IjAIVlbl1l Academy of Music 1996 Next Wave Festival

Jim Dine, The Heart of BAM, 1996, Woodcut, 26-1/4" x 19-3/8" AtoZ Brooklyn Philharmonic

BAM 1996 Next Wave Festival and 135th Anniversary Season are sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc. The Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra Bruce C. Ratner 43rd Season 1996-97 Chairman of the Board -Music Director Harvey Lichtenstein Robert Spano's inaugural season President & Executive Producer is sponsored by Phifip Morris Companies Inc. Lukas Foss-Conductor Laureate -Executive Director present to

BAM House December 6 & 7, 1996 at Spm

Robert Spano conductor The Persuasions; The Accidentals; Gertrude Thoma

Louis Andriessen De Stijl (New York premiere) with The Perfect Stranger, Gertrude Thoma & The Accidentals Dupree's Paradise

intermission I intermission"

The Persuasions si ng: John Adams Baby, Baby I Could Love You, , Right Around the Corner, Lucille Short Ride in a Fast Machine Has Messed My Mind Up (Zappa), Hot Plate Heaven and the Green Hotel (Zappa), The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing (Zappa) (a cappella arrangements by The Persuasions)

Pre-concert presentation at tpm with Robert Spano, , and Joseph Horowitz

The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra and Brooklyn Academy of Music gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley H. Kaplan, whose assistance made possible the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center Acoustical Shell.

Photos, Steve Shapiro, Deborah Feingold, Marco Borggreve "Most good art has a firm relationship with the vernacular. What's wrong with contemporary music is that it became too divorced from the vernacu­ lar. Both Mozart and Mahler are filled with the potent and accessible fla­ vors of vernacular music. It's very much the lifeblood of their art. This cen­ tury, while "serious" music has become increasingly specialized and self­ referential, popular music has exploded in a thousand different directions. We are in an interesting period where composers are finding raw material in popular culture. Other artists have been doing this for decades-think of Rauschenberg and Warhol. But contemporary music has been late to make this change." -John Adams

