SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA A JACOBS MASTERWORKS CONCERT

October 9 and 11, 2015

JOHANN STRAUSS , JR. to

W.A. MOZART Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K.271 Allegro Andantino Rondeau: Presto; Minuetto: Cantabile Yuja Wang, piano

INTERMISSION

SERGE PROKOFIEV Suite from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (compiled by Jahja Ling) The Montagues and the Capulets Young Juliet Minuet Masques Romeo and Juliet Death of Tybalt Aubade Romeo and Juliet before Parting Dance of the Maids from the Antilles Romeo at the Tomb of Juliet Death of Juliet

Overture to Die Fledermaus JOHANN STRAUSS, JR. Born October 25, 1825, Died June 3, 1899, Vienna

From the moment of its premiere on April 5, 1874, Die Fledermaus has been a symbol of a city – Vienna – devoted to the good life, but this quintessentially Viennese story actually had a multinational lineage. It began as a German play called Das Gefängnis (“The Prison”), was adapted by two French playwrights as Le révéillon (“Midnight Supper”), and only then was it turned into a by two Austrian writers. But Johann Strauss II transformed this complex heritage into a Viennese as intoxicating as the champagne that flows so freely throughout, and Die Fledermaus (“The Bat”) did much to cheer up a Viennese public still reeling from the effects of a recent financial crash. As with most , the plot is so complicated that it defies summary. The wealthy Gabriel Eisenstein is on his way to a five-day stay in prison for a minor infraction at just the moment that his wife Rosalinde has encountered Alfred, an old flame. Her husband contrives to delay his stay in prison to attend the masked ball at Prince Orlovsky’s, where – disguised – he flirts with his wife’s maid Adele, also disguised. Meanwhile Rosalinde, disguised as a Hungarian princess, arrives to catch her husband in the act. The disguises, complications and intrigues continue until – well-fortified with large amounts of champagne – the principals sort it all out. The sparkling overture, energetic and fun, sets the mood for what will follow; it is episodic in structure, and for its themes Strauss draws on arias from throughout Die Fledermaus. One of his most effective touches is to include the terrific waltz that brings Act II to its climax, and this appears several times. Like the tale it introduces, the overture to Die Fledermaus is full of snap, sizzle and champagne bubbles, and Strauss drives it to a sudden, surprising close.

Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K.271 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg Died December 5, 1791, Vienna

In January 1777 a pianist from Paris visited Salzburg. Her name was Mademoiselle Jeunehomme, and Mozart must have been impressed by her playing, because for her visit he composed a piano concerto far beyond anything imagined before. Earlier keyboard concertos, including Mozart’s own, had descended from the baroque concerto, in which the solo instrument was essentially absorbed into the orchestral texture and allowed only brief moments when it broke free from that ensemble. With this concerto Mozart transforms – transcends! – that entire tradition: now soloist and orchestra are equals, they share the presentation and development of ideas, and the concerto suddenly evolves from a simple display piece into a form suited to the most serious musical expression. But what is equally remarkable is the new depth evident here. From a young man who had spent the previous year writing church music, serenades and choral canons that – while technically accomplished – are unremarkable, suddenly comes music full of contrast, a sense of space and scope, and – in the slow movement – a new intensity of feeling. Alfred Einstein has called this concerto “Mozart’s Eroica,” suggesting that just as Beethoven suddenly expanded the whole conception of the symphony in the Eroica, Mozart here did the same for the piano concerto. Mozart shatters precedent in the first moments of the Allegro. The orchestra opens with a one-measure figure, and the piano leaps in to complete the phrase itself. The orchestra repeats its opening gesture, and once again the piano takes over to complete the phrase. This opening establishes the most unusual feature of the first movement: the equality of piano and orchestra and their mutual development of ideas. When the piano later makes its main entrance, it further declares its independence by introducing completely new material. But first the orchestra lays out a wealth of ideas, and when the piano eventually makes its main entrance, it arrives imaginatively on a long trill. Mozart’s development, largely motivic, is focused and brief, and the recapitulation is enlivened by the new sonorities he generates as familiar themes return in new instrumental colors. The Andantino, in C minor, is the first movement in any Mozart concerto in a minor key. Often compared to an aria from a tragic because of its intense and expressive lyric lines, this movement opens with a pulsing, dark theme from muted violins in their lowest register, a theme that sets the mood for the entire movement (and it is a mark of the new sophistication of this concerto that the two violin sections are in canon here). Though the Andantino later moves into radiant E-flat Major, it remains deeply affecting throughout, prefiguring the great slow movements of Mozart’s late piano concertos. The concluding movement is a propulsive rondo, though even here Mozart introduces an original touch. Midway through, he brings the music to a halt and inserts a lengthy minuet (marked Cantabile), which he then treats to four elaborate variations. If the dark expressiveness of the slow movement suggested opera seria, the decorative elegance of these variations takes us into the world of opera buffa. This extended interlude stands in pleasing contrast to the energy of the rondo theme, and Mozart makes the transition back to the rondo with great skill; when that Allegro finally arrives, we feel that we have suddenly stepped back onto a speeding train. The Concerto in E-flat Major is in all ways an original piece of music, one of those rare works that in one stroke expand the possibilities of a form. Mozart must have felt a continuing affection for this music, because he performed it in Vienna after his move from Salzburg in 1781. Coming from the month of the composer’s twenty-first birthday, the Concerto in E-flat Major marks Mozart’s coming of age in more ways than one. Mademoiselle Jeunehomme, meanwhile, has passed into the shadows of history. Even her first name has not survived, and she is remembered today only as the inspiration for this impressive music.

