CLASSICAL SERIES ’S where you THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, AT 7 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22 & 23, AT 8 PM belong NASHVILLE , conductor , organ CHORUS TUCKER BIDDLECOMBE, chorus director

The premier provider of to – 14 minutes senior lifestyle solutions located in the heart of in E-Flat Minor for Organ and , Op. 55 (1902) – 22 minutes Green Hills offers the Allegro moderato - Andante most complete range of Allegretto, ma ben marcato Allegro moderato, molto risoluto options for independence, Paul Jacobs, organ support, and quality care – INTERMISSION – This concert will be recorded live for for older adults. future broadcast and commercial release. To ensure the highest-quality recording, The Bells, Op. 35 – 35 minutes please keep noise to a minimum. Allegro, ma non tanto Lento Presto From Independent Living This concert will last one hour and 50 minutes, Lento lugubre including a 20-minute intermission. to Life Plan At Home— Find Your Place with PROGRAM SUMMARY Blakeford. The Nashville Symphony and Chorus join together for two splendid yet far too rarely heard works. Vaughan Williams wrote his to words from Shakespeare’s to celebrate one of ’s great conductors and humanists, Sir Henry 615-665-9505 Joseph Wood. Sergei Rachmaninoff was inspired by the poetry of to write Blakeford.com his unnumbered The Bells, in which the metaphor of bells ringing traces the human life cycle. Between these we hear another unjustly neglected work: the thrilling by Horatio Parker, a tireless advocate for music education and the teacher of .

INCONCERT 33 CLASSICAL RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Serenade to Music

Born on October 12, 1872, in First performance: the village of Down Ampney in Gloucestershire in southwest England October 5, 1938, in London, with Sir conducting

Died on August 26, 1958, in London

First Nashville Symphony Estimated Composed: performance: length: 1938 April 3, 1951, with music director 14 minutes William Strickland

rowing up in a well-off family that later arranged this music into more pragmatic Gcounted as a relative, alternative versions to facilitate performance. Ralph Vaughan Williams took until early For example, there are versions for solo middle age to establish himself as a composer. and orchestra, for solo vocal quartet plus Over time, he evolved a style infl uenced by chorus and orchestra, and — as in the version his research into England’s early music and we hear on this program — for chorus and folk heritage, while a period of study with orchestra, with each solo line sung by small the French composer enhanced groups or sections. his command of the orchestra. For his text, Vaughan Williams chose a fi tting He wrote Serenade to Music at the request paean to music from the fi rst scene of the fi nal of the conductor Sir Henry Joseph Wood act of Shakespeare’s Th e Merchant of Venice. (1869-1944) as part of a special concert marking Th e scene is set outdoors in the moonlight at Wood’s 50th anniversary as a conductor. Wood Belmont, the idyllic estate that belongs the was a champion of musical accessibility who resourceful heiress Portia, whose ingenuity founded the annual Proms concerts in London, saves the day. It begins with Jessica (’s which are now run by the BBC and are still daughter) and Lorenzo, the lover for whom regarded as a highlight of the she has left her father, as both await Portia’s season. Vaughan Williams wanted to create a return. Th e couple have recently eloped, and highly personal tribute in the form of a work they refl ect on the magical atmosphere of this for voices and orchestra praising music itself. night. Lorenzo invokes the “sweet harmony” Th e vocal scoring is unusual: rather than enveloping them as they gaze at the stars. a generic chorus, Vaughan Williams tailored Vaughan Williams culled lines from this Serenade for a handpicked of 16 solo passage and repeated a phrase to create a singers: four each of , altos and ; self-contained text for Serenade to Music. two ; and two basses. Th ese were renowned performers of the era who had ties WHAT TO LISTEN FOR to Woods and to Vaughan Williams himself. His idea was to spotlight their individual ven the words of the Bard can only vocal personalities in brief solos, and he Edescribe, but never imitate, the power even inscribed each singer’s initials at the of music itself. Yet here is an instance of a corresponding moment in the score. But he composer using music to illuminate the power

