Riccardo Muti Conductor Michele Campanella Piano Eric Cutler Tenor Men of the Chicago Symphony Chorus Duain Wolfe Director Wagne
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Program ONE huNdrEd TwENTy-FirST 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 Friday, September 30, 2011, at 8:00 Saturday, October 1, 2011, at 8:00 Tuesday, October 4, 2011, at 7:30 riccardo muti conductor michele Campanella piano Eric Cutler tenor men of the Chicago Symphony Chorus Duain Wolfe director Wagner Huldigungsmarsch Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major Allegro maestoso Quasi adagio— Allegretto vivace— Allegro marziale animato MiChElE CampanellA IntErmISSIon Liszt A Faust Symphony Faust: lento assai—Allegro impetuoso Gretchen: Andante soave Mephistopheles: Allegro vivace, ironico EriC CuTlEr MEN OF ThE Chicago SyMPhONy ChOruS This concert series is generously made possible by Mr. & Mrs. Dietrich M. Gross. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra thanks Mr. & Mrs. John Giura for their leadership support in partially sponsoring Friday evening’s performance. CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines. This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. CommEntS by PhilliP huSChEr ne hundred years ago, the Chicago Symphony paid tribute Oto the centenary of the birth of Franz Liszt with the pro- gram of music Riccardo Muti conducts this week to honor the bicentennial of the composer’s birth. Today, Liszt’s stature in the music world seems diminished—his music is not all that regularly performed, aside from a few works, such as the B minor piano sonata, that have never gone out of favor; and he is more a name in the history books than an indispensable part of our concert life. Earlier this year, when New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini named his “Top 10 Composers” in a controversial two-week series of articles and blog posts, he confessed that Liszt was never really a contender. “But if this exercise,” he wrote, “an intellectual game played seriously, had involved coming up with the Top 10 musicians in history—those creative artists whose overall contributions had enormous influence on the art form—Liszt would easily have made the list. In fact, [he] might have been my choice for the top spot.” A century ago, when our orchestra played its centennial tribute, Liszt was still widely regarded as one of music’s signal revolutionaries—the rare composer who turned out hugely popular hits and changed the course of music at the same time. In its first thirty or so years, the Chicago Symphony played something by Liszt nearly every season—one of the 2 piano concertos, a symphonic poem, even the large and masterful Faust Symphony from time to time. This week’s program, replicating the Orchestra’s 1911 tribute (which is reprinted on page 12), honors Liszt the piano virtuoso as well as Liszt the Franz Liszt visionary composer, while also placing him in the company of his fellow titan, Richard Wagner. For two such powerful and competitive composers, Liszt and Wagner enjoyed an unusually close relationship for many years, each sometimes virtually alone in appreciating what the other was up to. Throughout the 1850s (well before Wagner fathered two illegitimate children with Liszt’s daughter Cosima), they were united in pushing music toward a new frontier. Scholars and musicians have argued over their comparative success ever since, and although it is Wagner, largely by virtue of an advanced case of self-promotion and a very modern under- standing of public relations, who is generally seen as the greater revolutionary, there are those who would agree with the verdict of Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, who knew them both: “[Liszt] has hurled his lance much further into the future than Wagner.” The debate continues. In the meantime, two hundred years after Liszt’s birth, his extraordinary and adventuresome music still demands our attention. 