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Home , Barbara Hannigan, Daniel Harding, Goddard Lieberson, Heinz Holliger, Isabelle Faust, Jeffrey Tate

OJAI AT BERKELEY , MuSIC DIRECTOR

The four programs presented in Berkeley this month mark the eighth year of artistic partnership between the and Cal Performances and represent the combined efforts of two great arts organizations committed to innovative and adventur- ous programming.

themes from the Latin Requiem mass and fea- tures music by composers such as Scelsi, Biber, and ustwols kaja. It was premiered in North America last week, as part of the Ojai Music Festival. The violinist will revive Bye Bye Bee - tho ven here at uC Berkeley and at the Alde - burgh Festival later this summer. György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto is a feature of Kopatchinskaja’s season, with other highlights including performances with the Cham - ber Orchestra at the Enescu Festival in Bucha - rest under Jonathan Stockhammer and concerts with Orches tra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI. Last season’s highlights included Kopatch - inskaja’s work as artist-in-residence at major European venues and festivals including the Ber lin Konzerthaus, the , and ’s Wigmore Hall, as well as perform- ances with Sir and the Berlin Phil harmonic, and the London Philharmonic Or chestra in London and New York under . is immensely important to Kopatchinskaja and she performs regularly Marco Borggreve with artists including Markus Hinterhäuser, Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s versatility re- , Anthony Romaniuk, and Jay veals itself through her diverse repertoire, which Camp bell at such leading venues as the Berlin ranges from Baroque and Classical music, often Konzerthaus, Konzerthaus, and Con - played on gut strings, to new commissions and cert gebouw . She is also an artistic re-interpretations of modern masterworks. partner with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Kopatchinskaja’s 2017–18 season commenced and performs with the ensemble regularly, both with the world premiere of her new project, Dies in Saint Paul and internationally. The current Irae, at the Lucerne Festival, where she was season also sees Kopatchinskaja partner with a featured artist. Following the success of her cellist Jay Campbell in an eclectic program at Bye Bye Beethoven program with the Mahler ’s Armory, and for a series of Chamber Orchestra in 2016, Dies Irae is her recitals throughout with Polina second staged program, and draws on music Leschenko, including appearances in London’s from Gregorian chant to contemporary com- Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Boulez Saal, and the positions. The project is conceptualized using Vienna Konzerthaus.

 OJAI AT BERKELEY

Kopatchinskaja was awarded the prestigious to working for the Disney Company, he worked Swiss Grand Award for Music by the Switz er - for CBS, including five years as general man- land Federal Office of Culture in September ager of KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. 2017 and has already added to her success this Bennett holds an MBA from Harvard uni - season with a Grammy Award for Best Cham - versity and a BA in political science from the ber Music/Small Ensemble Per formance for her university of California, Berkeley. He has Death and the Maiden recording performed served on the Public Television Advisory Board with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, re- at the Annenberg School at uSC and on the leased on Alpha Classics. boards of the National Environmental Trust Kopatchinskaja is a prolific recording artist, in Washington (DC), St. Nicholas Theatre in and recent seasons have seen an album of Chicago, and Marlborough School in Los Kancheli’s music with and the Angeles, among others. ; a disc of duos entitled Take Two on Alpha Classics; a recording of Schu - Thomas W. Morris was mann’s Violin Concerto and Fantasy with WDR appointed artistic direc- Sin fonie orchester Köln under tor of the Ojai Music for Audite; and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto Festival starting with the with and Musica Aeterna 2004 festival. As artistic released on Sony. Her disc for Naïve Classique director, he is respon sible featuring concertos by Bartók, Ligeti, and Peter for artistic planning and Eötvös won Gramophone’s Recording of the each year appoints a Year Award in 2013, an ECHO Klassik Award, mu sic director with whom and a 2014 Grammy nomination. Kopatch in - he shapes the festival’s programming. skaja’s most recent album, Deux, released in Morris’ tenure with Ojai has been marked January 2018 on Alpha Classics, was recorded by increased audiences, expansion of the festi- with recital partner Polina Leschenko. Together val’s scope and density, creation of important the duo explores and reimagines sonatas of collaborative partnerships—Ojai at Berkeley Ravel, Poulenc, Bartók, and Dohnányi. with Cal Performances since 2011 and a new partnership with ’s Aldeburgh Festival Before his appointment beginning this year; and the institution of a as president of the Ojai comprehensive program of video streaming of Music Festival in 2015, all concerts. Jamie Bennett was the Morris is recognized as one of the most in- chief operating officer novative leaders in the orchestra industry and of Southern California served as the long-time chief executive of both Insti tute of Architecture the and the Boston Sym - (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles phony Orchestra. He is currently active nation- for six years. He has ally and internationally as a consultant, lecturer, worked extensively in nonprofits and as an ex- teacher, and writer. Morris was a founding di- ecutive in media companies in Los Angeles and rector of Spring for Music and served as the London. Ben nett has also been a business ad- project’s artistic director. He is currently vice visor, investor, and director with the Pasadena chair of the board of directors of the Interlochen Angels, which specializes in local emerging Center for the Arts and is also an accomplished growth companies. percussionist. Bennett served as CEO of worldwide pro- In November 2017, Morris announced his ductions for London-based Pearson Television, decision to retire as the Ojai Music Festival’s as CEO of Los Angeles-based ACI television, artistic director following the 2019 Festival with and as a senior vice president at Disney’s Buena music director , aer shap- Vista Television Productions in Burbank. Prior ing Ojai’s artistic direction for 16 years.

 PLAYBILL OJAI AT BERKELEY

OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL 1981 Daniel Lewis MUSIC DIRECTORS 1982 Robert Craft 1983 Daniel Lewis 1947 Thor Johnson 1984 1948 Thor Johnson 1985 Kent Nagano Edward Rebner 1986 Kent Nagano 1949 Thor Johnson Stephen Mosko 1950 Thor Johnson 1987 1951 William Steinberg 1988 Nicholas McGegan 1952 Thor Johnson Sir Peter Maxwell Davies 1953 Thor Johnson Diane Wittry 1954 Robert Craft 1989 Pierre Boulez 1955 Robert Craft 1990 Stephen Mosko 1991 1956 Robert Craft Sir Peter Maxwell Davies Igor Stravinsky 1992 Pierre Boulez 1957 1993 John Adams Ingolf Dahl 1994 1958 Aaron Copland 1995 Kent Nagano 1959 Robert Craft 1996 Pierre Boulez 1960 Henri Temianka 1997 1961 Lukas Foss 1962 Lukas Foss 1998 1963 Lukas Foss David Zinman 1964 Ingolf Dahl 1999 Esa-Pekka Salonen 1965 Ingolf Dahl 2000 Sir Simon Rattle 1966 Ingolf Dahl 2001 Esa-Pekka Salonen 1967 Pierre Boulez 2002 Emerson String Quartet 1968 Robert LaMarchina 2003 Pierre Boulez Lawrence Foster 2004 Kent Nagano Michael Tilson Thomas 2005 Oliver Knussen 1969 Michael Zearott 2006 Robert Spano Stefan Minde 2007 Pierre-Laurent Aimard Michael Tilson Thomas 2008 David Robertson 1970 Pierre Boulez 2009 Eighth Blackbird 1971 Gerhard Samuel 2010 George Benjamin 1972 Michael Zearott 2011 Dawn upshaw 1973 Michael Tilson Thomas 2012 1974 Michael Tilson Thomas 2013 Mark Morris 1975 Michael Tilson Thomas 2014 Jeremy Denk 1976 Aaron Copland 2015 Steven Schick 1977 Michael Tilson Thomas 2016 Peter Sellars 1978 Calvin Simmons 2017 Vijay Iyer 1979 Lukas Foss 2018 Patricia Kopatchinskaja 1980 Lukas Foss

