Thursday Evening, April 11, 2019, at 7:30 The Juilliard School presents Juilliard Orchestra Peter Oundjian , Conductor Tabitha Rhee , Viola ERNEST BLOCH (1880 –1959) Suite for Viola and Orchestra Lento—Allegro—Moderato Allegro ironico Lento Molto vivo TABITHA RHEE, Viola Intermission ANTON BRUCKNER (1824 –96) Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major (“Romantic”) Bewegt, nicht zu schnell (Moving, not too fast) Andante, quasi allegretto Scherzo: Bewegt (Moving) Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell (Moving, but not too fast) Performance time: approximately 2 hours, including an intermission The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not permitted in this auditorium. Information regarding gifts to the school may be obtained from the Juilliard School Development Office, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-6588; (212) 799-5000, ext. 278 (juilliard.edu/giving). Alice Tully Hall Please make certain that all electronic devices are turned off during the performance. Notes on the Program countries I so often dreamed of, though never was fortunate enough to visit in any by Frank Villella other way than through my imagination. … From the beginning, I had the idea of an Suite for Viola and Orchestra orchestral version, and took notes to that ERNEST BLOCH effect. The first movement was instru - Born July 24, 1880, in Geneva, mented in June 1919, and the whole score Switzerland was finished in the autumn.” Died July 15, 1959, in Portland, Oregon Louis Bailly, then the violist in the New Barely two months before the armistice York–based Flonzaley Quartet, and pianist was signed to end World War I, the Harold Bauer gave the first performance of Berkshire Festival (billed as the “first the Suite for Viola and Piano at the chamber music festival given in America”) Berkshire Festival on September 27, 1919. was inaugurated on September 16, 1918, One year later the premiere of Bloch’s in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Elizabeth orchestration of the suite was the vehicle Sprague Coolidge, the festival’s sponsor, for Bailly’s debut at Carnegie Hall, and he offered $1,000 for the best new string performed it with the National Symphony quartet. The prize was awarded to Tadeusz Orchestra (no relation to the present Iarecki, a 19-year-old Polish composer, for Washington, D.C.–based orchestra, founded his Quartet for Strings, which premiered in 1931; in 1921 the earlier ensemble on the festival’s second day. merged with the New York Philharmonic) under the baton of Artur Bodanzky on For the festival the following year, Coolidge November 5 and 7, 1920. announced the competition would be for compositions for viola and piano. Seventy- The instrumentation calls for solo viola, two composers submitted works for con - two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English sideration, and Ernest Bloch’s Suite for horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bas - Viola and Piano and Rebecca Clarke’s soons, contrabassoon, four horns, three Sonata for Viola and Piano tied for first trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, place, with the prize ultimately awarded to bass drum, side drum, wood block, cym - Bloch (partially because the judges report - bals, triangle, xylophone, gong, campanelli, edly did not believe a woman was capable celesta, two harps, and strings. of composing a work as impressive as Clarke’s sonata). The suite begins with “the impression of a very wild and primitive Nature … a kind of Bloch had composed the suite in New York savage cry, like that of a fierce bird of between February and May 1919 during prey” as described by the composer. A his tenure as the first composition teacher contemplative misterioso leads into the at the Mannes School of Music. In his own allegro and its subsequent development description, he wrote, “my suite does not before returning to the first meditative belong to my so-called ‘Jewish works,’ theme. The second movement, in rondo though perhaps, in spite of myself, one form, is a “curious mixture of grotesque may perceive here and there a few places and fantastic creatures, of sardonic and of certain Jewish inspiration. It is rather a mysterious moods.” A dreamy melody vision of the Far East that inspired me: opens the lento, expressing the “mystery Java, Sumatra, Borneo—those wonderful of tropical nights” and occasionally hinting back to motives from the suite’s opening. could not even bring myself to sit down In the final movement—“probably the most in his presence at first, [and] I did not cheerful thing I ever wrote”—earlier sub - dare show him any compositions of mine jects are hinted at and transformed, be - even then.” fore the first movement is “triumphantly recalled,” as the solo viola evokes the open - This lack of confidence, likely a result of ing mediation, leading into a brief and joyful his humble upbringing, haunted Bruckner allegro vivace