Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Zell Music Director
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PROGRAM ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOURTH SEASON Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Zell Music Director Pierre Boulez Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO Friday, November 7, 2014, at 8:00 Saturday, November 8, 2014, at 8:00 Cristian Măcelaru Conductor Elena Urioste Violin Brahms, orch. Dvořák Hungarian Dance No. 17 in F-sharp Minor Hungarian Dance No. 18 in D Major Hungarian Dance No. 19 in B Minor Hungarian Dance No. 20 in E Minor Hungarian Dance No. 21 in E Minor Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26 Prelude: Allegro moderato— Adagio Finale: Allegro energico ELENA URIOSTE INTERMISSION Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 (From the New World) Adagio—Allegro molto Largo Molto vivace Allegro con fuoco Saturday’s concert is sponsored by the Abbott Fund. 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 Johannes Brahms Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany. Died April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria. Hungarian Dances, Nos. 17–21 (Orchestrated by Antonín Dvořák) In 1869, after years of where he enjoyed leisurely hours listening playing his Hungarian to Gypsy bands. He described them to Fritz Dances at the piano for Simrock, the first man to publish them, as “per- friends, Brahms decided haps the most practical [pieces] so impractical a to have them published. man as I can supply.” When the dances proved He had started playing even more popular than either he or Simrock these pieces at parties and anticipated, he made further arrangements for social gatherings as long solo piano. Eventually, the urge to make full ago as the early 1850s, orchestral dances remembering the of them proved “Hungarian” style—the spirit and the sounds, irresistible, both to the folklike melodies and the halting rhythms— Brahms himself, that he had learned from Eduard Reményi, the who orchestrated composer and violinist. For many years, Brahms three, and to other didn’t even write these dances down. Then, in composers, including 1867, he put some on paper, in arrangements for Brahms’s new friend, piano four-hands, as a way of capturing a fuller Antonín Dvořák. orchestral sound. He also wrote a second set of The five that Dvořák dances in 1880. picked are the last The Hungarian Dances find Brahms at his of the twenty-one most easygoing. They were, in a sense, his way that Brahms chose Eduard Reményi (left) and of escaping through music to his favorite cafes, to publish. Brahms, 1853 COMPOSED MOST RECENT INSTRUMENTATION 1880, piano four-hands CSO PERFORMANCES two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, October 9, 10 & 11, 1975, Orchestra two clarinets, two bassoons, four ORCHESTRATED BY DVOŘÁK Hall. Erich Leinsdorf conducting horns, two trumpets, three trombones, 1880 percussion, harp, strings April 2, 3 & 4, 1981, Orchestra Hall. Erich Leinsdorf conducting (nos. 17 FIRST PERFORMANCE APPROXIMATE & 21) date unknown PERFORMANCE TIME June 28, 2014, Morton Arboretum. 9 minutes FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Cristian Măcelaru conducting November 11 & 12, 1892, Auditorium CSO RECORDING Theatre. Theodore Thomas conducting 1926. Frederick Stock conducting. CSO (Chicago Symphony Orchestra: The First July 16, 1936, Ravinia Festival. Willem 100 Years) Van Hoogstraten conducting 2 Max Bruch Born January 6, 1838, Cologne, Germany. Died October 2, 1920, Friedenau, near Berlin, Germany. Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26 Although he was born five the current admiration for art that is, above all, years after Johannes accessible—is that by writing music to please the Brahms, Max Bruch hit audience of his day, Bruch lost the interest of his stride much sooner. At succeeding generations. eleven he was writing The G minor violin concerto, however, has chamber music; in 1852, withstood time, and it makes a most persuasive at the age of fourteen, he case for the composer. Soloists keep concertos tossed off his first sym- before the public, and violinists have always loved phony. (Brahms was to play this piece. Bruch studied violin for several forty-two when he years, and he wrote for the instrument with finished his, after nearly a quarter century of enormous affection and skill. When his pub- intermittent work.) Bruch’s first violin concerto lisher once suggested he try a work for cello and was begun in 1864 and first performed, to orchestra, Bruch replied, “I have more important considerable acclaim, in 1868—before A German things to do than write stupid cello concertos.” Requiem put Brahms on the map (and more than a Eugen d’Albert asked for a piano concerto in decade before his own celebrated violin concerto). 