James Conlon Conductor Leonidas Kavakos Violin Golijov Sidereus
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Program One HunDreD TwenTieTH 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 21, 2011, at 8:00 Friday, April 22, 2011, at 1:30 Saturday, April 23, 2011, at 8:00 James Conlon Conductor Leonidas Kavakos Violin golijov Sidereus Commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a consortium of orchestras from the United States and Canada in honor of Henry Fogel First Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances Sibelius Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 Allegro moderato Adagio di molto Allegro, ma non tanto LeOniDAS KAVAKOS IntermISSIon Shostakovich, arranged by James Conlon Suite from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk At the ismailov estate (Adagio)—Largo—interlude (Allegro con brio)— Allegro—Katerina and Sergei i (Allegro molto)—Adagio—Passacaglia (Largo)—Katerina and Sergei ii (Andante)—The Drunkard (Allegro)— interlude: Circus Polka (Allegretto)—The Police (Presto)—exile to Siberia (Adagio) First Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription performances Friday’s matinee concert is endowed in part by Elaine Frank in memory of Zollie Frank. These programs are part of the citywide festival The Soviet Arts Experience. 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. CommentS by PHiLLiP HuSCHer osvaldo golijov Born December 5, 1960, La Plata, Argentina. Sidereus, overture for Small orchestra lthough Sidereus was commis- League of American Orchestras, he Asioned by thirty-five orchestras further strengthened his ties with and first performed in Memphis this country’s network of orches- last October, it has unusually strong tras, large and small, to which ties to the Chicago Symphony, he had long devoted much of his since it was written to honor Henry so-called spare time. Sidereus is a Fogel, who was president of the way of acknowledging his devotion CSO for eighteen years begin- to the world of American orches- ning in 1985, and was composed tras—and of adding a new work by Osvaldo Golijov, who was this to the repertoire that Fogel knows orchestra’s Mead Composer-in- in unusual depth and loves with Residence from 2006 to 2010. The contagious enthusiasm. unusual consortium commission Golijov says he accepted the was designed to pay tribute to League’s commission because of his Fogel, a tireless and passionate admiration for Fogel’s “long-term champion of classical music, who thinking, his love for what orches- entered the orchestra management tras represent in our society, and field in 1978, after fifteen years in his wisdom in helping orchestras classical radio station, and quickly not only to survive but to thrive, became one of the most influential through strategies that are specific people in the business, working to each of the orchestras’ communi- with the New York Philharmonic ties and conditions.” Golijov took and National Symphony before his title from a book by Galileo, coming to the Chicago Symphony. Sidereus Nuncius (“It’s more com- Once Fogel stepped down as monly translated as ‘Starry messen- president of the CSO in 2003 and ger,’” Golijov says, “but to me the became president and CEO of the word ‘sidereal’ is more beautiful.”) ComPoSed These are the first CSO two trumpets and piccolo 2010 performances trumpet, two trombones and Commissioned in honor of tuba, timpani, strings Henry Fogel InStrumentatIon two flutes, oboe and english aPProxImate FIrSt PerFormanCe horn, two clarinets and bass PerFormanCe tIme October 16, 2010, clarinet, two bassoons and 9 minutes Memphis, Tennessee contrabassoon, two horns, 2 The observations of Galileo traditions of his own complex included new discoveries on identity. With works like Azul, the surface of the moon. With which was inspired, after a trip to these discoveries, the moon the planetarium in New York City, was no longer the province of by the sight of the earth as simply poets exclusively. It had also a “beautiful blue dot in space,” and become an object of inquiry: Sidereus, Golijov lifts his eyes to Could there be water there? the sky. Life? If there was life, then the For the “moon” theme in Sidereus, Vatican was scared, because, as Golijov used a melody with Cardinal Bellarmino wrote to Galileo: How were the people a beautiful, open nature, a there created? How would magnified scale fragment that their souls be saved? What do my good friend and longtime we do about Adam? Wasn’t he collaborator accordionist supposed to be the first man? Michael Ward-Bergeman came How do we explain the origin up with some years ago when of possible life elsewhere? we both were trying to develop What about his rib? It’s the ideas for a musical depiction duality: the moon is still of the sky in Patagonia. I good for love and lovers and then looked at that theme as poets, but a scientific observa- if