Semyon Bychkov Conductor Kirill Gerstein Piano Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16 Walton Symphony No. 1 Chicago S

Program

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

Thursday, October 24, 2013, at 8:00 Friday, October 25, 2013, at 8:00 Saturday, October 26, 2013, at 8:00

Semyon Bychkov Conductor Kirill Gerstein Piano Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16 Andantino Scherzo: Vivace Moderato Finale: Allegro tempestoso Kirill Gerstein

Intermission

Walton Symphony No. 1 Allegro assai Presto, con malizia Andante con malinconia Maestoso—Briozo ed ardamente—Vivacissimo—Maestoso

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 daniel Jaﬀ é

Sergei Prokofi ev Born April 23, 1891, Sontsovka, Ukraine. Died March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia. Piano Concerto no. 2 in g minor, op. 16

Prokofi ev wrote his fi rst year was, in part, an attempt to compose a work two piano concertos while of greater depth, although it requires even greater he was still a student at virtuosity. (Prokofi ev had become a pianist of the Saint Petersburg exceptional brilliance and power during his Conservatory. He was an conservatory days, and he wrote both works to unusually precocious perform himself.) young musician—he Th e composer played the complex, composed his fi rst piano wide-ranging solo part of his Second Piano piece at the age of fi ve, Concerto at its premiere in September 1913, in and at nine he was the out-of-the-way town of Pavlovsk, near Saint playing Beethoven sonatas. By the time he was Petersburg. Th e concert drew curious music admitted to the conservatory in 1904, at the age lovers from throughout the surrounding area, of thirteen, he had already written two operas, a and the critic for the Saint Petersburg Gazette symphony, a violin sonata, and several piano noted that his fellow passengers on the train to pieces. Prokofi ev quickly grew bored and Pavlovsk were talking of nothing but Prokofi ev. disillusioned with the stodgy school atmosphere; Here is part of his review, proudly reprinted by he was an unusually rebellious student, and he Prokofi ev in his Brief Autobiography: did poorly in his classes with Rimsky-Korsakov and Liadov, the two most distinguished teachers On the platform appeared a youth looking at the conservatory. With his fi rst two piano like a Peterschule student. It was Sergei concertos, Prokofi ev began to assert his musical Prokofi ev. He sat down at the piano and personality and to distance himself from the appeared to be either dusting the keyboard prevailing reactionary tastes. or tapping it at random, with a sharp dry Prokofi ev’s fi rst piano concerto, completed in touch. Th e public did not know what to 1912, helped to establish his reputation as an make of it. Some indignant murmurs were enfant terrible; it was reviewed by the leading heard. One couple got up and hurried to critics in both Saint Petersburg and Moscow, the exit: “Such music can drive you mad!” who carped about its superfi cial bravura and Th e hall emptied. Th e young artist ended exhibitionistic, “acrobatic” technique. Th e second his concerto with a relentlessly discordant piano concerto Prokofi ev began later that same combination of brasses. Th e audience was

ComPoSeD FIrSt CSo PerFormanCeS InStrUmentatIon 1912–13, lost in 1918 and recon- February 28 & March 1, 1930, Orchestra solo piano, two fl utes, two oboes, two structed in 1923 Hall. The composer as soloist, eric clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, delamarter conducting two trumpets, three trombones and FIrSt PerFormanCe tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, September 5, 1913; Pavlovsk, outside moSt reCent fi eld drum, cymbals, tambourine, Saint Petersburg, russia. The composer CSo PerFormanCeS strings as soloist September 24, 2011, Orchestra Hall. yefi m Bronfman as soloist, riccardo aPProXImate revised version: May 8, 1924, Paris. The Muti conducting PerFormanCe tIme composer as soloist 31 minutes

