23 Season 2016-2017

Wednesday, May 3, at 8:00 Friday, May 5, at 2:00 The Saturday, May 6, at 8:00 Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor Sasha Cooke Mezzo-soprano

Bernstein Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”) I. Prophecy II. Profanation III. Lamentation

Mozart No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 I. Allegro II. Larghetto III. Allegretto

Intermission

Schumann Symphony No. 2 in , Op. 61 I. Sostenuto assai—Allegro ma non troppo II. Scherzo: Allegro vivace III. Adagio espressivo IV. Allegro molto vivace

This program runs approximately 2 hours, 5 minutes.

Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit wrti.org to listen live or for more details. 24 The Jessica Griffin

The Philadelphia Orchestra Philadelphia is home and impact through Research. is one of the preeminent the Orchestra continues The Orchestra’s award- in the world, to discover new and winning Collaborative renowned for its distinctive inventive ways to nurture Learning programs engage sound, desired for its its relationship with its over 50,000 students, keen ability to capture the loyal patrons at its home families, and community hearts and imaginations of in the Kimmel Center, members through programs audiences, and admired for and also with those who such as PlayINs, side-by- a legacy of imagination and enjoy the Orchestra’s area sides, PopUP concerts, innovation on and off the performances at the Mann free Neighborhood concert stage. The Orchestra Center, Penn’s Landing, Concerts, School Concerts, is inspiring the future and and other cultural, civic, and residency work in transforming its rich tradition and learning venues. The Philadelphia and abroad. of achievement, sustaining Orchestra maintains a strong Through concerts, tours, the highest level of artistic commitment to collaborations residencies, presentations, quality, but also challenging— with cultural and community and recordings, The and exceeding—that level, organizations on a regional Philadelphia Orchestra is by creating powerful musical and national level, all of which a global ambassador for experiences for audiences at create greater access and Philadelphia and for the home and around the world. engagement with classical US. Having been the first Music Director Yannick music as an art form. American orchestra to Nézet-Séguin’s connection The Philadelphia Orchestra perform in China, in 1973 to the Orchestra’s musicians serves as a catalyst for at the request of President has been praised by cultural activity across Nixon, the ensemble today both concertgoers and Philadelphia’s many boasts a new partnership with critics since his inaugural communities, building an Beijing’s National Centre for season in 2012. Under his offstage presence as strong the Performing Arts and the leadership the Orchestra as its onstage one. With Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, returned to recording, with Nézet-Séguin, a dedicated and in 2017 will be the first- two celebrated CDs on body of musicians, and one ever Western orchestra to the prestigious Deutsche of the nation’s richest arts appear in Mongolia. The Grammophon label, ecosystems, the Orchestra Orchestra annually performs continuing its history of has launched its HEAR at while also recording success. The initiative, a portfolio of enjoying summer residencies Orchestra also reaches integrated initiatives that in Saratoga Springs, NY, and thousands of listeners on the promotes Health, champions Vail, CO. For more information radio with weekly Sunday music Education, eliminates on The Philadelphia afternoon broadcasts on barriers to Accessing the Orchestra, please visit WRTI-FM. orchestra, and maximizes www.philorch.org. 4 Music Director

Chris Lee Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now confirmed to lead The Philadelphia Orchestra through the 2025-26 season, an extraordinary and significant long-term commitment. Additionally, he becomes music director of the Metropolitan beginning with the 2021-22 season. Yannick, who holds the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair, is an inspired leader of the Orchestra. His intensely collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. has called him “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.” Highlights of his fifth season include an exploration of American Sounds, with works by , Christopher Rouse, Mason Bates, and Christopher Theofanidis; a Music of Paris Festival; and the continuation of a focus on opera and sacred vocal works, with Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Mozart’s C-minor Mass.

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most thrilling talents of his generation. He has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008 and artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. He was also principal guest conductor of the Philharmonic from 2008 to 2014. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles and has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with two CDs on that label. He continues fruitful recording relationships with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique. In Yannick’s inaugural season The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to the radio airwaves, with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied piano, , composition, and chamber music at Montreal’s Conservatory of Music and continued his studies with renowned conductor ; he also studied choral conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada, Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year, Canada’s National Arts Centre Award, the Prix Denise-Pelletier, and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ.

