(Eroica) Edo D

Please note that CSO music director Riccardo Muti is suffering from the flu and has regretfully withdrawn from this week’s concerts. The CSO welcomes Edo de Waart, who has graciously agreed to conduct. The program remains unchanged. PROgRaM ONE HuNdREd TWENTy-SECONd 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 Wednesday, January 9, 2013, at 6:30 (Afterwork Masterworks, performed with no intermission) Edo de Waart Conductor Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (Eroica) Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 8:00 Friday, January 11, 2013, at 1:30 Saturday, January 12, 2013, at 8:00 Tuesday, January 15, 2013, at 7:30 Edo de Waart Conductor Radu Lupu Piano Music by Ludwig van Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15 Allegro con brio Largo Rondo: Allegro RAdu LuPu InTERMISSIOn Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (Eroica) Allegro con brio Marcia funebre: Adagio assai Scherzo: Allegro vivace Finale: Allegro molto These concerts are generously sponsored by the Zell Family Foundation. CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines. The Chicago Symphony Orchestras is grateful to WBBM Newsradio 780 and 105.9 FM for its generous support as media sponsor of the Afterwork Masterwork series. This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Comments byBy PhilliDanielP J hAFFuscheré PHILLIP HuSCHER Ludwig van Beethoven Born December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany. Died March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria. Leonore overture no. 3, op. 72b f the four overtures Beethoven final scene—a convention never Owrote for his opera Leonore— sanctioned by Beethoven, but one later renamed Fidelio—only the loved by many conductors, includ- one called Leonore no. 3 has gained ing Mahler and Toscanini—is favor both in the concert hall, problematic because it first delays where it is much loved, and in and then gives away the ending. the opera house, where it is often Despite its number, Leonore no. 3 played, inappropriately, just before is Beethoven’s second version of the finale. That it is an intruder the overture. Although it is more in the opera house, where it can concise and less symphonic than his too easily overshadow all but the first effort (the work we call Leonore greatest performances of Fidelio, is no. 2), it does not avoid the dilemma something Beethoven himself easily of telling us everything about the could have told us. opera, in music of unforgettable The Leonore Overture no. 3 is as substance and power, before the dramatic as any music Beethoven curtain goes up. Beethoven ulti- wrote, and that is part of the mately understood the situation problem. Placed before the curtain well and wrote his fourth and final rises, it overshadows much of what overture to Fidelio—less power- follows. Playing it just before the ful music, but better stagecraft. ComPosed most reCent Cso Cso reCordIngs 1804–1806 PerFormanCe 1972. Sir Georg Solti June 16, 2010, conducting. London FIrst PerFormanCe Orchestra Hall. Bernard 1988. Sir Georg Solti November 20, 1805, Vienna Haitink conducting conducting. London (the opera Leonore) InstrumentatIon A 1961 performance (for March 29, 1806, Vienna two flutes, two oboes, two television) conducted by (Leonore Overture no. 3) clarinets, two bassoons, four George Szell was released horns, two trumpets, three by VAI. FIrst Cso trombones, timpani, strings, PerFormanCe offstage trumpet January 29, 1892, Auditorium Theatre. Theodore aPProxImate Thomas conducting PerFormanCe tIme 13 minutes 2 (Leonore no. 1 was written in 1807 of the prison cell where Florestan for a production in Prague that has been unjustly sent. Florestan never took place; the score was remembers brighter days, and the discovered after Beethoven’s death, music, ignited by his hope, is filled mistaken for his earliest effort, and with fire and action. The distant assigned the number one.) trumpet call of the tower guard, In the concert hall, where it announcing Florestan’s reprieve, has ultimately retired, the Leonore brings silence and then guarded Overture no. 3 is a miracle of optimism, but the trumpet sounds dramatic music, as compelling as again, and freedom seems certain. any symphonic poem in the litera- At the news, the flute cannot ture. The overture tells, or at least contain its rapture. Beethoven then distills, the essence of the story. treats us to a full-scale, symphonic, Beethoven begins in the darkness utterly heroic recapitulation. Symphony Center Information The use of still or video cameras Please turn off or silence all and recording devices is prohibited personal electronic devices in Orchestra Hall. (pagers, watches, telephones, digital assistants). Latecomers will be seated during designated program pauses. Please note that symphony Center PLease nOTe: some programs is a smoke-free environment. do not allow for latecomers to be seated in the hall. