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Home , Cello concerto, Cello Concerto (Ligeti), Double concerto, Double Concerto (Brahms), Double Concerto (Carter), Double Concerto (Delius)

Please note that Osmo Vänskä replaces , who has been forced to cancel his appearance at these concerts.

Program

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

Thursday, October 18, 2012, at 8:00 Friday, October 19, 2012, at 8:00 Saturday, October 20, 2012, at 8:00 Osmo Vänskä Conductor Renaud Capuçon Gautier Capuçon Music by for Violin and Cello in A Minor, Op. 102 (Double) Allegro Andante Vivace non troppo Renaud Capuçon Gautier Capuçon

Intermission

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68 Un poco sostenuto—Allegro Andante sostenuto Un poco allegretto e grazioso Adagio—Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

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

Johannes Brahms Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg, . Died April 3, 1897, , Austria.

Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor, Op. 102 (Double)

or Brahms, the year 1887 his final orchestral composition, Flaunched a period of tying up this concerto for violin and cello— loose ends, finishing business, and or the , as it would clearing his desk. He began by ask- soon be known. Brahms privately ing , with whom decided to quit composing for he had long shared his most inti- good, and in 1890 he wrote to his mate thoughts, to return all the let- publisher Fritz Simrock that he had ters he had written to her over the thrown “a lot of torn-up manuscript years. Clara, clearly stunned, at first paper” into the Traun River, and hoped to extract “everything relat- that he had abandoned his fifth ing to his artistic or private life.” symphony. (But Brahms was not “But he would not hear of it,” she yet done writing music: inspired by wrote in her diary on October 16. the playing of clarinetist Richard “And so today I handed them over Mühlfeld, he wrote a trio to him with tears.” Two days later, and quintet in 1891 and two clari- Brahms conducted the premiere of net sonatas in 1894; Clara’s death

Composed Most recent CSO Approximate 1887 performances performance time December 11, 2007, 31 minutes First performance Orchestra Hall. Robert Chen, October 18, 1887; Cologne, violin; Jan Vogler, cello; Sir CSO recordings Germany. The com- Mark Elder conducting 1986. , violin; poser conducting Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Claudio July 13, 2012, Ravinia Abbado conducting. CBS Festival. Nicola First U.S. Benedetti, violin; 1996. , violin; performance Leonard Elschenbroich, Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Daniel January 5, 1889, New cello; Christoph Barenboim conducting. York City. Theodore Eschenbach conducting Teldec Thomas conducting Instrumentation First CSO solo violin and solo cello, performance two , two , two January 18, 1895, , two , Auditorium Theatre. Eugene four horns, two , Boegner, violin; Bruno , strings Steindel, cello; Theodore Thomas conducting

2 in 1896 prompted his last work, the During the summer of 1887, Four Serious Songs.) after Brahms settled in a rented The Double Concerto, written for villa overlooking Lake Thun in the great violinist Switzerland, he seized upon a novel and , the cellist plan. In August, Brahms wrote in the Joachim Quartet, was less a Joachim one last letter, saying work of farewell than of reconcilia- that he had been unable to resist tion. In 1887, Brahms and Joachim composing a new concerto for him were no longer speaking. They had and Hausmann, and that if Joachim been best friends almost from the wasn’t interested, he should simply day they met in May 1853 (Brahms write “I decline” on a postcard. “If was twenty, Joachim twenty-two). not,” Brahms It was Joachim who had introduced continued, the shy young composer to the “my questions Schumanns, leading Robert to begin. Would write an influential newspaper col- you like to see umn proclaiming Brahms a “young a sample? I am eagle,” and arousing in Clara feel- now copying ings of an intensity and emotional the solo parts. complexity that she would never Do you feel completely shake. Brahms and like getting Joachim were close for many years; together with they talked often, about everything Hausmann to that mattered to them, from affairs check them of the heart to business (Joachim for playability? offered indispensable advice on Could you technical matters throughout the think about Composer and pianist Clara Schumann composition of Brahms’s Violin trying the Concerto). Then, in 1880, Joachim, piece with who had always been a helplessly Hausmann and with me at the jealous man, began to suspect that , and eventually with the his wife, the contralto Amalie three of us with orchestra in some Spies, was having an affair with town or other? I won’t say out loud Fritz Simrock, Brahms’s publisher. and specifically what I quietly hope Brahms wrote a long letter insisting and wish . . . .” This was the peace on Amalie’s innocence—a clumsy offering that Joachim ultimately attempt to patch up the Joachims’ could not refuse, and, like many a faltering marriage that only pre- listener since, he melted as soon as cipitated their divorce and put an he heard the music. end to the friendship between the With Hausmann, Joachim two men. For years, Brahms wrote met Brahms at Clara’s house in to Joachim and sent him scores, Baden-Baden in late September; but, although he continued to play it was the first time the two men Brahms’s music, Joachim no longer had spoken in seven years. They wanted his companionship. played through the work around