Andriessen: De Stijl ment and magazine De Stijl, founded in 1917 by a group of Dutch artists that included Mondrian.) Born in Utrecht in 1939, Louis Andriessen grew Although Mondrian is best known for geometric up influenced by Bach and Stravinsky, and by the configurations of solid fields of color separated by American popular music that invaded The stark black lines, Andriessen is interested in the Netherlands after World War II. As a student, he murky metaphysical roots of this cool, mathemat­ was influenced by the formalism of 12-tone music. ical . 'Mondrian's paintings look strict In the seventies, the of and and rational, but they came about under the fed his predilection for a "democratic" influence of weird Theosophical, Christosophical, music that "brought together highbrow and low­ and Anthroposophical drivel,' Andriessen says. brow." States Andriessen, "I think it's almost a duty, 'What struck me was the relationship between and not only for composers. I hope that the future Mondrian and a certain Dr. Schoenmaekers, a will bring us a better world in which the difference mathematician and crazy Christian philosopher between high and low, rich and poor, is smaller who had a great influence on Mondrian.' than it is now." "De Stijl, therefore, juxtaposes two totally A formidable intellect, Andriessen is today one divergent texts-Mathieu Schoenmaekers' muddled of Europe's best-known composers. If labels must theories on "The Perfectly Straight Line" and Van be applied, he is a "European minimalist," as close Domselaer-Middlekoop's touching reminiscences to Stravinsky as to Riley or Reich. Of American of Mondrian in youth and middle age. Those minimalism he has quipped: "It has a cosmic, reminiscences reveal that Mondrian, like California sound. In American there is not enough Andriessen, was an avid fan of American , Angst! I'm much more aggressive, I would say." particularly boogie-woogie -playing. And the Tonight's De Stijl 0984-85), originally con­ boogie-woogie connection suggested that De Stijl ceived as an independent work, ultimately would be closely linked with popular music. became part of a music-theater piece, De Materie, "Andriessen has an almost medieval fascination examining the relationship between matter and with arcane formal puzzles, and so it shouldn't spirit. Twenty-five minutes long, it employs an surprise us that De Stijl, despite its impudent ensemble Andriessen likens to "the terrifying' surface, is strictly structured. What is far more inter­ 21st-century orchestra"-four female voices, esting is the audible structure of De Stijl, for it's winds, brass, keyboard, electric guitars, "heavy there that the pop music roots are most apparent. metal" percussion. In his album note for the "De Stijl rests upon an obsessively repeated Nonesuch recording, K. Robert Schwarz, recently basso ostinato, what Andriessen calls a 'disco the author of Minimalists (Phaidon Press, 1996), bass.' Initially played by amplified keyboards and writes, in part: electric bass guitar, the tricky, syncopated, 24­ "De Stijl, the third movement of De Materie, measure bass line dictates almost the entire course views the relationship between matter and spirit of the movement. 'The whole funky character of from an artistic perspective, specifically that of the the bass line is a contemporary reinterpretation Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian 0872-1944}. of boogie-woogie,' Andriessen says eagerly. 'You (The movement takes its title from the art move- know, I have a great sympathy for Motown; even in the 60s I thought the Supremes were much In '29 I was with him one afternoon in Paris and better than .' met the Hoyacks in his atelier. After a while, with­ "This is music with roots in the power of pop, out saying anything, he put on a small gramo­ the repetition of minimalism, the linearity of phone (which stood as a black spot on a small Stravinsky, and the formalism of Bach-none of white tabl~ under a painting of which it seemed which cares much about coddling the ears." to be the extension) and began quietly and stiffly, with Madame Hoyack, to step around the atelier. Texts for "De Stij/" I invited him to dine with me as we used to do in the old days. Walking on the Boulevard Raspail Chorus (sung in Dutch) suddenly I had the feelings that he had shrunk. The line of a perfect ci rcle is not perfection of the It was a strange sensation. In the metro we said first order. The line of a perfect circle is perfect as goodbye; when we heard the whistle he placed a line. But it is not perfect without limitation, it his hand on my arm and embraced me. I saw is not perfect as an unending line, it is not per­ him slowly walking to the exit, his head slightly fection of the first order, it is not the perfect line. to one side, lost in himself, solitary and alone. The perfect straight line is 'the' perfect line. Why? That was ou r last meeti ng. Because it is the only perfection of the first order. Likewise its ray, the perfect eternal ray, is per­ Chorus (sung in Dutch) fection of the first order. The perfect-eternal ray ...a 'cross' relationship. This figure is really 'open'. is also 'the' perfect ray. For only it is as ray a We can prolong it on any side as long as we wish perfection of the fi rst order. without changing its essential character, and The cross-figure. however fa r we prolong th