New World Symphony Program I, March 2021
CONCERTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 2020-2021
The Irving and Verna Fine Fund in the Library of Congress NEW WORLD SYMPHONY PROGRAM I
Friday, March 12, 2021 ~ 8:00 pm The Library of Congress Virtual Event The IRVING AND VERNA FINE FUND in the Library of Congress was established in 2000 through a generous bequest of Verna Rudnick Fine, a well-known arts administrator and the widow of American composer Irving Fine. The Fund promotes and supports modern American music through an ongoing program of concerts, commissions, and research endeavors into the life and works of Irving Fine and other American composers, conductors, and performers whose works are preserved in the Library of Congress.
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The Irving and Verna Fine Fund in the Library of Congress NEW WORLD SYMPHONY
Program I
1 Program
Carlos Simon be still and know (2015) Michael Rau, violin Amy Sunyoung Lee, cello Thomas Steigerwald, piano
Charles Wuorinen (1938-2020) Horn Trio (1981) Jessica Elder, horn Katherine Kobylarz, violin Wesley Ducote, piano
BÉla BartÓk (1881-1945) Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Sz. 110, BB 115 (1937) I. Assai lento–Allegro molto II. Lento, ma non troppo III. Allegro non troppo
Wesley Ducote and Thomas Steigerwald, pianos Matthew Kibort, timpani and percussion Kevin Ritenauer, percussion
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About the Program
Carlos Simon, be still and know
Composer Carlos Simon offers two mutually supportive accounts of the genesis of be still and know; the first is his program note and the second is transcribed from the introduction to this performance of his work by fellows of the New World Symphony.
2 From the composer:
This piece was inspired by an interview with Oprah Winfrey in which she quoted:
“I have felt the presence of God my whole life. Even when I didn't have a name for it, I could feel the voice bigger than myself speaking to me, and all of us have that same voice. Be still and know it. You can acknowledge it or not. You can worship it or not. You can praise it, you can ignore it or you can know it. Know it. It’s always there speaking to you and waiting for you to hear it in every move, in every decision.”1
From the composer’s video introduction:
“This piece is very dear to me. As the son of a preacher, I’ve always known and felt something higher, a higher power. For me it was God; it’s God. And this piece is inspired by the presence of God in my life. I wrote this piece in a very difficult time, during my graduate study. I was dealing with a lot of issues personally and professionally, and I needed some sense of release, a sense of outlet, and music was the vehicle to do that. And so this piece is really meant for me to have some type of outlet, when I was writing it, to have some sense of therapy and using my composition as a… de-stressor of the things that I was going through. And the actual piece is meant to be meditative and solemn. I use the piece now whenever I’m going through something, and some sense of stress is sort of encapsulating my life, I use the piece to listen, and to be mindful of the now, what’s happening now. So I invite you, whether you are a believer or not, just to be mindful as you listen to the piece. Breathe. Relax. Take in the sounds that the performers are playing. Be in the moment, not thinking about the past nor the future, but right now. Thank you.”
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1 Oprah Winfrey, May 25, 2011, source provided by composer.
3 Charles Wuorinen, Horn Trio
Charles Wuorinen passed away on March 11, 2020—a year and a day ago from the posting of this performance by fellows of the New World Symphony. The world has undergone tremendous change during that year, and I find myself wondering what Wuorinen’s artistic responses might have been. My hunch is that they would have been both of and beyond the times, a continuation of his confident artistic trajectory that yielded such a rich body of music.
The Library of Congress commissioned several works by Wuorinen over the course of his career, including the Concertino for orchestra or 15 solo instruments and the Symphony Six, both commissioned through the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and the Sonata for Violin and Piano, commissioned by the McKim Fund. The Horn Trio dates from 1981 and was commissioned by the virtuoso horn player Julie Landsman, who also commissioned a follow-up piece that Wuorinen called Horn Trio Continued (a title that channels his inner Babbitt). According to a review of the premiere performance posted on Wuorinen’s website, Wuorinen declined to offer program notes, stating in the program “…that the listener should simply listen.”2
With deference to Wuorinen’s wishes we urge you to simply listen, much as Carlos Simon compelled us in his introduction above. In this work, one of the great horn trios of the 20th century, Wuorinen exhibits the versatility of the ensemble and its capacity at times to ring with a single voice.
