01-05 Gilbert:Layout 1 12/28/11 11:09 AM Page 19 JANUARY 5, 7 & 10, 2012 Thursday , January 5 , 2012, 7:3 0 p.m. 15,2 93rd Concert Open rehearsal at 9:45 a.m. Saturday , January 7 , 2012, 8:00 p.m. 15,295 th Concert Tuesday, January 10 , 2012, 7:3 0 p.m. 15,296 th Concert Alan Gilbert , Conductor Global Sponsor Alan Gilbert, Music Director, holds The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair . This concert will last approximately two hours, which includes Major support provided by the Francis one intermission . Goelet Fund . Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center Home of the New York Philharmonic Exclusive Timepiece of the New York Philharmonic January 2012 19 01-05 Gilbert:Layout 1 12/28/11 11:09 AM Page 20 New York Philharmonic Alan Gilbert, Conductor Thomas ADÈS Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra (2010–11; New York (b. 1971) Premiere, Co-Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Miami’s New World Symphony, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London’s Barbican Centre, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony) Intermission MAHLER Symphony No. 9 (1908–10) (1860–1911) Andante comodo In the tempo of a comfortable ländler, somewhat clumsy and very coarse Allegro assai, very insolent Very slow and even holding back Classical 105.9 FM WQXR is the Radio The New York Philharmonic’s concert -recording Station of the New York Philharmonic. series, Alan Gilbert and the New York Phil - harmonic: 2011–12 Season, is now available for download at all major online music stores. The New York Philharmonic This Week, Visit nyphil.org/recordings for more information. nationally syndicated on the WFMT Radio Net - work, is broadcast 52 weeks per year ; visit Follow us on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and nyphil.org for information . YouTube. Please be sure that your cell phones and electronic devices have been silenced. 20 New York Philharmonic 01-05 Gilbert:Layout 1 12/28/11 11:09 AM Page 21 Alan Gilbert on This Program Thomas Adès is a composer who has an incredible ear and sense of rhythm, so the com - plexity in his scores is always there for a reason — Tom really knows how to express feelings through his craft. This quality is very apparent in his opera The Tempest , which I conducted in Santa Fe some years ago, and in In Seven Days, which the Philharmonic and I performed last year, as there are dramatic aspects to both of those pieces, but even in non-narrative works he tells a story. Always in his work, what the audience hears is understandable even at the first exposure: there are colors and harmonies that are recognizable , but are combined in a very unique and personal way. Tom is such an honest, serious composer that I’ve always known that Polaris would be interesting, and I am looking forward to the increased focus on the orches - tra that is possible when not presenting the visuals that can be associated with this work . Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is the last symphony he completed, and as such has a particu - lar resonance. It ends with a powerful, valedictory moment, which seems like death , or per - haps the attainment of the ultimate spiritual peace. All of Mahler’s symphonies are great, and all attempt to really encapsulate the human experience, but the Ninth probably goes the far - thest. I think that all conductors wrestle with this piece — approaching it feels like climbing an epic mountain — but the rewards are tremendous. It really does say it all, and it seems to give a picture of what it means to be human in every sense, both the joys of living and the difficulty of coming to the end of one’s life. Mahler’s Ninth Symphony never fails to go straight to the heart. January 2012 21 01-05 Gilbert:Layout 1 12/28/11 11:09 AM Page 22 Notes on the Program By James M. Keller, Program Annotator The Leni and Peter May Chair Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra operas have met with considerable success: Powder Her Face was premiered at the Chel - Thomas Adès tenham Festival in 1995, and The Tempest was premiered and later revived at Covent The British composer Thomas Adès studied Garden and has received further perform - piano and composition at the Guildhall School ances from the opera companies of Copen - of Music and Drama and at King’s College, hagen, Strasbourg, and Santa Fe (where it Cambridge, where his composition teachers was conducted by Alan Gilbert). included Alexander Goehr and Robin Hol - Adès has served as Britten Professor of loway. In 1989 he was awarded second prize Composition at the Royal Academy of Music; in the BBC’s “Musician of the Year” contest, was music director of the Birmingham Con - in recognition of his skill as a pianist, and to temporary Music Group (1998 –2000); and this day he continues to concertize