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Please use perfume, cologne, and all other scented products sparingly, as many patrons are sensitive to fragrance. Note: Fire exits are located on all levels and are for emergency use only. The lighted exit sign nearest your seat is the shortest route outdoors. Please walk—do not run—to your exit and do not use elevators for emergency exit. Volunteer ushers provided by The Saints—Volunteers for the Performing Arts (www.saintschicago.org) 3 Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 1 in C major, op. 15 his is not Beethoven’s first piano Jumping ahead nearly a decade, Tconcerto. We are usually taught we come to the first works in the that the B-flat major concerto genre that Beethoven wished to known as no. 2 is really no. 1, acknowledge: a concerto in B-flat, but that is not entirely accurate probably begun before 1793, and either. Sometime in 1784, when the C major concerto on this Beethoven was only fourteen years program, which was composed in old, he wrote a piano concerto 1795. Both works were published in E-flat major. It is the sort of in 1801, but in the reverse order. sprawling, self-important, and Although Beethoven played both florid music that teenagers often of these concertos in public on write (assuming that they compose several occasions, he was intensely music at all), and it is a greater self-critical, and, when it came testament to the young Beethoven’s time to publish them, he could apparent virtuosity as a pianist think of nothing good to say about than to his incipient talent as a either one: composer. Although the full score is lost, we still have a copy of the One of my first concertos [in piano part, including indications B-flat] and therefore not one for orchestral cues. (The concerto of the best of my composi- was reconstructed by Willi Hess tions is to be published by and performed for the first time Hofmeister, and Mollo is to in 1943.) publish a concerto [in C major] ComPosed most reCent Cso aPProxImate 1795 PerFormanCe PerFormanCe tIme January 21, 2012, Orchestra 37 minutes FIrst PerFormanCe Hall. Till Fellner, piano; december 18, 1795, Vienna. Manfred Honeck conducting Cso reCordIngs The composer as soloist 1972. Vladimir Ashkenazy, InstrumentatIon piano; Sir Georg Solti FIrst Cso one flute, two oboes, two conducting. London PerFormanCe clarinets, two bassoons, 1983. Alfred Brendel, piano; March 12, 1915, Orchestra two horns, two trumpets, James Levine conducting. Hall. Rudolph Ganz, piano; timpani, strings Philips Frederick Stock conducting 4 which indeed was written later Mozart’s great C major concerto, but which also does not rank which he undoubtedly knew by among the best of my works in the time this piece was written, this form. Beethoven works on a larger canvas here than in the B-flat concerto. By 1801, Beethoven’s style had (He also adds clarinets, trumpets, changed dramatically. He recently and timpani to the orchestra.) had begun a third piano concerto Beethoven begins quietly, having in C minor, one of the works already learned that a soft open- with which he would establish his ing is often the quickest way to primacy in the new century. From capture an audience’s attention. our viewpoint, the Third Piano The music is robust and energetic, Concerto does not mark a critical despite the dynamic, and it soon advance over the first two, but, for bursts forth with typical Beethoven Beethoven, every step forward was fervor. There is some characteristic important and hard won. Later horseplay with the choice of keys— generations, in fact, would lump all the second theme begins in faraway three concertos together as “early E-flat—and Beethoven borrows period” works, although that does from Mozart the unexpected touch not mean lesser Beethoven. of allowing the piano to enter Beethoven apparently was more with music the orchestra has not interested in the C major concerto already presented (although, unlike than he let on because he composed Mozart, he never returns to the three cadenzas for its first move- piano’s new theme). ment. All three are obviously later The slow movement is longer efforts, apparently dating from than the corresponding movement 1809, the time of the Emperor of any other concerto by Beethoven, Concerto—his fifth and last piano but here he has learned how to concerto. By then, Beethoven move through slow music so that it realized that his worsening deaf- never drags; the extra length is all ness would soon force him off the bonus. The leisurely coda includes a concert stage, and he wrote out poignant conversation between the definitive versions of the cadenzas piano and the first clarinet.

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