Season 20102010----20112011

The

Thursday, January 20, at 8:00 FriFriFriday,Fri day, January 212121,21 , at 222:002:00:00:00 Saturday, January 222222,22 , at 8:00

Alan Gilbert Conductor Richard Woodhams

Lindberg First performances—funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

Rouse Oboe (in one movement) First Philadelphia Orchestra performances—funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

Intermission

Beethoven No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (“Pastoral”) I. Allegro, ma non troppo (Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arriving in the country) II. Andante molto moto (Scene by the brook) III. Allegro—Presto (Merry gathering of peasants)— IV. Allegro (Tempest, storm)— V. Allegretto (Shepherds’ hymn—Happy and thankful feelings after the storm)

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Alan Gilbert became director of the in September 2009, the first native New Yorker to hold that post. In the 2010–11 season he conducts the orchestra in a staged presentation of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Mahler’s Fifth and Sixth and Kindertotenlieder, the New York premiere of Thomas Adès’s In Seven Days, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, the world premiere of ’s a Voice, a Messenger, the New York premiere of -in-residence ’s , and both programs in the orchestra’s new music series, CONTACT! Mr. Gilbert will also lead the orchestra in two tours of European music capitals, two performances at Carnegie Hall, and a free Memorial Day concert at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York.

This season Mr. Gilbert will also conduct several other leading at home and abroad, including Hamburg’s NDR Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and, for the first time, Rome's Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He has previously led such ensembles as the Berlin and philharmonics; the Boston, Chicago, , and Bavarian Radio symphonies; and the Cleveland and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras. His Philadelphia Orchestra debut was in 2003.

In 2009 Mr. Gilbert became the first person to hold the Chair in Musical Studies at the . In June 2008 he was named conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic following his final concert as chief conductor and artistic advisor. He has been principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony since 2004, and he was the first music director of the Santa Fe , from 2003 to 2006.

Mr. Gilbert studied at , the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Juilliard School. From 1995 to 1997 he was the assistant conductor of the . His recording of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award, and his recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic received top honors from the and Gramophone magazine. In May 2010 the Curtis Institute of Music awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Music degree.

Richard Woodhams became principal oboe of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1977, succeeding John de Lancie, his distinguished teacher at the Curtis Institute. Mr. de Lancie was a pupil of Marcel Tabuteau, one of the most influential instrumentalists of the 20th century, who served as principal oboe of the Orchestra from 1915 until 1954.

Mr. Woodhams’s tenure has included solo appearances with The Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia, as well as in New York, Boston, and other cities throughout the and Asia in collaboration with its four previous music directors. His recordings with the Orchestra include Richard Strauss’s with Wolfgang Sawallisch. Mr. Woodhams has given first performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra of solo works by J.S. Bach, Bellini, , Rochberg, , and Vaughan Williams. He has also given premieres of chamber works by William Bolcom, Chuck Holdeman, Thea Musgrave, , Ned Rorem, Richard Wernick, and . Mr. Woodhams has played solo works with such notable musicians as violinists Alexander Schneider and Itzhak Perlman, pianists Christoph Eschenbach and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and the Guarneri, Shanghai, and de Pasquale string quartets. He has also recorded Joan Tower’s Island Prelude with the Tokyo String Quartet.

Active as a teacher at the Curtis Institute and Temple University, Mr. Woodhams’s former pupils occupy prominent positions in orchestras both in the United States and abroad, including principal posts in the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, and Pittsburgh. He is also a founding and current member of the World Orchestra for Peace, an internationally assembled orchestra founded by Sir in 1995, now led by Valery Gergiev.

Since 2000 Mr. Woodhams has taught and played annually at the Aspen Music Festival, where he performed Christopher Rouse’s Oboe Concerto in 2009 with David Robertson; he has also participated in the Marlboro and La Jolla music festivals, among others. He began his musical studies in his native Palo Alto, California, with Raymond Dusté and started his orchestral career with the Saint Louis Symphony under Walter Susskind at the age of 19.

FRAMING THE PROGRAM

The first half of today’s program features two recent works by leading of their generation. Magnus Lindberg composed EXPO to celebrate Maestro Alan Gilbert’s inaugural concert in September 2009 as music director of the New York Philharmonic. As the title suggests, the brief piece is a showpiece for virtuoso orchestras. Gilbert has also been a champion of the American composer Christopher Rouse, who has distinguished himself for his ability to synthesize different musical styles and traditions. We hear his Oboe Concerto, written in 2004 to honor the centennial of the .