to bring the suite to its close. throughout his life, and the first symphony that he was willing to acknowledge—No. 1 Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major in C minor—was not completed until 1866. (“Romantic”) Previous (an F minor symphony) and sub - ANTON BRUCKNER sequent (one in D minor, later called No. 0 Born September 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, or Die Nullte ) attempts were not per - near Linz, Austria formed or published in his lifetime. The Died October 11, 1896, in Vienna, Austria second and third were each revised sev - eral times by the composer, as he contin - Anton Bruckner began learning the organ ued to suffer from the criticism of others as a child, and his father, the schoolmaster as well as from his own second thoughts. in Ansfelden, was his first music teacher. After his father’s death in 1837, Bruckner In January 1874 Bruckner began working enrolled as a chorister at Saint Florian, on his Fourth Symphony and completed where he continued his organ studies, also the first version by November. It was sub - adding piano, violin, and music theory. mitted to the Vienna Philharmonic in 1875 After later receiving educational instruction for a trial rehearsal, but only the first move - in Linz, he returned to Saint Florian as a ment was deemed acceptable, and the teacher and organist before continuing his score was rejected. In early 1878 he signif - studies in harmony and counterpoint with icantly revised the first two movements Simon Sechter in Vienna. In 1861 Bruckner and replaced the finale; in December he commenced lessons in form and orches - eliminated the scherzo and added a com - tration from Otto Kitzler in Linz, where he pletely new third movement. The following also had been working as cathedral organ - year he returned to the work, and between ist since 1856. November 1879 and June 1880 he com - posed a third version of the finale. This ver - When a production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser sion premiered on February 20, 1881, in was planned for Linz, Kitzler and his stu - Vienna under the baton of Hans Richter to dent began studying the score together. great acclaim and was the composer’s first The performance in February 1863 had a real success. tremendous impact on Bruckner, expand - ing his concepts of harmony and orchestra - Following the first performance, Bruckner tion, and the following year—at age 40—he made a cut in the slow movement and completed his first mature composition, a again reworked the finale. (Based on the mass in D minor. composer’s manuscript held at the Austrian National Library in Vienna, this edition was In June 1865 he attended the premiere of published by musicologist Robert Haas in Tristan und Isolde in Munich and met the 1936 and is the version we hear tonight.) composer. “I introduced myself to the Master, who proved unusually kind and Bruckner again made a number of changes friendly towards me,” wrote Bruckner. “I in 1886 (later published as the Leopold Nowak edition) to prepare a score for sonata form, alternating and developing Anton Seidl, who gave the first perfor - two ideas, first in the cellos and later in the mance in the U.S. on March 16, 1888, in violas with pizzicato accompaniment. During New York’s Chickering Hall. In 1887 and a greatly extended coda, the music rises to 1888 Bruckner thoroughly revised the a full orchestral climax before dissolving symphony again, and that version was pre - into a pianissimo . miered by the Vienna Philharmonic, again with Hans Richter on the podium, on The third movement begins with exuber - January 20, 1888, and published the fol - ant horn calls and trumpet fanfares. This lowing year by Albert J. Gutman. eventually relaxes into a trio in the style of a ländler, a folk dance in 3/4 time, intro - Even though some of the symphonies duced by the flute and clarinet and ulti - have sobriquets, “Romantic” was the only mately concluding with restatements of one added by the composer himself. After the movement’s opening. For the finale, composing and revising the work, Bruckner Bruckner returns to sonata form, again also provided this description of the first with three themes combined and devel - movement: “Medieval city—dawn—morning oped, eventually followed by an extended calls sound from the towers—the gates and spacious coda. open—on proud steeds, knights ride into the open—woodland magic embraces “Bruckner is lavish with the amount of them—forest murmurs—bird song—and material he presents and uses,” com - thus the romantic picture unfolds.” mented Michael Steinberg. “Many of his abruptions are powerfully eloquent, and The symphony is scored for two flutes, the themes themselves are full of variety two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, and character. And he certainly achieves four horns, three trumpets, three trom - here one of his greatest codas, a journey in bone, tuba, timpani, and strings.