572048 bk Zemlinsky US 3/5/09 12:05 PM Page 5 Houston Symphony Houston Symphony Music Director: Hans Graf FIRST VIOLIN Phyllis Herdliska E-FLAT CLARINET PERCUSSION Angela Fuller, Concertmaster Abhijit Sengputa* Thomas LeGrand Brian Del Signore, Principal The Houston Symphony has played a central rôle in Max Levine Chair Meredith Harris* Mark Griffith Photo: Bruce Bennett Eric Halen, BASS CLARINET/ Matthew Strauss Houston’s cultural and civic life since 1913. One of Associate Concertmaster CELLO SAXOPHONE America’s oldest performing arts organizations, the Ellen E. Kelley Chair Brinton Averil Smith, Principal Richard Nunemaker HARP orchestra has grown and matured under the direction of Assia Dulgerska, Winnie Safford Wallace Chair Tassie and Constantine S. Paula Page, Principal Assistant Concertmaster Christopher French, Nicandros Chair Alexander von fifteen distinguished leaders. The Symphony moved into Cornelia and Meredith Long Associate Principal KEYBOARD Jones Hall, its current home, in 1966, and in 1971, Chair Haeri Ju BASSOON Scott Holshouser, Principal Qi Ming, Jeffrey Butler Eric Arbiter, Acting Principal Neva Watkins West Chair signed its first 52-week contract with the musicians. Assistant Concertmaster Kevin Dvorak Stewart Orton Chair Neal Kurz* Today, under the direction of Hans Graf, the Houston Fondren Foundation Chair Xiao Wong J. Jeff Robinson, ZEMLINSKY Symphony is widely acclaimed as one of the top Marina Brubaker Myung Soon Lee Acting Associate Principal ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL Hewlett-Packard Company James Denton American General Chair MANAGER orchestras in the world. Each season the Houston Chair Anthony Kitai Bradley Balliett* Steve Wenig Symphony gives more than 300 performances that reach Alexandra Adkins Lyric Symphony MiHee Chung DOUBLE-BASS CONTRABASSOON LIBRARIAN an estimated audience of 350,000 people, including its Sophia Silivos Timothy Pitts, Principal J. Jeff Robinson Thomas Takaro classical, pops and family series as well as a number of Rodica Gonzalez Janice H. and Thomas D. concerts performed throughout the community. In Ferenc Illenyi Barrow Chair HORN ASSISTANT LIBRARIANS Si-Yang Lao David Malone, William VerMeulen, Principal Amy McGinn Alban addition, the Symphony’s community engagement programs serve more than 22,000 area residents, bringing Kurt Johnson Associate Principal Roger Kaza, Associate Principal Michael McMurray Christopher Neal Mark Shapiro Brian Thomas musicians into the Houston community as soloists, master-class teachers and ensemble performers. Eric Larson Robert and Janice McNair Sergei Galperin Robert Pastorek Foundation Chair STAGE MANAGER Karyn Blake* Burke Shaw Nancy Goodearl Donald Ray Jackson BERG Donald Howey Philip Stanton Hans Graf SECOND VIOLIN Michael McMurray Robert Johnson* ASSISTANT STAGE Jennifer Owen, Principal MANAGER Three Pieces Charles Tabony, FLUTE TRUMPET Kelly Morgan Photo: Bruce Bennett Known for his wide range of repertoire and creative Associate Principal Aralee Dorough, Principal Mark Hughes, Principal programming, Hans Graf, the fifteenth Music Director of Hitai Lee General Maurice Hirsch Chair George P. and Cynthia * Substitute Musician from the Lyric Suite the Houston Symphony, is one of today’s most highly Kiju Joh John Thorne, Associate Principal Woods Mitchell Chair ** Leave of Absence Deborah Moran Judy Dines John DeWitt, Roster current as of respected musicians. He has led major orchestras Ruth Zeger Allison Garza Associate Principal recording dates throughout the world, including those of New York, Los Margaret Bragg Robert Walp, Martha Chapman PICCOLO Assistant Principal CONDUCTING STAFF Angeles, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Vienna, St Petersburg Kevin Kelly Allison Garza Anthony Prisk Hans Graf, Music Director, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with which he has Mihaela Oancea Speros P. Martel Chair Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair Twyla Robinson, developed a close relationship. A participant in the most Christine Pastorek OBOE Michael Krajewski, Amy Teare** Robert Atherholt, Principal TROMBONE Principal Pops Conductor, prestigious music festivals in the United States and Rebecca Corruccini* Lucy Binyon Stude Chair Allen Barnhill, Principal Sponsor, Cameron Soprano Europe, he conducted at the Salzburg Festival for twelve Lauren Chauvin* Anne Leek, Associate Principal Bradley White, Management Colin Gatwood Associate Principal Brett Mitchell, consecutive seasons and makes frequent appearances at VIOLA Adam Dinitz Phillip Freeman American Conducting Fellow Tanglewood. He has also conducted opera productions Wayne Brooks, Principal Rebecca Miller, Roman Trekel, George Pascal, Acting Associate ENGLISH HORN BASS TROMBONE American Conducting Fellow in Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Zürich, Paris and Rome, Principal Adam Dinitz Phillip Freeman including several world