is figu re it never atta ins The figure which objectifies the concept of this pair a perimeter, it never becomes 'closed' thereby, it of perfections of the fi rst order, is the figu re of is thereby totally and utterly boundless: it excludes the perfect right-angled ness: or, in other words, all boundaries. Because this figure is born from the cross-figure. This is the figure that represents itself in our conception, it characterizes the con­ a ray-and-Iine reduced to perfection of the first cept of perfect opposites of the fi rst order, as a order. It characterizes the relationship between concept of the essential 'open', the actual and perfections of the first order as a perfect right­ real 'unbo.unded'. angled relationship, a 'cross' relationship. This figure is actually 'open'. Zappa: The Perfect Stranger and other works Actress (spoken) In those days Piet Mondrian sent a message that After reading an article in Look magazine about he was in Holland and that he could not return Sam Goody, who could even sell a record called to Paris. Mrs. Hannaert invited him to stay and Ionisation by one Edgard Varese that was all awful when one afternoon I arrived he was sitting with drums and noise, Frank Zappa, aged 15, pur­ her at the table. He made a curious impression chased his first LP-of music by Varese. The upon me because of his hesitating way of second LP he purchased was a recording of speaking and the nervous motions of his mouth. Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, followed shortly During the summer of 1915 he stayed in Laren by a recording of Webern's Symphony Gp. 21, and rented a small atelier in the Noolsestraat. In and some of his music. Zappa was the evenings we would go to Hamdorf because in awe of all three. "I didn't know anything about Piet loved dancing. Whenever he made a date twelve-tone music then," he later said, "but I liked (preferably with a very young girl) he was notice­ the way it sounded. Since I didn't have any kind ably good humored. He danced with a straight of formal training, it didn't make any difference back, looking upwards as he made his 'stylized' to me if I was listening to Lightnin' Slim, or a dancesteps. The artist in Laren soon began to vocal group called the Jewels... , or Webern, or call him the 'Dancing Madonna'! Varese, or Stravinsky. To me it was all good music." Zappa's musical enthusiasms have always reflected his ea rly experience and been made sation would have, but when you notate that in independently of conventional genre boundaries. terms of rhythmic values, sometimes it looks Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore in 1940. extremely terrifying on paper." In fact, musical After a brief undergraduate stint, he gave up the rhyth ms derived from speech patterns are a fea­ drums for the guitar and started working at a small ture of most American styles of music, from recording studio in Cucamonga, California. His popular song to jazz. 24-hour-a-day immersion in popular music pro­ Programmatically, Zappa's pieces reflect a duction made him both a vi rtuoso of newly lifetime of themes that recur and develop from one emerging media, and a seasoned expert in the piece to the next. The two orchestra works played commercial business of music. tonight are dance pieces. In Zappa's words: "In Throughout his career, Zappa always acted on The Perfect Stranger, a door-to-door salesman, the principle that whatever small slice of the huge accompanied by his faithful gypsy-mutant vacuum commercial pie he could carve out for himself cleaner... cavorts licentiously with a slovenly would ultimately allow him to write, perform and housewife. We hear the door bell, the house­ record exactly what he wanted with less compro­ wife's eyebrows going up and down as she spies mise, and more fun, than any other route. As it the nozzle th rough the ruffled cu rta in, the sou nd turned out, his commercial efforts succeeded quite of the little bag of 'demonstration dirt' being well indeed. sprinkled on the rug, and assorted bombastic From the first albums released as The Mothers interjections representing the spiritual qualities of Invention, Zappa's work displayed the range of of chrome, rubber, electricity, and household genres and themes that would continue to occupy tidiness. The entire transaction is being viewed him. Paul McCartney was reputedly inspired to from a safe distance by Patricia, the dog in the start work on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club highchair. Dupree's Paradise is about a bar on Band upon hearing Zappa's Freak Out!