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Home , Concert aria, Marina Rebeka, Saimir Pirgu, Vincenzo Bellini, William Wei

Thursday Evening, May 17, 2018, at 6:00

The Juilliard School presents Juilliard Orchestra , Conductor Felicia Moore , Soprano

COMMENCEMENT CONCERT

GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) Overture to La forza del destino (1862, rev. 1869)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Ah! perfido ... Per pietà, non dirmi addio , Op. 65 (1796)

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–47) Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 (“Italian”) (1831–32) Allegro vivace Andante con moto Con moto moderato Saltarello: Presto

Performance time: approximately 1 hour, performed without intermission

This concert is made possible with a generous gift from the Celia Ascher Fund for Juilliard.

The Juilliard School thanks Musical America for their donation of the International Directory of the Performing Arts to our students.

The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not permitted in this auditorium.

Information regarding gifts to the school may be obtained from the Juilliard School Development Office, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-6588; (212) 799-5000, ext. 278 (juilliard.edu/giving).

Alice Tully Hall Please make certain that all electronic devices are turned off during the performance. Notes on the Program When Verdi unveiled this in 1862, in St. Petersburg, the orchestral introduction by James M. Keller was aired in a much shorter, three-and-a- half-minute version, identified as a mere Overture to La forza del destino preludio . When the work received its Born on October 9 or 10, 1813 (he was Italian premiere, at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala baptized on the 11th), in Roncole, near in 1869, the composer decided to make it Busseto, serve a larger function than mere introduc - Died on January 27, 1901, in Milan, Italy tion. The Verdi scholar Julian Budden referred to the propensity of Italian com - Giuseppe Verdi’s early prolonged posers of that era “to preface their operas the bel-canto ideals of , with loosely constructed ‘trailers’ featuring , and , the most prominent themes of the opera,” and that grounding continued to inform his and that is precisely what we find in Verdi’s music until the end of his long career. But revision. If you think of this in the sense of already by the mid-to-late 1840s, his voice a trailer for an upcoming movie, you will was becoming recognized as distinct from get the idea perfectly. The Overture doesn’t his predecessors. Throughout his maturity so much encapsulate the plot that lies in as a composer, Verdi experimented with store—that would obviate the need to stay how to adapt the basic, inherited materials for the opera—as present tantalizing of to ever-more-intense dra - glimpses of some of the characters and sit - matic purpose. An important part of the uations the audience will encounter in the process involved the orchestra, whether coming hours. In this sense, the Overture by searching for increasingly effective to La forza del destino is very much an ways to integrate the vocal and instrumen - ancestor of what we recognize as the clas - tal writing in his operas or by achieving sic overtures of Broadway musicals, a more convincing, thoroughly symphonic string of greatest-hits moments that whets statements in those portions of his operas the appetite to see how everything will fit that are given over entirely to the orchestra. together as the opera unrolls.