To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor. 25 Soloist

Dario Acosta Grammy Award-winning American mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke is sought after by the world’s leading orchestras, opera companies, and chamber music ensembles for her versatile repertoire and commitment to new music. Operatic highlights of her 2016-17 season include Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel at Seattle Opera and the world premiere of composer Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Santa Fe Opera. Orchestral engagements include appearances with the Symphony and in Prokofiev’sIvan the Terrible, Bernstein’s First Symphony with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and a staged version of Verdi’s Requiem with Houston Grand Opera under Patrick Summers. Her season also features performances of Christopher Theofanidis’s Creation/ Creator with the Atlanta Symphony and Robert Spano; Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the Milwaukee Symphony and ; Duruflé’s Requiem with the conducted by Matthew Halls and with the National Symphony under Donald Runnicles; Handel, Mahler, and Mozart with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Mahler’s with Krzysztof Urbański and the Indianapolis Symphony; and Mozart’s Requiem with the Oregon Symphony. Ms. Cooke appears with the to sing and record Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 conducted by Osmo Vänskä and with the Nashville Symphony for Harbison’s Requiem, also being recorded. On DVD she can be seen in the ’s productions of Hansel and Gretel and Adams’s Doctor Atomic under conductor Alan Gilbert, which won a Grammy Award. Her recordings can be found on the Hyperion, Naxos, Bridge Records, Yarlung, GPR Records, and Sono Luminus labels. Ms. Cooke made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in Handel’s Messiah in 2013 and makes her subscription debut with these current performances. A graduate of Rice University and the Juilliard School, she also attended the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen and Marlboro music festivals, the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute, the Wolf Trap Foundation, the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and Central City Opera’s Young Artist Training Program. 26 Soloist

Zdenek Chrapek Pianist Radu Lupu is firmly established as one of the most important musicians of his generation and is widely acknowledged as a leading interpreter of the works of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and Schubert. Since winning the prestigious Van Cliburn (1966) and Leeds (1969) piano competitions, he has regularly performed as soloist and recitalist in the musical capitals of Europe and the . He has appeared many times with the Philharmonic since debuting with that ensemble at the 1978 under , and with the , including the opening concert of the 1986 Salzburg Festival under Riccardo Muti. He is also a frequent visitor to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and all the major London and American orchestras. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1973. He has played at most of the notable music festivals and has been a regular guest at the Salzburg and Lucerne festivals. This season Mr. Lupu performs with the Munich and Helsinki philharmonics, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Boston and Chicago symphonies, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He also gives recitals in Leipzig, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, , Vienna, and Berlin. Mr. Lupu has made more than 20 recordings for London/ Decca, including the complete Beethoven concertos with the Philharmonic and ; the complete Mozart violin and piano sonatas with ; Grieg and Schumann concertos; Debussy and Franck violin and piano sonatas with ; and numerous solo recordings of works by Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert. He also has two recordings with pianist (CBS); two albums of Schubert lieder with soprano (EMI); and a disc of Schubert works for piano, four hands, with (). His recordings have won the Grammy and Edison awards. Born in , Mr. Lupu began studying the piano at age six. He made his public debut with a complete program of his own music at age 12 and won a scholarship to the Moscow State Conservatory. He is the recipient of the 2006 Premio Internazionale Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli award. 27 Framing the Program

The three works on this program, spanning the 18th, Parallel Events 19th, and 20th centuries, are among the most personal 1786 Music utterances of their composers, offering journeys of the soul. Mozart Dittersdorf Piano Concerto Doctor und At age 23 Leonard Bernstein began writing the first of his No. 24 Apotheker three symphonies and soon afterward made his legendary Literature conducting debut with the as a Bourgoyne last-minute replacement in a nationally broadcast concert. The Heiress His three-movement “Jeremiah” Symphony uses texts Art from the biblical Book of Lamentations. Decades later Goya Bernstein stated that many of his compositions are “about The Seasons the struggle that is born of the crisis of our century, a crisis History of faith. Even way back, when I wrote ‘Jeremiah,’ I was Shays Rebellion wrestling with that problem.” in MA Among Mozart’s dozens of piano concertos and 1846 Music symphonies only two in each genre are in minor keys. Schumann Berlioz These particularly intense works, among them the Symphony The Damnation Concerto No. 24 in C minor, have long invited speculation No. 2 of Faust about possible autobiographical connections. Literature Dostoyevsky struggled throughout his life with Poor Folk depression—it ran in his family and led ultimately to a Art suicide attempt that landed him in a mental asylum for Cole the last two years of his life. He composed his Second Catskill Symphony during a period of poor health and admitted that Landscape the deeply felt work “told a tale of many joys and sorrows.” History Potato famine in Ireland

