CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM

Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 7:30pm First Congregational Church

Lisa Delan, soprano Mikhail Pletnev, piano

PROGRAM

Gordon Getty (b. 1933) The White Election (1981) Lisa Delan A cycle of 32 songs for soprano and piano on poems by Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)

Part One: The Pensive Spring Part Three: Almost Peace 1. I Sing to Use the Waiting (major setting) 17. My First Well Day, Since Many Ill 2. There Is a Morn by Men Unseen 18. It Ceased to Hurt Me 3. I Had a Guinea Golden 19. I Like to See It Lap the Miles 4. If She Had Been the Mistletoe 20. Split the Lark and You’ll Find the Music 5. New Feet Within My Garden Go 21. The Cricket Sang 6. She Bore It 22. After a Hundred Years 7. I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed 23. The Clouds Their Backs Together Laid 8. I Should Not Dare to Leave My Friend 24. I Shall Not Murmur

Part Two: So We Must Meet Apart Part Four: My Feet Slip Nearer 9. There Came a Day at Summer’s Full 25. The Grave My Little Cottage Is 10. The First Day’s Night Had Come 26. I Did Not Reach Thee 11. The Soul Selects Her Own Society 27. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books 12. It Was Not Death, for I Stood Up 28. There Came a Wind Like a Bugle 13. When I Was Small, a Woman Died 29. The Going from a World We Know 14. I Cried at Pity, Not at Pain 30. Upon His Saddle Sprung a Bird 15. The Night Was Wide 31. Beauty Crowds Me 16. I Cannot Live with You 32. I Sing to Use the Waiting (minor setting)

INTERMISSION Funded by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ 2009–2010 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community.

Cal Performances’ 2009–2010 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

