Program

One Hundred Twenty-Second Season Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Music Director Pierre Boulez Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Wednesday, November 28, 2012, at 6:30 (Afterwork Masterworks, performed with no intermission) Sir Mark Elder Conductor Dvo ˇrák The Golden Spinning Wheel, Op. 109 Shostakovich Symphony No. 1, Op. 10

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to WBBM Newsradio 780 and 105.9 FM for its generous support as media sponsor of the Afterwork Masterworks series.

Thursday, November 29, 2012, at 8:00 Friday, November 30, 2012, at 1:30 Saturday, December 1, 2012, at 8:00 Sir Mark Elder Conductor Alice Coote Mezzo-soprano Dvo ˇrák The Golden Spinning Wheel, Op. 109 Berlioz Les nuits d’été, Op. 7 Villanelle Le spectre de la rose Sur les lagunes Absence Au cimetière (Clair de lune) L’île inconnue Alice Coote

Intermission Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10 Allegretto—Allegro non troppo Allegro Lento—Largo—Lento— Allegro molto

This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Comments by Phillip Huscher

Antonín Dvo ˇrák Born September 8, 1841, Mühlhausen, Bohemia (now Nelahozeves, Czech Republic). Died May 1, 1904, Prague, Czechoslovakia.

The Golden Spinning Wheel, Op. 109

ntonín Dvořák wasn’t the first he studied piano, organ, and viola, Acomposer to reject the family eventually becoming a decent business for a life in music. Robert enough violist to earn a living as Schumann was the only one of four an orchestra musician when he brothers to abandon his father’s couldn’t make any money from his book publishing company for compositions. After he moved to another career. František Dvořák, Prague in 1857, he became prin- a butcher in a village just north of cipal viola in the orchestra for the Prague, also expected his son to new Provisional Theater (later the continue in the trade. František National Theater). For the rest of played the zither and even wrote his life, he treasured the memory a few tunes for the local band, but of playing a concert there in 1863 he didn’t think of composing as an under his idol, Richard Wagner, occupation. He was irate when his which included the overture to thirteen-year-old son dropped out Tannhäuser, the prelude to Tristan of his apprenticeship as a butcher and Isolde, and excerpts from Die and moved to nearby Zlonice to Meistersinger and Die Walküre. In study music. 1871, Dvořák left the orchestra Antonín Dvořák learned to play to devote more time to composi- the violin as a small boy, and he tion, but he soon realized that he composed marches and waltzes would have to teach to get by. For for the village band. In Zlonice, many years, his father doubted the

Composed First CSO Instrumentation 1896 performance two flutes and piccolo, two (U.S. premiere) oboes and english horn, First performances January 1, 1897, Auditorium two clarinets, two bassoons June 3, 1896, Prague Theatre. Theodore and contrabassoon, four (private) Thomas conducting horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba, tim- October 26, London (public) Most recent CSO pani, bass drum, cymbals, performance triangle, harp, strings October 28, 2006, Orchestra Hall. Daniel Approximate Harding conducting performance time 27 minutes

2 wisdom of his son’s choice of music reputation in this country, and also over the life of a butcher. inspired some of his best-loved Then in 1873, Dvořák’s works music, including the American began to attract attention. The String Quartet and his last successful premiere of his patriotic symphony—the ninth, known cantata Heirs of the White Mountain as From the New World. After he on March 9 launched his fame returned home in April 1895, in his homeland. Later that year, Dvořák composed two last string he married Anna Cermáková, quartets that were his final essays the sister of the Prague actress in abstract music, cleared his head, Josefina, who had, nearly a decade and then unexpectedly turned his before, rebuffed his advances. (Like attention to the symphonic poem. Mozart and Haydn, he married This late-in-life career move was not his first love, but her sister.) inspired by the rediscovery of The In 1874, Dvořák took stock of his Garland, a collection of ballads by situation: he had begun to taste the nationalist poet Karel Jaromír success; his wife was pregnant with Erben—poetry that Dvořák had their first child; and he looked loved for years, but that spoke forward to the pleasures, comforts, to him even more forcefully now and traditions of family life. But he that he was back in his homeland. craved recognition and he needed In 1896, Dvořák composed four money. In July, he entered fifteen of symphonic poems based on tales his newest works in a competition drawn from Erben’s anthology; a for the Austrian State Music Prize, fifth, not based on Erben, followed a government award designed to the next year. They were his last assist struggling young artists. The orchestral works. judges included Johannes Brahms, the biggest name in Viennese he Golden Spinning Wheel is the music. Dvořák won the first prize Tthird of the symphonic poems of four hundred gulden, and he that Dvořák wrote in the early felt a kind of encouragement and months of 1896 (he began all three validation that money can’t buy. during the first days of January, Over the next few years, several and worked on them at the same of Dvořák’s works were published, time for several weeks). In late first in Prague and then more February, after he had finished the widely, and his music quickly first two Erben pieces and was still became well known throughout at work on The Golden Spinning Europe and in the United States. Wheel, Dvořák visited Brahms, who By the time he accepted Jeannette urged him to move his family to Thurber’s invitation to take up Vienna—an invitation that Dvořák temporary residence in the United couldn’t seriously consider, since States, beginning in 1892, he was he now felt more attached than enjoying extraordinary critical ever to his native land. We don’t and popular success. Dvořák’s know if Dvořák told Brahms, the American years cemented his great symphonist—and, pointedly,

