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Home , Antonio Brosa, Benjamin Britten, Gil Shaham, Night Mail

Program

One Hundred Twenty-Second Season Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Director Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Thursday, November 8, 2012, at 8:00 Friday, November 9, 2012, at 1:30 Saturday, November 10, 2012, at 8:00 Sunday, November 11, 2012, at 3:00 Charles Dutoit Conductor Gil Shaham Britten The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 Walton Violin Andante tranquillo Presto capriccioso alla napolitana Vivace Gil Shaham

Intermission Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 Poco sostenuto—vivace Allegretto Presto Allegro con brio

These performances have been enabled by the Paul Ricker Judy Fund. Thursday’s performance honors the memory of Elizabeth Hoffman. Saturday’s concert is sponsored by ITW. This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. CommentsComments by PhilliDanielp J Haffuscheré Phillip Huscher

Benjamin Britten Born November 22, 1913, , . Died December 4, 1976, , England. The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and on a Theme of , Op. 34

y the time he composed The late in 1944 to compose a score BYoung Person’s Guide to the for an educational film: involving Orchestra in 1946, the popular English conductor was the internationally renowned and the composer of the . Symphony Orchestra, this was Yet the commission to compose this to introduce schoolchildren to now popular concert-hall work did the instruments of a symphony not follow the phenomenal success orchestra, to be distributed by the of that landmark opera, but had in Ministry of Education. fact come even before rehearsals for Britten took a long time to Peter Grimes had started. This came get started; there was Grimes to from a former colleague of Britten’s, complete, followed by increas- , the film director who ingly fraught rehearsals, and then in the 1930s had introduced Britten the unexpected and phenomenal to the poet W.H. Auden, resulting success of that opera which placed in their collaborating on several increasing demands on his time. films including . Now Even so, there was much plan- producer-in-charge at the Crown ning from early in 1945 over the Film Unit, Wright approached structure of what was then simply the thirty-one-year-old Britten The Instruments of the Orchestra.

Composed Most recent CSO Instrumentation 1945 performances two flutes and piccolo, two December 10, 1978, , two clarinets, two First performance Orchestra Hall. Sir Georg bassoons, four horns, two October 15, 1946; Liverpool, Solti conducting trumpets, three England and tuba, , July 28, 1988, drum, cymbals, tambourine, Ravinia Festival. Yuri First CSO triangle, snare drum, wood Temirkanov conducting performances block, xylophone, castanets, July 13, 1956, tam-tam, whip, harp, strings approximate Ravinia Festival. Igor performance time Markevitch conducting CSO recording 17 minutes 1967. Seiji Ozawa January 7, 1960, conducting. RCA Orchestra Hall. conducting

2 A typescript scenario dated chief literary collaborator by 1946). February 24, 1945, already includes Britten finally began composing the what was to prove the score’s mas- work late in 1945, finishing on New terstroke: after the presentation of Year’s Eve and triumphantly phon- all the instruments of the orchestra ing Basil Wright at midnight with according to their families— New Year’s wishes and to announce woodwind and brass, percussion, its completion. The next morning, and strings—there was to be a Britten played the work to Wright, “fugue-form bringing in all the and as Slater reported, “Basil was instruments of the orchestra section very excited about the music.” by section until the whole orchestra Indeed, there is a charming report is playing the grand climax.” that during the recording sessions, On January 22, 1946, following held at Watford Town Hall in a meeting with Malcolm Sargent London, Britten himself, according at the Ministry of Information, to the sound engineer, “was sort of Britten drafted in his pocket diary jumping about and laughing with a more detailed synopsis and the pleasure at hearing what he’d done.” beginning of a spoken commentary, The Young Person’s Guide begins which suggests that he himself by presenting the entire orchestra was originally to be the author of playing a theme by the seventeenth- this as well as the music. However, century English composer Henry possibly because he was too busy to Purcell (the Rondeau from meet a deadline, the commentary Abdelazar), followed by the theme was finally written by the poet being played by each “family” of , who had also been the orchestra in turn: woodwinds, the librettist of Peter Grimes. (For followed by brass, then strings, the work’s final concert version, and then percussion before a final Slater’s commentary as used in the restatement of the theme by the film was largely replaced by one full orchestra. Then follows varia- written by , Britten’s tions on the theme by individual

