Program

ONe huNdred TweNTieTh SeASON Chicago Symphony orchestra riccardo muti Music director Pierre Boulez helen regenstein Conductor emeritus Yo-Yo ma Judson and Joyce green Creative Consultant

Thursday, January 6, 2011, at 8:00 Saturday, January 8, 2011, at 8:00 Sir mark Elder Conductor Stephen Hough Piano Liadov Baba-Yaga, Op. 56 Liadov The Enchanted Lake, Op. 62 Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23 Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso—Allegro con spirito Andantino semplice Allegro con fuoco STePheN hOugh

InTErmISSIon Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100 Andante Allegro moderato Adagio Allegro giocoso

Steinway is the official piano of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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

anatoly Liadov Born May 11, 1855, , . Died August 28, 1914, Polïnovka, Novgorod district, Russia.

Baba-Yaga, op. 56 The Enchanted Lake, op. 62

natoly Liadov is best known for staging the ballet, to fire him from Athe music he didn’t write. He the job. But in fact, Liadov wasn’t regularly surfaces in music histories even Diaghilev’s first choice—the not as the composer of a handful assignment had originally gone to of exquisitely crafted orchestral Nikolai Tcherepnin, who with- pieces, including Baba-Yaga and drew—and he declined Diaghilev’s The Enchanted Lake, but as the man offer from the start, for reasons we who blew his chance to write The may never adequately understand. Firebird, which of course turned Early on, Liadov had earned a out to be a career-making hit for reputation as a slacker. He regularly Igor Stravinsky. According to the cut classes at the Saint Petersburg most —though unsubstan- Conservatory—“he simply could tiated—version, Liadov had only not be bothered,” said Rimsky- just gotten around to buying his Korsakov, who was his teacher and manuscript paper when the first found him “irresponsible.” Sergei installment of the score was due, Prokofiev, who later studied with forcing , who was Liadov and admired him greatly,

Baba-Yaga

ComPoSEd moST rECEnT horns, two trumpets, ca. 1891–1904 CSo PErFormanCES three trombones and tuba, April 17, 1942; Orchestra timpani, xylophone, cymbals, FIrST PErFormanCE hall; Frederick Stock bass drum, strings unknown conducting aPProxImaTE August 4, 1990; ravinia FIrST CSo PErFormanCE TImE Festival; Valery gergiev PErFormanCE 3 minutes November 6, 1908; conducting Orchestra hall; Frederick CSo rECordIng InSTrumEnTaTIon Stock conducting A 1941 performance two flutes and piccolo, two conducted by Frederick oboes and english horn, Stock is included in Chicago two clarinets and bass Symphony Orchestra: The clarinet, two bassoons First 100 Years and contrabassoon, four

2 admitted in his memoirs that Liadov, claiming that he was a “Laziness was [his] most remark- charming and cultured man— able feature.” But from the start of his career, Liadov also had drawn attention for the boldness and orchestral brilliance of his compositions. As early as 1873— the time of his first songs, even- tually published as his op. 1— Mussorgsky described him as “a new, unmis- Sergei Diaghilev (left) and Igor Stravinsky, 1921 takable, original, and Russian young talent.” “He always carried books under Igor Stravinsky, who owed his his arm—Maeterlinck, E.T.A. overnight fame to Liadov’s with- Hoffmann, Andersen: he liked drawing, later said he liked Liadov’s tender, fantastical things”—and, music, but that he “could never above all, that he was “the most have written a long and noisy ballet progressive of the musicians of his like .” (“He was more generation.” Liadov had champi- relieved than offended, I suspect, oned Stravinsky’s own early works when I accepted the commission,” before others saw his genius, and Stravinsky said.) Throughout his once, in Stravinsky’s presence, he life, Stravinsky was quick to defend defended Scriabin, whose music

The Enchanted Lake

ComPoSEd FIrST CSo InSTrumEnTaTIon 1909 PErFormanCE three flutes, two oboes, three November 24, 1911; clarinets, two bassoons, four FIrST PErFormanCE Orchestra hall; Frederick horns, timpani, percussion, February 1909; Saint Stock conducting harp, celesta, strings Petersburg, russia moST rECEnT aPProxImaTE CSo PErFormanCE PErFormanCE TImE January 19, 2008; Antonio 7 minutes Pappano conducting