 A MESSAGE FROM MUSIC DIRECTOR Patricia Kopatchinskaja n artist is always searching, deciphering, The concert dedicated to Michael’s music also investigating new scores and spiritual affords the rare privilege of hearing him inter- Aterritories, like an astronomer who tries pret his own works from the keyboard. to discover new constellations in the darkness My dearest treasure to share with you is the of the night sky or a scientist who penetrates into Eastern European folk music from my small the secrets of our universe. corner of the world, as well as some incredible While an explorer’s life is not easy, the risks music derived from these roots: Enescu, Bartók, and adventures make it all the more thrilling. Rădu lescu. To do so in collaboration with my In that spirit, I am pleased to welcome you to parents is a true joy. this special Ojai at Berkeley series of concerts, Kurtág’s geographical neighbor and friend the eighth year of partnership between Ojai and György Ligeti will be another focus. Ligeti barely Cal Performances. It is wonderful to present this survived the Holocaust. unable to become a music in Berkeley. scientist because of anti-Semitic regulations, Throughout my musical life I have often felt his composing was infused with an ever exper- a lack of significance in the conventional con- imental and sometimes scurrilous outlook. cert routines, and therefore, during the past The Berkeley festival concludes with his Violin few years, I have tried to stage concerts around Concerto: it sums up Ligeti’s work and uses meaningful context. We will present one such diverse musical material from many centuries, program here in Berkeley: Bye Bye Beethoven from the medieval French Notre Dame school, is the articulation of the oppressed feeling mu- complex eastern European folklore rhythms and sicians can experience if we are only allowed to folk songs, and fascinating, colorful, exotic mi- play the same old repertory in the same old way. crotonality and instrumentation including oca - Nothing against Beetho ven—he remains the rinas and lotos flutes. greatest—but he would be the first to protest the For these concerts, I greatly look forward fossilization of musical life. to reuniting with many outstanding musicians: György Kurtág’s work, which features in including my time-tested friends from the Bye Bye Beethoven, is to me the epicenter of Mah ler Chamber Orchestra, singers Ah Young today’s musical nervous system black- Hong and Kiera Duffy, pianist Amy Yang, and substance; his musical formulas are written many others. with an surgical knife. He is the master of la- What a privilege to chart daring paths into the conic condensation. musical wonderland of Ojai and Berkeley, to- I am also very pleased that you will be hear- gether with all these incredible musicians and ing music by the uncompromising American composers! Where else is one asked to present composer , from Baltimore, the works that really matter; where else is the whose I hope we get a chance to visit soon audience as courageous and curious? It feels like received its world premiere in Ojai last week. the most miraculous dream come true. —Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Opposite: Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Photo by Marco Borggreve.  Songs of the Earth atricia Kopatchinskaja thrives on con- liness, and losing yourself in a space so won- frontation—the kind, that is, that startles derful you can whisper.” And she values com- Pcomplacency into comprehension, trans- posers who have the capacity to peer into the forming the numbing rituals of culture into art abyss, to confront its terrors. that is vital and alive. Her passion for theater is Michael Hersch is such a composer. His fueled by the urgency with which she makes music can be hard and unsparing, but it is also music. She is impatient, in a hurry, eager to devoid of the self-pity that might lead us to dis- push on, to explore new possibilities, new miss it as “a private affair.” We are here, too, and audi ences, new venues, new music. Bye Bye Bee - if honest, have known such desolation without thoven is her call to arms to break out of stag- having had the gift—or courage—to put it into nant routine and embrace the future. She invests words or sounds. What this music communi- similar fervor into her own explosive and often cates is not just the utter futility of escape but idiosyncratic performances. These are not the something more tragic still: that we alone, in all eccentricities of a prima donna, but the care- creation, have the capacity to know. fully considered interpretations of an artist ded- There is also an element of Romanticism icated to communicating feelings and ideas. running through this year’s festival—in its dark- In this festival Kopatchinskaja is joined by ness and melancholy, its utopian dreams and friends and colleagues who share that passion— dystopian nightmares, its contrasts between artists including Ah Young Hong, Kiera Duffy, flights of virtuosity and quiet introspection. Maria ursprung, Tito Muñoz, Amy Yang, And yet there is also something profoundly Philipp von Steinaecker, and the Mahler contemporary in its structures, a festival of Cham ber Orchestra—as well as the two gifted samplings and mashups that speaks to the per- folk musicians from whom it was inherited— spectives of our time, in which we have become her parents, Viktor Kopatchinsky and Emilia unmoored from single narratives, addressing Kopatchinskaja. Their music is a product of the the need for what the late historian Hayden same complex mix of Eastern European cultures White called “a history that will educate us to that inspired composers as diverse as George discontinuity more than ever before; for dis- Enescu, Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartók, György continuity, disruption, and chaos is our lot.” Ligeti, György Kurtág, and Horaţiu Rădulescu. This is not a festival of answers, of glib hopes It is music that often combines frenetic joy with or New Age banalities. Rather, it celebrates the melancholy and yearning, an amalgam that heightened, defiant intensity of being—the seems deeply imbedded in Kopatchinskaja’s own giddy terror of holding on to that spinning musical personality. planet like a child hanging tight on a whirling Music in its fragility—sound, at birth, begins merry-go-round. Kopatchinskaja urges us not its decay—epitomizes this precarious state. to look away, but to peer into the night, listen- Even the most joyous sounds (perhaps espe- ing to music that, if only briefly, has the capac- cially these). Kopatchinskaja knows about such ity to hold life’s joys and tragedies in tenuous fragility, of the darkness of night, about “lone- balance. “Music,” she had written, “has the

 PLAYBILL power to disarm façades, a force that can history of Viennese musical modernism. His ar- remind every hearing person of the nakedness, ticles and essays have been devoted to composers awkwardness, curiosity, and fantasy of child - ranging from to . hood.” Such vulnerability offers the possibility Hailey has been a frequent lecturer for the Los of rebirth. In this time and this place, in land- Angeles Philharmonic and is a longtime lecturer scapes scarred by the ravages of fire and water, and annotator for the Ojai Music Festival. He has hungry for regeneration and renewal, these are taught at the Institute of the the songs of our earth. University for Music and Performing Arts in —Christopher Hailey Vienna and is director of the Franz Schreker Foundation. In 2006–07, he was Edward T. Cone Member in Musical Studies at the Institute for Christopher Hailey, educated at Duke and Yale Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, and he was Universities, is a music historian specializing in the 2010 scholar-in-residence at the Bard Music new music. He is the author of a biography of the Festival, with the theme “ and His composer Franz Schreker, and an editor of the World.” Hailey is a lecturer at Princeton Uni - correspondence between Alban Berg and Arnold versity and the College of New Jersey and was a Schoen berg, as well as of numerous works by co-editor of the Journal of Musicology from Berg and Schreker, and is currently writing a 2011–15.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Molinavisuals

