Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Zell Music Director

Home , An Sylvia, Der Mond, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Freundliche Vision, Heimliche Aufforderung, Matthias Goerne

PROGRAM

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOURTH SEASON Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Zell Music Director Pierre Boulez Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Thursday, February 5, 2015, at 8:00 Saturday, February 7, 2015, at 8:00 Sunday, February 8, 2015, at 3:00 Jaap van Zweden Conductor Matthias Goerne Baritone Schubert, orch. Spindler An Sylvia, D. 891 Strauss, orch. Heger Traum durch die Dämmerung, Op. 29, No. 1 First Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances Strauss Das Rosenband, Op. 36, No. 1 Strauss Freundliche Vision, Op. 48, No. 1 Schubert, orch. Brahms Greisengesang, D. 778 First Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances Strauss, orch. Heger Heimliche Aufforderung, Op. 27, No. 3 Strauss Ruhe, meine Seele, Op. 27, No. 1 First Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concert performances Schubert, orch. Reger Im Abendrot, D. 799 First Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concert performances Strauss, orch. Heger Allerseelen, Op. 10, No. 8 Schubert, orch. Webern Tränenregen from Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795, No. 10 First Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concert performances Strauss Morgen!, Op. 27, No. 4 MATTHIAS GOERNE (continued) INTERMISSION

Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 Allegro con brio Andante con moto Allegro— Allegro—Presto

These performances are generously sponsored by the Randy and Melvin Berlin Family Fund for the Canon. Saturday’s concert is sponsored by Walgreens. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to 93XRT and RedEye for their generous support as media sponsors of the Classic Encounter series.

This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

2 COMMENTS by Phillip Huscher

Franz Schubert Born January 31, 1797, Himmelpfortgrund, northwest of Vienna, Austria. Died November 19, 1828, Vienna, Austria. Richard Strauss Born June 11, 1864, Munich, Germany. Died September 8, 1949, Garmisch, Germany. Selected Songs

orking at opposite ends of the nine- back of a beer-garden menu). By the end of his teenth century, these two tragically short life, he had left us more than great composers are the bookends six hundred in all. According to a popular ofW history’s most astonishing outpouring of story, perhaps apocryphal, when Beethoven, songs during the heyday of the German lied. Schubert’s only true musical peer in Vienna Even during his lifetime, Franz Schubert at the time, was shown several of Schubert’s was called the King of Song. He wrote songs songs only days before he died, he said, throughout his career, sometimes almost “Truly in Schubert there is a divine spark.” daily (in 1815, the peak of his productivity, he Beethoven was among the first of the composed 145 songs alone), and sometimes important composers to recognize Schubert’s with an almost casual ease (one song is said genius in these small, intimate pieces, which to have been written spontaneously on the look deeper into the human soul than anyone

Songs by Franz Schubert AN SYLVIA, D. 891; ORCH. SPINDLER COMPOSED MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENTATION July 1826 August 2, 2009, Ravinia Festival. flute, clarinet, strings Matthias Goerne as soloist, FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Christoph Eschenbach conducting December 6 & 7, 1895, Auditorium (anonymous orchestration) Theatre. Marguerite Hall as soloist, Theodore Thomas conducting (anonymous orchestration) GREISENGESANG, D. 778; ORCH. BRAHMS COMPOSED FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENTATION by June 1823 These are the first Chicago Symphony two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, Orchestra performances. three trombones, strings IM ABENDROT, D. 799; ORCH. REGER COMPOSED MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENTATION 1824 or February 1825 August 2, 2009, Ravinia Festival. flute, oboe, two clarinets, two Matthias Goerne as soloist, Christoph bassoons, two horns, timpani, strings FIRST CSO PERFORMANCE Eschenbach conducting (Reger) July 12, 1987, Ravinia Festival. Hermann Prey as soloist, James Levine conducting (Reger)