2 scandalized. The majority hissed. With a omelet,” as the composer’s friends later informed mocking bow, Prokofiev sat down again and him. In 1923, then living in Paris, Prokofiev played an encore. “The hell with this futurist decided to reconstruct the score from memory. music!” people were heard to exclaim. “We “I have so completely rewritten the Second came here for pleasure. The cats on the roof Concerto that it might almost be considered the make better music!” Fourth,” he wrote to a friend that year. But in his autobiography, he claimed that he had merely Another critic wrote that the concerto left its made “the contrapuntal development slightly listeners “frozen with fright, hair standing on more complicated, the form more graceful—less end.” With a major scandal under his belt (in that square,” and that he “improved” both the piano most scandal-packed year of premieres, this con- and orchestral parts. We’ll never know how certo coming only four months after Stravinsky’s different the original 1913 concerto is from the Rite of Spring), Prokofiev now felt that he one he introduced in Paris in May 1924. But truly was on the threshold of fame. His career then, in a city used to being at the center of the advanced quickly. Immediately after graduation avant-garde, it caused little stir. from the conservatory in 1914—the recipient of the coveted Rubinstein Prize—he left Russia and he Second Piano Concerto has later met the hottest names in European music four movements, unconventionally circles: Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev. arranged—the last three offer little Prokofiev was bowled over by Stravinsky’s music, varietyT of tempo and there’s no “slow move- and The Rite of Spring had a lasting impact on his ment” at all. The first movement begins with own development as a composer (a debt Prokofiev a delicate, expansive lyrical theme in the never publicly admitted). In London, Prokofiev piano; it’s the only one of its kind in the work. played his Second Piano Concerto for Diaghilev, Prokofiev ingeniously transforms much of who at first considered choreographing it but the standard development and recapitulation then asked him to write a new ballet score (the sections into a monumental, unabashedly ill-fated Ala and Lolli, later revised as the Scythian virtuosic cadenza for solo piano (he marks the Suite, followed by a second commission, The Tale climax “colossale”). By the time the orchestra of the Buffoon). reenters, the movement is practically over. In 1918, Prokofiev talked an official into The scherzo is a fleet perpetuum mobile for the issuing him a passport with no expiration pianist, playing nonstop sixteenth notes in unison date, and he set off for the United States. octaves throughout. (The orchestra adds terse, Remembering that he had once met a friendly colorful comments, but stays out of the soloist’s Chicagoan named Cyrus McCormick in way.) The subsequent Intermezzo, which doesn’t Petrograd, Prokofiev traveled to Chicago, which offer the relief its title traditionally suggests, is seemed unusually welcoming and receptive to a fierce and sometimes grotesque march over a his music. Frederick Stock invited him to play repeating bass line. The finale is more of a battle his First Piano Concerto and to conduct the between piano and orchestra, the former resort- Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony, and ing to full-fisted chords to gain the upper hand. the Chicago Opera agreed to produce The Love Prokofiev makes room for a leisurely interlude for Three Oranges. Stock invited Prokofiev back to with a simple folklike melody and another florid play the world premiere of his new Third Piano cadenza before the “relentlessly discordant” Concerto in 1921. chords that left the Pavlovsk audience, appar- When Prokofiev came to this country in 1918, ently unaccustomed to healthy harmonic daring, he left the score of his Second Piano Concerto frozen with fright. in his Petrograd apartment, where it eventually was used by the new tenants as fuel “to cook an —Phillip Huscher

3 William Walton Born March 29, 1902; Oldham, Lancashire, England. Died March 8, 1983; La Mortella, Ischia, Italy. Symphony no. 1

In 1926, the writer Sassoon, “but the Hallé is such a good orchestra Siegfried Sassoon, one of and Harty such a magnifi cent conductor, besides William Walton’s most being very encouraging, that I may be able to steadfast supporters, knock Bax off the map.” Arnold Bax, England’s introduced the most prolifi c symphonist, presented an obvi- twenty-four-year-old ous target for Walton, who thrived on rivalry: composer to Hubert Foss, Walton’s previous celebrated work, the choral founder of Oxford Belshazzar’s Feast, had been composed to trump University Press’s music his friend Constant Lambert’s Th e Rio Grande. department. Eager to Yet, for all his apparent brilliance as a com- publish the composer of the colorful and poser, Walton suff ered severe self-doubt if inspi- jazz-inspired Portsmouth Point, Foss gave Walton ration eluded him. While composing Belshazzar’s a fi ve-year contract. So began a fruitful relation- Feast, he had got stuck for over six months on ship, which resulted in several of Walton’s the chord setting for the word “gold.” Matters greatest works. were further complicated by his relationship Walton found Foss “a very intelligent musician with Baroness Imma von Doernberg. A young and could criticize quite well. [ . . . ] He was widow almost a year older than Walton, she was very good to talk to about one’s diffi culties.” One described by Siegfried Sassoon as “pretty, sweet, evening in October 1931, Walton visited Foss lively, and courageous . . . with a tall, graceful and his wife Dora. As Dora recalled, “Willie fi gure.” William and Imma were involved from at was (languidly!) extemporizing at the piano with least 1929, and by early 1931 were cohabiting at Hubert sitting on the double stool with him, the Casa Angelo in Ascona, Switzerland. It was a while I stood behind them. We were absolutely far from easy relationship, and Walton found her enchanted with what he was playing . . . Hubert increasingly demanding (“once a baroness always or both of us said something to the eff ect that he a baroness!” he observed years later). must use that heavenly tune for something.” Th is All of this, and the high expectations rid- turned out to be the fi rst glimmering of Walton’s ing on his new symphony, made even getting Symphony no. 1. started a nerve-racking process. Late in 1932, he Th e following January, the conductor confessed to Sassoon that he had been “doing a Hamilton Harty asked Walton to write a good deal more ruminating than actual work.” symphony for his Hallé Orchestra. “A rather In October, he wrote to Foss: “I’ve managed to portentous undertaking,” Walton confessed to get down about forty bars, which for me is really