3 had not yet found an audience. and The Enchanted Lake—and they It’s hard to know what Stravinsky clearly demonstrate his mastery, really thought precisely in an art form where of Liadov as Stravinsky made little headway. a composer; Baba-Yaga takes as its subject he wrote the same witchlike character who admiringly of flies on a giant pestle or broomstick his sense of in order to kidnap children that harmony and Mussorgsky had already portrayed instrumental in his Pictures from an Exhibition color, but he for piano. Liadov’s wildly colorful also called rendition rivals Ravel’s famil- him “short- iar orchestral transcription of winded”— Mussorgsky’s piece, which wasn’t that is to say, done for another dozen years. Here, in words that in the span of a mere three minutes, Victor Hartmann’s pencil Stravinsky he establishes an otherworldly sketch, Baba-Yaga’s Hut on Hen’s Legs, could not atmosphere and a vivid sense of which Mussorgsky com- bring him- action and adventure. memorated in Pictures self to use, from an Exhibition. a master of iadov called The Enchanted Lake the minia- La fable-tableau. “How pictur- ture. (This esque it is,” he wrote to a friend, was, after all, the era of the Big “how clear, the multitude of stars Piece: Mahler’s Sixth, Seventh, hovering over the mysteries of and Eighth symphonies; Strauss’s the deep. . . . only nature—cold, Sinfonia domestica; and Schoenberg’s malevolent, and fantastic as a Pelleas and Melisande all date from tale.” Liadov’s music vividly the years Liadov was writing the suggests the serenity and delicate two works performed this week.) shadings of the night scene. “One Liadov’s catalog is slight: several has to feel the change of the colors, songs and piano pieces, a handful of the chiaroscuro, the incessantly choral compositions, and less than changeable stillness and seeming a dozen small works for orchestra. immobility.” It may not be the His most successful compositions music of a composer ideally suited are the three brief descriptive for The Firebird, but as a miniature orchestral pieces based on Russian landscape of unusual intimacy and fairy tales—Baba-Yaga, Kikimora, finesse, it is close to perfection.

4 Piotr Tchaikovsky Born May 7, 1840, Viatka, Russia. Died November 18, 1893, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Piano Concerto no. 1 in B-flat minor, op. 23

n a famously wrong snap judg- him, the composer was greeted Iment, Nikolai Rubinstein said with complete silence. “If only you that Tchaikovsky’s first piano knew,” he later wrote to Nadezhda concerto—a concerto the composer von Meck, “what a foolish and wanted him to play—was worthless unbearable situation it is to offer a and, in fact, unplayable. Rubinstein, friend a dish one has cooked oneself the director of the Moscow and to have that friend eat and Conservatory and normally an say nothing!” Undeterred, though ardent champion of Tchaikovsky’s clearly rattled, Tchaikovsky played works (he conducted the world on to the end of the concerto. Then premieres of the early symphonies Rubinstein didn’t mince words, and Romeo and Juliet), was “not only declaring that the concerto was the best pianist in Moscow but also “impossible to play, that the pas- a first-rate all-round musician,” sages were hackneyed, clumsy, and Tchaikovsky later said, explaining so awkward that there was no way why he had approached Rubinstein even to correct them, that as a com- in the first place. position it was bad, vulgar.” Except Tchaikovsky met with Rubinstein for two or three pages, Rubinstein at the Moscow Conservatory on ventured, the score had to be com- December 24, 1874. After playing pletely redone. Angry and deeply through the first movement for wounded, Tchaikovsky left the

ComPoSEd moST rECEnT aPProxImaTE November 1874– CSo PErFormanCE PErFormanCE TImE February 21, 1875 November 14, 2008; Simon 33 minutes Trpceski, piano; ludovic FIrST PErFormanCE Morlot conducting CSo rECordIngS October 25, 1875; Boston 1955, emil gilels, piano; Fritz InSTrumEnTaTIon reiner conducting; rCA FIrST CSo solo piano, two flutes, two 1985, András Schiff, piano; PErFormanCE oboes, two clarinets, two Sir georg Solti conducting; October 16, 1891 (the bassoons, four horns, two london Orchestra’s inaugural trumpets, three trombones, concert); Auditorium timpani, strings 2003, lang lang, piano; Theatre; rafael Joseffy, daniel Barenboim conduct- piano; Theodore Thomas ing; deutsche grammophon conducting

