advances Wozzeck’s humiliation as he learns of Marie’s infidelity and is beaten up by the Drum Major. In the final act Wozzeck murders Marie by slitting her throat and then drowns himself. The opera ends with their child learning of Marie’s death. Uniting all these scenes are evocative orchestral interludes that build to a cathartic final statement using the motif of Wozzeck’s cry “Wir arme Leut!” (We poor people!). A Closer Look For the excerpts presented in the concert suite Berg chose two scenes centered around Marie and the conclusion of the opera. The first Fragment begins with the interlude between the second and third scenes of Act I and then introduces Marie. She holds her son and observes a military march in which the Drum Major and soldiers pass by her house. She sings a lullaby, a song that has a clear strophic form and memorable melody, but is strangely distorted by the atonal idiom. The second Fragment is the opening of Act III, a theme and variations ending with a fugue in which the remorseful Marie again addresses her son. Here Berg uses the Sprechstimme technique advanced by Schoenberg, which is half-spoken, half-sung for passages 34C

Wozzeck was composed from when Marie is quoting from the Bible; her own thoughts 1914 to 1922. are sung. Catherine Reiner was the The final Fragment offers the harrowing final two scenes soprano soloist in the first of the opera and the famous interlude between them. By Philadelphia Orchestra this point Wozzeck has killed Marie and returned to the performances of the Three murder site to retrieve the knife. The excerpt begins as he Fragments from Wozzeck, in wades into the water and drowns, which Berg marvelously November 1930; Leopold Stokowski was on the podium. evokes in his orchestration. It is not entirely clear whether In March 1931 the Orchestra this is an intentional suicide or an accident, but in any and Stokowski presented the case the Captain and Doctor happen to be passing by and U.S. staged premiere of the hear someone drowning; without lifting a finger to help, entire opera. The Fragments they anxiously run off. The most extended of the opera’s have only been heard one orchestral interludes follows Wozzeck’s death and reviews other time on the Orchestra’s some of the principal leitmotifs, building to “Wir arme subscription concerts, in Leut!” Although there have been scattered tonal passages October 1947 with soprano earlier in the opera, this is the most potent, hovering Gertrude Ribla and Eugene around D minor. The devastating final scene is a perpetual Ormandy. motion movement in which the son learns of Marie’s death The Orchestra recorded the from playmates singing a nursery rhyme. As they run off Three Fragments in 1947 for to look for the body the child is left alone on stage riding CBS, with Ormandy and Ribla. his hobbyhorse and singing “hopp, hopp!” The Fragments are scored —Christopher H. Gibbs for four flutes (III and IV doubling piccolo), four oboes (IV doubling English horn), four clarinets (III and IV doubling E-flat clarinet), , three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (, , rute, side drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, ), harp, , strings, and soprano voice. The work lasts approximately 18 minutes in performance. 34D

Fragment I

Marie (Singt vor sich hin.) Marie (singing to herself) Soldaten, Soldaten The soldiers, the soldiers sind schöne Burschen! are splendid fellows … (Unterbricht den Gesang. (Stops singing. Ausbrechend.) Flaring up.) Komm, mein Bub! Come, my child! Was die Leute wollen! We shan’t hear their slanders! Bist nur ein arm’ Hurenkind You are just a bastard child und machst Deiner Mutter and give to your mother doch so viel Freud’ so pure a joy, mit Deinem unehrlichen although no priest blessed Gesicht! your little face. (Wiegt das Kind.) (She rocks the child.) Eia popeia … Hush-a-bye, baby … Mädel, was fangst Du jetzt Maiden, what song shall an? you sing? Hast ein klein Kind und You have a child, but kein Mann! no ring. Ei, was frag’ ich darnach, Why such sorrow pursue? sing’ ich die ganze Singing the whole night Nacht: through: Eia popeia, mein süsser Hush-a-bye, baby, my darling Bu’, son, gibt mir kein Mensch nobody cares, nix dazu! ne’er a one. Hansel, spann’ Deine sechs Jackie, go saddle your Schimmel an, horses now, gib sie zu fressen auf’s neu, give them to eat and to spare, kein Haber fresse sie, no oats to eat today, kein Wasser saufe sie. no water to drink today. Lauter kühler Wein muss es Purest, coolest wine shall sein! it be. (Bemerkt, dass Kind ist (She notices that the child eingeschlafen.) is asleep.) Lauter kühler Wein muss es Purest, coolest wine shall sein. it be! 35

