TuAPRILn 12, 2014 eUp! Welcome to the Young People’s Concerts®! ohannes Brahms grew up playing the , so when he came up with some powerful musical ideas, at the age of 21, he tried to compose them into a big piece for piano. The grand piano J was just achieving its modern form, capable of projecting huge sound. But even that was not enough for the young Brahms – he needed all the heft and the colors of the too. It took five years, but finally he finished his Piano Concerto No. 1, using a form that pits a solitary soloist against a huge orchestra. His ideas propelled the concerto form itself into new territory. Today, we’ll learn how piano and orchestra can work together – or in competition – and how Brahms overcame challenge after challenge to create his first masterpiece. THE PROGRAM

JOSHUA WEILERSTEIN conductor JOHANNES BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 1 THEODORE WIPRUD host for orchestra (arr. Brahms) PAUL LEWIS piano for piano four-hands TOM DULACK scriptwriter and director Eric Huebner, Steven Beck CLARA NEUBAUER actor Ritual Fire Dance from LUCIA TU actor JOHANNES BRAHMS Selections from Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 GETTING INTO THE PIANO Paul Lewis

There are about 12,000 PARTS in a concert-size grand piano.

Most of them are part of the

ACTION, which includes A hefty CAST IRON FRAME 88 keys (52 white and 36 black) connected to resists all that tension and keeps 88 hammers that hit 243 strings the piano rock-solid. (1 for each low note, 2 for middle notes, 3 for high notes) stretched to

18 tons of tension; most are equipped 2 BRIDGES connect the strings to the with dampers that silence the strings SOUNDBOARD, which converts the strings’ when they’re not being played. vibrations to sound waves, which enter our ears as music. Finally – a beautiful WOODEN CASE to hold it all. 3 PEDALS can “undamp” some or all of the strings, or make the piano’s sound softer. In all, concert grands weigh more than 1,000 pounds! ABOUT THE ARTISTS

100 CONCERTO JOSHUA WEILERSTEIN became a New York Philharmonic Assistant Conductor in May 2011 after The word concerto has roots completing his graduate studies in conducting and HAMMERED in a Latin word meaning both at the New England Conservatory. He has conducted “to contend or dispute” and “to numerous internationally acclaimed in the DULCIMER JOHANNES BRAHMS United States and abroad. During the 2013–14 season, (BORN 1833 IN HAMBURG, GERMANY; work together” – polar opposites! Mr. Weilerstein makes his U.S. debut with the symphony It’s a great word for a musical form orchestras of Baltimore, Fort Worth, and New Mexico. DIED 1897 IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA) that is a sometimes harmonious and In Europe, he will debut with orchestras in France, Switzerland, sometimes heated dialogue between England, Norway, Belgium, France and Austria. Mr. Weilerstein has been awarded the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize and the Aspen Johannes Brahms was the last in the trio of titanic German composers, along with Bach and a lone, powerful soloist, and a mighty, Conducting Prize. In 2007, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of accompanying orchestra. Concertos Venezuela (SBYO) engaged Mr. Weilerstein as a violin soloist, and in