1942 Music Bernstein Copland Symphony Rodeo No. 1 Literature Wilder The Skin of Our Teeth Art Bonnard L’Oiseau bleu History World War II: Germans reach Stalingrad 28 The Music Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”)

From those to whom much is given, much is expected. It is a good thing that Leonard Bernstein’s many talents were so incandescent and his personality so full-speed- ahead, because the burdens of expectation that he carried would have crushed a lesser man. His father, Sam Bernstein, thought his teenage son was throwing away his verbal and intellectual gifts on summer-camp shows and skits, and devoutly hoped that Leonard would become a distinguished rabbi. The young man attended Harvard at his father’s insistence, and did well at everything, Leonard Bernstein but his heart was in the theater and the concert hall. In Born in Lawrence, 1943, when he was just 25 years old, he made the most Massachusetts, August 25, spectacular conducting debut in American history, stepping 1918 Died in , in on short notice to conduct the New York Philharmonic October 14, 1990 in place of the indisposed , in a concert broadcast nationwide. That event made him the only native- born American superstar of until the much- publicized triumph of the pianist Van Cliburn in Moscow in 1958. So add national pride to the burdens that he carried. Meanwhile, his camp-show talent propelled him on Broadway as the composer of such classic musicals as On the Town (1944) and West Side Story (1957). He also became a TV star, talking about (of all things) classical music. Besides his articulateness and good looks, it was his command of the subject and personal conviction that made these pop-culture products successful. On the conductor’s podium, he took more risks, advocating (as Bruno Walter had) the sprawling symphonies of Mahler when the fashion in new music favored the atonal miniatures of Schoenberg and Webern. Of course, with all these accomplishments came still more expectations. The Hurdle of the “First Symphony” In the post- Beethoven era, every composer approaches his or her “Symphony No. 1” with trepidation. Just ask , who was 43 by the time he finished composing his First. Now try to imagine what this milestone would have meant to the mature Leonard Bernstein, who was doing a pretty good job of being all things to all music fans in America and abroad, and yet had been hearing “he’s throwing his talent away” for his whole life, from father Sam right up to yesterday’s newspaper reviews. 29

Happily for him, young Bernstein got the “first symphony” hurdle out of the way early. In response to a competition at the New England Conservatory, with his mentor as chairman of the jury, he plunged into his First Symphony in 1942, at age 23, before he knew how hard it is to write a symphony. Although the piece, completed in haste to make the deadline, didn’t win a prize, Bernstein sent it a few months later to Koussevitzky and to his conducting teacher, , and was thrilled when the latter responded favorably. Bernstein’s correspondence with his mentor sheds light on both their personalities. Bernstein writes impulsively: “[Reiner] wants to do my Symphony in Pittsburgh next fall, and he loves it, and he wants me to conduct a program anyway, and maybe to do the Symph myself. Lovely, lovely news! But he is most anxious for a fourth movement; insists it’s all too sad and defeatist. Same criticism my father had: which raises Pop in my estimation no end. I really haven’t the time or the energy for a fourth movement. I seem to have had my say as far as that piece is concerned and I want to get on with something else.” Copland responded wryly and presciently: “I know you want me to be amazed at your successes but nothing that happens to you can ever surprise me. Isn’t that too bad. Least of all your triumphs as a composer. But I am pleased that Reiner wants you to conduct in Pittsburgh. Koussie will be jealous that he didn’t get you first. Maybe you can start a career as our first native guest conductor.” Then came the famous Philharmonic debut, for which the whole Bernstein family had rushed to Carnegie Hall from Lawrence, Massachusetts. The young conductor later said that after the concert his previously skeptical father was “all aglow ... absolutely dazzled,” and there was “a great moment of forgiveness and very deep emotion.” At that moment, he said, he decided to dedicate the “Jeremiah” Symphony to his father. A Crisis of Faith “Jeremiah” had its premiere at last with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the composer conducting, on January 28, 1944; the mezzo-soprano soloist was Jennie Tourel. At the time, reflecting on the Symphony’s biblical text of lamentation, Bernstein told an interviewer, “How can I be blind to the problems of my own people? I’d give everything I have to be able to strike a death blow at Fascism.” Despite Reiner’s reservations about no happy ending, the Symphony seemed to catch the spirit of . Acclaimed at its premiere, the piece was performed on NBC Radio a few months later, and within three years Bernstein himself had 30