TRÄNENREGEN from DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN, D. 795, NO. 10; ORCH. WEBERN COMPOSED FIRST CSO PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENTATION October–November 1823 August 2, 2009, Ravinia Festival. two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, Matthias Goerne as soloist, Christoph two bassoons, two horns, strings Eschenbach conducting (Webern) 3 as it is tonight. In their orchestrations, each of these three composers trans- lates the implications of Schubert’s vividly descriptive piano writing into his own distinctive sound world. (The opening song on this program, Schubert’s setting of Shakespeare’s words, was orchestrated by Matthias Spindler, a European record producer and arranger.) Schubert’s greatest gift, demonstrated in each of the four songs on this program, is to find the apt musical expres- Franz Schubert Richard Strauss sion for the text he picked—to absorb the poem in his music. A century after Schubert’s death, the revolutionary before had dared. Later in the century, several composer Arnold Schoenberg confessed that composers—including Johannes Brahms, even when he did not know the poem Schubert Max Reger, and even the avant-garde minia- set, he “grasped the content, the real content, turist Anton Webern—chose to orchestrate perhaps even more profoundly than if I had clung Schubert’s piano parts, transforming music to the surface of the mere thoughts expressed written for the home into powerful concert fare, in words.”

Songs by Richard Strauss TRAUM DURCH DIE DÄMMERUNG, OP. 29, NO. 1; ORCH. HEGER COMPOSED FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENTATION 1895 These are the first Chicago Symphony two flutes, two clarinets and bass Orchestra performances. clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, trombone, harp, strings DAS ROSENBAND, OP. 36, NO. 1 COMPOSED FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENTATION 1897 April 1 & 2, 1904, Auditorium Theatre. two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, Pauline Strauss de Ahna as soloist, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two Richard Strauss conducting bassoons, two horns, strings FREUNDLICHE VISION, OP. 48, NO. 1 COMPOSED November 10 & 11, 1932, Orchestra MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCE 1900 Hall. Claire Dux as soloist, Frederick October 3, 2009, Orchestra Hall. Stock conducting Renée Fleming as soloist, Paavo FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Järvi conducting December 18, 1921, Auditorium July 30, 1955, Ravinia Festival. Theatre. Claire Dux as soloist, Richard Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as soloist, INSTRUMENTATION Strauss conducting Enrique Jordá conducting two flutes, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, strings HEIMLICHE AUFFORDERUNG, OP. 27, NO. 3; ORCH. HEGER COMPOSED MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENTATION 1894 July 28, 2007, Ravinia Festival. two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets Nikolai Schukoff as soloist, Christoph and bass clarinet, two bassoons, FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Eschenbach conducting four horns, two trumpets, trombone, December 6 & 7, 1951, Orchestra timpani, percussion, harp, strings Hall. Todd Duncan as soloist, Rafael Kubelík conducting

4 ichard Strauss wrote his first song, a The songs on tonight’s program, in orchestral Christmas piece, in 1870, the year he versions by Strauss himself and by his turned six. He died nearly eighty years contemporary, the conductor Robert Heger, Rlater with an unfinished song on his desk. In include the popular and impassioned Allerseelen, all he wrote some two hundred, including the which comes from Strauss’s first mature Four Last Songs composed in his final year. Like collection of songs, written in 1885. Freundliche Schubert, Strauss at first wrote his songs for Vision, the latest song included, was considered voice and piano, but after his marriage in 1894 to revolutionary when it was composed in 1900 Pauline, a soprano, he began to orchestrate some because its glorious voice part, which now seems of his best and most popular ones so that she so characteristic of Strauss’s art, moves almost could perform with him when he guest conducted independently from the accompaniment. In orchestras around the world. When they came between come several of Strauss’s most beloved to Chicago in April 1904, Pauline sang seven of songs: Traum durch die Dämmerung, allegedly her husband’s songs with the Chicago Symphony written in a Schubert-like outpouring of a mere Orchestra under Richard’s baton, including twenty minutes; the lovely Der Rosenband, which two—Das Rosenband and Morgen!—that was conceived from the start with orchestra in Matthias Goerne performs this week. (Pauline, mind; Heimliche Aufforderung, composed as a no longer in her vocal prime, received carefully wedding present for Pauline and presented in worded reviews, emphasizing her interpretive a set along with the majestic Ruhe, meine Seele, skills over technique, but finding no fault with and Morgen!, its vocal line beginning almost her gown, “an elaborate creation of creamy lace as an afterthought and then blossoming in and silk, which was distinctly becoming to her.”) unforgettable ways.

