Program
ONE HuNDRED TWENTy-Fi RST 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, May 24, 2012, at 8:00 Friday, May 25, 2012, at 1:30 Saturday, May 26, 2012, at 8:00 Keys David robertson Conductor to the City Emanuel ax Piano Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber Allegro Turandot: Scherzo Andantino March Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73 (Emperor) Allegro Adagio un poco mosso— Rondo: Allegro EMANuEl Ax
IntErmIssIon rachmaninov Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 Non allegro Andante con moto (Tempo di valse) lento assai—Allegro vivace
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is most grateful to Judy Istock, CSO Life Trustee, for her generous support as lead sponsor of the Keys to the City Piano Festival. The festival receives additional generous support from The Chicago Community Trust, Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation, Mr. & Mrs. Paul G. Gignilliat, Joe and Madeleine Glossberg, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Media support for the Keys to the City Piano Festival is provided by Chicago Tribune and WFMT. The CSO gratefully acknowledges Mrs. Arthur Edelstein for her generous support of the May 25 concert.
This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. CommEnts by PH illiP HuSCHER
Paul Hindemith Born November 16, 1895, Hanau, Germany. Died December 28, 1963, Frankfurt, Germany.
symphonic metamorphosis on themes by Carl maria von Weber
n March 1940, choreographer and 1940, the month before he received Idancer Léonid Massine wrote to Massine’s request. While he Paul Hindemith asking if he would was in Switzerland, Hindemith be interested in composing a ballet had worked with Massine on based on music by Carl Maria von Nobilissima visione, a ballet on the Weber. Hindemith had always life of Saint Francis of Assisi based taken an unusually serious interest on the famous frescoes by Giotto both in the music of the past and in the church of Santa Croce in in the musical heritage of his native Florence, Italy. For that score, Germany, so paying homage to Hindemith had at first considered Weber naturally appealed to him. borrowing music from medieval And, perhaps because Hindemith composers, and, although he gave was in the process of building a new up on that idea, the prospect of life for himself in a strange country, writing a new ballet indebted to he was particularly taken with the Weber, to whom he felt consider- idea of maintaining his German ably closer, not just in time but in musical roots. sensibility as well, was irresistible. A political refugee, Hindemith In the spring of 1940, when had left Germany in 1937, liv- Hindemith had a temporary ing in Switzerland before moving teaching position at the University to the United States in February of Buffalo and the dancer was
ComPosED most rECEnt tuba, timpani, tambourine, 1940–1943 Cso PErFormanCE snare drum, tenor drum, March 4, 2006, tom-toms, bass drum, FIrst PErFormanCE Orchestra Hall. bernard triangle, cymbals, tam-tam, January 20, 1944, New york. Haitink conducting tubular bells, woodblock, Artur Rodzinski conducting glockenspiel, strings InstrumEntatIon FIrst Cso two flutes and piccolo, two aPProxImatE PErFormanCE oboes and english horn, PErFormanCE tImE July 27, 1944 (Andantino and two clarinets and bass 21 minutes March only), Ravinia Festival. clarinet, two bassoons Efrem Kurtz conducting and contrabassoon, four Cso rECorDIng 1953. Rafael Kubelík February 1, 1945, Orchestra horns, two trumpets, conducting. Mercury Hall. Hans lange conducting three trombones and
2 on tour in the United States, the benefit from the kind of “metamor- two sat down together to discuss phosis” that he had in mind. the Weber project. But between Hindemith begins with an exotic Massine’s invitation and their and noisy Allegro, originally a meeting, Hindemith went to see piano duet, which gains immeasur- a performance of Massine’s pro- ably in both color and atmosphere duction of the Bacchanale from from the translation for full orches- Wagner’s Tannhäuser, which he tra. The second-movement scherzo dismissed as “simply stupid.” When is drawn from incidental music that he learned that Massine wanted Weber wrote in 1809 for Schiller’s to commission sets and costumes translation of Carlo Gozzi’s play for the new Weber