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Jennifer Koh Portraits Grant Park Orchestra Carlos Kalmar, conductor Violin Concertos by Szymanowski Martinu° & BartÓk Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937) 1 Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35 (1916) (25:35) Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959) Producer James Ginsburg Violin Concerto No. 2, H. 293 (1943) (27:25) Engineers 2 Eric Arunas, Bill Maylone I. Andante (11:17) CDR 90000 089 3 Recorded “Live” in Concert P&C 2006 Cedille Records, trademark of II. Andante moderato (7:25) July 1 & 2, 2004 (Szymanowski) and July 1 & 2, 2005 (Martinů, Bartók) The Chicago Classical Recording24 Foundation 4 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Millennium Park, Chicago DDD • All Rights Reserved III. Poco Allegro (8:35) Graphic Design CEDILLE RECORDS Pete Goldlust, Melanie Germond 5255 N. Lakewood Ave Chicago IL 60640 USA Photos of Jennifer Koh (at the Firebird Restaurant, NYC) 773.989.2515 • [email protected] Béla Bartók (1881–1945) © Sarah Shatz www.cedillerecords.org Two Portraits, Op. 5 (1911) (11:54) Cedille Records is a trademark of The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation devoted 5 No. 1 “Idealistic” Andante sostenuto (9:43) to promoting the finest musicians and ensembles in the Chicago area. The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation’s activities are supported in part by contributions and grants from individuals, foundations, corporations, and government 6 No. 2 “Distorted” Presto (2:11) agencies including the Alphawood Foundation, Irving Harris Foundation, Kirkland & Ellis Foundation, NIB Foundation, Negaunee Foundation, Sage Foundation, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (CityArts III Grant), and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Contributions to The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation may be made at www.cedillerecords.org or by calling 773-989-2515. TT: (65:15) Jennifer Koh Portraits Notes by Andrea Lamoreaux The works of Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937) took who became Szymanowski’s lifelong friend, and a of the human psyche. In terms of Szymanowski’s with Kochanski and Rubinstein during visits to Paris some time to achieve their rightful place in music promising pianist named Artur Rubinstein. own psyche, the opera conveys a large measure of and the U.S., but increasingly spent time at a resort history, and remain relatively unfamiliar in the sexual ambivalence. King Roger has a Queen but is in Poland’s Tatra Mountains. Polish nationalism United States. But they amply reward those willing Young Poland concerts were given in both Warsaw also strongly attracted to the Shepherd: whether infl uenced a number of his late works, including a set to open their ears to a truly unique style, forged and Berlin in 1906; Szymanowski’s Concert Overture in physical or in spiritual terms is left unclear. Seen of mazurkas, the ballet Hanarsie, the String Quartet from eclectic infl uences into a poignant and highly and Variations on a Polish Folk Theme drew favorable through contemporary eyes, King Roger expresses the No. 2, and his choral masterpiece, Stabat Mater. individual sound. critical attention. New experiences now beckoned. anguish of a homosexual man trapped and repressed Like other young men of means, he devoted his next by the heterosexual hegemony of his time. Now middle-aged and needing to earn money, Like so many artists who emerged into adulthood few years largely to travel, visiting Berlin, Vienna, Szymanowski embarked on a brief tenure as head of around the turn of the 20th century, Szymanowski Paris, numerous Italian cities, Sicily, and North Africa. King Roger was several years in the future when the Warsaw Conservatory, but found himself unhappy lived through the shattering of the old world Eagerly opening his mind, spirit, and ears to these Szymanowski returned to his parents’ home in 1914 in an academic setting and artistically at odds with order precipitated by World War I — an event that new environments, he absorbed infl uences including to wait out the war and grapple with the myriad the faculty (though not with the students). He also changed far more than national boundaries and German late Romanticism, the works of Debussy and stylistic infl uences that aff ected his development as undertook a career as a concert pianist despite his the names of rulers. Old ways of living and thinking Ravel, Arab poetry and, most especially, the mix of both a writer and a composer. As a Polish national, he modest keyboard talents. Syzmanowski gained were destroyed; fortunes were lost; time-honored ancient and medieval cultures he found in Sicily. was exempt from being drafted into the Russian army fame and respect in the 1930s through international traditions were ridiculed and forgotten. Raised (Ukraine was then part of Russia) and would in any performances of his compositions, but the eff ects of in a secure atmosphere of aristocratic privilege, Szymanowski’s most important stage work, the case have been disqualifi ed for