1114 IEIT liVE FESTIVIL

1994 NEXT WAVE COVEll AND POSTER AR11ST ROBERT MOS1tOwrrz •••I_lil , .1, lllE! II I E 1.lnII ImlEI 14. IS BAMBILL ACADEMY OF MUSIC Harvey Lichtenstein, President & Executive Producer

THE BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Dennis Russell Davies, Principal Conductor Lukas Foss, Conductor Laureate 41st Season, 1994/95 MIRROR IMAGES in the BAM Opera House October 14, 15, 1994

PRE-CONCERT RECITAL at 7pm Six Etudes Dennis Russell Davies, (American premiere)

BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES, Conductor MARGARET LENG TAN, Piano 8pm

JOHN ZORN For Your Eyes Only (BPO Commission)

CHEN YI Piano Margaret Leng Tan, Piano (BPO commission; premiere performance) - Intermission -

PHILIP GLASS Symphony No.2 (BPO commission; premiere performance) Allegro Andante Allegro

POST-CONCERT DIALOGUE with Chen Yi, Philip Glass, Dennis Russell Davies, and Joseph Horowitz

Philip Glass' Symphony No.2 is commissioned by BPO with partial funding provided by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. Symphony No.2 composed by Philip Glass. Copyright 1994 Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc.

THE STANLEY H. KAPLAN EDUCATIONAL CENTER ACOUSTICAL SHELL The Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Brooklyn Academy of Music gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley H. Kaplan, whose assistance made possible the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center Acoustic Shell.

THE BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IS THE RESIDENT ORCHESTRA OF BAM. _ MIRROR IMAGES _

mainly associate£! with opera; ballet. film. and experimentaltheatet~ the opportuni­ f,r to "think a\Jour tne tradition of &Ythphonic musk;/' Glass haSstateu. openeu "a new world ofmusic--and I am very much looking forward to what I will discover." Glass's Symphony No. 2 l1larksasecond chapter in asurprising and unpredictable journey of retrospection.

'Glass arrived ata timely musical aesthetic partly by rejecting trendshe sensed had expired, partly through research and travel-to North Africa, India, and the Himalayas. Joining his new Second Symphony on BFO's program are works by two other composers for whom East and West are merging mirror images. Chen Yi, born in China, now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.' Her Piano Concerto-like Glass', symphony, a BPO commission-is based 'on the popular Chinese folk'tune Bab:a1t" ''s enthusiasms include Japan. In his music, the speed of juxtapo- sitioninirrors the pace andtexture of today's Tokyo.

...... John Zorn: For Your Eyes Only (1989) .

John Zorn is the most prominent, active, wide variety of styles and often command­ and influential of the under-fifty generation ing an extensive knowledge of the standard of today's "downtown" composers. These repertoire (Zorn frequently uses performers musicians, not a "school" but a group of who play turntable, CD's, and samplers), friends and associates, frequently perform splits into sub-groups; a prompter calls for together in various combinations and share sudden jumps from one group to another, musical ideas and enthusiasms. The music with no transitional material. coming out of this scene is high on energy Zorn uses creative and startling juxtapo­ and humor, rigorously democratic and sitions, welding together sonic blocks to

eclectic, and demands virtuosity and style r form a continuity which is closer to the flow from the performer. Militantly anti-institu­ of cinema, with its sudden jumps and cuts, tional (he dropped out of college after a year than the evolving, unfolding line of tradi­ and a half), Zorn is largely self-taught as a tional concert music. Modelling his tech- composer. His principal works have nique after Stravinsky's preference of static evolved from "open-form" compositions­ blocks over thematic development, Zorn game structures for improvisors-to fully demands that the orchestra jump from style written-out pieces for the concert hall. to style with lightning speed. The instru­ Two of the defining characteristics that mentation, rhythm, volume, and mood For Your Eyes Only shares with much of change quickly, brilliantly, and unceasingly. Zorn's recent music are quotation and jux­ An important subtext of the music lies, as it taposition. Both have their roots in the com­ were, "between the cracks," a layer of poser's earlier work, where an ensemble of meaning springing up from the way a new improvisers, accustomed to playing in a phrase or style casts light on the music I PROGRAM NOTES

