23 Season 2014-2015

Thursday, April 16, at 8:00 Friday, April 17, at 2:00 The Philadelphia Saturday, April 18, at 8:00 Stéphane Denève Conductor Christina and Michelle Naughton Pianos Michael Goldstrom Speaker

Roussel The Spider’s Feast, Symphonic Fragments, Op. 17 I. Prelude II. Entrance of the Ants III. Dance of the Butterfly IV. Hatching of the Mayfly V. Dance of the Mayfly VI. Funeral of the Mayfly VII. Night Falls on the Deserted Gardens

Prokofiev , Op. 67, performed with Suzie Templeton’s 2008 Academy Award®-winning animated short film Peter & the Wolf

Intermission

Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals I. Introduction and Royal March of the Lion II. Cocks and Hens III. Hémoines (Wild Horses of Tartary) IV. Tortoises V. The Elephant VI. Kangaroos VII. Aquarium VIII. Persons with Long Ears IX. The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods X. The Aviary XI. Pianists XII. Fossils XIII. The Swan XIV. Finale

Poulenc Suite from Les Animaux modèles I. Dawn II. The Love-Sick Lion III. The Middle-Aged Man with Two Girlfriends IV. Death and the Woodsman V. The Two Young Roosters VI. The Midday Meal First performances

This program runs approximately 2 hours.

Film ©2006 BreakThru Peter Ltd. and Se-ma-for.

The April 16 concert is sponsored by the Hassel Foundation. 24

Please join us immediately following the April 17 concert for a Chamber Postlude, featuring members of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Poulenc Sonata I. Allegro malincolico II. Cantilena: Assez lent III. Presto giocoso Jeffrey Khaner Flute Stéphane Denève Piano

ProkofievQuintet, Op. 39, for , , , , and I. Tema (Moderato) con variazioni II. Andante energico III. Allegro sostenuto, ma con brio IV. Adagio pesante V. Allegro precipitato, ma non troppo pesante VI. Andantino Jonathan Blumenfeld Oboe Samuel Caviezel Clarinet William Polk Violin Kerri Ryan Viola Robert Kesselman Double Bass

Peter & the Wolf is a BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production in association with Channel 4, Storm Studios, and Archangel SA.

Executive Producers Lars Hellebust and Simon Olswang Co-Producer Zbigniew Zmudski Producers Alan Dewhurst and Hugh Welchman Adapted & Directed by Suzie Templeton Lead Animator Adam Wyrwas VFX Supervisor Kamil Polak Editor Tony Fish Director of Photography Mikolaj Jaroszewicz Supervising Director of Hugh Gordon Photography Production Designers Marek Skrobecki and Jane Morton Co-Writer Marianela Maldonado Executive Producer for Kreis Rob Whitehouse Consulting Executive Producer for Luc Toutounghi ArchAngel

designates a work that is part of the 40/40 Project, which features pieces not performed on subscription concerts in at least 40 years.

Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details. 3 Story Title 25 The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of imagination and innovation on and off stage. The Orchestra is transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging—and exceeding—that level by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike since his inaugural season in 2012. Under his leadership the Orchestra returned to recording with a celebrated CD of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and transcriptions on the label, continuing its history of recording success. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of listeners on the radio with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM. Philadelphia is home, and the Orchestra nurtures an important relationship with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center, and also with those who enjoy the Orchestra’s other area performances at the Mann Center, Penn’s Landing, and other cultural, civic, and learning venues. The Orchestra maintains a strong commitment to collaborations with cultural and community organizations on a regional and national level. Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, today The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The ensemble annually performs at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail, Colorado. The Philadelphia Orchestra has a decades-long tradition of presenting learning and community engagement opportunities for listeners of all ages. The Orchestra’s recent initiative, the Fabulous Philadelphians Offstage, Philly Style!, has taken musicians off the traditional concert stage and into the community, including highly-successful Pop- Up concerts, PlayINs, SingINs, and ConductINs. The Orchestra’s musicians, in their own dedicated roles as teachers, coaches, and mentors, serve a key role in growing young musician talent and a love of classical music, nurturing and celebrating the wealth of musicianship in the Philadelphia region. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org. 6 Music Director

Chris Lee Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin continues his inspired leadership of The Philadelphia Orchestra, which began in the fall of 2012. His highly collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called Nézet-Séguin “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.” He has taken the Orchestra to new musical heights. Highlights of his third season as music director include an Art of the Pipe Organ festival; the 40/40 Project, in which 40 great compositions that haven’t been heard on subscription concerts in at least 40 years will be performed; and Bernstein’s MASS, the pinnacle of the Orchestra’s five- season requiem cycle.