An Outline for the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

Theme A (full orchestra): Variation D (bassoon): Variation J (horns): Allegro maestoso e Allegro alla marcia L’istesso largamente Variation E (): Variation K (trumpets): Theme B (woodwind) Brillante—alla polacca Vivace Theme C (brass) Variation F (): Variation L (trombones Theme D (strings) Meno mosso and bass tuba): Theme E (percussion) Variation G () Allegro pomposo Theme F (full orchestra) Variation H (double basses): Variation M (percussion): Variation A (flute and Comminciando lento Moderato piccolo): Presto ma poco a poco accel. Fugue Variation B (): Lento al allegro Variation C (clarinet): Variation I (harp): Maestoso Moderato

3 instruments of the orchestra, start- In teasing contrast comes the harp, ing with members of the woodwind effortlessly light and ornate even in family beginning with flutes and processional style. piccolo, and working down through The brass family is introduced by each family of the orchestra the horns, their fanfares dream- (though, curiously, the families like and seeming to call for blissful appear in a slightly different order slumber rather than action. Not from that in which they appeared so the brilliant trumpet variation, when presenting the theme). driven by galloping side drum Twittering flutes and piccolo are and apparently heralding the followed by a soulful pair of oboes. variation featuring far grander Then a pair of clarinets alternates trombones accompanied by the with an arabesque figure, each leap- portly sounding bass tuba. The final ing higher than the other—rather variation is effectively a parade for like a playful pair of dolphins— the percussion department: starting until one of them triumphantly with timpani, followed by bass reaches a proudly held top E-flat drum and cymbals; then tambou- before tumbling back down to its rine and triangle (given a magical lowest tessitura. Then come the glitter by violin harmonics); a sharp gruff bassoons, clearly of a (retired?) attack by side drum and wood military type strutting to a stiff block; a touch of mock danse maca- march rhythm accompanied by side bre from xylophone; then castanets drum; one of them briefly turns to and gong; a threatening whip; then sentimental reminiscence before a reprise by the preceding seven reverting to characteristic bluster. percussion instruments. By contrast, the violins are given Then, the work’s crowning a dashingly energetic and carefree moment, the final fugue in which variation, most charmingly in its the orchestra is reassembled section central section as the two groups of by section starting from the piccolo. violins (a characteristic division in a The actor , who symphony orchestra), as if airborne, as a child had premiered the role of seem to swoop and climb high in Miles in Britten’s opera The Turn of the treble stave, calling and reply- the Screw, could not contain himself ing to one another. They are fol- during an interview near the end of lowed by the more earthbound and his life, and began to sing and hum reflective violas, and then the cellos, through the fugue; on reaching the who elaborate on their predecessors’ climax when the brass enter playing thoughtful vein in a manner close Purcell’s original theme in coun- to that of Britten’s eerie Rimbaud terpoint with Britten’s fugue—like setting “Being Beauteous.” This a great ship plowing through a bil- poetic atmosphere is dissipated lowing sea—Hemmings cried out: by the entry of the double basses, “That’s the champagne moment!”— whose galumphing character is an opinion we can readily share. only the more accentuated by their would-be light-footed balleticism. —Daniel Jaffé

