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05-05 Orchestra Now_Jazz @ Lincoln Center (ROSE) 4/26/17 4:02 PM Page 1 Friday Evening, May 5, 2017, at 7:30 Oleg Caetani , Conductor Performance #57: Season 2, Concert 28 ARNOLD SCHOENBERG (1874–1951) Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 (1906) FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828) Symphony No. 3 (1815) Adagio maestoso—Allegro con brio Allegretto Menuetto: Vivace—Trio Presto vivace Intermission DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–75) Symphony No. 15, Op. 141 (1971) Allegretto Adagio—Largo—Adagio—Largo Allegretto Adagio—Allegretto—Adagio—Allegretto This evening’s concert will run approximately two hours and ten minutes including one 20-minute intermission. Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Please make certain your cellular phone, Rose Theater pager, or watch alarm is switched off. Frederick P. Rose Hall jazz.org 05-05 Orchestra Now_Jazz @ Lincoln Center (ROSE) 4/26/17 4:02 PM Page 2 Jazz at Lincoln Center – Notes from T ON Musicians Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 on the conductor’s podium, it was not ARNOLD SCHOENBERG well-received, a result which contributed Notes by Eleanor Lee, Cello to Schoenberg’s then-flagging confidence as a composer. However, during an infa - Perhaps one of the most astonishing facts mous concert six years later on March 31 about Austrian Jew Arnold Schoenberg is known as the “Skandalkonzert,” his sym - that, in both composition and amateur phony and other heterodox music by painting, he was primarily a self-taught Schoenberg’s students Anton Webern and man. This lack of formal training is not evi - Alban Berg, and by his sole composition dent in Schoenberg’s impressive techniques mentor, Alexander von Zemlinsky, incited in either field, but, rather, it allowed him an polarized riots so fierce that during this unparalleled freedom to break with tradi - piece “one could hear the shrill sound of tion. Furthermore, his constant search for door keys among the violent clapping, and and struggle with his own identity created in the second gallery the first fist fight of a unique interplay of often opposing con - the evening began.” cepts in both his music and his visual art. Unique in its instrumentation, the Chamber Schoenberg is credited with creating the Symphony No. 1 calls for 15 solo instru - atonal (not centered around one of the tra - ments comprised of a string quintet and ditional seven-tone scales and its har - wind ensemble, typically led by a conduc - monies) school of composition called the tor, with all strings seated in the first row, “12-tone technique,” in which all 12 tones winds in the second, and all bass instru - of the Western chromatic scale are uti - ments grouped together. Schoenberg also lized. Schoenberg’s body of work can be arranged the piece for both piano four divided into three periods: the works of his hands and for large orchestra, the latter of early years like Verklärte Nacht , Op. 4 (1899), which he premiered with the Los Angeles a sweeping, Wagnerian-esque, late-Romantic Philharmonic on December 27, 1935. string sextet based on erotic poetry; middle- period works like Pierrot lunaire , Op. 21 Harmonically, while not atonal, the Chamber (1912), a Sprechstimme (“sung-spoken”), Symphony No. 1 is developed around atonal, yet still not 12-tone melodrama in whole-tone and quartal harmony, or har - which he sought to liberate music from its monies based on perfect, diminished, and text; and finally, the works from the end of augmented fourths, as opposed to tradi - his life, like the Variations for Orchestra , tional thirds. These unusual sonorities, Op. 31 (1928), in which he simplified and combined with the unique instrumenta - honed a “method of composing with 12 tion, highlight Schoenberg’s exploration of tones which are related only with one color and timbre, while also demanding a another” without any semblance of hierarchy. high level of virtuosic playing. The Chamber Symphony No. 1 was In addition to sitting for and buying some of Schoenberg’s first attempt at a chamber Schoenberg’s portraiture, Gustav Mahler was symphony and his first extreme experi - a champion of Schoenberg’s music. The influ - mentation with deviating from traditional ence of Mahler’s late-Romantic, German- tonality. When it premiered on February 8, Austrian compositional style can be heard in 1907, in Vienna with Schoenberg himself Schoenberg’s early works such as this piece. 