heard immediately before, the larger form of little or no variation, such as the single mea­ the piece emerging as a mosaic created not sure of Brahms heard in the piano less than from tiles but from snatches of different a minute into the piece, accompanied by a musics. Informed by modern technology, few stray notes in the bassoon and viola. Zorn's music is close in spirit to the way in More often, only hints of the original peek which rap music uses a fleeting sample of an through the surface of Zorn's recomposi­ old funk or jazz record to trigger the listen­ tion. A chord from Mozart alternates with er's memory. One feels the thumb of the a chord from Schoenberg. The low, bell-like composer placed at the ready on the TV's piano notes from Berg's Chamber Concerto remote control. call up a score for an as-yet-unseen film The compositional technique Zorn nair. The violin march from L'histoire du employs in For Your Eyes Only is similar to Soldat, coming out of and dissolving back that used in his work for solo piano, Carny, into bluegrass fiddling, is heard surrounded written two years later. Both pieces consist by new music played by Stravinsky's little primarily of three kinds of music: quota­ band. Occasionally only the instrumenta­ tions, textures, and genre snippets (i.e., boo­ tion of the original remains, such as the gie-woogie, country fiddling, cartoon sound­ dark trio for harp, tam-tam, and double tracks). The beginning of For Your Eyes bass borrowed from the Italian composer Only displays all three in rapid succession: Giacinto Scelsi or the brief flirtation with an opening convulsion borrowed from the unmistakable sound world of Boulez's Elliott Carter's Double Concerto (re-written Marteau sans Maitre called up by flute, as a palindrome), the whooshing texture of viola, and vibraphone. Much like James sliding string harmonics and pure wind Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, the references and blown through brass instruments, followed quotations, in so many disguises, fly by by a hair-raising cartoon blast and "tippie­ faster than most of us can catch. For Your toe" walking straight out of Saturday morn­ Eyes Only is a romp through the history of ing television. In the midst of this, a caden­ Western music, profoundly comic in its jux­ za for solo oboe telescopes all three styles. tapositions. -Steven Drury Zorn's music, however, is not mere col­ lage. Rather, Zorn has developed a process STEVEN DRURY will premiere John Zorn's of re-composition, whereby fragments of piano concerto, Piano Requia, this February previously existing music are heard through in Cologne, with Dennis Russell Davies con­ varying degrees of transformation. ducting. Sometimes the music is quoted baldly with

...... Chen Yi: Piano Concerto .

Chen Yi was born in 1953, in Guangzhou, personal risk, practicing violin with a mute China, into a family of physicians with a attached. At the age of fifteen she was sent firm interest in cultural activities. Accor­ to work in the countryside; there she played dingly, she began at the age of only three to traditional songs for her fellow-farmers on study both violin and piano, attaining sub­ the violin, interspersing the occasional stantial mastery by the time the Cultural Paganini caprice (never announced as such). Revolution descended. Even during that In 1970, when she was seventeen, she repressive era, however, she persevered in was called back to Beijing to serve as con­ the study of her instruments, at substantial certmaster and composer for the Beijing I _ PROGRAM NOTES _