Fragment II

Marie Marie „Und ist kein Betrug in “And out of His mouth there seinem came Munde erfunden forth neither deceit nor worden.“ falsehood.” Herr-Gott! Herr-Gott! Lord God! Lord God! Sieh’ mich nicht an! Look not on me! (blättert weiter und (She turns the pages and liest wieder) reads on.) „Aber die Pharisäer “Wherefore the Pharisees brachten had ein Weib zu ihm, taken and brought to Him so im Ehebruch lebte. an adulterous woman. Jesus aber sprach: Jesus said to her: ,So verdamme ich dich “Thus do I condemn thee auch nicht, geh’ hin, no more. Go forth in peace, und sündige hinfort nicht and sin no mehr.‘“ more.’” Herr-Gott! Lord God! (Schlägt die Hände vors (She covers her face with Gesicht. Das Kind drängt her hands. The child sich an Marie.) presses up to Marie.) Der Bub’ gibt mir The boy looks at me einen Stich in’s Herz. and stabs my heart. Fort! Be off! (stösst das Kind von sich) (She pushes the child away.) Das brüst’ sich in der That brat there in the Sonne! sunlight! (plötzlich milder) (suddenly more gently) Nein, komm, komm her! Ah, no! Come here! (zieht das Kind an sich) (draws him closer) Komm zu mir! Come to me! „Es war einmal ein armes “And once there was a poor Kind child, und hatt’ keinen Vater and he had no father, und keine Mutter, war Alles nor any mother, for all were tot, dead, und war Niemand auf der there was no one in the Welt, world, und es hat gehungert therefore he did hunger und geweint and did weep Tag und Nacht. day and night. Please turn the page quietly. 36

Und weil es Niemand mehr Since he had nobody hatt’ left auf der Welt …“ in the world …” Der Franz ist nit kommen, But Franz has not come yet, gestern nit, heut’ nit … yesterday, this day … (blättert hastig in (She hastily turns the pages der Bibel) of the Bible.) Wie steht es geschrieben What is written here von der Magdalena? … of Mary Magdalene? (liest) (She reads.) „Und kniete hin zu seinen “And falling on her knees Füssen before Him and weeping, und weinte und küsste seine she kissed His feet and Füsse washed them, und netzte sie mit and washed them with her Tränen tears, und salbte sie mit anointing them with Salben.“ ointment!” (schlägt sich auf die Brust) (beats her breast) Heiland! Ich möchte Dir Saviour! Could I anoint die Füsse salben! Thy feet with ointment! Heiland! Du hast Dich ihrer Saviour! As Thou hadst erbarmt, mercy on her, erbarme Dich auch meiner! have mercy now on me, Lord!

Fragment III

Kinder Children Ringel, Ringel, Rosenkranz, Ring-a-ring a-roses, all fall Ringelreih’n! down! Ringel, Ringel, Rosenkranz, Ring-a-ring a-ros-es, Rin … all … (unterbrechen Gesang (They stop singing and und Spiel, andere Kinder playing, other children stürmen herein) rush in.)

Mariens Knabe Marie’s Child Hopp, hopp! Hop, hop!