(1967). Avalon Boulevard in Watts at 6:00 A.M. on a Unlike the relentlessly agreeable Lennon and Sunday in 1964, during the early morning jam McCartney, Zappa simultaneously expressed the session. For about seven minutes, the customers, rampant paranoia underlying the utopian yearn­ (winos, musicians, degenerates, & policemen) ings of the Flower Power 1960s and commented do the things that set them apart from the rest (in pre-post-modern fashion) from a position of of society." iron ic detach ment. Frank Zappa died of cancer in 1993. Not since For all his stated contempt for many of the styles has an American composer moved that arrived and receded over the years, Zappa so fluently among all of the different vernaculars always found time for serious and affectionate of the American musical language. treatment of the R&B of his youth, often with a strong Chicano lilt, and the modernism he found -Ranald Adams in his early exposure to the works of Varese, Stravi nsky and Webern. The resu Iti ng sensi bi Iity was sympathetically received by . Adams: The Chairman Dances Zappa initiated a correspondence with Boule~ by Short Ride in a Fast Machine sending him some of his orchestral scores. In 1983, Boulez invited Zappa to his facility, IRCAM, Born in Massachusetts in 1947, and now a at Paris' Pompidou Center, commissioning, per­ confirmed Californian, John Adams grew up, as forming and recording three orchestral works, The he puts it, "in a household where Benny Goodman Perfect Stranger, Dupree's Paradise, and Naval and Mozart were not separated." His father was Aviation in Art. a jazz saxophonist. His grandfather owned a dance The conductor, , has compared hall. Though Adams initially made his reputation Zappa's music to that of Boulez. Zappa's response as a leading American minimalist, his allegiance was, "Boulez writes complex rhythms, but they to a range of popular and classical styles has are mathematically derived, while the rhythms I always set him apart. He has said: "To be a have are derived from speech patterns ... they modern composer you have to be able to move should have the same sort of flow that a conver- with promiscuous ease through all these different musical experiences. And you have to be able to include the Welsh National Opera, the Chicago laugh at yourself./I Lyric Opera and the Santa Fe Opera. From 1990 The Chairman Dances was composed in 1985 to 1993, he was Assistant Conductor of the Boston as a 13-minute by-product of Adams' opera Nixon Symphony Orchestra. He now makes his home in China. A preface to the score reads: "Madame in Brooklyn Heights. Mao, alias Jiang Ching, has gatecrashed the Presidential banquet. She is seen standing first Gertrude Thoma, a native of Augsburg, Germany, where she is most in the way of the waiters. After is a versatile singer and actress whose previous a few minutes, she brings out a box of paper appearances in Louis Andriessen's De Stijl include lanterns and hangs them around the hall, then the Nonesuch recording. Her one-woman show strips down to a cheongsam, skin-tight from neck From Brecht to BreI has been seen both in to ankle, and slit up to the hip. She signals the Germany and England. orchestra to play and begins to dance by herself. Mao is becoming excited. He steps down from his The Persuasions, formed in Brooklyn's Bedford portrait on the wall and they begin to foxtrot Stuyvesant neighborhood in 1962, are Jimmy together. They are back in Yena n, the night is Hayes, Jayotis Washington, Joe Russell, and warm, they are dancing to the gramophone./I Jerry Lawson. The group originally included the In his notes for the Nonesuch recording, late "Toube/l Rhoad. They performed in relative Michael Steinberg adds: "This is, uninhibitedly, a obscurity until 1970, when Zappa sent them cabaret number, an entertainment, and a funny tickets to , where they obtained their piece; as the Chairman and the former actress first recording contract. turned Deputy Head of the Cultural Revolution make their long trip back through time they turn The Accidentals are a mixed-voice octet formed into Fred and Ginger. The chugging music we first eight years ago to sing at The Bottom Line. The hear is associated with Mao; the seductive four female members of the group participating swaying-hips melody-La Valse humorously in tonight's concert are Emily Bindinger, Margaret translated across immense distances-is Jiang Dorn, Marcia Pelletiere and Rosie Vallese. Ching's. You might imagine the piano part at the end being played by ./I The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra is the Short Ride in a Fast Machine is a four-minute Resident Orchestra of the Brooklyn Academy of blast composed in 1986. Of the title, Adams Music. The BPO is recipient of the 1996 ASCAP/ remarks: "You know how it is when someone asks Morton Gould Award for Innovative Programming, you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you given annually to a single American orchestra. wish you hadn't?/I The orchestra's educational and community con­ certs, including its More than Music in-school Excerpts from program notes by K. Robert Schwarz program, reach over 50,000 individuals annually. and Michael Steinberg are here reprinted with Since 1993, BPO has shared its thematic festi­ the kind permission of . vals with the Chicago Symphony, Houston da Camera and the San Antonio Symphony, among other organizations. It is regularly heard on NPR's Robert Spano begins his inaugural season as Performance Today. Its most recent recording, Brooklyn Philharmonic Music Director this on Musicmasters, features the music of Colin weekend. At the age of 35, he has cond ucted McPhee. nearly every major North American orchestra, including those of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. He appears regu­ larly at the Aspen Music Festival and is on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center. Busy as an operatic conductor, he has appeared at the Stuttgart Stadttheater and the Royal Opera at Covent Garden; his upcoming commitments Music Director Artistic Director Development Associate Personnel Manager Robert Spano Maurice Edwards Allison M. Crouch Jonathan Taylor