premières. Hans Graf was born Joan DerHovsepian, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Baritone in 1949 near Linz, in Austria. His international career was launched in 1979, when he won first prize at the Karl Acting Assistant Principal CLARINET TUBA Matthew VanBesien, Linda Goldstein David Peck, Principal Dave Kirk, Principal Executive Director/CEO Böhm Competition. Music Director of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for ten years, he has also served as Music Thomas Molloy Thomas LeGrand, Director of the Calgary Philharmonic and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. Rita Porfiris Associate Principal TIMPANI Houston Symphony Fay Shapiro Christian Schubert Ronald Holdman, Principal Daniel Strba Richard Nunemaker Brian Del Signore, Wei Jiang Associate Principal Hans Graf 8.572048 5 6 8.572048 572048 bk Zemlinsky US 3/5/09 12:05 PM Page 2 Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942): Lyric Symphony driven into a serious crisis by his feelings for Hanna. For is characterized by expressiveness and tenderness, Twyla Robinson Alban Berg (1885-1935): Three Pieces from the Lyric Suite several years love letters travelled from Vienna to Munzo’s Theme (Tempo II) has the feel of a Ländler. Prague. The theme for Dodo (the pet name for Dorothea, Tempo Twyla Robinson has performed with many of the world’s Alexander von Zemlinsky was a Viennese musician song, Mutter, der junge Prinz (O mother, the young The first movement of the piece, the Allegretto III) is nothing more than an ostinato repetition of the leading conductors and orchestras, including the Cleveland who wrote important orchestral and theatrical works, art prince), in four parts, has many scherzo-like touches in gioviale, serves as a kind of introduction. The second syncopated note “c” (“do”). Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst, the London Symphony songs, and chamber music. The teacher, friend, and the primary subject (main tonality A major), whereas movement, Andante amoroso, is conceived of as a scene One of the exceptional things about the tripartite with Bernard Haitinik, San Francisco Symphony with brother-in-law of Arnold Schoenberg, he spent many the subordinate subject (main tonality D flat major) in Hanna’s house. The third movement, Allegro Allegro misterioso is the tone character of the outer Michael Tilson Thomas, Atlanta Symphony with Robert successful years in Prague and Berlin before eventually remains cantabile throughout. The third song, Du bist misterioso, signals the confession of love. The fourth parts. Their music seems like an ostinato, like a Spano and Donald Runnicles, and the Los Angeles being forced to emigrate; he died in New York at the die Abendwolke (You are the evening cloud), is movement, Adagio appassionato, envisages a dialogue perpetual motion machine, with semiquavers (sixteenth Philharmonic with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Performances have age of 71. The Lyric Symphony, Op. 18, for orchestra, conceived of as the Adagio, and indeed, as the heart of of love. The fifth movement, Presto delirando, gives notes) in restless motion. The dynamic level almost included Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the ballet of the soprano, and baritone, completed in August 1923, is one the symphony. These first three movements are expression to the state of near insanity of the composer never leaves the realm of pianissimo and the entire Paris Opéra and her début with the Philadelphia Orchestra of his most important works. It is composed of seven captivating because of their expansion of tonality, their after he left Prague and returned to Vienna. Berg movement is played with mutes. The score abounds singing Mahler’s Das klagende Lied with Vladimir “songs” based on the poems of the Indian poet refined and constantly surprising harmonic language, thought of the finale as a song without words. In the with relatively unusual technical directions about how Jurowski conducting. As an opera singer she has won Rabindranath Tagore, which are performed in the complexity of their symphonic textures, the copy of the printed score, which was intended for Hanna to play the music. In the annotated copy Berg himself particular acclaim for her portrayals of Mozart heroines, alternation by the baritone and soprano. Zemlinsky brilliance of their instrumentation, and not least, their Fuchs-Robettin, the words from a poem by Charles summarised the movement’s tone character as “like a Photo: Kristin Hoebermann and she is a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National arranged the poems so that they tell a love story, one variation and intensification of expression. Baudelaire, De profundis clamavi (Out of the depths whisper”, and “whispered”. The narrator confesses the Council Auditions. Equally active as a recitalist, Twyla that ends with parting and farewell. The three following movements,