Songs by Richard Strauss (continued) RUHE, MEINE SEELE, OP. 27, NO. 1 COMPOSED MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENTATION 1894 July 5, 1992, Ravinia Festival. two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and Jessye Norman as soloist, James english horn, two clarinets and bass FIRST CSO PERFORMANCE Levine conducting clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, July 15, 1965, Ravinia Festival. two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as soloist, Seiji timpani, harp, celesta, strings Ozawa conducting ALLERSEELEN, OP. 10, NO. 8; ORCH. HEGER COMPOSED MOST RECENT INSTRUMENTATION 1895 CSO PERFORMANCES two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets December 6 & 7, 1951, Orchestra and bass clarinet, two bassoons, FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Hall. Todd Duncan as soloist, Rafael four horns, two trumpets, trombone, October 26 & 27, 1939, Orchestra Kubelík conducting timpani, harp, strings Hall. Rose Pauly as soloist, Frederick Stock conducting July 28, 2007, Ravinia Festival. Nikolai Schukoff as soloist, Christoph Eschenbach conducting MORGEN!, OP. 27, NO. 4 COMPOSED MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCE, THE 1894 CSO PERFORMANCES COMPOSER CONDUCTING July 19, 2008, Ravinia Festival. December 18, 1921, Auditorium FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Kiri Te Kanawa as soloist, James Theatre. Claire Dux as soloist, Richard April 1 & 2, 1904, Auditorium Theatre. Conlon conducting Strauss conducting Pauline Strauss de Ahna as soloist, Richard Strauss conducting October 3, 2009, Orchestra Hall. INSTRUMENTATION Renée Fleming as soloist, Paavo three horns, harp, strings August 9, 1941, Ravinia Festival. Järvi conducting Helen Traubel as soloist, Pierre Monteux conducting For more on Strauss in Chicago, visit cso.org/fromthearchives/Strauss150. 5 AN SYLVIA, D. 891 TO SYLVIA, D. 891 Was ist Sylvia, saget an, Who is Sylvia, tell me, daß sie die weite Flur preist? that all our swains commend her? Schön und zart seh’ ich sie nahn, Fair and tender I see her approach; auf Himmelsgunst und Spur weist, a sign of heaven’s favor is that daß ihr alles untertan. all are subject to her.

Ist sie schön und gut dazu? Is she beautiful as well as kind? Reiz labt wie milde Kindheit; Refreshing are her gentle childlike charms; ihrem Aug’ eilt Amor zu, Cupid to her eyes hastens dort heilt er seine Blindheit to cure him of his blindness, und verweilt in süßer Ruh’. and lingers in sweet repose.

Darum Sylvia, tön, o Sang, Then, O song, resound to Sylvia, der holden Silvia Ehren; to fair Sylvia’s glory; jeden Reiz besiegt sie lang, she long since has acquired every grace den Erde kann gewähren: that earth can bestow: Kränze ihr und Saitenklang! to her bring garlands and the sound of strings!

Eduard von Bauernfeld (1802–1890), from Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 4, scene 2

TRAUM DURCH DIE DÄMMERUNG, OP. 29, DREAM THROUGH THE TWILIGHT, OP. 29, NO. 1 NO. 1 Weite Wiesen im Dämmergrau; Broad meadows in the gray twilight; die Sonne verglomm, die Sterne ziehn, the sun’s light extinguished, the stars brought to light. nun geh’ ich hin zu der schönsten Frau, Now I go there to the loveliest woman, weit über Wiesen im Dämmergrau, far over the meadow in the gray twilight, tief in den Busch von Jasmin. deep into the jasmine bush.

Durch Dämmergrau in der Liebe Land; Through the gray twilight into the land of love, ich gehe nicht schnell, ich eile nicht; I do not walk quickly, I do not hurry; mich zieht ein weiches samtenes Band I am drawn by a soft, velvet thread durch Dämmergrau in der Liebe Land, through the gray twilight into the land of love, in ein blaues, mildes Licht. into a blue, gentle light.