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Notes on The White Election measure at your note. I can only imagine the afflic- for closeness, nine mentions of Calvary, packed tion which has befallen, or is now befalling you....” in this period, are enough to make the case This suggests that she had written him, and that for Wadsworth. mily dickinson (1830–1886) was born and no actual romance had taken place. We do have a Emily had studied voice and piano, and some- Edied in the “Brick House” or “Homestead” her letter from Emily to her Philadelphia friends, the times played at home. A friend remembers: grandfather had built in his heyday as founder of Josiah Hollands, asking that something enclosed Oftentimes, during these visits to the Amherst Academy and Amherst College. Writing be sent on to “our arch friend,” and we have letters Dickinson relatives, father would be awak- and family gave her enough to do. We know 1,775 after his death describing him as her “closest” and ened from his sleep by heavenly music. of her poems and 1,049 of her letters. The tone is “dearest earthly friend.” Emily would explain in the morning, “I playful, the language puzzling, the content pro- Evidence that Wadsworth was the Dim can improvise better at night.” On one found. Only 11 of the poems were published in her Companion, if only in her mind, comes mostly from or two occasions, when not under their lifetime. The survival of so many letters, even so, her poetry itself, as we will see, and from the sec- friendly roof, my father, in paying his re- suggests that her gift had been recognized within ond of the three draft letters addressed to “Master.” spects at the house, would receive a mes- her circle. The rest lay in a chest by her bed, or were Johnson dates these letters to 1858, 1861 and 1862, sage from his cousin Emily saying, “If you mailed with her letters. Her sister Lavinia and a more or less, from her handwriting. Though all of will stay in the next room, and open the few other friends published some of these, at their Emily’s letters are love letters in the wide sense, the folding doors a few inches, I’ll come down own expense, beginning in 1890. Early editions second and third Master letters are implorations. to make music for you.” My father said that sold out, and Emily’s fame was assured. Squabbles The second includes “If it had been God’s will in those early days she seemed like a will- over rights delayed a complete and authentic print- that I might breathe where you breathe…to come o’-the-wisp. ing until the 1959 Harvard Press Variorum, edited nearer than Presbyteries, and nearer than the new by Thomas Johnson. coat that the tailor made....” “Presbyteries” (eccle- Another visitor recalls the Emily was “often at The White Election is meant to tell her story in siastical courts) does not seem to fit at all unless the piano playing weird and beautiful melodies, all her words. It is the story of a poet, and the busi- for Wadsworth, who was America’s most famous from her own inspiration.” Emily herself writes to a ness of poets is to observe and invent. Are her Presbyterian minister after Henry Ward Beecher. friend, “I play the old, odd tunes yet, which used to love poems, among the most desolating in the Neither Bowles nor Lord was Presbyterian, and flit about your head after honest hours.” language, simply inventions? If not, who does she neither showed particular interest in religion. All this inspires the conjecture that Emily may mean? The most likely suggestions include Charles In 1862, Wadsworth became pastor of the First have set her own poems to music, or even conceived Wadsworth, Otis Lord and Samuel Bowles, all Calvary Presbyterian Church in , re- of some of them as songs in the first place. I have leaders of opinion, all a generation older, and all maining there eight years. The period 1861–1865 is set them, in large part, just as Emily might have if happily married. We might like it to be the hand- Emily’s most productive, if the handwriting analy- her music had found a balance between tradition some and gregarious Bowles, whose Springfield sis is right, and brings her first death/marriage po- and iconoclasm something like that in her poems. Republican published six of her poems. Judge Lord ems. White is decreed in tradition for weddings is an even stronger candidate, since he and Emily and funerals. Emily tells us in these poems that became engaged after his wife died, when she was for her, these two events would be as one. She will Gordon Getty 47 and he 66. But I will argue, as Johnson does, be “born, bridaled, shrouded in a day.” In heaven, that the evidence favors Wadsworth over both, and she will be “dressed to meet you, see, in white.” over the null hypothesis that the “dim companion” The Dim Companion will be “Mine, by the right of those poems was wholly a pretend person. of the White Election…Mine, by the Grave’s They cannot have met often. Wadsworth was Repeal!” It was in this period that Emily began pastor of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church in wearing white. Philadelphia, and famous for his sermons. Mark The evidence for Wadsworth in these poems Twain poked fun at his rhetoric. Emily and Lavinia is mainly the reference to Calvary. Calvary is traveled to Washington in 1854 to visit their father mentioned nine times in this period, according to while he served in Congress, and may have met Johnson, and not before. Emily was not religious at Wadsworth then. We know that he visited the any age; she sometimes writes about religion, but Homestead in 1859 and 1880. His one surviving more as a merry critic, except in the love poems, letter to “My Dear Miss Dickenson” [sic], which than as a participant. Although Calvary is a more has not been dated, begins: “I am distressed beyond natural metaphor for suffering than presbyteries