David Plylar Senior Music Specialist Library of Congress, Music Division
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2 Porter, Andrew of The New Yorker, review from May 2, 1983, as quoted on https://www.charleswuorinen.com/compositions/horn-trio/ 4 BÉla BartÓk, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
After the turmoil of World War I there were efforts on different fronts to heal the rifts between former adversaries. The arts in general, music specifically, have been a valuable means for cultural bridge-building and détente. One such effort resulted in the formation in Salzburg of the International Society for New Music (Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik) on August 11, 1922, following the International Chamber Music Performances (Internationale Kammermusikaufführungen), which took place after the Salzburg Festival. After 1922 the organization was known as the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). The festival in 1923 was devoted to chamber music; subsequently, orchestral music and various other genres were included. The ISCM eventually attracted members from countries all over the world, some with individual subsections.
The Basel subsection of the Swiss section of the ISCM, at the suggestion of Swiss conductor and patron Paul Sacher, commissioned Bartók in mid- 1937 to write a work on the occasion of the group's jubilee in 1938. Wisely, the commission was stated in general terms and the decisions concerning instrumentation and genre were left up to Bartók. As Bartók himself explained in an essay he wrote, "I already had the intention years ago to compose a work for piano and percussion. Gradually the conviction grew stronger in me that one piano would not be in satisfactory balance in relation to the often rather penetrating timbre of the percussion instruments. The plan was therefore altered to the extent that two pianos instead of one would oppose the percussion instruments. When the I.S.C.M. of Basel requested last summer that I compose a work for their Jubilee Concert on January 16, 1938, I gladly accepted the opportunity to realize my plan."3 In July and August of 1937 he composed the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (BB 115). It has become one of Bartók's most performed works, almost as popular as the famous Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (BB 114), composed in 1936, just before this commission.
The sonata is scored for two pianos, three timpani, xylophone, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, triangle, and tam-tam. This is the only piece of chamber music of Bartók's that includes percussion instruments. One percussionist plays the timpani and the other percussionist plays the xylophone. The rest of the percussion instruments are covered by
3 Bartok, Bela, "About the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion," in Béla Bartók Essays, ed. Benjamin Suchoff (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976), 417. 5 both percussionists. In the printed score, Bartók carefully provided instructions for the placement of the instruments on stage during performance and wrote explicit, detailed instructions about elements critical for performance, such as dynamics, phrasing, accents, which mallets to use for which instrument, and the quality of articulations, including specifying when the cymbals should be played with the edge of a pocket knife blade. Elements of performance such as balance and timbre are always important, but especially so in this work.
Bartók and his wife, Ditta Pásztory-Bartók, and percussionists Fritz Schiesser and Philipp Rühlig, performed at the première, where the sonata was enthusiastically received. Shortly after the première, Hans Heinsheimer, music publisher, convinced Bartók to arrange it as a concerto with orchestra, which he did in 1940, as Concerto for Two Pianos with Orchestra (BB 121). The concerto uses the original instrumentation (two pianos and battery of percussion) as the solo group with the addition of orchestral accompaniment scored for flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, celesta, and strings.
From early on Bartók was interested in the folk music of Eastern Europe, specifically, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, where he conducted extensive ethnomusicological research with Zoltan Kodaly, collecting and transcribing over 10,000 examples of folk songs and music from these areas. His interest in the folk music of Eastern Europe in particular combined with his roots and training in the German and French classical canon merged and found expression in his compositions. Even though Bartók had distanced himself from the musical ideas developed by Schoenberg and composers of the Second Viennese School, traces of their influences can be found in his music, as well as from such disparate sources as Stravinsky, Debussy, and Richard Strauss (whose tone poems were an especially potent influence). Elements from Eastern European folk music sources that Bartók had absorbed from his research were also part of his compositional vocabulary, such as heterophony, drones, and irregular and inventive rhythms. Writing about his music, he linked the use of colorful modes and non-tonal harmonic elements to Hungarian peasant music. Bartók internalized and synthesized the essential aspects of each, enabling him to create a unique sound of his own.