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. He has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008 and artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. He also continues to enjoy a close relationship with the London Philharmonic, of which he was principal guest conductor. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and he has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading houses.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with a CD on that label of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. He continues a fruitful recording relationship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic and Choir for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique.

A native of Montreal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued lessons with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec; and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor. 26 Principal Guest Conductor

Jessica Griffin Stéphane Denève is principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He made his debut with the Philadelphians in 2007 and assumed his current position at the start of the 2014-15 season. He is also chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and in September 2015 becomes chief conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic and director of its Centre for Future Orchestral Repertoire. From 2005 to 2012 he was music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Recent European engagements included appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw and Philharmonia orchestras; the Bavarian Radio, Swedish Radio, Vienna, and London symphonies; the Munich Philharmonic; the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome; the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; and the Orchestre National de France. In North America Mr. Denève made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony, with which he is a frequent guest. He appears regularly with the and San Francisco symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Philharmonic. He made his debut in 2015. He has conducted productions at the Royal Opera House, the Glyndebourne Festival, La Scala, the Saito Kinen Festival, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie, and the Opéra National de Paris. He enjoys close relationships with many of the world’s leading artists, including Jean- Yves Thibaudet, Leif Ove Andsnes, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nikolaj Znaider, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Lars Vogt, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin, James Ehnes, and Natalie Dessay. As a recording artist, Mr. Denève has won critical acclaim for his recordings of the works of Poulenc, Debussy, Roussel, Franck, and Connesson. He is a double winner of the Diapason d’Or, was shortlisted in 2012 for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award, and won the prize for symphonic music at the 2013 International Classical Music Awards. A graduate of, and prizewinner at, the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Denève worked closely in his early career with Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and . He works regularly with young people in the programs of the Tanglewood Music Center and the New World Symphony. 27 Artists

Graduates of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton made their Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2009 at the Mann Center and their subscription debut in 2012. The Philadelphia Inquirer has described their playing as “paired to perfection.” It helps, the identical twins say, to have hands that are exactly the same size. The Naughtons made their European debut at the Herkulesaal in Munich and their Asian debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. They have performed with numerous American orchestras, including the Houston, Madison, Milwaukee, New Jersey, North Carolina, Delaware, El Paso, and Napa Valley symphonies, and the Buffalo and Erie philharmonics. International performances have included the Sociedad de Conciertos de Valencia in Spain, Prague’s Strings of Autumn Festival, and the Bremen Music Festival. They have also appeared in recital at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, and the Schubert Club in St. Paul. The Naughtons’s first album, recorded at the Sendesaal in Bremen, was released in 2012 by ORFEO. The sisters currently reside in New York City. Actor and comedian Michael Goldstrom has appeared on Comedy Central, HBO, NBC, ABC, A&E, and Reelzchannel; in films; on and off Broadway; and in clubs from New York to Los Angeles. He’s performed at Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and at Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic. These current performances mark his Philadelphia Orchestra debut. His theater credits include Mambo Kings (workshop) on Broadway, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Kitty Kitty Kitty, Can-Can with Patti Lupone, The Metromaniacs, The Merchant of Venice, Luv, Modern Orthodox, Old Wicked Songs, and All in the Timing. Film and television credits include Heights, Approaching Union Square, The Sopranos, and Law & Order: SVU. Mr. Goldstrom is the writer and director of the short film Press or Say “2” and the narrator of over 50 audiobooks. In May 2015 he performs Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with Ensemble ACJW at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and Columbia University. He lives in Los Angeles and has two television pilots and a feature film in development. 28 Framing the Program

