Saturday, March 26, 2016, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Orchestre symphonique de Montréal , music director and conductor Daniil Trifonov, piano

PROGRAM Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918) Jeux; poème dansé (1891-1953) Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 Andante – Allegro Tema con variazioni Allegro, ma non troppo Daniil Trifonov, piano

INTERMISSION

Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971) The Rite of Spring Part I: The Adoration of the Earth Introduction Augurs of Spring Ritual of Abduction Spring Rounds Ritual of the Rival Tribes Procession of the Sage The Sage Dance of the Earth Part II: The Sacrifice Introduction Mystic Circles of the Young Girls Glorification of the Chosen One Evocation of the Ancestors Ritual Action of the Ancestors Sacrificial Dance The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is presented by Hydro-Québec. The orchestra’s USA Tour is possible thanks to the OSM Foundation, Air Canada, Tourisme Montréal, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Ville de Montréal.

This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Brian James and S. Shariq Yosufzai. Cal Performances' 2015-2016 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. PROGRAM NOTES

“It seems to me that the “Russians” have opened Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune . As a window in our sombre study hall with its se - in that earlier piece, tone color, and orchestral vere master, through which we might catch a texture take center stage. Inconclusive har - glimpse of the countryside.” monies suggest , while never fully tak - —Claude Debussy (1913) ing the plunge. The musical themes are short, following quickly one upon the other, and the Every so often, distinctive idioms combine in liberal use of woodwinds in various combina - unlikely circumstances, creating hybrid aes - tions makes for a character-driven and playful thetics greater than the sum of their parts. Such atmosphere. was the situation in early 20th-century , when an influx of Russian émigré artists took Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 the great cultural capital by surprise, to the Sergei Prokofiev delight and consternation of the natives. The As a child growing up in the Ukrainian coun - dancer physically embodied the tryside, Sergei Prokofiev was naturally experi - zeitgeist from which the music of this period mental when it came to piano playing. His arises, provocatively dancing his way through juvenile compositions were often written in a two of the works featured on tonight’s program. different key for each hand, creating a jarringly novel effect. This rogue instinct would follow Jeux the young to the Claude Debussy Conservatory, where he began his sketches for A garden, at night. Bushes and brambles. The his Piano Concerto No. 3 while still a student. harsh light and deep shadows cast by an out - Completing the work in 1921, Prokofiev per - door electric floodlight. A stray tennis ball formed the solo part himself in the premiere bounces onto the stage, chased by a frolicking that same year in . He also performed young boy and two girls. As they search for the in the first recording of the work in 1932, prov - ball, they tease, laugh, and play with each other, ing for all posterity that the herculean techni - eventually falling into a furtive embrace. Such cal challenges in the score grew at least partly was the choreographic scenario to which out of his own aptitude as an exceptionally tal - Debussy composed Jeux for the Ballets Russes ented pianist. in 1912, though had originally Prokofiev’s five essays in the piano concerto imagined three boys in the main roles. genre are significant for their total integration of With Vaslav Nijinsky in the principal role, soloist and orchestra, where each part is an ac - the work premiered at the Théâtre des Champs- tive contributor to the essential character of the Élysées in May 1913, only two weeks before the work. The lyrical opening clarinet theme of the same dancer would set the gossiping classes first movement floats somewhere between ten - atwitter with his controversial choreography to tative and serene, as it is joined by meandering Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Nijinsky’s cho - harmonies in the strings. When the orchestra reography for Jeux , which drew more heavily suddenly takes off with the locomotive rhythm on postures from golf, tennis, and jazz dance of a speeding train, and the piano bursts into than it did from classical ballet, was not a great the texture with a joyful yelp, the first three success. Even Debussy was non-committal, notes of the clarinet melody are reversed in sub - commenting only a couple of weeks later, stance and effect, becoming motivic material “Among recent pointless goings-on I must in - for the ensuing figurations. A second theme is clude the staging of Jeux, which gave Nijinsky’s more sarcastic in nature, but the movement ul - perverse genius a chance of indulging in a pe - timately builds toward a romantic climax, re - culiar kind of mathematics.” calling the opening melody in a grandiose tutti But the music lived on independent of the near the end. The second movement is a theme dance, and is now universally praised as an and variations, allowing for a full exploration of important 20th-century work in line with Prokofiev’s unique ability to bring out oppos -