Otto Julius Bierbaum (1865–1910)

DAS ROSENBAND, OP. 36, NO. 1 THE ROSE RIBBON, OP. 36, NO. 1 Im Frühlingsschatten fand ich sie, In spring shade I found her, da band ich Sie mit Rosenbändern: and bound her with rosy ribbons: sie fühlt’ es nicht und schlummerte. she did not feel it, and slumbered on.

Ich sah sie an; mein Leben hing I looked at her; my life hung mit diesem Blick an ihrem Leben: with that gaze on her life: ich fühlt’ es wohl und wußt’ es nicht. I felt it well, but knew it not.

6 Doch lispelt’ ich ihr sprachlos zu But I whispered wordlessly to her und rauschte mit den Rosenbändern. and rustled the rosy ribbons. Da wachte sie vom Schlummer auf. Then she awoke from her slumber.

Sie sah mich an; ihr Leben hing She looked at me; her life hung mit diesem Blick an meinem Leben, with this gaze on my life: und um uns ward’s Elysium. and around us it became Elysium.

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803)

FREUNDLICHE VISION, OP. 48, NO. 1 A PLEASANT VISION, OP. 48, NO. 1 Nicht im Schlafe hab’ ich das geträumt, Not in sleep did I dream this; hell am Tage sah ich’s schön vor mir: I saw it fair before me in the light of day: eine Wiese voller Margeritten; a meadow full of daisies, tief ein weißes Haus in grünen Büschen; a white house deep in green bushes, Götterbilder leuchten aus dem Laube. images of gods gleaming from the leaves. Und ich geh’ mit Einer, die mich lieb hat, And I walk with one who loves me, ruhigen Gemütes in die Kühle in a peaceful mood in the coolness dieses weißen Hauses, in den Frieden, of this white house, in which peace, der voll Schönheit wartet, daß wir kommen. full of beauty, awaits our arrival.

Otto Julius Bierbaum

GREISENGESANG, D. 778 FROST HAS COVERED THE ROOF OF MY HOUSE, D. 778 Der Frost hat mir bereifet des Hauses Dach; Frost has covered the roof of my house, doch warm ist mir’s geblieben im Wohngemach. but I have stayed warm in the living room. Der Winter hat die Scheitel mir weiß gedeckt; Winter has covered the crown of my head with white; doch fließt das Blut, das rote, yet blood flows—red blood—through my durchs Herzgemach. heart’s chamber.

Der Jugendflor der Wangen, die Rosen sind The youthful blossom of my cheeks—the roses are gegangen, all gegangen einander nach— gone, all gone, one after another— wo sind sie hingegangen? ins Herz hinab: where have they gone? into my heart: da blühn sie nach Verlangen, wie vor so nach. there they bloom as they desire, just as they did before.

Sind alle Freudenströme der Welt versiegt? Have all the joyous streams in the world dried up? Noch fließt mir durch den Busen ein stiller Bach. Yet a quiet brook still flows through my breast. Sind alle Nachtigallen der Flur verstummt? Have all the nightingales in the meadow been silenced? Noch ist bei mir im Stillen hier eine wach. Yet here with me in the silence, one is awake.

Sie singet: “Herr des Hauses! verschleuß dein Tor, It sings: “Lord of the house! lock your gate, daß nicht die Welt, die kalte, dring ins Gemach. so that the cold world does not come into your chamber. Schleuß aus den rauhen Odem der Wirklichkeit, Shut out the raw breath of reality, und nur dem Duft der Träume gib Dach and give roof and room only to the fragrance und Fach!” of dreams!”

Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866) 7 HEIMLICHE AUFFORDERUNG, OP. 27, NO. 3 SECRET INVITATION, OP. 27, NO. 3 Auf, hebe die funkelnde Schale empor Raise the sparkling cup to your mouth, zum Mund, und trinke beim Freudenmahle dein and drink, at this joyous feast, your heart Herz gesund. to health. Und wenn du sie hebst, so winke mir heimlich zu, And when you raise it, then signal to me secretly, dann lächle ich und dann trinke ich still wie then I will smile and then I will drink, silently as du . . . you . . .