Beethoven famously said of his Symphony No. 6—which he entitled the “Pastoral”—that it was “more an expression of feeling than painting.” Although he did include some realistic touches in the Symphony, such as bird calls and a violent storm, the work is preeminently a testament to Beethoven’s love of nature.

Parallel Events 1808 Beethoven Symphony No. 6 Music Weber Silvana Literature Goethe Faust, Pt. I Art Ingres La Grande Baigneuse History U.S. prohibits importation of slaves from Africa

EXPO

Magnus Lindberg Born in , June 27, 1958 Now living there

Big and bold, this 10-minute piece was conceived to open many things at the same time: a concert, a season (the New York Philharmonic’s of 2009-10), a musical directorship (Alan Gilbert’s), and a two-year period in which its composer is serving as composer-in-residence with Mr. Gilbert and his home orchestra.

In the Right Place at the Right Time Magnus Lindberg’s progress to this position has been confident and assured—qualities emphatically present in his music. Born in Helsinki, he was introduced to musical high modernism—across the range from Iannis Xenakis to —by a high school teacher, and went on to study composition at the in the mid-’70s. It was a good time to be there. His professors, the distinguished composers and , were themselves making discoveries and passing them on to their students, who also included and Esa-Pekka Salonen. With them and other classmates, Lindberg founded a society to present and discuss new music, and out of that developed an electronic-instrumental performing group. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the ’80s, he was continuing his studies in —again arriving at the right time, for these were the early days of ’s computer-music facility IRCAM, where Lindberg held a scholarship, and also of so-called , to which he was introduced as a pupil of Gérard Grisey.

All this varied experience, with the important addition of heavy metal, fed into his breakthrough piece, the mighty Kraft (1983-85), for large orchestra with amplified soloists, in which robust rhythms were applied to dense yet luminous sound masses, and in which a young modernist laid claim to the weight and amplitude of Mahler or Richard Strauss. Over the next few years, Lindberg steadily moved forward by absorbing more from the music of the early 20th century, in terms of colorful scoring and harmony, whose resources for driving forward motion were especially important to him. Like Ravel or Sibelius, he found that new kinds of harmonic progressions were still possible with the old chords of major-minor tonality: We hear a lot of these chords in EXPO, sounding fresh by virtue not only of the supremely skilful orchestration but also of the new routes along which the harmony courses.

This strong harmony gave Lindberg access to a symphonic kind of power and presence, fully achieved in his 40-minute (1993-94). Since then he has been almost constantly at work on big orchestral scores, including the triptych – – (1997-2001), a (2002-03), (2005), Seht die Sonne (2007), GRAFFITI (2008-09, with chorus singing Latin inscriptions), and (2009-10), as well as shorter pieces, such as EXPO , or Chorale (2001-02). for , , , and also date from the last 12 years.

A Closer Look Lindberg has said that he chose the title of EXPO to suggest, simultaneously, an exhibition of the orchestra and its possibilities, an exposition of a new music director and his potential, and a musical exposition, and also because he liked the sound—perhaps, one may guess, for the exciting fizz of sibilant into plosive, a very Lindbergian gesture.

The work starts with another: a whipcrack that sets off racing 16th notes in the , joined by the in a rush up to a surprising chord (F major), which is immediately taken over by the brass to begin the chorale phrase they intone. These different but interlocking ideas—the exhilarating 16ths and the majestic chorale, which comes in two phrases—form the basis for the entire piece, whose slight harmonic flavor of Messiaen was a deliberate homage to the composer coming next on the program when the composition was first performed.

About a third of the way through, the energy is cranked up by syncopated motion involving almost the whole orchestra, and, when this has spent itself, the brass spell out three names in musical cipher under the motto of the German proverb “Alle guten Dinge sind drei” (All good things come in threes). The three here are those leading the New York Philharmonic at the time of composition: Zarin Mehta (president), Alan Gilbert, and Matias Tarnopolsky, though Tarnopolsky (vice president for artistic planning) left before the premiere. Their names, alternating with the earlier chorale, then run through the rest of the composition, which pursues its steady but fascinatingly meandering way until it ends on a major chord in G—no doubt another salute to its destined conductor.

—Paul Griffiths

Magnus Lindberg composed EXPO in 2009.

These are the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of EXPO.

The score calls for , two , two , English horn, two , , two , , four horns, three , three , , , percussion (bass drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, tenor drum, triangle, whip, wood block), harp, and strings.

Performance time is approximately nine minutes.