Opera Company, a position that made it the larger part to the whole) and the possible to embark on a serious study of tra­ Fibonacci series (a succession of numbers ditional Chinese art music and music theory. achieved by perpetually adding two together Upon the re-establishment of the Chinese to make the next-1...1...2...3...5...8... school system in 1977, Chen enrolled in the 13 ...21 ...34, and so on - and which, as it Central Conservatory of Beijing to study happens, corresponds to such spatial rela­ both Western-style composition (with the tionships in nature as the proportions by school's British guest professor Alexander which a seashell curls or the arrangement of Goehr) and Chinese traditional music, petals in a flower). The composer subjects which involved frequent field trips to collect the Bahan melody to very substantial regional folksongs. These disparate manipulations, some according to serial pro­ threads-Chinese and Western-intertwine cedures. Chen's Piano Concerto is separated in all of her mature works, providing the­ by light years from a folksong suite. All the matic material, harmonies, structures, same, a Chinese flavor emerges from the rhythms, and timbres. In 1983, she became texture: glimpses of the tune's pentatonic the first Chinese composer to write a Viola flavor, grace notes and other ornamentation Concerto; three years later an entire evening reminiscent of traditional Chinese perfor­ of her compositions was presented in Beijing mance (and of specific traditional Chinese by a consortium of China's leading cultural instruments), an unusually colorful percus­ institutions. sion section that includes Beijing gongs both In 1986, Chen moved to to large and small. The orchestra itself is large, begin graduate study in composition at with triple winds and divided strings. Columbia University, where her principal Chen's Piano Concerto exemplifies the teachers were Chou Wen-chung and Mario complexity with which separate musical tra­ Davidovsky. She was granted the D.M.A. ditions can be made compatible through the degree with distinction in 1993, and is cur­ experience and artistry of an individual rently affiliated as resident composer with composer and her unique experiences. It three San Francisco-based organizations­ strongly reflects the composer's declaration: The Women's Philharmonic, Chanticleer, "The power of ancient totems, the crude and the Aptos Middle School. Her output beauty of ancient Chinese bronze cups, the spans a variety of genres, including choral exaggerated gestures of Han arts, the works, instrumental and vocal chamber rhythms of Tang cursive calligraphy, the music, piano solos, and works for both serenity and otherworldliness of Tao, the Chinese and for Western orchestras (includ­ sudden enlightenment of Buddhist meta­ ing two symphonies). The Piano Concerto, physics, the open-heartedness of Su Shi's which was commissioned by the Brooklyn poetry, the sweet sadness of the poetess Li Philharmonic, receives its premiere at these Qing-zhao, the drones of the Chinese two­ concerts. string fiddle, the punctuation of Beijing Cast in a single movement, the Piano Opera drum beats, and the crude beauty of Concerto derives its main impetus from the the clay dolls on the stall outside a temple popular Chinese folk tune Bahan. The song bazaar can all be heard merged into my teems with implications that appeal to the melodies and rhythms. I try to combine East intellect of the modern composer: its melody and West in ideal form and spirit." comprises both the "golden section" (a geo­ metric proportion in which the ratio of the -James M. Keller smaller to the larger part equals the ratio of

Program notes continue after advertising section. I _ PROGRAM NOTES _

...... Philip Glass: Symphony No.2 and Six Etudes .

Philip Glass's Symphony No.2 contin­ received a traditional musical education ues the symphonic journey the composer as a flutist and composer. His composi­ began about six years ago. His first full­ tion teachers included William Bergsma, scaled work in the genre, titled the Low Vincent Persichetti, Darius Milhaud, and Symphony (because some of its thematic Nadia Boulanger (Parisian midwife to a material was derived from the Brian Eno half-century of American musical tal­ and David Bowie album of that name), ent). While in Paris, he also fell under was premiered by Dennis Russell Davies the spell of the Indian sitarist Ravi and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Shankar and tabla player Allah Rakha, Orchestra, in 1992. It surprised many whose aesthetics and musical practices listeners; critics heard intimations of inspired him to embark, in the mid­ Copland, or Ives, or Bernstein. 1960's, on travels through India, Central In fact, stand-alone orchestral writ­ Asia, and North Africa. These experi­ ing represents a relatively recent phase ences helped direct him towards a in Glass's oeuvre. As the composer puts stripped-down, exploratory musical style it, "This is really the beginning of my that gained notice (and notoriety) under symphonic output." On the other hand, the name of Minimalism. In 1968 he the Low Symphony was his fifth sym­ founded the , phonic work, and many of its character­ which served as both the composer's lab­ istics had been foreshadowed in the oratory and his loudspeaker to the lis­ string of symphonic works that preceded tening public. Such signature works as it, beginning in the late 1980's: The Music in Contrary Motion, Music in Light, (a symphony in all but name, Similar Motion, and Music in Changing composed in 1987 for the Cleveland Parts helped define Glass's language, Orchestra); the Violin Concerto (also immediately recognizable through its 1987, for the American Composers repetitive rhythmic cycles and slowly Orchestra); The Canyon (1988); and the evolving structures. Concerto Grosso (1992, also a virtual In 1975, Glass brought this first symphony, written for Dennis Russell phase of his compositional career toa Davies' Beethovenhalle Orchestra). "So pinnacle with the mixed-media work the Symphony No.2," says Glass, (a collaboration "which is the sixth purely orchestral with Robert Wilson), which stretched piece, should not be a big surprise to classic Minimalism to its limit. The the­ people who have been following my atrical possibilities of his style having work regularly over the years. Of proved immediately clear, the composer course, people who haven't been listen­ embarked on a series of compositions to ing since the period when my work (and accompany stage action or film. The that of some others) was identified as resulting pieces have included the film Minimalism-those people might be sur­ scores (1981), prised." (1987), and The Thin Blue Line (1988); As one of the most widely performed the dance scores Glass Pieces (1983) and living composers, Philip Glass is well In the Upper Room (1987); and the known to "contemporary-music" audi­ operas (1980), The ences. Born in 1937, in Baltimore, Glass Photographer (1982), (1983), I _ PROGRAM NOTES _