Und still gleich mir betrachte um uns das Heer And, silent like me, observe the multitude about us der trunknen Zecher—verachte sie nicht zu sehr. of drunken chatterers—disdain them not too much. Nein, hebe die blinkende Schale, gefüllt No, raise the twinkling cup, filled with wine, mit Wein, und lass beim lärmenden Mahle sie and let them, at their noisy feast, be happy. glücklich sein.

Doch hast du das Mahl genossen, den But when you have taken your meal, quenched Durst gestillt, your thirst, dann verlasse der lauten Genossen then leave the loud company’s festively festfreudiges Bild, happy scene, und wandle hinaus in den Garten and wander out in the garden, to the rosebush— zum Rosenstrauch, dort will ich dich dann erwarten nach there will I await you, as is our long-time custom. altem Brauch.

Und will an die Brust dir sinken, eh’ du’s gehofft, And I will sink upon your breast, before you know it, und deine Küsse trinken, wie ehmals oft, and drink in your kisses, as I often have before, und flechten in deine Haare der Rose Pracht. and braid in your hair the rose’s splendor. O komm, du wunderbare ersehnte Nacht! O come, you wondrous, longed-for night!

John Henry Mackay (1864–1933)

RUHE, MEINE SEELE OP. 27, NO. 1 REST, MY SOUL, OP. 27, NO. 1 Nicht ein Lüftchen regt sich leise, Not a breeze stirs lightly, sanft entschlummert ruht der Hain; softly sleeping rests the grove; durch der Blätter dunkle Hülle through the leaves’ dark veil stiehlt sich lichter Sonnenschein. steals bright sunshine.

Ruhe, ruhe, meine Seele, Rest, rest, my soul, deine Stürme gingen wild, Your storms have been turbulent, hast getobt und hast gezittert, you have raged and you have trembled, wie die Brandung, wenn sie schwillt. like the surf, when it swells.

Diese Zeiten sind gewaltig, These times are powerful, bringen Herz und Hirn in Not, bringing heart and mind affliction— ruhe, ruhe, meine Seele, rest, rest, my soul, und vergiss, was dich bedroht! and forget what threatens you.

Karl Friedrich Henckell (1864–1929) 8 IM ABENDROT, D. 799 IN THE EVENING GLOW, D. 799 O wie schön ist deine Welt, O how beautiful is your world, Vater, wenn sie golden strahlet! Father, when it shines golden! Wenn dein Glanz herniederfällt, When your radiance descends, und den Staub mit Schimmer malet, and paints lustrous the dust, wenn das Rot, das in der Wolke blinkt, when the red, gleaming in the cloud, in mein stilles Fenster sinkt! sinks into my quiet window!

Könnt’ ich klagen, könnt’ ich zagen? Could I complain, lose heart, Irre sein an dir und mir? doubt you, and myself? Nein, ich will im Busen tragen No, your heaven will I carry deinen Himmel schon allhier. here, in my bosom. Und dies Herz, eh’ es zusammenbricht, And this heart, before it fails, trinkt noch Glut und schlürft noch Licht. shall still drink in your glow and lap up your light. Karl Lappe (1773–1843)

ALLERSEELEN, OP. 10, NO. 8 ALL SOULS’ DAY, OP. 10, NO. 8 Stell’ auf den Tisch die duftenden Reseden, Set on the table the fragrant mignonettes, die letzten roten Astern trag’ herbei, bring in the last red asters, und laß uns wieder von der Liebe reden, and let us speak of love again, wie einst im Mai. as once in May.

Gib mir die Hand, daß ich sie heimlich drücke, Give me your hand, that I may press it in secret, und wenn man’s sieht, mir ist es einerlei, and if people see it, I do not care; gib mir nur einen deiner süßen Blicke, give me but one of your sweet looks, wie einst im Mai. as once in May.

Es blüht und duftet heut’ auf jedem Grabe, Today it blossoms and smells sweet on each grave ein Tag im Jahr ist ja den Toten frei, for one day of the year the dead are free; komm an mein Herz, daß ich dich wieder habe, come to my heart, that I may have you again, wie einst im Mai. as once in May.