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Gordon Getty (b. 1933) And though the sum was simple A troubadour upon the elm 8. I Should Not Dare to Leave My Friend (c. 1860) The White Election (1981) And pounds were in the land, Betrays the solitude. Texts: Emily Dickinson Still, had it such a value I should not dare to leave my friend; Unto my frugal eye, New children play upon the green, Because, because if he should die That when I could not find it New weary sleep below, While I was gone, and I too late Part One: The Pensive Spring I sat me down to sigh. And still the pensive spring returns, Should reach the heart that wanted me, And still the punctual snow! 1. I Sing to Use the Waiting (c. 1864) I had a crimson robin If I should disappoint the eyes Who sang full many a day, 6. She Bore It (c. 1859) That hunted, hunted so to see I sing to use the waiting, But when the woods were painted, And could not bear to shut until My bonnet but to tie He too did fly away. She bore it till the simple veins They noticed me, they noticed me, And shut the door unto my house, Time brought me other robins, Traced azure on her hand, No more to do have I Their ballads were the same, Till pleading, round her quiet eyes If I should stab the patient faith Still, for my missing troubadour The purple crayons stand. So sure I’d come, so sure I’d come, Till his best step approaching, I kept the “house at hame.” It listening, listening went to sleep We journey to the day Till daffodils had come and gone, Telling my tardy name, And tell each other how we sang I had a star in heaven, I cannot tell the sum, To keep the dark away. One “Pleiad” was its name, And then she ceased to bear it My heart would wish it broke before, And when I was not heeding And with the saints sat down. Since breaking then, since breaking then 2. There Is a Morn by Men Unseen (c. 1858) It wandered from the same. Were useless as next morning’s sun And though the skies are crowded, No more her patient figure Where midnight frosts had lain! There is a morn by men unseen And all the night ashine, At twilight soft to meet, Whose maids upon remoter green I do not care about it No more her timid bonnet Keep their seraphic May, Since none of them are mine. Upon the village street, Part Two: So We Must Meet Apart And all day long, with dance and game, And gambol I may never name, My story has a moral; But crowns instead and courtiers 9. There Came a Day at Summer’s Full (early 1862) Employ their holiday. I have a missing friend, And in the midst so fair, “Pleiad” its name, and robin, Whose but her shy, immortal face There came a day at summer’s full Here to light measure move the feet And guinea in the sand. Of whom we’re whispering here? Entirely for me; Which walk no more the village street And when this mournful ditty, I thought that such were for the saints Nor by the wood are found, Accompanied with tear, 7. I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed (c. 1860) Where resurrections be. Here are the birds that sought the sun When last year’s distaff idle hung, Shall meet the eye of traitor I taste a liquor never brewed The sun as common went abroad, And summer’s brows were bound. In country far from here, Prom tankards scooped in pearl; The flowers accustomed blew, Grant that repentance solemn Not all the vats upon the Rhine As if no soul the solstice passed Ne’er saw I such a wondrous scene, May seize upon his mind, Yield such an alcohol! That maketh all things new. Ne’er such a ring on such a green And he no consolation Nor so serene array, Beneath the sun may find. Inebriate of air am I, The time was scarce profaned by speech; As if the stars, some summer night, And debauchee of dew, The symbol of a word Should swing their cups of Chrysolite 4. If She Had Been the Mistletoe (late 1858) Reeling through endless summer days Was needless as, at Sacrament, And revel till the day. From inns of molten blue. The wardrobe of our Lord. If she had been the mistletoe Like thee to dance, like thee to sing, And I had been the rose, When landlords turn the drunken bee Each was to each the sealed church, People upon the mystic green, How gay upon your table Out of the foxglove’s door, Permitted to commune I ask each new May morn. My velvet life to close. When butterflies renounce their “drams,” This time, lest we too awkward show I wait thy far fantastic bells Since I am of the Druid, I shall but drink the more, At Supper of the Lamb. Announcing me in other dells And she is of the dew, Unto the different dawn! I’ll deck tradition’s buttonhole Till seraphs swing their snowy hats The hours slid fast, as hours will, And send the rose to you. And saints to windows run, Clutched tight by greedy hands, 3. I Had a Guinea Golden (c. 1858) To see the little tippler So faces on two decks look back, 5. New Feet Within My Garden Go (c. 1859) Leaning against the sun. Bound to opposing lands. I had a guinea golden, I lost it in the sand, New feet within my garden go, New fingers stir the sod. (Please turn the page quietly.)