Libretto adapted by Berg from the drama Woyzeck, by Georg Büchner English translation by Eric Blackall and Vida Harford Reproduced by permission of Universal Edition A G Wien 37 The Music Mysteries of the Macabre H.G. Kropp The Macabre in question is Le Grand Macabre, the opera Ligeti wrote between 1974 and 1977. Put very briefly, this as an opera about a perpetual drunkard, a pair of young lovers who are permanently on the point of climax, a boy prince, and an astronomer and his wife who are into sado- masochism. All of them are inhabitants of Brueghelland, a fictional country not a million miles from a region that can be glimpsed here and there on the walls of art museums around the world. To this genial and bizarre territory comes a man who claims to be the Grim Reaper (he is György Ligeti the “Great Macabre”), and though there is indeed some Born in Dicsöszentmárton, kind of catastrophe, life afterward goes on pretty much as Transylvania, May 28, 1923 before, the only person to have died being Death himself. Died in Vienna, June 12, 2006 Mysteries of the Macabre is a clip from the opera that shows one character: the Chief of the Secret Political Police, a coloratura soprano role, in the three-part aria that arrives to dazzle and amaze in the third of the opera’s four scenes. As a concert piece, the work came about in a way that, if not exactly mysterious, is certainly strange. In 1988 , who had conducted the opera’s first performance at the Royal Opera of Stockholm a decade before, made an arrangement of the aria as a showpiece for and piano. The trumpet was Howarth’s own instrument, though here he was working on behalf of the Swedish performer Håkan Hardenberger. Three years later, again for Hardenberger, and again with the composer’s willing consent, Howarth arranged the accompaniment for a typical new-music ensemble of 14 soloists. Thereupon someone had the idea of reversing the change from voice to trumpet, so that the aria could once again feature the ravings of the Brueghelland Police Chief. In that form, as a wild virtuoso ride for soprano and ensemble, the piece was performed for the first time in Boston in 1993. A few years later, Barbara Hannigan astonished the composer by her performance, for reasons that will be startlingly clear today. Since then Ms. Hannigan and Mr. Rattle have sometimes taken the further step of going back to the composer’s original scoring, as in these performances. Dazzling, Disturbing, Humorous, and Beautiful In the opera, the Police Chief bursts in soon after the ruling 38

Ligeti composed Le Grand prince of Brueghelland has accepted the resignations of Macabre from 1974 to 1977. both his rival ministers. Passing through three disguises The version of Mysteries of (as bird of prey, spider, and octopus), she is there to the Macabre heard today, for warn the prince that a fearsome visitor, the “Great trumpet or soprano and full Macabre,” is coming this way. However, she delivers her orchestra, was first heard in message in a crazy jumble of clichés mixed up with code 1994 in Paris. to which nobody else has the key (assuming she does These are the first Philadelphia herself), and her musical acrobatics make her all the Orchestra performances of the more unintelligible. What is nonsense as text, however, piece. can become extravagantly, outrageously, and hilariously The score calls for piccolo, meaningful as music, as Ligeti had proved earlier in flute, three oboes (III doubling his Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures: miniature English horn), two clarinets for three singers whose dreams, posturings, and (II doubling bass clarinet), interconnections are precisely drawn without benefit of two bassoons (II doubling words. In rather the same way, we understand the Police contrabassoon), four horns, Chief—her alarm, her excitement, her struggle to express two trumpets, , tuba, herself, her conviction that she is making sense, her timpani, percussion (bass revelation of other roles she might prefer to play—without drum, bongos, , any need for her to make verbal sense. , , cymbals, , güiro, , Ligeti being Ligeti, the scene is not only absurd but also military drum, police whistle, tightly formed and full of fascinating, surprising, and often rattle, sandpaper, signal pipe, funny detail, from the instrumentalists as well as from , small , the singer-actress, so although the piece puts us into suspended cymbals, tam-tam, a state of shock and bewilderment and laughter—and , temple blocks, keeps us there for the nine minutes it lasts—it offers a tissue paper, tom-tom, triangle, lot of incidental pleasures, too. As with the Queen of the , xylophone), harp, Night’s arias in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, we are taken celesta, , piano, , strings, and soprano into a world that is dazzling, a little disturbing, and a touch (or trumpet) soloist. humorous, and at the same time exquisitely beautiful. Way over the top is a good place to be. Mysteries of the Macabre runs approximately nine minutes in A Closer Look The first part of the aria features vocal performance. lightning bolts: bursts of even note values, often four at a time, making jagged outlines. For much of the time, the kaleidoscopic orchestra keeps time with the singer, giving her line a setting in tumbling color, but the players are also capable of responding to her differently, and even challenging her. A percussion ostinato begins the second part, which includes a passage of Ligetian orchestral tremulation and a syncopated dance before ending with a lopsided chorale. The last two minutes of the piece take its previous extremes yet further. — 39

Psst! Ps-psst! Psps-psst! Shsht! Co! Coco! Kho! Cocococo! Cococo! Cocoding zero!

