Program

One Hundred TwenT ieTH 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, april 28, 2011, at 8:00 Saturday, april 30, 2011, at 8:00 Friday, april 29, 2011, at 8:00 Tuesday, May 3, 2011, at 7:30 Nicholas mcgegan Conductor Eugene Izotov amy Briggs Hubbard Street Dance Chicago glenn Edgerton artistic director alejandro Cerrudo Choreographer Vivaldi Concerto in G Major (alla rustica), rV. 151 Presto adagio allegro marcello Oboe Concerto in C Minor andante e spiccato adagio Presto euGene izOTOV Corelli Concerto grosso in d Major, Op. 6, no. 4 adagio—allegro adagio—Vivace allegro Vivaldi Oboe Concerto in F Major, rV. 455 [allegro] [Grave] [allegro] euGene izOTOV INtErmISSIoN

Blanco Choreography by alejandro Cerrudo music: Prelude in e Minor, Op. 35, no. 1 by Mendelssohn Prelude in a-flat Minor, Op. 31, no. 8 (Chanson de la folle au bord de la mer) by alkan aMy BriGGS HuBBard STreeT danCe CHiCaGO As few as 3000 Choreography by alejandro Cerrudo music: Toccata e due Canzoni by Martin ˚u Toccata: allegro moderato Canzone no. 1: andante moderato Canzone no. 2: allegro (poco) CHiCaGO SyMPHOny OrCHeSTra HuBBard STreeT danCe CHiCaGO

CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines. Steinway is the official piano of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

2 CommENtS By PHilliP HuSCHer

Born March 4, 1678, Venice, Italy. Died July 28, 1741, Vienna, Austria.

Concerto in g major (alla rustica), rV. 151

he most original and influential color of his hair.) That same year, TItalian composer of his time, he accepted a job as music director, Vivaldi was very quickly forgotten. teacher, and composer at the Within a hundred years of his death, Ospedale della Pietà, a Venetian he had achieved the ultimate fate of orphanage for girls—a post he most composers—complete oblivion. would keep for more than thirty- After he was finally rediscovered five years, nearly the remainder of in the early twentieth century and his life. At the height of his career, eventually became one of the most Vivaldi was as highly regarded as performed of all composers again, any living composer, including J.S. he often was written off as exces- Bach, who admired Vivaldi’s music, sively prolific and facile. Stravinsky copied out several of his scores for famously dismissed his entire career performance, and arranged others as “the same concerto four hundred for different instruments. times,” an assessment that was not The G major concerto alla rustica just unkind, but also unfair. We now that opens this week’s program is know that he wrote more than five— one of Vivaldi’s nearly sixty “ripi- not four—hundred concertos, in eno” concertos—that is, concertos addition to operas (he once claimed designed not for one or more solo- ninety-four, no doubt with charac- ists, but simply for an orchestra of teristic exaggeration; some twenty strings. These pieces, normally with survive), cantatas, and trio sonatas. three movements (in the standard Vivaldi began his career as a fast-slow-fast sequence, like the violin virtuoso (he studied with his more common solo concertos), are father, who played at the great Saint actually very close stylistically to the Mark’s Basilica in Venice), but he sinfonias that open baroque operas. also prepared for the priesthood The short and festive all rustica and took Holy Orders at the age concerto, with its bucolic country- of twenty-five. (He soon became side air, has become one of Vivaldi’s known as the “Red Priest,” after the most frequently played works.

The date of composition INStrumENtatIoN aPProxImatE and first performance are strings, with continuo PErformaNCE tImE not known 4 minutes These are the first CSO performances

3 arcangelo Corelli Born February 17, 1653, Fusignano, near Bologna, Italy. Died January 8, 1713, Rome, Italy.

Concerto grosso in D major, op. 6, No. 4

he most popular Italian com- Released as his op. 6 in 1714, these Tposer of his time—and, remark- concertos were almost immediately ably, a writer exclusively of instru- acclaimed as the standard-bearer for mental pieces when vocal music was this quintessential baroque form. all the rage—Arcangelo Corelli did In this collection, Corelli not live to see the publication of his demonstrates his peerless skill at largest and most important work, creating endless variety within the the set of twelve concerti grossi formal architectural framework to which this D major concerto of the concerto grosso, with its belongs. Corelli was fanatical dialogue between a large group of about withholding his scores until players, the concerto grosso, and a he was satisfied that they were group of soloists, the concertino, meticulously polished—this in a which consists here of two , day when just being published at all , and continuo. Although the was a triumph—and anticipation movements in the D major concerto was running very high for this new are characteristically short, they are collection. “The greatest glory of the richly varied in texture and even century,” Adami di Bolsena wrote tempo—the middle movement, for in 1711, “is at present occupied in example, begins as a solemn Adagio bringing to perfection his sixth and then shifts to a brilliant Vivace. work of concertos, which will The directness and simplicity of shortly be published and render his Corelli’s language made a deep name forever more immortal.” But impression on his contemporaries, when Corelli died two years later, who understandably marveled he had still not finished fussing with at how such deceptively natural, his masterpieces, all of which had singing music was so rigorously— no doubt already been performed. indeed perfectly—constructed.