Bernstein composed his led performances in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Symphony No. 1 in 1942. Rochester, Prague, and Jerusalem. The Philadelphia Orchestra Looking back 35 years, Bernstein told reporters at a 1977 first performed the “Jeremiah” press conference in Berlin that he was “always writing the in March 1965, with Elyakum same piece, as all composers do. ... The work I have been Shapira conducting and Betty writing all my life is about the struggle that is born of the Allen as the mezzo-soprano crisis of our century, a crisis of faith. Even way back, when soloist. The last subscription performances were in January I wrote ‘Jeremiah,’ I was wrestling with that problem.” 2008, led by Christoph This work began even further back than 1942, with a Eschenbach with mezzo- sketch for a Lamentation for soprano and orchestra, which soprano Rinat Shaham. Bernstein wrote in the summer of 1939. Three years The Symphony is scored later, with Mahler as his model, he made this song the for three flutes (III doubling centerpiece of “Jeremiah.” (That the centerpiece comes at piccolo), two , English the end is maybe what bothered Sam Bernstein and Reiner.) horn, two , E-flat (doubling bass A Closer Look The first movement (Prophecy) is clarinet), two bassoons, very much in the fervent style of wartime American contrabassoon, four horns, symphonies by composers such as Copland, Bernstein’s three trumpets, three teacher , and especially William Schuman: , tuba, timpani, Impassioned, high-reaching string passages give way to percussion (bass drum, melancholy wind solos, with muscular brass chords as cymbals, maracas, snare drum, punctuation. In a program note, the composer described suspended cymbals, triangle, this music as aiming “to parallel in feeling the intensity of wood block), piano, strings, the prophet’s pleas with his people” to return to the path and mezzo-soprano soloist. of righteousness. This free-form musical poem, which Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 ends inconclusively, is not so much a traditional symphonic runs approximately 24 minutes first movement as a prelude to what follows. in performance. The so-called “scherzo” (Profanation) is no joke, but a turbulent outburst whose furious Latin rhythms and brass- and-wind sonorities not only refer again to the American symphonic school, but suggest an intriguing link between Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Bernstein’s West Side Story. The composer wrote that he wanted “to give a general sense of the destruction and chaos brought on by the pagan corruption within the priesthood and the people.” Bernstein described the climactic final movement (Lamentation) as “the cry of Jeremiah, as he mourns his beloved Jerusalem, ruined, pillaged, and dishonored after his desperate efforts to save it.” If Bernstein’s debt to Copland is evident in this music, he wields that style with a skill that sometimes surpasses his model, especially in text-setting, displaying the singer, and dramatic timing. The tender instrumental interludes are effective foils for the impassioned vocal passages, and the long orchestral epilogue, far from “sad and defeatist,” invites the listener to reflect on the prophet’s last appeal, “Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord. ...” —David Wright 31

From “The Lamentations of Jeremiah”

Echa

PEREQ 1.1-3 CHAPTER 1.1-3 Ēcha yashva vadad ha-ir How doth the city sit solitary, Rabati am That was full of people! Hay’ta k’almana; How is she become as a widow! Rabati vagoyim She that was great among the nations, Sarati bam’dinot And princess among the provinces, Hay’ta lamas. How is she become tributary!

Bacho tivkeh balaila, She weepeth sore in the night, V’dim’ata al lecheya; And her tears are on her cheeks; Ēn la m’nachēm She hath none to comfort her Mikol ohaveha; Among all her lovers; Kol rēeha bag’du va, All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, Hayu la l’oy’vim. They are become her enemies.

Galta Y’huda mēoni, Judah is gone into exile because of affliction, Umērov avoda; And because of great servitude; Hi yashva vagoyim, She dwelleth among the nations, Lo matsa mano-ach; She findeth no rest. Kol rod’feha hisiguha All her pursuers overtook her Bēn ham’tsarim. Within the narrow passes.

PEREQ 1.8 CHAPTER 1.8 Chēt chata Y’rushalyim Jerusalem hath grievously sinned … (Ēcha yashva vadad ha-ir How doth the city sit solitary … k’almana.) … a widow.

