Toronto Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis, Interim Artistic Director

Toronto Symphony Wednesday, January 8, 2020 at 8:00pm Orchestra TS Thursday, January 9, 2020 at 8:00pm Saturday, January 11, 2020 at 8:00pm

Beethoven 7

Sir Andrew Davis, conductor Seong-Jin Cho, piano

Ludwig van King Stephen Overture, Op. 117

Ludwig van Beethoven ENTER. EMBARK. EXPERIENCE. Piano No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58 I. Allegro moderato II. Andante con moto Music, mashups, and magic! Join the TSO for III. Rondo: Vivace EVENING EPIC—our daring annual party in support of TSO music-education programs. Intermission

Featuring the unmistakable sound of JUNO-nominated singer-songwriter iskwē alongside the brilliant Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 I. Poco sostenuto – Vivace musicians of the TSO. Party ticket includes music, II. Allegretto whimsical and adventurous spotlight performances, III. Presto and fantastic food and drink. IV. Allegro con brio

Early-bird tickets on sale now!

March 26, 2020 The Carlu Appearances of Sir Andrew Davis this season are generously supported by Hans and Susan Brenninkmeyer. As a courtesy to musicians, guest artists, and fellow concertgoers, please put your phone away and EveningEpic.ca on silent during the performance.

JANUARY 8, 9 & 11, 2020 9

Thursday, March 26, 2020 The Carlu, 444 Yonge Street Toronto, ON

6pm Private cocktail reception 7pm Patrons’ Dinner 9pm Performances by TSO

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Thursday, March 26, 2020 The Carlu, 444 Yonge Street Toronto, ON

6pm Private cocktail reception 7pm Patrons’ Dinner 9pm Performances by TSO

20 20 26, ch Mar y, hursda T eet Str onge Y 444 Carlu, he T onto, ON onto, r To

n tio p ce re cocktail Private pm 6 ons’ Dinner ons’ tr Pa pm 7 O TS by erformances P pm 9

20 20 26, ch Mar y, hursda T eet Str onge Y 444 Carlu, he T onto, ON onto, r To

n tio p ce re cocktail Private pm 6 ons’ Dinner ons’ tr Pa pm 7 O TS by erformances P pm 9 ABOUT THE WORKS plays, with the first performance of King Stephen taking place in February 1812.

The King Stephen overture was first performed Ludwig van Beethoven by the TSO in November 1974, under the baton King Stephen Overture, Op. 117 of Andrew Davis, who was in his first full season as the orchestra’s conductor, in the season Baptized: Bonn, Germany, Dec 17, 1770 prior to assuming the role of Music Director. In Died: , Austria, Mar 26, 1827 his program note for that performance, Godfrey Composed: 1811 8 Rideout wrote: “Neither of the above works min [King Stephen and The Ruins of ] could be considered Beethoven at his best. They are pot-boilers, but it should be noted that a Beethoven pot-boiler, because of the brilliance August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue of workmanship, is still a cut above those of was born in May 1761 to a respected Weimar other composers.… A remarkable feature of the merchant family, and became, in his time, King Stephen overture is its opening (repeated a popular and sometimes controversially later): a series of notes, each one a fourth below satirical writer of essays, novels, and historical its predecessor and each given to different works, as well as more than 200 plays. In instruments. A march follows which leads and out of diplomatic positions throughout into the allegro proper. Another factor worthy his adult life, von Kotzebue was a strong of remark is the second thematic group: a advocate in Germany for Russian affairs, theme that looks forward to the finale of the and a less than ardent supporter of nascent Choral Symphony.” German nationalism in the opening decades of the 19th century. He also fathered 18 Program note by David Perlman children. One of them, the explorer Otto von Kotzebue, gave his name to Kotzebue Sound in northwestern Alaska while searching for Ludwig van Beethoven the Northwest Passage, in the service of No. 4 in the Russian Empire, in 1818. This was the G Major, Op. 58 year before his father was assassinated, in Mannheim, as an “enemy of the German Composed: 1805–1806 people,” by Karl Ludwig Sand, a theology 34 min student enraged by von Kotzebue’s attacks on, among other things, the antisemitism latent in German student nationalism. Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto had its Hungary’s capital, Budapest, straddles the première in Vienna on December 22, 1808, Danube, with Pest to the east and Buda to with the composer from the the west. To celebrate the opening of the New keyboard—the last time he performed a Theatre in Pest, in 1811, the management concerto in public. (He “played astonishingly commissioned two dramatic pieces from von well at the fastest possible tempos,” one Kotzebue: King Stephen, or Hungary’s First listener noted.) In this most lyrical, poetic, Hero, and The Ruins of Athens. Kotzebue had and fantastical of his , Beethoven just turned down a proposal from Beethoven does not abandon Mozartian concerto form, to write the libretto for an opera about Attila but imbues it with a genuinely Romantic the Hun; instead he commissioned Beethoven voice, reconceived in ways all the more to write the incidental music for these two expressive for their audacity. The work is