4 Born March 29, 1902, Oldham, England Died March 8, 1983, Ischia, Italy.

Violin Concerto

t was partly thanks to the English Wishing to commission a concerto Ijazz musician Spike Hughes that for himself, Heifetz subsequently Walton’s Violin Concerto came asked Spike Hughes to arrange a into existence. Hughes and Walton meeting. Walton and Heifetz duly first met at a concert in the late met in 1936 at the Berkeley Hotel 1920s, Hughes being in the habit of in London, where, over a lunch following a score by the light of an of smoked salmon and tournedos, exit sign: Walton, seeing Hughes they agreed Walton would compose with his score, asked to share a concerto for Heifetz’s exclusive during a performance of Elgar’s use for two years. Walton had been Second Symphony. The occasion of hesitant, but the commissioning fee that meeting seems highly sym- of $1,500 and the prestige of writ- bolic, as the melancholy wistfulness ing a concerto for Heifetz proved of Elgar’s music and the rhythmic too strong a pull. liveliness of jazz are the two main Walton was by then the much- spirits in Walton’s music, not least celebrated composer of the jazz- in the concerto he composed for the influenced overture Portsmouth legendary violinist . Point, his choral work Belshazzar’s Heifetz first heard of Walton in Feast, and an impressive First the mid-1930s, when the Scottish Symphony. Yet for all his apparent player brilliance as a composer, Walton told him about Walton’s very fine knew better than anyone his own composed in 1929 shortcomings: although his tal- and premiered by fellow composer ent had been nurtured early as a and viola player . chorister in Christ Church, Oxford,

Composed Most recent CSO Instrumentation 1936–1939; rev. 1943 performances solo violin, two flutes and December 11, 1964, piccolo, two oboes and eng- First performance Orchestra Hall. Sidney lish horn, two clarinets, two December 7, 1939; Harth, violin; Jean bassoons, four horns, two Cleveland, Ohio Martinon conducting trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, July 17, 1993, Ravinia First CSO strings Festival. Kyoko Takezawa, performance violin; Lawrence February 28, 1952, Orchestra approximate Foster conducting Hall. John Weicher, violin; performance time Rafael Kubelík conducting 28 minutes

5 he was never an executant musician informing him of Brosa’s assistance of any competence, and he often in writing them. Perhaps piqued found com- at the idea of another violinist posing itself having a hand in a concerto which a hard labor, was meant—for now—to be his often getting exclusive property, Heifetz wrote “stuck” and back saying he was not at all sure he having to let liked the way the movements were a problem written and suggested that Walton stew for should visit him in the States so weeks before they could improve them. Walton he found a was at first offended and considered way forward. withdrawing the concerto from Walton was Heifetz—“For tuppence I would perhaps for- give it to you,” he told Brosa. Violinist Jascha Heifetz tunate at that Brosa’s generous and more prag- time in having matic response was: “I am not like Viscountess Heifetz. He can play it anywhere Wimborne—Alice—as his lover. he likes.” Twenty-two years older than him, Thus Walton flew out to the her feelings towards the thirty- States in the spring of 1939 and five-year-old composer were at worked with Heifetz on the finale least partly maternal. Early in of the concerto, completing the 1938, for the sake of his health score in New York early in June. (which had been less than robust Originally there had been the hope since his traumatic split from his that Heifetz would be able to pre- previous girlfriend in 1934), she miere the work under the auspices took him to the Villa Cimbrone, of the British Council at the New overlooking the sea at Ravello in York World’s Fair, but the date southern Italy; there he started proposed to Heifetz for this proved composing the concerto. “Alice was impossible (and so conveniently very good at making me work,” he gave Walton more time to finish later reported, “and got very cross the work). Heifetz finally gave if I mucked about.” One may fancy the premiere with the Cleveland some of the sunshine and beauty of Orchestra conducted by Artur the Italian villa and its location is Rodzinski on December 7, which reflected in the balmy atmosphere in the event Walton was unable to of Walton’s concerto. attend because of the outbreak of Back in London, Walton showed World War Two. the two movements he had com- pleted to the Spanish violinist he concerto recalls not only . Fortified by Brosa’s Tthe sun-filled days at Villa suggestions and assurances as to Cimbrone, but also, as Walton their quality, Walton then sent later confessed, his feelings for the two movements to Heifetz Alice Wimborne. Walton had been