It is hardly surprising that animals, and the diverse sounds Parallel Events they make, have captured the imagination of 1886 Music for centuries. The program today offers a veritable Saint-Saëns Strauss menagerie, from insects caught in a spider’s web to Carnival of the Aus Italien lumbering elephants and mighty lions. Animals Literature James ’s Peter and the Wolf has long served as a The Bostonians wonderful introduction to the instruments of the orchestra. Art Today the Philadelphians present Suzie Templeton’s edgy Rodin visualization of the work, which won the Academy Award The Kiss for Best Animated Short Film in 2008. History Pasteur Institute The three other pieces on the program all hail from France founded and to varying degrees echo the marvelous 17th-century Fables of Jean de La Fontaine, still familiar to every French 1912 Music schoolchild. In Albert Roussel’s ballet The Spider’s Feast, Roussel Ravel various insects are caught in a spider’s web, but before The Spider’s Daphnis and they are eaten a praying mantis arrives and devours the Feast Chloé spider. Literature Jung Camille Saint-Saëns wrote the charming Carnival of the The Theory of Animals for his own amusement and to entertain friends. Psychoanalysis This now beloved work was never performed publicly Art during his lifetime and only the famous “Swan” movement Chagall was published. Saint-Saëns alludes to earlier pieces by The Cattle Rossini, Mendelssohn, Offenbach, and others, as well as a Dealer brief quotation of his own popular Danse macabre. History Titanic sinks To conclude we hear a suite drawn from ’s Les Animaux modèles. Beneath its surface charm runs a 1940 Music serious undercurrent as the ballet was composed in the Poulenc Stravinsky summer of 1940 to be an allegory for French suffering Les Animaux Symphony in C under Nazi occupation. Poulenc commented: “I wanted modèles Literature to find, no matter what the cost, a reason to hope for the Sinclair destiny of my country.” World’s End Art Kandinsky Sky Blue History Trotsky assassinated 29 The Music The Spider’s Feast

Albert Roussel didn’t pursue composition seriously until he was well into his 20s, after serving for several years in the French navy. When he decided definitively on a career in music he studied initially with the famed French organist Eugène Gigout. Then, under the tutelage of Vincent d’Indy, he finally graduated from the Schola Cantorum at age 39. Although a late bloomer, he is considered by many scholars and critics to be the leading French of the interwar era, and arguably the most important French symphonist of all time. His catalogue is not large—only 59 compositions— Albert Roussel but he exerted a significant influence on French music. Born in Tourcoing, France, April 5, 1869 Roussel was also an important teacher. While still a Died in Royan, August 23, student at the Schola Cantorum he was invited to teach 1937 counterpoint there, overseeing the instruction of an entire generation of French composers, including such renowned figures as , Edgard Varèse, Roland-Manuel, and (later) Bohuslav Martinů. Although he was a staunch advocate of Modernism among his students, his own works demonstrate a somewhat conservative, neoclassical bent that he undoubtedly inherited from his mentor d’Indy. Even in his lushly-scored orchestral works, Roussel was a master of delicate shading, clarity, and sensitivity. A Commission for a Pantomime-ballet Following the success of his 1911 choral/orchestral Evocations, Roussel was commissioned by the conductor Jacques Rouché to write a pantomime-ballet that, it was hoped, would repeat the success of Ravel’s from two years earlier. Rouché suggested a scenario by Count Gilbert de Voisins based loosely on the encyclopedic Souvenirs entomologiques by 19th-century naturalist Jean-Henri Fabre. Roussel initially thought to turn down Rouché’s offer. He had just rejected a similar commission; many serious composers still held to the 19th-century view that ballet music was an inferior genre. But his wife managed to convince him otherwise. He accepted the commission, changing the scenario significantly by adding the mayfly and butterfly as principal dance characters and a pair of clowns as pantomime “maggots.” Insect Life in a Garden The scenario for The Spider’s Feast depicts insect life in the garden, though with implicit 30