The (MCO) was decisions are made democratically with the par- founded in 1997 based on the shared vision of ticipation of all musicians. a free and international ensemble dedicated to The MCO’s sound is characterized by the creating and sharing exceptional experiences in chamber music style of ensemble playing among classical music. With 45 members from 20 dif- its alert and independent musical personalities. ferent countries at its core, the MCO works as Its core repertoire, ranging from the Viennese a nomadic collective of passionate musicians Classical and early Romantic periods to contem- uniting for specific tours in Europe and across porary works and world premieres, reflects the the world. The orchestra is constantly on the MCO’s agility in crossing musical boundaries. move; it has, to date, performed in 36 countries The orchestra received its most significant across five continents. It is governed collectively artistic direction from its founding mentor, by its management team and orchestra board— , and from Conductor Laureate

 Daniel Harding. Pianist Mitsuko uchida, vio- MCO Academy, worked with young musicians linist Isabelle Faust, and conductor Teodor Cur - to provide them with high-quality orchestral rentzis are current Artistic Partners and inspire experiences and a unique platform for net- and shape the orchestra during long-term col- working and international exchange. laborations. In 2016 conductor In recent years, the MCO’s major projects was appointed Artistic Advisor. Concert master have included the award-winning Beethoven Matthew Truscott leads and directs the orches- Journey with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, who led tra regularly in its performances of chamber or- the complete Beethoven concerto cycle from chestra repertoire. the keyboard in international residencies over MCO musicians all share a strong desire to four years, and the opera production Written continually deepen their engagement with au- on Skin, which the MCO premiered at Festival diences. Since 2012, Feel The Music, the MCO’s d’Aix en Provence under the baton of composer flagship education and outreach project, has George Benjamin. In 2016 the MCO and Mit - opened the world of music to deaf and hearing- suko uchida embarked on a multiple-season impaired children through interactive work- partnership centered on Mozart’s con- shops in schools and concert halls. MCO certos. upon the conclusion of a complete mem bers are equally committed to sharing their cycle of Beethoven symphonies, the MCO and passion and expertise with the next generation Daniele Gatti continue their focus on Robert of musicians: since 2009, they have, through the Schumann’s symphonic work.

MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTTRA

Violin I Flute Meesun Hong Coleman** (uSA) Chiara Tonelli () Elvira van Groningen (Netherlands) Júlia Gállego (Spain) Kirsty Hilton (Australia) May Kunstovny () Mizuho Yoshii-Smith (Japan) Anna Matz () Rosemary Staniforth (Great Britain) Timothy Summers (uSA) Clarinet Violin II Vicente Alberola (Spain) Johannes Lörstad* (Sweden) Raphael Schenkel (Germany) Sornitza Baharova (Germany) Nitzan Bartana (Israel) Stephanie Baubin (Austria) Saxton Rose (uSA) Michiel Commandeur (Netherlands) Michael Cody Dean (uSA) Christian Heubes (Germany) Horn Stefán Bernharðsson Wilkinson (Iceland) Joel Hunter* (Great Britain) Tobias Heimann (Germany) Florent Brémond (France) Trumpet Yannick Dondelinger (Great Britain) Christopher Dicken (Great Britain) Delphine Tissot (France) Matthew Sadler (Great Britain) Violoncello Trombone Benjamin Santora* (Switzerland) Andreas Klein (Germany) Stefan Faludi (Germany) Christophe Morin (France) Timpani Philipp von Steinaecker (Germany) Martin Piechotta (Germany) Double Bass Percussion Maria Krykov* (Finland) Christian Miglioranza (Italy) Piotr Zimnik (Poland) Rizumu Sugishita (Japan) ** Concertmaster * Principal

 PLAYBILL Thursday, June 14, 2018, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Bye Bye Beethoven Staged concert conceptualized by Patricia Kopatchinskaja (Bay Area Premiere)

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin Mahler Chamber Orchestra Maria ursprung, stage director

PROGRAM

Charles IVES (1874 –1954) The Unanswered Question (1906)

Franz (1732–1809) Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, (arr. Ángel Hernández-Lovera) Farewell (1772) Finale: Preston—Adagio

John CAGE (1912–1992) “Once upon a Time” from Living Room Music (1940)

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685–1750) Es ist genug (1723)

György KuRTÁG (b. 1926) The Answered Unanswered Question (1989)

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (1806) Allegro ma non troppo Larghetto Rondo. Allegro

All pieces performed attacca.

This performance will last approximately 75 minutes and will be performed without an intermission.

Cal Performances’ 2017–18 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.



PROGRAM NOTES

Memory really matters only if it binds together Decay? Well it’s only natural. Composers the imprint of the past and the project of the are cocooned in their sounds. There are con- future. texts, influences, references, and allusions, all —Italo Calvino knocking about within a lifetime’s creative pre- occupations. Each “body of work,” however, Tonight’s concert grew out of the frustrations of dis inte grates in time, crumbles away into indi- a concert artist—Patricia Kopatchinskaja—with vidual pieces, movements, gestures, even mo- the habits and institutions that shape and nur- tives that eventually float free, unmoored, some ture a career: looming larger than life, others surviving as mere shards of memory. You just feel strangled by tradition if you are This seemed fine to Charles Ives. He loved only allowed to play the big old monuments like those bits and pieces of cultural recall that haunt Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikov sky, our conscious and unconscious selves. His Sibelius, and never something else. The Bye Bye music is full of them, many evoking personal Beetho ven project articulates this feeling. It’s not against Beethoven, who remains one of the associations that are themselves now lost. Lost, greatest ever, but against a pervasive lack of perhaps, or never there. Ives was comfortable, curiosity about the present and the future. too, with the incomplete, the unresolved. His Unanswered Question—he called it a “cosmic Kopatchinskaja is nothing if not curious. She landscape”—is a layering of fragments: hushed, is committed to what is current and coming. hymn-like chords in the strings (“The Silences “New music,” she argues, “should be the focal of the Druids—Who Know, See, and Hear point; old pieces are allowed but only in excep- Nothing”), a distant trumpet posing “The Peren - tional cases.” And yet, here we are with Bach, nial Question of Existence,” and woodwinds, Haydn, Beethoven, Ives, Cage, and Kur tág, old struggling to find “The Invisible An swer.” It is and new to varying degrees, but classics all. There the question that lingers, hanging in the air. can be no doubt about Kopatch inskaja’s dedica- Like the two violins, fragile wisps of sound, tion to new music, to living composers, to culti- suspended at the end of Haydn’s Farewell vating vibrant curiosity in her colleagues and Sym phony. It’s a clever bit of self-erasure— audiences. She is an artist on the move, eager to music dies away, candles are extinguished, follow where creativity may lead. One of those players shuffle off—all to nudge a prince to paths led her to a composer/performer who return to town. Town to country, country to helped inspire Bye Bye Beethoven, the turn tablist town, an annual ritual, summer and fall, back Jorge Sanchez-Chiong, whose medium is revo - and forth, and back again, round and round… lution: around and around, stop-start-reverse- as Gertrude Stein might have, and indeed, did advance, time leaping ahead, lagging behind. His say: “Once upon a time the world was round, raw materials are recordings, things captured on and you could go on it around and around….” vinyl, new, old, snatches of this and that. “Turn - John Cage hopped aboard for the ride and in tables are flexible,” he writes, “idiosyncratic and, the second movement of his four-movement if you like, democratic too…, transformed from Living Room Music, he set this text for speech the passive role of a player to an idiosyncratic, quartet. fresh and versatile instrument.” Another quartet steps away from earthly Does that describe performers as well? gyration with a 17th-century meditation on Kopatchinskaja thinks so: “We’ve gotten too life’s end: comfortable. We play what we know…we’ve gotten used to reproducing.” In designing this Now good night, o world. concert, she, too, has become a turntablist, I am going to heaven’s house, bringing a mashup of this and that, old and I go confidently from here with joy; new—evoking that process by which new my dismal sorrow remains down below. growth emerges from the decay of the old. It is enough!