6 concerned while composing the first Prokofiev, this time the open- movement that it was “developing ing of the finale of the Russian’s in an extremely intimate way, not Third . After this much show and bravura.” One may episode, the soloist plays one of also hear clear echoes of at least Walton’s sweetest melodies, a two Walton admired— fine opportunity to show off his Sibelius’s in the characteristic use cantabile tone. Walton eventually of tenebrous low woodwinds, and completes the magic by elaborat- Prokofiev’s First Concerto in the ing on an ingenious way the soloist’s poignant final contrapuntal trick, recollection of the opening theme originally borrowed is counterpointed by oboe and the from Prokofiev’s First rising sighs of a solo flute. Violin Concerto, For the following movement, which he had first Walton reported, he had been bit- used in the finale of ten by a tarantula and so celebrated the Viola Concerto: with a kind of a tarantella, “presto he first combines capricciosamente alla napolitana— the stalking bass quite gaga, I may say, and of theme, now played by Alice Wimborne doubtful propriety after the 1st the violinist, as the movement.” After its fiery open- orchestra plays the ing, involving much scampering cantabile theme; then the soloist virtuosity from the solo violinist, recalls the wistful theme from the comes the moment of “doubtful first movement in combination with propriety,” where the soloist emu- that stalking theme, once again lates a quasi gypsy in the manner played by the orchestra. of a superior café violinist. There is further respite in the mysterious —Daniel Jaffé trio section, opening with a solo horn playing a modal theme which, Daniel Jaffé is a regular contributor to BBC Music Magazine and a special- as elaborated upon by the soloist, ist in English and Russian music. sounds increasingly exotic and even He is the author of a biography of a touch oriental. Sergey Prokofiev (Phaidon) and the The stalking bass theme which Historical Dictionary of Russian Music opens the finale again recalls (Scarecrow Press).

7 Born December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany. Died March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria.

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92

ere is what Goethe wrote after bowing deeply; Beethoven, indif- Hhe first met Beethoven during ferent to mere nobility, walked on. the summer of 1812: This was a characteristic Beethoven gesture: defiant, individual, His talent amazed me; strongly humanitarian, intolerant of unfortunately, he is an utterly hypocrisy—and many listeners find untamed personality, who is its essence reflected in his music. not altogether in the wrong But before confusing the myth with in holding the world to be the man, consider that, throughout detestable, but surely does not his life, Beethoven clung to the make it any the more enjoyable “van” in his name because it was so either for himself or for others easily confused with “von” and its by his attitude. suggestion of lofty bloodlines. Without question, Beethoven’s We’re told that the two men contemporaries thought him a walked together through the complicated man, perhaps even streets of Teplitz, where Beethoven the utterly untamed personality had gone for the summer, and Goethe found him. He was a true exchanged cordial words. When eccentric, who adored the elevated royalty approached, Goethe term Tondichter (poet in sound) and stepped aside, tipping his hat and refused to correct a rumor that he

Composed Instrumentation 1974. Sir 1811–April 13, 1812 two flutes, two oboes, two conducting. London clarinets, two bassoons, 1988. Sir Georg Solti First performance two horns, two trumpets, conducting. London December 8, 1813, Vienna. timpani, strings The composer conducting A 1954 performance (for Approximate television) conducted by Fritz First CSO performance time Reiner was released by VAI, performance 36 minutes and a 1979 performance November 28, conducted by János 1892, Auditorium CSO recordings Ferencsik is included on Theatre. Theodore 1955. Chicago Symphony Orchestra Thomas conducting conducting. RCA in the Twentieth Century: Collector’s Choice. 1971. Most recent CSO conducting. Angel performance May 17, 2012, Orchestra Hall. Jaap van Zweden conducting