Oboe Concerto

Christopher Rouse Born iiinin Baltimore, February 15, 1949 Now lllivingliving tttherethere

During the early 1980s Christopher Rouse was considered one of the most promising young American composers of his generation. But while many others have been saddled (or cursed) with similar labels over the years, Rouse is among the few to have translated that potential into genuine success and widespread acclaim, becoming one of the most sought- after composers in America today. What has helped Rouse stand out from the others who also “showed promise?” Partly it is his exceptional familiarity with many varieties of music— from Bach and Bruckner to folk and hard rock—and partly his development of an eclectic, versatile, and distinctive style that can easily be adapted to different modes of musical expression.

Numerous Influences Rouse learned to play percussion at a young age. It proved not only to be a linking thread between the classical and pop music traditions that he enjoys in equal measure, but also influenced his later works, which often employ expanded percussion sections. Early in his career, Rouse favored sustained energetic and percussive works of unflagging intensity. He also freely acknowledged the influence of rock music in his work— for example, which Rouse composed in 1988 for eight percussionists, honors the memory of John Bonham, drummer of famed rock band Led Zeppelin. But Rouse’s scores then began to combine these propulsive, percussive allegros with elegiac movements of soulful yearning. At the same time his music blended tonal harmony and aggressive chromaticism (though even in its atonal passages, Rouse’s are never far away from tonality).

With the joint influences of the Western classical tradition and vernacular music (including folk music) still evident even in his mature works, Rouse has developed a unique style based on the synthesis of sometimes widely disparate elements. And in addition to quoting other musical styles, he frequently makes reference to specific works by other composers, partly as homage and partly as a thread in the fabric of this multilayered musical texture. This stylistic synthesis is demonstrated most tellingly in his two symphonies (a third is due to be premiered in May 2011), and in the series of concertos for bass (1985), (1991), cello (1992), (1993), and clarinet (2000) that, along with the symphonies, are among his most lauded scores.

Rouse’s reputation hinges mainly on his orchestral compositions, with some significant chamber pieces and a highly regarded choral (from 2007) rounding out his major works. But the scale and complexity of his scores belie a rather idiosyncratic compositional process. Rather than working out musical ideas at the (an instrument he doesn’t play well) or in a sketchbook, he reportedly mulls them over and embellishes them in his head until, Mozart-like, they are ready to be written out complete, in full score, starting at the first measure.

Rouse has held faculty positions at some of the most respected music schools in the country—the University of Michigan, the Eastman School of Music, and the Juilliard School— and in 2002 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2009 he was named Musical America ’s “Composer of the Year.”

Rouse has composed more than 10 concertos to date, dividing them into two general categories based at least partly on the reputation, range, and timbre of each instrument. The “somber” concertos include those for lower-range instruments such as trombone and cello, while the “genial” concertos comprise, among others, the Concerto from 1999 and the Oboe Concerto, written in 2004 to a commission by the Minnesota Orchestra in celebration of its centennial season. (Rouse once reported that he used to call these more upbeat works his “recreational” concertos, but he then started referring to them as “genial” because he didn’t want to give the impression that writing them was easy.)

A Closer Look Rouse’s concertos tend toward the programmatic, but the Oboe Concerto is an exception. Instead, it attempts to exploit the oboe’s purely musical personalities as a melodic instrument capable of playing sustained lyrical lines, and as an agile and virtuosic instrument that can negotiate wide leaps and rapid passagework. Some notes on the oboe Rouse considers especially lovely, such as the A (to which the orchestra traditionally tunes), and his goal was to write a work that highlights the instrument’s strengths while providing plenty of opportunity for virtuosic display.

Cast in the traditional three-sectioned format (but played without a break), the Oboe Concerto has what the composer describes as “an overall feeling of coloristic romanticism.” It begins quietly (sereno), with a sustained five-note chord (built of stacked thirds) in the orchestral strings that generates much of the entire work’s melodic and harmonic content. The solo oboe enters with birdcall-like flourishes, set off by punctuating celesta decorations, before launching into a molto allegro that tests the soloist’s agility with rapid arpeggios and wide staccato leaps. Chamber-like episodes, in which the oboe pairs up with members of the percussion and woodwind families, alternate with larger orchestral tuttis throughout this opening section.

A short, cadenza-like passage, in which the oboist is accompanied by the chiming of celesta, harp, and clarinet, leads directly into the central slower section (senza misura). The free, unmeasured figures in this passage are in marked contrast to the energized and mercurial rhythms of the preceding section, and with expressive solo lines the soloist floats over sustained harmonies in the strings. The harp and celesta continue to provide atmospheric color throughout. Then, gradually and sporadically, the tempo quickens until loud repeated chords from the entire orchestra signal the start of the Concerto’s final section.