The date of composition INStrumENtatIoN aPProxImatE and first performance are strings, with continuo PErformaNCE tImE not known 9 minutes These are the first CSO performances

4 Born August 24, 1669, Venice, Italy. Died June 19, 1747, Venice, Italy.

oboe Concerto in C minor

omposed by Alessandro in the key of D minor, and it was CMarcello, advertised under printed in that key in an anthology his pseudonym Eterio Stinfalico, published in 1717. The transcription rearranged and transposed by his for solo keyboard that Bach made of brother Benedetto, transcribed for the score also is in D minor. (It was by J.S. Bach, and often published in Weimar in 1713–14, attributed to Vivaldi, this concerto as part of a set of arrangements of has become one of the landmarks works by other composers, includ- of the oboe repertoire, despite its ing Vivaldi, and is identified in the muddled pedigree. It is by far the later Bach catalog as BWV 974.) best-known work in Alessandro But at some point, the concerto Marcello’s modest catalog, even came into the hand of Alessandro’s though he often is not credited with younger brother Benedetto, who, composing it at all. although forced to pursue a career in The son of a Venetian nobleman— law by his father, composed a large and the descendant of a fifteenth- number of pieces on the side and century Doge—Alessandro was apparently felt the need to put his a diplomat, artist (specializing own imprint on Alessandro’s work briefly in allegorical paintings for as well. Benedetto made an edition the family palaces), poet (his eight of the oboe concerto, transposing books of couplets were published it to C minor in the process, and it in 1719), collector (he maintained is in this key that it is most often an impressive gallery of musical performed today. instruments), violinist, and com- Regardless of its key and despite poser. His output often is described the complexities of its provenance, as small and distinguished. Small it this oboe concerto is a justly certainly is—not more than a dozen celebrated work, with a particularly or so works apiece in a handful of haunting slow movement (often different forms—but it is distin- transcribed for other instru- guished primarily by this felicitous ments) framed by the two brilliant oboe concerto. Alessandro wrote it outer sections.

The date of composition fIrSt CSo INStrumENtatIoN and first performance are PErformaNCE solo oboe and strings, not known January 13, 1962 (popular with continuo concert), Orchestra Hall. ray Still, oboe, with walter aPProxImatE Hendl conducting PErformaNCE tImE 10 minutes

5 antonio Vivaldi

oboe Concerto in f major, rV. 455

ivaldi’s apparent specialty passages that are dominated by Vwas the concerto, for one or the soloist. more solo instruments, which he More than two-thirds of composed in abundance and with Vivaldi’s five hundred-plus concer- unusual ease, even by his own stan- tos are for solo instrument—violin dards. (Vivaldi claimed he could (most plentifully, at more than compose a concerto faster than a 230 concertos!), , cello, scribe could copy it.) It was the oboe, and even mandolin (but no publication in Amsterdam in 1711 keyboards). Most of them are still of a collection of twelve concertos relative rarities in the concert hall called L’estro armonico that first (even The Four Seasons, one of the spread Vivaldi’s name throughout most familiar works of classical Europe; it became the best-selling music today, was almost unknown music title of the early eighteenth in 1947, when Louis Kaufman, century. (Bach copied and arranged a Portland-born violinist, made six of these concertos for organ the first recording of these four or harpsichord.) Vivaldi is said to violin concertos). have established the conventional The oboe was introduced to Italy three-movement baroque concerto when Vivaldi was still a young form; he didn’t invent it, but by man; it quickly became popular as a constant use from one work to the solo instrument and was welcomed next, and with endless variety in its into the official musical establish- handling, he certainly set in place ment. Ignazio Rion was engaged the pattern others would follow as an oboe teacher at the Ospedale for decades to come. He also is the della Pietà in 1703—one of Venice’s first composer to make regular use four famous foundations for the of ritornello form—the use of a education of orphaned girls—the repeating “refrain” in different but same year as Vivaldi’s appointment related keys for all the instruments, there as violin instructor. Vivaldi alternating with freer, modulating probably began to compose oboe

The date of composition INStrumENtatIoN aPProxImatE and first performance are solo oboe and strings, PErformaNCE tImE not known with continuo 10 minutes These are the first CSO performances

6 concertos soon after that (the first relatively “new” instrument—runs, ones published appeared in 1716 intricate rhythmic figures, quick and 1717). There is no way to know passagework, long-breathed melo- how many he eventually wrote, but dies, rapid-fire strings of sixteenth- more than a dozen survive—the notes. It is all put together with exact number keeps changing as great assurance, elegance, and new works are discovered and panache. The two outer movements others discredited over time— are pure bravura; the central slow including several for two . In “aria” is an expressive monologue the F major solo concerto, Vivaldi for oboe, accompanied very simply spares nothing in writing for this by violins alone.