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES ing characters in the same musical material— dancer Lydia Sokolova recalled, “they had pre - from lush and lyrical to grotesquely terrifying pared in Paris for a riot…. They had got them - and exuberantly joyful. The final movement be - selves all ready.” On the eve of a great war, in a gins with a humorous topic in the orchestra, continent still grappling with class disparity, the taken up and expanded by the piano, soon people seemed primed to manifest: a row was building to a great romantic climax. The hair- inevitable. raising coda increases in energy, as piano and Stravinsky’s frenetically propulsive score un - orchestra join in a janissary-like clamouring folds as a series of tableaux depicting imagined in the upper registers, insistent rhythms and scenes of ancient Pagan rituals around the com - hand-over-hand flourishes bringing the work ing of spring. A young girl is chosen by elders to a powerful close in C Major. and forced to dance herself to death in an act of sacrifice to the land. Fragments of Russian folk The Rite of Spring tunes are evidence of the composer’s efforts to express the elemental character of his home - Paris, May 29, 1913: a date that lives on in land, while incessant motor-rhythms and terri - musical notoriety. That night, the capacity au - fyingly unpredictable accented off-beats lend an dience at the newly built Théâtre des Champs- aspect of mechanization to the essentially folk - Élysées collectively participated in the birth of a loric subject matter—an ominous contradiction new era—or the violent death of an old one, de - at the heart of the work. In fact, this revolu - pending on whom you asked. The trio of en - tionary ballet score, with its violent juxtaposi - fants terribles at the center of the scandal were tions of rival tonalities, may be one of the most Sergei Diaghilev, the daring founder of Les apt and profound expressions of the clash of the Ballets Russes, Vaslav Nijinsky, his unruly cho - old world with an expanding mechanical age. reographer, and Igor Stravinsky, Russian dar - The Rite of Spring holds a special place in the ling of the Parisian avant garde . The work, The repertoire of the Orchestre symphonique de Rite of Spring . Montréal. First performed in in 1957 A week after the premiere, a headline from under the direction of Igor Markevitch, Rite The New York Times trumpeted “Parisians Hiss would go on to become a signature work for the New Ballet,” going on to report that the house orchestra during the directorship of Charles lights had to be turned up to quell “hostile Dutoit, representing the confluence of Russian demonstrations” in the audience, while at one and French influences at the heart of the en - point the ruckus was so loud that the dancers semble’s traditional programming. In 1984, it on stage could no longer hear the orchestra, featured prominently on a tour of Canada, the Nijinsky himself shouting out the choreography United States, and Europe, and a recording from the wings. Popular myth remembers made that same year was honored with a Félix Stravinsky’s shocking new music as the cause of Award in Quebec. Most recently, Kent Nagano the riots, while the UC Berkeley scholar led the orchestra in Stravinsky’s masterpiece in Richard Taruskin places the blame squarely on 2012 and 2016 in performances at Maison sym - the “ugly earthbound lurching and stomping phonique de Montréal. devised by Vaslav Nijinsky.” But principal —© Marc Wieser ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal has ECM, and Sony as well as on its own label, distinguished itself as a leader in the orchestral which have earned it some 50 national and in - life of Canada and Quebec since its founding in ternational awards. 