ballet from Turandot—the same play that, in Salvador Dali, whose contribution the years between Weber’s and to the Bacchanale Hindemith had Hindemith’s treatments, served as particularly hated, the composer the source for Puccini’s last opera. quickly withdrew from the proj- The vaguely oriental principal ect. In the meantime, however, melody itself is one that Weber had Hindemith had already begun lifted from a collection of “genuine” studying Weber’s music and sketch- Chinese tunes in Jean-Jacques ing ways to treat his predecessor’s Rousseau’s Dictionaire de musique. themes. Three years later, he real- Like many oriental fantasies by ized that although he had shelved Western European composers the Weber project, he hadn’t through the ages, it is colored by dismissed the composer’s music bright and busy percussion. from his thoughts, and so he wrote The third-movement Andantino this Symphonic Metamorphosis is drawn from a set of piano duets on themes by Weber to fulfill one that Weber composed for his of his first American commissions, employer’s daughters, the princesses from the New York Philharmonic. Maria and Amalia of Württenberg. Hindemith settled on the idea A florid flute obbligato is an espe- of a four-movement symphonic cially felicitous addition to Weber’s work, although it is clearly not a unassuming theme. Hindemith symphony in the classical sense, closes with a march, also originally but a symphony of variations—a composed for piano duet, which is a set of transformations of four genuine transformation, not just in Weber themes. Hindemith didn’t sonority and color, but in char- choose familiar Weber material, but acter as well, that makes Weber’s instead picked lesser—or at least solemn Maestoso into a rousing and slighter—pieces that would most exuberant finale.
3 Ludwig van Beethoven Born December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany. Died March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria.
Piano Concerto no. 5 in E-flat major, op. 73 (Emperor)
t’s hard for today’s audiences with, Beethoven wasn’t at the Ito appreciate the audacities of keyboard—this was the only one Beethoven’s final piano concerto, of his five piano concertos that he the one we call the Emperor. For didn’t personally introduce to the those who are familiar not only public. Although it wasn’t com- with this great work, but with any mon knowledge at the time, by of the later concertos that took their 1811 his deafness was so advanced cues from Beethoven’s example, (he began to notice symptoms as the grand piano flourishes with early as 1796) that he may have which the score begins have little turned this work over to other shock value. Nor does the size and hands rather than admit the dif- complexity of the first movement ficulties of playing for an audience. trouble those who not only have (In 1815, he abandoned work on traveled its many paths before, but sketches for a sixth concerto, in D, also have come to accept the vast certain that his performing days landscapes of Mahler. were over.) But to those who packed the Beethoven begins with a single Leipzig Gewandhaus in November majestic E-flat major chord from 1811, this was new music, full of the full orchestra—one of those revelations and surprises. To begin sounds so commanding and
ComPosED July 16, 2010, Ravinia 1961. Van Cliburn, piano; 1809 Festival. Jorge Federico Fritz Reiner conducting. RCA Osorio, piano; James 1971. Vladimir Ashkenazy, FIrst PErFormanCE Conlon conducting piano; Georg Solti conduct- November 28, 1811, leipzig, ing. london Germany InstrumEntatIon two flutes, two oboes, two 1983. Alfred brendel, piano; FIrst Cso clarinets, two bassoons, James levine conducting. PErFormanCE two horns, two trumpets, Philips February 10, 1900, timpani, strings A 1940 performance with Auditorium Theatre. ignace Joseph Hofmann, piano, Paderewski, piano; Theodore aPProxImatE and Hans lange conducting Thomas conducting PErFormanCE tImE is included on Chicago 38 minutes most rECEnt Symphony Orchestra: The Cso PErFormanCEs Cso rECorDIngs First 100 Years; and a March 14, 2009, Orchestra 1942. Artur Schnabel, piano; 1966 performance with Hall. Valentina lisitsa, piano; Frederick Stock conducting. Emil Gilels, piano, and James Gaffigan conducting RCA Jean Martinon conducting is included on From the Archives, vol. 17.