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And so when all the time had leaked, 12. It Was Not Death, for I Stood Up (early 1862) I’m confident that bravos To feel if blinds be fast, Without external sound Perpetual break abroad And closer to the fire Each bound the other’s crucifix, It was not death, for I stood up For braveries remote as this Her little rocking chair to draw, We gave no other bond, And all the dead lie down, In scarlet Maryland. And shiver for the poor, It was not night, for all the bells Sufficient troth that we shall rise, Put out their tongues for noon. 14. I Cried at Pity, Not at Pain (early 1862) The housewife’s gentle task. Deposed, at length, the grave, “How pleasanter,” said she To that new marriage justified It was not frost, for on my flesh I cried at pity, not at pain. Unto the sofa opposite, Through Calvaries of love. I felt siroccos crawl, I heard a woman say “The sleet than May, no thee.” Not fire, for just my marble feet “Poor child,”and something in her voice 10. The First Day’s Night Had Come (c. 1862) Could keep a chancel cool. Convicted me of me. 16. I Cannot Live with You (c. 1862)

The first day’s night had come, And yet it tasted like them all. So long I fainted, to myself I cannot live with you. And grateful that a thing The figures I have seen It seemed the common way, It would be life, So terrible had been endured, Set orderly for burial And health and laughter, curious things And life is over there I told my soul to sing. Reminded me of mine, To look at, like a toy. Behind the shelf

She said her strings were snapped, As if my life were shaven To sometimes hear “rich people” buy, The sexton keeps the key to, Her bow to atoms blown, And fitted to a frame, And see the parcel rolled Putting up And so to mend her gave me work And could not breathe without a key, And carried, I supposed, to heaven, Our life, his porcelain, Until another morn. And ’twas like midnight some, For children made of gold, Like a cup

And then a day as huge When everything that ticked has stopped But not to touch, or wish for, Discarded of the housewife, As yesterdays in pairs And space stares all around, Or think of, with a sigh, Quaint or broke: Unrolled its horror in my face Or grisly frosts, first autumn morns, And so and so had been to me, A newer Sevres pleases, Until it blocked my eyes, Repeal the beating ground, Had God willed differently. Old ones crack.

My brain began to laugh, But most like chaos, stopless, cool, I wish I knew that woman’s name, I could not die with you, I mumbled like a fool, Without a chance or spar, So when she comes this way, For one must wait And though ’tis years ago, that day, Or even a report of land To hold my life, and hold my ears To shut the other’s gaze down, My brain keeps giggling still. To justify despair. For fear I hear her say You could not,

And something’s odd within; 13. When I Was Small, a Woman Died (early 1862) She’s “sorry I am dead” again, And I, could I stand by That person that I was Just when the grave and I And see you freeze, And this one do not feel the same. When I was small, a woman died; Have sobbed ourselves almost to sleep, Without my right of frost, Could it be madness, this? Today her only boy Our only lullaby. Death’s privilege? Went up from the Potomac, 11. The Soul Selects Her Own Society (c. 1862) His face all victory 15. The Night Was Wide (c. 1862) Nor could I rise with you, Because your face The soul selects her own society To look at her. How slowly The night was wide, and furnished scant Would put out Jesus, Then shuts the door; The seasons must have turned, With but a single star That new grace To her divine majority Till bullets clipped an angle That often as a cloud it met Present no more. And he passed quickly round. Blew out itself for fear. Glow plain and foreign On my homesick eye, Unmoved, she notes the chariots pausing If pride shall be in paradise, The wind pursued the little bush Except that you than he At her low gate, Ourself cannot decide; And drove away the leaves Shone closer by. Unmoved, an emperor be kneeling Of their imperial conduct November left, then clambered up Upon her mat. No person testified. And fretted in the eaves. They’d judge us. How? For you served heaven, you know, I’ve known her from an ample nation But proud in apparition, No squirrel went abroad. Or sought to. Choose one, That woman and her boy A dog’s belated feet, I could not, Then close the valves of her attention Pass back and forth before my brain, Like intermittent plush, he heard Like stone. As even in the sky Adown the empty street.

(Please turn the page quietly.)

