sign in sign up
<<
Home , Ainadamar, Gustav Mahler, Iestyn Davies, Jessica Rivera, Michelle DeYoung, Orchestral song

Aspen Festival and School , Music Director A Tribute to Music Director Robert Spano Alan Fletcher, President and CEO Sunday, July 5, 2020 3 pm

R. STRAUSS Traum durch die Dämmerung, op. 29, no. 1 (1895) 3' (1864–1949) Heimliche Aufforderung, op. 27, no. 3 (1898) 3'

Befreit, op. 39, no. 4 (1898) 6' Michelle DeYoung, mezzo- Yefim Bronfman,

ALAN FLETCHER Romance for , , and Piano (2015) 10' (b. 1956) Michael Rusinek, clarinet Nancy Goeres, bassoon Yefim Bronfman,piano

BRAHMS Vivace ma non troppo from Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, op. 78 (1878–79) 11' (1833–1897)

KREISLER Schön Rosmarin (b. 1905) 2' (1875–1962) Robert McDuffie,violin Elizabeth Pridgen, piano

CHOPIN Nocturne in D-flat major, op. 27, no. 2 (1835) 5' (1810–1849) Etude in F major, op. 10, no. 8 (1830–32) 4' Yefim Bronfman,piano

LIEBERSON Amor mio, si muero y tú no mueres from (2005) 7' (1946–2011)

OSVALDO GOLIJOV/ Desde mi ventana from (2003/?) 5' STEPHEN PRUTSMAN Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano (b. 1960/b. 1960) Brian Locke, piano

Program continued on back of page

The Aspen Music Festival and School uses Steinway and , designed by Steinway & Sons; Steinway & Sons is represented in exclusively by Schmitt Music. A Tribute to Music Director Robert Spano • July 5

MAHLER Liebst du um Schönheit from Rückert-Lieder (1901–2) 7' (1860–1911)

LOWRY/ROB MATHES How Can I Keep from Singing? (c. 1868/2020) 5' (1826–1899/b. 1970) Renée Fleming, mezzo-soprano Robert Ainsley, piano

This Tribute to Maestro Robert Spano is generously hosted byMercedes T. .

Tribute Co-Chairs are Kay Bucksbaum and Ann and Tom Friedman, Joan Fabry and Michael Klein, and Nan and Chuck Wall.

Sponsored by the Crown Family, Lisa and Will Mesdag, and Kelli and Allen Questrom

With special thanks to Nancy Swift Furlotti, Soledad and Robert Hurst, Denise Monteleone and Jim Martin, Alexandra Munroe and Robert Rosenkranz, H. Gael Neeson, and Janet and Tom O’Connor Aspen Music Festival and School Robert Spano, Music Director Alan Fletcher, President and CEO A Tribute to Music Director Robert Spano

Sunday, July 5, 2020 3 pm Biographies

Photo credit: Angela Morriss phony. He returns to the Indianapolis Sym- April 2020 to perform Missa solemnis with Robert Spano, conductor, pianist, phony, the Singapore , and the soprano Susanna Phillips, mezzo-soprano , and teacher, is known worldwide BBC Symphony in the world pre- Sasha Cooke, tenor Benjamin Bliss and bass for the intensity of his artistry and distinctive miere of Dimitrios Skyllas’s Kyrie eleison, Matthew Rose. The season concludes with communicative abilities, creating a sense commissioned by the BBC. de- the Atlanta premiere of Wagner’s Tristan und of inclusion and warmth among musicians buts include the NHK Symphony Orches- Isolde. and audiences that is unique among Ameri- tra, Auckland Philharmonia, and Wroclaw can . Beginning his 19th season Philharmonic. As the newly appointed Prin- The 2018-2019 season featured Mr. Spano’s cipal Guest Conductor of the Fort Worth highly-acclaimed Metropolitan de- as Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Symphony, Spano appears on the orchestra’s but, leading the US premiere of Marnie, the Orchestra, this imaginative conductor is an Symphonic Series, conducting two of the ten second opera by American composer Nico approachable artist with the innate ability scheduled concert weekends. Muhly, with Isabel Leonard, Janis Kelly, De- to share his enthusiasm for music. An avid nyce Graves, Iestyn Davies, and Christopher mentor to rising artists, he is responsible for With the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, pro- Maltman, and the conclusion of the ASO’s nurturing the careers of numerous celebrat- grams include the Spano’s quintessentially two-year “LB/LB” celebration commemo- ed , conductors, and performers. rich, diverse pairings of contemporary works rating and Ludwig van As Music Director of the Aspen Music Fes- and cherished classics, welcoming seasoned Beethoven. This celebration featured six tival and School since 2011, he oversees the guest artists and many new faces. The orches- Bernstein works and nine Beethoven Sym- tra’s 75th season features 16 ASO premieres, phonies, and vocal masterpieces including programming of more than 300 events and including works by living American compos- Verdi’s Otello, Beethoven’s , and Ber- educational programs for 630 students and ers Krists Auznieks, Jessie Montgomery, Joby nstein’s Candide. Recent concert highlights young performers. Talbot, and , and a world have included several world premiere per- Highlights of Mr. Spano’s 2019-2020 season premiere by Brian Nabors. The season opens formances including Voy a Dormir by Bryce include a return to the Dallas Symphony with Joshua Bell joining the ASO for Hen- Dessner at with the Orches- Orchestra, conducting the world premiere ryk Wieniawski’s No. 2 and tra of St. Luke’s and mezzo-soprano Kelley of ’s Violin Concerto No. 3 Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen. In cel- O’Connor; the Concerto by Jennifer alongside Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Sym- ebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday, the Higdon, performed by Craig Knox and the ASO and Chorus travels to Carnegie Hall in Symphony; Melodia, For Piano