Opposite: Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Photo by Julia Wesely.  PROGRAM NOTES

Bach made this chorale his own, as did Alban follows, “like a small bird flying over a majestic Berg, who used it in his violin concerto. Why landscape. I take my twists and turns and some - do the slow-moving chords of György Kurtág’s times even disappear between the clouds.” But music trouble us here? The sustained sonor ities above all, Kopatchinskaja has been inspired of cellos and violins evoke Ives’ druidic silences, by Beethoven’s own autograph score. Her speculation fully validated by Kurtág’s title, various interpolations draw directly from this “The Answered unanswered Ques tion.” But source, “with its many deletions, alterations, aren’t there also hints of Bach’s chorale, and and alternative versions,” a manuscript that even of that concerto by Berg? “gives the impression of an exuberant written The Beethoven Violin Concerto has become improvisation, an impression that I also try a signature work for Kopatchinskaja. She has to translate into my interpretation.” No less studied the sources to reconstruct those “con- striking are her cadenzas, adapted from those texts, influences, references, and allusions” that Beethoven wrote for the keyboard version of shaped the work, such as the martial bearing— the work—including a part for the timpani. the influence of the French Revolution!—that As the third movement comes to a close—or lends an element of menace to the opening tim- doesn’t—it’s “Beethoven, farewell” and Ludwig’s pani solo (so why not move that timpani front turn to have a spin: and center?). She has restored the lively tempi of Beethoven’s own metronome markings and the We want to clean our ears. They are all clogged intimacy Beethoven prized in the playing of the up with classical music.… As someone who work’s dedicatee, Franz Clement, a violinist of with her fragile acoustic instrument—the violin—represents the spirit of times past, I elegance, delicacy, and “indescribable tender - need all my animal energies to combat this wild ness.” She avoids the heroics that have so often electric dragon perched on his metal stool over turned this concerto into a “slow, massive, his turntables. and overweight structure without charm or seduction.” Where the orchestra leads, she —Christopher Hailey

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin and director) completing her education, ursprung worked as is the music director of the 2018 Ojai Music Fes- a director’s assistant and dramatic adviser at tival. For a full biography, please see pp. 13–14. Theater Basel. From 2009 to 2012 she was a director’s assistant at Thalia Theater Hamburg, For background on the Mahler Chamber where she worked with Luk Perceval, David Orchestra (MCO), please see pp. 19–20. Marton, Stefan Pucher, and Jette Steckel. ur - sprung also collaborated on later productions Maria Ursprung (stage director) is a theater di- at Theaterhaus Jena, Staatstheater Darmstadt, rector and dramatic writer. She began to work and Konzerttheater . Since 2014 she has with Patricia Kopatchinskaja in 2015. Together, worked for several publications as a dramatic they created the staged concert Bye Bye Beetho - writer, creating works for theater as well as radio ven with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for the plays in Switzerland and Germany. ur sprung 2016 Hamburg International Music Festival. has completed scenic orchestra projects with ursprung was born in Solothurn, Switz - Jeffrey Tate and the Hamburger Symphoniker erland, and studied in Bern and Berlin, gradu- as well as with Happy New Ears in Hamburg. ating from the university of Bern with degrees For the Lucerne Festival in 2017, she directed in theater studies and German literature. After and wrote the Festival’s Late Night Show. Friday, June 15, 2018, 8pm Zellerbach Hall The Music of Michael Hersch

Ah Young Hong and Kiera Duffy, soprano Michael Hersch and Amy Yang, piano Gary Louie, alto saxophone Musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra Raphael Schenkel, clarinet; Michael Cody Dean, bassoon; Meesun Hong Coleman and Anna Matz, violin; Joel Hunter, viola; Benjamin Santora, violoncello; Piotr Zimnik, double bass Tito Muñoz, conductor

PROGRAM

Michael HERSCH (b. 1971) of ages manifest I for unaccompanied saxophone (2012) The Vanishing Pavilions for piano Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 19, 27, 29 (2001–05) of ages manifest VII for unaccompanied saxophone (2012) Michael Hersch, piano Gary Louie, saxophone

INTERMISSION

HERSCH I hope we get a chance to visit soon (2018) after texts of Rebecca Elson, Mary Harris O’Reilly, and Christopher Middleton (Bay Area Premiere) Commissioned by the Ojai Music Festival, Cal Performances, Aldeburgh Festival, and PNReview Ah Young Hong, soprano I Kiera Duffy, soprano II Amy Yang, piano Gary Louie, alto saxophone Musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra Tito Muñoz, conductor

Cal Performances’ 2017–18 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

 PROGRAM NOTES

Let them be the vanishing pavilions. a pianist. As a result, witnessing the performance There will be remnants, surely, for someone. is essential for taking in what Hersch calls “the The road does not lose itself in such a darkness, expressive terrain that exists within my mind.” The dark beginning to glow, all air For Hersch composing serves “to quiet things A sparkling to be created within,” to put “demons into sound and silence.” For more than horrors to inhabit. His of ages manifest for solo saxophone is a —Christopher Middleton work of sound and silence in seven movements, from The Vanishing Pavilions each of which is linked to poetry by Jean Follain (1903–1971), in translations by Christopher ichael Hersch’s devotion to poetry Middleton. The first, in which isolated multi- runs deep. “I search for like-mind ed phonic tones alternate with mournful melodic Mpoets because it simply makes me feel fragments, is accompanied by these lines: less lonely in the world.” Although specific po- etic ideas are associated with any number of his One speaks as it happens works, he rejects the notion that he is “setting” a few words for oneself texts: “I am already composing, or more accu- alone on this strange earth rately put, attempting to compose what it is while the white flowerlet I want to say, but the text fragment seems to the pebble like any in time past mirror in my own mind that thing I wish to the straw from thatch express, and often does it far better than I.” again connect One such poet was Christopher Middleton down by the barrier (1926–2015), whom Hersch first met in 2001 one slowly opens when both men were fellows at the American to enter the house of clay Academy in Berlin. Half of the pieces of The but then chairs, table, the armoire Vanishing Pavilions are associated with excerpts are aglow with a glory of sun. from Middleton’s collection of the same name, and although these fragments are included in Following five brief movements, the final the score, Hersch feels they represent “an inti- two are considerably longer and more complex, mate conversation between myself and the poet although in keeping with the fundamentally rather than something for public consumption.” contemplative mood of the piece. The verse ac- “The idea of the fragment,” Hersch contin- companying the seventh movement reads: ues, “seems to reside at the heart of how I ap- proach poetical text, which is in stark oppo si tion Back and front of the house to how I generally approach music.…[It is] as don’t brighten at the same time if these fragments are not fragments at all. They shade from sunlit foliage… constitute an entirety for me, a complete verbal but the time may come world that draws me into them specifically for when all that’s left is rock their totality.” under the rain The two books and 50 numbers of The with no flesh trembling Vanishing Pavilions represent an enormous, as in this time of people shot. two-hour cycle structured through recurring gestures, sonorities, and motivic ideas, as well —Christopher Hailey as literal repetition. Though the textures are often dense, clustered, and explosive, exploiting ver the past 11 years, three events in the full range of the keyboard and veering particular have shaped my thinking wildly in mood and atmosphere, one has the Oabout my life and work: the passing of sense of taut control. It is an enormously diffi- a close friend from cancer in 2009; a bout with cult work that Hersch wrote away from the key- the disease myself in 2007; and, just over the past board so as not to be influenced by the habits of year during the majority of the period in which