3 richard Wagner Born May 22, 1813, Leipzig, Germany. Died February 13, 1883, Venice, Italy. Huldigungsmarsch Huldigungsmarsch is a hom- the king’s devotion and patron- Aage march. Liszt and Wagner age—flourished. “He sends for me each wrote one apiece. Liszt’s, once or twice a day,” Wagner wrote from 1853, was composed to honor to Eliza Wille a few weeks later. the grand duke of Saxe-Weimar. “I then fly to him as to a lover. Wagner’s, composed eleven years Thus we sit for hours on end, lost in later, was originally designed as each other’s gaze.” a birthday present for Ludwig II, Wagner wrote this march, king of Bavaria, who, at the tender originally scored for military band, age of nineteen, was already an to honor his king later that sum- avid Wagnerian and would prove mer. (That same summer, Cosima indispensable to Wagner’s career. von Bülow, Liszt’s daughter, arrived Wagner described their first meet- at the Villa Pellet—a splendid ing in May 1864 as “one great love lakeside summer house on loan scene.” Ludwig presented Wagner from the king—and became with 4,000 gulden, the first of Wagner’s lover.) As it turned out, many attempts to rescue Wagner the first performance of the march from financial ruin—or as the could not be given on the king’s king’s secretary put it, to “lift the birthday in August and had to be menial burdens of everyday life postponed till October. Wagner from your shoulders, . so that you apparently began arranging the will be able to unfurl the mighty Huldigungsmarsch for full orchestra pinions of your genius unhindered.” as early as the following February. Their mutual passion—Ludwig’s He only got as far as the seventieth for Wagner’s art, and Wagner’s for measure—roughly a third of the ComPoSED FIrSt CSo InStrumEntatIon 1864 PErFormanCE two flutes and piccolo, two April 15, 1892, Auditorium oboes, two clarinets and FIrSt PErFormanCE Theatre. Theodore bass clarinet, two bassoons, October 5, 1864 (version Thomas conducting four horns, three trumpets, for military band), three trombones and tuba, Munich, Germany moSt rECEnt timpani, percussion, strings CSo PErFormanCE November 12, 1871 (orches- October 22, 1938 (popular aPProxImatE tral version), Vienna, Austria concert), Orchestra hall. PErFormanCE tImE Frederick Stock conducting 7 minutes 4 total length—and the orchestra- to the music drama. It certainly tion eventually was completed by conveys Wagner’s boundless joy and Joachim Raff. gratitude to a king who understood The Huldigungsmarsch is the the importance of the composer’s first of three occasional marches vision at a time when many did not. Wagner composed in his maturity In its even more brilliant orches- (the third would be the Centennial tral version, it was played at the March written for the anniversary laying of the foundation stone for of U.S. independence). Written the Festival Theatre in Bayreuth, while Wagner was at work on Die Wagner’s great shrine to himself Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the and his music, which, like many of Huldigungsmarsch inhabits the same the composer’s greatest creations, world of pageantry, grandeur, and was substantially underwritten by festivity as the familiar prelude King Ludwig. 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) 5 Franz Liszt Born October 22, 1811, Raiding, Hungary. Died July 31, 1886, Bayreuth, Germany. Piano Concerto no. 1 in E-flat major iszt is music’s misunderstood ultimate importance to music his- Lgenius. The greatest pianist of tory is as a serious, boldly original, his time, he has often been carica- even revolutionary composer. tured as a mad, intemperate virtu- Liszt’s performing career can oso and as a shameless and tawdry be compared to those of today’s showman. (Early in his career, he hottest pop stars rather than our tried, with uncanny success, to greatest instrumental soloists, emulate both the theatrical extrava- opera singers, and conductors. gance and technical brilliance of The German poet Heinrich Heine the superstar violinist Paganini.) coined that very modern-sounding But when Robert Schumann heard term “Lisztomania” to describe the Liszt play, he was struck most of all power the pianist wielded over his by the young musician’s “tenderness fans. Women threw their jewelry and boldness of emotion.” Clara on stage and, after the concert, Schumann, an important pianist tried to steal broken strings from herself, told her husband, “When the piano for souvenirs. Heinrich I heard Liszt for the first time Heine once watched in horror while in Vienna, I just couldn’t control two Hungarian countesses wrestled myself, I sobbed freely with emo- one other to the floor over the tion.” And although his popularity pianist’s snuffbox. as a pianist was virtually unrivaled It’s difficult to imagine the pan- in the nineteenth century, his demonium Liszt caused when he ComPoSED FIrSt CSo InStrumEntatIon Sketched in 1830s PErFormanCE two flutes and piccolo, completed in 1849 February 23, 1894, two oboes, two clarinets, revised 1853,1855 Auditorium Theatre. two bassoons, two horns, Adele Aus der Ohe, two trumpets, three FIrSt PErFormanCE piano; Theodore trombones, timpani, triangle, February 17, 1855, weimar.