1934. A cultural ambassador of the highest In September 2011, the OSM and Maestro order, the orchestra has earned an enviable rep - Nagano inaugurated Maison symphonique de utation internationally through the quality of its Montréal, the orchestra’s new home. The con - many recordings and tours. The OSM carries struction of this concert hall was made possi - on that rich tradition under the leadership of its ble thanks to the Government of Quebec. The music director, Kent Nagano, while featuring hall’s acoustics bear the signature of the firm innovative programming aimed at updating the Artec Consultants Inc., while its architecture orchestral repertoire and deepening the or - was entrusted to Diamond Schmitt Architects chestra’s connection with the community. Inc. in association with Ædifica Architects. The excellence and vision of the OSM have Inaugurated on May 28, 2014, at Maison been shaped over the years by its music direc - symphonique, the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique tors: , a Montrealer by birth and was generously offered to the OSM by Jac - first artistic director of the orchestra; Désiré queline Desmarais. It was manufactured by the Defauw; Igor Markevitch; , with house of Casavant on behalf of the OSM (and is whom the orchestra toured in Europe for the the orchestra’s property), with the collaboration first time; Franz-Paul Decker; Rafael Frühbeck of architects Diamond Schmitt + Ædifica for its de Burgos; , who collaborated visual design. with the orchestra for close to 25 years and The OSM offers its varied audience increas - under whom the OSM achieved great promi - ingly rich programming consisting of orches - nence on the international scene; and, since tral concerts, recitals, chamber music, and September 2006, Kent Nagano. performances featuring the OSM Chorus and Over the years the orchestra has performed the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique. During the on more than 40 tours and some 30 national 2008-2009 season, the orchestra’s 75th anniver - and international excursions. The OSM has sary, the OSM presented the opera Saint carried out 10 tours in Asia, 11 in Europe, and François d’Assise by composer , three in South America. Under the direction of which was awarded the Grand Prix (2008) from Kent Nagano, the OSM presented a concert at the Conseil des arts de Montréal. The 75th sea - Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris (2006) and made son additionally was the subject of the docu - its first cross-Canada tour (2007). In 2008, mentary Montreal Symphony by director Nagano and seven musicians from the orches - Bettina Ehrhardt, named Best Canadian Film tra set off on a tour of Nunavik, in northern at the 2010 edition of Montreal’s International Quebec, where their program included Stra - Festival of Films on Art. During the 2014-2015 vinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale narrated in Inuktitut. season, the OSM presented L’Aiglon , a work Kent Nagano and the orchestra have ap - by Honegger and Ibert, in a North American peared twice in Carnegie Hall (2008 and 2011), premiere, which was also the first project in a where the OSM played almost every year be - renewed partnership with Decca Classics, the tween 1982 and 2004. In 2011, the OSM took label on which the orchestra recorded some part for the first time in the Edinburgh Inter - 80 albums between the early 1980s and the national Festival. Kent Nagano and the orches - early 2000s. The OSM figures prominently tra have together made a tour in South America outside the concert hall thanks to the broad - (2013) and two European tours (2008 and 2014), cast of concerts on a variety of platforms, en - and performed the OSM’s first concerts in abling it to reach thousands of music lovers China (2014). The OSM is currently on its around the world. ninth major tour in the United States. To learn more about the orchestra , please The OSM has made over 100 recordings for visit www.osm.ca. Follow the OSM on Facebook, Decca, EMI, Philips, CBC Records, Analekta, Twitter, and Instagram: @OSMconcerts.