s Beethoven who came to be known as the “three B’s.” Brahms was a Romantic, a leader in a generation of showcase the brilliant playing January 2010 he made his guest conducting debut with the SBYO. composers who were bursting out of classical bounds to make music that was more directly emotional. of virtuosos – musicians But while some Romantic composers thought music should be used to tell stories, Brahms believed that music PAUL LEWIS’s recent cycles of Beethoven and Schubert’s who are masters of their core piano works received acclaim worldwide. He has 1400 shouldn’t be about anything -- that it was powerful enough to stand on its own. instruments. appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Seattle, CLAVICHORD Boston, and Chicago symphony orchestras. He is a Brahms was also a perfectionist. He destroyed many of his early scores, and refused to publish others. Restless and frequent guest at festivals including Lucerne, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Salzburg, and BBC Proms. His recital career unsatisfied, it took him five years to write his Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. He started it when he was only 21, and had takes him to Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully Hall, 92nd Street Y, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, just been introduced to the respected composer Robert Schumann, who became his friend and mentor and announced to the Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonie and world that Brahms would be the next great composer of his time. Nothing like a little pressure! Konzerthaus, Zurich’s Tonhalle, and the Sydney Opera House. His multi-award winning discography for Harmonia Mundi includes the Being a pianist, Brahms first thought he’d write a piece for two . But he was so ambitious and had such huge musical ideas complete Beethoven piano sonatas, concertos, and Diabelli Variations; Liszt’s B-minor Sonata and other late works; and Schubert’s late piano that he decided he needed a whole orchestra to realize his vision. More months of hard work, and he was still struggling; even works. Awards include the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year, South Bank Show Classical Music Award, and three the orchestra wasn’t enough! Back came the piano, but this time as a solo instrument, injecting a whole new dimension of drama RONDO Gramophone awards. Along with his wife, cellist Bjørg Lewis, he is artistic between the pianist and the orchestra. director of Midsummer Music. 1500 s A classical musical form used most often — THEODORE WIPRUD, Vice President, Education, Brahms’s first-ever concerto is BIG in every way – long, tumultuous, teeming with emotion. The first movement expresses as Brahms did – in the The Sue B. Mercy Chair, has overseen the New York HARPSICHORD the pain Brahms experienced as he watched Schumann struggle with mental illness. The second movement is just as Philharmonic’s wide range of in-school programs, last movement of a piece, educational concerts, adult programs, and online emotional – in a totally different way: Mr. Brahms called it a “tender portrait” of Robert’s wife, Clara, whom he loved. a rondo has one main offerings since 2004. He hosts both the School Day By the time he got to the third movement, Brahms retreated to more traditional, perhaps safer, territory, modelling it theme that keeps coming Concerts and the Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts. Previous to his tenure at the New York Philharmonic, on one of Beethoven’s piano concertos, and writing in a structured form called a rondo. back, with different, Mr. Wiprud created educational and community-based contrasting themes programs at the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Orchestra of The concerto’s premiere in 1859, with Brahms at the piano, was a disaster. The audience responded in between. St. Luke’s, and the American Composers Orchestra and worked s

CONNECTIONS as a teaching artist and resident composer in a number of New York first with silence, and then began to hiss. One critic wrote, “It has nothing to offer but waste, barren City schools. An active composer, Mr. Wiprud holds degrees from Harvard and Boston universities and studied at Cambridge University dreariness.” This failure haunted Brahms for a long time, though he tried to find a silver lining, as a visiting scholar. 1700 writing in letter to a friend, “I believe it is the best thing that could have happened to me; TOM DULACK has been the writer and director of the it makes one pull one’s thoughts together and raises one’s courage.” Young People’s Concerts since 2005. An award-winning FORTEPIANO In fact, Brahms lived to see his concerto become accepted, even playwright, he is the author of the hit plays Breaking Legs, BRAHMS, Incommunicado, and Friends Like These. He also wrote admired, and in time it came to be recognized as a AKA the novel The Stigmata of Dr. Constantine and a theater masterpiece. memoir, In Love With Shakespeare. Author of the libretto for a new one-act opera based on Robert Browning’s JOHANNES poem “My Last Duchess” which premiered in April 2012, KREISLER, JUNIOR he is currently at work on a symphonic drama about Vivaldi. He is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where MANUEL As a teenager, Brahms adopted an alter he teaches Shakespeare and theater-related literature courses. CADENZA ego based on a character from a famous Twelve-year old CLARA NEUBAUER is a 7th grader at DE FALLA novel, who was passionate, dreamy and The Dalton School, and has been playing violin since (1876-1946) Near the end of a poetic. He called this “other” self Johannes she was 3. In 2013, she made her Lincoln Center

KEYBOARD KEYBOARD debut at The Society’s Young Ensembles concerto movement there’s Kreisler, Junior, and actually signed Concert. Since 2012, Clara has been a Young Performer

