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Home , Carl Nielsen

TCHAIKOVSKY’S VIOLIN 2018-19 HAL & JEANETTE SEGERSTROM FAMILY FOUNDATION CLASSICAL SERIES

Pacifi c Mozart TO DON GIOVANNI Rune Bergmann, conductor Philippe Quint, violin Tchaikovsky IN D MAJOR Allegro moderato Canzonetta: Andante Finale: Allegro vivacissimo Philippe Quint

Intermission

Nielsen SYMPHONY NO. 4, “THE INEXTINGUISHABLE” Allegro Poco allegretto Poco adagio quasi andante Allegro

Preview talk with Alan Chapman at 7:00 PM

Thursday, November 15, 2018 @ 8:00 PM Friday, November 16, 2018 @ 8:00 PM Saturday, November 17, 2018 @ 8:00 PM Segerstrom Center for the Arts Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

Offi cial Hotel Offi cial TV Station Offi cial Station This concert is being recorded for broadcast on Sunday, February 17, 2019, at 7 p.m. on Classical KUSC.

7 PROGRAM NOTES : introduced by slow, majestic chords that seized upon the idea of composing it after OVERTURE TO DON GIOVANNI give way to a more rapid and cheerful tempo. hearing others he liked, particularly the Mozart’s contemporaries heard the energetic, five-movement Symphonie The first music we hear Don Giovanni overture in an era when live espagnole (a concerto in spite of its title) in Mozart’s Don Giovanni performances were rarefied events and by Edouard Lalo. “For the first time in my is a terrifying spiral into recordings did not exist. That’s one reason life I have begun to work on a new piece the depths of that why its sound carried an emotional wallop before finishing the one on hand,” he wrote portends the hellfire in store that Hollywood special effects can’t begin to to Madame von Meck. “I could not resist the for the opera’s protagonist, convey more than two centuries later. Here pleasure of sketching out the concerto ...” who will receive the punishment Dante is how the French Charles Gounod Composition proceeded swiftly, blessedly reserved for those who knowingly refuse described the sheer terror he felt upon first free of emotional encumbrance. to reject sin. “Abandon all hope, ye who hearing this music at age 13: “From the start He chose the great violinist Leopold Auer enter here,” Dante warns these willful of the overture I felt myself transported into as its dedicatee and to play the premiere, transgressors at the gates of his Inferno. In an absolutely new world by the solemn and and planned to convey the completed Michelangelo’s vision of The Last Judgment majestic chords of the Commandant’s final manuscript to the virtuoso via their mutual in the Sistine Chapel, one image of this scene, I was seized by a terror which froze student, Josif Kotek. Kotek has been the despair leaps out from among hundreds: me, and as the menacing progression began, subject of scholarly speculation, and we can the anguish visible in a face from behind one with the descending and ascending scales only imagine Tchaikovsky’s distress when clutching hand as a damned man