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Metropolitan Opera, and Semperoper Dresden. He has won two Grammy Awards—for his recording of Kaija Saariaho’s L’ amour de loin with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and for Busoni’s Doktor Faust with the Opéra na - tional de Lyon—among other awards. In 2013, he was named Great Montrealer by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, and received the insignia of Grand Officer of the Order of Quebec. Recent recordings with the OSM include Symphony and New Works for Organ and Orchestra , with Olivier Latry, OSM organist Kent Nagano (music director and conductor ) emeritus, and Jean-Willy Kunz, OSM organist- has established an international reputation as in-residence (Analekta); Complete Violin one of the most insightful and visionary inter - Concertos of Saint-Saëns , with OSM concert - preters of both the operatic and symphonic master Andrew Wan (Analekta); the complete repertoire. He has been music director of the Beethoven symphonies (Sony/Analekta); and OSM since 2006, a contract extended until Shoka—Japanese Children Songs, with soprano 2020, and was also general music director of the Diana Damrau and Chœur des enfants de Bayerische Staatsoper in (2006-2013). Montréal (Sony/Analekta). Nagano became principal guest conductor and Recent tours with the OSM: in 2014, Euro- artistic advisor of the Gothenburg Symphony pean tour in March and Asian tour in October; Orchestra in 2013. Since 2015, he has been gen - South America in 2013; New York’s Carnegie eral music director and principal conductor of Hall in 2011; concerts at the Edinburgh Inter - the State Opera and Philharmonic national Festival (2011). Orchestra. Born in California, Kent Nagano spent his early professional years in , working in the opera house and as assistant conductor to Seiji Ozawa at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was music director of the Berkeley Sym - phony Orchestra (1978-2009), Opéra national de Lyon (1988-1998), the Hallé Orchestra (1991-2000), associate principal guest conduc - tor of the London Symphony Orchestra (1990- 1998), and artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2000 to 2006, where he remains their hon - orary conductor. Kent Nagano was the first music director of the Los Angeles Opera from Daniil Trifonov (piano ) has made a spectacular 2003 to 2006. ascent to classical music stardom, combining A sought-after guest conductor, Nagano has consummate technique with rare sensitivity worked with most of the world’s finest orches - and depth. Since taking first prize at both the tras—including the Vienna, Berlin, and New Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein competitions in York philharmonics, Chicago Symphony, 2011 at the age of just 20, the Russian pianist Dresden Staatskapelle, and Leipzig Gewand - has appeared with most of the world’s foremost haus—and at leading opera houses including orchestras, including the New York, Los the Opéra national de Paris, Berlin State Opera, Angeles, and Royal philharmonics; the Chi - ABOUT THE ARTISTS cago, Boston, San Francisco, and London sym - Klassik Award and a Grammy nomination. His phony orchestras; the , Philadel phia, discography also features Chopin on Decca and and Mariinsky orchestras; Washington’s Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with Valery National Symphony; and Rome’s Orchestra Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In Born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, Trifonov solo recital he has appeared in such key inter - studied with Tatiana Zelikman at Moscow’s national venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Gnessin School of Music and Sergei Babayan at Center, and at Boston’s Celebrity Series; the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2013, he Lon don’s Royal Festival, Queen Elizabeth, and was awarded Italy’s Franco Abbiati Prize for Wigmore halls; ’s Concertgebouw; Best Instrumental Soloist. Berlin’s Philharmonie; Vienna’s Musikverein; For more information, please visit Zurich’s Tonhalle; ’s Palau de la Mu - daniiltrifonov.com. Twitter.com/daniil_trifo - sica; the Salle Pleyel and Théâtre des Champs- nov. www.facebook.com/daniiltrifonov.page . Élysées in Paris; Tokyo’s Opera City and Suntory Hall; and the Arts Center. ORCHESTRE SYMPHONIQUE DE Following the August release of Rachman - MONTRÉAL : TOUR STAFF inoff Variations , recorded for Deutsche Gram - Madeleine Careau, chief executive officer mophon with the Orchestra and Marie-Josée Desrochers, chief operating officer Yannick Nézet-Séguin, this season Trifonov Sébastien Almon, director, tour and artistic plays complete Rachmaninoff cycles with the operations New York Philharmonic and Philharmonia or - Geneviève Dion, director, marketing and ches tras, and single concertos for debuts with communications the Berlin Staatskapelle and Royal Stockholm Marianne Perron, director, music programming Philharmonic, where he headlines the presti - Rachel Laplante, director, sponsorship gious Nobel Prize Concert; an Asian tour with development and strategic alliances the Czech Philharmonic; and dates with the Jean Gaudreault, chief of personnel—musician Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre National de Marie-Hélène Forest, coordinator, artistic projects Lyon, and the Munich Philharmonic. Prokofiev Estelle-Rose Clayon, account manager, is the vehicle for his Orchestre symphonique de sponsorship Montréal debut on the current North American Marc Wieser, personal assistant to the music tour, and for returns to the Orchestre National director de France and the London Symphony. Trifonov Claude Berthiaume, head stagehand plays Chopin with the San Francisco Symphony, Carl Bluteau, stagehand Tchaikovsky with the La Scala Orchestra, and Liszt with the Symphony at home Exclusive Tour Management and on a North European tour. An accom - and Representation: plished composer, Trifonov reprises his own ac - Opus 3 Artists claimed piano concerto with the Pittsburgh 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North Symphony. Besides making his recital debut in New York, NY 10016 Los Angeles, he undertakes an extensive, high- www.opus3artists.com profile European recital tour and residencies in Lugano, Switzer land, and at London’s Wigmore David V. Foster, president and CEO Hall, where he collaborates with pianist Sergei Leonard Stein, senior vice president, director, Babayan and violinist Gidon Kremer. touring division Last season saw the release of Trifonov: The William Bowler, manager, artists and attractions Carnegie Recital , the pianist’s first recording as Irene Lönnblad, associate, touring division an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist; John Pendleton, company manager captured live at his sold-out 2013 Carnegie Hall Don Irving, stage manager recital debut, the album scored both an ECHO John C. Gilliland III, assistant tour manager

