Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor Renaud Capuçon Violin Ravel
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Program OnE HunDRED TwEnTi ETH SEASOn Chicago Symphony orchestra riccardo muti Music Director Pierre Boulez Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO Thursday, January 13, 2011, at 8:00 Friday, January 14, 2011, at 1:30 Saturday, January 15, 2011, at 8:00 Sunday, January 16, 2011, at 3:00 Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor renaud Capuçon Violin ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales Modéré Assez lent Modéré Assez animée Presque lent Assez vif Moins vif Epilogue (Lent) Korngold Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 Moderato nobile Romance: Andante Finale: Allegro assai vivace REnAuD CAPuçOn INtermISSIoN tchaikovsky Symphony no. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 (Pathétique) Adagio—Allegro non troppo Allegro con grazia Allegro molto vivace Finale: Adagio lamentoso The appearance of Yannick Nézet-Séguin is endowed in part by the Nuveen Investments Emerging Artist Fund. Steinway is the official piano of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 1 CommeNtS By PHiLLiP HuSCHER maurice ravel Born March 7, 1875, Ciboure, France. Died December 28, 1937, Paris, France. Valses nobles et sentimentales ranz Schubert was the first (He improvised waltzes throughout Fimportant composer to write the the wedding festivities of his dear word “waltz” on a score. By then— friend Leopold Kupelweiser, letting the early 1820s—waltzing had lived no one else near the piano; by a down its reputation as a scandalous fortuitous stroke of fate, one of the demonstration of excessive speed tunes remembered by the bride and and intimate physical contact on passed down through her family the dance floor. Schubert knew the was sung to Richard Strauss, who waltz (from the German walzen, arranged it for piano in 1943.) In to turn about) as a charming social the last years of his pitifully brief dance, more upbeat than the life, Schubert published many of his traditional ländler—although he waltzes, including the thirty-four knew it only from the safety of his Valses sentimentales and twelve Valses piano stool, where he was spared nobles that Maurice Ravel would romantic encounter, the hazards play some seventy-five years later. of severe nearsightedness (he kept Ravel had little in common with his spectacles on even in bed), and Schubert, aside from the slight stat- the embarrassment of standing less ure that disqualified both of them than five feet tall in his dress shoes. from military service. Ravel had From his seat at the piano, Schubert the social graces and the wardrobe observed the life that eluded him. to shine at parties, as well as the ComPoSed moSt reCeNt tambourine, glockenspiel, 1911, for piano; orchestrated CSo PerFormaNCe celesta, two harps, strings in 1912 December 5, 2006, Pierre Boulez conducting aPProxImate FIrSt PerFormaNCe PerFormaNCe tIme May 9, 1911, piano version INStrumeNtatIoN 18 minutes February 15, 1915, orches- two flutes, two oboes tral version and english horn, two CSo reCordINg clarinets, two bassoons, 1957, Fritz Reiner FIrSt CSo four horns, two trumpets, conducting, RCA PerFormaNCe three trombones and tuba, november 12, 1920, timpani, bass drum, side Frederick Stock conducting drum, cymbals, triangle, 2 money to enjoy the fine life and to were asked to guess the composer collect antiques, mechanical toys, of each piece on the program. and endless bric-a-brac. This same Ravel’s Valses were variously attrib- sensibility encouraged a passion uted to Kodály, Satie, Chopin, and for Viennese waltzes at an early Gounod, among others, although age. In 1911, after Ravel discov- apparently no one suggested ered Schubert’s piano waltzes, he Schubert. However, according to decided to write his own set of Ravel, “a minute majority” correctly noble and sentimental waltzes, tak- identified his music. ing his cue from the title and classic The following year, Ravel agreed simplicity of his predecessor’s to orchestrate the waltzes as a pieces. He dedicated the score to ballet score for which he sup- the “delicious and ageless pleasure plied the title—Adelaide—and of a useless occupation.” the scenario—a series of fleeting The eight Valses nobles et sentimen- romantic encounters during a party tales for piano were first performed in Adelaide’s Paris salon. Adelaide in May 1911, at a “Concert sans is no longer staged, but Ravel’s noms d’auteurs,” a kind of concert music, newly attired in shimmering quiz show not unlike Name That orchestral colors, quickly found a Tune, where audience members home in concert halls. Symphony Center Information The use of still or video cameras Please turn off or silence all and recording devices is prohibited personal electronic devices in Orchestra Hall. (pagers, watches, telephones, digital assistants). Latecomers will be