confronts unrolling above it, merciless and implacable Kotek eventually refused the manuscript Dante’s terrible gateway. Yet Mozart follows as a death sentence, I was overcome by such outright. But having seen the work in horror with the joyful abundance of divine dread that I buried my face in my mother’s progress, Auer had expressed his misgivings creation in all its glory and humor, as the shoulder … enveloped in the twofold with harshness, pronouncing the concerto overture shifts gears into affirmative D major embrace of the beautiful and the terrible.” “unplayable,” a judgment that Kotek would and the tempo becomes sprightly. And that’s have been unwise to ignore. just in the first two minutes! Finding an alternate soloist for the Michelangelo did not name his primal concerto hardly lifted the cloud hanging over sinner, but painted him a century before it. Reviewing the premiere performance the Spanish monk Tirso de Molina invented : in Vienna on December 4, 1881, Eduard Don Giovanni’s progenitor, the treacherous VIOLIN CONCERTO IN Hanslick—the dean of the Viennese music Sevillan seducer Don Juan. Still later, in D MAJOR critics and one of the era’s most influential Don Giovanni, Mozart—who had traveled tastemakers—lambasted it as “music that extensively in Italy and loved its culture— Tchaikovsky began stinks to the ear,” one of the most infamous tipped his hat to these Renaissance composing his Violin phrases in the annals of mistaken criticism. masterpieces in one of his own. Mozart Concerto after his With hindsight it’s easy to dismiss such chose to call Don Giovanni a “dramma disastrous, self-deluded invective, but it tormented Tchaikovsky, who giocoso,” suggesting both the jocundity of decision to marry left reportedly re-read Hanslick’s review until he comedy and the seriousness of drama. him emotionally ravaged. had committed it to memory. In the opera’s overture we hear both His emotional conflicts Hanslick’s outburst is all the more the seriousness and the fun of the dramma seemed only to strengthen the merits of his shocking in light of the characteristically giocoso form. In shifting from its grave greatest opera, Eugene Onegin, which he singing melodies in which this concerto opening to a brisker, more lighthearted composed during the same period, and in abounds. Its first movement, an allegro pace, the overture seems to whisk us from correspondence with his patron Nadezhda moderato in D major, is all graceful lyricism— street level to a merrier, more detached von Meck, he seemed to take unalloyed seemingly an affectionate description of view—in the modern phrase, “at 30,000 pleasure in the prospect of composing the the scenic charms of Clarens, the Swiss feet.” Mozart’s overture to The Magic Flute violin concerto, though the reality proved resort town where it was composed. But is another example of an allegorical tale more problematic than the idea. He had its virtuosity and vigor seem to delineate