Suite from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (compiled by Jahja Ling) SERGE PROKOFIEV Born April 23, 1891, Sontsovka Died March 5, 1953, Moscow

Late in 1934 the Kirov Theater in Leningrad approached Serge Prokofiev with the proposal that they collaborate on a ballet based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Prokofiev agreed, and he completed the massive score by the end of the summer of 1935, but the project came to seem nearly as star-crossed as Shakespeare’s young lovers. The Kirov Ballet backed out, and the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow took over the project. Prokofiev’s first plan had been to give the story a happy ending in which Romeo would rescue Juliet before her suicide, and he actually composed that version, explaining that “The reasons for this piece of barbarism were purely choreographic: living people can dance, the dying cannot.” Fortunately, this idea was scrapped, but when the Bolshoi finally saw Prokofiev’s score, they called it “undanceable” and refused to produce it. While Romeo and Juliet languished in limbo, Prokofiev transformed excerpts from the ballet’s 52 numbers into a series of instrumental suites. He made a suite for piano of Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet and assembled two orchestral suites of seven movements each (a third orchestral suite followed in 1946). Prokofiev took some movements for these suites directly from the ballet, but others he created by combining excerpts from different scenes. The first two suites were premiered in 1936 and 1937 (and Prokofiev himself conducted their American premieres in Boston and Chicago); wide performances of these suites meant that the music from the ballet was familiar to audiences long before it was produced on the stage. The premiere of the ballet itself took place not in Russia but in Brno in 1938, without Prokofiev’s participation. Preparations for the Russian premiere brought more trouble, including a fight between Prokofiev and the choreographer, disputes with the dancers (who at first found the music alien), and a threatened walk-out by the orchestra. When the premiere finally took place in Leningrad on January 11, 1940, it was a triumph for all involved, though Soviet ballerina Galina Ulanova, who danced the part of Juliet, touched on the ballet’s difficult birth when she paraphrased the play’s final lines in her toast to the composer after the opening performance: Never was a tale of greater woe, Than Prokofiev’s music to Romeo.

The irony, of course, is that Romeo and Juliet has become Prokofiev’s most famous stage work and one of the most popular creations of his Soviet period: both Ulanova and Dame Margot Fonteyn achieved particular success with the role of Juliet. The movements in Prokofiev’s orchestral suites from Romeo and Juliet are not in chronological sequence – that is, he created them by arranging movements in sequences he felt would be effective in the concert hall, without regard to their order in the ballet. Conductors have felt free to prepare their own selection of movements from these suites, and for these concerts Maestro Jahja Ling has drawn excerpts from all three of Prokofiev’s suites and arranged them in correct “story” order. Prokofiev piles dissonance on top of dissonance at the beginning of The Montagues and the Capulets, and then the music forges ahead brutally on the swagger of the rival families. There is some wonderful instrumental color throughout the ballet, and this movement features a striking saxophone solo as well as interludes for muted viola glissandos combined with the sound of solo flute. The sprightly Young Juliet captures the energy of the girl with racing violins; some wistful interludes along the way, one of them marked con eleganza, suggest a depth to her character. Minuet pictures the arrival of the guests at the ball at the Capulets’, while the witty Masques comes from the end of Act I, when Mercutio and Benvolio talk Romeo into crashing that party. Romeo and Juliet accompanies the balcony scene; soaring love music alternates with ominous interludes marked Inquieto. Death of Tybalt brings the terrific swordfight (a racing perpetual-motion for the violins), the fatal thrust and a clod-hopping funeral march in which cellos and horns sing the funeral song above rolling drums. Aubade (Morning Serenade), which includes the exotic sound of mandolins, is performed on the morning of Juliet’s scheduled wedding, as guests arrive bringing gifts. Romeo and Juliet Before Parting brings some of the finest music in the ballet. The tender flute solo at the beginning sets the mood of love, which Prokofiev underlines with a solo for viola d’amore (a part usually undertaken by the modern viola); a horn call leads to a mighty climax, and the music fades into delicate (if troubled) silence. The lilting Dance of the Maids from the Antilles is danced by Juliet’s attendants as she falls asleep from Friar Laurence’s potion. Romeo at the Tomb of Juliet is marked Adagio funebre: grieving violins drive the music to a painful climax, and it falls away to stumble into numbed silence. Death of Juliet is the music that brings the ballet to its dark conclusion: Juliet awakes, discovers the body of Romeo, stabs herself and dies.

-Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Why This Program? Why These Pieces? By Dr. Melvin G. Goldzband, SDSO Archivist At the beginning of our initial talk regarding the programs Jahja Ling chose for his valedictory seasons as music director of the fine ensemble which he built and trained to its present level of excellence, he paused. Finally, he began by saying, “Because these two are my last seasons before leaving my position here, I have to say that I deliberately chose works to conduct that might be my favorites, or that might be works that the audiences here especially enjoyed. Most of them, though, truly represent the style of music that I find most compatible and even personal to me. I grew up hearing many of them on the radio or on disc, and then, as a conducting student, learned them, the immortal representatives of the Mitteleuropa musical tradition handed down to many of my instructors. Many of those teachers had even been taught by some of the masters who had created or were creating that tradition. It is that tradition that I have tried to instill in the players of this orchestra.” “Johann Strauss was a master, and his music continues to deserve prominence on today's concert stages. I grew up listening to Viennese waltzes, and he wrote the best. Even Brahms recognized this, when he autographed Frau Strauss's fan, after drawing the first notes of The Blue Waltz on it, and then writing, 'Unfortunately, not by ....'” Jahja Ling related that conductors who really know how to lead Viennese waltzes must respect the necessary rubato and the little, applied hesitations that often are emphasized between the second and third beats of the music. “That's the real Viennese traditition. The Overture to Fledermaus brings out the highest levels of Viennese operettas.” Referring to the concerto on this opening program, he noted, “This is a young Mozart, but the work shows his genius clearly, especially his incredible skill in creating dialogues between piano and orchestra, and even conversations!” The conductor spoke very highly of Yuja Wang, our soloist, pointing out that she has transcended the urge toward fireworks and excessive displays of virtuosity. Her selection of a Mozart concerto to play here validates that, he told me. It represents maturity and sensitivity of the highest order. Continuing, he noted that her selection of the Second Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto to play at the Opus Gala concert also represents that kind of growth of real musicality. “It is a piece that certainly has virtuosic passages but, for example, the beautiful slow movement is really chamber music, a trio for violin, cello and piano, with orchestral accompaniment.” Then our maestro made a very emphatic statement: “Prokofiev's score for Romeo and Juliet is the greatest ballet music of the twentieth century, even greater than Stravinsky's earlier masterpieces!” He pointed out Prokofiev's careful use of dissonance as contrast to and accents against the beautiful romantic passages, always reminding us that tragedy will follow at the end. Jahja Ling is not conducting the first or second concert suites that the composer created from the ballet score. The pieces in those suites do not follow the drama of the ballet. Instead, he has selected pieces from the entire score, placing them in an order according to the ballet's scenario; the excerpts can easily be recognized as complements to the familiar action. *********** Performance History: One of everyone's favorites, Johann Strauss II’s Overture to Die Fledermaus, was initially played by this orchestra under the baton of Nino Marcelli, in Balboa Park's then-new Ford Bowl during the 1935 Exhibition Season, and was broadcast nationwide over the then-equally-new Columbia Broadcasting System. Its last performance here was during the 2012 season, when Jahja Ling conducted it. In March of 2006 Jahja Ling conducted his own compilation of music, as heard on these concerts, from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Ballet Suites. Prokofiev's original suites have been performed several times throughout this series, beginning with Robert Emile's performances of the Second Suite in 1967, and repeated under his baton in 1971. The great Lili Kraus was the piano soloist for the Mozart Jeunehomme concerto during the first of her successive all-Mozart seasons with the SDSO, back in 1969. Zoltan Rozsnyai conducted. The current performances are the first since then.