3 Clara’s piano, and then with the Thomas (with Victor Herbert, in local orchestra. Although the music his pre-operetta days, as the cellist), the score was dismissed as “not the most catchy thing imaginable.” It was years before the Double Concerto was accepted as the equal of Brahms’s other —it was the last of the four to appear on Chicago Symphony programs— and it is still the least- often played. The idea of writing a concerto for more than one soloist was unfamil- Violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann iar in the late nineteenth century, and even making went splendidly and the Brahms, who knew music history conversation showed no signs of better than any composer of the strain (Brahms and Joachim imme- day, probably could not think of any diately reverted to the intimate distinguished models other than “du”), the old closeness was gone, the double by Bach; and their friendship seemed now, Mozart’s concertante for for certain, to be over for good. violin and ; and Beethoven’s Together, the three men began to for violin, cello, prepare for the premiere, which the and piano. Brahms’s pairing of composer conducted in Cologne violin and cello was particularly the following month. The recep- unexpected. “Surely this wonderful tion was surprisingly tepid, and combination has never been tried even Brahms’s old friend Theodore before,” Clara wrote at the time, Billroth later told the critic and it is truly without precedent. that he found Brahms himself described the score the concerto’s closely wrought style simply as a “strange flight of fancy,” tedious and wearisome, “a really although it is the logical culmina- senile production,” as he taste- tion of his longtime interest in lessly put it. As with Beethoven, the baroque form, whose final, visionary works were with its team of soloists. (Brahms, dismissed because of his deafness, incidentally, was a great champion the novelties of Brahms’s old age of Handel’s music, and in 1874 convinced even his best friends that he conducted a performance of he was simply washed up. At the Solomon in Vienna.) American premiere in New York Brahms had written his two in 1889, conducted by Theodore piano concertos for himself to play,

4 and he had composed his violin the whole first movement is an concerto in consultation with extended dialogue—by turns Joachim. Now, however, he was on intimate, heated, consoling, and his own, and he was clearly uncom- ultimately conciliatory—for two fortable. “I ought to have handed instruments so alike in design yet on the idea to someone who knows so very different in character. The the violin better than I do (Joachim solo music throughout is extraor- has unfortunately given up com- dinarily difficult, yet there is very posing),” he wrote to Clara at one little obvious virtuoso spectacle. point. “It is a very different matter (Brahms saves for a few, telling writing for instruments whose moments the simple but stunning nature and sound one only has a effect of having the violin and cello chance acquaintance with, or only play in octaves.) The orchestral hears in one’s mind, from writing writing, for all its power, is uncom- for an instrument that one knows monly clear and economical. The as thoroughly as I know the piano.” entire movement is a masterful (Clara reminded him, apparently union of symphonic energy and without providing consolation, that inward lyricism. he had written four symphonies.) In the slow movement, a horn call Music for solo cello with orches- cues a generous, deep-voiced mel- tra, in particular, was unusual in ody played by the soloists, again in Brahms’s day (’s octaves. Brahms’s command of color of 1850 was not yet is so subtle and his orchestration so known). Brahms’s famous comment inventive that each repetition of the on first seeing the score to Dvořák’s tune brings a sense of variation. An Cello Concerto shortly before he elaborate and demanding (though died—“Why on earth didn’t I know unshowy) double leads to one could write a cello concerto like one last exploration of the theme. this? If I’d only known, I’d have The finale, surprisingly for such a written one long ago!”—confirms grand and powerful work, is both its novelty. playful and humorous, intended Throughout Brahms’s concerto, as it was for the man with whom the cello takes the lead—perhaps its Brahms once regularly shared jokes role was to mediate between com- and laughter. Just before the end, poser and violinist. Brahms begins a tender and almost wistful mood with two (each introduced sweeps through the music. But by the orchestra), and while the Brahms had written this concerto first one, for cello, is long and in order to bring Joachim into his expansive, the second, for violin, life again, and in the final page, quickly turns into a duet with the so resolute and joyous, he never cello. Despite its monumentality, looks back.

5 Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68

eethoven died six years before Brahms had his reasons for sit- BBrahms was born, but his ting on his first symphony, but presence was felt by almost every eventually his friends and col- composer who came after him. leagues began to wonder if he, like Even Brahms, a master of piano Schubert before him, might leave music and songs from an early age, an unfinished symphony in the put off writing symphonies and attic. (In fact, in 1870, Brahms —two Beethoven said he would never complete forms par excellence—offering only the piece.) His publisher, Fritz the pathetic, but honest excuse: Simrock, finally wrote: “Aren’t “You can’t have any idea what it’s you doing anything more? Am I like always to hear such a giant not to have a symphony from you marching behind you.” Eventually in ’73 either?” But there was no Brahms turned and faced the giant, symphony in 1873, just as there had but it took him nearly twenty years been no symphony any year since to do so, and only the magnificence 1854, when Brahms first set out to of his own First Symphony gave write one. him the courage to leave the ghost That earliest effort, in the key of of Beethoven behind him for good. D minor (the key of Beethoven’s Few great works of music have Ninth Symphony, incidentally) taken so long to get from sketch neatly sidestepped the issue to to finished product. Obviously, become Brahms’s first piano