10 TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA rich in themes, some of them appearing as The whole work, in fact, may relate to the dreamy digressions or with piquant details Orpheus myth; it would explain certain of harmony, texture, and ornamentation. All curious features in the outer movements. The three movements feature sudden shifts of meditative chords for unaccompanied piano in mood; the work is ardent and melancholy, the opening bars—in a striking departure from heroic and ethereal, anguished and whimsical. concerto convention—perhaps evoke Orpheus Beethoven draws novel, vibrant colours from tuning his lyre (Czerny recommended that both orchestra and piano. This was his first the chords be broken, harp-like). Beethoven concerto to exploit the tonal resources of the scholar Owen Jander, for one, views the whole new six-octave Viennese fortepiano, and the work as a cycle—an “Orpheus concerto”— relationship of the two forces is unusually and relates the outer movements to other complex and dramatic. The piano writing episodes of the myth: the first movement to is brilliant and rhapsodic, full of sensuous “the Song of Orpheus” (during which Orpheus melodies, sweeping scales and arpeggios, and amazes all of nature), and the closing rondo decorative figuration in the highest register. to “the grisly tale of Orpheus torn limb from limb by the vengeful Bacchantes.” The playful In the Andante con moto, an astonishingly original and dance-like finale seems to undercut the conception, the two forces play utterly different Orphean argument. Yet there may be at least music: the orchestra (strings only) makes jagged, one telling correspondence: according to forceful pronouncements to which the piano Ovid, the Bacchantes drown out Orpheus’s replies with quiet chords and poignant melody, magical lyre by playing “wind instruments, and, as this dialogue unfolds, the strings brass instruments, and drums”; Beethoven are calmed by the piano’s entreaties. (At the pointedly withholds the trumpets and drums première, Beethoven “sang on his instrument of his orchestra until bar 32 of the finale. with a deep melancholy feeling.”) The rhetoric of protagonist and antagonist and the recitative- No documentary evidence proves that like textures hint at a dramatic situation. Indeed, Beethoven wrote this concerto with Orpheus many commentators have heard this movement in mind; though the correspondences between as a meditation on the myth of Orpheus, who, myth and music are so compelling, and shielded by the music of his lyre, braves the make sense of so many strange departures Underworld to retrieve his dead beloved, from Classical models, that they are difficult Eurydice, winning over hostile Furies with his to dismiss as coincidental. Regardless, this song, guiding Eurydice through the gloom, but music is unusually vivid, picturesque, and losing her again when he breaks his vow and imaginative—that much is undeniable. looks back at her. (Note the piano’s heartrending Program note by Kevin Bazzana dissonance on the downbeat of the last bar.)

YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONCERT: Perfect for kids BEETHOVEN LIVES UPSTAIRS ages February 2 5–12! Based on the award-winning recording, this concert features a lively exchange of letters between young Christoph and his uncle about the “madman” who has moved in upstairs. TSO.CA 416.593.1285

JANUARY 8, 9 & 11, 2020 11 ABOUT THE WORKS a monumental new approach to the standard Classical orchestra, and the result is a work of unprecedented power and excitement. Ludwig van Beethoven A long, weighty, slow introduction establishes Symphony No. 7 in A Major, the massive sonorities, ample proportions, and elevated rhetoric of this symphony. A striking Op. 92 transition then prods the music by degrees Composed: 1811–1812 toward the boisterous jig-like rhythm of the 36 main part of the first movement. At length min the main theme of the Vivace appears, first quiet and light-hearted, then exploding with new energy. One melodic motif after another Beethoven began his Seventh Symphony tumbles out in rapid succession, but recurring around the summer of 1811, and completed rhythmic figures serve to unify the music. That it the following spring; it had its première in main theme, when we first hear it (solo flute), December 1813. One of the last specimens of is quiet and light-hearted, but, by the time his “heroic” style, it proved to be one of his the music has driven to its raucous coda, the most popular works, though it was also widely accumulated rhythmic energy is thrilling. considered difficult and eccentric. A reviewer The Allegretto introduces a note of tragedy: in 1827 wrote, “The whole thing lasts at least the sober main theme, set out in the lower three-quarters of an hour, and is a true mixture strings, is subjected to variations—now of tragic, comic, serious, and trivial ideas, brooding, now terrifying, now delicate. Twice which spring from one level to another without there is relief—brief, tender idylls—but the any connection, repeat themselves to excess, movement finally peters out as though in and are almost wrecked by the immoderate despair, and ends as it began, with mournful noise of the timpani.” By one account, horn-and-woodwind chords. The propulsive Weber, on the basis of this work, pronounced Presto is unusually long; twice the scherzo is Beethoven “ripe for the madhouse.” interrupted by a slower, more majestic trio. The Seventh has been much chewed over in (According to an acquaintance, Beethoven the critical literature ever since its première, borrowed the theme of the trio from an but most interpreters have agreed on the Austrian pilgrimage hymn, and the solemn basically optimistic and festive character of scoring of it lends credence to the story.) The the music. While there are dark and disturbing galloping finale is even more rhythmically passages in the symphony, ultimately it is a furious than the first movement, and its celebration— joyous, liberated, and festive. main theme is developed almost obsessively. Berlioz heard the first movement as a “Ronde Near the end, at a busy, explosive climax, des Paysans” (peasant dance), and Wagner, Beethoven wrote one of his very rare triple- famously, dubbed the whole work “the forte dynamic markings. It was warranted: apotheosis of the dance.” What impressed he had conceived something of unusual both composers was the unparalleled grandeur. His music would not know such rhythmic momentum that drives every Dionysian drive and power again until the movement—even the Allegretto, whose Ninth Symphony, 12 years later. distinctive rhythm (long short–short long Program note by Kevin Bazzana long) gives it a processional character. To this momentum add the intensive development of short, pregnant thematic ideas, along with