Roussel composed The allegorical parallels to the sometimes violent relationships Spider’s Feast in 1912. and impulses of humanity. Various insects are trapped in was on the a spider’s web, but before the spider can eat them the podium for the first Philadelphia spider is itself killed by a praying mantis. A funeral for an Orchestra performances of ephemeral mayfly rounds out the day’s activity. the work, in March 1952. It The ballet/pantomime premiered in 1913 and proved has been heard only one other an instant success. A revival was staged at the Opéra- time, in January 1992 with . Comique in 1922 and at the Paris Opéra in 1939, but the full ballet was then largely forgotten. Not long after the The score calls for two (II first performance, Roussel extracted a series of episodes doubling piccolo), two and published them as Symphonic Fragments from the (II doubling English horn), two ballet, intended for the concert hall. The suite became , two , two one of the few works by Roussel that was performed horns, two , , regularly during the second half of the 20th century. percussion (, , , triangle), These fragments comprise mostly the gentler music from harp, celesta, and strings. the ballet, and very little of the lively pantomime, resulting in the eponymous spider being (ironically) almost entirely Performance time is absent from the suite. approximately 15 minutes. A Closer Look The gentle Prelude opens with flute and strings presenting a theme of morning freshness in the garden (a haunting theme that Roussel reported stayed with him for years after he penned it). While it borrows the lushness and fluidity of Debussy’s harmonic practices, the regularity of the rhythm and the clear formal structures in the movement denote the influence of Ravel and d’Indy, respectively. The Entrance of the Ants is almost mechanical in its march-like precision, and is organized intentionally without nuance. (While thinking about the dance and mime roles, Roussel noted accordingly that “the dung beetles and the ants require no special qualities.”) The darting gestures of the Dance of the Butterfly overlay a sinuous chord progression with piquant flourishes and unpredictable syncopations. Here Roussel seems to emulate Tchaikovsky by writing a charming, traditional ballet waltz, at least until the point where the butterfly is caught in the spider’s web. The mayfly then emerges from a mysterious opening (Hatching of the Mayfly) with little eruptions of movement that evolve into a full-fledged Dance of the Mayfly, entrancing all the insects. The mayfly collapses exhausted at the end, and after several (omitted in the suite), finally dies. The Funeral of the Mayfly includes references to earlier musical themes, and as the insects retreat, the garden returns to its initial serenity (Night Falls on the Deserted Garden). —Luke Howard 31 The Music Peter and the Wolf

Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, the most popular of all symphonic compositions-with-narrator (Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait comes in a close second), began its life with an ill-attended and indifferently received premiere performance on May 2, 1936, in Moscow. Conducted by the composer, the freshly minted work was performed for the audience of the Moscow Children’s Musical Theater. “Attendance was rather poor and [it] failed to attract much attention,” Prokofiev noted in his diary. How Little Peter Fooled the Wolf—the work’s original title—might have Sergei Prokofiev disappeared then and there, but the piece flourished Born in Sontsovka, internationally because of the sheer charm of Prokofiev’s Ukraine, April 23, 1891 breezy score and its clever method of introducing Died in Moscow, March 5, orchestral instruments to children by associating them 1953 with characters in the story. While Prokofiev had a distinctive style, he was eclectic in his choice of thematic materials and subjects, reaching people of varied tastes and interests. He wrote music about gamblers, lovers, and political struggle. His late piano sonatas were closely associated with the human drama of World War II. In Peter and the Wolf, with its nursery- rhyme tunes and charming story, Prokofiev bequeathed an indispensable legacy to his youngest listeners. —Kenneth LaFave The Making of the Film Peter and the Wolf, from UK production company BreakThru Films, is an innovative animated film version of Prokofiev’s classic work, directed by BAFTA-winning director Suzie Templeton. The film was shot at the Oscar®-winning Se-ma-for animation studios in Poland using stop-frame model animation. Using top-of-the-range digital stills cameras, and state-of- the-art surround sound, Templeton’s film version of Peter and the Wolf is a fantastical and intriguing interpretation of the world famous and much-loved story, with ingenious new twists woven into the classic tale. The story has resonated deeply with over five generations of children, enchanted by its power and sense of fun. BreakThru Films was founded in 2002 by Hugh Welchman and Alan Dewhurst. Welchman was a graduate of the National Film School. “I hadn’t long left film school 32

when I was approached by conductor Mark Stephenson, who asked me if I had ever thought about a collaboration between film and music,” says Welchman. “He also mentioned that the 70th anniversary of Peter and the Wolf was coming up and that might be a suitable piece to do. I had been a huge fan of the book and the music as a child but I assumed that it must have been done many times as it was such a popular piece. I did some research and discovered there were about 13 versions, and was rather amazed that none of them had really succeeded in telling the story.” Welchman believes the story is rare in its iconic nature—a classic rite of passage tale told through a stunning score. “It was exciting to be able to convey a story about an irreverent boy who succeeds where adults fail,” he says. “It has an endless appeal for children.” Around the same time Suzie Templeton’s film Dog was being screened at festivals and receiving positive reactions. Templeton loved the challenge of matching a three-minute story with a 30-minute piece of music. “We had to write a whole new narrative while remaining true to the original story. I found myself going round in circles quite a lot, and expanded it at one point until it was about an hour long! So I had to trim it back down, and that was hard work,” she remembers. A Note from the Director What is so magical about Peter and the Wolf is that it lives inside people’s imaginations. This is the great challenge for me—to present a vision that fires the imagination. A film adaptation can never give people something as vivid and unique as what is already inside their own heads. All I can do is present my own imagining. It is born from truth and passion, and I hope people will feel that. Right in the first week of adapting Peter and the Wolf into a film I realized that it could not have a narrator. The narration in traditional performances is very enjoyable and leads the visual imagination. But this work is now done by the animation. I have listened to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf thousands of times during the last five years, unpicking every note, every phrase; wondering what he meant, trying to weave a coherent vision from the work. I wrote the script backwards, filling a pre-existing and well-defined narrative shape. My desire was to create a film that works on many levels for both children and adults, addressing our fear of, and fascination for, the “wild beast,” and witnessing a young boy discover his own strength and integrity. 33