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Because you saturated sight, Put up, to hide her parting grace Scantily dealt to the summer morning, 24. I Shall Not Murmur (c. 1877) And I had no more eyes From our unfitted eyes. Saved for your ear when lutes be old. For sordid excellence I shall not murmur if at last As paradise. My loss by sickness, Was it loss, Loose the flood, you shall find it patent The ones I loved below Or that ethereal gain Gush after gush reserved for you. Permission have to understand And were you lost, I would be, One earns by measuring the grave, Scarlet experiment! Skeptic Thomas! For what I shunned them so. Though my name Then measuring the sun? Now do you doubt that your bird was true? Divulging it would rest my heart, Rang loudest But it would ravage theirs. On the heavenly fame. 18. It Ceased to Hurt Me (c. 1862) 21. The Cricket Sang (c. 1866) Why, Katie, treason has a voice, But mine dispels in tears. And were you saved, It ceased to hurt me, though so slow The crickets sang and set the sun, And I condemned to be I could not feel the anguish go, And workmen finished one by one Where you were not, But only knew by looking back Their seam the day upon. Part Four: My Feet Slip Nearer That self were hell to me. That something had benumbed the track. The low grass loaded with the dew; 25. The Grave My Little Cottage Is (date unknown) So we must meet apart, Nor when it altered I could say, The twilight stood as strangers do, You there, I here, For I had worn it every day With hat in hand, polite and new The grave my little cottage is, With just the door ajar As constant as the childish frock To stay as if, or go. Where keeping house for thee, That oceans are, and prayer, I hung upon the peg at night, I make my parlor orderly And that white sustenance, A vastness as a neighbor came, And lay the marble tea Despair. But not the grief. That nestled close A wisdom without face or name, As needles ladies softly press A peace as hemispheres at home, For two divided briefly, To cushions’ cheeks to keep their place. And so the night became. A cycle it may be, Part Three: Almost Peace Till everlasting life unite Nor what consoled it I could trace, 22. After a Hundred Years (c. 1869) In strong society. 17. My First Well Day, Since Many Ill (c. 1862) Except whereas ‘twas wilderness, It’s better, almost peace. After a hundred years 26. I Did Not Reach Thee (date unknown) My first well day, since many ill, Nobody knows the place, I asked to go abroad 19. I Like to See It Lap the Miles (c. 1862) Agony that enacted there I did not reach thee, but my feet And take the sunshine in my hands, Motionless as peace. Slip nearer every day, And see the things in pod I like to see it lap the miles Three rivers and a hill to cross, And lick the valleys up, Weeds triumphant ranged; One desert and a sea; A blossom just when I went in, And stop to feed itself at tanks, Strangers strolled and spelled I shall not count the journey one To take my chance with pain, And then prodigious step At the lone orthography When I am telling thee. Uncertain if myself or he Of the elder dead. Should prove the strongest one. Around a pile of mountains, Two deserts, but the year is cold, And supercilious peer Winds of summer fields So that will help the sand; The summer deepened while we strove. In shanties by the sides of roads, Recollect the way, One desert crossed, the second one She put some flowers away, And then a quarry pare Instinct picking up the key Will feel as cool as land. And redder cheeked ones in their stead, Dropped by memory. Sahara is too little price A fond, illusive way. To fit its ribs and crawl between, To pay for thy right hand. Complaining all the while 23. The Clouds Their Backs Together Laid (c. 1870) To cheat herself it seemed she tried, In horrid hooting stanza, The sea comes last. Step merry, feet, As if before a child Then chase itself downhill The clouds their backs together laid, So short we have to go, To fade. Tomorrow rainbows held, The north begun to push, To play together we are prone, The sepulchre could hide, And neigh like Boanerges, The forests galloped till they fell, But we must labor now; Then, punctual as a star, The lightning played like mice. The last shall be the lightest load She dealt a fashion to the nut, Stop, docile and omnipotent, That we have had to draw. She tied the hoods to seeds, At its own stable door. The thunder crumbled like a stuff. She dropped bright scraps of tint about, How good to be in tombs, The sun goes crooked. And left Brazilian threads 20. Split the Lark and You’ll Find the Music (c. 1864) Where nature’s temper cannot reach, That is night, Nor missile ever comes. Before he makes the bend. On every shoulder that she met, Split the lark and you’ll find the music, We must have passed the middle sea. Then both her hands of haze Bulb after bulb in silver rolled, (Please turn the page quietly.)