Triplet dance-like rhythms and rapidly repeated notes characterize the work’s finale, with the soloist sometimes joining in, and other times exploring angular melodic variations. But gradually the strings begin to their harmonies, and the rhythmic energy starts to

dissipate. Finally, the Concerto ends almost exactly as it began, with gentle harp and celesta accompaniments over the same string harmony heard at the opening.

—Luke Howard

Rouse composed his Oboe Concerto in 2004.

These are the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the work.

The composer scored the piece for piccolo (doubling ), two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, percussion (bass drum, Chinese cymbal, claves, glockenspiel, güiro, snare drum, suspended cymbal, tam-tam, tambourine, temple block, tom-toms, wood block, xylophone), harp, celesta, strings, and solo oboe.

The Concerto runs approximately 20 minutes in performance.

Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”)

Ludwig vvvanvan Beethoven Born iiinin Bonn, ppprobablyprobably December 16, 1770 Died iiinin Vienna, March 26, 1827

Most of the familiar titles attached to Beethoven’s works were put there by someone other than the composer. Critics, friends, and publishers invented the labels “Moonlight,” “Tempest,” and “Appassionata” for popular piano . Prominent patrons’ names— Archduke Rudolph, Count Razumovsky, Count Waldstein—became wedded to compositions they either commissioned or that were dedicated to them, thereby winning a sort of immortality for those who supported the composer.

Beethoven himself crossed out the heading “Bonaparte” from the title page of the Third Symphony, but later wrote in “Sinfonia eroica” (Heroic Symphony), and it is his only symphony besides the Sixth to bear an authentic title. To be sure, stories about “fate knocking at the door” in the Fifth and the choral finale of the Ninth have encouraged programmatic associations for those works, beginning in Beethoven’s own time. But, in the end, it is the Sixth Symphony, the “Pastoral,” that stands most apart from his others, and indeed from nearly all of Beethoven’s instrumental and keyboard music, in its intentional, publicly declared, and often quite audible extramusical content. Beethoven’s full title is: “Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life.”

“Mor“Moree ae ana n Expression ooofof Feeling ttthanthan Painting” And yet the Sixth Symphony does not aspire to the level of musical realism found in a work like Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique or in Richard Strauss’s later tone poems. Beethoven famously noted that the “Pastoral” contained “more an expression of feeling than painting.” He had earlier objected to some of the musical illustration in Haydn’s oratorios (1798) and The Seasons (1801), with their imitations of storms, frogs, and other phenomena. He probably would not have cared much for what the “New German School” of Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner would later advocate and create.

Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony belongs to a tradition, going back to the previous century, of “characteristic” symphonies. Indeed, the titles for the movements that Beethoven provided closely resemble those of Le Portrait musical de la nature, written nearly 25 years earlier by the Rheinish composer Justin Heinrich Knecht. (It is doubtful Beethoven knew the music of the piece, but he may have known the titles.) Scattered comments that Beethoven made in his sketches for the Symphony are revealing: “The hearers should be allowed to discover the situations / Sinfonia caracteristica—or recollection of country life / All painting in instrumental music is lost if it is pushed too far / Sinfonia pastorella. Anyone who has an idea of country life can make out for himself the intentions of the composer without many titles / Also without titles the whole will be recognized as a matter more of feeling than of painting in sounds.”

Regardless of the musical and aesthetic implications that the “Pastoral” Symphony raises with respect to the program music—a key issue for debate over the rest of the century—the piece unquestionably offers eloquent testimony to the importance and power of nature in Beethoven’s life. The composer reveled in walking in the environs of Vienna and spent nearly every summer in the country. When Napoleon’s second occupation of the city in 1809 made his departure impossible, he wrote to his publisher: “I still cannot enjoy life in the country, which is so indispensable to me.” Indeed, Beethoven’s letters are filled with declarations of the importance of nature in his life, such as one from 1810: “How delighted I will be to ramble for awhile through the bushes, woods, under trees, through grass, and around rocks. No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo that man desires to hear.”

Companion Symphonies Beethoven wrote the “Pastoral” primarily during the spring and fall of 1808, although some sketches date back years earlier. Its composition overlapped in part with that of the Fifth Symphony, which might be considered its non-identical twin. Not only did both have the same period of genesis and the same dedicatees (Count Razumovsky and Prince Lobkowitz), but they were also published within weeks of one another in the spring of 1809 and premiered together (in reverse order and with their numbers switched).