12 TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA THE ARTISTS

Sir Andrew Davis conductor Sir Andrew Davis, Interim Artistic Director, served as TSO Music Director from 1975 to 1988, when he was named TSO Conductor Laureate.

Sir Andrew Davis has served as music director and principal conductor of the since 2000. He began his tenure as chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in January 2013. Through his prolific recordings, many international tours, and relationships with the world’s finest orchestras and opera companies, Sir Andrew is one of today’s most recognized and acclaimed conductors.

In the 2019/20 season, Maestro Davis conducts three full cycles of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Lyric Opera, in a new production by David Pountney. Also at the Lyric Opera, he conducts Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Tchaikovsky’s Pique dame. In addition to his regular performances with the Melbourne and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, the BBC Symphony, and the BBC Philharmonic, this season Maestro Davis also conducts the National Symphony Orchestra in his own arrangement of Handel’s , and conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Davis’s career spans over 40 years, in which he has been the artistic leader at several of the world’s most distinguished operatic and symphonic institutions, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra (conductor laureate and chief conductor from 1991–2004), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (music director 1988–2000), and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Conductor Laureate and Principal Conductor from 1975–1988), where he is also serving as Interim Artistic Director for two seasons from 2018–2020. He also holds the honorary title of conductor emeritus from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Sir Andrew has led performances at many of the world’s leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Bayreuth Festival, and the major companies of Munich, Paris, San Francisco, and Santa Fe. In addition, he has appeared with virtually every internationally prominent orchestra, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and all the major British orchestras.

A vast and award-winning discography documents Sir Andrew’s artistry, with recent CDs including the works of Berlioz, Elgar, Grainger, Delius, Ives, Holst, Handel (nominated for a GRAMMY® in 2018 for Best Choral Performance), and York Bowen (nominated for a GRAMMY® in 2012 for Best Orchestral Performance). He has been an exclusive artist of Chandos Records since 2009.

In 1992, Maestro Davis was created a Commander of the British Empire, and in 1999 he was designated a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours List. In 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.

JANUARY 8, 9 & 11, 2020 13 THE ARTISTS

Seong-Jin Cho piano These performances mark Seong-Jin Cho’s TSO début.

With an overwhelming talent and innate musicality, Seong-Jin Cho is rapidly embarking on a world-class career, and is considered one of the most distinctive artists on the current music scene. Cho was brought to the world’s attention in 2015 when he won First Prize at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. This same competition launched the careers of world-class artists such as Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, and Krystian Zimerman.

In January 2016, Cho signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. The first recording was released in November 2016 featuring Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Four Ballades with the Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda. A solo Debussy recital was then released in November 2017, followed in 2018 by a Mozart album featuring sonatas and Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Seguin.

An active recitalist, he performs in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic concert series, Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles, Munich’s Prinzregententheater, and Liederhalle Stuttgart. During the next two seasons, he will play début recitals at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Washington’s Kennedy Center, and London’s Wigmore Hall, and will return to Suntory Hall, Konzerthaus Vienna, and Verbier Festival.

Recent and upcoming orchestral appearances include débuts with the Gewandhaus Orchester with Antonio Pappano, London Philharmonic with Edward Gardner, New York Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden, Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel, Boston Symphony Orchestra with Hannu Lintu, and return invitations to the London Symphony Orchestra with Gianandrea Noseda, Munich Philharmonic with , Hong Kong Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden, and Staatskapelle Dresden with Myung-Whun Chung. He will also go on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, WDR Sinfonieorchester and , and the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Seguin. As part of the Beethoven 250 celebrations in 2020, Seong-Jin will play all five Beethoven concertos with the Dresdner Philharmonie and Marek Janowski.

Born in 1994 in Seoul, Seong-Jin Cho started learning the piano at the age of six, and gave his first public recital at age 11. In 2009, he became the youngest-ever winner of Japan’s Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. In 2011, he won Third Prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the age of 17. In 2012, he moved to Paris to study with Michel Béroff at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, from where he graduated in 2015. He is now based in Berlin.

More information on Seong-Jin Cho can be found at seongjin-cho.com.

14 TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA