2020 feb

HADELICH PLAYS PAGANINI 2019-20 HAL & JEANETTE SEGERSTROM FAMILY FOUNDATION CLASSICAL SERIES

Michael Francis, conductor Rouse PROSPERO’S ROOMS Augustin Hadelich, violin Paganini VIOLIN NO. 1 IN D MAJOR Allegro maestoso Adagio Rondo: Allegro spiritoso Augustin Hadelich

Intermission

Rachmaninoff SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN A MINOR Lento—Allegro moderato—Allegro Adagio ma non troppo—Allegro Allegro—Allegro vivace

Thursday, February 27, 2020 @ 8 p.m. Friday, February 28, 2020 @ 8 p.m. The appearances of Augustin Hadelich and Saturday, February 29, 2020 @ 8 p.m. Michael Francis have been generously underwritten by Segerstrom Center for the Arts a gift from Sam and Lyndie Ersan. Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR This concert is being recorded for broadcast on Sunday, March 15, 2020, on Classical KUSC.

PacificSymphony.org FEB 2020 5 PROGRAM NOTES in the world of atonality; yet he was also a influenced his compositional as well as rock’n’roll fan (Led Zeppelin was a favorite) his playing style. and taught a class on the history of rock None of this even begins to suggest Christopher Rouse: while on the faculty at the Eastman School the nature or extent of Paganini’s of Music. celebrity, which spread through Italy Prospero’s Rooms Regarding Prospero’s Rooms, Rouse and then took Europe by storm. After an Lovers of classical noted on his website: “In the days when I 1813 concert at Milan’s La Scala opera music lost one would have still contemplated composing house, he was spoken of in the same of their own in an opera, my preferred source was Edgar reverential tones as other great violinists, 2019 when the Allan Poe’s ‘Masque of the Red Death.’… including Charles Philippe Lafont and Pulitzer Prize- However… I decided to redirect my ideas Louis Spohr. But Paganini had a unique winning composer into what might be considered an overture brand of virtuosity. On stage he cut Christopher to an unwritten opera. The story concerns a lean, charismatic figure and had a Rouse died just a vain Prince, Prospero, who summons demonstrative, athletic playing style. weeks before the his friends to his palace and locks them Offstage, he was a notorious womanizer. premiere of his in so that they will remain safe from the The cult of the superstar performer can Symphony No. 6. Red Death, a plague that is ravaging the arguably be traced to the screaming, At age 70, Rouse, who had renal cancer, countryside. He commands that there be hysterical fans who were known to faint continued to refine the symphony until just a ball—the ‘masque’—but that no one is to at the sound of his trill. And the legend days before his death, which came on the wear red. But of course a figure clad all in of the magically skilled musician who got last day of summer. red does appear; it is the red death, and it his chops in a deal with the devil—as in With his often unpredictable and always claims the lives of all in the castle.” the myth about the legendary American passionate music, Rouse achieved both bluesman Robert Johnson—starts here broad popularity and critical acclaim. as well. Could anyone really play the violin Born in 1949, he showed musical talent Niccolò Paganini: like that without supernatural help? early, and was largely self-taught before Not surprisingly, Paganini composed entering the Oberlin Conservatory in Violin Concerto No. 1 in his violin to impress us as 1967. There he studied composition with well as for our enjoyment. The melodies Richard Hoffmann and Randolph Coleman, D Major Sometimes it’s best are pleasing, but it’s all about the receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1971. not to let the facts virtuosity: the skills they require are truly Before enrolling for graduate studies get in the way of a spectacular. Paganini began composing at Cornell, he took two years of private good story. From the Concerto No. 1 in 1817, when he was study with George Crumb in Philadelphia; the facts of Niccolò 35—not an advanced age for a violin then, after completion of his master’s and Paganini’s life, we soloist. But its densely chromatic double- doctorate degrees, he joined the faculty might expect him and triple-stops reveal that his technical of the School of Music of the University of to be just another skills were already mature, possibly Michigan in 1978. He taught at the Eastman virtuoso violinist surpassing anything that had previously School of Music from 1981 to 2002, and was and composer: born been heard. on the composition faculty of The Juilliard in 1782, third of six Program listings generally show School since 1997. children and tagged as a musical prodigy this concerto without a key signature. Many of today’s composers are by the time he was 5. Niccolò’s father was Paganini composed the orchestral parts described as “eclectic,” but the breadth a struggling trader who supplemented in E-flat, but the solo part in D major with of Christopher Rouse’s music goes far his income as a mandolin player; Niccolò the violin to be tuned a semitone high beyond that. After graduating from Oberlin picked up the instrument at age 5, (scordatura). Ask any fiddler: playing and Cornell, he studied composition mastered it within two years and went on some of these solo passages in E-flat with Karel Husa and George Crumb, both to the violin. He went on to study with the would be virtually impossible. rigorous musical experimenters at home most prominent violin teachers in Italy, who

Christopher Rouse Niccolò Paganini Born: 1949. Baltimore, Maryland Born: 1782. Genoa, Italy Died: 2019. Towson, Maryland Died: 1840. Nice, France Prospero’s Rooms Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major Composed: 2011 Composed: 1817-18 World premiere: April 17, 2013, with Alan Gilbert leading the World premiere: March 31, 1819 with Paganini as soloist New York Philharmonic Most recent Pacific Symphony performance: Sept. 23, 2004, with First Pacific Symphony performance: Feb. 27, 2020 Carl St.Clair conducting Instrumentation: 3 flutes including piccolo, 3 including Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 , 2 including English horn, 3 clarinets including bass , 3 bassoons including contrabasoon; 2 horns, 2 , 3 ; , percussion; contrabasoon; 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, ; timpani, strings; solo violin percussion; harp; strings Estimated duration: 35 minutes Estimated duration: 8 minutes

6 FEB 2020 PacificSymphony.org Sergei Rachmaninoff: that survived his depression. He would initial disaster for the second symphony’s Symphony No. 3 in A Minor later describe the premiere of this premiere, this time conducting it himself to symphony as “the most agonizing hour critical and public acclaim. Rachmaninoff of my life,” one that plunged him into Almost 30 years after that triumph, understood a mental state that would certainly be Rachmaninoff arrived at his newly-built symphonic diagnosed today as clinical depression. retreat on the shores of Switzerland’s composition The core of his identity—belief in his beautiful Lake Lucerne for the express not only as an calling as a composer—was gone. Initial purpose of composing a third symphony. All artistic challenge, sketches for another symphony and an signs augured well: the house was dazzling, but as a career opera based on Dante’s tale of Francesca his spirits were good and his initial sketches prerequisite. His da Rimini were shelved. (Tchaikovsky, for the work went well. But soon, delays potential as a whom Rachmaninoff greatly admired, had began to deter him, including a three-week conductor and composed a tone poem on that subject). rest-cure at a spa in Baden-Baden in July pianist was not Every attempt at new work brought blank and a two-week interruption the following in question, but he was committed to aridity, and it seemed Rachmaninoff month. By summer’s end he had fallen far composition above all, and a symphony might never compose again—least of all a behind, and did not finish the symphony was a critically important milestone for his symphony. until the following summer in 1936. career. He first approached the form when Rachmaninoff’s creative stasis lasted The symphony opens with a haunting he was 22, fashioning an ambitious work about three years. It ended as famously theme, half-prayer and half-chant, that is in the tradition of forebears he admired, as it began, with what we might now call richly cloaked in the textures of stopped including Tchaikovsky and Borodin. It an intervention: a group of concerned horns, cellos and clarinets. As the was ardent, poetic and a disaster, thanks individuals including an aunt, various movement unfolds, it daringly combines to a premiere performance that was an cousins and a family friend confronted him both slow movement and scherzo. utter shambles. Led by the composer in 1900 and persuaded him to consult the Critics often describe this symphony as and conductor Alexander Glazunov, the physician Nikolai Dahl, who specialized “surprising”; instead of the long sweeps of symphony’s first public performance was in treating alcoholic patients via romantic melody that we might expect from said to be the product of an excess of hypnotherapy. Dahl treated Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff, it gives us inner voices of vodka and a shortage of rehearsal time. for three years with repetitive hypnotic contemplation and even modernity, finally Given the time and place—St. Petersburg affirmations that could have come from returning us to the suggestive, quasi- in still-frigid March 1897—it’s a facile the mouth of Svengali, the demonic religious feelings with which it opens. explanation, but appears to be true hypnotist who first appeared around the nonetheless. same time (in 1895) in the novel Trilby. “You The audience’s bafflement and the will work with great facility,” Dahl insisted, Michael Clive is a cultural reporter living critics’ hostility resulted in one of the and it’s hard to deny that he effected a in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut. most famous cases of composer’s block cure: Rachmaninoff not only resumed He is program annotator for Pacific in musical history. Imagine Rachmaninoff composing, but produced his Piano Symphony and Louisiana Philharmonic, and hearing his symphony mauled bar-by-bar, Concerto No. 2, his most popular work, editor‑in‑chief for The Santa Fe Opera. a disaster unfolding in slow motion. Yes, like the sudden onrush of a broken logjam. composers are a temperamental lot, but He dedicated it to Dr. Dahl. few have been quite so vulnerable to their His return to symphonic composition own doubts or those of the critics. A harsh may represent an even greater triumph. judgment in print or less-than-enthusiastic By the time he composed his second audience reaction was enough to plunge symphony, in 1906 and 1907, his success Rachmaninoff into a despairing creative in his native Russia was such that he paralysis so bleak, so crippling, that we sought privacy with his family in Germany, must now count ourselves fortunate to relocating to the music-friendly city of have the relative handful of compositions Dresden. He returned to the scene of his

Sergei Rachmaninoff Born: 1873. Semyonovo, Russia Died: 1943. Beverly Hills, California Symphony No. 3 in A Minor Composed: 1935-36 World premiere: Nov. 6, 1936, with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia First Pacific Symphony performance: Feb. 27, 2020 Instrumentation: 3 flutes including piccolo, 3 oboes including English horn, 3 clarinets including , 3 bassoons including contrabasoon; 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; timpani, percussion; harp; celesta; strings Estimated duration: 39 minutes

PacificSymphony.org FEB 2020 7 Philharmonic Orchestra (2014), which was nominated for a Gramophone Award and listed by NPR as one of their top 10 classical CD’s of that year. Born in Italy, the son of German parents, Hadelich is now an American citizen. He holds an artist diploma from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Joel Smirnoff. After winning the gold medal at the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, concerto and recital appearances on many of the world’s top stages quickly followed, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Chicago’s Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall in London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Other distinctions include an Avery Fisher Career Grant (2009), a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in the UK (2011), the AUGUSTIN HADELICH inaugural Warner Music Prize (2015), as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter in the UK (2017). Augustin Hadelich is one of the great of Frankfurt, Saarbrücken, Stuttgart and Hadelich plays the 1723 “Ex- violinists of our time. From Adès to Cologne, and the Academy of St Martin in Kiesewetter” Stradivari violin, on loan Paganini, from Brahms to Bartók, the Fields. Engagements in the Far East from Clement and Karen Arrison through he has mastered a wide-ranging and include the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Stradivari Society of Chicago. adventurous repertoire and is often Seoul Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, referred to by colleagues as a “musician’s NHK Symphony (Tokyo) and a tour with musician.” Named Musical America’s the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: 2018 “Instrumentalist of the Year,” he He has been artist-in-residence with the SAM & LYNDIE ERSAN is consistently cited around the world Bournemouth Symphony (UK), Fort Worth for his phenomenal technique, soulful Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands We are grateful to Sam and Lyndie approach and insightful interpretations. Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his Ersan for their generous underwriting Hadelich will appear with over 25 North BBC Proms debut in 2016 and his Salzburg of the appearances of Augustin American in the 2019- Festival debut in 2018. Hadelich and Michael Francis. Sam 20 season, including the symphony Hadelich is the winner of a 2016 Grammy and Lyndie are true champions of orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, New Award—“Best Classical Instrumental emerging artists, and we are grateful York, Montréal, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Solo”—for his recording of Dutilleux’s Violin for their support of several of our Minnesota, Houston, Oregon, Seattle, Concerto, L’Arbre des songes, with the guest artists over the past years. An Toronto and numerous others. Seattle Symphony under Ludovic Morlot avid lover of classical music since International highlights of the 2019-20 (Seattle Symphony MEDIA). Recently signed childhood, Mr. Ersan is an enthusiastic season include performances with the to Warner Classics, his first release on the and passionate supporter of chamber Philharmonia Orchestra (London) and label—Paganini’s 24 Caprices—was released and orchestral music in San Diego and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in January 2018. One of Germany’s most Orange County. He serves on the Board (Hamburg), as well as engagements prestigious newspapers, Süddeutsche of the San Diego Symphony, and has with the BBC Philharmonic, Danish Zeitung, wrote about this recording: established a chamber music series National Symphony, Deutsche Oper “Anyone who masters these pieces so at UCSD. Thank you, Sam and Lyndie Berlin, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Hong confidently has, so to speak, reached the Ersan! Kong Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, regions of eternal snow: he has reached WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne and the the top.” His second recording for Warner Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra. Classics, the Brahms and Ligeti concertos In addition to every major orchestra with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra under in North America, worldwide Hadelich Miguel Harth-Bedoya, followed in April 2019. has appeared with the Bavarian Radio Other recent discs include live recordings Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw of the violin concertos of Tchaikovsky Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Munich and Lalo (Symphonie Espagnole) with the Philharmonic, City of Birmingham London Philharmonic Orchestra on the Symphony, Belgian National Orchestra, LPO label (2017) and a series of releases Orchestre National de Lyon, Orquesta on the AVIE label including an album of Nacional de España, Norwegian Radio violin concertos by Jean Sibelius and Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, São Thomas Adès (Concentric Paths), with Paulo Symphony, the radio orchestras Hannu Lintu conducting the Royal Liverpool