1800 s Manuel de Falla is one of the most often a cadenza, when the some of his more Romantic pieces with at Music@Menlo. She has performed at many other soloist gets to play all alone and festivals, including an appearance as soloist with the important Spanish composers of the that name. He once wrote to Clara National Repertory Orchestra at the Bravo! Vail festival. 20th century – and yet, frustrated with his really show off. Cadenzas are fast, Schumann, “I often have struggles Clara is concertmaster of the Mannes Pre-College Symphony, native country both musically and politically, furious and freewheeling. In earlier with myself..that is to say Kreisler and a member of the Dalton High School Orchestra. Born on 9/11/2001, she has shared the stage with Bernadette Peters Falla lived for years in France and later in times, soloists often had the freedom and Brahms struggle and Robert DeNiro at a 9/11 memorial event. Clara is a Musical MODERN Venezuela. But his music remained strongly to write – or even improvise – together.” Ambassador for the Doublestop Foundation. influenced by Spanish folk traditions; his their own personal cadenzas. By PIANO Born in 1997, LUCIA TU began studying the at age 9. Ritual Fire Dance from the ballet El Amor Brahms’s time, composers were Since 2011, she has studied with Susan Rotholz at the Brujo is filled with the rhythms and generally writing the cadenzas Precollege Division of Manhattan School of Music. Lucia is harmonies of the flamenco traditions of themselves. fourth chair of the New Jersey All-State Wind Ensemble, and first chair of the North Jersey Regional Symphonic southern Spain. The dance evokes Band. She was the 2010 Eastern Alternate for the Music a pagan religious ceremony Teachers National Association Woodwinds competition. TODAY honoring the fire god – She is also a pianist, and completed Grade 8 of the London ELECTRONIC College of Music exams for piano. Lucia is a junior at Bergen KEYBOARD which included leaping County Academies, where she is Editor-in-Chief of the school through fire! science journal. Lucia hopes to keep music an integral part of her life while pursuing a career in pediatrics. WANT TO HEAR MORE? What’s coming up at the There’s SO much music written for the piano. Want to hear more? Young People’s Concerts 2014-15? Here’s a sampler: THE PIANO IS ROMANTIC! Brahms’s 21 Hungarian Dances for piano 4-hands and Robert Schumann’s Kinderscenen (Scenes from Childhood), for starters. THE PIANO IS A ! John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano - with screws, bolts, plastic, rubber and other objects placed on the piano strings. THE PIANO CAN SING LIKE A BIRD! Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds) – the songs of 77 different birds in 13 movements. SUPER SONIC MUSIC BOX Imagine a music box that plays something different every time you THE PIANO PLAYS ALL KINDS OF MUSIC! open it – a doorway into sounds you’ve never imagined and melodies Thelonious Monk’s ‘Round Midnight, for a taste of solo you’ll never forget. Imagine the orchestra itself as a chameleon of jazz genius. infinite colors, a composer as a wizard transforming the sounds around us, and yourself as the greatest transformer of all, making meaning WANT TO LEARN HOW of everything you hear. Discover the supersonic music box that is the New York Philharmonic. PIANOS ARE MADE? WATCH NOVEMBER 15, 2014 Melody Transformed Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037, a documentary JANUARY 24, 2015 Orchestra Transformed film produced and directed by Ben Niles FEBRUARY 21, 2015 Story Transformed READ MAY 9, 2015 Dance Transformed Invention for 900 Hands by James Barron, a New York Times series on the making of Steinway grand K0862 CREATING PORTRAITS THE SAME, YET DIFFERENT We usually think of a portrait as a picture or painting of Like Brahms, composers often create someone. But Brahms made a musical portrait of Clara different versions of the same piece. Schumann in his Piano Concerto No. 1. Listen for what’s the same and what’s different between the two You can also make a portrait with words. versions of Brahms’s Hungarian Dance – one for two pianos, one for the whole orchestra. Whom would you like to portray? (Hint: You might hear the same melodies, harmonies and rhythms, A friend, a family member, a teacher, a famous person? but the textures and sound colors – or timbres – change.) Make a list of adjectives that describe that person It’s a lot like the contrast between black and white photos and (i.e. funny, thoughtful, great dancer, tall, etc.) color photos. Sometimes color is essential; sometimes an image During Kidzone Live!, take your TuneUp to Avery Fisher Hall’s is more powerful in shades of gray. Grande Promenade, and transform your list of words into a Word Cloud portrait.

At home: To make more Word Cloud portraits at home, here are TO DO… some websites to Now: Grab some paper at Kidzone Live! and make a drawing of check out: something you see; maybe it’s a musician playing an instrument, or a sketch of the whole orchestra. Use whatever pen or pencil wordle.net you happen to have with you. worditout.com When you get home: Get out your paints, colored pencils, collage materials and see what happens when you create the same picture with different colors and textures.

MetLife Foundation is the Lead Corporate Underwriter for the New York Philharmonic’s Education Programs. Additional support from The Theodore H. Barth Foundation, Inc. Tune Up! is made possible by an endowment in the name of Lillian Butler Davey.