BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Sunday, March 22, 2009, at 3 p.m. at Jordan Hall

BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS Malcolm Lowe, John Ferrillo, Haldan Martinson, violin William R. Hudgins, Steven Ansell, Richard Svoboda, Jules Eskin, James Sommerville, horn Elizabeth Rowe, flute with Andre Previn, and assisting BSO members Ann Hobson Pilot, harp Cathy Basrak, viola

PREVIN Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano

Lively Slow Jaunty

Messrs. FERRILLO, SVOBODA, and PREVIN

DEBUSSY Sonata for flute, viola, and harp

Pastorale: Lento, dolce rubato Interlude: Tempo di Minuetto Finale: Allegro moderato ma risoluto

Ms. ROWE, Mr. ANSELL, and Ms. HOBSON PILOT

POULENC for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn

Allegro vivace Divertissement: Andantino Finale: Prestissimo

Mr. PREVIN; Ms. ROWE; Messrs. FERRILLO, HUDGINS, SVOBODA, and SOMMERVILLE

INTERMISSION

BRAHMS String No. 2 in G, Opus 111

Allegro non troppo, ma con brio Adagio Un poco Allegretto Vivace ma non troppo presto Messrs. LOWE and MARTINSON, Mr. ANSELL, Ms. BASRAK, and Mr. ESKIN

BSO Classics, Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, RCA, and New World records NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

Andre Previn (b.1930) iJTjfMMrf''^ Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano

"One of the truly unusual careers in music" is how one writer has summed up Andre

Previn's amazingly versatile list of credits. He remains active as conductor, composer,

and pianist in the realms of orchestral music, , and jazz. His diverse m H credits encompass work on more than forty films as composer, arranger, and orches- trator in the Hollywood studios between 1949 and 1973; theater projects for New

York and London—e.g., his work with Alan Jay Lerner on the 1969 Broadway musical Coco, and his 1974 music-theater collaboration with Tom Stoppard, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II for her Silver Jubilee—and, in recent decades, a series of concert works that have resulted from his ongoing collabo- rations with many of the world's foremost artists and ensembles (including, among others, the Boston Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic, sopranos Barbara Bonney

and Renee Fleming, pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and the Emerson String ). Previn has held chief artistic posts with the Houston Symphony, London Sym- phony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, and Royal Philharmonic. His recent orchestral work, Owls, was premiered by the Boston

Symphony this past fall; a new work for the Boston Symphony Chamber

Players is scheduled for a Tanglewood premiere this summer. Previn's current "big"

project is his second opera, Brief Encounter (with a libretto by John Caird based on David Lean's film adaptation of the play by Noel Coward), commissioned by Houston

Grand Opera and to be premiered there in May 2009. His first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire (on a libretto by Philip Littell based on Tennessee Williams's play), was premiered in 1998 at San Francisco Opera with Previn conducting and has since had some twenty productions on both sides of the Atlantic. Next month, to mark his eightieth birthday, Carnegie Hall will present three concerts featuring him as conductor, composer, and pianist, including the world premiere of a new . The following program note was written originally for the world premiere perform- ance of Previn's Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano in 1996:

The Trio for Piano, Oboe, and Bassoon was commissioned by the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Mary Flagler Cary Charita- ble Trust. Mr. Previn completed his Trio in Bedford Hills, New York, in 1994, and

BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS 2008-2009 REMAINING CONCERT AT JORDAN HALL

Sunday, April 26, 2009, 3 p.m. KNUSSEN Alleluya Nativitas (Perotin) , for

flute, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, and horn • PERLE Monody II, for double bass • BOLCOM Serenata notturna, for oboe and strings • BRAHMS No. 2 in G, Op. 36

Single tickets at $32, $23, and $18 can be purchased at the Symphony Hall box office, by

calling SymphonyCharge at (617) 266-1200, or at bso.org. On the day of the concert, tickets