Early in the 20th century, especially after World War I, it no longer made sense to some composers to continue writing music as if the world had not irrevocably changed. An awareness of the disconnection between the realities of life during and after a world war and the inherited artistic aspirations and expressions from the past, some of which now seemed 6 overly sentimental, even trivial, led composers to seek novel ways to communicate in music. This experimentation in music ushered in a wide variety of new sounds and forms. A brilliant pianist, Bartók was well trained in traditional piano literature and was well aware of the sonic potential of the instrument. Previously, especially in the 19th century, the era of bel canto opera, the ideal piano sound was achieved by attempting to replicate a singing voice or vocal line with accompanying harmonies sustained by the use of pedal techniques. Exploring the piano as a percussion instrument opened up many varied and unusual sonorities. This widening of the pianistic sound world, coupled with Bartók's intense interest in folk music sources based on his years of ethnomusicological collection and study, also contributes to the unique sound of this work.
This work has much of the driving energy, rhythmic inventiveness, colorful modal harmonies, and folk-infused characteristics typical of Bartók's later music. The sonata follows traditional sonata form structure rather conventionally. Instead of formal innovations within each movement, Bartók twisted the harmonic relationships and proportions to suit his narrative concept. The three movements are titled Assai lento- Allegro molto; Lento, ma non troppo; and Allegro non troppo. The dissonant interval of the tritone figures prominently as an organizing property in this work. The first occurrence is in the first movement, which begins in F-sharp and ends in C major, modulating through unexpected keys in between. This movement is in 9/8 meter, but the feel of a triple meter is deliberately obscured by constantly shifting syncopations and variations in divisions of the beat, at times triple and at times duple.
The second movement is in a simple ternary form, typical of the slow movements in sonatas. It is a beautiful example of his "night music" idiom, a designation that stems from one movement of the Out of Doors suite that was titled Az éjszaka zenéje (The Night's Music). Bartók applied these elements in the slow movements of many of his later chamber and orchestral works. The characteristic elements of this style of composition include impressionistic, coloristic effects, and fragmentary melodic materials within an essentially static harmonic plan. Ostensibly, these effects are meant to evoke the sounds of the Hungarian plain at night and the sense of stillness that can pervade the nighttime environment.
The final sonata rondo movement begins and ends unabashedly in C major with excursions to other keys in between. Not only is there a tritone interval relationship embedded in the first movement, but the outer movements themselves are in a tritone relationship. The final few bars of the piece are a duet between the cymbal and snare drum, which 7 creates a quiet close and a sense of the music retreating into the distance. Karlheinz Stockhausen, in an essay analyzing this work, described the ending aptly in these terms: "The melodic outline grows more and more dim until, towards the end, the monotonous rhythm motif of the subject produced by the small drum is left, as if it would continue into eternity."4 Surprisingly, the first movement takes as much time to play as both the second and third movements combined. Although the first movement is unusually long, it never sounds or feels longer than the other two movements. Bartók's careful scoring and detailed performance instructions, including how to place the instruments in relation to each other, ensure maximum variety of sonorities and colors. The title leads one to focus on the two pianists, but in fact, this work is a quartet, and is as much a collaboration between individual soloists as any string quartet that Bartók wrote.
Laura Yust Senior Cataloguing Specialist Library of Congress, Music Division
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About the Artists
The New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy (NWS) prepares graduates of music programs for leadership roles in professional orchestras and ensembles. In the 33 years since its co-founding by Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas and Lin and Ted Arison, NWS has helped launch the careers of more than 1,150 alumni worldwide.
A laboratory for the way music is taught, presented and experienced, the NWS consists of young musicians who are granted fellowships lasting up to three years. The fellowship program offers in-depth exposure to traditional and modern repertoire, professional development training and personalized experiences working with leading guest conductors, soloists and visiting faculty. Relationships with these artists are extended through NWS’s extensive distance learning via the internet.
NWS Fellows take advantage of the innovative performance facilities and state-of-the art practice and ensemble rooms of the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center, the campus of the New World Symphony and home of the Knight New Media Center. 4 Stockhausen, Karlheinz, "Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percus- sion," NHQ: the new Hungarian quarterly 11, no. 40 (1970): 53. 8 In the hopes of joining NWS, more than 1,500 recent music school and conservatory graduates compete for about 35 available fellowships each year. The Fellows are selected for this highly competitive, prestigious opportunity based on their musical achievement and promise, as well as their passion for the future of classical music.