3 TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2020 • 3 PM and Orchestra, by Canadian composer Mat- thew Ricketts at the Aspen Music Festival; and Miserere by ASO bassist Michael Kurth. In addition to his leadership of the ASO, Spano recently returned to his early love of composing. His most recent works include Sonata: Four Elements for piano, premiered by Spano in August 2016 at the Aspen Music Festival, and a , Hölderlin-Lieder, for soprano . Both works were recorded on the ASO Media label and praised by ’s Grove: “On this latest release, from ASO, we experience Spano as both an imaginative and evocative composer - with a special gift for writing for the voice - and a poetic pianist.”

The Atlanta School of Composers reflects Spano’s commitment to American contem- porary music. He has led ASO performances at Carnegie Hall, , and the Ra- vinia, Ojai, and Savannah Music Festivals.

Guest engagements have included the Cleve- land, , and Orches- tras, New York and Philharmon- ics, and the , Boston, , San Diego, Oregon, Utah, and Kansas City . Internationally, Maestro Spa- no has led the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, BBC Symphony, Amsterdam’s Royal Orchestra, Orquestra Sin- Photo credit: Dan Rest fonica Brasileira, Orquestra Sinfonica Es- phon, and ASO Media, Robert Spano has "Mr. Spano drew a glowing, spacious perfor- tado Sao Paulo, the Melbourne Symphony in garnered six Grammy™ Awards with the At- mance of this Brahms masterwork from the Australia, and the in lanta Symphony. Spano is on faculty at Ober- orchestra, marking a great return visit for Japan. His opera performances include Cov- lin Conservatory and has received honorary both him and this essential ensemble." – The ent Garden, , Lyric Op- doctorates from Bowling Green State Uni- New York Times era of Chicago, , and versity, the Curtis Institute of Music, Emory the 2005 and 2009 productions University, and Oberlin. Maestro Spano is “The festival’s music director, Robert Spano, of Wagner’s Ring cycles. one of two classical musicians inducted into caught both the broadest and finest strokes of the Music Hall of Fame and makes , dynamics and critical orchestral bal- With a discography of critically-acclaimed his home in Atlanta. ances. He drew the best playing in the quiet, recordings for Telarc, Deutsche Grammo- subtle moments of the score and long build- ups to big climaxes.” – Aspen Times