1886; Bruch fired back: “Me, write a piano The downside of early success is the waning concerto! That’s the limit!” (Bruch eventually star. Several composers, some as great as Felix wrote beautifully for cello with orchestra, though Mendelssohn, are regularly accused of failing to he never did compose a piano concerto.) sustain their promise. This is a standard line in Bruch had difficulty writing this concerto, the Bruch literature, too, along with that even his first major work. There was even a public more worrisome one about a one-hit reputa- performance of a preliminary version, but Bruch tion. Neither assertion is entirely accurate—or was dissatisfied. The celebrated violinist Joseph fair—although Bruch’s G minor concerto has Joachim offered important suggestions (he always been immensely popular (far more so than would later play the same role in the creation of his other two) and more frequently performed Brahms’s concerto), and Bruch was smart enough than Kol nidrei for cello and orchestra, or the to take his advice. When the concerto was pre- Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra. The sented in its final form in 1868, Joachim was the irony of Bruch’s career—particularly in light of soloist (Bruch also dedicated the score to him). COMPOSED July 15, 1950, Ravinia Festival. INSTRUMENTATION 1864–1867 Gino Francescatti as soloist, Antal solo violin, two flutes, two oboes, two Doráti conducting clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, FIRST PERFORMANCE two trumpets, timpani, strings January 7, 1868; Bremen, Germany. MOST RECENT With Joseph Joachim as soloist CSO PERFORMANCES APPROXIMATE October 8, 9 & 10, 2009, Orchestra PERFORMANCE TIME FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Hall. Joshua Bell as soloist, Yan Pascal 24 minutes July 18, 1893, Music Hall at the World’s Tortelier conducting Columbian Exposition. Maud Powell as CSO RECORDINGS June 28, 2014, Morton Arboretum. soloist, Theodore Thomas conducting 1980. Shlomo Mintz as soloist, Elena Urioste as soloist, Cristian Claudio Abbado conducting. December 21 & 22, 1894, Auditorium Măcelaru conducting Deutsche Grammophon Theatre. César Thomson as soloist, July 26, 2014, Ravinia Festival. Theodore Thomas conducting 1986. Cho-Liang Lin as soloist, Joshua Bell as soloist, James Leonard Slatkin conducting. Conlon conducting Deutsche Grammophon 3 ruch planned to call the concerto a and extensive, the tone is anticipatory. When, fantasy, which helps to explain the without a pause, we reach the slow movement, disposition of the three movements. we find the heart of the concerto: a rich, wonder- BThe first is a prelude in title and mood, rather fully lyrical expanse of music that shows Bruch than the weightiest movement of the work. at his best and offers melodies tailor-made for Even though the violinist works as hard as in the violin. The finale begins in quiet suspense, any of the great virtuoso concertos, and the broken by the entrance of the violin with a dialogue between solo and orchestra is heated hearty dance tune and more fireworks. Antonín Dvořák Born September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, Bohemia (now Czech Republic). Died May 1, 1904, Prague, Czechoslovakia. Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 (From the New World) Let’s start with critic James Huneker under the table.) He loved Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, to check out the ocean liners along the wharves the wife of a New York and clock the trains as their locomotives roared millionaire wholesale into the city’s stations. And, with Mrs. Thurber grocer and a on his arm, he even attended Buffalo Bill’s Wild self-appointed cultural West Show. maven, who abandoned But how much of America’s musical tradition her English-language he absorbed is another question altogether. opera company (after The question, in fact, was raised with the first putting a serious dent in major work Dvořák wrote in America, his Ninth her husband’s fortune) to foster an American Symphony, which came to be known as From the school of composition. Mrs. Thurber contacted New World. Antonín Dvořák in June 1891 with her proposal. She wanted the famous Czech composer to move vořák began sketching his E minor to America; become the director of the National symphony only three months after he Conservatory of Music, where he would teach arrived at the dock in Hoboken. (He composition and instrumentation (for an annual Dwas always meticulous about dating his manu- salary of $15,000); serve as a figurehead for her scripts, both at the beginning and at the end of a new cause; and, in his spare time, write a number piece, and the pages of the symphony tell us that of new works, including an opera based on he worked from January 10 until May 24, 1893.) Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha. Oddly And while he was writing his Ninth Symphony, enough, Dvořák agreed. he remarked, “The influence of America can be As soon as the SS Saale completed the Atlantic felt by anyone who has a ‘nose.’ ” We can excuse crossing the composer had dreaded, Dvořák Dvořák’s strangely mixed metaphors, but we found himself an instant celebrity; he, in turn, can’t be so lenient with the musical implications.