3 the composer of no symphonic caught in an ill-fated romance. poems—of the new direction his When the king later returns to music had taken. pursue Dornicka, he encounters Taking a cue from Liszt’s her stepmother, who has a young, pioneering tone poems, Dvořák unmarried daughter of her own. assigns a musical theme to each In a turn of events that in our time central character in the action, would surely dominate the media allowing it to be transformed by for weeks, the stepmother takes the the events in the unfolding drama. two girls into the woods, murders (This was also the model for the and dismembers Dornicka, and series of new orchestral works sends her own daughter off to begun by Richard Strauss in the marry the king. (Dornicka’s feet, preceding decade; he was com- hands, and eyes are later sent along posing Also sprach Zarathustra at to the king’s castle.) After the the time Dvořák was working on wedding—celebrated by a wonder- the Erben scores.) Although the fully Dvořákian polka—the king shape of Erben’s narrative largely goes off to war. In the meantime, determined the form of The Golden an old man, wandering in the Spinning Wheel, the influence of his woods, discovers the remains of language had a more profound and Dornicka’s body and is determined subtle impact on Dvořák’s music. to bring her back to life, a make- Throughout the score, the rise and over process that ultimately involves fall of his melodic lines suggest exchanging a golden spinning the declamation of Erben’s verses wheel for her feet, a golden distaff (certain passages of the poem could for her hands, and a golden spindle almost be sung to Dvořák’s corre- for her eyes. When the king returns sponding themes). This is similar to from his triumphant wartime the “speech-melody” that Janáček action, the spinning wheel begins was developing in his operatic writ- to play a song describing the crimes ing at this time. committed by the stepmother and her daughter. The king races to the he Golden Spinning Wheel tells forest, where he finds Dornicka Tthe tale of a young king, out alive and even well, and he takes hunting on horseback, who stops her back to his castle. Although at a cottage to ask for a drink of Erben has the two murderers water, and, immediately falling in torn apart by wolves, Dvořák’s love with Dornicka, the young girl ending is uncomplicated and at the spinning wheel, becomes unequivocally happy.

4 Hector Berlioz Born December 11, 1803, Côte-Saint-André, France. Died March 8, 1869, Paris, France.

Les nuits d’été, Op. 7

t’s odd that Berlioz, normally the extravaganza for a military band of Imost talkative, opinionated, and two hundred players. revealing of musicians (he was the Berlioz began the first of these first major composer to write his songs, “Villanelle,” in March 1840, memoirs) had so little to say about picking a poem by his friend these extraordinary songs. We don’t Théophile Gautier, and gradu- know why he composed them or ally, over the next few months, set for whom—evidently they weren’t five more of Gautier’s texts. That written on commission or for any September, he published these six specific occasion. Unlike Berlioz’s songs under the title Les nuits d’été best-known and most characteristic (Summer nights)—an anthology of compositions, these are private, pieces about love and desire, and, even personal works, and he above all, longing. (He made up seemed reluctant to put them in the the title himself, with Gautier’s public spotlight. He wrote them blessing, as well as those of the first for voice and piano, which individual songs.) In June of the only underscored their intimacy— following year, Berlioz autographed particularly since they were a book for Marie Recio, a singer of composed right on the heels of the limited talent who soon became his three-movement Grand symphonie traveling companion and occasional funèbre et triomphale, an over-the- musical partner, and much later top, government-commissioned his second wife. These pieces don’t