Peter and the Wolf was My intention was to remain faithful to Prokofiev’s music composed in 1936. and story but to allow the film to develop its own life. I Leopold Stokowski led the needed to develop the characters and their relationships first Philadelphia Orchestra to sustain a half-hour narrative film. I have agonized over performances of the work, on every detail and still worry over some aspects too difficult a Children’s Concert Pension to portray easily in film, but I hope this Peter is faithful to Fund Benefit in March 1940, the spirit and intention of Prokofiev over 70 years ago. with Lester Englander providing the narration. The first, and Film Synopsis Peter, a young orphan, lives in a fortified only other, subscription compound on the edge of a deep Russian forest, performances were in guarded by his overprotective Grandfather. Isolated from February/March 1941, with townspeople, and ignored by the local children, Peter’s Eugene Ormandy and Guy only friends are his pet duck and a mischievous bird who Marriner. entice him to seek adventure outside the walls of the compound. Despite his Grandfather’s stern rules, Peter’s The Philadelphians have recorded Peter and the Wolf curiosity gets the better of him. Stealing some keys, he twice: in 1957 for CBS with bursts out into the wild dark forest to explore. Ormandy and , An argument breaks out between Bird and Duck, and in 1975 for RCA with attracting the attention of Grandfather’s hefty pet—Cat. Ormandy and . The commotion outside the gates wakes Grandfather who Prokofiev’s score calls for marches Peter back inside the gate. It is only when Peter narrator, flute, oboe, clarinet, is safe within the compound that Wolf comes into view. , three horns, , Mortal peril allows the fat Cat to climb to the precarious bass , timpani, safety of a thin branch, but Duck is not so lucky. As it runs percussion (bass drum, for its life, Wolf sees its dinner. Duck is fatally too slow. , cymbals, snare drum, , triangle), But boys like Peter are not afraid of wolves. With the help and strings. of Bird, Peter climbs onto the compound wall and into the tree, and lassos Wolf, only to be pulled out of the tree and The piece runs approximately 25 minutes in performance. find himself swinging perilously close to Wolf’s snapping jaws. But they are at an impasse; every time Wolf lunges for Peter, his movements pull Peter just out of his own reach. In an ineffectual blaze of bullets, two hunters, Rats and Fatty, make their way through the forest, stumbling upon Peter and the exhausted Wolf. The sight of Wolf throws them into panic and they shoot madly in all directions. Grandfather rushes out, shotgun in hand, but Peter has things under control. Together, they put Wolf into a cage, and tie it to the roof of Grandfather’s battered car to take Wolf to the city market. A crowd pokes and jeers, amazed that Peter has caught Wolf. Despite being the boy of the moment, Peter sees the consequence of his actions. Before it is too late, he springs open Wolf’s cage. Wolf runs into the panic- stricken crowd and bounds back to the depths of the Russian forest. 34 The Music Carnival of the Animals