Hermann von Gilm (1812–1864)

9 TRÄNENREGEN FROM DIE SCHÖNE SHOWER OF TEARS from THE FAIR MILLER- MULLERIN, D. 795, NO. 10 MAID, D. 795, NO. 10 Wir saßen so traulich beisammen We sat together in such harmony im kühlen Erlendach, beneath the cool canopy of alders, wir schauten so traulich zusammen and in harmony gazed down hinab in den rieselnden Bach. into the rippling brook.

Der Mond war auch gekommen, The moon had appeared too, die Sternlein hinterdrein, and then the stars. und schauten so traulich zusammen They gazed down in harmony in den silbernen Spiegel hinein. into the silvery mirror.

Ich sah nach keinem Monde, I did not look at the moon; nach keinem Sternenschein, I did not look at the stars. Ich schaute nach ihrem Bilde, I gazed only at her reflection, nach ihren Augen allein. and her eyes.

Und sahe sie nicken und blicken I saw them nod and gaze up herauf aus dem seligen Bach, from the happy brook; die Blümlein am Ufer, die blauen, the little blue flowers on the bank sie nickten und blickten ihr nach. nodded and glanced at her.

Und in den Bach versunken The whole sky seemed der ganze Himmel schien, immersed in the brook und wollte mich mit hinunter and sought to drag me down in seine Tiefe ziehn. into its depths.

Und über den Wolken und Sternen Above the clouds and stars da rieselte munter der Bach, the brook rippled merrily, und rief mit Singen und Klingen: and called me with its singing and ringing: “Geselle, Geselle, mir nach!” “Friend, follow me!”

Da gingen die Augen mir über, Then my eyes filled with tears da ward es im Spiegel so kraus; and the mirror became blurred. sie sprach: “Es kommt ein Regen, She said: “It’s about to rain. ade! ich geh’ nach Haus.” Goodbye! I’m going home.”

Wilhelm Müller (1794–1827)

MORGEN!, OP. 27, NO. 4 TOMORROW!, OP. 27, NO. 4 Und morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen, And tomorrow the sun will shine again, und auf dem Wege, den ich gehen werde, and on the path where I shall walk, wird uns, die Glücklichen, sie wieder einen it will unite us, the happy ones, again, inmitten dieser sonnenatmenden Erde . . . in the midst of this sun-breathing earth . . .

Und zu dem Strand, dem weiten, wogenblauen, And to the broad, blue-waved shore, werden wir still und langsam niedersteigen, we shall quietly and slowly descend; stumm werden wir uns in die Augen schauen, mute, into each other’s eyes gazing, und auf uns sinkt des Glückes stummes and upon us sinks the muted silence of Schweigen . . . happiness . . .

John Henry Mackay 10 Ludwig van Beethoven Born December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany. Died March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria. Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67

This is the symphony that, find ourselves somewhere here, among the char- along with an image of acters of E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End: Beethoven, looking agitated and disheveled, Whether you are like Mrs. Munt, and tap has come to represent surreptitiously when the tunes come—of greatness in music. In fact, course not so as to disturb the others; or like many people know only Helen, who can see heroes and shipwrecks the very opening seconds, in the music’s flood; or like Margaret, who just as they may remember can only see the music; or like Tibby, who vividly and accurately no is profoundly versed in counterpoint, and more than the Mona Lisa’s smile, or the first ten holds the full score open on his knee; or words of Hamlet’s soliloquy. It’s hard to know like their cousin, Fräulein Mosebach, who how so few notes, so plainly strung together, could remembers all the time that Beethoven is become so popular. There are certainly those who “echt Deutsch”; or like Fräulein Mosebach’s would argue that this isn’t even Beethoven’s young man, who can remember nothing but greatest symphony, just as the Mona Lisa isn’t Fräulein Mosebach: in any case, the passion Leonardo’s finest painting—Beethoven himself of your life becomes more vivid, and you are preferred his Eroica to the Fifth Symphony. And bound to admit that such a noise is cheap at yet, it’s hardly famous beyond its merits, for one two shillings. can’t easily think of another single composition that in its expressive range and structural power That is why we still go to concerts, and, better represents what music is all about. whether we see shipwrecks or hear dominant Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony has spoken sevenths, we may well agree, when caught up in a forcefully and directly to many listeners—trained captivating performance, “that Beethoven’s Fifth and untrained—over the years; we each listen Symphony is the most sublime noise that has ever and understand in our own way. We can probably penetrated into the ear of man.”