Photo credit: Alex Irvin

4 ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Active as an opera fanatic and factotum since 2019-2020 season, after which he took up 2001, Rob Ainsley has explored every facet of an Artist-in-Residence project with the Vi- the art form across the country, and lives to enna Symphony in both the Musikverein and pass on his enthusiasm to others. Konzerthaus. During the fall he also partici- pated in farewell concerts for in He is an alum of the University of Cambridge, Tel Aviv with the Philharmonic, Japan Mannes College of Music, and the Linde- with the Philharmonic and Andrés mann Young Artist Development Program at Orozco-Estrada as well as season opening the . Since then, he has events in Houston, Seattle and Rhode Island. been Associate Music Director at Portland Opera, Co-founder and Principal Conduc- tor of the Greenwich Music Festival, a guest Equally at home on the opera stage, Ms Chorus Master at DeYoung has appeared in the title roles for and Head of Music Staff, Chorus Master, and Samson et Dalilah and The Rape of Lucretia, coach at Minnesota Opera and Opera The- Fricka, Sieglinde and Waltraute in The Ring atre of Saint Louis. He is currently the Direc- Cycle; Venus in Tannhäuser, Marguerite in tor of the Cafritz Young Artists of Washington Le Damnation de , Dido in , National Opera and the American Opera Ini- Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, and Jocaste in tiative, seeking out and grooming the finest . She also created the role of the young American singers, composers, and li- Shaman in ’s The First Emperorat the brettists for international careers; his singers Metropolitan Opera. have gone on to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, sing at the White House, the Supreme Court, the National Gal- Reneé Fleming is one of the most highly ac- lery, and the Library of Congress, and per- claimed singers of our time. Winner of four form in all the world’s major opera houses. Grammy® awards, and recipient of the US National Medal of Arts, she has sung for mo- Mr. Ainsley has conducted his own realiza- mentous occasions from the Nobel Peace tions of seventeenth-century , collab- orated on a string of world premieres, raved Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee Con- about in recital series of his own cert for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham creation, and lectured on everything from Palace. In 2014, Renée brought her voice to a vast new audience as the first classical artist Adams to Zemlinsky. Through it all, he has Born in Tashkent in the , Yefim ever to sing the National Anthem at the Su- inspired hundreds of young artists and thou- Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his fam- sands of audience members to share his pas- ily in 1973, where he studied with pianist Arie perbowl. sion, and prides himself on the friendships Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music he has formed along the way. at Tel Aviv University. In the , he studied at The Juilliard School, Marlboro School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, under Rudolf Firkusny, , and . He has received the pres- tigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists.

Michelle DeYoung has already established herself as an exciting performer and multi- Grammy award winning recording artist. She continues to be in demand through- out the world, appearing regularly with the , Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Met Orchestra, London Sym- phony Orchestra, and , Internationally recognized as one of today’s to name a few. She has also performed at most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim many prestigious festivals, including Ravinia, Bronfman stands among a handful of artists Tanglewood, and Lucerne. regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, con- Renée’s current schedule includes concerts ductors and recital series. in New York, Vienna, Paris, and Beijing. In As guest soloist, Mr. Bronfman participated December, Renée brought her acclaimed in the opening concerts of Carnegie Hall’s portrayal of Margaret in The Light in the Piaz-

5 TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2020 • 3 PM

za to Chicago, after appearances in London pen Music Festival and School and in many and Los Angeles. Last summer, Renée sang countries, and recorded it with the PSO and the world premieres of André Previn’s Pe- Maazel for the New World label. Other solo nelope and Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light performances with the PSO include perfor- at Tanglewood. In April, Renée appeared mances of Haydn’s concertante, opposite Ben Whishaw in Norma Jean Baker John Williams’s The Five of Troy to open The Shed at New York’s Hud- Sacred Trees, and the Mozart Bassoon Con- son Yards. She earned a Tony nomination certo. for her performance in the 2018 Broadway production of Carousel. Her new album Lie- An active teacher, Ms. Goeres has given mas- der: Brahms, Schumann, and was ter classes in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Asia released by Decca in June. She was heard and South America, as well as in the U.S. In Grammy-nominated violinist Robert on the soundtracks of the 2018 Best Picture October 2004, she gave her first master class McDuffie enjoys a dynamic and multi-fac- Oscar winner The Shape of Water and Three over the Internet for the bassoon section of eted career. He has appeared as soloist with Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. the New World Symphony. the world’s foremost orchestras on five con- tinents, and dedicated his Sec- As Artistic Advisor to the John F. Kennedy ond Violin Concerto, “The American Four Center for the Performing Arts, Renée spear- Seasons”, to Mr. McDuffie. Mike Mills of the heads a collaboration with the National In- iconic band R.E.M. composed a Concerto stitutes of Health focused on music, health, for Violin, Rock Band, and and neuroscience. Her many awards include for him. His discography includes acclaimed the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, recordings on the Orange Mountain Music Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, and Label, Telarc and EMI. France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