PLAYBILL ORCHESTRA ROSTER Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

Kent Nagano Johannes Jansonius FLUTES Jean-Luc Gagnon Music Director Jean-Marc Leclerc Timothy Hutchins 2nd trumpet Isabelle Lessard Principal Christopher P. Smith Dina Gilbert Alison Mah-Poy Albert Brouwer Amy Horvey Assistant Conductor Katherine Palyga Interim Associate Tazmyn Eddy Monique Poitras Denis Bluteau Andrew Megill, Gratiel Robitaille 2nd flute BASS TRUMPET Chorusmaster Daniel Yakymyshyn Danièle Bourget David Martin The chorus master chair is Van Armenian Interim Piccolo sponsored by Mrs. F. Ann Birks, Laura D’Angelo Lara Deutsch TROMBONES in loving memory of Barrie Drummond Birks Soo Gyeong Lee James Box Katherine Manker OBOES Principal Simon Leclerc Viviane Roberge Theodore Baskin Vivian Lee Associate conductor of the Principal 2nd trombone OSM Pop concert series VIOLAS Vincent Boilard Pierre Beaudry Neal Gripp Associate Principal bass trombone Olivier Latry Principal Alexa Zirbel David Martin Organist Emeritus Jean Fortin 2nd oboe 1st Assistant Pierre-Vincent Plante TUBAS Jean-Willy Kunz Victor Fournelle-Blain Principal English horn Austin Howle Organist-in-Residence 2nd Assistant Josée Marchand Principal Chantale Boivin Nicholas Atkinson Wilfrid Pelletier (1896-1982) Rosemary Box CLARINETS & Zubin Mehta Sofia Gentile Todd Cope TIMPANI Conductors Emeriti Anna-Belle Marcotte Principal Andrei Malashenko Charles Meinen Alain Desgagné Principal Pierre Béique (1910-2003) David Quinn Associate Hugues Tremblay General Manager Emeritus Natalie Racine Michael Dumouchel Associate Scott Chancey 2nd clarinet FIRST VIOLINS Wilhelmina Hos and E-flat clarinet PERCUSSIONS Richard Roberts Bertrand Robin André Moisan Serge Desgagnés Concertmaster Megan Tam Bass clarinet and saxophone Principal Andrew Wan 1 Brent Besner Hugues Tremblay Concertmaster André Dufour Olivier Thouin 2 Brian Manker 2 BASSOONS Sandra Joseph Associate concertmaster Principal Stéphane Lévesque John Wong Marianne Dugal 2 Anna Burden Principal 2nd associate concertmaster Associate Mathieu Harel HARPS Ramsey Husser Pierre Djokic Associate Jennifer Swartz 2nd Assistant 1st Assistant Martin Mangrum Principal Marc Béliveau Gary Russell 2nd bassoon Robin Best Marie Doré 2nd Assistant Michael Sundell Caroline Lizotte Sophie Dugas Karen Baskin Contrabassoon Marie Lacasse 3 Li-Ke Chang Mark Romatz PIANO & CELESTA Jean-Marc Leblanc Sylvie Lambert Olga Gross Ingrid Matthiessen Gerald Morin HORNS Myriam Pellerin Sylvain Murray John Zirbel MUSIC LIBRARY Susan Pulliam Peter Parthun Principal Michel Léonard Jean-Sébastien Roy Alexandre Castonguay Denys Derome Claire Segal Sergi Caroline Milot Associate Lauren DeRoller Catherine Turner 1 Andrew Wan’s 1744 Bergonzi DOUBLE BASSES 2nd horn violin is generously loaned by Marc Djokic philanthropist David B. Sela. Lizann Gervais Ali Yazdanfar Jean Gaudreault 2 Marianne Dugal’s 1737 Domenico Alexander Lozowski Principal 4th horn Montagnana violin and Sartory Brian Robinson Marie-Sonja Cotineau bow, Olivier Thouin’s 1754 Michele SECOND VIOLINS Associate Xavier Fortin Deconet violin, as well as Brian Manker’s c.1728-30 Pietro Guarneri Alexander Read Eric Chappell Rachelle Jenkins and François Peccatte bow are Principal Assistant Jocelyn Veilleux generously loaned by Canimex. Marie-André Chevrette Jacques Beaudoin 3 Marie Lacasse’s 1771 Andreas Associate Scott Feltham TRUMPETS Ferdinandus Mayr violin is Brigitte Rolland Peter Rosenfeld Paul Merkelo generously loaned by philanthropist Miroslav Wicha. 1st Assistant Edouard Wingell Principal Ann Chow Marc Denis Russell De Vuyst Mary Ann Fujino Alec Hiller Associate Andrew Horton