COMPOSED MOST RECENT CSO RECORDINGS 1804–1808 CSO PERFORMANCES 1944. Désiré Defauw conducting. CSO August 5, 2007, Ravinia Festival. James (From the Archives, vol. 17: Beethoven) FIRST PERFORMANCE Conlon conducting 1959. Fritz Reiner conducting. RCA December 22, 1808; Vienna, Austria June 14, 15, 16, 17 & 19, 2012, 1961. George Szell conducting. VAI Orchestra Hall. Riccardo FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES (video) Muti conducting October 16 & 17, 1891, Auditorium 1968. Seiji Ozawa conducting. RCA Theatre. Theodore Thomas conducting January 18, 2014, Philharmonie, (inaugural concerts) Luxembourg. Riccardo 1973. Sir Georg Solti conducting. Muti conducting London July 18, 1936, Ravinia Festival. Willem van Hoogstraten conducting 1986. Sir Georg Solti conducting. INSTRUMENTATION London two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabas- 1990. Sir Georg Solti conducting. soon, two horns, two trumpets, three CBS/Sony (video) trombones, timpani, strings 1994. James Levine conducting. Disney (excerpts from the first movement for APPROXIMATE Fantasia 2000) PERFORMANCE TIME 36 minutes

11 or a while, this piece was somewhat over- victory is commonplace today, but Beethoven’s shadowed by the Ninth Symphony, which Fifth was an entirely new kind of symphony in seemed to point the way to the rest of the his day. Fnineteenth century and emboldened generations There’s no way to know what the first audience of composers to think differently of the sym- thought. For one thing, that concert, given at the phony, or of music in general. But the Fifth has Theater an der Wien on December 22, 1808, was never really lost its appeal. Robert Schumann, so inordinately long (even by nineteenth-century whose musical predictions have often come true, standards), and jammed with so much important wrote that “this symphony invariably wields its new music, that no one could truly have taken power over men of every age like those great phe- it all in. J.F. Reichardt, who shared a box with nomena of nature . . . . This symphony, too, will Prince Lobkowitz, later wrote: “There we sat be heard in future centuries, nay, as long as music from 6:30 till 10:30 in the most bitter cold, and and the world exist.” It is surely no coincidence found by experience that one might have too that Theodore Thomas, the first music director much even of a good thing.” of the Chicago Symphony, picked this symphony Reichardt and Lobkowitz stayed till the end, to conclude the Orchestra’s inaugural concert in their patience frequently tried not by the music— 1891, as well as the concert given in 1904 to ded- to which these two brought more understanding icate Orchestra Hall. “I care not from what the than most—but by the performance, which station in life come the thousands who sit before was rough and unsympathetic. Surely some in me,” Thomas once told a reporter. “Beethoven the audience that night were bowled over by will teach each according to his needs.” what they heard, though many may well have A familiarity earned by only a handful of fidgeted and daydreamed, uncomprehending, pieces in any century has largely blunted much or perhaps even bored. Beethoven’s was not of the work’s wild power for our ears today. And, yet the most popular music ever written, and knowing the many works that couldn’t have been even as great a figure as Goethe would outlive Beethoven without coming to terms with the one composer who was clearly his equal. As late as 1830, Mendelssohn tried one last time to interest the aging poet in Beethoven’s music, enthusiastically playing the first movement of the Fifth Symphony at the piano. “But that does not move one,” Goethe responded, “it is merely astounding, grandiose.” Take the celebrated opening, which Beethoven once, in a moment he surely regretted, likened to Fate knocking at the door. It is bold and simple, and like many of the mottoes of our civilization, susceptible to all manner of popular treatments, Theater an der Wien; engraving after J. Alt, ca. 1815 none of which can diminish the power of the original. Beethoven writes eight notes, four plus four—the first ta-ta-ta-TUM falling from written without this as their example has blinded G down to E-flat, the second from F to D. For us to the novelty of Beethoven’s boldest strokes: all the force of those hammer strokes, we may the cross-reference between the famous opening be surprised that only strings and clarinets play and the fortissimo horn call in the scherzo, them. Hearing those eight notes and no more, the way the scherzo passes directly—and we can’t yet say for certain whether this is E-flat dramatically—into the finale, and the memory major or C minor. As soon as Beethoven con- of the scherzo that appears unexpectedly in the tinues, we hear that urgent knocking as part of finale—all forging the four movements of the a grim and driven music in C minor. But when symphony into one unified design. The idea of the exposition is repeated, and we start over from a symphony tracing the journey from strife to the top with E-flat major chords still ringing