4 individual that today, without digressions of the opening Allegro. hearing another note, we know The strings begin with a noble what is sure to follow. The 1811 theme, to which the piano responds audience, of course, didn’t know with an eloquent cantilena. Midway what to expect, and they surely through, the piano has a chain wouldn’t have predicted the sudden, of trills that rises more than an cadenza-like eruption from the octave by half steps, while the soloist that Beethoven gives them. orchestra plays broken chords, as if Hearing from the soloist so early in stunned by this daring high-wire a concerto is bold and unconven- act. Finally, there is the celebrated tional, but it’s not without prec- moment when the strings drop from edent. Mozart tried it once, early in B to B-flat, and the piano begins to his career, and Beethoven himself putter with the makings of a daz- had begun his previous concerto— zling new theme, which it suddenly the fourth, in G major—with the unleashes without pause to open the piano alone. But here Beethoven rondo finale. This robust and seem- isn’t striving for novelty; he’s ingly tireless music dashes headlong preparing us for what lies ahead—a through a generous sampling of musical argument of unprecedented keys until it collapses just before the breadth and scale between two end, leaving only the piano and the protagonists of equal stature. timpani to reach the final bars. Only after Beethoven com- Beethoven’s brilliance wasn’t lost mands our attention with three on the Leipzig audience, who took emphatic chords, each followed by it all in and applauded enthusiasti- long-winded outbursts from the cally. The critic for the prestigious piano, does he settle down to his Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung first theme, a heroic tune in E-flat reported that this was “undoubt- major. The piano falls silent and edly one of the most original, the orchestral exposition sweeps imaginative, effective—but also forward with great energy. This most difficult—of all existing is an enormous movement, last- concertos”—words that still hold ing some twenty minutes, and true today. Beethoven withheld the it’s longer than the following two important Vienna premiere until movements combined. But for all February 1812, perhaps still vainly the time and space it occupies, it’s hoping that he might be able to not hard to follow. Beethoven alone take his place at the keyboard. It among composers of his generation was his student, however, the young knew how to expand the classical Carl Czerny, who played that night. structures he inherited without The response this time was poor, upsetting their delicate proportions perhaps because this grand and or abandoning their inner logic. noble work was tacked on to a char- The slow movement is in ity event which consisted largely B major—a remote key, but one of Viennese society ladies in living which is familiar from the earliest tableaux of famous paintings.
5 sergei rachmaninov Born April 1, 1873, Semyonovo, Russia. Died March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills, California.
symphonic Dances, op. 45
fter finishing his Third With the outbreak of war in ASymphony in 1936, 1939, Rachmaninov and his wife Rachmaninov quit composing, dis- Natalya left Europe for the last couraged by the lukewarm reception time and settled in Orchard Point, several of his recent scores had met. an estate he had rented on Long (Only the Rhapsody on a Theme by Island, near his friends Vladimir Paganini had been well received; and Wanda Horowitz; his former both the Fourth Piano Concerto secretary, Evgeny Somov; and and the Variations on a Theme by choreographer Michel Fokine, Corelli were public failures, and the who recently had made a popular Third Symphony was only a modest ballet of the Paganini Variations. success). Rachmaninov was tired Throughout the summer of 1940, of trying to juggle his careers as a Rachmaninov was busy preparing composer, conductor, and pianist— for his upcoming concert tour—he and in recent years it seemed that regularly practiced every day from he was only guaranteed success in early morning until eleven at his role as pianist (he was, after night—and, for the first time in all, one of the greatest of all time). years, he found that he couldn’t Perhaps he also had grown weary of resist the urge to compose. On having his music dismissed as old- August 21 he wrote to Eugene fashioned and irrelevant—invariably Ormandy, who had conducted pitted against the radical work of some of Rachmaninov’s greatest Stravinsky and Schoenberg, the two successes with the Philadelphia giants of the day. Orchestra, “Last week I finished