The occasion was Beethoven’s famous marathon concert of December 22, 1808, at the Theater an der Wien, and was the only time he premiered two symphonies together. Moreover, the program also included the first public performance of the Fourth , two movements from the Mass in C, the concert Ah! perfido, and the “Choral” Fantasy. Reports indicate that all did not go well, as musicians playing after limited rehearsal struggled their way through this demanding new music, and things fell apart during the “Choral” Fantasy. Although the Fifth and Sixth symphonies are extremely different from one another in overall mood, there are notable points of convergence, such as the innovations in instrumentation (the delayed and dramatic introduction of piccolo and trombones in the fourth movements) and the splicing together of the final movements.

A Closer Look Beethoven’s descriptive movement titles for the “Pastoral” were made public to the audience before the premiere. The first movement, “““Awakening“Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arriving in the country,” engages with a long musical tradition of pastoral music. From the opening drone of an open fifth in the lower strings to the jovial coda, the leisurely and often repetitive pace of the movement is far from the intensity of the Fifth Symphony. The second movement, “Scene by the brook,” includes the famous birdcalls: flute for the nightingale, oboe for the quail, and two clarinets for the cuckoo (Berlioz copied the effect for two of the birds in the pastoral third movement of his Symphonie fantastique ).

This is Beethoven’s only symphony with five movements and the last three lead one into the next. The third is entitled “Merry gathering of peasants”peasants” and suggests a town band of limited ability playing dance music. The dance is interrupted by a “Tempest, storm” that approaches from afar as ominous rumblings give way to the full fury of thunder and lightning. The storm is far more intense than other well-known storms—such as by Vivaldi and Haydn—and presages later ones by Berlioz and Wagner. Just as the storm had approached

gradually, so it passes, leaving some scattered moments of disruption before the “Shepherds’ hymnhymn————HappyHappy and thankful feelings after the storm” brings the work to its close. Regardless of Beethoven’s declared intentions, this music seems to function on both descriptive and expressive levels, therein fueling arguments about the issue ever since his time.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

The “Pastoral” Symphony was composed in 1808.

Fritz Scheel conducted the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the Sixth, in December 1901. Most recently on subscription, Juanjo Mena led the work here in January 2010. Some of the conductors who have led the Symphony with the Orchestra include , , , , , Otto Klemperer, Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, and Wolfgang Sawallisch.

The Orchestra has recorded Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony five times: in 1939 in an abridged version with Stokowski for RCA; in 1946 with Walter for CBS; in 1966 with Ormandy for CBS; and in 1978 and 1987 with Muti for EMI.

The “Pastoral” is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, and strings.

The Symphony runs approximately 40 minutes in performance.

Program notes © 2011. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, Paul Griffiths, and/or Luke Howard.

GENERAL TERMS Arpeggio: A broken chord (with notes played in succession instead of together) : A term used to describe music that is not tonal, especially organized without reference to key or tonal center Cadenza: A passage or section in a style of brilliant improvisation, usually inserted near the end of a movement or composition Chorale: A hymn tune of the German Protestant Church, or one similar in style Chord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tones Chromatic: Relating to tones foreign to a given key (scale) or chord Coda: A concluding section or passage added in order to confirm the impression of finality Harmonic: One of a series of tones (partial tones) which usually accompany the prime tone produced by a string, an organ-pipe, the human voice, etc. The prime tone is the strong tone produced by the vibration of the whole string, the entire column of air in the pipe, etc. The partial tones are produced by the vibration of fractional parts of that string or air column. These tones are obtained, on any string instrument which is stopped, by lightly touching a nodal point of a string (any point or line in a vibrating body that remains at rest during the vibration of the other parts of the body). Op.: Abbreviation for opus, a term used to indicate the chronological position of a composition within a composer’s output. Opus numbers are not always reliable because they are often applied in the order of publication rather than composition. Scherzo: Literally “a joke.” Usually the third movement of symphonies and quartets that was introduced by Beethoven to replace the minuet. The scherzo is followed by a gentler section called a trio, after which the scherzo is repeated. Its characteristics are a rapid tempo in triple time, vigorous rhythm, and humorous contrasts. form: The form in which the first movements (and sometimes others) of symphonies are usually cast. The sections are exposition, development, and recapitulation, the last sometimes followed by a coda. The exposition is the introduction of the musical ideas, which are then “developed.” In the recapitulation, the exposition is repeated with modifications. Staccato: Detached, with each note separated from the next and quickly released Syncopation: A shift of rhythmic emphasis off the beat Triplet: A group of three equal notes to be performed in the time of two of like value in the established rhythm Tutti: All; full orchestra

THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo) Allegretto: A tempo between andante and allegro Allegro: Bright, fast Andante: Walking speed Moto: Motion, speed, movement Presto: Very fast Senza misura: Not in strict time Sereno: Calm, peaceful

TEMPO MODIFIERS Ma non troppo: But not too much Molto: Very