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Almost we wish the end 29. The Going from a World We Know (mid-1884) Gordon Getty, born the men of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus Were further off; in in performed Annabel Lee in both 1998 and 2004, Too great it seems The going from a world we know, 1933 and residing in conducted on those occasions by Michael Tilson So near the whole to stand. To one a wonder still San Francisco since Thomas. Mr. Getty’s Young America (2001), a Is like the child’s adversity We step like plush, Whose vista is a hill. 1945, studied piano cycle of six movements for chorus and orchestra We stand like snow, Behind the hill is sorcery with Robert Vetleson to texts by the composer and by Stephen Vincent The waters murmur new. And everything unknown, and voice with Easton Benét, was also performed and recorded in 2004 Three rivers and the hill are passed, But will the secret compensate Kent during his for- by the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Two deserts and the sea! For climbing it alone? mative years. As a stu- with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting. Young Now death usurps my premium, dent at the University America was released on PentaTone Classics in And gets the look at thee. 30. Upon His Saddle Sprung a Bird (late 1884) of San Francisco, he 2005 on Mr. Getty’s choral music CD, which also majored in English includes his Victorian Scenes, Annabel Lee, Three 27. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books (c. 1882) Upon his saddle sprung a bird And crossed a thousand trees; literature. His first Welsh Songs (1998) and Jerusalem (a choral extract My wars are laid away in books; Before a fence without a fare published piece was the a cappella chorus All Along from Plump Jack). I have one battle more, His fantasy did please. the Valley (1959). In the early 1960s, he enrolled at Mr. Getty’s cantata Joan and the Bells (1998), A foe whom I have never seen And then he lifted up his throat the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying to the composer’s own libretto about the execution But oft has scanned me o’er, And squandered such a note, music theory with Sol Joseph, and there composed of Joan of Arc, was released on PentaTone in 2003 And hesitated me between A universe that overheard the Homework Suite (1964) for solo piano. in a critically acclaimed recording by the Russian And others at my side, Is stricken by it yet. Since the 1980s, he has produced a steady National Orchestra, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, But chose the best, neglecting me, stream of compositions, beginning with The White and soloists Lisa Delan and Vladimir Chernov, Till all the rest have died. 31. Beauty Crowds Me (date unknown) How sweet if I am not forgot Election (1981), his oft-performed cycle of 32 po- with Alexander Vedernikov conducting. Joan By chums that passed away, Beauty crowds me till I die, ems by Emily Dickinson for solo singer and pia- and the Bells was performed in March 2004 in Since playmates at threescore and ten Beauty, mercy have on me, no. Recorded by both Lisa Delan the late Kaaren St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle under the Are such a scarcity! But if I expire today Erickson, this cycle has been performed in Lincoln baton of Mikhail Pletnev. Since its premiere in Let it be in sight of thee. Center’s Alice Tully Hall and the Pierpont Morgan 1998, Joan and the Bells has been performed ex- 28. There Came a Wind Like a Bugle (c. 1883) Library in New York, the Kennedy Center and tensively throughout the , Europe 32. I Sing to Use the Waiting (c. 1864) National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and and Russia. Mr. Getty’s nonvocal compositions There came a wind like a bugle, the Hermitage Theater in St. Petersburg Russia, include his Three Waltzes for Piano and Orchestra It quivered through the grass, I sing to use the waiting, And a green chill upon the heat My bonnet but to tie among many other venues. (1988, performed by André Previn and the Los So ominous did pass, And shut the door unto my house, In 1984, he unveiled his opera Plump Jack, an Angeles Chamber Orchestra), and works for or- We barred the windows and the doors No more to do have I operatic interpretation (to his own libretto, based chestra, chamber ensembles and for solo piano As from an emerald ghost. on Henry IV and Henry V) of Shakespeare’s out- including the ballet suite Ancestor Suite, loosely The doom’s electric moccasin Till his best step approaching, rageous but poignant Falstaff. Following premiere based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House That very instant passed. We journey to the day performances by the San Francisco Symphony, of Usher. His music has been performed in such On a strange mob of panting trees, And tell each other how we sang Plump Jack was revived in semistaged concert ver- prestigious venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, And fences fled away, To keep the dark away. sions by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the London’s Royal Festival Hall, Vienna’s Brahmssaal And rivers where the houses ran Those looked that lived that day. BBC Philharmonic and, most recently, in London, and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, as well as at the The bell within the steeple wild Austin, Albuquerque and Mazatlán. Aspen and Spoleto festivals. The flying tidings told: Most of Mr. Getty’s compositions, which Mr. Getty has been widely lauded for his How much can come, are published by Rork Music and distributed by creative and philanthropic achievements and has And much can go, Theodore Presser Company, involve the voice. His received honorary doctorates from the University And yet abide the world! Victorian Scenes (1989) and Annabel Lee (1990) are of Maryland, Pepperdine University, UC San choral settings—with orchestra or, optionally, Francisco, the San Francisco Conservatory and piano—of poems by Tennyson, Housman and the Mannes College of Music. In 1986 he was (in the latter work) Poe. Both were premiered by honored as an Outstanding American Composer the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Sinfonia at at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles and in 2003 he was awarded the Gold Baton of the Music Center. The San Francisco Symphony and American Symphony Orchestra League.