O! Aha! Cocoding Zero-zero: highest security grade!

Aha! Zero, zero! Birds on the wing! (Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch!) Double-you-see! Snakes in the grass! Rabble, rabble, rabble! Riot, riot! (Too too too too too!) Unlawful assemblies! (Cha cha cha cha cha!) Communal insurrection! Mutinous masses! (Cha che chi choo cha!)

Turbulence! Panic! Panic! Papapapa-panic! Groundless! Groundless! Phobia! Wide of the mark! Right off the track! Hypopo-Hypopopopopopopata Hypochondria!

Rrsh! What did you say? Rrsh! March! March-t! March target! Direction! rection! Direction! Prince Your palace! March-target royal palace! Palace! Password: Gogogo-golash, Go-golash! Demonstrations, ha! Protestactions, ha! Provocations, ha!

Pst! Pst! Much discretion! Close observation! Take precautions! That’s all! Pst! Pst! Not a squeak! Confidential!

One more thing: Bear in mind: Silence is gold(en)!

“What is it now?”

Secret cypher! Code-Name: Loch-Ness-Monster!

Comet in sight! Red glow! Burns bright! (Chu chu chi chi …) Pst! Sit tight! No fright!

Yes! No! No! Yes! No! No! Yes! Yes! No!

Beyond all doubt! Satellite! Asteroid! Planetoid! Polaroid! Coming fast! Hostile! Perfidious! Menacing! Momentous! Fatal!

Please turn the page quietly. 40 Stern measures! Stern measures! Stern measures? Stern measures!

Kukuriku! (Ten!) Kikeriki! He’s coming! Coming! Coming! Coming! Coming!

Kekerikeke! Kokorikoko! Kukurikuku! Kakarikakaka! Makarikaka! (Nine!) Makabrikaka! (Eight!) Makabrika! (Seven!) Kabrikama! (Six!) Brikamaka! (Five!) Kamakabri! (Four!) Makabri! (Three!) Makrabi! (Two!) Makrabey! (One!) Makrabey! Makrabey! (Zero!) Makrabey! Makrabey! Makrabey! Makrabey! Makrabey! Makrabey!

Coming! Coming! Look there! There! There! There! He’s getting in! He’s getting in! He’s getting in! He’s in! Where’s the guard? Where’s the guard? The guard! The guard! The guard! Call the guard! Call the guard! … Call the gua’! Call the gua’! Call the gua’! Call the gua’! Call the gua’! Call the gua’! Call ’e gua’! Call ’e gua’!

Call guarda! Da! Da! Da! Da! Da! Da! Da! Ada! Ada! Ada! ... Da!! Da!! ... Da! Da Da Da Da Pssst Da.

c. 1974-77, rev.1996, by Schott Music GmbH & Co., Mainz. Reprinted courtesy of Schott Music Corporation & European American Music Dist. Co., New York. 41 The Music Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”)

Most of the familiar titles attached to Beethoven’s works were put there by someone other than the composer. Critics, friends, and publishers invented the labels “Moonlight,” “Tempest,” and “Appassionata” for popular . Prominent patrons’ names—Archduke Rudolph, Count Razumovsky, Count Waldstein—became wedded to compositions they either commissioned or that were dedicated to them, thereby winning a sort of immortality for those who supported the composer.

