Symphonie Fantastique, Op
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CONCERT PROGRAM October 17 & 19, 2014 Leonard Slatkin, conductor David Halen, violin CINDY MCTEE Einstein’s Dream (2004) (b. 1953) Warps and Curves in the Fabric of Space and Time— Music of the Spheres— Chasing After Quanta— Pondering the Behavior of Light— The Frantic Dance of Subatomic Particles— Celestial Bells— Wondering at the Secrets Celeste Golden Boyer, violin BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 (1868) (1838-1920) Prelude: Allegro moderato— Adagio Finale: Allegro energico David Halen, violin INTERMISSION BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique, op. 14 (1830) (1803-1869) Rêveries. Passions: Largo; Allegro agitato e appassionato assai Un bal: Valse. Allegro non troppo Scène aux champs: Adagio Marche au supplice: Allegretto non troppo Songe d’une nuit du sabbat: Larghetto; Allergo assai; Allegro 23 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS These concerts are part of the Wells Fargo Advisors series. These concerts are presented by the Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation. Leonard Slatkin is the Ann and Paul Lux Guest Artist. David Halen is the Jean L. Rainwater Guest Artist. The concert of Friday, October 17, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. Jack R. Bodine. The concert of Sunday, October 19, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from The Honorable and Mrs. Sam Fox. Pre-Concert Conversations are sponsored by Washington University Physicians. Large print program notes are available through the generosity of the Link Auction Galleries and are located at the Customer Service table in the foyer. 24 FROM THE STAGE Diana Haskell, Associate Principal Clarinet, on the E-flat clarinet in Symphonie fantastique: “There is an E-flat clarinet solo in the last movement, which is one of the most difficult in the repertoire, but a total blast to play. Some musicians play it lightly. I don’t. “It’s a twisted version of the idée fixe. I think of it as Berlioz running amok in his head. It’s his descent into hell. I believe it should sound a little frenzied, a little manic. It’s written with fast trills and a pounding rhythm. It’s really fun. I know I’m doing a good job if people nearby in the orchestra hold their ears and glare at me.” Diana Haskell 25 DREAMS OF LIFE BY RENÉ SPENCER SALLER CINDY MCTEE Einstein’s Dream DREAM OF A UNIFIED FIELD NOTES BY CINDY MCTEE As we know, Albert Einstein gave much thought to issues of space and time, and he dreamt of finding a theory of everything, or a broad, mathematical structure that would fully explain and link together all known phenomena. My piece celebrates this dream and the 100th anni- Born February 20, 1953, Tacoma, versary of Albert Einstein’s miraculous year Washington (1905) in which he published four papers that contributed substantially to the foundation of Now Resides Bloomfield Hills, Michigan modern physics. First Performance After a certain high level of technical March 31, 2005, Andrew skill is achieved, science and art tend to Litton conducted the Dallas coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. Symphony Orchestra, which —Albert Einstein commissioned the work Ever since the Industrial Revolution, we STL Symphony Premiere Americans have embraced science and tech- This week nology as a major part of our national identity. Scoring I am intrigued by the discoveries of science percussion and especially by the ways in which the arts computer-processed sounds and sciences intersect: both fields investigate strings the unknown, propose theories, experiment Performance Time with possibilities, attempt to resolve paradoxes, approximately 14 minutes and generally help us to better understand ourselves and the universe in which we live. It is interesting to note that Einstein’s search for a grand theory of unification took him into a world where intuition prevailed—to a place where science and art merged. Einstein believed that the greatest scientists are always artists as well. He also said that both music and scientific research are nourished by the same source of longing. It seems to me, too, that the longing behind a composer’s search for meaning is the same longing that inspires the scientist confronted with the inescapable mystery of the physical universe. 