8 was the illegitimate son of the king premiere for that spring that did of Prussia, but looked like a home- not materialize—but the first less person (his outfit once caused performance would not take place his arrest for vagrancy). There were for another year and a half, on other curious contradictions: he was December 8, 1813. disciplined and methodical—like many a modern-day concertgoer, he would rise early and make coffee by grinding a precise number of coffee beans—but lived in a squalor he alone could tolerate. Certainly modern scholarship, as it chips away at the myth, finds him ever more complex. We don’t know what Goethe truly thought of his music, and perhaps that’s just as well, for Goethe’s musical taste was less advanced than we might hope (he later admitted he thought little of Schubert’s songs). The general The Incident at Teplitz. Goethe bows to passing royalty, while Beethoven walks on. perception of Beethoven’s music in 1812 was that it was every bit as difficult and unconventional as the That night in Vienna gave the man himself—even, perhaps, to rest of the nineteenth century most ears, utterly untamed. plenty to talk about. No other This is our greatest loss today. symphony of Beethoven’s so openly For Beethoven’s widespread invited interpretation—not even his familiarity—of a dimension known Sixth, the self-proclaimed Pastoral to no other composer—has blinded Symphony, with its bird calls, us not only to his vision (so far thunderstorm, and frank evocation ahead of his time that he was of something beyond mere eighth thought out of fashion in his last notes and bar lines. To Richard years), but also to the uncompro- Wagner, Beethoven’s Seventh mising and disturbing nature of the Symphony was “the apotheosis of music itself. the dance.” Berlioz heard a ronde His Seventh Symphony is so des paysans in the first movement. well known to us today that we (Choreographers in our own time can’t imagine a time that knew have proven that this music is not, Beethoven, but not this glori- however, easily danceable.) And ous work. But that was the case there were other readings as well, when the poet and the composer most of them finding peasant walked together in Teplitz in July festivities and bacchic orgies where 1812. Beethoven had finished Beethoven wrote, simply, vivace. the A major symphony three The true significance of months earlier—envisioning a Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony

9 is to be found in the notes on the and the coda is launched by a spec- page—in his distinctive use of tacular, long-sustained crescendo rhythm and pioneering sense of that is said to have convinced key relationships. By the time it’s Weber that Beethoven was “ripe for over, we can no longer hear the the madhouse.” ordinary rhythm of a dotted eighth The Allegretto is as famous as note followed by a sixteenth note any music Beethoven wrote, and in the same way again, and—even it was a success from the first if we have no technical terms to performance, when a repeat was explain it—we sense that our basic demanded. At the indicated tempo, understanding of harmony has been it is hardly a slow movement, but it turned upside down. is sufficiently slower than the music Take Beethoven’s magnificent that precedes it to provide a feeling introduction, of unprecedented of relaxation. size and ambitious intentions. He By designing the Allegretto in begins decisively in A major, but at A minor, Beethoven has moved one the first opportunity moves away— step closer to F major; he now dares not to the dominant (E major) as to write the next movement in that historical practice and textbooks unauthorized, but by now familiar, recommended, but to the unlikely key. And he can’t resist rubbing it regions of C major and F major. in a bit, by treating A major, when Beethoven makes it clear that it arrives on the scene, not as the he won’t be limited to the seven main key of the symphony, but as degrees of the A major scale (which a visitor in a new world. We don’t contains neither C- nor F-natural) need a course in harmony to recog- in planning his harmonic itiner- nize that Beethoven has taken us ary. We will hear more from both through the looking glass, and that keys, and by the time he’s done, everything is turned on its head. Beethoven will have convinced To get back where we belong, us not only that C and F sound Beethoven simply shatters the glass comfortably at home in an A major with the two fortissimo chords symphony, but that A major can be that open the finale and usher us made to seem like the visitor! But into a triumphant fury of music so that comes later in his scheme. adamantly in A major that we for- First we move from the spacious get any past harmonic digressions. vistas of the introduction into the When C and F major return—as joyous song of the Vivace. Getting they were destined to do—in the there is a challenge Beethoven development section, they sound relishes, and many a music lover has every bit as remote as they did marveled at his passage of transi- in the symphony’s introduction, tion, in which stagnant, repeated and we sense that we have come E’s suddenly catch fire with the full circle. dancing dotted rhythm that will —Phillip Huscher carry us through the entire move- ment. The development section Phillip Huscher is the program annota- © 2012 Chicago Symphony Orchestra © 2012 Chicago brings new explorations of C and F, tor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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