McDuffie is the founder of the Cham- ber Music Festival in , where he has been given the prestigious Premio Simpatia by Brian Locke is an American pianist, organ- the mayor of Rome and will be awarded the ist, coach, and répétiteur whose career spans Premio delle Muse at the Palazzo Vecchio throughout academia, opera, concertizing, in Florence, Italy. He is also founder of the and church music. Brian has performed Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, a conser- with the Atlanta Community Symphony Or- vatory for undergraduate and graduate stu- chestra, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, dents at in his native city and has coached operatic repertoire with of Macon, Georgia. companies including Opera Birmingham, Opera in the Ozarks, and recently joined Op- era Theatre of Saint Louis as Music Director of the Artists-in-Residence. Brian serves as Associate Director of Music and Parish Or- ganist at St. Mary’s Episcopal, Park Ridge, IL. Brian directs the Handel Week Festival Cho- Nancy Goeres, Principal Bassoonist of the rus (Oak Park, IL) and has been reductionist Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, joined the with Bach Week Festival Chorus (Evanston, Symphony’s bassoon section in the 1984-85 IL) since 2014. season. An avid chamber musician, she has performed at the Tanglewood, Marlboro, Locke has served on the music faculty at Sarasota, LaJolla and Mainly Mozart festivals. Loyola University, Chicago and the Interlo- chen Center for the Arts; as coach/pianist at Alan Fletcher's Concerto for Bassoon and DePaul and Northwestern Universities; Mez- Orchestra, commissioned by the Pittsburgh zo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, Tenor Marco Symphony, was premiered by Goeres and Panuccio, and many others are among his regular partners. He has frequented festivals conducted by Manfred Honeck in 2011. She Kelly O’Connor is a Grammy award-win- as performer and pedagogue throughout the subsequently performed the concerto with ning mezzo soprano whose performances the Aspen Chamber Symphony in summer United States and Canada including Brevard, of the masterpieces of , Rich- 2012. With and the Pittsburgh Heifetz, Southeastern, and Summer ard Wagner, , and others has Symphony Orchestra, she premiered the El- Music and has sat on the jury for the Arthur len Taaffe Zwilich Bassoon Concerto, com- Frasier International Piano Competition. He forged her as one of the most compelling per- missioned for her by the Pittsburgh Sym- is a member of the artist roster with the Pi- formers of her generation. phony Society. Ms. Goeres subsequently atigorsky Foundation and is a member of the performed the Zwilich Concerto at the As- Association of Anglican Musicians. wrote the title role of The Gos- pel According to the Other Mary for Kelley 6 ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

O’Connor and she has performed the work, ber of the Cortona Trio with violinist Amy both in concert and in the fully Schwartz Moretti and cellist Julie Albers. staged production, under the batons of John Adams, , , Ms. Pridgen is currently a Distinguished Art- Gianandrea Noseda, Sir , and ist and Piano Chair at the McDuffie Center David Robertson. Her vivid recital career in- for Strings and holds the G.Leslie Fabian Pia- cludes performances in Boston with Thom- no Chair at the Townsend School of Music at as Adès in a program of Brahms, Purcell, Mercer University. and Stravinsky, in Cincinnati with pianist Louis Langrée in programs of Brahms and Ravel, and in Jackson Hole with the music of Brahms and Bernstein in a collaboration with Donald Runnicles.

O'Connor is a longstanding artist partner of Maestro Robert Spano, and has appeared in collaboration with the Atlanta Symphony numerous times, including as Federico Gar- cia Lorca for Golijov’s multi-Grammy award winning opera Ainadamar.

Michael Rusinek joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 1998 as principal clarinet. He has also performed as principal clarinet with the orchestras of Phil- adelphia and St. Louis, the Royal Concertge- bouw in Amsterdam, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada; and as assistant principal clarinet of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.

In 2008 Mr. Rusinek premiered a new con- certo by Alan Fletcher with the Pittsburgh Pianist Elizabeth Pridgen enjoys a dis- Symphony. He has performed as a soloist tinguished career as both a soloist and and recitalist throughout Canada, the United chamber musician. In 2014 she was ap- States, and Israel, including appearances pointed Artistic Director of the Atlan- with the Belgrade and Czech philharmonics and the Toronto Symphony. ta Chamber Players, one of the leading chamber ensembles in the United States. In 1985 Mr. Rusinek received the grand prize in the International Clarinet Society com- Ms Pridgen has appeared at Carnegie Hall, at petition. He returns regularly to the Grand Ravinia, and around the world. She performs Teton, Santa Fe Chamber, and Aspen music regularly at festivals including the Rome festivals. He has also participated in the Tan- Chamber Music Festival in Rome, Italy, the glewood and Marlboro festivals and toured Kon-Tiki Chamber Music Festival in Oslo, with the acclaimed Musicians from Marl- Norway, and the Aspen Music Festival. Ms. boro. Pridgen has collaborated with such artists as Elmar Oliveira, Robert McDuffie, Anne Akiko Mr. Rusinek is on the music faculty of Carn- Meyers, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Lynn egie Mellon University and joined the Curtis Harrell, the Diaz String Trio, and the Ameri- faculty in 2012. can String Quartet. Ms. Pridgen is a mem-