34 NOVEMBER 2019 CLASSICAL of words. Vaughan Williams imagines a musical noticeably troubled darkening of atmosphere equivalent to the wondrous combination around the image of “the man that hath no of lyricism, otherworldly reflection and music in himself.” It’s easy to sympathize with romantic elation found in Shakespeare’s verse. this suspicion of the Philistine indifferent He encourages us to imagine that we are to art: “let no such man be trusted.” Yet for privileged to hear the music that the characters all this variety, Vaughan Williams gives the in the play are describing. The word “serenade” piece a satisfying sense of unity, bringing this additionally suggests the nocturnal mood that gorgeous music to a gently tapered close with sets the stage for their moment of epiphany. a reminiscence of the opening that now fades A brief orchestral introduction sets with seraphic calm. out the main musical ideas. One of these Serenade to Music is scored for chorus and an involves a bluesy shift between major and orchestra of 2 (2nd doubling piccolo), , minor that evokes a haunting melancholy. English horn, 2 , 2 , 4 horns, 2 Harmonic shifts convey the text’s sense of , 3 , , , triangle, wonder, eliciting the light and shadow of drum, harp and strings. Shakespeare’s observations — including a

TEXT FOR SERENADE TO MUSIC

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit and let the sounds of music The man that hath no music in himself, Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, Become the touches of sweet harmony. Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;

Look how the floor of The motions of his spirit are dull as night Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: And his affections dark as Erebus: There’s not the smallest orb that thou behold’st Let no such man be trusted. But in his motion like an angel sings, Music! hark! Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins; It is your music of the house. Such harmony is in immortal souls; Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day. Silence bestows that virtue on it But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. How many things by season season’d are To their right praise and true perfection! Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn! With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear, Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion And draw her home with music. And would not be awak’d. Soft stillness and the night I am never merry when I hear sweet music. Become the touches of sweet harmony. The reason is, your spirits are attentive —

INCONCERT 35 CLASSICAL HORATIO PARKER Concerto in E-Flat Minor for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 55 (1902)

Born on September 15, 1863, First performance: in Auburndale, December 1902, with the Symphony and the composer as the soloist Died on December 18, 1919, in Cedarhurst, New York First Nashville Symphony performance: Estimated These are the Nashville Composed: length: Symphony’s fi rst performances 1902 and will be recorded live for a 22 minutes forthcoming release on Naxos.

n 1894, a precocious student named Charles and orchestral pieces, Parker wrote a large- IIves enrolled at , becoming scale, Romantic , Hora novissima part of the fi rst class to be taught by Horatio (1893), in which he attempted to come to terms Parker, who had just launched his career at with the deaths of his infant son and his father. Yale the same year. Challenging Parker with Setting a text by the medieval Benedictine his decidedly unconventional approach to monk Bernard of Cluny, Hora novissima o ff e r s composition, Ives would spar with his mentor; an ecstatic vision of Paradise. It won Parker decades later, he lobbed stinging criticisms national attention, and he became known when recalling the strictures of an (often above all for such choral compositions as anonymous) “routine-minded professor.” St. Christopher and Morven and the Grail. He Yet, as the musicologist Gayle Sherwood also wrote for the theater: Although it was Magee writes, it was under Horatio Parker’s a critical failure, Mona (1912) was the fi rst guidance that the rebellious Ives acquired “the full-length by an American produced tools to become an accomplished composer.” at the . Parker was tirelessly devoted to education and The Organ Concerto was commissioned essentially worked himself to a premature by the Boston Symphony, which requested a death at the age of 56. work in which the composer might appear as Horatio Parker came of age when such the soloist. At the time, a concerto for organ Boston-based fi gures as George Chadwick and orchestra was considered novel by Parker’s (one of his own teachers) were seeking to peers, but the work was dubbed “an imposing defi ne an authentically American voice for and brilliant composition” by one critic. classical music. Still, they drew heavily on developments from German . WHAT TO LISTEN FOR Parker, for example, spent a formative period from 1882 to 1885 studying in . lthough relatively compact, the Organ Back in the U.S., Parker made a living as an AConcerto is the largest of Parker’s organist, choirmaster and teacher — including orchestral works. The composer omits the a stint at the new National Conservatory of entirely, creating an Music in New York, which Dvořák had just orchestral soundscape of brass, timpani, harp been hired to direct. Along with church music and strings, in and out of which he weaves