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Of his compositions, Mr. Getty has said: “My Getty, Jake Heggie, Andrew Imbrie and Luna Pearl In 1990, Mr. Pletnev formed the first indepen- Award for the CD of his own arrangement, for style is undoubtedly tonal, though with hints of Woolf, among others. Most recently, in 2009, she dent orchestra in Russia’s history. The risks of this two pianos, of Prokofiev’s Cinderella, recorded by atonality, such as any composer would likely use to performed Mr. Getty’s well-known song cycle The step, even with Gorbachev’s endorsement, were and Mr. Pletnev at the keyboards. suggest a degree of disorientation. But I’m strictly White Election, to poems by Emily Dickinson, in a enormous and it was Mr. Pletnev’s reputation and He received Grammy nominations for a CD of tonal in my approach. I represent a viewpoint that recital presented by the Emily Dickinson Museum commitment that made his long-held dream a re- Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes (2004) and for his stands somewhat apart from the 20th century, in Amherst, Massachusetts. ality. Sharing his vision for a new model for the recording of the Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev which was in large measure a repudiation of the Ms. Delan was featured on three recordings performing arts, many of the country’s finest musi- Third Piano Concertos with the RNO and con- 19th, and a sock in the nose to sentimentality. released by PentaTone Classics in 2009: And If the cians joined Mr. Pletnev in launching the Russian ductor (2003). His album of Whatever it was that the great Victorian compos- Song Be Worth a Smile, her debut solo recording of National Orchestra (RNO). Under his leadership, Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas (Virgin/EMI) received ers and poets were trying to achieve, that’s what songs by American composers (with pianist Kristin the RNO has achieved a towering stature among a Gramophone Award in 1996. In 2007, he recorded I’m trying to achieve.” Pankonin and guest artists Matt Haimovitz and the world’s orchestras. Mr. Pletnev describes all of Beethoven’s piano concertos with Deutsche Susanne Mentzer); The White Election, a new re- the RNO as his greatest joy and today serves as Grammophon, and his CD of Concertos Nos. 2 American soprano Lisa cording of Mr. Getty’s song cycle (with pianist Fritz its Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. In and 4 was named “The Best Concerto Recording Delan has won ac- Steinegger); and as a guest artist on Phenomenon, a 2006, he launched the Mikhail Pletnev Fund for of 2007” by the Tokyo Record Academy. claim as an outstand- recording of works by San Francisco-based com- the Support of National Culture, a nonprofit orga- As a composer, Mr. Pletnev’s works include ing interpreter of a vast poser David Garner. nization that supports major cultural initiatives and Classical Symphony, Triptych for Symphony Orchestra, repertoire. She is recog- Ms. Delan’s performances in 2010 include an projects, including the RNO’s annual Volga Tour Fantasy on Kazakh Themes and Capriccio for Piano nized for her versatility appearance at Cal Performances with the Russian and, in collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon, and Orchestra. His unrivaled transcriptions for pi- and breadth of accom- National Orchestra under the baton of Mikhail the Mikhail Pletnev Beethoven Project. ano of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Sleeping plishment in the opera Pletnev, in the world premiere of his Yeats Song As a guest conductor, Mr. Pletnev appears Beauty were selected, along with his performance and song repertoire, in Cycle; a recital of songs by American composers regularly with leading orchestras such as London’s of Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto and The live performance and with Kristin Pankonin at the Rose Theater in New Philharmonia Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Seasons, for the 1998 anthology Great Pianists of the