PEREQ 4.14-15 CHAPTER 4.14-15 Na-u ivrim bachutsot They wander as blind men in the streets, N’go-alu badam, They are polluted with blood, B’lo yuchlu So that men cannot Yig’u bilvushēhem. Touch their garments.

Suru tamē kar’u lamo, Depart, ye unclean! they cried unto them, Suru, suru al tiga-u … Depart, depart! touch us not …

PEREQ 5.20-21 CHAPTER 5.20-21 Lama lanetsach tishkachēnu … Wherefore dost Thou forget us forever, Lanetsach taazvēnu … And forsake us so long time? …

Hashivēnu Adonai ēlecha … Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord … 32 The Music Piano Concerto No. 24

It is not difficult to see why the 19th century favored “minor-key” Mozart. Works such as the G-minor Symphony, K. 440, the Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466, or the Overture possessed the drama and pathos that the Romantic period craved, and these compositions helped engender the view of Mozart as precursor to the histrionics of Beethoven, Schumann, and Wagner. Today we see Mozart from broader perspectives, not just as proto-Romantic but as Italianate melodist and as slightly out-of-step Classicist. Investigations into late-Baroque Wolfgang Amadè Mozart opera have uncovered sources for his incomparable bel Born in Salzburg, canto, and studies of J.C. Bach have revealed the extent January 27, 1756 to which he drew upon the music of this youngest of Died in Vienna, December 5, 1791 Sebastian’s sons toward developing a mature concerto style. Still, even as these studies have increased our estimation of the major-key concertos, fascination with such works as the C-minor Piano Concerto remains strong. A Rare Struggle for Mozart The C-minor Concerto was one of the trio written in early 1786 for Lenten concerts presented at Vienna’s Burgtheater. Since Mozart dated the manuscript of K. 491 as having been completed on March 24, 1786, scholars have reasonably presumed that the work formed a part of the benefit concert Mozart gave there on April 7. But as no program for that concert survives, uncertainty remains; in any case the Concerto was not published until after Mozart’s death, in 1800. The 12 concertos that Mozart completed from 1782 to 1786 constitute his most important instrumental music, “symphonic in the highest sense,” in the words of musicologist Alfred Einstein. No fewer than six of these were written in 1785 and 1786, and they are among Mozart’s best-known works: K. 466, 467, 482, 488, 491, and 503. Each of these is unique; each creates its own individual ethic. The C-minor Concerto contains some of the composer’s darkest moments, and is filled with chilling intimations of the introverted fury of Mozart’s last music, such as that of The Magic Flute and the Requiem. The C-minor Concerto apparently caused Mozart some difficulty, as indicated by the alternative versions he provided in the third variation of the finale. Here the 33

Mozart composed the C-minor composer seems to have struggled—right in the pages of Piano Concerto in 1786. the autograph manuscript itself, atypically for him—to find Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler a “right” solution. The soloist is left to make the choice for was the soloist in the first him- or herself, and is furthermore called upon to fill out Philadelphia Orchestra some of the implied rapid passagework that Mozart has performances of the Concerto, left in a sort of skeletal shorthand of widely separated in February 1915; Leopold long notes. And finally, Mozart has left no written-out Stokowski was the conductor. cadenzas or Eingänge (lead ins) for the Concerto. Mr. The most recent subscription Lupu plays his own cadenzas in these performances. performances were in January 2013, with Imogen Cooper as A Closer Look The Concerto’s first movement (Allegro) conductor and soloist. opens with a principal subject of marvelous interest and potential. The listener can hardly help thinking that Mozart scored the work for an Beethoven had this theme in his ear when he wrote his orchestra of flute, two oboes, Third Concerto in C minor—a piece that bears more than two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, passing resemblance, in fact, to Mozart’s Concerto. But timpani, and strings, in addition Mozart’s first subject is more elusive and unpredictable to the solo piano. than Beethoven’s, and it keeps us in suspense for a full 12 bars of motivic prolongation before arriving at a splashy The Concerto lasts tutti reiteration. The piano enters, typically, with a theme approximately 30 minutes in all its own, and quickly launches into one of the most performance. turbulent, unsettled movements in Mozart’s oeuvre. Momentary and welcome respite is provided by the uncomplicated Larghetto (the marking is not the composer’s), a free interplay of spontaneous pianism and sympathetic instrumental underpinning. The Allegretto brings us back to the restless world of C minor (again, the tempo indication has been added in a later hand)—a set of somber variations on a square and halting theme. There is no deus ex machina here, no felicitous final turn to the major mode, as in the finale of the D-minor Concerto, K. 466. All is mood here, wonder and mystery. But if the storm clouds are never fully dispersed, the absolute consistency of affect remains perfect throughout—a virtue that provides its own gloomy sense of satisfaction. —Paul J. Horsley 34 The Music Symphony No. 2