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Upcoming Events in March Visit loc.gov/concerts for more information
Friday, March 19, 2021 at 8:00 pm [Concert] Steven Osborne, piano Music by Debussy and Rachmaninoff Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/steven-osborne.html) Additional video content available starting at 10am on 3/19/21
Friday, March 26, 2021 at 8:00 pm [Concert] Dudok Quartet Amsterdam Music by Webern, Ligeti and Brahms Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/dudok-quartet-amsterdam.html) Additional video content available starting at 10am on 3/26/20
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KEEP CHECKING LOC.GOV/CONCERTS FOR UPDATED INFORMATION ABOUT UPCOMING PROGRAMMING!
9 You can still catch all of the (Re)Hearing Beethoven Festival! Visit loc.gov/concerts for more information
See loc.gov/concerts/beethoven.html for the full lineup, including performances, lectures and conversations. Friday, December 4, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert] "The President's Own" United States Marine Band Music by Beethoven: Symphonies 3 and 7 Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/presidents-own-marine-band.html) Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/4/20 Saturday, December 5, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert] Borromeo String Quartet Music by Beethoven: Symphony no. 8, op. 130 & 133 Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/borromeo-nicholas-cords.html) Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/4/20 Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert] ZOFO Music by Beethoven: Symphonies 4 and 6 Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/zofo.html) Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/10/20 BONUS: This concert will be available as an augmented reality experience for a limited period of time! Friday, December 11, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert] Verona String Quartet and Adam Golka Music by Beethoven: Hammerklavier Sonata in Two Versions Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/beethovens-hammerklavier.html) Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/11/20
Saturday, December 12, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert] Ran Dank & Soyeon Kate Lee Music by Liszt and Beethoven: Symphony no. 9 Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/dank-lee.html) Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/11/20
Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert] Christopher Taylor Music by Beethoven: Symphonies 1, 2 and 5 Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/christopher-taylor.html) Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/17/20
10 Concerts from the Library of Congress
The Coolidge Auditorium, constructed in 1925 through a generous gift from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, has been the venue for countless world-class performers and performances. Gertrude Clarke Whittall presented to the Library a gift of five Stradivari instruments which were first heard here during a concert on January 10, 1936. These parallel but separate donations serve as the pillars that now support a full season of concerts made possible by gift trusts and foundations that followed those established by Mrs. Coolidge and Mrs. Whittall. • Concert Staff
CHIEF, MUSIC DIVISION Susan H. Vita
ASSISTANT CHIEF Jan Lauridsen
SENIOR PRODUCERS Michele L. Glymph FOR CONCERTS AND Anne McLean SPECIAL PROJECTS
SENIOR MUSIC SPECIALIST David H. Plylar
MUSIC SPECIALISTS Kazem Abdullah Claudia Morales
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER Donna P. Williams
SENIOR RECORDING ENGINEER Michael E. Turpin
ASSISTANT ENGINEER Sandie (Jay) Kinloch
PRODUCTION MANAGER Solomon E. HaileSelassie
CURATOR OF Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
PROGRAM DESIGN David H. Plylar
PROGRAM PRODUCTION Michael Munshaw
11 Support Concerts from the Library of Congress