on recordings. Lisa Delan York City; and a return to the Festival del Sole. Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Concertgebouw 20th Century (Philips Classics). Ms. Delan has performed on some of the Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Los The son of musician parents, Mr. Pletnev was world’s leading concert stages, including Lincoln Mikhail Pletnev is Angeles Philharmonic and City of Birmingham conducting and learning multiple instruments as a Center, the Auditiorio Nacional in Madrid, the an artist whose ge- Symphony. In 2008, he was named first guest con- young child and entered the Moscow Conservatory, and in a special appearance nius as pianist, con- ductor of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in as a teenager. Today, he is one of Russia’s most at Windsor Castle. Her festival appearances include ductor and composer Lugano, . respected and influential artists. An advisor on the Bad Kissingen Festival in ; the Colmar enchants and amazes As a solo pianist and recitalist, Mr. Pletnev ap- Russia’s Cultural Council, in 2007 Mr. Pletnev Festival in France; the Rachmaninoff Festival in audiences around the pears regularly in the world’s music capitals. His was awarded a Presidential Prize for his contri- Novgorod, Russia; the Festival del Sole in Napa globe. His musician- recordings and live performances have proved him butions to the artistic life of the country. Pianist, Valley, ; and the Tuscan Sun Festival in ship encompasses a to be an outstanding interpreter of an extensive conductor, composer and cultural leader—all are Cortona, Italy. Most recently, she performed in the dazzling technical repertoire. Mr. Pletnev’s recordings have earned significant facets of Mikhail Pletnev’s life as an art- 2009 Domaine Forget Festival in Canada, in col- power and provocative numerous prizes, including a 2005 Grammy ist. Yet he considers himself, simply, a musician. laboration with cellist Matt Haimowitz. emotional range, and

Ms. Delan won recognition from singing Phil Sayer a searching interpreta- the title role in the world premiere of Gordon tion that fuses instinct Getty’s Joan and the Bells in 1998, a role she has with intellect. At the keyboard and podium alike, since reprised in France, Germany, the United Mr. Pletnev is recognized as one of the finest artists States and Russia, and on the 2002 recording for of our time. He was winner of the Gold Medal and PentaTone Classics. First Prize at the 1978 Tchaikovsky International As a recital artist, her repertoire encompasses Piano Competition when he was only 21, a prize the Baroque to the contemporary and she is privi- that earned him early recognition worldwide. leged to collaborate with composers whose musi- An invitation to perform at the 1988 superpower cal lives are still works in progress: Ms. Delan has summit in Washington led to a friendship with performed and recorded the music of William and the historic opportunity Bolcom, John Corigliano, David Garner, Gordon to make music in artistic freedom.

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