“For several days, there has been much trumpeting and drumming within me (trumpet in C). I don’t know what will come of it.” The result of the inner tumult that Robert Schumann reported to his friend and colleague , in a letter of September 1845, was a symphony: the third of the four he would complete, though it was published as Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61, in 1847. Schubert as Catalyst The principal catalyst for Schumann’s return to symphonic composition in 1845 Robert Schumann was almost surely a performance of ’s Born in Zwickau, Saxony, Symphony in C major (D. 944) on December 9 of that June 8, 1810 year, with the orchestra under Ferdinand Died in Endenich (near Hiller. Schumann’s association with Schubert’s “Great” Bonn), July 29, 1856 C-major Symphony dated back to the winter of 1838-39, when, during a trip to Vienna, he was introduced to the practically forgotten work by Schubert’s older brother, and quickly arranged for Mendelssohn to lead the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in the long overdue premiere. The newly excavated masterpiece had a lasting impact on Schumann, revealing to him that it was indeed possible to make an original contribution in a realm where Beethoven reigned supreme. In his celebrated 1839 review of Schubert’s Symphony, Schumann described the work in superlatives the likes of which he had never before bestowed on a piece of instrumental music: “Here, apart from the consummate mastery of compositional technique, we find life in every vein, the finest shades of coloring, expressive significance in every detail, and the all-pervasive Romanticism to which Schubert’s other works have already accustomed us.” In addition to marveling at the Symphony’s “heavenly length,” Schumann also praised Schubert’s uncanny ability to “emulate the human voice in his treatment of the instruments.” Schumann would adopt both qualities as articles of aesthetic faith in his own Symphony in C major, especially in the magnificent valedictory hymn that crowns the finale. Although Schumann completed the sketches for the Second Symphony in just two weeks toward the end of December 1845, he needed the better part of the following year to fill in the details. Indeed, he was still 35 touching up the orchestration of the draft not long before the premiere, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Mendelssohn’s direction, on November 5, 1846. As indicated by several entries in Schumann’s household account books, his labor on the Symphony was frequently interrupted by recurrent bouts of poor health. During the winter and spring months of 1846, Schumann made reference to severe headaches, fits of depression, anxiety attacks, and auditory disturbances. Memories of a Dark Time As with so many of Schumann’s compositions, the Second Symphony lends itself to interpretation as an essay in musical autobiography. Schumann himself encouraged a reading of this kind. In a note to the composer and critic J.C. Lobe, he claimed that the new work “told a tale of many joys and sorrows.” Schumann offered a more detailed account of the Symphony’s personal connotations to D.G. Otten, founder of the Hamburg Musical Association: “I wrote the C-major Symphony in December 1845 while I was still half sick, and it seems to me that one can hear this in the music. Although I began to feel like myself while working on the last movement, I recovered totally only after completing the entire piece.” Above all, Schumann confided to Otten, the Symphony reminded him of a “dark time,” symbolized musically “by the melancholy bassoon in the Adagio.” While a composer’s view of his own work obviously lays claim to a special sort of authority, Schumann’s words do not do justice to the fundamentally affirmative character of his Second Symphony, which projects just about as much sorrow as most other symphonic compositions of comparable scope in a major key, which is to say, rather little. Even the melancholy mood of the Adagio is relatively short-lived, confined as it is to the deeply affective opening phrase and to fleeting shadows in a movement that strives for—and achieves—an overall quality of consolation. Heard in the context of the broader symphonic narrative, the somber hues of the Adagio are rather like passing storm clouds: ominous but quickly dispelled. In the final analysis, these darker tints serve as a foil to the brighter moods of the music that precedes and follows: the dignified jubilation of the first movement, the witty repartee between strings and winds in the Scherzo, and the serene, hymnic apotheosis of the finale. The initial reaction to the Symphony was not entirely positive. According to reliable reports, the November 1846 premiere fell considerably short of the success that the 36