5 room without the concert stage during the 1860s responding. (after his wife Cosima left him Later that for Wagner) and had only recently evening, resumed his career, he now became Rubinstein the dedicatee of the concerto and went to see agreed to play the premiere of him at home the work in Boston, where it was and, without advertised as a Grand Concerto. softening “To Boston is reserved the honor his original of its initial representation, and the appraisal, pro- opportunity to impress the first ver- posed that if dict on a work of surpassing musical Tchaikovsky’s patron, the composer interest,” the local announcement Nadezhda von Meck made numer- boasted, unaware that Rubinstein ous radical had already done so. The day after changes, he would reconsider the premiere, Bülow sent what is performing it. Tchaikovsky replied, thought to have been the first cable “I will not change a single note and ever dispatched from Boston to will publish it exactly as it is now!” Moscow, telling Tchaikovsky of the On January 9, Tchaikovsky wrote concerto’s undisputed triumph with to his brother Anatoly that he had the Boston public. fallen into a “great depression” The concerto has been over- over the holidays. “There is no one whelmingly popular ever since, here whom I might call a friend and in 1941 it even inspired a hit in the true sense of the word,” he song, “Tonight We Love,” which continued, pointedly referring to was rather unscrupulously hacked Rubinstein, whom until recently he from its broad opening phrases. had considered one of his closest The concerto’s celebrated introduc- friends, and he admitted that he tion, with its radiant string melody was still recovering from the blow riding over the piano’s thunderous to his composer’s pride. That winter, chords, is both its best-known and however, he sent the piano concerto most puzzling concept. After a to Hans von Bülow, a pianist and dramatic horn call, Tchaikovsky conductor best known for his cham- establishes the “wrong” key of pionship of Wagner’s music (he led D-flat major and then introduces the premieres of both Tristan and a theme so splendid, so complete, Isolde and Die Meistersinger). “The and so satisfying as it stands that, ideas are so original, so noble, so despite audience expectations, it powerful,” Bülow wrote back, “and will never return. Although this the details so interesting; though makes for a potentially lopsided there are many of them, they do design (with the most familiar not impair the clearness and unity music over before the concerto of the work. The form is mature, proper begins), Tchaikovsky’s sub- ripe, and distinguished in style.” sequent material is of such dazzling Although Bülow had retired from color, flair, and orchestral brilliance

6 that the remainder of the score is courted in the late 1860s, and, at not a letdown, even after such a least for a few days, even thought breathtaking opening chapter. of marrying. The finale includes The main body of the first a Russian dance derived from a movement—it begins with nervous, Ukrainian melody and ends with jumpy passagework—introduces a majestic coda that manages to a clarinet melody Tchaikovsky match the grandeur and sweep of said he heard played by an itiner- the concerto’s opening without once ant musician at a local fair. This recalling its main theme. is a large, finely detailed move- A postscript on first impressions. ment, filled with characteristic It didn’t take long for Nikolai Tchaikovskian touches like the Rubinstein to admit his mistake, barrages of quadruple octaves in and shortly after the premiere he the piano solo and capped by an began to play the concerto with expansive cadenza. great success—“What was impos- The remaining two movements sible in 1875 became thoroughly are brief in comparison. The possible in 1878,” Tchaikovsky Andantino is part slow movement, observed. He quickly became a part scherzo; it’s all lightness and celebrated interpreter of the work, effortless charm. The main theme and the composer and the pianist- of the playful midsection is based conductor renewed their friendship. on “Il faut s’amuser et rire” (Laugh After Rubinstein’s death in 1881, and enjoy yourself), a chanson Tchaikovsky composed a piano trio associated with Belgian soprano in his honor and dedicated it “to the Désirée Artôt, whom Tchaikovsky memory of a great artist.”

7 Born April 23, 1891, Sontsovka, the Ukraine. Died March 5, 1953, Nikolina Gora, near Moscow, Russia.

Symphony no. 5 in B-flat major, op. 100

ergei Prokofiev spent the sum- was little leisure once Prokofiev Smer of 1944 at a large country moved in. He maintained a rigor- estate provided by the Union of ous daily schedule—as he had all Soviet Composers as a refuge from his life—and began to impose it on the war and as a kind of think tank. the others as well. “The regularity Prokofiev arrived with which he worked amazed us early in the summer all,” Khachaturian later recalled. and found that his Prokofiev ate breakfast, marched colleagues included to his studio to compose, and Glière, Shostakovich, scheduled his walks and tennis Kabalevsky, games by the clock. In the evening, Khachaturian, and he insisted the composers all get Miaskovsky—sum- together to compare notes, literally. mer camp for the Prokofiev was delighted, and clearly most distinguished not surprised, that he usually had Armenian composer Soviet composers of the most to show for his day’s work. Aram Khachaturian the time. It was a particularly produc- Although Ivanovo, tive summer for Prokofiev—he as the retreat was called, often was composed both his Eighth Piano referred to as a rest home, there Sonata and the Fifth Symphony