are available only at the Jordan Hall box office. —

world premiere performance was has dedicated the work to Dr. Jeffrey Gold. The (1899-1963) composer as pianist with Stephen Taylor, oboe, and Dennis Godburn, given by the Sextet for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn bassoon, at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, on January 31, 1996. The combination of piano, oboe, and bassoon summons up a sound especially Critic Claude Rostand once wrote of Francis Poulenc that he was "part monk, part gut- tersnipe," a neat characterization specific to 20th-century France—thanks to the trio written for these forces by of the two strikingly different aspects of his musical personality. Much of his work from the early 1920s, was associated with Francis Poulenc. It is curious that the repertoire for this ensemble is not extensive; when he the highly publicized "Groupe des Six," is lighthearted, even frivolous, there is a pervasive logic to combining the two principal double-reed instruments sometimes bawdy, and thoroughly Parisian. musical into a chamber grouping with piano. An opposing strain appeared in his character in the middle '30s, when the death of a close friend the composition of sacred The first movement of Mr. Previn's new Trio ("Lively") initially pits the oboe prompted a choral Thereafter sacred equally and bassoon as a team "versus" the piano in a section whose opening motif bristles work. and secular mingled almost in his output, and with a rocket of sixteenth-notes; but soon the bassoon introduces a more lyrical he could shift even within the context of a single phrase from melancholy or somber lyricism to nose-thumbing impertinence. said in a memorial tribute, melody, rather Mozartean in its contours. The material of both sections is devel- As Ned Rorem sacred oped in some detail, requiring perpetual shifts of meter throughout the movement. Poulenc was "a whole man always interlocking soul and flesh, and profane." The piano opens the second movement ("Slow") with a lament of far-reaching Possessing the least formal musical education of any noted 20th-century composer, Poulenc learned from the music that he liked. His own comment is the best summary: contours. When the oboe enters, it does so with the instruction "lonely," as the composer makes use of the more doleful propensities of the instalment's tone. The The music of Roussel, more cerebral than Satie's, seems to me to have opened a

subdued mood maintains throughout, with the winds only once allowing their door on the future. I admire it profoundly; it is disciplined, orderly, and yet full

sorrow to break forth to fortissimo—and then withdrawing to let the piano pursue of feeling. I love Chabrier: Espafia is a marvelous thing and the Marche joyeuse is

its pensive thoughts solo. Spirits are restored, however, for the finale ("Jaunty"); as a chef-d'oeuvre.... I consider [the Massenet operas] Manon and Werther as part

in the opening movement, the players are somewhat segregated at the outset of French national folklore. And I enjoy the quadrilles of Offenbach. Finally my piano vs. winds—and the bassoon introduces a slower section in counterpoint gods are Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Chopin, Stravinsky, and Mussorgsky. You may say, to a spacious line in the piano. The moods alternate with some suddenness, but what a concoction! But that's how I like music: taking my models everywhere, the three players unite in the final pages for a high-energy conclusion. from what pleases me. —James Keller Poulenc originally composed his Sextuor for piano and winds in 1932, but he was dissatisfied with the work and rewrote it entirely in 1939. It is a composition of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) enormous charm, hardly profound, but brilliantly written for the participating instru- Sonata for flute, viola, and harp ments. The piano—Poulenc's own instrument—is without doubt the leader, with scarcely a measure of rest in the entire work. The winds carry on a cheeky dialogue Late in his life Claude Debussy planned a large chamber music project to consist of six throughout. The work is essentially a divertissement; though sudden turns of mood and sonatas, of which only the first three were actually composed—No. 1 for cello and feeling recall the serious side of the composer, the overall spirit remains fundamen- piano, No. 2 for flute, viola, and harp, and No. 3 for violin and piano. The manuscript tally lighthearted. of this last work contained a brief note looking forward to the next item in the series: "The fourth will be for oboe, horn and harpsichord," but no fourth sonata was ever completed. The projected fifth sonata would have been for , clarinet, and bas- soon, while the sixth was to have been the largest of all, combining all the instalments previously employed plus a double bass for a large concerted piece. The Sonata for flute, viola, and harp was completed in the fall of 1915. It had a private first performance at the home of the publisher Durand on December 10, 1916, THE BSO ONLINE and a first public performance at a charity concert on March 9, 1917. Debussy had originally planned to write this sonata for flute, oboe, and harp, but a stroke of inspi- ration suggested the viola instead of the oboe as a way of mediating between woodwind v tti listen 4)) explore and plucked strings. Melodic ideas are stated in the various instruments in a free- watch # sounding form and recur in a different order, sometimes with, sometimes without much • • • LISTINGS variation. Though there is some passing of material from one instrument to another, BUY TICKETS SUBSCRIBE DONATE PROGRAM each of the three instruments for the most part retains its own special melodic charac- DOWNLOAD PODCASTS • HISTORICAL FACTS • BIOGRAPHIES ter, so that we hear three very gallic personages participating in an elegant discourse. AT BSO.ORG —

ARTISTS Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) No. 2 in G, Opus 111 Boston Symphony Chamber Players

chamber music ensembles sponsored by a major Brahms composed his G major string quintet, Opus 1 1 1, at the request of Joachim, One of the world's most distinguished that orchestra's principal players, the Boston who wanted a companion piece for the F major quintet, Opus 88. He completed the bulk symphony orchestra and made up of first-desk string, woodwind, and brass players of the creative work in Bad Ischl in the summer of 1890, when he was fifty-seven Symphony Chamber Players include in during Erich Leinsdorf's years old, and sent the score off to his publisher with a letter saying, "With this note from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Founded 1964 Players can perform virtually you can take leave of my music, because it is high time to stop." He was to live until tenure as BSO music director, the Chamber any work April 1897, but fortunately for all of us, his intentions changed suddenly when, in within the vast chamber music literature, expanding their range of repertory by calling March 1891, he heard the playing of a clarinetist named Richard Muhlfeld, which upon other BSO members or enlisting the services of such distinguished artists as BSO inspired two of his finest chamber works (the and ) and Music Director James Levine (as both pianist and conductor), Emanuel Ax, and Andre also broke the block on his creative juices, so that he produced another ten works Previn. The Chamber Players' activities include an annual four-concert series in before finally laying down his pen for good. Boston's Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory, regular appearances at Tangle- Nonetheless, the G major quintet has an air of farewell about it. Perhaps Brahms's wood, and a busy touring schedule. In addition to their appearances throughout the autumnal mood was partly generated by the fact that he began this quintet with United States, they have performed in Europe, Japan, South America, and the Soviet material originally sketched for a fifth symphony, but the idea of creating a "Fifth" Union. In September 2008, sponsored by Cunard® Line (the Official Cruise Line of with the daunting example of Beethoven behind him—was evidently too much; there the BSO), the Boston Symphony Chamber Players performed on the Queen Mary 2's would be no further Brahms symphonies. And to carry the Beethoven connection one transatlantic crossing from New York to Southampton, England. Among their many step further, it is likely that Brahms was influenced, too, by the opus number his quintet recordings are the Brahms string and works by John Harbison, Aaron Copland, would carry, for Opus 111 was the number of Beethoven's last piano sonata, thereby and Leon Kirchner, all on Nonesuch; and the quintets for clarinet and strings by Mozart carrying further intimations of finality. In any event, the use of the string ensemble is and Brahms with former BSO principal clarinet, the late Harold Wright, on Philips. especially kaleidoscopic in color, showing that Brahms in no way stood still between Their latest recording, on BSO Classics, is of Mozart chamber music for winds and his earliest works for string ensemble and this last one. strings (the Clarinet Quintet in A, the Horn Quintet in E-flat, the F major Oboe The quintet begins with a clearly symphonic gesture in the cello under tremolos in Quartet, and the Flute Quartet in A, K.298). the upper parts, a bold melody that dips and soars with the brio called for in the movement's tempo designation. The development aims at a powerful and exciting cli- max, but it is also filled with extraordinary moments of quiet which appear suddenly without reducing the energy or overall tension. When Brahms returns to G for the recapitulation, the cello utters its first phrase, as in the opening of the work, but THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA RELEASES FOUR NEW soon the violin takes over and the entire passage is reconsidered in a different scoring. ALBUMS FEATURING MUSIC DIRECTOR JAMES LEVINE! The coda withdraws from this energetic level and follows a pensive course derived from a lyrical version of the cello's opening gesture.

The slow movement opens with a melody in the first viola that evokes gypsy airs in OH SALE NOW Available on CD and as a download: its exotic decorative turns. Soon after, the add a delicate touch. These two tiny AT BSO.ORG Available in both standard MP3 and ideas Brahms develops with exceptional resourcefulness, bringing them through a wide- HD Surround formats. All four record- ranging series of moods and astonishingly varied textures. ings are available as digital down- Lovers of the Third Symphony will feel a kinship between that work's third move- loads. Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe and ment and the corresponding movement of this quintet, with its exquisite yearning. Brahms's A German Requiem are also available on compact disc in hybrid Such a movement is normally a moment of repose in the overall form of a large work, super audio format. but here it also retains a degree of tension. The finale brings out—for the last time in Brahms's output that wonderfully — vigorous "gypsy" spirit that banishes care with a DIGITAL terrific show of energy, here shaped into a compact and effective fusion of rondo and SUBSCRIPTIONS! Available exclusively as a download: Bolcom Eighth Symphony; Lyric Concerto sonata forms, an inventive path leading between major and minor modes, with a The BSO now offers a digital music Mahler Symphony No. 6 wild gypsy dance to close. subscription which provides patrons complete access to the —Notes by Steven Ledbetter entire digital music catalo" (Debussy, Poulenc, Brahms) BOSTON SYMPHONY

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