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Born: 1756. Salzburg, Austria Born: 1840. Votkinsk, Russia Died: 1791. Vienna, Austria Died: 1893. St. Petersburg, Russia Overture to Don Giovanni Violin Concerto in D Major Composed: 1787 Composed: 1878 World premiere: Oct. 29, 1787, at the Prague Estates Theatre. World premiere: Dec. 4, 1881, in Vienna with Adolph Brodsky as soloist. Most recent Pacific Symphony performance: Feb. 24, 2013, with Most recent Pacific Symphony performance: Sept. 3, 2016, with Carl St.Clair . Carl St.Clair conducting. Instrumentation: two flutes, two , two clarinets, two , Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets; ; strings four horns, two trumpets; timpani; strings, solo violin Estimated duration: 7 minutes Estimated duration: 33 minutes

8 NOVEMBER the existential questions that are always conductor Osmo Vanska; the scholar Daniel the layers of the emotional life that are passionately articulated in Tchaikovsky’s Grimley; and most of all, listeners who still half-chaotic and wholly elementary. major works. This emotional intensity have discovered this Danish composer’s In other words the opposite of all reaches a climax in the buildup to the first exhilarating music. They are tired of it being programme music, despite the fact that cadenza. The second movement, a serenely neglected or erroneously “lumped” with that this sounds like a programme. mournful andante , contrasts of the Finnish master , whose “The symphony is not something with markedly with the first; the violin’s entry is mellow, glowing scores contrast markedly a thought-content, except insofar as the melancholy, and it voices a singing lament with Nielsen’s dynamic sound. structuring of the various sections and that eventually gives way to a happier Though he is known as a 20th-century the ordering of the musical material are pastoral melody, like a song of spring. composer, Nielsen’s life straddled the turn of the fruit of deliberation by the composer Both moods shadow each other for the the century, and his compositions make the in the same way as when an engineer duration of the movement, as we alternate transition from their origins in sets up dykes and sluices for the water between brighter and darker soundscapes. to the chromatic and occasionally dissonant during a flood. It is in a way a completely The concerto’s final movement follows the harmonies that came later. We hear all thoughtless expression of what make second without pause. It is extravagantly of these in his fourth symphony. One of the birds cry, the animals roar, bleat, marked allegro vivacissimo and returns his most admired works, it is an ardent run and fight, and humans moan, groan to the opening movement’s D major key, expression—almost a manifesto—of his exult and shout without any explanation. recapturing its exuberant energy. This belief in music itself. While many The symphony does not describe all this, movement also incorporates an energetic have written tributes to music, Nielsen but the basic emotion that lies beneath Russian dance (Hanslick’s reported “whiff praises it not merely as consolation (as in all this. Music can do just this, it is its of vodka”?) that leaps off the page as Schubert’s An die Musik), but as the divine most profound quality, its true domain the violinist’s bow dances along with it. force of life itself (as in Handel’s Ode for St. … because, by simply being itself, it has A nostalgic second theme provides an Cecilia’s Day). But where Handel’s performed its task. emotional counterpoint to the movement’s is disciplined and orderly, Nielsen’s music “For it is life, whereas the other arts higher-energy passages, but it is finally makes the sparks fly. This symphony is the only represent and paraphrase life. Life eclipsed by a passionate, exuberant finale. definitive embodiment of Nielsen’s essential is indomitable and inextinguishable; the compositional thinking about music. Writing struggle, the wrestling, the generation about this piece himself, Nielsen explained and the wasting away go on today as what it meant to him, and what it was yesterday, tomorrow as today, and supposed to achieve. It’s worth quoting in everything returns. Once more: music is CARL NIELSEN: full: life, and like it inextinguishable.” SYMPHONY NO. 4, “THE “Music is Life. As soon as even a - Carl Nielsen INEXTINGUISHABLE” single note sounds in the air or through space, it is result of life and movement; In Carl Nielsen’s that is why music (and the dance) are the Michael Clive is a cultural reporter living sesquicentennial year, more immediate expressions of the will in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut. He is 2015, the music journalist to life. program annotator for Pacific Symphony and and audio producer “The symphony evokes the most Louisiana Philharmonic, and editor‑in‑chief Brian Wise marked the primal sources of life and the wellspring for The Santa Fe Opera. occasion in a blog for of the life-feeling; that is, what lies classical radio station WQXR (New York). In behind all human, animal and plant making his case for Nielsen as “the most life, as we perceive or live it. It is not underrated composer of the 20th century,” a musical, programme-like account the evidence got slightly out of hand. It of the development of a life within a included comments from critics limited stretch of time and space, but and Kyle Gann; the pianist Lisa Hirsch and an un-programme-like dip right down to

Carl Nielsen Born: 1865. Nørre Lyndelse, Died: 1931. , Denmark Symphony No. 4, “The Inextinguishable” Composed: 1916 World premiere: Feb. 1, 1916. Most recent Pacific Symphony performance: April 22, 1993, with Kenneth Schermerhorn conducting. Instrumentation: three flutes (one doubling piccolo), three oboes, three clarinets, three bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three , one tuba; two timpani; strings Estimated duration: 36 minutes