composer had hoped for, despite concertmaster Ferdinand David’s assiduous drilling of the Gewandhaus violins on the finger-twisting passagework in the Scherzo and the perilously high trills in the Adagio. Before long, however, the critics were making the expected obeisances, comparing Schumann’s work to Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony and Beethoven’s Fifth. Schumann’s “New Manner” In their eagerness to situate the Second Symphony within the classical repertory, 19th-century journalists tended to overlook an inspirational source in the even more distant musical past: the art of J.S. Bach. The initial phase of work on the Symphony marked the culmination of a nearly year- long period during which Schumann was in the throes of what he called Fugenpassion—a veritable “fugal passion” that led both Schumanns, Robert and his wife, Clara, to undertake a self-designed course of contrapuntal study whose chief texts were Luigi Cherubini’s esteemed counterpoint manual of 1835 and the of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. The creative yield of this erudite pastime included Clara’s Three Preludes and Fugues for piano (Op. 16)—some on themes by her husband—and Robert’s Four Fugues for piano (Op. 72), Six Studies, in canonic form, for pedal-piano (Op. 56), and Six Fugues on the Name BACH for organ (Op. 60). While this was not the first time (nor would it be the last) that Schumann had immersed himself in the mysteries of counterpoint, his exploration in the mid-1840s of the contrapuntal genres—not to mention the steady diet of Bach—had a particularly decisive impact on the subsequent direction of his compositional style. In a diary entry dating from these years, Schumann called attention to his adoption of a “completely new manner of composing” that ran parallel with his refresher course in counterpoint. Characterized by a more reflective approach to the invention and development of musical ideas, the “new manner” is much in evidence in the Second Symphony. At this stage of his career, Schumann no longer conceived the “musical idea” as an elemental motif—like the famous four-note motto of Beethoven’s Fifth—but rather as a contrapuntal combination of two distinct melodic lines. The Second Symphony begins with an idea of precisely this kind: a solemn chorale- like melody, stated quietly by the horns, trumpets, and trombones, and supported by a flowing counterpoint in the strings. Though presented simultaneously at the outset, these melodic strands are developed independently as the 37

The Second Symphony was music unfolds, a process that Schumann invokes across composed from 1845 to 1846. the entire four-movement span of the Symphony. Fritz Scheel conducted the While the “new manner” was inspired by an apparently first Philadelphia Orchestra old-fashioned compositional technique, it lives up to its performances of Schumann’s name in the Second Symphony. Generally speaking, Second Symphony, in February symphonic architecture tends toward one of two poles: 1903. The work has appeared the highly articulated designs of Haydn and Mozart, and consistently throughout the years, most recently on the rhapsodic, continuously evolving forms of Liszt and subscription in January 2015, . Schumann’s Second Symphony lies with somewhere between these extremes, spinning out a web conducting. of ideas whose musical potential is not fully realized within the boundaries of a single movement. The Philadelphians have recorded the work three times: The initial motto in the brass (whose upward gesture has in 1937 with been linked by some listeners to the opening of Haydn’s for RCA; in 1977 with James “London” Symphony, No. 104) puts in an unexpected Levine for RCA; and in 2003 appearance at the conclusion of the Scherzo, and comes with Wolfgang Sawallisch on in for spectacular treatment in the closing phase of the the Orchestra’s own label. last movement. Similarly, the plaintive Adagio theme is Schumann scored the work swept up in the propulsive march rhythms of the first part for two flutes, two oboes, two of the finale. In a surprising turn of events, Schumann clarinets, two bassoons, two then transforms the march music into a gentler, more horns, two trumpets, three lyrical idea that he proceeds to combine with the first trombones, timpani, and movement’s brass chorale. The expressive aim of this strings. contrapuntal tour de force is unmistakable: In fusing Performance time is “secular” song and “sacred” chorale melody, Schumann approximately 40 minutes. demonstrated how it might be possible to transcend both spheres, the mundane and the religious, through the medium of the symphony orchestra. Therefore the message of the Symphony is an eminently “modern” one, and indeed, it was not lost on later composers as diverse in stylistic orientation as Bruckner, Dvořák, and Tchaikovsky. While deeply rooted in the musical past, Schumann’s Second Symphony pointed confidently toward the future. —John Daverio

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