Composed February 28, 1963, Orchestra Approximate 1840–41; orchestrated 1843, Hall. (complete) Leontyne performance time 1856 Price, soprano; Fritz 32 minutes Reiner conducting First performance CSO recording date unknown Most recent CSO 1963. Leontyne Price, performance soprano; Fritz Reiner First CSO February 2, 2008, Orchestra conducting. RCA performance Hall. Susan Graham, soloist; December 11, 1903, Pierre Boulez conducting Auditorium Theatre. (“Sur les lagunes” Instrumentation only) Marguerite Hall, solo voice, two flutes, oboe, soloist; Theodore two clarinets, two bassoons, Thomas conducting three horns, harp, strings

5 betray Berlioz’s new infatuation d’été for publication that year in with Marie, for they were probably Switzerland. They were never per- written before the fact, but the formed as a set during his lifetime, attraction of Gautier’s texts does and he heard only the second and suggest unrest in his marriage to fourth songs sung with orchestra. Harriet Smithson, and the sense of a great love that has gone cold. e don’t remember Berlioz Berlioz has left us little informa- Was a song composer, but he tion about his personal life in 1841 wrote more than fifty songs, many and 1842; few letters survive and he of them supreme examples of his passes quickly over these years in unsurpassed gift for melody. These his Memoirs. He did begin a grand six Gautier settings are the only public tour in 1842, starting in songs Berlioz published as a group. Brussels and taking in more than Berlioz didn’t think of them as a a dozen cities in Germany before cycle like Beethoven’s An die ferne he was done. Marie joined him for Geliebte, or Schubert’s Winterreise, the entire trip, singing in some of or Schumann’s Dichterliebe (com- the concerts he conducted; it was posed the year Berlioz began Nuits for her that he orchestrated one d’été), with a narrative thread and of the Gautier songs, “Absence,” a strong musical continuity. They which she introduced in Dresden are linked, instead, by their poet, in February 1843. The tour was a common subject matter, and a a great success, and Berlioz was certain shared musical atmosphere delighted to renew his friendships of delicate, moody colors. Berlioz’s with Mendelssohn and Wagner decision to orchestrate them as and to meet Schumann. (Knowing a set, however, was unexpected, only his music, and the Symphonie and with characteristic vision he fantastique in particular, Schumann created a new form, the orchestral had imagined him as a “wilder and song cycle, which went unnoticed more animated man.”) until Mahler picked it up half a Although Berlioz was still century later. married to Harriet, who had, Berlioz arranged the six songs little more than a decade before, of Les nuits d’été with two ener- inspired the extraordinary passion getic, sunny ones framing four of the Symphonie fantastique, he that are sober and introspective. now quietly began a new life with Berlioz calls for an unusually small Marie. He and Harriet officially orchestra—this isn’t the extrava- separated in 1844; a full decade gant Berlioz who caused the poet later he married Marie, exactly one Heinrich Heine to dream of “fabu- day after finishing his Memoirs, in lous empires filled with fabulous which she is not mentioned once. sins”—and he uses it with exquisite In 1856, just before undertaking subtlety and restraint. “Villanelle” The Trojans, his operatic retelling of is the simplest of songs, and yet Virgil’s Aeneid, Berlioz orchestrated Berlioz gives it depth and interest the remaining five songs of Les nuits by changing the harmonies and

6 the orchestration for each verse. leaves the song unanswered, ending The second song, “Le spectre de la with a dominant chord that never rose”—The phantom of the rose— resolves. It is the very plainness of (with a new introduction Berlioz “Absence,” with its slowly changing added in the orchestral version), orchestral chords and its repeated is more complex, beginning with childlike plea (“come back”) that a sumptuous melody that changes makes it so naked and powerful. character as it goes, disintegrating “Au cimetière” (In the cemetery) into recitative at one point, and moves even deeper into despair, later soaring in a thrilling climax. with its numb, pulsing accompani- The song is brilliantly scored, with ment and the ghostly shiver of shimmering string trills and a strings as memory brushes past. gentle, strumming harp, appearing The playful questioning of “L’île for the only time in the cycle, to inconnue” (The unknown isle) announce paradise. comes as welcome relief, even if the “Sur les lagunes” (On the poet can’t suggest where love will lagoons), over rising and falling last forever. At the end, we sense half steps that suggest a rocking that it is Berlioz himself who sails boat, is built around a mournful off, with the wind at his back, in refrain, like a cry of despair. Berlioz search of a new beginning.

LES NUITS D’ÉTÉ SUMMER NIGHTS

VILLANELLE VILLANELLE Quand viendra la saison nouvelle, When the new season comes Quand auront disparu les froids, and the cold weather has gone, Tous les deux nous irons, ma belle, the pair of us will go, my pretty one, Pour cueillir le muguet aux bois; to gather lilies of the valley in the woods. Sous nos pieds égrenant les perles Shaking free beneath our feet the dewdrops Que l’on voit au matin trembler, that one sees a-tremble in the early morn, Nous irons écouter les merles siffler. we will go to hear the blackbirds sing.

