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

Wednesday, April 3, 2013, at 6:30 (Afterwork Masterworks, performed with no intermission) Conductor Yuja Wang ProkofievPiano No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 Nielsen Symphony No. 5, Op. 50

Thursday, April 4, 2013, at 8:00 Friday, April 5, 2013, at 1:30 Saturday, April 6, 2013, at 8:00 Sakari Oramo Conductor Yuja Wang Piano Dean Ampitheatre First Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 Andante—Allegro Andantino Allegro ma non troppo Yuja Wang

Intermission Nielsen Symphony No. 5, Op. 50 Tempo giusto—Adagio non troppo Allegro—Presto—Andante un poco tranquillo—Allegro

The appearance of Yuja Wang is endowed in part by the John Ward Seabury Distinguished Soloist Fund. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to WBBM Newsradio 780 and 105.9 FM for its generous support as media sponsor of the Afterwork Masterwork series.

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

Brett Dean Born October 23, 1941, , Australia.

Ampitheatre, Scene for Orchestra

ike many composers, Brett live improv clubs in Berlin in the LDean is a highly accomplished late 1980s that formed his identity performer—on , a particular as a composer—an immersion in favorite of composers over time— the Western canon balanced by an but few have spent such a large openness to new sonic worlds. “The portion of their career playing in orchestral years taught me about one of the world’s great . shape, breath, gesture, energy,” he In 1985, soon after completing his once said, “whereas improvising studies in his native Australia—he and playing around with embryonic graduated from the Queensland ideas in a studio allowed me to Conservatorium of Music in 1982, discover my own way of handling then moved to Germany to study musical material.” with Wolfram Christ—Dean In the 1990s, Dean began to became a member of the Berlin make his name as a composer, Philharmonic Orchestra. particularly through worldwide Dean began to compose in performances of the ballet One of 1988, initially working on radio a Kind (a work for the Nederlands projects and largely improvised Dans Theater, choreographed by film music. He later said that it was the legendary Jiří Kylián) and the the combination of his “day job” concerto Ariel’s Music, in the viola which won an award from the section and his early apprenticeship UNESCO International Rostrum in electronic music studios and of Composers. Dean is attracted

Composed Instrumentation Approximate 2000 two , two piccolos performance time and alto , two 11 minutes First performance and hecklephone, clarinet, June 16, 2000; Brisbane, two bass and Australia , three and contrabas- These are the Chicago soon, four horns, four Symphony Orchestra’s first , three performances of music by and , , percus- . sion, harp, strings

2 to a wide range of subjects: Australian outlaw ) and Carlo, for strings, sampler, and the recipients. tape, was inspired by the music of Renaissance composer Carlo ean’s Ampitheatre, commis- Gesualdo; his Pastoral Symphony, Dsioned by Symphony Australia, a successor of sorts to Beethoven’s, is a dramatic scene for large orches- provides a contemporary take on tra. Dean comments: the relationship between man-made music and the sounds of nature. A new work, The Last Days of Socrates, will be premiered later this month by his old orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic (with bass John Tomlinson and the Rundfunkchor Berlin), under Sir . Although Dean left the Berlin Philharmonic in 1999, after fifteen years, that experience has continued to shape the music he writes. He recently said that playing Elektra in the pit with the Berlin orchestra was a life-changing moment for him as a composer, and that the way Strauss made the orchestra the chief protagonist in the drama strongly influenced his own opera , based on the novel by , which premiered in 2010 in Sydney. In 2009, Dean was awarded the prestigious for Music Composition—joining the company of Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti, and Witold Lutosławski— for his concerto, The Lost The cover for Michael Ende’s 1973 novel, Momo Art of Letter Writing. Dean says he found inspiration in the fact that It is in one (essentially slow) e-mail and text messaging have movement, and takes its title left the traditional hand-written from the opening of German letter behind. Each movement of author Michael Ende’s mes- the score is based on an excerpt merizing children’s book from a letter written in the nine- Momo, in which he describes teenth century, with the solo violin the ruins of an ancient Roman playing the role of both the letter amphitheatre situated on the writers (, Vincent outskirts of a big, modern van Gogh, , and city. Amphitheatres came in