Support for Concerts from the Library of Congress comes from private gift and trust funds and from individual donations which make it possible to offer free concerts as a gift to the community. For information about making a tax-deductible contribution please call (202-707-5503), e-mail ([email protected]), or write to Jan Lauridsen, Assistant Chief, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-4710. Contributions of $250 or more will be acknowledged in the programs. All gifts will be acknowledged online. Donors can also make an e-gift online to Friends of Music at www. loc.gov/philanthropy. We acknowledge the following contributors to the 2020-2021 season. Without their support these free concerts would not be possible. • GIFT AND TRUST FUNDS DONOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Julian E. and Freda Hauptman Berla Fund Producer ($10,000 and above) Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. William and Adeline Croft Memorial Fund DutchCultureUSA Da Capo Fund Frederic J. and Lucia Hill Ira and Leonore Gershwin Fund The Netherland-America Foundation Isenbergh Clarinet Fund Allan J. Reiter Irving and Verna Fine Fund Revada Foundation of the Logan Family Mae and Irving Jurow Fund Adele M. Thomas Charitable Foundation, Carolyn Royall Just Fund Inc. Kindler Foundation Trust Fund Mallory and Diana Walker Dina Koston and Robert Shapiro Fund for New Music Underwriter ($2,500 and above) Boris and Sonya Kroyt Memorial Fund Geraldine Ostrove Wanda Landowska/Denise Restout Joyce E. Palmer Memorial Fund William R. and Judy B. Sloan Katie and Walter Louchheim Fund George Sonneborn and Rosina C. Iping Robert Mann Fund The George and Ruth Tretter Charitable Gift The Sally Hart and Bennett Tarlton Fund, Carl Tretter, Trustee McCallum Fund McKim Fund Benefactor ($1000 and above) Norman P. Scala Memorial Fund Anonymous Karl B. Schmid Memorial Fund William D. Alexander Judith Lieber Tokel & George Sonneborn Bill Bandas and Leslie G. Ford Fund Leonard and Gabriela Bebchick Anne Adlum Hull and William Remsen Peter and Ann Belenky Strickland Fund Richard W. Burris and Shirley Downs Rose and Monroe Vincent Fund Ronald M. Costell and Marsha E. Swiss Gertrude Clarke Whittall Foundation In memory of Dr. Giulio Cantoni and Various Donors Fund Mrs. Paula Saffiotti Cathey Eisner Falvo and Jessica Aimee BEQUESTS Falvo in honor of Carole Falvo Milton J. Grossman, Elmer Cerin In memory of Dana Krueger Grossman Barbara Gantt Wilda M. Heiss Sorab K. Modi Judith Henderson
12 Benefactor (continued) Patron (continued) Virginia Lee, In memory of Dr. and Mrs. Chai Lorna C. Totman, Chang Choi In memory of Daniel Gallik Egon and Irene Marx James C. and Carol R. Tsang Winton E. Matthews, Jr. Harvey Van Buren Dr. Judith C. and Dr. Eldor O. Pederson Amy Weinstein and Phil Esocoff, Richard Price and Yung Chang In memory of Freda Hauptman Berla Arthur F. Purcell Sidney Wolfe and Suzanne Goldberg Harriet Rogers Gail Yano and Edward A. Celarier Mace J. Rosenstein and Louise de la Fuente Christopher Sipes Sponsor ($250 and above) Anonymous (2) Patron ($500 and above) Edward A. Celarier Barry Abel Carol Ann Dyer Naomi M. Adaniya Elizabeth Eby and Bengal Richter Daniel J. Alpert and Ann H. Franke Damien Gaul Devora and Samuel Arbel Michal E. Gross Sandra J. Blake, James S. and Zona F. Hostetler In memory of Ronald Diehl In memory of Randy Hostetler Marc H. and Vivian S. Brodsky Kim and Elizabeth Kowalewski Doris N. Celarier Helen and David Mao Margaret Choa George P. Mueller William A. Cohen Robert H. Reynolds Herbert L. and Joan M. Cooper Juliet Sablosky, Diane E. Dixson In memory of Irving L. Sablosky Elizabeth Eby and Bengal Richter Alan and Ann Vollman Willem van Eeghen and Mercedes de Shari Werb Arteaga Patricia A. Winston Lawrence Feinberg Becky Jo Fredriksson and Rosa D. Wiener Fred S. Fry, Jr. and Elaine Suriano Geraldine H. and Melvin C. Garbow Howard Gofreed, In memory of Ruth Tretter
The Richard & Nancy Gould Family Fund Margaret Hines Marc and Kay Levinson George and Kristen Lund Mary Lynne Martin Rick Maurer and Kathy Barton Donogh McDonald Jan and Frank Moses Undine A. and Carl E. Nash Judith Neibrief John P. O'Donnell Jan Pomerantz and Everett Wilcox Richard Price and Yung Chang Amy and Paul Rispin Bruce and Lori Laitman Rosenblum Mike and Mical Schneider In memory of Victor H. Cohn David Seidman and Ruth Greenstein Rebecca and Sidney Shaw, In memory of Dr. Leonard G. Shaw Beverly J. and Phillip B. Sklover Anna Slomovic Maria Soto, In memory of Sara Arminana Dana and Linda Sundberg
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