8 FEB 2020 PacificSymphony.org A former double-bass player in the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), Francis came to prominence as a conductor in January 2007 stepping in for Valery Gergiev and John Adams with the LSO. Francis makes his home in Tampa, Fla., with his wife Cindy and 4-year-old daughter Annabella.

MICHAEL FRANCIS

Michael Francis has quickly established conducted the Symphony Orchestra of the himself as one of the leading Bavarian Radio, the Dresden Philharmonic, international conductors of today. With the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Orquesta the start of the 2019-20 season, Francis Sinfónica de RTVE Madrid, the Mariinsky began his tenure as chief conductor Orchestra, the London Symphony, the Royal of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the Rheinland-Pfalz. Appointed music BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the director of the Florida Orchestra in BBC Scottish Symphony. In Asia, Francis the fall of 2014, he is now entering his has worked with the NHK Symphony, the fifth season with a contract extension National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan as through the 2023-24 season. His role in well as the philharmonic orchestras of Hong building a wide variety of transformative Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Seoul. community engagement initiatives has Francis has collaborated with notable significantly grown the organization. soloists such as Lang Lang, Arcadi Volodos, Since 2014 as music director of the Mainly Itzhak Perlman, Christian Tetzlaff, Vadim Mozart Festival in San Diego, Calif. with a Gluzman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Nicola contract renewal through the summer of Benedetti, Javier Perianes, Jamie Barton, 2023, he continues his ambitious multi- Truls Mørk, Håkan Hardenberger, Maximilian year exploration of Mozart’s life. He was Hornung, Miloš, Benjamin Grosvenor, chief conductor and artistic advisor of Emanuel Ax, Ian Bostridge, James Ehnes, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra from Sting, Rufus Wainwright and many others. 2012-16. Educational outreach with young For the 2019-20 season, engagements musicians is of utmost priority for Francis. include a debut with the Detroit He returns to the National Youth Orchestra Symphony for their season opening, as of Canada during the summer of 2020, well as return performances with the having conducted their Spanish tour in Indianapolis Symphony, Minnesota 2019. He has also frequently conducted Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic, Miami’s New World Symphony and the Philharmonia, MDR Leipzig, RSB Berlin National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Francis works on a regular basis with Saarbrücken. young musicians in Florida as part of Previous and upcoming highlights the orchestra’s community engagement include North American performances initiative. with the Cleveland Orchestra, the New Francis’ discography includes the York Philharmonic, the Rochester Rachmaninoff piano concertos with Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras Valentina Lisitsa and the London Symphony of Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Diego, Orchestra, Wolfgang Rihm’s Lichtes Spiel Houston, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Pacific, with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the New York Montreal, Toronto and National Arts Philharmonic, and the Ravel & Gershwin Centre (Ottawa). In Europe, he has piano concertos with Ian Parker.

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