Mahler Symphony 3
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Gustav Mahler, 1893, by E. Bieber MAHLER SYMPHONY 3 24 CONCERT PROGRAM Gustav Mahler Wednesday, September 28, 2016 Symphony No. 3 in D Minor 8:00pm I. Kräftig. Entschieden. Thursday, September 29, 2016 Intermission 8:00pm II. Tempo di Menuetto. Sehr mässig. Peter Oundjian III. Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast. conductor IV. Sehr langsam. Misterioso. V. Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck. Jamie Barton VI. Langsam. Ruhevoll. Empfunden. mezzo-soprano Women of the Amadeus Choir & Elmer Iseler Singers Lydia Adams Conductor & Artistic Director with the ORIANA Women’s Choir Mitchell Pady, Artistic Director Toronto Children’s Chorus Elise Bradley Artistic Director There is no work in all of music quite like Mahler’s Third Symphony. This evening, we’re joined by Jamie Barton, the women of the Amadeus Choir and Elmer Iseler Singers with the ORIANA Women’s Choir, and the Toronto Children’s Chorus for this most monumental of works. In some ways, Mahler was the ultimate symphonist. He inherited the great German tradition of Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruckner, and took it further, creating works which had at their core a Peter Oundjian highly personal journey. This is what makes a symphony: it’s not just several Music movements stuck together, it is a single voyage, speaking to human experience Director through contrasts and continuities. Somehow, this massive canvas, the longest regularly performed work in the repertoire, takes us on an intense pilgrimage, encompassing a huge variety of sounds and styles. Nowhere is Mahler’s famous assertion—that a symphony must be a whole universe—more clearly demonstrated than in this work. Every kind of emotion appears in this music, from the most mundane to the most lofty and inspirational. It is a hymn to the human spirit, from one of music’s greatest prophets. 25 THE DETAILS Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 3 in D Minor Born: Kalischt, Austria, Jul 7, 1860 97 Died: Vienna, Austria, May 18, 1911 min Composed: 1893–1896 The Third is Mahler’s longest symphony and giving way to a cheerful, confident march—living requires huge instrumental and vocal forces. It Nature, in all its Dionysian glory. The music of depicts nothing less than Mahler’s cosmology. No. 2 unfolds in a five-part minuet-and-trio form Part 1 shows “the way life gradually breaks through (ABABA): the opening section is graceful, genial, out of soulless, petrified matter”; Part 2 (which was pastoral; the contrasting section is more agitated, composed first) shows life taking on “ever more scherzo-like. No. 3 is a complex, rondo-like highly developed forms: flowers, beasts, man, up movement in which Mahler sought to convey to the sphere of the spirits,” the finale depicting the liveliness and humour he saw in the animal eternal love—for Mahler, “the highest level from world. It opens with “the quiet, undisturbed life which the world can be viewed,” synonymous with of the forest,” but two episodes in the latter half, God. The Third is thus “a musical poem,” at once featuring long, poignant post horn calls, introduce monumental and deeply personal, offering an an “other” on the scene: man. ultimately positive vision of life. Individual human consciousness finally flowers In No. 1, the long “Introduction” portrays “lifeless, in No. 4, a profound song for alto based on a text rigid Nature” in mysterious, primeval music, finally from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra. Although Mahler’s world-view was not entirely compatible with that of the self-described “Godless and anti-metaphysical” Nietzsche, his setting of MUSIC AS VARIED AS THE WORLD this “magnificent” poem elevates the Third Mahler resisted explaining his Third beyond the merely descriptive. It is slow, quiet, Symphony publicly but was unusually ruminative, and evocative. No. 5, by contrast, is forthcoming about it in conversations and a public celebration. Telling the story of Peter’s letters, and in his final manuscript the six sin and his absolution through Jesus, it sets a movements bore the following titles: text from the folk-poetry anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn (the source for many of Mahler’s Part 1 songs). A cheerful, brightly scored communal song No. 1: “Introduction: Pan Awakes”…”Summer of bells and angels, it proclaims the kind of naïve Marches In (Bacchic Procession)” faith that Mahler always took seriously. Part 2 The Third closes unconventionally, with what has No. 2: “What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me” been called “the first typical Mahler adagio”—music No. 3: “What the Animals in the Woods Tell Me” of reconciliation and transcendence, connecting No. 4: “What Mankind Tells Me” the human to the divine. Here, “everything has No. 5: “What the Angels Tell Me” dissolved in peace and quiet,” Mahler wrote. No. 6: “What Love Tells Me” Program note by Kevin Bazzana 26 Text and Translation No. 4 [“What Mankind Tells Me”]– Sehr langsam. Misterioso. O Mensch! Gib Acht! O man! Take heed! Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht? What does the deep midnight say? “Ich schlief, ich schlief—, “I slept, I slept—, aus tiefem Traum bin ich erwacht:— from deep dreaming I have awoken:— die Welt ist tief, the world is deep, und tiefer als der Tag gedacht. and deeper than the day conceives. O Mensch! O Mensch! O man! O man! Tief ist ihr Weh—, Deep is its woe—, Lust—tiefer noch als Herzeleid; joy—deeper still than heartache; Weh spricht: Vergeh! Woe says: Go away! Doch alle Lust will Ewigkeit— But all joy desires eternity— will tiefe, tiefe Ewigkeit!” desires deep, deep eternity!” No. 5 [“What the Angels Tell Me”] – Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck. Es sungen drei Engel einen süßen Gesang; Three angels sang a sweet song; mit Freuden es selig in dem Himmel klang, with joy it rang blissfully in heaven, sie jauchzten fröhlich auch dabei, they shouted, too, for joy, daß Petrus sei von Sünden frei! that Peter was free from sin! Und als der Herr Jesus zu Tische saß, And as the Lord Jesus sat at the table, mit seinen zwölf Jüngern das Abendmahl aß, and ate the evening meal with his twelve disciples, da sprach der Herr Jesus: Was stehst du denn hier? the Lord Jesus said: Why do you stand here? Wenn ich dich anseh’, so weinest du mir! When I look at you, you weep at me! “Und sollt’ ich nicht weinen, du gütiger Gott? “And should I not weep, you bounteous God? Du sollst ja nicht weinen! No, you must not weep! Ich hab’ übertreten die zehn Gebot, I have broken the Ten Commandments, Ich gehe und weine ja bitterlich. I wander and weep bitterly. Du sollst ja nicht weinen! No, you must not weep! Ach komm’ und erbarme dich über mich!” O come and have mercy on me!” Hast du denn übertreten die zehn Gebot, If you have broken the Ten Commandments, so fall auf die Knie und bete zu Gott! then fall on your knees and pray to God! Liebe nur Gott in all Zeit! Love only God at all times! So wirst du erlangen die himmlische Freud’. Thus will you gain heavenly joy. Die himmlische Freud’ ist ein’ selige Stadt, Heavenly joy is a blessed city, die himmlische Freud’, die kein Ende mehr hat! heavenly joy, which has no end! Die himmlische Freude war Petro bereit’t Heavenly joy was granted to Peter durch Jesum, und allen zur Seligkeit. through Jesus, and to all people for eternal bliss. 27 For a biography of Peter Oundjian, THE ARTISTS please turn to page 15. Jamie Barton mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton made her TSO début in May, 2015. Recipient of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award, mezzo- soprano Jamie Barton is also the winner of both Main and Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a GRAMMY® nominee. In the 2016/17 season, Ms. Barton returns to the Metropolitan Opera for her role début as Ježibaba in a new production of Rusalka and as Fenena in Nabucco. Both appearances will be simulcast in cinemas around the globe via the Met’s Live in HD series. She sings her first Princess Eboli in Don Carlo in her Deutsche Oper Berlin début, makes her New York Philharmonic début as Fricka in Das Rheingold, and returns to the Houston Grand Opera as Waltraute/2nd Norn in Götterdämmerung. Ms. Barton’s concert season includes her much-anticipated début with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Elgar’s Sea Pictures, a work she also performs with The Florida Orchestra. Other highlights include these performances of Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and a recital tour with James Baillieu, culminating in her Wigmore Hall début. Recent performances include: Adalgisa (Norma) at the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and San Francisco Opera; Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena) at the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago; Fricka (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre) at Houston Grand Opera; Cornelia (Giulio Cesare) at Oper Frankfurt; Azucena (Il trovatore) at Cincinnati Opera; and Fenena at Seattle Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Future projects include returns to Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Opera. 28 Amadeus Choir Lydia Adams Conductor & Artistic Director The Amadeus Choir made its TSO début in June, 1989. The Amadeus Choir is known for its professionalism, exceptional musicality, and diverse, high-quality programming—all a reflection of the leadership provided by Lydia Adams, Conductor and Artistic Director for the past 32 years. Under Ms. Adams’s leadership, the choir has grown significantly in size and reputation to become one of Canada’s pre-eminent choral groups.