and (premiered by the mente Instead of being a long, continuous Metropolitan Opera, in 1992). piece, the second movement becomes a Although Glass did not write for sym­ study in the juxtaposition and develop­ phony orchestra per se until the late ment of contrasting themes, yielding a 1980's, he was no stranger to it as a vehi­ succession of fast and slow tempos, ener­ cle. His first musical experiences came getic and lyrical writing. The third move­ playing flute in an orchestra at the age of ment is an Allegro at heart. ten. Later, when he was a student at Structural experimentation and Juilliard, he "was at rehearsals all the orchestral sonorities notwithstanding, the time." In any case, orchestras made up a most striking aspect of Glass's Symphony part of the forces for many of his large­ No.2 may be the ways in which melody scale compositions, such as his operas. and harmony interlock in a polytonal Glass points out: "The big problem for fashion. "I've been interested in polytonal composers these days is to get to hear music for some time, starting with their orchestral music. When you have an Akhnaten," says Glass. "We've talked an opera produced, you get the opportunity awful lot about atonality, about twelve­ to hear the orchestra rehearse your music tone music, about tonality. But the great for many more hours than you get for a experiments of polytonality carried out in 'pure' orchestral work. When the Met the 1930's and 40's show that there's still produced The Voyage, we had the luxury a lot of work to be done in that area. that symphonic composers never have­ Harmonic language and melodic language six or eight full orchestral rehearsals. In can coexist closely or at some calculated the course of those hours and hours, you distance, and their relationship can be sit with the orchestra, and listen to what's worked out in terms of either coexisting going on, and make changes in the parts if harmonies or ambiguous harmonies. necessary. It was a laboratory that Honegger, Milhaud, and Villa-Lobos-to allowed me to think through the entire name a few prominent polytonalists­ experience of symphonic sound, and this pushed two tonalities together at the same has been a tremendous help when I came time. But I'm more interested in the to write symphonies. At this point I've ambiguous qualities that can result from written a lot for orchestra. It's no longer polytonality-how what you hear depends an experimental medium for me." on how you focus your ear, how a listen­ Glass's Symphony No.2 is scored for er's perception of tonality can vary in the piccolo, two flutes, two oboes doubling fashion of an optical illusion. We're not English horn, E-flat clarinet, two B-flat talking about inventing a new language, clarinets, bass/contrabass clarinet, two but rather inventing new perceptions of bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, existing languages." three trombones, tuba, a percussion sec­ "Yes," Glass continues, "we have here tion of four players (but without timpani), tonality. But which tonality is it? At the piano, harp, and a standard complement end of the twentieth century, we've come of strings. back to the question of tonal music. The symphony is written in three con­ We've come back to the same crisis that tinuous movements, lasting about forty existed at end of the nineteenth century, minutes. The first movement opens with a but now we hear it differently, from a dif­ statement by English horn; this theme ferent perspective, because our whole per­ becomes the basis for the Allegro before ception of what is consonant and what is tapering off into a quiet coda, which dissonant has been altered during the past serves as a transition to the second move- hundred years. In my case, people hear my I _ PROGRAM NOTES _