36 NOVEMBER 2019 CLASSICAL the solo organ. and solo violin, the harp later entering. Other The first movement is unusually structured in solo passages follow, leading to an ecstatic two parts. The first begins with a forceful chord climax and a subdued conclusion in B major. from the king of instruments emphasizing The second movement is -like in the home key of E-flat minor, over which the character, beginning with a rhythmic motto strings pronounce the dignified main theme. from the timpani; a lyrically contrasting middle A gentle second theme, expressing both solace section spotlights the organ. In the finale, and longing, poses contrast. These ideas — at again starting with drums, Parker builds a times presented in a kind of call-and-response thrilling fugue from the imposing opening between organ and ensemble — are developed theme. Speeding up in the coda, the concerto in the rest of the first section. The tempo then comes to rest on another grand chord, now shifts to Andante for the second, meditative in the major. section of further transformations. Setting In addition to solo organ, Parker’s Concerto is mood of -like intimacy, this scored for 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, section starts with a duet between the organ timpani, harp and strings.

ABOUT THE SOLOIST PAUL Daugherty, , , JACOBS and Christopher organ Rouse, among others. No other organist has been repeatedly eralded as “one invited to perform as a soloist with prestigious Hof the major . Jacobs regularly appears with musicians of our time” by of The the Symphony, The Cleveland New Yorker, the internationally celebrated Orchestra, Philharmonic, Lucerne organist Paul Jacobs combines a probing Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, intellect and extraordinary technical mastery Montréal Symphony, National Symphony with an unusually large repertoire. He has Orchestra, Orchestra, San performed to great critical acclaim on five Francisco Symphony, among others. continents and in each of the 50 United Highlights of Jacobs’ 2019/20 season States. The only organist ever to have won a include performances of ’s GRAMMY® Award — in 2011, for Messiaen’s Once Upon a Castle with the Philadelphia towering Livre du Saint-Sacrément — Jacobs Orchestra and Kansas City Symphony; is an eloquent champion of his instrument. three orchestral engagements with maestro Jacobs has transfixed audiences, colleagues Giancarlo Guerrero, including programs with and critics alike with landmark performances the Nashville Symphony, Bamberg Symphony of the complete works for solo organ by J.S. and NFM Wrocław Philharmonic; a recital Bach and Messiaen. He made musical history for the inauguration of the newly restored at age 23, when he gave an 18-hour marathon Hazel Wright organ at the Christ Cathedral in performance of Bach’s complete organ works Garden Grove, California; and a Paris recital on the 250th anniversary of the composer’s at the Maison de la Radio, presented by Radio death. A fierce advocate of new music, Jacobs France and the Orchestre National de France. has premiered works by , Michael

INCONCERT 37 CLASSICAL SERGEI RACHMANINOFF The Bells, Op. 35

Born on April 1, 1873, in Semyonovo, Russia First performance: December 13, 1913, in Saint Petersburg, with Died on March 28, 1943, the composer conducting in Beverly Hills, California

First Nashville Symphony Composed: Estimated performance: January-August length: December 3-5, 2009, with Music 1913 35 minutes Director Giancarlo Guerrero