and from 1999 to 2008 was artistic director of the record as a pianist, both in solo repertoire and Aldeburgh Festival. He has been honored with as a collaborative artist. many awards, including the Stoeger Prize He also appears regularly as a conductor of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln of symphony orchestras and opera. Adès has Center (1998) and an honorary doctor ate served as composer in residence for several from Essex University (2004). In 2000 he organizations, including the Hallé Orchestra received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award (1993–95) and the Ojai Festival (2000). He held In Short Carnegie Hall’s composer chair during the 2007–08 Born: March 1, 1971, in London, England season, and in 2009–10 he was the Royal Stock - Resides : in London holm Philharmonic’s fea - Work composed: in 2010 , co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and tured composer. He has Miami’s New World Symphony, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, recently been fêted Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London’s Barbican Centre, the Los through the “Aspects of Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony; musical score revised Adès” festival at the Los through April 2011 Angeles Philharmonic, as World premiere: January 26, 2011, Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the New an artist in residence at World Symphony at the opening of the New World Center in Miami Beach, Florida the Melbourne Festival, New York Philharmonic premiere: and as a featured com - these performances, which mark the New York premiere poser at the 2011 Hol - land Festival. His two Estimated duration: ca. 13 minutes 22 New York Philharmonic 01-05 Gilbert:Layout 1 12/28/11 11:09 AM Page 23 for his orchestral work Asyla . The EMI music, a possi ble influence, although the recording of The Tempest has earned him effect here is quite different.) Even if one’s two impressive honors: the “Diapason d’Or ear does not pick up on the canons, there is de l’année” and the 2010 Classical BRIT no mistaking the overall effect, which sug - Award for Composer of the Year. gests the process of change-ringing and Polaris was conceived for performance which yields a kind of ostinato that repeats with a projected visual work by the film- and (not literally, but in its general contour) to video-maker Tal Rosner. The work has been lend a clarity of structure through nearly all given with projections arranged in different of the piece. ways, but it is also written so that it can be A gradual enriching of the texture leads to presented as a purely musical piece. the entry of the brass section, bit by bit, again A work of some 13 minutes in duration, with canons at play. Adès allows the brass Polaris is structured broadly in three sections. section to be located at a distance from the At the very outset we hear piano and second rest of the orchestra if the conductor so de - violins intoning delicate droplets of eighth sires. Their slow undulation suggests billow - notes. High woodwinds, harp, and touches of ing waves, with the sparkle of the ostinato percussion join this remote, chilly texture. always hovering starlike above. Only a minute Here Adès uses the technique of diminution before the end does the ostinato retreat, leav - canon, through which the same melodic ing the orchestra to hammer out its last pages sequence sounds against itself at different with weighty finality. Just as Polaris, the North speeds. (This method of melodic-rhythmic Star, serves as the center of magnetism, so construction is inherent to Indonesian game lan Adès zeroes in on a single note at the end: In the Composer’s Words Polaris explores the use of star constellations for naval navigation and the emotional navigation between the absent sailors and what they leave behind. … It is scored for orchestra, including groups of brass instruments that may be iso - lated from the stage. These instruments play in canon, one in each of the three sections of the piece, entering in order, from the highest (trum - pets) to the lowest (bass tuba). Their melody, like all the music in this work, is derived from a magnetic series, a musical device heard here for the first time, in which all 12 notes are gradually presented, but persistently return to an anchor - ing pitch, as if magnetized. With the first appear - ance of the twelfth note, marked clearly with the first entrance of the timpani, the poles are re - versed. At the start of the third and final section, a third pole is discovered, which establishes a stable equilibrium with the first. Thomas Adès — Thomas Adès January 2012 23 01-05 Gilbert:Layout 1 12/28/11 11:09 AM Page 24 the note “A” — to which all the instruments ad - piccolo trumpet, three trombones, tuba, tim - just their tuning before a concert begins.