05-05 Orchestra Now_Jazz @ Lincoln Center (ROSE) 4/26/17 4:02 PM Page 3 Jazz at Lincoln Center Symphony No. 3 first violin section playing the light and FRANZ SCHUBERT graceful eighth-note melody. Usually the Notes by Fangxi Liu, Violin second movement of the symphony is a lyrical slow movement in that period, but Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer not in this symphony. The first theme is in from the Romantic period who died before binary form repeating the first section, the his 32nd birthday. In those short 32 years, middle part comprises a 16-bar melody in Schubert wrote more than 600 vocal works, the clarinet, and a short link back to the 18 operas, seven complete symphonies, first theme. Accented upbeats resound 19 string quartets, 22 piano sonatas, and through the minuet; it’s a charming waltz. four violin sonatas. Schubert’s earliest The Trio retains the D-major key of the orchestra composition style was very minuet, with the theme scored for solo unique and unified. The essence of his oboe and bassoon. orchestral style focused on horns, trum - pets, and brass to begin the symphony, The finale movement is presto (quick, and then the rest of the orchestra joining. lively) in D major, and is also in sonata form. This movement uses the tarantella The year 1815 has been called Schubert’s rhythm, making use of the ascending scale “annus mirabilis” (miraculous year). His figures that have been part of the sym - compositions that year included a string phony from its opening. quartet, nine works for solo piano, a com - plete symphony and a half, nine church Symphony No. 15, Op. 141 works involving orchestra, and 140 songs. DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH It would already be remarkable enough if Notes by Alana Shannon, Cello he was only a full-time composer, but Schubert was also employed throughout Dmitri Shostakovich suffered from chronic the year as a teacher in his father's primary health problems in his later years, causing school. While composing his Symphony him to become quite preoccupied with his No. 3 over the course of 26 days (May own mortality, which appeared to affect 24–June 19), he also wrote some liturgical his music in his later works, including his music and songs. 15th symphony. This was his last large- scale symphonic work, as most of his The Third Symphony is remarkably concise, music written in the years following were and is shorter than Schubert’s first and chamber pieces. These pieces are arguably second symphonies. The piece consists of darker and more introspective, including four movements. The first movement is in the 14th symphony, which is written as a sonata form, the symphony beginning with song cycle based on poems about death. a brief introduction played by flute, oboe, and violins. The introduction is set in two The first movement begins with a feeling parts; the first is slow and dramatic, and of light-hearted innocence and playful - the second part is more lyrical. Then the ness. Shostakovich himself offered an piece goes to the second theme that is explanation that this opening movement marked as Allegro con brio . The coda returns depicts a toy shop after closing time to the ascending scales of the introduction. when all of the toys come to life, but the dark harmonies and driving rhythms con - The second movement is a short alle - tradict that statement enough to stir gretto, full of grace and humor, and is also doubt in the minds of musicologists. One in an A-B-A sonata form. It opens with the argument for the connection to childhood, 05-05 Orchestra Now_Jazz @ Lincoln Center (ROSE) 4/26/17 4:02 PM Page 4 Jazz at Lincoln Center however, is the primary motive through - the composer coming to terms with his out the movement, notated Eb-Ab-C-B-A. own death: mournful at first, morphing into Under German notation this would spell a slow funeral march led by a trombone the name SASCHA, Shostakovich’s nine- solo, and then a climax that offers a degree year-old grandson at the time. What has of hope and optimism in a triumphant and intrigued and confused audiences for emotional outburst. This winds down into decades though is Shostakovich’s use of the third movement, reminiscent of the quotes, particularly in the first movement. first movement’s toy shop playfulness, but He quotes Rossini’s William Tell , which on with even darker, macabre undertones. one hand seems to come out of nowhere, but considering the rhythmic drive estab - The last movement begins with a brass lished in the material leading up to it, per - chorale similar to the second movement, haps it was a musical joke that Shostakovich this time quoting Wagner’s “Fate” leitmotif simply couldn’t resist. A more meaningful from his famous Ring Cycle . As the strings explanation, considering Shostakovich’s take over, another Wagner quote can be own life story, would be that he felt a per - heard, this time the opening “Longing” sonal connection to the story of William motif of Tristan und Isolde . The idea that Tell and his fight against tyranny, but that Shostakovich wrote this as a farewell sym - theory remains unconfirmed. phony with relatable tributes to other great pieces may set our romantic minds at ease, The second movement opens with a brass but in reality Shostakovich was in relatively chorale, during which the cello section good spirits upon writing his final sym - says a silent prayer for the poor cellist that phony, and had a clear idea of what he must play one of the most difficult solos in wanted.