Le printemps est venu, ma belle, Spring has come, my pretty one, C’est le mois des amants béni; it is the month that lovers bless, Et l’oiseau, satinant son aile, and the birds, preening their wings, Dit ses vers au rebord du nid. sing verses from the rim of their nest. Oh! viens donc sur ce banc de mousse Oh, come then to this mossy bank Pour parler de nos beaux amours, to discourse of our sweet loves, Et dis-moi de ta voix si douce: and say to me in that gentle voice of Toujours! yours: Forever!

(Please turn the page quietly.) 7 Loin, bien loin égarant nos courses, Straying far, very far from our way, Faisons fuir le lapin caché startling the timid rabbit from its hiding place Et le daim au miroir des sources and the deer at the mirroring spring, Admirant son grand bois penché; admiring its great lowered antlers; Puis chez nous, tout heureux, tout aisés, all filled with content and happiness, then, En paniers enlaçant nos doigts, entwining our fingers basketlike, Revenons, rapportant des fraises homewards we will go, bringing des bois. wild strawberries.

LE SPECTRE DE LA ROSE THE PHANTOM OF A ROSE Soulève ta paupière close Open your closed lids Qu’effleure un songe virginal! that a virginal dream lightly brushes. Je suis le spectre d’une rose, I am the specter of a rose Que tu portais hier au bal. you wore at the ball last eve. Tu me pris encore emperlée You took me still pearly Des pleurs d’argent de l’arrosoir, with the watering pot’s silvery tears Et, parmi la fête étoilée, and about the starry gathering Tu me promenas tout le soir. carried me all night.

Ô toi, qui de ma mort fus cause, O you, who caused my death, Sans que tu puisses le chasser, powerless to banish it, Toutes les nuits mon spectre rose my rosy spirit every night À ton chevet viendra danser. will come to dance by your bedside. Mais ne crains rien, je ne réclame But do not be afraid—I demand Ni messe ni De profundis. neither mass nor De profundis. Ce léger parfum est mon âme, This fragile perfume is my soul Et j’arrive du paradis. and I come from paradise.

Mon destin fut digne d’envie, My lot was to be envied, Et pour avoir un sort si beau and to have so beautiful a fate Plus d’un aurait donné sa vie; many a one would have rendered up his life— Car sur ton sein j’ai mon tombeau, for my grave is on your breast Et sur l’albâtre où je repose and on the alabaster where I lie at rest Un poète avec un baiser with a kiss a poet Écrivit: “Ci-gît une rose, has written: “Here lies a rose Que tous les rois vont jalouser.” that every king will envy.”

8 SUR LES LAGUNES ON THE LAGOONS Ma belle amie est morte. My dearest love is dead— Je pleurerai toujours; I shall weep forever more. Sous la tombe elle emporte Into the grave she takes with her Mon âme et mes amours. my soul and all my love. Dans le ciel, sans m’attendre She returned to heaven Elle s’en retourna; without waiting for me— L’ange qui l’emmena the angel that took her Ne voulut pas me prendre. would not take me, too. Que mon sort est amer! How bitter is my fate! Ah! sans amour s’en aller sur la mer! Alas, to go over the sea without love!

La blanche créature The pure white being Est couchée au cercueil; is lying in her grave. Comme dans la nature Oh, how everything in nature Tout me paraît en deuil! seems to me to be in mourning! La colombe oubliée The forsaken dove Pleure et songe à l’absent; weeps and dreams of its absent mate. Mon âme pleure et sent My soul weeps and feels Qu’elle est dépareillée. itself to be incomplete. Que mon sort est amer! How bitter is my fate! Ah! sans amour s’en aller sur la mer! Alas, to go over the sea without love!

Sur moi la nuit immense Above me the immensity of night S’étend comme un linceul, spreads like a shroud. Je chante ma romance I chant my lay, Que le ciel entend seul. which is heard by heaven alone. Ah! comme elle était belle, Oh, how beautiful she was Et comme je l’aimais! and how I loved her! Je n’aimerai jamais I shall never love another woman Une femme autant qu’elle. as I do her. Que mon sort est amer! How bitter is my fate! Ah! sans amour s’en aller sur la mer! Alas, to go over the sea without love!

ABSENCE ABSENCE Reviens, reviens, ma bien-aimée! Come back, come back, my best beloved! Comme une fleur loin du soleil, Like a flower far from the sun La fleur de ma vie est fermée my life’s flower is shut Loin de ton sourire vermeil. far from your rosy smile.