9 as well as the symphony of the and a recording for Hyperion Malmö, Helsingborg, Bergen, Kristiansand, label, other highlights of Quint’s forthcoming Stavanger, Trondheim, Karlskrona, and season will include a special release of new , and Lisbon’s Orquestra Sinfónica arrangements of works by Charlie Chaplin Portuguesa. for Warner Classics Label, debut with Bilbao A multi-talented musician who also plays Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Moscow debut with the trumpet, piano, and violin/viola, Bergmann National Philharmonic of Russia conducted studied choral and orchestral conducting by Maestro Vladimir Spivakov and taking the under Anders Eby, Jin Wang and Jorma Chaplin Project on tour with recitals in Los Panula at Sweden’s Royal College of Music. Angeles, New York, Washington, Boston, He graduated with high honors from the Pittsburgh, Berlin, London, Utrecht and Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, where Bilbao. he studied conducting under Chief Conductor In addition to his award-winning Emeritus of the Helsinki Philharmonic discography, the celebrated American Orchestra/former principal conductor violinist of Russian heritage has won of the Vienna Radio, Finnish Radio, and worldwide acclaim playing with the world’s Danish National symphony orchestras, Leif leading orchestras and conductors. Quint’s Segerstam. Honors include the 2010 Kjell appearances in recent seasons have Holm Foundation Culture Prize, the 2009 taken him to the London Philharmonic, SMP Press culture award, and second prize Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago RUNE BERGMANN in Helsingborg’s 2002 Nordic Conducting Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Detroit Competition. Maestro Bergmann’s former Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, New posts include deputy-general music director Jersey Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, An energetic and compelling figure on with the Augsburger Philharmoniker and Bournemouth Symphony, Weimar the podium, Norwegian conductor Rune Theater Augsburg in Germany. Staatskapelle, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bergmann is a dynamic, versatile conductor China National Symphony, Orpheus with an extensive classical, romantic, Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Komische Oper operatic and contemporary repertoire. Orchestra, Leipzig’s MDR performing under Considered among today’s most talented the batons of such renowned conductors as young Scandinavian conductors, his elegant the late Kurt Masur, Edo De Waart, Andrew interpretations and reputation as an Litton, Tugan Sokhiev, Ludovic Morlot, inspiring and profound musician continue James Gaffigan, Carl St.Clair, Michael to attract the attention of orchestras Stern, Vladimir Spivakov, Cristian Macelaru, throughout the world. Kristian Jarvi, Jorge Mester, Jahja Ling, Bergmann has served as music director Krzysztof Urbanski, Carlos Miguel Prieto, of Canada’s Calgary Philharmonic and as Tugan Sokhiev, Tito Munoz, Steven Sloane artistic director and chief conductor of and Bramwell Tovey. Poland’s Szczecin Philharmonic since the In the 2016-17 season at the invitation 2017-18 and 2016-17 seasons, respectively. of Maestro Vladimir Spivakov, Quint opened His work with the Calgary Philharmonic the 28th edition of the Colmar Festival in the 2018-19 season features several dedicated to Jascha Heifetz with Tugan highlights, including a Verdi Requiem, a Sokhiev conducting Orchestre National du gala evening with Renée Fleming, and Capitole de Toulouse in a performance of exploration of by such diverse Korngold’s Violin Concerto. He will make his composers as Haydn, Mahler, Mozart Moscow debut with National Philharmonic of and Tchaikovsky, among others, while Russia in March 2019 with Maestro Spivakov the fall of 2018 will see the release of PHILIPPE QUINT conducting Brahms’ Violin Concerto. Maestro Bergmann’s first recording with Born in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now the Szczecin Philharmonic, including the St. Petersburg, Russia), Quint studied at “Resurrection” Symphony in E minor by Multi-Grammy Award nominee violinist Moscow’s Special Music School for the Mieczysław Karłowicz. Philippe Quint has established himself Gifted with the famed Russian violinist He has also been artistic director as one of the leading violinists of his Andrei Korsakov. After moving to the of Norway’s innovative Fjord Cadenza generation. Constantly in demand, he United States from the Soviet Union in 1991, Festival since its inception in 2010, and regularly appears at venues ranging from he earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s he regularly conducts a wide range of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig to Carnegie Hall degrees from The Juilliard School. His distinguished orchestras and opera houses in New York and at the most prestigious distinguished pedagogues and mentors around the world, including such auspices music festivals such as Verbier, Colmar, included Dorothy Delay, Cho-Liang Lin, as the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl and Dresden Festspiele. Masao Kawasaki, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Münchner “Truly phenomenal” is how BBC Music Perlman, Arnold Steinhardt and Felix Symphoniker, Norwegian National Magazine recently described him. Galimir. Quint plays the magnificent 1708 Opera, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Named artist-in-association for the “Ruby” Antonio Stradivari violin on loan to Philharmonie Südwestfalen, Staatskapelle 2018-19 season by Utah Symphony, which him through the generous efforts of The Halle and the Wrocław Philharmonic, will include two weeks of performances with Stradivari Society.