or the concert honoring Sir Henry Wood the sounds of chant and tolling ceremonial Fat which Serenade was premiered, Sergei bells were fi rmly lodged in his imagination Rachmaninoff appeared in person as the — the Th ird Concerto, for example, soloist in his Second . Wood’s starts off with a theme that could easily be enthusiasm for the Russian composer extended mistaken for chant. “The sound of church to championing his unusual composition Th e bells dominated all the cities of Russia I Bells, an extraordinary unnumbered symphony used to know,” Rachmaninoff wrote in his written a few years before Rachmaninoff left memoirs. “Th ey accompanied every Russian his Russian homeland for permanent exile. from childhood to the grave, and no composer Rachmaninoff cherished Th e B els l , which was could escape their infl uence.” inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, as the favorite In the winter of 1913, while exhausted from among his works — even preferring it over overwork and on a much-needed vacation with the he wrote for himself as a piano his family in Rome, Rachmaninoff received in soloist. He chose to include it on the program the mail a copy of Poe’s poem “Th e Bells,” in of the fi nal concert he conducted, with the a translation by the Russian Symbolist poet Chicago Symphony in 1941. . It had been sent by an Rachmaninoff was also very fond of another anonymous admirer, who suggested that of his choral works, the All-Night Vigil or Rachmaninoff should try putting it to music. Vespers, which he wrote two years later. Perhaps As was the case with later-19th-century French at least part of his enthusiasm toward these writers such as Charles Baudelaire, a number pieces in later years was related to his American of Russian composers of the early 20th felt exile. Th ese scores embody diff erent aspects of an uncanny attraction to Poe’s world. Rachmaninoff ’s reminiscences of the rituals Rachmaninoff began composing Th e B e l l s and sounds of his youth and of a long-since- while staying in the same apartment, by vanished Russia. the Piazza di Spagna, where Tchaikovsky Th ough he was not a conventionally pious had vacationed in Rome decades before — man, Rachmaninoff retained memories of even using the same desk as his illustrious the Russian Orthodox liturgies to which his predecessor. A family emergency compelled grandmother took him as a boy. Though Rachmaninoff to leave Rome and return to he is most oft en associated with the piano, Russia. He completed Th e B els l at the beloved

38 NOVEMBER 2019 CLASSICAL summer estate owned by his wife’s family — carefree joys of youth, these bells foreshadow just a few months after Stravinsky’s The Rite the “universal slumber” of death that is waiting of had its history-making premiere. beyond their promise. Rachmaninoff works Possibly written in 1848, Poe’s “The Bells” was this duality into his score by contrasting the published posthumously. It’s often singled out lighthearted timbres and mirthful music as an ingenious example for and chorus of onomatopoeia: the with a gently hummed, technique of using wordless choral passage, language to imitate the which suggests the actual sounds being “generations past all described. The Russian number” who have gone title is Kolokola and is before and remain as also onomatopoetic, echoes. As the joyful although Balmont’s mood returns, a softly translation does not rocking motif that contain as much manic progressively descends repetition as the English emerges in the upper original and even strings. It will serve inserts some lines to as a unifying device moderate the horror across the remaining evoked by Poe’s vision. movements. Rather like Vaughan This melodic idea Williams with Shakespeare, Rachmaninoff returns at the start of the slow movement, a explores the resonance of the words in musical warmly lyrical ode for solo and chorus terms. To this end, he takes advantage of that omits percussion. Though its harmonies coloristic effects, word painting and different are beguiling, the “golden” happiness of tender combinations of chorus and orchestra, as well “wedding bells” is not entirely unclouded. as the repetition of thematic ideas. Rachmaninoff’s music conveys a sense of Poe’s original poem comprises four fateful, solemn ritual, even suggesting at times dramatically contrasting stanzas. “All the a funereal aspect that poses a counterpart to world’s a bell,” as it were: We find four different the bride’s soaring . stages of a universal life course rung out, Rachmaninoff transforms Poe’s stanza on from birth to death (as opposed to the seven the bells of alarm, which sound the alert to delineated by Shakespeare in “All the world’s a nighttime fire, into an energetic scherzo at a stage” from As You Like It). Rachmaninoff breakneck speed. At the start, these “brazen” structures these as four distinct movements of bells — symbolizing the anxieties of adult a symphony, each characterized by a unique life and approaching infirmity — ring in a atmosphere and a corresponding sequence of confusion of overlapping layers. There is no signature bell sounds. solo voice, only the collective terror of the crowd adding to the din of panic. Even when WHAT TO LISTEN FOR the momentum subsides, the underlying sense of fear eventually regathers in fresh outbursts. he opening Allegro, the briefest of the The lengthy final movement is the most Tfour movements, presents the optimistic remarkable. Rachmaninoff’s model is and sweet sound of “silver bells.” Along with the Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the “Pathétique,”