music and say, 'Oh! it's tonal.' They hear birthday this past ApriL I was a little sur­ C major when it's actually two keys at prised, but happy, that he wanted to play once. But they hear consonance because them. It was he who named the works their ears have accommodated so com­ 'etudes,' pointing out that each piece pre­ pletely to a context of post-serial, post­ sents its own technical problem for the dodecaphonic dissonance." pianist- problems of fingering, questions of timbre, and so forth. The six etudes are in contrasting tempos-quick, slow, medi­ Philip Glass's Six Etudes, which um, slow, slow, fast-adding up to almost receive their American premiere in pre­ a half hour of music." concert recitals by Dennis Russell Davies, -James M. Keller are also recent works. Says Glass: "Dennis likes to present pre-concert recitals that JAMES M. KELLER writes about music on highlight a piece that's going to appear on the staff ofThe New Yorker, and also the regular program. So I wrote these six serves as the music critic for Piano & piano works, which are suitable for such a Keyboard. purpose, as a gift for Dennis on his 50th

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I __W_HO_'S_W_HO__

Singapore native MARGARET LENG son, he appears as guest conductor with TAN has been called, in The New the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Lyric Yorker, the "diva of the avant-garde." Opera of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony She is known for performances of Asian Orchestra, and the Lithuanian State and American music that defy her instru­ Orchestra. He also appears regularly as a ment's conventional boundaries. The pianist. A native of Toledo, Dennis first woman to graduate with a Doctorate Russell Davies studied at the Juilliard in Music from the , she School, where in 1968 he co-founded the has since created an individual perfor­ Juilliard Ensemble with Luciano Berio. mance style fusing sound, choreography, His recent recordings include works by and theater. Closely identified with the Beethoven, Copland, Kancheli, work of , Ms. Tan is recog­ Mendelssohn, Part, and Schnittke, and a nized as "the most convincing interpreter series of modern American composers. of Cage's keyboard music" (The New With the BPO, he has recorded music by York Times). A recipient of The National Peggy Glanville-Hicks, , and Endowment for the Arts' Solo Recitalist , as well as Philip Glass' best­ Award, Margaret Leng Tan has appeared selling Low Symphony. in many festivals, including Ravinia, Spoleto USA, New Music America, The BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC Out-of-Doors/Serious ORCHESTRA, now in its 41st year and Fun!, Bang on a Can, and the its fourth season under Principal Guggenheim Museum's John Cage Conductor Dennis Russell Davies, has Rolywholyover/Citycircus. Ms. Tan long been regarded as one of the most records on New Albion and Mode. Her innovative American orchestras. A 14­ most recent album of eight works by time recipient of the ASCAP/ASOL Cage, Daughters of the Lonesome Isle Award for adventuresome programming, (New Albion NA 070), has just been BPO has been awarded many honors, released. Margaret Leng Tan made her including, in 1991, a four-year National debut with the New York Philharmonic Endowment for the Arts Challenge III in 1991, and with the Brooklyn Grant for artistic initiatives. As Resident Philharmonic in 1987. Orchestra of BAM, BPO participates in BAM productions-this season, Radical DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES was appoint­ Graham and Michael Nyman, Live! ­ ed Principal Conductor of the Brooklyn and presents its own subscription series, Philharmonic and Music Director of BAM arts education programming, community as of 1991/92. He also serves as Music outreach concerts, broadcasts, and Director of the American Composers recordings. Its most recent recording fea­ Orchestra. Davies has been named Chief tures John Corigliano's Aria for Oboe Conductor of the Austrian Radio and Strings and Alec Wilder's Concerto Symphony Orchestra (effective September for Oboe, Orchestra and Percussion with 1996) and Chief Conductor of the Humbert Lucarelli, oboe, conducted by Chamber Orchestra (effective Michael Barrett. The Orchestra's 1995). As General Music Director of the Conductor Laureate, Lukas Foss, served City of Bonn, a post he will occupy until as Music Director from 1971 to 1990. August 1995, he is chief conductor of both the Beethovenhalle Orchestra and the Bonn Opera House. Prior to his Bonn appointment, he was General Music Director of the Stuttgart Opera. This sea- I _ PROGRAM NOTES _

BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL

VIOLIN I BASS James Stubbs Benjamin Hudson, Joe Bongiorno, Carl Albach concertmaster principal Robert Chausow Dennis James TROMBONE Diane Bruce Louis Bruno Hugh Eddy, Rebekah Johnson Janet Conway Barbour principal Lenard Rivlin Jules Hirsh Lawrence Benz CIaudia Hafer Vernon Post Sander Strenger FLUTE/PICCOLO Deborah Wong Katherine Fink, TUBA Ann Labin principal Andrew Seligson, Nam Sook Lee David Wechsler principal Diva Goodfriend-Koven VIOLIN II TIMPANI Darryl Kubian, OBOE James Preiss, principal Henry Schuman, principal Dale Stuckenbruck principal Katherine Hannauer Melanie Feld, PERCUSSION Eugenie Seid Kroop English horn David Frost Sebu Sirinian Robert Walters Benjamin Herman Shin Won Kim William Trigg Elizabeth Miller CLARINET Dennis Linkevitch Steve Hartman, HARP Lisa Brooke principal Karen Lindquist, Louellen Abdoo Laura Flax principal Paul Garment, VIOLA E-flat clarinet KEYBOARD/PIANO Janet Lyman Hill, Gerhardt Koch, Ken Bowen, principal bass clarinet principal Ron Carbone Veronica Salas BASSOON Karen Ritscher Frank Morelli, Monica Gerard principal Christine Ims Harry Searing, Ann Roggen contrabassoon Debra Shufelt Jefrey Marchand Alexander Rees Adam Hyman FRENCH HORN Frank Donaruma, CELLO principal Lanny Paykin, Scott Temple principal Michael Martin Michael Rudiakov Dan Culpepper Josh Gordon Peter Rosenfeld TRUMPET Sarah Fiene Wilmer Wise, Frank Murphy principal I _PROGRAM NOTES _

BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chairman Vice Presidents Honorary Chairpersons Stanley H. Kaplan Jerry Jacobs Hon. Elizabeth Holtzman Paul Travis Hon. Howard Golden President Laura Walker Rabbi EugeneJ. Sack Robert C. Rosenberg Directors Honorary Directors Honorary Chairman Kevin Burke Daniel Eisenberg 1. Stanley Kriegel Susan Fletcher Joseph Scorcia H. Wiley Hitchcock Treasurer Kenneth Jackson Advisory Board Richard Kane Harvey Lichtenstein Jack Litwack (Chairman) Georgia J. Malone Lillian Besunder Executive Vice Presidents Charles Merideth Henry J. Foner Craig G. Matthews Gloria Messinger Nicholas M. Infantino John Tamberlane John M. Powers, Jr. Arnold L. Sabin Julie Ratner Hon. Edolphus Towns Janet L. Scherer

BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA STAFF

Principal Conductor Dennis Russell Davies Conductor Laureate Lukas Foss

Executive Producer Development Associate Director ofPress and Harvey Lichtenstein Liz Norman Public Relations William Murray Executive Director Librarian Joseph Horowitz Patrick McCarty Volunteer Council Jules Hirsh, President Artistic Director Orchestra Personnel Laura Keith, Maurice Edwards Manager Vice President Dale Stuckenbruck Kathy Cole, Operations Manager/ Vice President Education Director Administrative Assistant Richard Lee Bridgette Kohnhorst

Development Associate Director ofFinance Lisa B. Segal Arthur J. Shaw

Development Associate Director ofMarketing Paul Fricken Tambra Dillon I