26 MAX BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, op. 26 BITTERSWEET SUCCESS Although he lived to be 82 and composed a great deal of music, Max Bruch never wrote anything that people love the way they love his Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor. Bruch wrote it in 1866, when he was 28. After incorporating advice from the eminent violinist Josef Joachim, the revised version premiered, with Joachim as soloist, in 1868. It Born was an immediate hit. January 6, 1838, Cologne Bruch suffered many financial hardships Died during his long career, and even his most October 2, 1920, Friedenau, enduring success was marred by rotten luck. near Berlin As an impoverished young composer, he sold First Performance the publishing rights to his first violin concerto January 5, 1868, in Bremen; for a pittance in a one-off deal that didn’t allow Joseph Joachim was the soloist, and Karl Reinthaler him a share of future royalties. Even worse, his conducted subsequent compositions were nowhere near as popular. Bruch was still seething about this 20 STL Symphony Premiere February 13, 1914, Eugène years later. “Nothing compares to the laziness, Ysaÿe was soloist, with Max stupidity, and dullness of many German violin- Zach conducting ists,” he fumed in a letter to the music publisher Most recent STL Symphony Fritz Simrock. “Every fortnight another one Performance comes to me wanting to play the First Concerto; October 1, 2011, Itzhak I have now become rude, and tell them: ‘I cannot Perlman was soloist, with listen to this concerto anymore—did I perhaps David Robertson conducting write just this one? Go away, and play the other the Red Velvet Ball concertos, which are just as good, if not better.” Scoring Few of those German violinists complied. solo violin They clamored to play the First, and audiences 2 flutes 2 oboes never tired of it. Today the First Concerto remains 2 clarinets a staple of the repertory—and the only Bruch 2 bassoons composition that most listeners recognize. 4 horns 2 trumpets FORM AND FANTASY As Bruch was the first to timpani strings concede, the concerto has a somewhat unorth- odox structure. He even asked Joachim if he Performance Time should call the concerto a “Fantasia” instead. approximately 24 minutes (The violinist assured him that “the designa- tion concerto is completely apt.”) At any rate, the Vorspiel, or prelude, takes substantial liberties with the sonata form. The violin lingers, flutters, soars like a lark ascending. The orchestra surges against it, in an elemental give and take. At its ultra-Romantic midpoint, the violin swoops up and down in crazy chromatic runs. But instead of 27 the typical development section, the music circles back to the beginning; soon, the mood darkens, the sound hushed and expectant. Without a pause, the prelude seeps into the Adagio, the shining center of the concerto. It’s the most beloved of the three movements, and no one who has heard it ever wonders why. The melodies are unapologetically lovely: as spontaneous as birdsong, as simple as a sunbeam. The finale seems at once reckless and restrained. The orchestra trades off passages with the solo violin, sometimes adding majestic counterpoint, sometimes erupting into pyrotechnics. The violin dispenses gypsy-flavored licks and virtuosic passagework. When everything comes together, it sounds like ecstasy. A POIGNANT POSTSCRIPT By the end of World War I, Bruch was 80 and peril- ously poor. With the European economy in ruins, he had no way to collect royalties, no regular income. Although his unfortunate publishing arrange- ment meant that he couldn’t profit from the continued success of his first violin concerto, he hoped to make some quick cash by selling his original copy of the score. He sent it to the concert pianists Rose and Ottilie Sutro, who were supposed to sell it for him in the United States. Unfortunately, they bamboo- zled Bruch, who died on October 2, 1920, still waiting for his money. They sent some worthless German money to his family, refusing to answer ques- tions about the buyer who had supposedly purchased the score on the condi- tion of anonymity. In 1949 the swindling Sutro sisters finally did sell Bruch’s manuscript to the Standard Oil heiress Mary Flagler Cary, who ultimately bequeathed it, along with the rest of her papers, to the Pierpont Morgan Public Library in New York. 28 HECTOR BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique, op. 14 CRAZY LOVE If Hector Berlioz had been born in 20th-century America instead of 19th-century France, he would have wound up in prison or a mental institution. In 1831, the 27-year-old composer stole two pistols, acquired lethal doses of laudanum and strychnine in case the guns jammed, assembled a wig and a dress for his disguise, and set out from Rome to Paris, Born where he planned to murder three people and December 11, 1803, near then commit suicide. Marked for death were La Côte-Saint-André, Isère, his former fiancée, Marie Moke; her mother, France whom he blamed for their breakup; and Moke’s Died future husband, the wealthy piano manufacturer March 8, 1869, Paris Camille Pleyel. Berlioz’s elaborate plot began to First Performance fall apart before he even made it across Italy. He December 5, 1830, at changed his mind and returned to Rome. the Paris Conservatoire, François-Antoine Habeneck With Berlioz there was always a new conducted an orchestra passion: a new woman to stalk, a new polemic assembled by the composer to publish, a new musical project.