Season 2020111111----2020202011112222 The Philadelphia Orchestra Thursday, February 23, at 8:00 Friday, February 242424,24 , at 222:002:00:00:00 Saturday, February 252525,25 , at 8:00 Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos Conductor Emanuel Ax Piano Mozart Serenade in D major, K. 239 (“Serenata notturna”) I. Marcia: Maestoso II. Menuetto—Trio—Menuetto da capo III. Rondeau: Allegretto—Allegro David Kim, violin Kimberly Fisher, violin Kirsten Johnson, viola Michael Shahan, double bass Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503 I. Allegro maestoso II. Andante III. Allegretto Intermission Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 I. Un poco sostenuto—Allegro II. Andante sostenuto III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso IV. Adagio—Più andante—Allegro non troppo, ma con brio—Più allegro This program runs approximately 2 hours. A regular guest with North America’s top orchestras, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducts the Cincinnati, Boston, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, and Montreal symphonies, and the Los Angeles and New York philharmonics in the 2011-12 season. He appears annually at the Tanglewood Music Festival and regularly with the National, Chicago, and Toronto symphonies. Born in Burgos, Spain, in 1933, Mr. Frühbeck studied violin, piano, music theory, and composition at the conservatories in Bilbao and Madrid and conducting at Munich’s Hochschule für Musik, where he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded the Richard Strauss Prize. From 2004 to 2011 he was chief conductor and artistic director of the Dresden Philharmonic. With the 2012-13 season he takes up the post of chief conductor of the Danish National Orchestra. Mr. Frühbeck has made extensive tours with such ensembles as London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Symphony, the National Orchestra of Madrid, and the Swedish Radio Orchestra, and he has toured North America with the Vienna Symphony, the Spanish National Orchestra, and the Dresden Philharmonic. Mr. Frühbeck was named Conductor of the Year by Musical America in 2011. His other honors and distinctions include the Gold Medal of the City of Vienna, the Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Republic of Austria and Germany, the Gold Medal from the Gustav Mahler International Society, and the Jacinto Guerrero Prize, Spain’s most important musical award, conferred in 1997 by Queen Sofía of Spain. In 1998 Mr. Frühbeck was appointed emeritus conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra. He has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Navarra in Spain, and since 1975 he has been a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Mr. Frühbeck has recorded extensively for the EMI, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Spanish Columbia, and Orfeo labels. Among his recordings are Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Saint Paul, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina burana, Bizet’s Carmen, and the complete works of Manual de Falla. Mr. Frühbeck made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1969. Born in Lvov, Poland, pianist Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at the Juilliard School were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. Additionally he attended Columbia University, where he majored in French. Mr. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1975. Highlights of Mr. Ax’s 2011-12 season include return visits to the Boston, Houston, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Cincinnati symphonies, and the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics. In addition he appears at the San Francisco Symphony’s multi-city American Mavericks festival and the Chicago Symphony’s Keys to the City festival. In Europe he returns to the Berlin and London philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Orchestre National de France. He also performs a series of Beethoven sonata programs with violinist Leonidas Kavakos at London’s Wigmore Hall. Mr. Ax is an exclusive Sony Classical recording artist. Recent releases include Mendelssohn trios with Yo-Yo- Ma and Itzhak Perlman, Strauss's Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart, and discs of two-piano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. Mr. Ax has received Grammy awards for his recordings of Haydn’s piano sonatas as well as discs with Mr. Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. His other recordings include the concertos of Liszt and Schoenberg, three solo Brahms albums, an album of tangos by Astor Piazzolla, and John Adams's Century Rolls with the Cleveland Orchestra for Nonesuch. Mr. Ax resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki, with whom he has two children. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale and Columbia universities. FRAMING THE PROGRAM The month Mozart turned 20 he composed one of his many serenades—this one carrying the rather redundant title, added to the manuscript by his formidable father, Leopold, of “Serenata notturna.” (Historically serenades were pieces performed at night to woo a lover.) The three-movement work pits a string orchestra and timpani against four solo strings, with Mozart delighting in the opportunities such a juxtaposition offers. Mozart composed more than two dozen piano concertos, most of them for his own use at concerts in which he could display his gifts as a composer, performer, and improviser. The Concerto in C major, K. 503, is the last in a series of 12 that he wrote during the height of his popularity in Vienna and dates from the time he composed The Marriage of Figaro. Like Mozart before him, Brahms was already a highly acclaimed composer when he was in his 20s. But as he won his fame with piano and chamber music works, and with the great success of his German Requiem, many wondered when he would finally get around to composing a symphony. It was not until 1876, at age 43, that he completed his long- incubated Symphony No. 1, a work immediately hailed as “Beethoven’s Tenth.” Parallel Events 1776 Mozart Serenade in D major Music Haydn Symphony No. 61 Literature Paine Common Sense Art Fragonard The Washerwoman History British abandon Boston 1786 Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 Music Dittersdorf Doktor und Apotheker Literature Bourgoyne The Heiress Art Goya The Seasons History Frederick the Great dies 1876 Brahms Symphony No. 1 Music Ponchielli La gioconda Literature Mallarmé L’Après-midi d’un faune ArtArtArt Renoir In the Garden History World Exhibition in Philadelphia Serenade in D major (“Serenata notturna”) Wolfgang Amadè Mozart Born in Salzburg, January 27, 1756 Died in Vienna, December 5, 1791 What’s in a name? Shakespeare’s answer notwithstanding (“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”), names certainly set up expectations when it comes to musical pieces. We tend to think that a concerto does one thing, a symphony another, and a serenade yet another. Yet such designations were much more fluid in Mozart’s days. He would sometimes call an orchestra work an overture and another time a symphony, but the names and forms were in fact interchangeable. By adding and eliminating some movements a serenade could become a symphony, which Mozart did when he transformed his “Haffner” Serenade (K. 250) into his Symphony No. 35 (K. 385). 18th18th----CenturyCentury Party Music In the 18th century there were a whole variety of pieces that went by various names but that meant roughly the same thing: “serenata,” “divertimento,” “scherzando,” “notturno,” and “cassation.” All were pieces intended as informal entertainment, often at night and usually outdoors. In a musical dictionary from 1732, Johann Gottfried Walther defined a serenade as “an evening piece; because such works are usually performed on quiet and pleasant nights.” This was music typically written for aristocrats (such as the Haffner family) and that was meant to divert (hence the “divertimento”). It often functioned as Tafelmusik, literally “table music,” that accompanied eating and other activities—thus a type of background music, aural wallpaper, or 18th-century Muzak. Over the span of his career, Mozart composed many such works. Some had eight or more movements and could last close to an hour with a lot of internal repeats within the piece. The instrumentation varied greatly, from chamber music with just three players to full orchestra. The Serenade in D major heard on today’s concert is scored for two string ensembles, one consisting of two solo violins, viola, and a double bass, the other of a string orchestra with timpani. Mozart revels in the possibilities of pitting one group against the other. The K. 239 Serenade was composed in January 1776, the month Mozart turned 20. January is obviously not a month for outdoor music and it is not clear what the impetus was, although probably one connected with the approaching carnival season before Lent. The subtitle on the manuscript is in his father’s hand: “Serenata notturna,” and thus an older sibling of the more famous Serenade in G major (K. 525), entitled “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” (A Little Night Music). A Closer Look The “Serenata notturna” has just three movements, opening with a loud majestic march (Marcia:Marcia: MaestosoMaestoso) that alternates with softer, more lyrical writing. A delightful effect interspersed at several points is the solo timpani playing over pizzicato chords of the string orchestra. The second movement Menuetto begins as a forceful and regal dance, with Mozart again playing with contrasting dynamics of loud and soft, and balancing effects between the two string ensembles.