3 all shapes and sizes; magnifi- of the same object, as if taking a cent ones in major cities were walk around its circumference. fitted out with lavish golden carpets and sunshades, massive The other motivic group that columns, and statues. Simple takes on more significance as theatres in smaller towns the piece progresses consists made do with straw roofing of distant, heralding and modest decorations. They fanfares, reminiscences of past were a reflection of the people glories that took place in the and communities that built old stone walls, momentarily them—the main thing was replacing the stillness of time that everyone had somewhere frozen. Like the tiered seat- to gather in order to experience ing of these ancient arenas, theatre, to satisfy their hunger radiating outwards from center for stories and spectacles, to be stage, the layers of sound and part of their culture. textures unfold and expand. In this process, the fanfares The other unifying factor become increasingly larger amongst most of these round than life and eventually almost or oval structures, whether grotesque in their directness. large or small, was that they were made of massive blocks of However, as quickly as these stone. The initial musical idea phantasies have erupted, so too in this orchestral amphitheatre, do they dissipate, becoming an oscillating chord change once again little more than first heard in the brass, becomes distant echoes of a bygone the stone blocks upon which age. As Ende describes it, the this piece’s structure is built. day-dreaming tourist returns Through a change of colors, to his senses, takes a photo, from the low brass to winds, and departs from the scene. strings, and then back to brass, “Then stillness is reinstated to we take in different perspectives the stony roundness.”

4 Born April 23, 1891, Sontsovka, Ukraine. Died March 5, 1953, Moscow.

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26

his is the piano concerto McCormick wrote to Stock at TProkofiev introduced to the world once, saying that Prokofiev “would on this stage in 1921. Prokofiev’s ties be glad to come to Chicago and to Chicago go back to the summer of bring some of his symphonies if his 1917, when local businessman Cyrus expenses were paid. But not know- McCormick, Jr., the farm machine ing myself the value of his music, I magnate, met the twenty-six-year-old did not feel justified in taking the composer Sergei Prokofiev while on a risk of bringing him here.” After business trip to Russia. Prokofiev was Stock received Prokofiev’s scores, he unknown to McCormick, but the replied to McCormick: “There is no composer recognized the distin- question in my mind as to the talent guished American’s name at once, of young Serge.” Although Stock because the estate his father had at first doubted that it was feasible managed owned several impressive to bring the Russian composer to International Harvester machines. the U.S. right away, Prokofiev (or McCormick expressed an interest Prokofieff, as the U.S. press spelled in the composer’s new music, and his name at the time) made his he eventually agreed to pay for the debut with the Chicago Symphony printing of his unpublished Scythian the following season, playing his Suite. He also encouraged Prokofiev First Piano Concerto under Stock’s to come to the United States, and baton and conducting the orchestra asked him to send some of his scores himself in the American premiere of to Chicago Symphony music director his Scythian Suite in Orchestra Hall Frederick Stock. in December 1918.

Composed Most recent CSO trombones, timpani, bass 1927–1931 performances drum, castanets, tambou- May 18, 1991, Orchestra Hall. rine, , strings First performance , piano; Daniel October 16, 1921, Chicago. Barenboim conducting Approximate The composer as soloist; performance time July 26, 2009, Ravinia Frederick Stock conducting 28 minutes Festival. Lang Lang, piano; Christoph Other CSO CSO recording Eschenbach conducting performances 1960. Van Cliburn, piano; with the composer Walter Hendl conducting. Instrumentation as soloist RCA solo piano, two flutes and January 21 & 22, 1937, piccolo, two oboes, two Orchestra Hall. Hans clarinets, two bassoons, four Lange conducting horns, two trumpets, three

