Tunesaturday, May 2Nd, 2009 Up! Tunenew York Philharmonic Young People’S Concert® Elcome to the Young People’S Concerts! St

TuneSaturday, May 2nd, 2009 Up! TuneNew York Philharmonic Young People’s Concert® elcome to the Young People’s Concerts! St. Petersburg—Russia’s “Window on the West” and Europe’s window W on vast, exotic Russia. In 1703 Tsar Peter the Great decided to create a modern city where there was only marshland, and in just nine years St. Petersburg replaced Moscow as the capital of Russia. In the 1870s and 80s, the city was full of young artists celebrating their national traditions in new forms of art and music. The “Mighty Handful” were five composer friends, including Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Their music tells stories from Russian history and folktales in operas, ballets, and purely musical works that helped make their nation’s culture unique and distinct. St. Petersburg is the most different of the Capitals of Music we have visited this year, and from there comes some of MUSSORGSKY’S ST. PETERSBURG the world’s most beloved orchestral music. THE PROGRAM: MUSSORGSKY Promenade, from Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel) Delta David Gier, conductor BORODIN Selections from Polovtsian Dances, from Prince Igor Tom Dulack, scriptwriter and director RIMSKY-KORSAKOV The Story of the Kalendar Prince, from Scheherazade Adam Alexander, actor LERA AUERBACH Humum mandere, from Symphony No. 1, Chimera Thomas Baird, actor/dancer MUSSORGSKY Selections from Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel) Heather Lipson Bell, actor/dancer With the Dead in a Dead Language Alesia Lawson, actor The Hut on Chicken Feet: Baba-Yaga The Great Gate of Kiev 2

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MUSSORGSKY’S ST. PETERSBURG

CAN YOU IDENTIFY EVERYTHING IN AND AROUND MUSSORGSKY’S ST. PETERSBURG STUDIO? LOOK ON THE BACK PAGE TO SEE WHETHER YOU’RE RIGHT. about the composers and their music… Pictures at an Exhibition Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) (1874; orchestrated by Maurice Ravel in 1922) lways seeking a distinctly Russian ictures at an Exhibition was inspired by a musical style, Mussorgsky looked to P memorial exhibition of paintings and A Russian history and folklore for designs by Viktor Hartmann, a close friend inspiration and broke all the rules of Western of Mussorgsky. Each movement depicts various The Hut on Chicken Feet, composition. His clashing harmonies and clumsy artworks or the composer himself promenading by Viktor Hartmann scoring drove some people crazy, but few could from picture to picture at the exhibition. There are five Promenade disagree that Mussorgsky’s music was some of movements in the work: they all have the same tune, but each one the most vivid and imaginative of the time. In has its own mood, color, and key in response to the different paintings. addition to being a composer and virtuoso In With the Dead in a Dead Language, Mussorgsky reflects on a visit to pianist, he followed his family tradition and Paris’s catacombs (ancient Roman burial sites). He notes in his score became a cadet in the Russian Imperial Guard. that Hartmann’s creative spirit “leads me towards skulls; the skulls begin to glow softly from within.”The Hut on Chicken Feet depicts the Often suffering from bad health and financial home of the Baba-Yaga, a type of witch in Russian folklore who drives hardship, Mussorgsky believed that art should portray the realities of through the forest in a giant mortar which she steers with a pestle. The life and the human experience. Due to life’s circumstances he was Great Gate of Kiev depicts a design that Hartmann created to celebrate not able to complete or orchestrate all of his works. But Mussorgsky’s a monumental occasion in the life of Tsar Alexander II. Pictures at an creativity and fresh ideas about music inspired his composer friends— Exhibition was originally written for piano. The version heard today is and musicians of future generations—to finish his compositions. orchestrated by the French composer Maurice Ravel.

Selections from Polovtsian Dances, Alexander Borodin (1833–1887) from Prince Igor (1875) orodin was a well-regarded orodin’s opera, Prince Igor, is considered to scientist by profession, credited Bbe the composer’s greatest work and one Bwith several important discoveries of the most important historical Russian in chemistry. He was born in St. operas. It tells of the Russian Prince Igor and his Petersburg and in addition to his battle against the invading Polovtsian tribes from doctorate in medicine he took lessons in Central Asia in the 12th century.Act Two of the composition and the cello. Borodin met opera takes place in a Polovtsian camp. Prince Igor Mussorgsky while the two were working at and his son have been captured during combat by a military hospital and they became fast the Khan of the Polovtsians. The Khan offers Igor freedom in exchange for the Prince’s promise not friends, drawn together by a shared love to wage war on his tribe again, but Igor refuses. for music. Borodin’s music, unlike The Khan commands the Polovtsian slaves to Mussorgsky’s, was well received by European dance for the entertainment of Igor and himself. Borodin died audiences of the day who enjoyed its beautiful melodies and lush before his opera was finished. It was completed with help from harmonies. Like Mussorgsky’s, his music expresses a truly Russian Rimsky-Korsakov and premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in St. flavor. He is buried in St. Petersburg’s Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Petersburg in 1890. next to his dear friend Mussorgsky.o