ComPoSEd July 15, 2009; ravinia aPProxImaTE 1944 Festival; James Conlon PErFormanCE TImE conducting 46 minutes FIrST PErFormanCE January 13, 1945; Moscow, InSTrumEnTaTIon CSo rECordIngS the composer conducting two flutes and piccolo, two 1992, James levine conduct- oboes and english horn, two ing, deutsche grammophon FIrST CSo clarinets, e-flat clarinet and A 1958 performance PErFormanCE bass clarinet, two bassoons conducted by Fritz reiner November 21, 1946; george and contrabassoon, four is included in Chicago Szell conducting horns, three trumpets, three Symphony Orchestra: The trombones and tuba, piano, First 100 Years moST rECEnT harp, timpani, triangle, CSo PErFormanCES cymbals, tambourine, snare February 12, 2005; drum, woodblock, bass Orchestra hall; lorin drum, tam-tam, strings Maazel conducting

8 before he returned to Moscow. 1946 autobiography, Prokofiev The sonata is prime Prokofiev and writes: “It is the duty of the com- often played, but the symphony poser, like the poet, the sculptor, is perhaps the best known and or the painter, to serve the rest of most regularly performed of all his works. It had been fifteen years since Prokofiev’s last symphony, and both that symphony and the one preceding it had been by- products of theater pieces: the Third Symphony is musically related to the The Flaming Angel, and the Fourth to the ballet The Prodigal Son. Not since his Second Symphony, completed in 1925, had Prokofiev composed a purely abstract symphony, or one that he began from scratch. Prokofiev conducting a rehearsal for a broad- cast by Radio Moscow, 1934 Although it was written at the height of the war, Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony isn’t a wartime sym- humanity, to beautify human life, phony in the traditional sense—not and to point the way to a radiant in the vivid and descriptive man- future. Such is the immutable ner of Shostakovich’s Seventh, code of art as I see it.” It also was composed during the siege of the code of art Soviet composers Leningrad and written, in Carl were expected to embrace during Sandburg’s words, “with the heart’s the war, but Prokofiev couldn’t blood”—or his Eighth, which have written a work as power- coolly contemplates the horrors ful and convincing as his Fifth of war. Prokofiev’s Symphony Symphony if he didn’t truly believe no. 5 is intended to glorify the those words. human spirit—“praising the free The Fifth Symphony would and happy man—his strength, his inevitably be known as a victory generosity, and the purity of his celebration. Just before the first soul.” In its own way, this outlook performance, which Prokofiev makes it an even greater product conducted, word reached Moscow of the war, because it was designed that the Russian army had scored to uplift and console the Soviet a decisive victory on the Vistula people. “I cannot say I chose this River. As Prokofiev raised his theme,” Prokofiev wrote. “It was baton, the sound of cannons was born in me and had to express heard from the distance. Buoyed by itself.” Nonetheless, such optimistic both the news and the triumphant and victorious music cheered the tone of the music, the premiere Russian authorities; it might well was a great success. It was the last have been made to order. In his time Prokofiev conducted in public.

9 Three weeks later he had a mild paced (Prokofiev writes andante) heart attack, fell down the stairs in and broadly lyrical throughout. his apartment, and suffered a slight The scherzo, in contrast, is quick concussion. Although he recovered and insistent, touched by a sense his spirits—and eventually his of humor that sometimes reveals strength and creative powers as a sharp, cutting edge. The third well—Prokofiev continued to feel movement is lyrical and brood- the effects of the accident for the ing, like much of Prokofiev’s finest remaining eight years of his life. slow music. After a brief and sober introduction, the finale points deci- he first movement of the Fifth sively toward a radiant future. TSymphony is intense and dramatic, but neither aggressive nor violent, like much of the music Phillip Huscher is the program annota- written at the time. It’s moderately tor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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