5 “The appearance here of the young to produce an operatic version of Russian, Sergei Prokofieff, at the The Love for Three Oranges, based on Chicago Symphony Orchestra con- the Russian adaptation of Venetian cert was the most startling and, in a playwright Carlo Gozzi’s commedia sense, important musical event that dell’arte fairy tale, to be premiered has happened in this town for a long in Chicago. By March, citrus grow- time,” wrote Henriette Weber in the ers in Florida and California were Herald and Examiner. “Personally he fighting over promotion rights. (One is middle-sized and blond, some- stated: “This succulent and healthful what gangling about the arms and brand inspired Prokofiev and is used shoulders, and entirely business-like exclusively by him in this opera and in demeanor,” reported the Journal. at home.”) “His business is his music, while Prokofiev expected to be back he is on the stage, and he would in Chicago the following winter seem to resent even the time that for the premiere of The Love for it takes to bow.” The music itself Three Oranges. But while rehearsals caused quite a stir. “Russian Genius were under way that December, Displays Weird Harmonies” was the Campanini suddenly died; the headline in the American. “The music premiere was postponed, first for was of such savagery, so brutally one year, and then, because of barbaric,” Henriette Weber wrote, financial disagreements, for yet “that it seemed almost grotesque to another. Prokofiev finally returned see civilized men, in modern dress to Chicago late in October of 1921 with modern instruments, perform- to oversee the production of his ing it. By the same token it was opera. On December 16, Prokofiev big, sincere, true.” The public loved took a break from rehearsals at the it. “Every man and woman there Auditorium Theatre to appear again reacted to it,” Weber continued, “and at Orchestra Hall, playing his brand Prokofieff was given a thundering new Piano Concerto no. 3 with the ovation that at least in a slight degree Chicago Symphony. Two weeks expressed the tumultuous emotions later, the opera opened. Both were he inspired.” warmly applauded and recognized In Chicago, McCormick intro- as scores of significance, although, duced Prokofiev to Cleofonte in the end, the great Third Piano Campanini, the director of the Concerto has proven less perishable Chicago Opera, who asked the than the Oranges. composer if he had written an opera. When Prokofiev explained that lthough Prokofiev would later he had, but that the score for The Acall these his two “American” Gambler was sitting on the shelf pieces, the piano concerto was of the Mariinsky Theater back in written in the French countryside, Russia and would be difficult to on the coast of Brittany during a obtain, Campanini hit on the idea of summer holiday in 1921, an unlikely commissioning him to write a new pastoral setting for such a bustling, opera for the Chicago company. That urban piece. Like his first two piano January, Prokofiev signed a contract , the work was written

6 for his own hands, formidable and down the two main ideas with which fearless at the keyboard. Prokofiev he would ultimately begin the piece, took his first piano lessons from his as well as two variations on the 1913 pianist mother; his great technical theme. A string quartet begun and ability was apparent at an early age. abandoned en route to the United He gravitated to the most challeng- States in 1918 provided two themes ing works; his concerto repertoire for the finale. So when Prokofiev included Beethoven’s Emperor, the sat down to begin his new concerto first two by Rachmaninov, and during the summer of 1921, he had Tchaikovsky’s popular First. (He already written most of important played earlier, classical works with thematic material. his own “improvements.”) In 1937, The score is a remarkable achieve- just before Prokofiev’s last American ment, combining the brilliant, edgy tour, Francis Poulenc still marveled momentum of Prokofiev’s previous at how his “long, spatulate fingers music with a haunting new lyri- held the keyboard as a racing car cism. All three movements benefit holds the track.” from the interplay of both elements; Prokofiev’s first two piano the balance is carefully judged: the concertos, both written before he second movement is calm with fiery finished his degree at the Saint interludes, the finale just the oppo- Petersburg Conservatory, are bold, site. The forms are essentially those challenging scores. The flamboyant that have ruled piano concertos since first (1911) was Prokofiev’s earliest Mozart’s day—the first movement is controversial work (he later called a sonata-allegro, the second a theme it “footballish”); the ultramodern and variations, the last a rondo—but second (1913) left listeners “frozen the sonority and style are what we with fright, hair standing on end,” now recognize as Prokofiev’s own. according to a contemporary critic. The Chicago premiere went well. Prokofiev had long wanted to write The reviews were cordial but largely a new concerto, and had, in fact, uncomprehending (“a plum pudding been collecting material for years. without the plums”). The audi- This would remain his characteristic ence was highly enthusiastic. The compositional method—making concerto quickly became Prokofiev’s sketches as ideas came to him, at any calling card; within a year he played hour of the day or night, and saving it in London, Paris, and New them until they found a place in York. (“In Chicago there was less his music. understanding than support,” the composer later recalled. “In New he Third Piano Concerto incor- York there was neither.”) It was the Tporates sketches gathered over a first work he recorded (in 1932)—a decade. The earliest ideas date from blazing document of his fabled style 1911. The E minor theme that opens and technique; and it was destined the second movement was sketched to become his most popular piano in 1913, and was intended from the concerto (he would complete two start as the basis of a set of varia- others) and a favorite landmark of tions. In 1916–17, Prokofiev wrote twentieth-century music.