7 Program Notes light through which he is ambling explodes in waves of ecstasy, all

toward his goal. —© PAUL THOMASON perfectly captured in Strauss’s voluptuous music. —© P.T. Traum durch die Dämmerung, op. RICHARD STRAUSS 29, no. 1 Heimliche Afforderung, op. 27, no. 3

RICHARD STRAUSS On June 7, 1895 Strauss was leafing Richard Strauss wrote the four Befreit, op. 39, no. 4 through a book of poetry by Otto Ju- songs that make up his Opus 27 lius Bierbaum and had just decided as a wedding present for Pauline. Strauss set 11 of Richard Dehmel’s to set the poem “Traum durch die “The model interpreter of my poems to music between 1895–1901. Dämmerung” (Dream through the songs,” Strauss always claimed, The two men were almost exactly Twilight) to music when his wife, the though when she joined him on the same age and both admired soprano Pauline Strauss-de Ahna, his American tour of 1904 (she the work of . came into the room and announced sang the three songs on this (It was at Dehmel’s home in Berlin they were going on a walk. Strauss program frequently during it) not that Strauss met his future librettist protested. He was getting ready to all of the critics agreed. “Heimliche Hugo von Hofmannsthal for the first write a song. “I’ll give you twenty Afforderung” (Secret Invitation) time.) Several years after Strauss minutes and then we go,” Pauline is set to a poem by the Scottish- composed “Befreit” (Freed) in replied. When she came back twenty German poet, John Henry Mackay, 1898, Dehmel explained that when minutes later Strauss had composed an ardent anarchist and early he wrote his somewhat enigmatic the entire song—about taking a champion of gay rights whose poem he had pictured a man speak- walk. The descriptive piano accom- frankly erotic work appealed to ing to his dying wife, but added, paniment with its “walking figure” Strauss. Lotte Lehmann, one of “it could also allude to any kind of in the left hand and gently rolling the composer’s favorite singers, loving couple. [It could] apply not triplets in the right hand is almost maintained the jovial opening of only to death, but to any parting for hypnotic. A sense of deep content- the song should be sung “freely life; for every leave taking is relat- ment and quiet joy permeate the and joyously with the kind of ed to death, and what we give up song. The opening key of F-sharp recklessness and lust for life which forever, we give back to the world.” major is briefly changed to B-flat one feels when one is ‘mellow’ with Apparently Dehmel did not care for major when the man mentions “the wine.” After the lovers have left the Strauss’s interpretation of his poem, most beautiful woman” he is going raucous party and slipped away for thinking it was too soft and not bit- to visit, then reverts to the original their tryst, a quiet intimacy envelops ter enough. Strauss’s music does not key as his thoughts return to the twi- them until their rising passion deny the sorrow of the situation, but A TRIBUTE TO MUSIC DIRECTOR ROBERT SPANO • JULY 5, 2020 there is an underlying nobility to it title “Romance.” The word immedi- ing,” and this Romance is about that transforms the emotion, per- ately makes me think of real life—for desire. About two thirds of the way fectly expressed in the bittersweet “o romances are real!—and of fairy through, at the golden section, there Glück” (oh happiness) that crowns tales. I have a conviction that story- is a passage of great stillness. The each verse. Strauss orchestrated telling is at the heart of the artistic coursing water returns, leading to a “Befreit” in 1933 and he quoted both enterprise. sonorous outcry from the piano and “Befreit” and “Traum durch die then more stillness. Whatever has Dämmerung,” in his tone poem Ein The present Romance opens with a happened in the story, the ending

Heldenleben in the section known as whirling, restless figure underpinned finds a warm, secure place. — © ALAN