Conductor Laureate Director of Development Assistant Conductor Director of Finance Lukas Foss Meg Fagan Federico Cortese Arthur J. Shaw

Executive Producer Associate Director of Education Coordinator Vice President for Harvey Lichtenstein Development Kenneth Adams Marketing & Promotion Lisa H. Choi Tambra Dillon Executive Director Librarian Joseph Horowitz Operations Manager Pat McCarty Public Relations Paul Fricken Agnes Bruneau & Associates

Chairman Executive Vice Presidents Gloria Messinger Advisory Board Robert C. Rosenberg Craig G. Matthews John M. Powers, Jr. Jack Litwack, Chairman John Tamberlane Julie Ratner Lillian Besunder Chairman Emeritus Tazewell Smith Henry J. Foner Stanley H. Kaplan Vice Presidents Allan Schwartz Nicholas M. Infantino Jerry Jacobs Bruce Van Dusen Arnold L. Sabin Honorary Chairman Paul Travis Hon. Edolphus Towns I. Stanley Kriegel Laura Walker Honorary Chairpersons Hon. Elizabeth Holtzman Secretary Directors Hon. Howard Golden Volunteer Council Georgia J. Malone Russell A. Campbell Rabbi Eugene J. Sack Jules Hirsh, President Emilie A. Cozzi Laura Keith, Treasurer Timothy Gilles Honorary Directors Vice President Kevin Burke Joan Glatman Daniel Eisenberg Kathy Cole, Harvey Lichtenstein Joseph Scorcia Vice President Charles Meredith Marcia Stecker, Secretary

Violin I Viola Oboe Trombone Laura Park, concertmaster Janet Lyman Hill* Henry Schuman* Hugh Eddy* Yuval Waldman Sarah Adams David Kossoff Vernon Post Robin Bushman Ron Carbone Melanie Feld George Hoyt Diane Bruce Veronica Salas Clarinet David Titcomb Carlos Villa Monica Gerard Steven Hartman* Timpani Rebekah Johnson Juliet Haffner Laura Flax Richard Fitz* Lenard Rivlin Jack Rosenberg Dennis Smylie Percussion Claudia Hafer-Tonder Christine Ims Richard Fitz Sa nder Strenger Ronald Lawrence Ch uck Wi Ison James Preiss* Debora h Wong Cello Ted Nash William Trigg Ann Labin Chris Finckel* Paul Ostermayer David Frost Carol Zeavin David Calhoun Paul Garment Harp Fritz Krakowski La nny Payki n Alva Hunt Karen Lindquist* Violin /I Michael Rudiakov Bassoon Keyboard Darryl Kubian* Peter Rosenfeld Harry Searing Kenneth Bowen* Shin Won Kim Sally Cline Jeffrey Marchand Elizabeth Wright Eugenie Seid Kroop Bass Lauren Goldstein Christopher Oldfather Ming Yeh Joseph Bongiorno* Marc Goldberg William Grossman Sebu Sirinian Judith Sugarman French Horn Guitars Cecelia Hobbs Gardner Jaime Austria Paul Ingraham* Scott Kuney Lisa Matricardi Louis Bruno Scott Temple Oren Fader Stephani J. Bell Janet Conway Barbour Francisco Donaruma Jeff Carney Victor Heifets Jules Hirsh Richard Hagen Rena Isbin Flute Trumpet *principal Katherine Fink* Wilmer Wise* David Wechsler Philip Ruecktenwald Diva Goodfriend-Koven Neil Balm Dan Gerhard Jim Stubbs