7 Born June 9, 1865, Sortelung, Denmark. Died October 3, 1931, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Symphony No. 5, Op. 50

arl Nielsen’s father, a house he made up as a three-year-old by Cpainter, played the violin. As a playing melodies on different sizes young boy, Carl worked earnestly of logs from the woodpile outside to master his father’s three-quarter- his house—was a polka for violin. size fiddle until the day he spotted (His father, never suspecting the an upright mahogany piano in his direction his son’s music would take, uncle’s house. He marveled at the complained that it was too synco- individual notes, set “in a long pated.) Most of his first works were shining row before my eyes. Not scored for string instruments; even only could I hear them, I could see before entering the conservatory, he them,” he later remembered. His composed several string quartets, a romance with the violin cooled violin sonata, and a duet for two vio- temporarily in favor of the piano, lins (all still unpublished). His offi- with its long expanse of keys. cial op. 1 is a Little Suite for strings But by the time he entered the written in 1888; that same year, he Copenhagen Conservatory in 1884 also composed a string . as a scholarship student, the violin Then, in 1892, with hardly any was his chosen instrument. After experience writing for orchestra, graduating two years later, he sup- Nielsen completed his first sym- ported himself by playing violin at phony. (He had tried to compose the Tivoli Gardens, and in 1899 he a symphony in 1888, but gave up joined the Royal Orchestra. after one movement.) Although Nielsen’s earliest known the work is wild and uneven (one composition—other than those reviewer compared Nielsen to “a

Composed Most recent CSO Approximate 1920–January 15, 1922 performance performance time October 9, 2004, Orchestra 35 minutes First performance Hall. Paavo Järvi conducting January 24, 1922, Copenhagen. The com- Instrumentation poser conducting three flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two First CSO bassoons and contrabas- performance soon, four horns, three December 14, 1967, trumpets, three trombones Orchestra Hall. Sixten and tuba, timpani, cymbals, Ehrling conducting triangle, , , , strings

8 child playing with dynamite”), it Although Nielsen failed to find reveals many of the hallmarks of a suitable title—“the one word that the composer’s mature and highly is at the same time characteristic individual style—a driving rhyth- and not too pretentious”—the music mic energy and an original sense of itself clearly defines a drama of harmonic progression—and sug- energy and release. (When pressed, gests that Nielsen was a born sym- Nielsen suggested the image of a phonist. For the next three decades, stone being rolled up a hill, where it as he slowly turned out five more lies still—“the energy is tied up in symphonies, this appeared to be his it”—and then kicked down the other ideal medium. side.) After writing four sympho- It was Nielsen’s Third Symphony nies divided into the four standard (the so-called Sinfonia espansiva), movements, here Nielsen opts for a written in 1910 and 1911, that was two-part design—“the first, which the breakthrough—his first work begins slowly and calmly, and the that reveals greatness rather than second, more active.” (Nielsen wasn’t promise. And it was his Fourth (The yet done with traditional symphonic Inextinguishable), composed during form—his sixth and final symphony World War I, that came the closest reverts to a four-movement layout.) to giving him a runaway success Both of Nielsen’s two move- (it’s still the most often performed ments are further subdivided into of the six symphonies). His Fifth contrasting sections. The first Symphony, premiered six years movement begins uncertainly, with after the Fourth, is arguably his wandering wind melodies over greatest work in the form. static, obsessive string figures; turns more sinister (pounding timpani he Fifth Symphony has no sub- and an insistent snare drum add Ttitle, but its “subject” is familiar to the Hitchcock-like suspense); Nielsen territory. As Nielsen said and then dissolves into a spacious, in a newspaper interview published heartfelt adagio. The snare drum the day of the premiere, returns, with even greater force, at the climax of the Adagio, nearly My first symphony was name- upstaging the entire orchestra—it’s less, too. But then came The one of Nielsen’s signature con- Four Temperaments, Espansiva, frontations, like the battle of the and The Inextinguishable, actu- timpani in The Inextinguishable. ally just different names for The second movement is more the same thing, the only thing impetuous, with a number of gear that music can express when shifts along the way; it never loses all is said and done: the rest- momentum, even when it slows ing powers as opposed to the down for a gentle andante episode, active ones. If I were to find and it never lacks energy. a name for this, my new fifth symphony, it would express n Nielsen’s works, the conflict something similar. Ibetween keys and the ultimate

9 journey away from home base on F major as his starting point. creates the drama of each piece. The second movement opens in Many of his symphonies, like B major, the opposite side of the some of Mahler’s, don’t end in the harmonic world—technically, key with which they begin. As it’s as far removed from F major Robert Simpson, the composer’s as possible—and ends in E-flat biographer, writes, Nielsen believed major, a key scarcely touched “that a sense of achievement is best in the opening movement. The conveyed by the firm establish- entire symphony is a grand ment of a new key”—in contrast adventure—a drama of glimpsed to the policy of composers from horizons, circuitous routes, and Bach to Shostakovich. In the Fifth unexpected destinations. Symphony, the harmonic itiner- ary is unusually ambitious. The piece begins ambiguously, and Phillip Huscher is the program annota- © 2013 Chicago Symphony Orchestra © 2013 Chicago Nielsen takes his time settling tor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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