ComPoSeD moSt reCent InStrUmentatIon 1932–1935 CSo PerFormanCeS two ﬂ utes and piccolo, two oboes, two October 19, 20 & 21, 1978, Orchestra clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, FIrSt PerFormanCe Hall. Charles Mackerras conducting three trumpets, three trombones and december 3, 1934, london, england tuba, timpani, percussion, strings (ﬁ rst three movements) CSo PerFormanCeS, tHe November 6, 1935, london, england ComPoSer ConDUCtIng aPProXImate (complete) August 1, 1963, ravinia Festival PerFormanCe tIme 43 minutes FIrSt CSo PerFormanCeS January 23 & 24, 1936, Orchestra Hall. Sir Hamilton Harty conducting (u.S. premiere)

4 something.” By December, he admitted to Foss guise Walton had originally tried out, then he was “stuck,” as he had been for Belshazzar. discarded, for the opening movement. Harty—suspecting a cause for Walton’s delay— After finishing that lament and composing wrote to Foss in February saying: “Why don’t the finale’s opening and end, Walton put the you go over to Switzerland and wrest poor symphony temporarily aside in the summer of W.W.’s baroness away from him so that he can 1934 to work on his first film score, Escape Me stop making overtures to her and do a symphony Never. Harty, who had by then left the Hallé for me instead!” for the London Symphony Orchestra, finally per- By the summer of 1933, Walton was able suaded Walton to let him conduct the symphony to show the first two movements to Foss, who without its finale. That premiere took place on wrote to Dora: “Willie’s symphony is most December 3, 1934. Shortly afterwards, Imma, to exciting—really on the big scale and in the purest Walton’s relief, broke off their relationship. symphonic manner: just like Beethoven and Soon afterwards, Walton met “beautiful, Sibelius and yet very personal. Rather tragic, and intelligent” Alice, viscountess Wimborne. Calm the second movement scherzo is really sinister. and more mature (she was twenty-two years his I think I have persuaded him to use for the slow senior), Alice nurtured Walton and his creativity movement that ravishing idea he played to us until the end of her life. But for the fact Walton ages ago on October 18, 1931, when he was had already composed the finale’s opening, starting the work . . . .” one might assume it reflected her beneficent influence. In fact, Walton’s main addition to the oss’s assessment was fairly shrewd: the movement after meeting Alice was a carefree symphony’s opening timpani roll, with fugue, created at Constant Lambert’s suggestion. the glow of sustained horns and a flicker- Walton’s disingenuous claim that in preparation, Fing violin motif, derives stylistically from both he studied Vaughan Williams’s article on Fugue Beethoven’s Ninth and Sibelius’s Fifth (which in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians also starts with sustained horns and a timpani (having previously written two in his First String roll). Yet its orchestration and the way Walton Quartet!) was perhaps a tribute to the older builds harmonic tension ultimately owes most composer’s fugue in the finale of his Fourth to Sibelius, albeit masterfully handled with the Symphony, much admired by Walton; that work powerful pilings up of dissonance counterbal- was first performed on April 10, 1935. Almost anced by sudden interludes of fleeting sweetness. seven months later, on November 6, Harty The second movement, Presto, con malizia, conducted the premiere of Walton’s completed reflected, Walton confessed years later, his symphony, performed, as had been Vaughan increasingly acrid relationship with Imma. Williams’s, by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It Friends noticed how pale and thin he had is perhaps appropriate that Walton dedicated his become, and Walton’s correspondence at that ferocious symphony to his muse, Imma. time clearly expresses the bitter torment he suffered both from the huge expectation weigh- —Daniel Jaffé ing on his symphony and from what he crypti- cally called “the most idiotic mess I’ve made of Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago my life.” Symphony Orchestra. Walton labeled the slow third movement, in Daniel Jaffé is a regular contributor to BBC Music not very correct Italian, Andante con malinconia. Magazine and a specialist in English and Russian music. Here the “ravishing idea” Foss referred to appears He is the author of a biography of Sergey Prokofiev as a flute solo, its melancholic character more (Phaidon) and the Historical Dictionary of Russian Music evident in the slower tempo than in the allegro (Scarecrow Press).