The Hero’s Works of Peace. by uncertain or contingent harmo- FLETCHER

—© P.T. nies. There’s no way around the fact that the figure is from Schubert’s

great early song “Gretchen am

ALAN FLETCHER Spinnrade.” But it wasn’t borrowed, Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, op. Romance for Clarinet, Bassoon, exactly: I actually had put it on paper 78 and Piano and begun working it through when I thought, “Uh oh, this is Schubert!” As with the symphony and the Romance for Clarinet, Bassoon, Then, seeing that the use I make of string quartet, Brahms waited until and Piano began as a proposal from it is not at all like Schubert’s—how a surprisingly late date to compose cellist Wilhelmina Smith (at Maine’s could it be!—I decided that he would a sonata for violin and piano. This Salt Bay Chamberfest) for a work be at peace with the appropriation. may be yet another indication of his that would be essentially a duo in Or, he will have to be. reluctance to move into areas al- two ways—the pair of reeds working ready explored by the great Classical together, and the duality of reeds As the running figure and the masters, since violin and piano was and piano. The original players were transient harmonies are joined by the combination most frequently Michael Rusinek, Nancy Goeres, and melody, it is the reeds that mostly chosen by Mozart and Beethoven for Ieva Jokubaviciute. Like all compos- are singing. Schubert’s spinning such works. Brahms composed the ers, I am always delighted to write figure sounds here also like a water G major Sonata in 1878–79 imme- for musicians whose work I respect figure: always flowing and changing. diately after completing the Violin very deeply. My friend the poet Lynn Luria-Suke- Concerto. He spent this summer (as I have written many pieces with the nick said, “Life is short, art is long- he had the preceding one, which PROGRAM NOTES had seen the composition of the but with forces reversed, as the they had to be sung at night for that Second Symphony) in Pörtschach piano now has the melody, while “balcony scene” ambience—typical- on Lake Wörth in , a land violin provide accompa- ly had lyrical melodies, slow , that always inspired him musically. niment. This is a gesture toward the simple accompaniments, and a mel- He might have continued spend- old tradition of the repeated expo- ancholic character, all qualities that ing his vacations there if it had not sition, but it turns out, in fact, to be continued in the piano nocturne. become too much a tourist attrac- the beginning of the development, tion to suit the reclusive composer. which moves widely, though always Composers had long created tran- Certainly the works composed there songfully. Twice the violin gingerly scriptions of opera arias for the all betray a mood of restrained attempts to begin the recapitulation keyboard, but they were typically sweetness, with an occasional tinge with the threefold D, but the piano simple, crowd-pleasing fare that of melancholy. is not ready. Then unexpectedly we capitalized on well-known tunes. find ourselves in thesecond bar of What set Field’s nocturnes apart, The Opus 78 Sonata is one of the recapitulation, which continues however, was their distance from

Brahms’s most lyrical works. The normally thereafter. —© S.L. actual opera melodies; they were violin leads in ravishing song almost stand-alone compositions in which throughout, while the piano plays the aim was to replicate the sound FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN an accompanimental—though not and the expression of bel canto Nocturne in D-flat major, op. 27, subordinate—role. The violin’s first no. 2 opera arias without quoting an three notes—D thrice repeated in a actual aria. He could therefore take The word “nocturne” was not always characteristic rhythm—will become advantage of the natural lyric quali- a title applied to music for the piano. a unifying motive throughout the ties of the piano by writing melodies The Irish composer is entire Sonata. The opening theme is expressly for the instrument, rather essentially credited with creating the a gentle, melting melody that never than trying to fit a melody written for genre in 1812, when he published departs from a singing quality in any the voice to the piano. his Premier nocturne. But the idea attempt to be dramatic or forceful. behind the genre actually came di- After uttering the equally lyrical sec- Chopin, who admired Field’s noc- rectly from the world of opera, where ond theme (over a livelier, though turnes, wrote his first between 1828 nocturnes (or serenades) were sweet still graceful, accompaniment), the and 1830. He eventually wrote twen- love songs to be sung in front of the violin climbs to the stratosphere. ty-one in total, finishing his final -ex home of an adored person. These What follows is the opening theme, ample in 1847, two years before his songs—called nocturnes because A TRIBUTE TO MUSIC DIRECTOR ROBERT SPANO • JULY 5, 2020 early death. Most of them fall into a fairly soon to a secure sense of the published as Opus 10 with a dedica- simple A-B-A or A-B-A-B form, but tonic center. A returning melody, a tion to Liszt, was composed between they contain a remarkable variety of long chromatic line in the middle 1829–32; the second set, published styles in both melody and accompa- voice while the highest voice repeats as Opus 25 with a dedication to the niment. Very few of Chopin’s con- a single pitch, is particularly remark- Countess Marie d’Agoult (Liszt’s temporaries composed even a single able. mistress and the mother of his three nocturne, so it was a genre dominat- children), dates from the following ed by Chopin. He single-handedly Following a repetition of the first four years. developed the nocturne into a form melody played in the right hand, capable of expressing wide-ranging the nocturne gradually builds to a The model for the etudes was surely drama and feeling, much as he had contrasting section with much more J. S. Bach, whose music Chopin with other seemingly simple genres force than the peaceful first section. learned from an early teacher. Both from the to the étude. Chopin takes advantage of the genre composers have a particular gift for to show off a kind of multi-voiced, writing accompanimental lines that The Nocturne in D-flat major, one fragmented virtuosity of melody that are rich with harmonic implication. of Chopin’s best known, is in a very is only possible on the piano—one Chopin certainly knew the major slow 6/8 meter. A delicate accom- that could never be sung. Soon, sets of etudes of the generation be- panimental line in the left hand however, in a nocturne’s gentle fore him (especially those of Cramer intones the graceful character of version of the stretto at the end of a and Clementi); but his Opus 10, No. the Nocturne in the first measure, Bach , the piece chromatical- 1 more closely resembles a Bach continuing with the same figure ly ramps down towards its ending. prelude, with its steady running six- in various harmonic areas for the After an unexpected on a teenths over long-held notes in the remainder of the piece. The melody B-flat minor chord, the nocturne bass, than it does anything from the begins simply and relatively un- returns to a peaceful D-flat major early nineteenth century. adorned, gradually adding parallel for the final few, seemingly timeless harmonies and eventually comple- measures. —© S.L. The Etude in F major, No. 8, makes mented by extensive ornamentation. technical demands on the dexterity