Ludwig van Beethoven Beethoven himself crossed out the heading “Bonaparte” Born in Bonn, probably from the title page of the Third Symphony, but later wrote December 16, 1770 in “ eroica” (Heroic Symphony), and it is his only Died in Vienna, March 26, symphony besides the Sixth to bear an authentic title. To 1827 be sure, stories about “fate knocking at the door” in the Fifth and the choral finale of the Ninth have encouraged programmatic associations for those works, beginning in Beethoven’s own time. But, in the end, it is the Sixth Symphony, the “Pastoral,” that stands most apart from his others, and indeed from nearly all of Beethoven’s instrumental and keyboard music, in its intentional, publicly declared, and often quite audible extramusical content. Beethoven’s full title is: “Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life.” “More an Expression of Feeling than Painting” And yet the Sixth Symphony does not aspire to the level of musical realism found in a work like Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique or in Richard Strauss’s tone poems. Beethoven famously noted that the “Pastoral” contained “more an expression of feeling than painting.” He had earlier objected to some of the musical illustration in Haydn’s oratorios (1798) and The Seasons (1801), with their imitations of storms, frogs, and other phenomena. He probably would not have cared much for what the “New German School” of Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner would later advocate and create. Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony belongs to a tradition, going back to the previous century, of “characteristic” symphonies. Indeed, the titles for the movements that Beethoven provided closely resemble those of Le Portrait musical de la nature, written nearly 25 years earlier by the Rheinish composer Justin Heinrich Knecht. (It is doubtful 42

Beethoven knew the music of the piece, but he may have known the titles.) Scattered comments that Beethoven made in his sketches for the Symphony are revealing: “The hearers should be allowed to discover the situations / Sinfonia caracteristica—or recollection of country life / All painting in instrumental music is lost if it is pushed too far / Sinfonia pastorella. Anyone who has an idea of country life can make out for himself the intentions of the composer without many titles / Also without titles the whole will be recognized as a matter more of feeling than of painting in sounds.” Regardless of the musical and aesthetic implications that the “Pastoral” Symphony raises with respect to the program music—a key issue for debate over the rest of the century—the piece unquestionably offers eloquent testimony to the importance and power of nature in Beethoven’s life. The composer reveled in walking in the environs of Vienna and spent nearly every summer in the country. When Napoleon’s second occupation of the city in 1809 made his departure impossible, he wrote to his publisher: “I still cannot enjoy life in the country, which is so indispensable to me.” Indeed, Beethoven’s letters are filled with declarations of the importance of nature in his life, such as one from 1810: “How delighted I will be to ramble for awhile through the bushes, woods, under trees, through grass, and around rocks. No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo that man desires to hear.” Companion Symphonies Beethoven wrote the “Pastoral” primarily during the spring and fall of 1808, although some sketches date back years earlier. Its composition overlapped in part with that of the Fifth Symphony, which might be considered its non-identical twin. Not only did both have the same period of genesis and the same dedicatees (Count Razumovsky and Prince Lobkowitz), but they were also published within weeks of one another in the spring of 1809 and premiered together (in reverse order and with their numbers switched). The occasion was Beethoven’s famous marathon concert of December 22, 1808, at the Theater an der Wien, and was the only time he premiered two symphonies together. Moreover, the program also included the first public performance of the Fourth , two movements from the Mass in C, the concert aria Ah! perfido, and the “Choral” Fantasy. Reports indicate that all did not go well, as musicians playing after limited rehearsal struggled their way through this demanding new 42A

The “Pastoral” Symphony was music, and things fell apart during the “Choral” Fantasy. composed from 1803 to 1808. Although the Fifth and Sixth symphonies are extremely Fritz Scheel conducted the different from one another in overall mood, there are first Philadelphia Orchestra notable points of convergence, such as the innovations in performances of the Sixth, in instrumentation (the delayed and dramatic introduction of December 1901. Most recently piccolo and trombones in the fourth movements) and the on subscription, Alan Gilbert led splicing together of the final movements. the work here in January 2011. Some of the conductors who A Closer Look Beethoven’s descriptive movement have led the Symphony with titles for the “Pastoral” were made public to the audience the Orchestra include Leopold before the premiere. The first movement, “Awakening Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy, of cheerful feelings upon arriving in the country,” , , engages with a long musical tradition of pastoral music. , , From the opening drone of an open fifth in the lower , , strings to the jovial coda, the leisurely and often repetitive Wolfgang Sawallisch, and pace of the movement is far from the intensity of the Christoph Eschenbach. Fifth Symphony. The second movement, “Scene by The Orchestra has recorded the brook,” includes the famous birdcalls: flute for the Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony nightingale, for the quail, and two clarinets for the five times: in 1939 in an cuckoo (Berlioz copied the effect for two of the birds in abridged version with the pastoral third movement of his Symphonie fantastique). Stokowski for RCA; in 1946 with Walter for CBS; in 1966 This is Beethoven’s only symphony with five movements with Ormandy for CBS; and and the last three lead one into the next. The third is in 1978 and 1987 with Muti entitled “Merry gathering of peasants” and suggests for EMI. a town band of limited ability playing dance music. The gaiety is interrupted by a “Tempest, storm” that The “Pastoral” is scored for approaches from afar as ominous rumblings give way piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, to the full fury of thunder and lightning. The storm is far two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, more intense than other well-known storms—such as by two trombones, timpani, and Vivaldi and Haydn—and presages later ones by Berlioz strings. and Wagner. Just as the storm had approached gradually, so it passes, leaving some scattered moments of Performance time is disruption before the “Shepherds’ hymn—Happy and approximately 40 minutes. thankful feelings after the storm” brings the work to its close. Regardless of Beethoven’s declared intentions, this music seems to function on both descriptive and expressive levels, therein fueling arguments about the issue ever since his time. —Christopher H. Gibbs