10 NOVEMBER of Lukas Foss; Danielpour’s An American Requiem and Goldenthal’s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio with cellist Yo‑Yo Ma. Other commissioned composers include James Newton Howard, Zhou Long, Tobias Picker, Frank Ticheli, Chen Yi, Curt Cacioppo, Stephen Scott, Jim Self (Pacific Symphony’s principal tubist) and Christopher Theofanidis. In 2006‑07, St.Clair led the orchestra’s historic move into its home in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The move came on the heels of the landmark 2005‑06 season that included St.Clair leading the Symphony on its first European tour—nine cities in three countries playing before capacity houses and receiving extraordinary responses and reviews. From 2008‑10, St.Clair was general music director for the Komische Oper in Berlin, where he led successful new productions such as La Traviata (directed by Hans Neuenfels). He also served as general music director and chief conductor of the German National Theater and Staatskapelle (GNTS) in Weimar, Germany, where he led Wagner’s Ring Cycle to critical acclaim. He was the first non‑European to CARL ST.CLAIR hold his position at the GNTS; the role also gave him the distinction of simultaneously leading one of the newest orchestras in The 2018‑19 season marks Music of America, conducted by St.Clair. Among America and one of the oldest in Europe. Director Carl St.Clair’s 29th year leading St.Clair’s many creative endeavors are the In 2014, St.Clair became the music Pacific Symphony. He is one of the highly acclaimed American Composers director of the National Symphony longest‑tenured conductors of the major Festival, which began in 2000; and the Orchestra in Costa Rica. His international American orchestras. St.Clair’s lengthy opera initiative, “Symphonic Voices,” which career also has him conducting abroad history solidifies the strong relationship continues for the eighth season in 2018‑19 several months a year, and he has appeared he has forged with the musicians and the with Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, following with orchestras throughout the world. community. His continuing role also lends the concert‑opera productions of The Magic He was the principal guest conductor of stability to the organization and continuity Flute, Aida, Turandot, Carmen, La Traviata, the Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart to his vision for the Symphony’s future. Few Tosca and La Bohème in previous seasons. from 1998‑2004, where he completed a orchestras can claim such rapid artistic St.Clair’s commitment to the three‑year recording project of the Villa– development as Pacific Symphony—the development and performance of new Lobos symphonies. He has also appeared largest-budgeted orchestra formed in the works by composers is evident in the with orchestras in Israel, Hong Kong, United States in the last 50 years—due in wealth of commissions and recordings by Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South large part to St.Clair’s leadership. the Symphony. The 2016‑17 season featured America, and summer festivals worldwide. During his tenure, St.Clair has commissions by pianist/composer Conrad In North America, St.Clair has led the become widely recognized for his Tao and composer‑in‑residence Narong Boston Symphony Orchestra (where he musically distinguished performances, Prangcharoen, a follow‑up to the recent served as assistant conductor for several his commitment to building outstanding slate of recordings of works commissioned years), , Philadelphia educational programs and his innovative and performed by the Symphony in recent Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and approaches to programming. In April years. These include William Bolcom’s the San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, 2018, St.Clair led Pacific Symphony in its Songs of Lorca and Prometheus (2015‑16), Houston, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto Carnegie Hall debut, as the finale to the Elliot Goldenthal’s Symphony in G‑sharp and Vancouver symphonies, among many. Hall’s yearlong celebration of pre‑eminent Minor (2014‑15), Richard Danielpour’s A strong advocate of music education composer Philip Glass’ 80th birthday. He Toward a Season of Peace (2013‑14), for all ages, St.Clair has been essential to led Pacific Symphony on its first tour to Philip Glass’ The Passion of Ramakrishna the creation and implementation of the China in May 2018, the orchestra’s first (2012‑13), and Michael Daugherty’s Mount Symphony’s education and community international tour since touring Europe in Rushmore and The Gospel According to engagement programs including Pacific 2006. The orchestra made its national PBS Sister Aimee (2012‑13). St.Clair has led the Symphony Youth Ensembles, Heartstrings, debut in June 2018 on “Great Performances” orchestra in other critically acclaimed Sunday Matinées , OC Can You Play With with Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream albums including two piano Us?, arts‑X‑press and Class Act.

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