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

I was writing this evening’s work, my wife’s I hope we get a chance to visit soon is essen- diagnosis and subsequent treatment for the dis- tially an elegy in 19 parts. The piece incorpora- ease. While the treatments and their effects are tes texts from correspondence between O’Reilly deeply challenging and there is always the fear and me, from when she first relayed her diag- that can and often does hover even when one is nosis to the last note I received from her before declared cancer-free, my wife and I are both her death. All of O’Reilly’s words are sung or now okay, if not whole. Though most of us have spoken by the soprano I. Soprano II speaks and had similar encounters with this illness some- sings texts of poet Rebecca Elson (1960–1999), where along the way, for each individual, for who also died prematurely from cancer. Elson’s each family, the ordeal is uniquely personal. poetry seems to articulate in direct terms what While the experiences my wife and I had much of O’Reilly’s thoughts refuse to openly ac- with cancer continue to affect our lives, it is knowledge. The resulting dialog between these the passing of my friend Mary O’Reilly (1964– texts creates a portrait of disease as experienced 2009), that has left me with a grinding feeling by two women struck down in the prime of of unresolvedness; feelings that I often have a their lives. difficult time understanding myself. It is fair Apart from a single line in movement IV, the to say that every work I’ve written since she died opening movement, which is the longest of has been a kind of assessment of that experi- the work’s 19 sections, is the only section in the ence and relationship, and though many of the work where the text is not that of O’Reilly or works I’ve written during this period have, at Elson. It is comprised of fragments by the Brit - least on the surface, kept some distance from ish poet Christopher Middleton, juxtaposed in the events that set the music into motion, this the original English and in Ger man translation. piece engages with the aforementioned circum- Over the years I have written several works in- stances more directly. corporating Middleton texts, and he and I often In certain respects, I hope we get a chance spoke about issues of illness and its effects. A to visit soon is a companion piece to On the few lines seemed to well capture the experience Threshold of Winter, my monodrama from 2012. as I considered it: For the latter work, I crafted a libretto drawn from the final series of poems by Romanian The tentative figures will not bind up the poet Marin Sorescu, who died from cancer in wound. 1996. The poems, written during the last five They are part of the great heave, over and weeks or so of his life, are intimate and unspar- over inflicting it ing, but taken as a whole, even in fragmented The splitting of this mind at that moment form, they strike me as something hovering be- when flesh took… tween reality and a fantastical, nightmarish The abyss place. The primary texts of I hope we get a chance unaccountable. to visit soon allow little room for escapism. —Michael Hersch

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Michael Hersch (composer and piano) is “a natural musical genius who continues to sur- widely regarded as one of today’s most gifted pass himself.” artists. His work has been described by the New Recent and upcoming premieres include his York Times as “viscerally gripping and emo- Violin Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber tionally transformative music…claustrophobic Orchestra, the Avanti Festival in Helsinki, and and exhilarating at once, with moments of sub- the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland; the New lime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark vir- York City premiere of Zwischen Leben und Tod, tuosity.” hails Hersch as at the newly established National Sawdust; and

 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

new productions in Chicago (Ensemble Dal Kiera Duffy (soprano) is recognized for both her Niente) and Salt Lake City (NOVA Chamber gleaming high soprano and insightful musici- Music Series) of his monodrama On the anship in repertoire that encompasses Mozart, Threshold of Winter. Berg, Ligetti, Bach, Boulez, Handel, and Missy Over the past several years, Hersch has Maz zoli. She has appeared with many of the written new works for the Orpheus Chamber major orchestras in the world, including the Orchestra, Ensemble Klang, the Alban Berg , , Ensemble Wien, and the . Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Sym - Other notable events include European per- phony Or chestra, Philharmonic, San formances by the Kreutzer Quartet of Images Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philhar - From a Closed Ward, a recording of the work by monic, Amer ican Symphony Orchestra, Boston the acclaimed FLuX Quartet, and the premiere Symphony Orchestra, Symphony, and of Of Sorrow Born, a work for solo violin com- National Symphony Orchestra. With these or- missioned by the New York Philharmonic. In chestras, she has sung under the batons of con- 2019–20, Hersch will be composer-in-residence ductors including , Lorin with the Camerata Bern in Switzerland. Maazel, Pierre Boulez, , Michael Notable past performances include Night Tilson Thomas, , Alan Gilbert, Pieces, commissioned and premiered by the Kristjan Järvi, Andreas Delfs, and . Cleveland Orchestra, and a song cycle for bari- Duffy recently received the highest critical tone and piano, Domicilium, premiered by acclaim for her portrayal of Bess McNeil in the and Wolfgang Rieger in San world premiere of Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves Francisco. Hersch’s second , along in Philadelphia and New York, for which the the ravines, received performances with proclaimed, “Kiera Duffy’s star Deutsche Radio Philharmonie and the turn was one of the most riveting operatic per- Symphony Orchestra with pianist Shai Wosner. formances of the year.” She was a finalist in His A Forest of Attics, commissioned for the the 2007 National Council Network for New Music’s 25th anniversary sea- Auditions and is featured in the film The Audi - son, was selected as one of the year’s most tion, available through Decca. Duffy may also important classical music events by the Phila del - be heard on an all-Strauss album on Hyperion phia Inquirer. Records; Carmina Burana with Mitteldeutsche Born in Washington (DC) in 1971, Hersch Rund funk on Sony; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 came to international attention at age 25, when with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles he was awarded First Prize in the Concordia Phil harmonic on Detusche Gram mophon; and American Composers Awards. The award re- Mohammed Fairouz’s No Orpheus on Naxos. sulted in a performance of his Elegy, conducted by in New York’s Alice Tully Hall. Ah Young Hong (soprano) has interpreted a vast Later that year he became one of the youngest array of repertoire, ranging from the music of recipients ever of a Guggenheim Fellowship Monteverdi and Bach, to the works of Shosta - in Composition. Hersch has also received the kovich, Babbitt, and György Kurtág. She is best Rome Prize, the Berlin Prize, and the American known for her work in On the Threshold of Academy of Arts & Letters’ Winter, Michael Hersch’s monodrama; the New Fellowship and Charles Ives Scholarship. York Times praised her performance in the Also a gifted pianist, Hersch has appeared world premiere as “the opera’s blazing, lone star.” throughout the uS and Europe. He currently In a recent production directed by the soprano, serves as chair of the composition faculty at the Chicago Tribune called her “absolutely rivet- the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins ing,” and the Chicago Classical Review noted university. Hong’s “fearless presence, wielding her unam- plified, bell-like voice like a weaponized instru- ment. [She] delivered a tour de force vocal

 PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS performance in this almost unfathomably diffi- Gary Louie (saxophone) is internationally re- cult music—attacking the dizzying high notes cognized as one of the leading saxophone vir- with surprising power, racing through the rapid- tuosos of our time, possessing a lively interpretive fire desperation of agitated sections, and bring- imagination coupled with a refreshingly under- ing a numbed, toneless sprechstimme and stated artistry and a warm, supple tone—quali- contralto-like darkness to the low tessitura.” ties that have earned him consistent praise from Other operatic performances by Hong in- audiences and critics alike. Louie’s career has clude the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incorona - long been distinguished by his successful efforts zione di Poppea, Morgana in Handel’s Alcina, to break boundaries and integrate the saxo- Gilda in Verdi’s , Fortuna and Minerva phone and its repertoire into the mainstream of in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and classical music life. Asteria in Handel’s Tamerlano. She has also Louie has been presented by prestigious in- appeared with Opera Lafayette in Rebel and stitutions from coast to coast, including New Fran coeur’s Zélindor, roi des Sylphes at the Rose York City’s for the Performing Theater in Lincoln Center, and as La Musique Arts (at Alice Tully Hall) and the Frick Collec - in Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants at the Ken - tion; California’s La Jolla Chamber Music nedy Center. Society; Boston’s Jordan Hall; the university of In high demand as a concert and chamber Massa chusetts at Amherst; the Philadelphia soloist, Hong has performed with Konzerthaus Museum of Art; the Cleveland Museum of Art; Berlin’s ensemble-in-residence, Ensemble uni- the Phillips Collection; and the Kennedy Center tedberlin, the acclaimed Netherland-based in Washington (DC). International perfor- contemporary music group Ensemble Klang, mances include at L’Opéra Comique () and Dae da lus Quartet, Phoenix Symphony, Charles - Villa Medici (Rome), in Hong Kong and Spain, ton Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and with Vladimir Lande and the Saint Peters - Orchestra, Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, burg Symphony and Germany’s Philhar mo - Wiener KammerOrchester, Con cert Artists of n isches Orchester Augsburg, under the baton Baltimore, and Tempesta di Mare, among oth- of Peter Leonard. ers. During the 2017–18 season, she performed Louie began serious studies on the saxophone with pianist Mark Wait, violinist Carolyn Huebl, with George Etheridge in Washington (DC) and cellist Felix Wang, Ensemble Dal Niente, and went on to study at the university of Michigan utah Opera. Last week, she debuted at the Ojai with the legendary saxophonist and teacher, Festival with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja in Donald Sinta. He currently serves on the faculty György Kurtág’s complete Kafka Fragments. of the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins Hong recorded the American premiere of university. Louie lives in Severna Park, Mary - ’s Alles mit Gott und nichts land, with his wife, pianist Kirsten Taylor, where ohn’ ihn, BWV 1127, for National Public Radio’s in their spare time they enjoy sailing and hiking Performance Today. Other recordings include with their sons, Warren and James. the world premiere of Rebel and Fran coeur’s Zélindor, roi des Sylphes, Pergo lesi’s Stabat Mater, Amy Yang (piano) is a seasoned soloist, cham- and Sentirete una Canzo netta with Harmonious ber musician, and pedagogue, hailed by the Blacksmith. This year sees the commercial re- Washington Post as a “jaw-dropping pianist lease of two new recordings: as featured soloist who [steals] the show…with effortless finesse.” with Ensemble Klang performing Michael Recent engagements include collaborations with Hersch’s Black Untitled and cortex and ankle and the Dover and Jasper String Quartets, and Patri - the soprano’s debut album, a breath upwards, cia Kopatchinskaja and the Saint Paul Chamber with works by Milton Babbitt and Michael Orchestra, as well as appearances with the Hersch. Hong currently serves on faculty at the Orquesta Juvenil universitaria Eduardo Mata at voice department at the Peabody Institute of The uNAM, National Youth Orchestra of the uS, Johns Hopkins university. Tuscaloosa Symphony, Penn Sym phony, Phillips

 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Collection, and the Philadelphia Chamber fourth season as music director of the Phoenix Music Society. Engage ments this season include Symphony, Muñoz previously served as music recitals with Roberto Díaz and Berlin-based director of the Opéra National de Lorraine and Amelia Piano Trio, of which she is the pianist; the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy and at Piano Salon Christofori and Chapelle in France. Prior appointments include assistant Musicale Reine Elisabeth. conductor positions with the Cleveland Orches - Yang’s past engagements include solo appear- tra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati ances with the Houston Symphony, Corpus Chamber Orchestra, and the Aspen Music Christi Symphony, and Connecticut Virtuosi Festival. Orchestra; collaborations with Aizuri, Am - Muñoz has appeared with many of the most phion, and members of Daedalus Quartets; prominent orchestras in North America, inclu- premieres of works by Caro line Shaw, Avner ding those of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cin - Dorman, Ezra Lader man, Paul Wiancko, and cinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, her father, Hua Yang; and appearances at the Indianapolis, and Milwaukee, as well as with the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Chelsea Music Festival, as well as Prussia Cove, Luke’s, and the National Symphony Orchestra. Verbier Aca demy, Caramoor, Chamber Music He maintains a strong international Northwest, and OK Mozart, to name a few. Yang presence, including recent engagements with the has also appeared on radio programs aired on , SWR Sinfonie - WQXR-FM and KuHF-FM. orches ter, Orchestre Philharmonique de Mar - Founder of the Schumann Project, Yang seille, Sao Paolo State Symphony, Lausanne will lecture this year on Schumann’s late piano Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Chamber works, presented by the Philadelphia Music Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, and Teachers’ Association. This year will also see the Sydney Symphony, among others release of her debut solo album of works by A proponent of new music, Muñoz champi- Bach, Schumann, and Caroline Shaw. Further ons the composers of our time through expan- 2018 releases include albums with Tessa Lark, ded programming, commissions, premieres, Itamar Zorman (BIS Records), and a recording and recordings. He has conducted important of Ezra Laderman solo works (Albany Records). premieres of works by Christopher Cerrone, Yang serves as a chamber music mentor at the Kenneth Fuchs, Dai Fujikura, Michael Hersch, Curtis Institute of Music and as a coach at the Adam Schoenberg, and Mauricio Sotelo. He university of Pennsylvania. At Curtis Summer - premiered Hersch’s On the Threshold of Winter fest, she is a faculty member and the program at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2014 and director for its Young Artist Summer Program the composer’s Violin Concerto with Patricia and Chamber Music and Orchestra for Adults Kopatchinskaja and the Saint Paul Chamber program. Orchestra in 2015. Yang is an alumna of the Curtis Institute of Born in Queens, New York, Muñoz attended Music, the Juilliard School, and the Yale School the LaGuardia High School of the Performing of Music, where she received the Parisot Award Arts, the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement for Outstanding Pianist and the Alumni Asso ci - Program, and the School of Music ation Prize. Pre-College Division. He received additional training at Queens College (CuNY) as a student For background on the Mahler Chamber of Daniel Phillips and pursued conducting at Orchestra, please see pp. 19–20. the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, where he studied with David Zinman Tito Muñoz (conductor) is internationally re- and Murry Sidlin. cognized as one of today’s most gifted con- Muñoz is the winner of the Aspen Music ductors, praised for his versatility, technical Festival’s 2005 Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize clarity, and keen musical insight. Now in his and the 2006 Aspen Conducting Prize.

 PLAYBILL Saturday, June 16, 2018, 2pm Zellerbach Hall Romanian and Moldovan Folk Music

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin Viktor Kopatchinsky, cimbalom Emilia Kopatchinskaja, violin Maria Krykov, double bass

Moldovan Folk Music Căluşarii Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin Viktor Kopatchinsky, cimbalom Emilia Kopatchinskaja, violin Maria Krykov, double bass Horațio RĂDuLESCu (1942–2008) Doina Amy Yang, piano Moldovan Folk Music Doina and Hora Viktor Kopatchinsky, cimbalom György KuRTÁG (b. 1926) Eight Duos for violin and cimbalom, Op. 4 1. Poco sostenuto 5. Allegretto 2. Agitato, non allegro 6. Vivo 3. Risoluto 7. Adagio 4. Lento 8. Vivo Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin Viktor Kopatchinsky, cimbalom (1881–1955) Sonata No. 3 for violin and piano, Op. 25 (dans le caractère populaire roumain) Moderato malinconico Andante sostenuto e misterioso Allegro con brio, ma non troppo mosso Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin Amy Yang, piano Moldovan Folk Music Ciocârlia Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin Viktor Kopatchinsky, cimbalom Emilia Kopatchinskaja, violin Maria Krykov, double bass

This performance will last approximately 60 minutes and will be performed without an intermission.