ComPosED most rECEnt alto saxophone, two bas- 1940 Cso PErFormanCEs soons and contrabassoon, October 5, 2004, four horns, three trumpets, FIrst PErFormanCE Orchestra Hall. Charles three trombones and tuba, January 3, 1941, Dutoit conducting timpani, triangle, tambou- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania rine, cymbals, bass drum, July 10, 2008, Ravinia tam-tam, glockenspiel, Festival. leonard FIrst Cso xylophone, snare drum, Slatkin conducting PErFormanCE chimes, harp, piano, strings December 11, 1941, InstrumEntatIon Orchestra Hall. Frederick aPProxImatE two flutes and piccolo, two Stock conducting PErFormanCE tImE oboes and english horn, two 35 minutes clarinets and bass clarinet,
6 a new symphonic piece, which I find the kind of popularity his naturally want to give first to you earlier music had so easily won. and your orchestra. It is called (Although Rachmaninov had spent Fantastic Dances. I shall now begin long periods of time in the United the orchestration.” Even with his States since 1918, the Symphonic impending tour, Rachmaninov Dances is the only score he com- managed to complete the scoring posed in this country—earlier, he that October. By then the dances regularly wrote, on breaks from had become symphonic rather than concert tours, in his villa near fantastic, and he also had given Lucerne.) But in recent years, the up his original idea to identify the three movements as midday, twilight, and midnight. (“It should have been called just Dances,” he told a newspaper reporter, “but I was afraid people would think I had written dance music for jazz orchestra.”) Before Ormandy even had a chance to see the score, Rachmaninov played through parts of it at the piano for Fokine, hoping that he would want to collaborate on another ballet—this was a set of dances, after all—and Conductor Eugene Ormandy repeat the international success of their Paganini project. Fokine was enthusiastic—“it seemed to me score has become a favorite of appropriate and beautiful,” he wrote orchestras and audiences alike— to Rachmaninov, after hearing the Rachmaninov’s star is once again music—but his death, in August on the rise. 1942, robbed the composer of both The first dance has an extended a friend and another hit ballet. solo for saxophone, an instru- The Philadelphia premiere was ment for which Rachmaninov well received, but a subsequent had never written before. (He performance in New York was consulted with his friend, the panned. Rachmaninov was hurt Broadway orchestrator Robert that Ormandy didn’t appear Russell Bennett, who was amazed interested in recording the new that, when the composer played the work, even though he had made score for him, “he sang, whistled, best-selling records of practically all stamped, rolled his chords, and his previous orchestral pieces. The otherwise conducted himself not as Symphonic Dances turned out to one would expect of so great and be his last score, and Rachmaninov impeccable a piano virtuoso.”) He died believing that it would never also got advice on string bowings
7 from no less an artist than Fritz The second movement is a melan- Kreisler. (At the first rehearsal, choly waltz (in 6/8 time) that only when Ormandy remarked on their turns more anxious and wistful as difficulty, Rachmaninov said, it progresses. The finale quotes the “Fritz did those for me,” knowing chant of the Russian Orthodox he need say no more.) In the coda liturgy as well as the Gregorian of the first dance, Rachmaninov melody of the Dies irae from the privately quotes the opening theme Mass for the Dead. It also recycles of his First Symphony, which was part of his All-Night Vigil, an a cap- the greatest failure of his career pella choral work dating from 1915, (after its disastrous premiere in but this is no secret quotation, for 1897, Rachmaninov wrote noth- Rachmaninov writes the original ing for three years). Rachmaninov text, “Alliluya,” in the score at that knew that only he would catch point. Perhaps guessing that this the reference, because he had long would be his final work—“It must since destroyed the score, hop- have been my last spark,” he said at ing to erase painful memories the time—Rachmaninov wrote at along with the music itself. But the end of his manuscript, “I thank shortly after his death, a copy of thee, Lord.” a two-piano arrangement, and then a set of orchestra parts, turned up in Leningrad, bringing Rachmaninov’s secret quotation Phillip Huscher is the program annota- © 2012 Chicago Symphony Orchestra © 2012 Chicago to light. tor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
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