The Overture to La forza del destino (The Ah! perfido ... Per pietà, non dirmi Force of Destiny ) is arguably the finest of addio (Recitative and ), Op. 65 all Verdi’s instrumental compositions. This ominous eight-minute expanse perfectly Born December 16, 1770 (probably, since foreshadows the snowballing tragedy that he was baptized on the 17th), in Bonn, lies ahead in its opera—right from the ner - Germany vous motif heard at its outset, a theme Died March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria that bubbles up frequently through the orchestral texture as the episodes unroll. In early 1796 Ludwig van Beethoven left The opera’s long, dark, and convoluted Vienna for a nearly six-month concert tour tale, drawn from a scene in Schiller’s drama of Bohemia and Germany in the company Wallenstein’s Camp (via an 1835 play by the of his new friend Prince Karl Lichnowsky, Spanish playwright Angel Saavedra, Duke his most important patron in the early years of Rivas) involves the bad things that happen of his career. The first stop was Prague, a to pretty much everybody when Leonora city in which the recently departed Mozart (daughter of a marquis) and Don Alvaro (a had been idolized, and where, as it hap - military up-and-comer) decide to elope. pened, Prince Lichnowsky had traveled with Mozart seven years earlier. The ghost would write in his opera Fidelio , not only in of Mozart seems to hover over the concert its structure but also in its movement from aria “Ah! perfido,” unveiled in Prague dur - anger and desolation to self-affirming con - ing that tour—specifically Mozart in his fidence. In this connection it is interesting edge-of-your-seat dramatic mode, as in to note that “Ah! perfido” was included in . one of the most famous concerts in the his - tory of music, the gargantuan all-Beethoven Beethoven apparently remained in Prague benefit concert on December 22, 1808, at from mid-February through mid-April. Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, that com - Conflicting evidence offers two names as prised the premieres of the Symphony the soloist at the first performance of “Ah! No. 5, the Symphony No. 6, and the Choral perfido”: Countess Josephine von Clary- Fantasy (for piano, chorus, vocal soloists, Aldringen (an amateur ) or Josepha and orchestra), as well as the Gloria and Duschek (a.k.a. Josefína Dušková, a Sanctus from the C-major Mass, the Piano respected professional for whom Mozart Concerto No. 4 (with the composer as had composed his concert aria “Ah, lo soloist), and a Piano Fantasia improvised previdi”). Some scholars split the differ - by the composer. The soprano soloist who ence and say that the piece was composed performed “Ah! perfido” on that historic for the former but premiered by the latter. evening was Anna Milder-Hauptmann. Six- and-a-half years later, she would unveil the It is essentially a standalone scene com - “Abscheulicher” scene when she took the prising a recitative and an aria (a bipartite role of Leonore at the premiere of Fidelio . aria, no less), written for concert perfor - mance and not connected to any opera Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 production. For the recitative section, (“Italian”) Beethoven employed a text by the poet . The singer, who has Born February 3, 1809, in Hamburg, Germany been deceived by her lover, goes through a Died November 4, 1847, in Leipzig tumultuous sequence of conflicting emo - tions, all underscored by the ever-changing Felix Mendelssohn was born into a cul - tempo and the varying character of the tured and wealthy family that afforded him orchestral underpinning. With the aria the best education money could buy. This proper (“Per pietà, non dirmi addio”), to an included instruction in piano, violin, and anonymous text, we enter another Mozart- composition, plus he enjoyed such unusual inspired world, one in which woodwinds perks as having a private orchestra try out add pointed commentary above the limpid his new compositions at Sunday musi - vocal line. The aria seems to reach its con - cales in the family home in Berlin. The 12 clusion as the singer bemoans her desper - Symphonies for Strings he composed from ate state, but this is a false ending; an 1821 through 1823 for these occasions led extension introduces an outburst of anger him to the brink of his five full symphonies and finally an articulation of almost defiant of his maturity. self-respect. The inspiration for the “Italian” Symphony The musical language throughout is not much was a trip Mendelssohn made to Italy in of an advance on Mozart’s, but “Ah! perfido” 1830–31. It began with a two-week visit does point the way to such an achievement with the literary lion Goethe in Weimar— as the “Abscheulicher” aria Beethoven the last time Mendelssohn saw his much older friend—before the composer contin - diary, “Mendelssohn was the outstanding ued south to Munich, Pressburg, and success of the concert; he conducted his finally Italy, where he arrived in October. magnificent A-major Symphony and received Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, , rapturous applause.” But Mendelssohn and Milan all delighted him, and he had misgivings. It is difficult to understand returned to Germany in October 1831. On his reservations, but he wrestled with the February 22, 1831, he wrote to his sister score for years, claiming that the “Italian” Fanny: “I have once more begun to com - Symphony cost him “some of the bitterest pose with fresh vigor, and the Italian sym - moments I have ever endured.” He never phony makes rapid progress; it will be the allowed it to be played in Germany during happiest piece I have ever written, espe - his lifetime. He offered the piece, in a cially the last movement. I have not yet piano reduction, to the English publishing decided on the Adagio, and think I shall firm of Cramer and Co., but (according to reserve it for Naples.” The new sym - George Macfarren, writing in an 1875 pro - phony, he said, was meant to embody not gram book of the London Philharmonic only his impressions of the art and land - Society) the firm “declined it upon the scape he had encountered but also the ground that his works had not been prof - vitality of the people with whom he had itable which they had already printed! Its come in contact. publication thus delayed, was not again sought by Mendelssohn.” At his death he Other projects distracted him from com - left sketches for extensive revisions, which pleting his symphony, but concrete impe - few scholars or conductors have accepted tus to move forward arrived in November as improving on his original conception. 1832, when the Philharmonic Society in The piece seems perfectly balanced as it London offered him a generous commis - is, and audiences have embraced it com - sion of a hundred guineas for a new pletely, making it one of his most perenni - symphony, an overture, and a vocal com - ally popular works. position. Mendelssohn leapt into action and completed his symphony in the space James M. Keller is the longtime program of four months. annotator of the New York Philharmonic (The Leni and Peter May Chair) and of the San It proved hugely successful at its premiere. Francisco Symphony, and is the critic-at-large Mendelssohn’s friend , for The Santa Fe New Mexican . His book who served on the Philharmonic Society’s Chamber Music: A Listener’s Guide (Oxford board and had doubtless been instrumental University Press) is available as a hardcover, in arranging for the commission, wrote in his an e-book, and an Oxford paperback.