Cal Performances’ 2017–18 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

Photo of Zakir Hussain by Susana Millman.  PROGRAM NOTES

atricia Kopatchinskaja maintains that she lage festivities, is danced counter clockwise— “breathes the air of modern music,” but three steps forward, one step back—and Pthat folklore is “in her blood.” It is music accompanied by multiple instruments. she has known since childhood. Her father, Ciocârlia (the Romanian word for skylark) is Viktor Kopatchinsky, is a virtuoso of the cim- a tune that was introduced by the panpipe vir- balom, a type of hammered dulcimer that by tuoso Angheluş Dinicu in the late 19th century the late 19th century had developed into a con- and made widely popular through an arrange- cert instrument; her mother, the violinist Emilia ment made by his grandson, the violinist Gri - Kopatchinskaja, performs with the kind of im- goraş Dinicu (also known for his Hora staccato). provisatory freedom that a classical musician Angheluş and Grigoraş Dinicu were associated (including her daughter) can only envy. The with the Lăutari, traditional Romani musicians, music they play—vocal and dance forms such whose lăutărească music, heard in both rural as we hear on this concert—is shared across the and urban settings, is distinct from Romanian countries of Eastern Europe, defying the shift- peasant music. Bartók did not consider lău - ing borders and ethnic tensions that have trou- tărească music “authentic” enough to study, bled this region for centuries. whereas Enescu was heavily influenced by its The members of the Căluşari, a Romanian styles. secret society, whose origins date from at least All of the composers on this program were the 17th century, are known for their highly born in what was at the time the Kingdom of athletic dancing, which was said to ward off Romania, all are products of its multi-ethnic fairy spells. Dressed in distinctive white tunics, society, and all subject its rich and diverse festooned with bells and colorful ribbons, and musical traditions to startling transformations holding decorative props (including swords and in their compositions. In Rădulescu’s mind the flags), they wander through the countryside in doina was both an improvisational melodic the weeks after Easter, often accompanied by style and a verb: “to long with sound, as the fiddlers, to take part in village festivals. shepherd does when he plays the doina for his The doina is a freely improvisational melodic love who is in the valley.” Kurtág’s use of the style from Romania with links to melodic prac- cimbalom in his duos creates a link to folk tices throughout Eastern Europe (including music even if his aphoristic syntax attenuates Klez mer music), North Africa, and the Middle any explicit reference. East. The style is lyrical and usually melancholy George Enescu, without doubt Romania’s (featuring themes of love and longing), with best-known 20th-century composer (and vio- a high degree of melismatic ornamentation. linist), gave his Third Violin Sonata the subtitle Peasant doinas are most often monophonic and “in Romanian folk style.” It is a wholly individ- performed on simple folk instruments, whereas ual, stylistically idiosyncratic work and al- their urban counterparts make use of more though there are no direct quotations from any advanced concert instruments, such as the known folk sources, its improvisatory charac- cimbalom. ter, florid ornamentation, and free-flowing The hora, a circle dance found throughout rhythms are unthinkable without that heritage. Eastern Europe and the Balkans, originated in For Patricia Kopatchinskaja it is an irresistible Greece and is associated with Spring. In Ro - combination of the “almost avant-gardistic” mania the hora, popular at weddings and vil- with “the crazy folk music my parents play.” —Christopher Hailey

 PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin and director) ensemble Flueras at the Moldavian Philhar - is the music director of the 2018 Ojai Music Fes- monic. Kopatchinsky has performed numerous tival. For a full biography, please see pp. 13–14. concerts as solo cimbalom player with various ensembles, chamber orchestras, and symphony Emilia Kopatchinskaja (violin) was born in orchestras. He has made several recordings for and attended music school in the ca- radio, television, and film, and has toured as pital, Chișinău. As a soloist, primarily as an in- soloist with his ensemble in countries across terpreter of Romanian-Moldovan folk music, Europe, Asia, South America, and North Africa. Kopatchinskaja has performed with various en- In 1979 Kopatchinsky was awarded a medal sembles and orchestras all over the world. She is by the Moldavian government for outstanding particularly renowned for her performances services to art and music. He founded the with her husband and duo partner, cymbalist chamber orchestra Rapsodia at the Moldavian Viktor Kopatchinsky. She completed her studies Philharmonic, its artistic director at the state conservatory, where she studied and soloist. Later he earned a position with the classical violin and gained a soloist diploma. In JOC, the National Academic Ensemble for Folk 1989 she emigrated with her family to Austria. Dance. In 1984 he returned to Rapsodia; how- In 2010 Kopatchinskaja recorded the album ever, because of unfavorable political statements, Rapsodia with her husband and daughter he was refused permission to tour abroad for Patricia Kopatchinskaja for the French label 10 years. In 1989 he fled to Austria, becoming Naïve Classique. The recording, which explo- an Austrian citizen in 1992. res the roots of George Enescu’s music with In Vienna, composers became interested in examples of authentic Moldovan and Roman - Kopatchinsky’s rare instrument and he played ian folk music, has been highly acclaimed. it in a new concerto for oboe and cimbalom It was selected as an Editor’s Choice by Gramo - with chamber orchestra by Francis Burt, com- phone magazine and received recommenda- missioned by the festival Wien Modern and tions from The Strad magazine and a Super sonic conducted by Dennis Russell Davies at the Award from the Luxembourg music magazine Musikverein in Vienna. Kopatchinsky has also Pizzi cato. Kopatchinskaja and her family have performed in the contemporary opera Die performed their Rapsodia program at several Wände (The Walls) by Adriana Hölszky under major venues and festivals across Europe, most at the Theater an der Wien; notably at the Dresdner Festspiele, the Beetho - Stra vinsky’s Renard and Ragtime at the Landes - venfest Bonn, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, theater with members of the Mozart - Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Fest - eum Orchestra; and Kodály’s Háry János with spiel haus Baden-Baden. the Vienna Philhar monic under . Additional solo concerts of pieces and arrange- Viktor Kopatchinsky (cimbalom) was born in ments include, among others, works by Albeniz, Moldova (formerly part of the ). Tarrega, Liszt, Rach maninoff, Debussy, Cage, He studied at the conservatory in the capital, and György Kurtág. Kopatchinsky also per- Chișinău, and while still a student became a forms with jazz ensembles and in concerts with member as a soloist of the renowned folk music composition students of the Vienna Academy.