Composed Most recent CSO CSO recordings 1850s–1876 performance 1952. Rafael Kubelík April 28, 2009, conducting. Mercury First performance Orchestra Hall. Bernard 1975. James Levine conduct- November 4, 1876; Haitink conducting ing. RCA Karlsruhe, Germany Instrumentation 1979. Sir Georg Solti First CSO two flutes, two oboes, two conducting. performance clarinets, two bassoons 1989. Günter Wand conduct- February 9, 1894, Auditorium and contrabassoon, four ing. RCA Theatre. Theodore horns, two trumpets, three Thomas conducting , timpani, strings 1993. conducting. Erato Approximate performance time 45 minutes

6 concerto, even though the idea of destroyed it. But he wouldn’t “symphony” is written all over it. release it. Brahms also avoided the challenge When Brahms sent his com- with the two that gave pleted first movement to Clara him needed and valuable experience Schumann in 1862, it didn’t begin writing for the orchestra without with the fierce and arresting intro- directly taking on Beethoven. There duction we know, but took off like a was further testing of the waters in rocket from the headlong Allegro. the substantial orchestral accompa- Clara confessed to Joachim that the niment to A German and beginning seemed bold and “rather other important choral works. And harsh, but I have become used to finally, a dress rehearsal of sorts— it.” Brahms, however, evidently the grand Variations on a Theme didn’t, because when he played the of Haydn from 1873—though this entire symphony for Clara more too, for all its mastery of instru- than a dozen years later, it began mentation and intellectual rigor, with the powerful, measured drum was not a symphony. beat and chromatic unfolding that But Brahms did have a symphony now lead straight into the Allegro. in the works. As early as 1862, he Even though it was written after sent a completed first movement the fact—or, perhaps because to Clara Schumann. “Imagine of that—Brahms’s introduction my surprise!” she wrote to Joseph serves as a preview of what follows: Joachim, who would one day the opening violin line rising by play the violin concerto Brahms half steps, for example, and the wrote for him in a single summer. falling thirds in the winds will Clara’s surprise eventually turned both be whipped into meaningful to dismay when Brahms continued shape elsewhere. to drag things out, sending her The Allegro is conceived on the the horn call from the finale as a largest scale. The final turn into birthday card some six years later, the recapitulation, in particular, is and finally sitting her down to stretched to incredible lengths— listen as he played the whole sym- and then, with the destination phony at the piano another eight clearly in sight, resolution is further years after that. Although Brahms delayed by a daring descent into certainly took his time, he proved a remote key. For a moment it to an impatient musical public that appears that Brahms has thrown there was still music being written caution to the wind, but this sud- that was worth the wait. Unlike den whim, too, is part of his plan, his contemporary Anton Bruckner, all calculated with the skill of a who made a career out of having master craftsman. second thoughts, Brahms was the From the beginning, Hermann best judge of his own work. When Levi—a perceptive German a piece didn’t please him, he put conductor—thought the two it aside or reworked it, or—in the inner movements more suited to a case of his Fifth Symphony—he serenade or a suite. But brevity and

7 conciseness aren’t at odds with the compared with Beethoven’s “only symphonic scale—although the because it is the solitary one among grandeur of Brahms’s first move- hundreds of the same type that ment might lead one to expect is great enough to suggest the something equally imposing to resemblance.” There are other follow. Instead, Brahms’s slow echoes of Beethoven, too. Certainly movement, in the surprising key the finale’s extensive introduction, of E major, is intimate and mod- clouded with mystery and flaring est, with lovely woodwind solos up with occasional turbulence, and a magnificent one for violin takes a cue from Beethoven’s at the end. The third movement is Ninth. But then so do countless no scherzo, but an intermezzo, as works written in the nineteenth warm and ingratiating as Brahms’s century that don’t profit from the piano pieces which actually bear comparison. There’s also much that the name. is pure Brahms, like the unforget- With the finale we come again table horn call that parts the clouds to Beethoven, partly because any and admits the bright sunlight of symphony that begins in C minor the C major allegro theme, or the and then forges triumphantly into brilliant and hair-raising coda, C major at the end must face com- which nearly beats Beethoven at parison with Beethoven’s Fifth, and his own game. The ending, in fact, partly because Brahms’s big allegro is as exalted and triumphant as melody suggests nothing more any in music, and it’s clear that the than the great song of Beethoven’s triumph is Brahms’s alone. “Ode to Joy.” When the likeness was pointed out, Brahms simply said, “Any ass can see that.” More to the point, noted Phillip Huscher is the program annota- © 2012 Chicago Symphony Orchestra © 2012 Chicago that Brahms’s theme is regularly tor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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