through the telescope and tion can lead us to entirely under the microscope, so that new realizations. the textures, the patterns from which the melody emerges and Exploration and discovery have into which it dissolves, point long been the heart of Golijov’s to a more molecular, atomic music. When he was a boy, his reality—like Galileo with uncle gave him a desk with a map his telescope. of the world on top. What began in childhood as an imaginary adven- Since its premiere in Memphis ture—roaming the globe instead in October, Sidereus has been of doing homework—eventually making the rounds. It was per- became a personal journey with formed last month by the Reno a deep, lasting impact on his life Chamber Orchestra and the and work—one that has traversed Stockton Symphony in California; three continents, from his native next week it will be performed Argentina to Israel, where he lived by two orchestras on the same in the early 1980s, to the United day—by the Kitchener-Waterloo States, where he settled in 1986. Symphony in Ontario, Canada, Works like his breakthrough and by the Kansas City Symphony. Passion According to Saint Mark and It will eventually be played by all Ainadamar, his opera, established thirty-five commissioning orches- his reputation for writing music tras, crisscrossing the map from deeply rooted in the cultures and Vermont to Oregon. 3 Jean Sibelius Born December 8, 1865, Tavastehus, Finland. Died September 20, 1957, Järvenpää, Finland. Violin Concerto in d minor, op. 47 nlike many composers who began practicing scales. Even as Uwrote famous violin concertos, late as 1915, long after he had put Sibelius himself was a violinist. The the violin aside and was a highly violin was his first instrument, and regarded composer, he wrote in his his earliest composition was a little diary: “Dreamt I was twelve years piece for violin and cello called old and a virtuoso.” Water Drops, which he wrote when Sibelius was a natural to write he was ten. After he began serious violin concertos, but in the end violin study at the age of fourteen, he wrote only one, and he spent he was hooked: “the violin took enormous time and energy on it me by storm, and for the next ten before he was satisfied. No doubt it years it was my dearest wish, my was, in some deep sense, his own overriding ambition, to become a concerto, even though he would great virtuoso.” When he moved to never attempt to play it. Perhaps Vienna in 1890 to study composi- this explains not only the great tion, Sibelius played in the con- pains he took in writing the piece, servatory orchestra and ultimately but also the way he treated the man couldn’t resist auditioning for the who had asked him for it. Willy philharmonic. He broke down Burmester had known Sibelius and wept when he got back to his briefly in Finland before his career room, then went to the piano and as a violin virtuoso took off. It was ComPoSed moSt reCent aPProxImate 1902–1904 CSo PerFormanCeS PerFormanCe tIme november 4, 2007, Orchestra 32 minutes FIrSt PerFormanCe Hall. Arabella Steinbacher, February 8, 1904, Helsinki, violin, with Christoph von CSo reCordIngS Finland Dohnányi conducting 1959. Jascha Heifetz, July 9, 2008, ravinia Festival. violin, with walter Hendl FIrSt CSo Joshua bell, violin, with conducting. rCA PerFormanCe Leonard Slatkin conducting 1996. Maxim Vergerov, violin, January 25, 1907, Orchestra with Daniel barenboim Hall. Maud Powell, InStrumentatIon conducting. Teldec violin, with Frederick two flutes, two oboes, two Stock conducting clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings 4 Burmester who persuaded Sibelius subsequent reworking tried to to write the concerto in the first restore that balance. Still, from place; the piece was tailor-made for the very first measures, it is the him, and he assumed he would give solo voice, rather than its dialogue the premiere. Sibelius began the with orchestra, that commands score in 1902 and finished a com- our attention. In September 1902, pleted draft in the autumn of 1903. Sibelius had written to his wife He sent the work to Burmester, about “a marvelous opening idea” who responded: “Wonderful! for the concerto. What he ultimately Masterly! Only once before have I put on paper is truly unforgettable, spoken in such terms to a composer, with the violin entering almost at and that was when Tchaikovsky once on a sustained mezzo-forte G showed me his concerto.” quite at odds with the orchestra’s But when Burmester suggested shimmering D minor. From there, that he needed time to master the violin takes off on a long, rhap- the work, Sibelius hired Viktor sodic theme; allows the orchestra Nováček, a musician of no particu- one extended statement of its own; lar distinction who is remembered and then banishes it entirely from only for this one day in his life, the central development section, to give the first performance.