12 in our ears, those same ta-ta-ta-TUM patterns clouded with half-uttered questions. Beethoven sound like they belong to E-flat major. That begins with furtive music, inching forward in the ambiguity and tension are at the heart of this low strings, then stumbling on the horns, who furious music—just as the struggle to break from let loose with their own rendition of Fate at the C minor, where this movement settles, into the door. At some point, when Beethoven realized brilliance of C major—and will carry us to the that the scherzo was part of a bigger scheme, he end of the symphony. decided to leave it If one understands and remembers those four unfinished and move measures, much of what happens during the next directly, through one thirty-odd minutes will seem both familiar and of the most famous logical. We can hear Fate knocking at the door passages in music— of nearly every measure in the first movement. slowly building in The forceful horn call that introduces the second tension and drama, theme, for example, mimics both the rhythm over the ominous, and the shape of the symphony’s opening. (We quiet pounding of also can notice the similarity to the beginning the timpani—to an of the Fourth Piano Concerto—and, in fact, explosion of brilliant ideas for both works can be found in the same C major. Composers sketchbooks, those rich hunting grounds where have struggled ever brilliance often emerges in flashes from a disarray since to match the Beethoven’s patron, matched by the notorious condition of the effect, not just of Franz Joseph Max, composer’s lodgings.) binding movements Prince Lobkowitz Although the first movement is launched with together—that much the energy and urgency of those first notes, its has been successfully copied—but of emerging progress is stalled periodically by echoes of the so dramatically from darkness to light. The two long-held notes in the first bars; in the reca- sketchbooks tell us that these fifty measures cost pitulation a tiny, but enormously expressive oboe Beethoven considerable effort, and, most surpris- cadenza serves the same purpose. The extensive ingly, that they weren’t even part of the original coda is particularly satisfying not because it plan. Berlioz thought this transition so stunning effectively concludes a dramatic and powerful that it would be impossible to surpass it in what movement, but because it uncovers still new follows. Beethoven, perfectly understanding the depths of drama and power at a point when that challenge—and also that of sustaining the vic- seems unthinkable. tory of C major once it has been achieved—adds The Andante con moto is a distant relative of trombones (used in symphonic music for the first the theme and variations that often turn up as time), the piccolo, and the contrabassoon to the slow movements in classical symphonies. But first burst of C major and moves forward towards unlike the conventional type, it presents two his final stroke of genius. different themes, varies them separately, and That moment comes amidst general rejoicing, then trails off into a free improvisation that when the ghost of the scherzo quietly appears, covers a wide range of thoughts, each springing at once disrupting C major with unexpected almost spontaneously from the last. The sequence memories of C minor and leaving everyone tem- of events is so unpredictable, and the meditative porarily hushed and shaken. Beethoven quickly tone so seductive, that, in the least assertive restores order, and the music begins again as if movement of the symphony, Beethoven com- nothing has happened. But Beethoven still finds mands our attention to the final sentence. it necessary to end with fifty-four measures of Beethoven was the first to notice his scherzo’s the purest C major to remind us of the conquest, resemblance to the opening of the finale of not the struggle. Mozart’s great G minor symphony—he even wrote out Mozart’s first measures on a page of sketches for this music—but while the effect Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago there is decisive and triumphant, here it is Symphony Orchestra.