Symphony Center Information

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7 Blanco

Alejandro Cerrudo, Choreography Felix Mendelssohn and Charles Valentin Alkan, Music Nicholas Phillips, Set and Lighting Design Branimira Ivanova, Costume Design

aPrIl 27, 29, aND 30: aPrIl 28 aND maY 3: Penny Saunders, Jessica Tong, Penny Saunders, Jacqueline Burnett, Meredith Dincolo, Robyn Ana Lopez, Kellie Epperheimer Mineko Williams

The development of Blanco was supported in part by the Choreographic Fellowship, made possible by a gift from the Davee Foundation. Created for and premiered by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival August 25, 2010.

8 felix mendelssohn (February 3, 1809–November 4, 1847)

Prelude in E minor, op. 35, No. 1

elix Mendelssohn was the Octet he composed at sixteen Fmost astonishing child prodigy and the overture to Shakespeare’s among composers. Born into a A Midsummer Night’s Dream he wealthy German Jewish family— wrote the following year. The his father Abraham was a prosper- E minor prelude was probably ous banker and his grandfather composed in the early 1830s, and was the famous philosopher Moses was published in 1837 as part of Mendelssohn—Mendelssohn a set of six preludes and fugues made his own name with the for piano.

Charles-Valentin alkan (November 30, 1813–March 29, 1888)

Prelude in a-flat minor, op. 31, No. 8 (Chanson de la folle au bord de la mer)

he French pianist Charles- virtuosos and most important TValentin Alkan was a childhood composers of piano music in his sensation, but rarely performed time. The Prelude in A-flat minor, in public later in his life. A close subtitled Song of the Madwoman by friend of Chopin, and admired the Sea, was composed in 1847 as by Liszt and Schumann, he was part of a set of preludes in all the widely regarded as one of the great major and minor keys.

9 As few as 3000

Alejandro Cerrudo, Choreography Bohuslav Martinů, Music Matt Miller, Lighting Design Branimira Ivanova, Costume Design

Jesse Bechard Ana Lopez Jacqueline Burnett Kevin Shannon Christian Broomhall Penny Saunders Meredith Dincolo Benjamin Wardell Jonathan Fredrickson Jessica Tong Kellie Epperheimer Robyn Mineko Williams Jason Hortin

As few as 3000 is sponsored by Bill and Orli Staley with additional support provided by members of the Choreographer’s Circle: Linda Hutson and Sallyan Windt. The development of As few as 3000 was supported in part by the Choreographic Fellowship, made possible by a gift from the Davee Foundation. Created for and premiered by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, April 27, 2011.

10 Bohuslav martin ˚u (December 8, 1890–August 28, 1959)

toccata e Due Canzoni

ohuslav Martinů was born 193 before the Germans entered Paris, Bsteps above the ground in a bell the Martinůs fled the city, leaving tower, where his father served as all their possessions behind. For watchman of the village church. the next several months, they were Bohuslav, who lived in the tower homeless and often slept on railway overlooking the streets of the tiny platforms. They finally gained Bohemian town of Policka until passage on the Exeter, which left he was thirteen, was reclusive and Lisbon for Hoboken, New Jersey, shy, with little curiosity about the on March 21, 1941. (His American world beyond his immediate view. visa described him as a “blacklisted All that changed when he heard intellectual.”) As a kind of welcome the new French music by Debussy gesture, Koussevitzky immediately and Ravel and decided to go to commissioned Martinů to compose Paris. He left Policka in 1923 on his first symphony, which was pre- a state grant that would support miered in Boston in 1942. Martinů him for three months, and ended would stay in the States for the next up staying in Paris for seventeen twelve years. years. Martinů thrived in Paris, Martinů began the Toccata e then the artistic capital of Europe. Due Canzoni in 1946. Work was He studied with Albert Roussel, interrupted when he took a seri- and made the acquaintance of ous fall while he was teaching at Serge Koussevitzky, who would Tanglewood that summer. He fin- later introduce his music to the ished the score, but did little other United States. In 1930, he married work for the next two years, as he Charlotte Quennehen, a seam- suffered from tinnitus, headaches, stress, and his life began to fall into and depression. He returned to place. His music was performed Europe in May 1953 and died in more regularly, both in Europe and Switzerland on August 28, 1959. in the U.S. In 1940, Martinů was blacklisted These are the first Chicago Symphony by the Nazis. On June 10, four days performances of Toccata e Due Canzoni. Symphony Orchestra © 2011 Chicago

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