The harmony, worlds more complex FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN and accuracy of the right hand with Etude in D-flat major, op. 27, no. 2 than Field’s relatively simple struc- its perpetuo moto sixteenths, but the tures, runs far-afield from the origi- Chopin published his etudes in two left hand is more explicitly shaped nal D-flat major but always returns sets of twelve each. The earlier set, here as a fast march. — © S.L. PROGRAM NOTES

a collection of 100 Love Sonnets and solidity of love even as “night” PETER LIEBERSON by . The volume as a and “dreams” approach (LXXXI), to “Amor mio, si muero y tú no mueres” from whole is an extraordinary cycle, one the heart-breaking final movement Neruda Songs that can be compared with the son- (XCII), Amor Mío, si muero y tú no

When Peter Lieberson traveled to nets of Shakespeare or of Petrarch. In mueres, in which the lovers calmly Santa Fe in the summer of 1997 for four large sections, subtitled “Morn- face the inevitability of separation the premiere of his opera Ashoka’s ing,” “Afternoon,” “Evening,” and through death with the assurance Dream, he had no notion of the pro- “Night,” the cycle traces the arc of a that their love continues—indeed, found change in his career, and life, life—or rather, of two intertwined that love itself has neither beginning that awaited him. Among the cast lives. From the very beginning, Peter nor ending but exists always. — © S. L. was an extraordinary mezzo-soprano Lieberson had in mind to set some of named Lorraine Hunt. Hunt had the the songs for Lorraine. He composed OSVALDO GOLIJOV kind of musical passion and vocal the cycle (originally with orchestral “Desde mi ventana” from accompaniment) in 2005 on a joint beauty that forever changed one’s Ainadamar understanding of any piece she sang. commission from the Los Ange- les Philharmonic and the Boston Meaning “Fountain of Tears” in Ara-

Composer and singer fell in love that Symphony. bic, Ainadamar is a musico-dramatic summer; eventually they married. treatment of the life of Federico Gar- Much later, after her early death from In the end the cycle was his last cia Lorca. The Argentinian composer cancer, Peter Lieberson mentioned musical gift to her, one that is almost Osvaldo Golijov composed the opera an important change she wrought on unbearably poignant because they with a commission from the Boston his music. A great singer of marked both knew that she was battling Symphony Orchestra in 2003. The expressive ability focuses the listen- breast cancer for the second time. “Fountain” of the title is a reference er’s attention especially on the sheer The five sonnets making up the text of to the place in Granada where Lorca power of melody. And in writing a Neruda Songs proceeds from poems was executed by fascist soldiers in number of pieces for the woman that celebrate the ecstasy and delir- 1936. Lush, tonal, and full of idiom- with whom he shared his life for nine ium of newly realized love (sonnets atic Spanish rhythms, melodies, and years, Peter Lieberson found himself VIII and XXIV), to one that expresses ornamentation, Ainadamar captures seeking that power in his own work. a pang of fear at the thought of the the luxurious beauty and furious absence of the loved one (XLV), to intensity of the Spanish Civil War.