Text and Translation

Ah! perfido Ah! Deceiver Based on a text by: Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782)

Ah! perfido, spergiuro, Ah! Unfaithful, deceiver, barbaro traditor, tu parti? Barbarous betrayer, you leave? e son questi gl’ultimi tuoi congedi? And are these your last farewells? ove s’intese tirannia più crudel? Who has ever suffered such cruel tyranny? Va, scelerato! va, pur fuggi da me, Go, wicked man! Go, flee from me, l’ira de’ Numi non fuggirai! The wrath of the gods you will never escape! Se v’è giustizia in Ciel, se v’è pietà, If there is justice in Heaven, if there is mercy, congiureranno a gara tutti a punirti! They will join together to punish you! Ombra seguace! presente, ovunque vai, I will follow you wherever you go, vedrò le mie vendette; I will be revenged; io già le godo immaginando; I already enjoy it in my mind; i fulmini ti veggo già balenar d’intorno. I see already lightning flashing about you. Ah no! ah no! fermate, vindici Dei! Ah no, ah no, stop, gods of vengeance! risparmiate quel cor, ferite il mio! Spare that heart, strike mine! s’ei non è più qual era son’io qual fui, Though he has changed, I am what I was, per lui vivea, voglio morir per lui! I lived for him and for him I will die!

Per pietà, non dirmi addio, For pity’s sake, do not leave me, di te priva che farò? What shall I do without you? tu lo sai, bell’idol mio! You know, my love, io d’affanno morirò. I will die of grief.

Ah crudel! tu vuoi ch’io mora! Ah, cruel one, you want me to die! tu non hai pietà di me? Have you no pity for me? perchè rendi a chi t’adora Why do you treat the one who adores you così barbara mercè? In such a barbaric way? Dite voi, se in tanto affanno Tell me if in such trouble non son degna di pietà? Am I not worthy of pity?

Meet the Artists pre miere of choreographer Jessica Lang’s , and toured with Orchestra Toscanini in Parma. Upcoming performances include debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Phil- A T S

O harmonic, Luzern Symphony, Orchestra Verdi C A at MiTo Festival, and San Diego Symphony. O I Speranza R A

D Scappucci Recent and upcoming operatic perfor - Italian born conductor Speranza Scappucci mances include La bohème , La traviata , La is a graduate of Juilliard (Certificate ’95, Cenerentola , and Don Pasquale at the piano ; M.M. ’97, collaborative piano ) and ; La fille du régiment , Rome’s Conservatorio di Musica Santa and La bohème in Zurich; a debut in Toronto Cecilia. This season she began her tenure with the leading as principal conductor of the Opéra Royal Il barbiere di Siviglia ; Attila at Barcelona’s de Wallonie-Liège with Lescaut and ; Aida and with Opéra Royal , made her Lincoln Center White Light de Wallonie-Liège; and a Festival debut conducting the New York new production of Così fan tutte with the Rome Opera; Il Turco in Italia in Pesaro at the ; L’elisir d’amore at the Music Academy of the West; a

concert version of La sonnambula in a co- N E H C presentation of the ’s G N

Lindemann Young Artist Program and A Y I Felicia Moore Juilliard Opera; La bohème at the Los J Angeles Opera; and Tosca Soprano Felicia Moore is an artist diploma at the Washington Opera; La Cenerentola in opera studies student at Juilliard study - and Le nozze di Figaro at Turin’s Teatro ing with Edith Wiens. Earlier this season Regio; a new production of La fille du she appeared in Juilliard Songfest at Alice régi ment at the ; in Tully Hall and recently appeared as Mrs. Lisbon at the Teatro Sao Carlos; and La Grose in The Turn of the Screw at Opera traviata at the Macerata Opera Festival. Columbus. In the summer of 2017 she sang Agathe in Der Freischütz and Elisabeth in Equally at home in symphonic repertoire, Tannhäuser with the ’s Ms. Scappucci has conducted the Maggio Merola Opera Program and that spring sang Musicale Fiorentino, Netherlands Radio the title role in Katya Kabanova with Juilliard Orchestra, Orchestra Teatro Lirico Cagliari, Opera. Ms. Moore has been a young artist Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestra at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Regionale della Toscana, Tokyo Metropolitan Des Moines Metro Opera, where she was Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Harusai Festiva l the cover for Alice Ford in and sang Orchestra, and Shanghai Symphony Or- the title role of Tobias Picker’s Emmeline chestra. She has also led gala concerts at and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and Théâtre Carmelites . She is a winner of this year’s des Champs-Élysée in Paris. Sullivan Foundation Award, and previous awards include being a two-time semifinal - Her discography includes a disc of Mozart ist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council with soprano and the Auditions, as well as being awarded the top Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra prize from the George London Foundation. album on Warner Classics and a CD with Ms. Moore is from Princeton, New Jersey. and the Orchestra del Jerome L. Greene Fellowship , Hardesty Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on Opus Arte. and Beverley Peck Johnson Fund Juilliard Orchestra Alan Gilbert , Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies, William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies Speranza Scappucci , Guest Conductor