What is today Camille Saint-Saëns’s most famous work was never published in his lifetime, nor even given in public performance. The reason was not its lack of appeal, however, but rather the composer’s concern that the playful nature of the score would take away from his image as a “serious” artist. Upon finishing a concert tour in early 1886, Saint-Saëns settled in a small Austrian village and composed Carnival of the Animals as a diversion. He had already been Camille Saint-Saëns contracted to compose a new symphony—the work that Born in Paris, October 9, would become his famous “Organ” Symphony—but the 1835 idea of writing a suite of pieces about animals, many of Died in Algiers, them excuses for satirical commentary, was irresistible. December 16, 1921 The suite as premiered in March 1886, and the only subsequent performances during the composer’s lifetime, were to be private affairs. Saint-Saëns made an exception of a single movement, “The Swan,” which was published as a solo for and piano. The complete score was at last published and performed in public in 1922, a year after the composer’s death. Today it is Saint-Saëns’s most frequently performed work, along with the Danse macabre. “The Swan” is perhaps the most famous of the suite’s 14 movements, though the atmospheric “Aquarium” has shown up in such diverse places as the film Days of Heaven and the television series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. A Closer Look Introduction and Royal March of the Lion The pianos play tremolo as the strings sound the introduction, followed by the march proper. Made of noble strains that befit the king of the beasts, this is a stately, mid-tempo procession with a distinctive rhythmic profile. Cocks and Hens These chickens peck and strut to the sounds of clarinet, , , and the pianos. Hémoines (Wild Horses of Tartary) The wild horses to which the composer refers are the Tibetan dziggetai, a breed known for its great velocity at the run. The two pianos race up and down their keyboards at breakneck speed. Tortoises The first of the suite’s several satirical movements depicts the tortoise’s fabled lethargy by 35 taking one of the most popular fast pieces of the day and slowing it to a crawl. The tune is the famous “Can- Can” from Jacques Offenbach’s operetta Orpheus in the Underworld. Played at a lugubrious pace by strings and piano, its character becomes humorously bumbling and awkward, rather than spirited and carefree. The Elephant Another joke, similar to that of the previous movement. This time, the material is borrowed from Mendelssohn and Berlioz, music originally written for light, high instruments. Saint-Saëns it into the cellar by assigning the melodies to the orchestra’s lowest instrument, the double-bass, accompanied by piano. Kangaroos The two pianos leap upward in ascending fifths, accented by piquant grace notes, and then down again, in as literal a depiction of the animal’s gait as might be imagined. Aquarium Until now the movements have all been very short and focused on imitating the motion of their respective animals in fairly obvious terms—the leaping kangaroos as leaping piano intervals, the tortoises as a tortuously slow can-can, and so forth. Suddenly fish inspire the composer to deepen the expression and expand the length. This movement is a little essay in chromatic color, a melody played by flute, with strings and the two pianos, plus bright accents from the glass harmonica (or glockenspiel or celesta) that take the listener into a marine world of eerie shapes and colors. Persons with Long Ears The “animal” Saint-Saëns intended here to be pictured is thought by most to be the species known as the “music critic.” That the two violins are made to sound like braying asses only strengthens the supposition. The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods The dark, deep woods are evoked by the two pianos playing soft, expansive chords, while the clarinet repeatedly intones the insistent two notes of the cuckoo’s familiar sound. The clarinet is sometimes placed offstage for this effect. The Aviary The flute stars here in its usual role of a bird with a bright, racing song that ranges all over the place, to the accompaniment of strings and piano. Pianists Critics are not the only human animals in Saint- Saëns’s menagerie. Here the piano soloists go through the paces of practicing major scales (four of them: C, D-flat, D, and E-flat), backed by the strings. The original edition of the score instructed the pianists to play the 36

Saint-Saëns composed scales (and the subsequent references to technique Carnival of the Animals in exercises) awkwardly, like beginners. 1886. Fossils The xylophone, with help from the clarinet, These are the first Philadelphia strings, and the pianos, uncovers musical “fossils” such as Orchestra subscription “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “Au clair de la lune.” performances of Carnival of the Animals. The work received The Swan The famous melody for cello is one of the its Orchestra premiere in April composer’s most inspired short pieces, and has been 1923 on Children’s Concerts, transcribed for virtually every instrument. with Leopold Stokowski and uncredited pianists. Finale The entire ensemble reprises some memorable moments from the suite. The Orchestra recorded the piece three times: in 1930 —Kenneth LaFave for RCA, with Stokowski and pianists Mary Binney Montgomery and Olga Barabini; in 1939 for RCA, with Stokowski, pianists Jeanne Behrend and Sylvan Levin, and narrator Joseph Levine; and in 1968 for the Franklin Mint, with Eugene Ormandy and pianists Claude Frank and Lilian Kallir. “The Swan” alone was also recorded in 1966 for CBS with Ormandy. The score calls for two pianos, optional narrator, flute (doubling piccolo), clarinet, percussion (xylophone), glass harmonica (usually played by glockenspiel or sometimes celesta), and strings. Performance time is approximately 22 minutes. 37 The Music Suite from Les Animaux modèles

The Fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1621-95) are part of the grand literary heritage of France—they are still taught in every school throughout that nation. His stories are prized for their ethical lessons for young readers, as well as for their elegance and charm. To this day, they are considered a primer in how to be truly and utterly French. A French Love for Animals One aspect of La Fontaine’s Fables that insures their continuing allure is their tender and knowing treatment of animals, even Francis Poulenc though the beasts that appear in their pages are often Born in Paris, January 7, used to point up human foibles and absurdities. La 1899 Fontaine’s deep love of animals has long been echoed in Died there, January 30, the works of French composers such as Jean-Philippe 1963 Rameau, whose keyboard piece La Poule (1728) is an amusing musical portrait of a dyspeptic fowl; Saint-Saëns, for Carnival of the Animals (1886); Ravel, who wrote a song cycle entitled Histoires naturelles (Natural Histories, 1907); and Albert Roussel, whose ballet The Spider’s Feast (1912) is one of his most endearing scores. All of these composers have followed La Fontaine’s example by using animals to illustrate the idiosyncrasies of the human condition in an affectionate and ironic fashion. Like his compatriots, Francis Poulenc composed several of his finest works about the animal kingdom. Indeed, one of his earliest pieces is the song cycle Le Bestiaire (The Bestiary, 1918), a setting of lapidary poems about animals by the Surrealist writer Guillaume Apollinaire. During the Nazi occupation of France in the early 1940s, Poulenc found solace by writing two works about animals, his adorable melodrama for reciter and piano, L’Histoire de Babar, le petit èlèphant (The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant, 1940), and a ballet based on La Fontaine’s Fables entitled Les Animaux modèles (The Model Animals, 1940-41). Both pieces were composed after Poulenc’s second stint of service in the French army; he had previously served at the end of the First World War and was called up again for duty in June of 1940 and demobilized a few weeks later. He chose the fables of La Fontaine for their essentially French character and the title Les Animaux modèles came from the poet Paul Eluard. In this work, Poulenc sought to reassert French 38

Poulenc composed Les cultural values in the face of foreign oppression: “I began Animaux modèles from 1940 to compose Les Animaux modèles during the most to 1941. somber days of the summer of 1940. I wanted to find, no These are the first Philadelphia matter what the cost, a reason to hope for the destiny of Orchestra performances of the my country.” work. A Closer Look For the Animaux modèles concert suite, The Suite is scored for piccolo, Poulenc chose six of the original eight sections from two flutes, two oboes, English the complete score, excising “The Bear and His Two horn, two clarinets, E-flat Companions” and “The Grasshopper and the Ant.” The clarinet, bass clarinet, three Suite begins with Dawn, an evocation of daybreak in bassoons, contrabassoon, four the French countryside with farmers departing to till their horns, three trumpets, three fields. This exalted music is succeeded by a delightfully , , timpani, louche valse-java entitled The Love-Sick Lion, in which percussion (bass drum, bells, a young gangster, the “lion” of the title, falls hopelessly in crotales, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, tambourine, tam- love. The following movement, The Middle-Aged Man tam, triangle), two harps, piano, with Two Girlfriends, is an uninhibited romp indebted to celesta, and strings. the high-spirited gallops of Offenbach. The Suite runs approximately The high-spirited mood changes abruptly with Death 20 minutes in performance. and the Woodsman. Of this movement Poulenc wrote, “Death is an elegant woman, a sort of duchess in a mask.” Through this stately music, the composer evokes the dances of 17th-century France, l’ancien regime during which La Fontaine wrote his fables. The next movement, The Two Young Roosters, expresses the defiant French spirit: The aggressive rooster has long symbolized military valor for that proud nation. In a daring and defiant gesture for a ballet performed in Nazi-occupied Paris, Poulenc quoted from an anti-German chanson popular during the First World War, “Non, non, vous n’aurez pas notre Alsace-Lorraine” (No, no, you can’t have our Alsace- Lorraine). As the composer later wrote, “Each time that the trumpet announced the theme, I could not help but smile.” At the moment that the brilliant musical depiction of combat subsides, the noble hymn-like music that began Les Animaux modèles is recalled as the farmers assemble for their Midday Meal. —Byron Adams

Program note © 2015. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, Luke Howard, Kenneth LaFave, and/or Byron Adams.