The Story of the Kalendar Prince, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) from Scheherazade (1888) he youngest member of the “Mighty he Kalendar Prince is a movement Handful” and the only one to have T from Scheherazade, a composition Tacademic training in composition, based on the Arabian Nights folk Rimsky-Korsakov often acted as a musical tales. Scheherazade is the newest wife of mentor to Mussorgsky and Borodin, helping the Sultan Schahriar, who has married them to orchestrate and complete their many times and sworn to kill each of his compositions. He embraced folk songs and wives after one night of marriage. Russian materials and at the same time learned Scheherazade saves her life by a great deal from Western musical techniques. entertaining the Sultan with marvelous He shared an apartment and piano with tales that she creates each night over Mussorgsky, who was also the best man at his 1,001 nights. Rimsky-Korsakov uses a full palette of orchestral colors to illustrate wedding. Rimsky-Korsakov became a professor exotic tales from the Persian Empire. In The of harmony and orchestration at the St. Petersburg Conservatory Story of the Kalendar Prince, a royal prince disguises himself as a where he spent decades teaching the next generation of Russian member of a tribe of wandering holy men and has adventures that composers, including Glazunov, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky. are left up to our imagination. Humum mandere, from Lera Auerbach (b. 1973) Symphony No. 1, Chimera (2006) orn in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Ural he subtitle of this symphony, Mountains bordering Siberia, Lera Auerbach is Chimera, refers to the mythological Bone of the most widely performed composers T fire-breathing monster with a head of her generation. In addition to composing for a of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a dragon. This marvel of a range of leading artists, orchestras, opera creature, made up of different parts, relates to Auerbach’s companies, and music festivals, Auerbach is also a symphony—the sound of the work is a mixture of a romantic-era virtuoso pianist and award-winning poet. She holds symphony and modern sounds. The sixth movement from Symphony degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard No. 1, Humum mandere, means “to bite the dust.”Like so much School and is the youngest composer represented by music of the “Mighty Handful,”it suggests a story largely left up to our the prestigious international music publishing imaginations. The music is dark and edgy, suggesting frustration and company Hans Sikorski. She made her Carnegie Hall anger. The composer writes, “one can imagine a wild tiger, pacing in a piano debut in 2002 performing one of her own small cage….[or a] man turned into a machine-like ant colony,” where works and has been presented there each season since then. This concert one is confined to a situation beyond one’s control. is the first performance of one of her works by the New York Philharmonic. s t s

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: O T O at The Philadelphia Orchestra. As a Fulbright Scholar, he H P has led many performances in Eastern Europe. Mr. Gier he New York Philharmonic is by far the oldest has served as visiting professor at the Yale School of Tsymphony orchestra in the United States, and Music, the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, one of the oldest in the world. It was founded in San Francisco Conservatory, and SUNY–Stony Brook. 1842 by a group of local musicians, and currently plays about 180 concerts every year. On December 18, 2004, the Philharmonic gave its 14,000th concert — a record that no other symphony orchestra in the world has ever reached. The Orchestra currently has 106 members. It performs mostly at Avery Fisher Hall, at Lincoln Center, but also tours around the world. The Orchestra’s first concerts specifically for a younger audience were organized by Theodore Thomas for the Adam Alexander Thomas Baird 1885–86 season, with a series of 24 “Young People’s actor actor/dancer Matinees.”The programs were developed further by conductor Josef Stransky, who led the first Young People’s Concert in January of 1914. The Young People’s Concerts were brought to national attention in 1924 by “Uncle Ernest” Schelling, and were made famous by Leonard Bernstein in the 1960s with live television broadcasts.

Alesia Lawson Heather Lipson Bell actor actor/dancer Saturday, November 7, 2009 POINTS Benjamin Britten The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra OF ENTRY Saturday, December 12, 2009 Claude Debussy La Mer work of genius contains a wealth of past influences along with the Saturday, March 6, 2010 Aseeds of new musical growth. Next season, each Young People’s Magnus Lindberg Feria Concert focuses on a single masterpiece, through which we will explore Saturday, March 27, 2010 how music develops and how the orchestra itself brings the music alive. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 41, Jupiter

CAPITAL IDEAS! What do you remember about the Capitals of Music? Below you’ll find a list of musical descriptions we’ve explored this season. Match them to the Capitals or create your own! BERNSTEIN’S RAVEL’S NEW YORK PARIS

MOZART’S MUSSORGSKY’S VIENNA ST. PETERSBURG

Mixed-up meters Modernity and innovation Unique and exotic sounds Devilish dance Imperial elegance Jazzy brass Intense expression Enchanting fairytales Heartbreaking conflict Romantic dreams Infectious syncopations Perfect proportions Atmospheric music Eccentric and strange Frantic pace Kaleidoscope of color Big-city buzz Dazzling spectacle Castanets and tambourines Fantastic fusion Elegance and clarity Balanced musical forms Percussive orchestration Clashing harmonies Optimism and energy Lyrical and lighthearted Bright, bold harmonies Playful and witty Vivid imagination Colorful palette Opera buffa Boisterous dance Festivals and fanfares Chinoiserie Latin-beat dances

SO WHAT’S IN AND AROUND MUSSORGSKY’S ST. PETERSBURG STUDIO? 1. The Mariinsky Theater—many of the “Mighty Handful’s” masterpieces had their premieres here. 2. A costume design for a Polovtsian maiden in Borodin’s Prince Igor. 3. The Great Gate of Kiev by Viktor Hartmann. 4. The “Mighty Handful” (Moguchaya kuchka) were self-trained, amateur musicians who had a big impact on Russian culture. 5. Matryoshka dolls were created to revive and preserve Russian folk art. The Young People’s Concerts® and Kidzone Live! are made possible with generous support from the The Theodore H. Barth Foundation. Tune Up! is made possible by an endowment in the name of Lillian Butler Davey. MetLife Foundation is the Lead Corporate Underwriter for the New York Philharmonic’s Education Programs.