In August 1997, Lorraine bought an acceptance of the permanence A TRIBUTE TO MUSIC DIRECTOR ROBERT SPANO • JULY 5, 2020

In November of 2005, at Atlanta Sym- lines and dramatic pacing. in 1902. Though they are somewhat phony Orchestra’s Symphony Hall, independent of each other, these Robert Spano conducted soloists That deep experience with opera five songs have become known col- and the ASO in the southeast pre- repertory also instilled in Mahler lectively as the Rückert-Lieder. In his miere of the opera. The world pre- an insight into the role of a text in settings of Rückert’s poetry, Mahler miere recording of Ainadamar for music. Though it was Arnim and was perhaps more presciently au- Deutsche Grammophon, performed Brentano’s Wunderhorn collection tobiographical than he could have by the same artists (including Kelly of folk poetry that inspired much of known at the time, as they foreshad- O’Connor), received two Grammy Mahler’s public music—the mid- owed the tragic death from scarlet awards (Best Opera Recording, and dle symphonies in particular—the fever of his own oldest daughter, Ma-

Best Contemporary Classical Com- poems of Friedrich Rückert (1788– ria, just a few years later in 1907. position). In the spring of 2006, Mr. 1866) motivated some of Mahler’s Spano conducted the ASO in perfor- most poignant and lyrical vocal Why would a single man with no mances at Ojai and Ravinia Festivals. works. children (at least in 1901, when he

—© PFENDER began writing these songs) be drawn After the death of two of his children to poems about children’s deaths? GUSTAV MAHLER from scarlet fever, Rückert poured The answer is that Mahler had a Liebst du um Schönheit his grief into a private collection of lifelong obsession with death and from Rückert-Lieder 428 poems, the regularly confronted the topic of (Songs on the Death of Children) mortality, especially his own. Eight Though known today mainly as a penned between 1833 and 1834. Not of his siblings had died in child- composer, Gustav Mahler was re- published until 1871, these poems hood, including his beloved younger garded in his own time primarily as seem to have elicited from Mahler a brother Ernst in 1874. That death an opera conductor, who indulged particularly intimate and private ex- was a loss from which Mahler never in a little composing on the side. But pressivity. Mahler set some of Rück- fully recovered. Death is virtually his conducting career instilled in ert’s poems as an ever-present in Mahler’s music in him a familiarity with the voice and cycle, also titled Kindertotenlieder, some way, even in the enchantingly an expertise in the dramatic aspects which he completed between 1901 lush and lyrical slow movements, of opera production, ensuring that and 1904. At the same time, he also which paint a Utopian peace Mahler even in his instrumental composi- worked on settings of another five felt was unattainable in this life. tions Mahler was inspired by vocal Rückert poems, completing them PROGRAM NOTES

The five songs of theRückert-Lieder forms ever since. disarming. From 1870 to 1960 to explore death from various angles, 2020, this tune can become a win- both direct and tangential. In Blicke The hymn’s spirit is rooted in the dow into an older way of being, and mir nicht in die Lieder! as much as Third Great Awakening (c. 1850- feeling, American. —© J. P. in Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft and 1920), when composer/preachers Liebst du um Schönheit, Mahler (like Ira Sankey, Dwight Moody, and captures poignant and nostalgic Lowry) produced prodigious quan- memories of times spent with a child tities of hymns like these. This music now deceased. Only an occasional was aimed at supporting the tidal borrowed minor chord, signifying wave of urban revivals that were at emotional pain, intrudes into the the center of Moody’s efforts, efforts cherished reminiscences. —© LUKE which culminated in his founding

HOWARD the Moody Bible Institute in Chica- go. Chief among the causes champi- oned by this radical religious activ- ROBERT WADSWORTH LOWRY ism was the abolition of slavery. “How Can I Keep from Singing?”

In the 1960s, the folk singer Pete The story of this Christian hymn is Seeger popularized a different nearly as old and deep as the history version of the song which departed of the American Gospel tradition from the overtly religious original. itself. It first emerged during Recon- The verse which begins “When struction in the mid-Atlantic region, tyrants tremble sick with fear” bends with words first published in the instead toward a tone more in keep- New York Observer in 1868, and Rob- ing with the American folk revival of ert Wadsworth Lowry’s music setting the 1950s and 1960s. the text published in 1869. It was then passed around among religious The tune is old; the poignant penta- musical communities including the tonic melody captivates; and if we Quakers and the Shakers, and has listen openly, the simple, earnest persisted in both oral and written lyrics are immediately, thoroughly