INCONCERT 39 CLASSICAL

which had introduced the radically unsettling humming. In the fi nal pages, for orchestra design of a slow movement as the conclusion to alone, Rachmaninoff allows a consoling an epic symphony. Following Poe’s description glimmer of transcendence. of the “mournful” bells whose “stern monody” rings out the fate of all, Rachmaninoff similarly In addition to the soprano, tenor and resorts to a slow fi nale, marked lento lugubre soloists and mixed choir, The Bells is scored for 3 fl utes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 , English —“lugubriously slow.” horn, 3 clarinets, bass , 3 bassoons, This finale of death knells begins with a , 6 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, desolate orchestral introduction that features tuba, timpani, tubular bells, , an inconsolable solo for the English horn. triangle, , , , bass Th e voice of the solo bass is most fi tting here, drum, tam-tam, pianino, , harp, organ (ad shadowed by the chorus. Th e music passes lib) and strings. into a worried Allegro that harshly reworks — Thomas May is the Nashville Symphony’s the fi rst movement’s “tolling” motif and then program annotator. slows again for another passage of choral

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NASHVILLE SYMPHONY CHORUS TUCKER BIDDLECOMBE, Chorus Director

Beverly Anderson† Kacie Dunham Jennifer Lynn Ashlinn Snyder Katie Arata Allison Espada Alisha Austi Menard Paige Stinnett Esther Bae Becky Evans-Young Jean Miller Clair Susong Amie Bates Amy Frogge Jessie Neilson Marva A. Swann Jill Boehme Kelli Gauthier Angela Marjorie Taggart Stephanie Breiwa Rebecca Greer Pasquini Clifford Angie Thomas* Christine Brosend Grace J. Guill† Samantha Petry Ashley Vance Daphne Bugelli Ally Hard Kristine Phillips Jan Staats Volk† Sara Jean Curtiss Stacey Haslam Camille Winton

SOPRANO Beth Pirtle Ring Claire Delcourt Vanessa D. Jackson* Renita J. Sylvia Wynn Katie Doyle Katie Lawrence Smith-Crittendon Callie Zindell

Carol Armes Erin Elgass Valerie Kamen Stacy L. Reed Kathy Bearden Cara Frank Leah Koesten Debbie Reyland Tessa Berger Dana Purser Gary Stephanie Kraft Anna Lea Ritchie Mary Bond Katherine Gillett Emily Longenecker Allie Senyard Vinéecia Buchanan Elizabeth Gilliam† Shelly McCormack Hannah Sims Mary Callahan* Debra L. Greenspan Asha Moody Anjali Sivaainkaran Cathi Carmack† Bevin Gregory Jessica Moore Madalynne Skelton

ALTO Kelsey Christian Judith Griffin Stephanie Moritz Caroline Kimbrey Talbert* Lisa Cooper† Leah Handelsman Shelia Mullican Deanna Talbert Helen Cornell Amanda Hopkins Valerie Nelson Kathryn Whitaker Carla M. Davis† Sidney Hyde Lisa Pellegrin Maggie Zeillmann Amanda Leigh Dier Liza Marie Johnston Annette Phillips

Anthony R. Barta Kory Henkel John Perry Benjamin Tyrrel Robert Bennett William F. Hodge† Keith Ramsey Richard Colby White Eric Boehme Ron Jensen David M. Satterfield†* Richard Wineland Kevin Brenner Mitchell Lane Zach Shrout Scott Wolfe Brett Cartwright Scott Lee Daniel Sissom John Logan Wood Taylor Chadwick Lynn McGill Eddie Smith Jonathan Yeaworth

TENOR Joe A. Fitzpatrick Don Mott Stephen Sparks† Fred Garcia Devin Mueller Joel Tellinghuisen Danny Gordon* Ryan Norris Christopher Thompson

Gilbert Aldridge Duane Hamilton Adam Mamula William E. Squires James Cortner Andrew Hard Bruce Meriwether Larry Strachan Nick Davidson Luke Harnish Andrew Miller David B. Thomas†* Dustin Derryberry Richard Hatfield† Christopher Mixon Alex Tinianow Frank Ellsworth Carl Johnson Chandler Montgomery Brian Warford* Mark Filosa Kenneth Keel Steve Myers Eric Wiuff

BASS Ian M. Frazier Justin Kirby Alec Oziminski Hunter Yates Stuart Garber William Loyd Steve Prichard George Goetschel Taylor Lucy Daniel Silva Tim Goodenough Rob Mahurin Merv Snider

* Section Leader Andrew Miller, president Jeff Burnham, accompanist † 25+ year members Sara Crigger, librarian

INCONCERT 41