seated during designated program pauses. Please note that Symphony Center is a smoke-free environment. Please use perfume, cologne, and all other scented products Your cooperation is greatly sparingly, as many patrons are appreciated. sensitive to fragrance. Note: Fire exits are located on all levels and are for emergency use only. The lighted Exit sign nearest your seat is the shortest route outdoors. Please walk—do not run—to your exit and do not use elevators for emergency exit. Volunteer ushers provided by The Saints—Volunteers for the Performing Arts (www.saintschicago.org) 3 erich Wolfgang Korngold Born May 29, 1897, Brno, Czechoslovakia. Died November 29, 1957, Hollywood, California. Violin Concerto in d major, op. 35 t could be argued that Erich two one-act operas he composed IKorngold was destined to com- at sixteen. “One’s first reaction,” pose music; certainly he was aided Richard Strauss later wrote, “upon by a father who gave him Wolfgang learning that these compositions as a middle name, and, as Vienna’s are by an adolescent boy, is of awe leading music critic, could ensure and fear . this firmness of style, his son what no other composer mastery of form, individuality of in history could boast—one good expression and harmony, is truly review for each new work. Erich amazing.” With the opera he caused a sensation at an even composed at the age of twenty, Die younger age than the precocious tote Stadt (The dead city), which Mendelssohn a century before. In enjoyed extraordinary popularity 1907, at the age of ten, he played throughout the 1920s, it appeared through his cantata, Gold, at the that, like Mozart or Mendelssohn, piano for Mahler, who called him a Korngold might actually sustain the genius. His fame was secure at thir- remarkable success of his youth. teen, when the Vienna Court Opera Although Korngold’s status produced his ballet The Snowman. in the music world remained The Munich Court Opera produced high—a Vienna newspaper poll ComPoSed moSt reCeNt CSo trombone, timpani, 1945 PerFormaNCe cymbal, gong, bass drum, February 26, 1994; Orchestra tubular bells, glockenspiel, FIrSt PerFormaNCe Hall; Samuel Magad, violin; xylophone, vibraphone, harp, February 15, 1947, with Mariss Jansons conducting celesta, strings Jascha Heifetz as soloist June 28, 1997; Ravinia aPProxImate Festival; Gil Shaham, violin; FIrSt CSo PerFormaNCe tIme Christoph Eschenbach PerFormaNCe 24 minutes April 3, 1947; Jascha Heifetz, conducting violin; Désiré Defauw CSo reCordINg INStrumeNtatIoN conducting A 1994 performance with two flutes and piccolo, two Samuel Magad, violin, and oboes and english horn, Mariss Jansons conducting two clarinets and bass is included on From the clarinet, two bassoons Archives, vol. 21: Soloists of and contrabassoon, four the Orchestra III. horns, two trumpets, 4 in 1932 ranked him and Arnold writing for the movies. “It was as if Schoenberg as the two greatest he had taken a vow not to compose living composers!—his career a single note outside the genre did not turn out the way his early of film music for as long as the champions would have guessed. In horror [World War II] was raging October 1934, the director Max throughout the world,” his wife Reinhardt sent Korngold a telegram Luzi later suggested. As a result, inviting him to Hollywood to adapt he continually ignored requests Mendelssohn’s incidental music from his friend, the distinguished for A Midsummer Night’s Dream violinist Bronislaw Huberman, for for a new film version. Korngold a concerto. In fact, he had sketched accepted, and, although he planned a violin concerto as early as 1937, to work there for six weeks, he but stopped work when a violinist signed on with Warner Brothers friend told him the solo part was and ended up staying until May of too demanding. Finally, in 1945, 1935. (His first assignment was to when Huberman asked one more write the music for Captain Blood, time, Korngold “immediately stood which made Errol Flynn a star.) up, went to the piano and played Beginning that year, he divided a theme,” according to Luzi, that his time between Los Angeles would turn out to be one of the and Vienna, and then, with the main tunes in the concerto he had Anschluss in 1938, he moved his long refused to compose. Korngold family (including his parents and immediately retrieved his old brother) to Hollywood. (He became sketches and a U.S. citizen in 1943.) his Violin Korngold’s film work was an Concerto was unexpected departure from the completed Mozart- or Mendelssohn-like before the end career for which he had seemed of the year. destined, but it brought him new It marked fame. He won Academy awards Korngold’s for scoring Anthony Adverse and return to com- The Adventures of Robin Hood, posing for the and nominations for The Private concert hall Lives of Elizabeth and Essex and rather than The Sea Hawk. His last film was the movie Deception, with Bette Davis playing theater.