Violin I Viola Flute Trumpet Hannah Tarley , Principal Stephanie Block, James Dion Blanchard, Federico Montes, Yimiao Chen Principal Principal Principal Ewald Cheung Jordan Bak Giorgio Consolati, Maximilian Morel, Brendon Elliott Dariya Barlybayeva Principal Principal Hannah Cho Howard Cheng Olivia Staton, Principal Lasse Bjerknaes- Jordan Hendy Kunjing Dai Emily Duncan Jacobsen Brian Joonwoo Hong Andrea Fortier George Meyer Aekyung Kim Piccolo Trombone Manami Mizumoto Minji Kim Emily Duncan Ricardo Pedrares Ashley Jeehyun Park Emily Liu Patiño, Principal Nash Ryder Alice Ping Stephen Whimple Sophia Stoyanovich Alaina Rea Victoria Chung, Natsuko Takashima Grace Takeda Principal Trombone Momo Wong Russell Hoffman, Filipe Alves Cherry Choi Tung Cello Principal Yeung Guilherme Nardelli Ryan Roberts Tuba Chener Yuan Monegatto, Principal David Freeman Matthew Chen Clarinet Violin II Chloe Hong Na Yoon Kim, Principal Timpani I-Jung Huang , Principal Connor Kim Noemi Sallai, Principal Jake Darnell, Principal Jessie Chen Noah Koh Shen Liu, Principal Taylor Hampton, Randall Goosby Yu Yu Liu Principal Angela Kim Max Oppeltz Bassoon Wei Lu Edvard Pogossian Jonathan Gibbons, Percussion Mo Lei Luo Andree Werner Principal Marty Thenell, Principal Rannveig Marta Sarc Megan Yip Blair Shepperd, Jake Darnell Jin Wen Sheu Principal Xiaoxuan Shi Jacob Wellman, Harp Sara Staples Paris Myers, Principal Principal Alexis Colner, Principal William Wei Szu Ting Chen Joey Lavarias Alethea Grant Chia Fu Kathy Weng Timothy Chen Manjie Yang Nicholas Tyler Kleinman French Horn Guangnan Yue Jack McGuire Thea Humphries, Nicholas Myers Principal Kathryn Morgan William Loveless VI, Stewart Principal Sheng-Yao Wu Avery Roth-Hawthorne, Principal Jasmine Lavariega About the Juilliard orchestral studies, the Juilliard Orchestra welcomes an impressive roster of world Orchestra renowned guest conductors this season including Thomas Adès, Joseph Colaneri, Juilliard’s largest and most visible student Edo de Waart, Chen Lin, David Robertson, performing ensemble, the Juilliard Orchestra, Speranza Scappucci, and Gerard Schwarz, is known for delivering polished and pas - as well as faculty members Jeffrey Milarsky sionate performances of works spanning and Mr. Gilbert. The Juilliard Orchestra has the repertoire. Comprising more than 350 toured across the U.S. and throughout students in the bachelor’s and master’s Europe, South America, and Asia, where it degree programs, the orchestra appears was the first Western conservatory ensem - throughout the 2017–18 season in more ble allowed to visit and perform following than a dozen performances on the stages the opening of the People’s Republic of of Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, David China in 1987, returning two decades later, Geffen Hall, and Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp in 2008. Other ensembles under the Juilliard Theater. The season opened in August with Orchestra umbrella include the conductor - a between Juilliard and Finland’s less Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, the Juilliard Sibelius Academy members conducted by Wind Orchestra, and the new-music groups Esa-Pekka Salonen with concerts in Alice AXIOM and New Juilliard Ensemble. Tully Hall, Helsinki, and Stockholm. The orchestra is a strong partner to Juilliard’s David Robertson will become Juilliard’s other divisions, appearing in opera and dance director of conducting studies, distin - productions. Under the musical leadership of guished visiting faculty, at the beginning of Alan Gilbert, the director of conducting and the 2018–19 season.

Administration Adam Meyer, Associate Dean and Director, Music Division Joe Soucy, Assistant Dean for Orchestral Studies

Joanna K. Trebelhorn, Director Matthew Wolford, Operations Michael McCoy, Orchestra of Orchestral and Ensemble Manager Librarian Operations Lisa Dempsey Kane, Principal Deirdre DeStefano, Orchestra Orchestra Librarian Management Apprentice