Program notes © 2013. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association and/or Paul Griffiths. 42B Musical Terms

GENERAL TERMS idea, emotion, or situation, arranged in a particular Atonality: A term used to in a drama. order, forming a series of describe music that is not Op.: Abbreviation for opus, pitches that serves as the tonal, especially organized a term used to indicate basis of the composition without reference to key or the chronological position and a source from which the tonal center of a composition within a musical material is derived Canon: A device whereby composer’s output : The form in an extended melody, stated Ostinato: A steady bass which the first movements in one part, is imitated accompaniment, repeated (and sometimes others) strictly and in its entirety in over and over of symphonies are usually one or more other parts Passacaglia: In 19th- and cast. The sections are Chorale: A hymn tune 20th-century music, a set exposition, development, of the German Protestant of ground-bass or ostinato and recapitulation, the Church, or one similar in variations, usually of a last sometimes followed style serious character by a coda. The exposition Coda: A concluding Perpetual motion: is the introduction of section or passage added A musical device in the musical ideas, which in order to confirm the which rapid figuration is are then “developed.” In impression of finality persistently maintained the recapitulation, the Contrapuntal: See Ricercare: Instrumental exposition is repeated with counterpoint composition of the 16th modifications. Counterpoint: A and 17th centuries Syncopation: A shift of term that describes generally characterized by rhythmic emphasis off the the combination of imitative treatment of the beat simultaneously sounding theme or themes 12-tone: See musical lines Scherzo: Literally “a THE SPEED OF MUSIC Fugue: A piece of music joke.” Usually the third (Tempo) in which a short melody movement of symphonies Allegretto: A tempo is stated by one voice and quartets that was between walking speed and then imitated by the introduced by Beethoven and fast other voices in succession, to replace the minuet. The Allegro: Bright, fast reappearing throughout scherzo is followed by a Andante: Walking speed the entire piece in all the gentler section called a trio, Moto: Motion, speed, voices at different places after which the scherzo is movement Ground bass: A repeated. Its characteristics Presto: Very fast continually repeated bass are a rapid tempo in triple phrase of four or eight time, vigorous rhythm, and TEMPO MODIFIERS measures humorous contrasts. Ma non troppo: But not Leitmotif: Literally Serialism: Music too much “leading motif.” Any striking constructed according to Molto: Very musical motif (theme, the principle pioneered by DYNAMIC MARKS phrase) characterizing or Schoenberg in the early Pianississimo (ppp): accompanying one of the 1920s, whereby the 12 Very, very soft actors, or some particular notes of the scale are 42C May The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin

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Gil Shaham Plays Brahms May 23 & 25 8 PM May 24 2 PM Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor Gil Shaham Violin Schumann Third movement from Symphony No. 2 Janácˇ ek Brahms Dvorˇák Slavonic Dance Nos. 1, 10, and 8 Special thanks to the Julius and Ray Charlestein Foundation for their support in memory of Morton and Malvina Charlestein.

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