frail health: he suff ered tuberculosis precluded further creative activity. He enriched by his parents’ love for literature and music, opera King Roger, was premiered in Warsaw in 1926. from the eff ects of a childhood injury, depression, died in a Swiss sanatorium at the age of 54. the talented young pianist-composer grew up Set in medieval Sicily, it vividly portrays a confl ict and above all tuberculosis. His output during the without the expectation of having to earn a living. between the conventional, ordered world of the war included an unfi nished novel, his Symphony No. The Violin Concerto No. 1 represents a kind of early His family’s estate was near Kiev in the Ukraine, Christian church and royal court that held sway in the 3, Myths for violin and piano, Metopes for solo piano, midpoint of Szymanowski’s continually-evolving but his family maintained strong ties to its roots Middle Ages and an older and perhaps freer system, songs on exotic themes from Arabian poetry, and style. A large, late-Romantic orchestra, augmented in Poland. Home-schooled in both academics and harking back to the traditions of classical Greece. the Violin Concerto No. 1, dedicated to his friend by piano and harps, supports and enhances an music, Szymanowski moved to Warsaw in 1901 for This older world is represented in the opera by a Kochanski, who contributed the virtuosic cadenza. exuberant, rhapsodic solo part that tells us much studies at the conservatory. He soon joined other mysterious, charismatic fi gure called the Shepherd. about the virtuosity of the dedicatee, Pawel students in a movement that became known as King Roger reveals a great deal about Szymanowski, The Szymanowski family was forced off its estate Kochanski. Three sections, the fi rst two both marked Young Poland, which hoped to encourage more both intellectually and emotionally. Beyond the in 1919, in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. Vivace, are performed without pause. The third is progressive, less provincial attitudes in the city’s enthusiastic medievalism common to Romantic-era The composer eventually settled in Warsaw and simply labeled Cadenza. The structure of the work musical establishment, and to fi nd opportunities for artists, it refl ects the philosophical confl ict often added yet another thread to the complex weave of is essentially that of a gigantic rondo, with a lyrical the performance of their own compositions. Young described as Apollonian vs. Dionysian: the light his stylistic identity — that of the newly-resurgent main theme transformed at each re-introduction Poland included the violinist Pawel Kochanski, of reason contrasted with the “darker” impulses Polish nationalist movement. He stayed in contact between episodes of greater agitation, sometimes 4 5 shared by the orchestra and soloist, sometimes plays double-stops and dramatic running fi gurations Mélisande, a work that deeply aff ected and inspired he married in 1931. A professional dressmaker presented in dialogue. up and down its full range, though the higher ranges Martinů. He grew discontented with conservatory and woman of exceptional resourcefulness, are always the most prominent, reaching up to the routine and returned home, where the World War I steadfastness, and loyalty, she stood by her husband The large orchestra is not employed as a monolithic instrument’s highest notes, imparting an intense cataclysm passed him by: never robust, he managed through poverty, infi delity, exile, and illness. The sound source. While there are many “tutti” passages, sense of yearning. Leading up to the fi nal section, the to avoid military conscription while continuing to Martinůs’ situation in Paris became precarious in the Syzmanowksi just as often spotlights an individual violin restates its main theme, which the orchestra compose and give music lessons. He would return to late 1930s, after the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia. section — winds, horns, low strings — in the ongoing takes up briefl y, but then stops abruptly as the soloist Prague to play violin in the Czech Philharmonic, and As the Czech opposition’s cultural attaché in Paris, interchanges. Gustav Mahler famously broke up begins Kochanski’s cadenza, a brilliant collection of the fi rst of his many travels abroad took place when Martinů aided a number of Czech artists who tried his huge orchestral forces into chamber-sized runs, chords, and octaves that brings the emotion of the orchestra toured Western Europe, including Paris, to fi nd refuge in France, but the approaching Nazi groupings; Szymanowski uses the same technique. the piece to a climax. The orchestra responds with a in 1919. Four years later, he decided to abandon occupation forced him to become a refugee himself. Mahler, of course, never wrote a violin concerto. At full-strength coda that leads the violin on to one more symphonic playing and returned to Paris to take In 1940, the couple left Paris for Marseilles, then times, it almost seems as if Szymanowski has done triumphant statement of the main theme, soaring advanced composition lessons with Albert Roussel.