 Saturday, June 16, 2018, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Bartók, Stravinsky, and Ligeti

Béla BARTÓK (1881–1945) Divertimento for Strings Allegro non troppo Molto adagio Allegro assai Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Igor STRAVINSKY (1882–1971) L’Histoire du soldat (Suite) Marche du soldat Petits Airs au bord du ruisseau Pastorale Marche royale Petit concert Trois danses (Tango – Valse – Ragtime) Danse du diable Grand Choral Marche triomphale du diable Musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra Vicente Alberola, clarinet Saxton Rose, bassoon Christopher Dicken, trumpet Andreas Klein, trombone Martin Piechotta, percussion Meesun Hong Coleman, violin Piotr Zimnik, double bass

INTERMISSION

Guillaume de MACHAuT (c. 1300–1377) Kyrie (arr. by Patricia Kopatchinskaja)

György LIGETI (1923–2006) Violin Concerto Praeludium: Vivacissimo luminoso – attacca: Aria, Hoquetus, Choral: Andante con moto – attacca: Intermezzo: Presto fluido Passacaglia: Lento intense Appassionato: Agitato molto Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin Mahler Chamber Orchestra Philipp von Steinaecker, conductor

Cal Performances’ 2017–18 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

eethoven, Ligeti. Two concertos bracket Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat is still more this festival. Two concerts that address extreme in its hybrid mixture of elements. The Bcreativity through very different prisms. play, adapted from a Russian folk tale, tells the The first—an act of rebellion born of impatience story of a soldier whose pact with the devil yields with a backward-looking status quo—imagines great riches, whose fiddle playing restores his the future emerging from the wreckage of the freedom and wins the hand of a princess, and past; the second invents the past anew, from whose homesickness leads him back into the fragments reassembled. clutches of the devil. This “poor” spectacle, Beethoven is a familiar emblem of revolution, intended to be “read, played, and danced” in the drumbeat of the timpani in the violin con- itinerant performances, is scored for a ragtag certo a symbol of the inexorable forward thrust assortment of mismatched instruments corre - of history. Ligeti, on the other hand, circles sponding to Stravinsky’s notions of a jazz band. around time, weaving between folk roots, the In the concert suite we find jazz (stylized rag - avant-garde, and history’s precedents to become, time), a waltz, and an Argentinean tango rub - in his later works, a self-admitted assembler of bing shoulders with a Lutheran chorale, ele ments “heterogeneous elements.” In his violin concerto of Russian folk music, “gypsy” fiddling he he cites the Hoquetus David of Machaut, uses a heard in a dream, as well as reminiscences of a slide whistle with pizzicato string effects derived soothing pasodoble and a raucous marching from Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony, includes band once encountered in Seville. a chorale inspired by Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Stravinsky and Bartók share with other com- Wind Instruments, and draws upon his study of posers of their generation a complex relation- African music, fractal geometry, Maurits Escher, ship to a past they received as an unbroken untempered tuning, Conlon Nancarrow, and inheritance, but began to question and decon- 14th-century Ars Subtilior. He also studied the struct. Both composers were driven into exile— late string quartets of Haydn: twice in Stravinsky’s case—by revolution and war, events neatly bracketed by the Soldier’s Tale From Haydn one can learn how to achieve the Suite and Divertimento, the one written just clearest effect with the simplest means. If he had after a world war of unprecedented fury, the to decide between a rather ornate structure and other just before a second that inflicted still a skeleton, Haydn always chooses the skeleton. greater horrors. The scars of both wars are pres- He does not use a note that is not necessary. I used this principle to avoid unnecessary com- ent in the life and works of György Ligeti, from plexity in the second version of the Violin the cultural environment of his youth and Concerto [which brought me] nearer to my education, to the traumas of the Holocaust, his ideal conception. emigration to the West, and as a witness to the disintegration of cultural narratives that had still Ligeti’s concerto keeps company with works sustained Stravinsky and Bartók. by Bartók and Stravinsky that likewise look back It is fitting that Ligeti’s concerto, a product and around. In the outer movements of his of a world thus transformed and fragmented, Diver timento, a genre redolent of 18th-century is introduced by a Kyrie from the 14th-century aristocratic entertainment, Bartók mixes tradi- mass by Guillaume de Machaut. It is a nod tional forms and techniques (sonata, rondo, both to a composer Ligeti much admired and waltz, fugue) and neo-classical textures (the to an equally calamitous era that included ripieno/concertino contrast of the concerto famine, a devastating plague, the Hundred grosso) with the modal harmonies and com- Year’s war, peasant revolts, a papal schism, and, pound meters of folk music. The eerie “night yes, climate change. music” effects of the Molto Adagio—harmonics, double stops, and massed trills over a slow osti- Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison nato in the lower strings—are contained within Lord have mercy, Christ, have mercy. a lucid ternary form of the minuet and trio.

 PROGRAM NOTES

Ligeti loved musical ideas and the means and against coarse commentary in the woodwinds, materials of their realization. His insatiable percussion, and brass, before launching into curiosity, his every-expanding range of refer - an episode of Balkan folk music. After an ag- ences—with no attempt at seamless synthesis— gressive brass interjection, a brief moment of grew to include African and Asian rhythms lyricism and a frenetic solo cadenza (Kopatch - and tunings, Western music of the Medieval, inskaja will play her own); the snap of a wood- Renaissance, and Baroque periods, and popular block, a spasm of percussion, brass, winds; fade idioms. He exulted in giddy pastiche, in phan - into silence. tasmagoric concoctions that combined humor Looking back, Ligeti described his desti - and pathos, bold gestures, and intensely felt nation: “I wanted to write a highly virtuoso work expression. In his concerto he created “mar ve - in the tradition of the great violin concertos”— lous new harmonies” using “dirty sound”—the and his chosen path: “So that something new dissonance of clashing intonations and tuning and complex can develop, I always try to merge systems: a violin tuned slightly higher, a viola these outside impulses with my internal pictures slightly lower according to precise specifications and ideas.” To move ahead you sometimes have derived from the over tone series; instruments— to discover how near you are to what lies behind. ocarinas, recorders, and slide whistle— —Christopher Hailey notorious for their intonational in security; natural overtones in the horns and trombone, Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin and director) and micro-intervals in the wood winds. is the music director of the 2018 Ojai Music Fes- For all that, the concerto’s notation is tival. For a full biography, please see pp. 13–14. traditional and its five movements proudly proclaim their historical pedigrees. The Prae - For background on the Mahler Chamber ludium introduces us to Ligeti’s off-kilter sonic Orchestra, please see pp. 19–20. world with what he called a “glassy shimmering character” exuding “fragility and danger.” In Philipp von Steinaecker (conductor) is a foun- the Aria, Hoquetus, Choral, a dignified modal ding member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra folk melody adapted from the third of the Six and has played principal cello with the English Bagatelles for Wind Quintet is the subject of Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolu tio - variations. The theme is soon encased in a halo naire et Romantique. He grew up in Hamburg of overtones from the horns and trombone with and studied with Harvey Shapiro at the Juilliard discordant outbursts from the ocarinas and slide School in New York and with Christophe Coin whistles, and then transformed into a brass at the CNSM in Paris. As a student, he was a re- chorale before an epilogue restores the reflective gular substitute for the Vienna Philharmonic mood of the opening bars. Following without a Orchestra and the . break, a very brief Inter mezzo, the soloist soar- While a member of the MCO, Steinaecker ing above softly cascading descending lines (in studied conducting with Mark Stringer at the canon) in the upper strings; “Dirty sound,” from Vienna university for Music. A former assistant the horns and woodwinds, a cataclysmic climax. to Sir and later Claudio The emotionally intense Passacaglia is based Abbado, he has since conducted an ever- on a chromatic scale, slowly rising from the growing number of orchestras, leading to many depths, the soloist high above. Disruptions, slide regular collaborations. whistles, a battery of percussion, hints of a vil- His recordings of Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s lage dance, and rude accents with the soloist oc- Creation, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1, and casionally joining in. Abrupt fortissimo end. Mah ler’s are available on In the last movement, against gauzy string iTunes. Steinaecker is also artistic director of the textures, a more assertive soloist holds her own Gustav Mahler Academy in Bolzano.

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