Entre nos coeurs quelle distance! What a distance there is between our hearts! Tant d’espace entre nos baisers! So much space between our kisses! Ô sort amer! Ô dure absence! Oh, bitter fate! Oh, cruel absence!

(Please turn the page quietly.) 9 Ô grands désirs inapaisés! Oh, frantic desires unappeased!

Reviens, reviens, ma bien-aimée! etc. Come back, come back, etc.

D’ici là-bas que de campagnes, From here to there, so many plains, Que de villes et de hameaux, so many towns and hamlets, Que de vallons et de montagnes, so many valleys and mountains— A lasser le pied des chevaux! enough to tire the horses’ feet!

Reviens, reviens, ma bien-aimée! etc. Come back, come back, etc.

AU CIMETIÈRE (Clair de lune) IN THE CEMETERY (Moonlight) Connaissez-vous la blanche tombe, Do you know the white tomb Où flotte avec un son plaintif where, with plaintive moan, the shadow L’ombre d’un if? of a yew tree floats? Sur l’if une pâle colombe, On that yew a pale dove, Triste et seule au soleil couchant, sad and solitary, at sundown Chante son chant: sings its lay:

Un air maladivement tendre, A refrain sickly tender, À la fois charmant et fatal, at once both delightful and deadly, Qui vous fait mal that hurts, Et qu’on voudrait toujours entendre; which yet one would fain listen to forever— Un air comme en soupire aux cieux an air like the amorous angel might sing L’ange amoureux. in the heavens.

On dirait que l’âme éveillée One would say the soul awakened Pleure sous terre à l’unisson is weeping beneath the sod De la chanson, in unison with the song, Et du malheur d’être oubliée and in a gentle cooing Se plaint dans un roucoulement complaining of the misery Bien doucement. of being forgot.

Sur les ailes de la musique On the music’s wing On sent lentement revenir one feels a memory Un souvenir. slowly return— Une ombre, une forme angélique, a shadow, an angelic form, Passe dans un rayon tremblant, passes in a tremulous beam, En voile blanc. shrouded in a white veil.

Les belles de nuit demi-closes Night-scented blossoms, half open, Jettent leur parfum faible et doux exhale their scent mild and sweet Autour de vous, about you,

10 Et le fantôme aux molles poses and the phantom with its sluggish gestures Murmure en vous tendant les bras: whispers as it extends to you its arms: Tu reviendras! You will return! Oh! jamais plus, près de la tombe, Oh, never again will I go near Je n’irai, quand descend le soir. that tomb, when the somber cloak Au manteau noir, of night descends, Écouter la pâle colombe to listen to the pale dove Chanter su la pointe de l’if from the summit of the yew tree sing Son chant plaintif. its plaintive song! L’ÎLE INCONNUE THE UNKNOWN ISLE Dites, la jeune belle, Tell me, pretty young maid, Où voulez-vous aller? where would you like to go? La voile enfle son aile, The sail bellies like a wing, La brise va souffler. the breeze is about to blow.

L’aviron est d’ivoire, The oar is of ivory, Le pavillon de moire, the flag of watered silk, Le gouvernail d’or fin; the rudder of fine gold; J’ai pour lest une orange, for ballast I have an orange, Pour voile une aile d’ange, for sail, an angel’s wing, Pour mousse un séraphin. for ship’s boy, a seraph.

Dites, la jeune belle, etc. Tell me, pretty young maid, etc.

Est-ce dans la Baltique? Would it be to the Baltic, Dans la mer Pacifique? or to the Pacific, Dans l’île de Java? or to the isle of Java? Ou bien est-ce Norvège, Or else would it be to Norway, Cueillir la fleur de neige, to pluck the snow flower? Ou la fleur d’Angsoka? Or the flower of Angsoka?

Dites, dites, la jeune belle, Tell me, pretty young maid, Dites, où voulez-vous aller? where would you like to go?

Menez-moi, dit la belle, Take me, said the pretty young maid, À la rive fidèle to the faithful shore, Où l’on aime toujours! where love endures forever. Cette rive, ma chère, That shore, my dear, On ne la connaît guère, is scarce known Au pays des amours. in the realm of love.

Où voulez-vous aller? Where would you like to go? La brise va souffler. The breeze is about to blow. —Théophile Gautier —Translation by Peggie Cochrane

11 Dmitri Shostakovich Born September 25, 1906, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Died August 9, 1975, Moscow, Russia.

Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10

n our amazement at those rare are concentrated in the later part of Italents who mature early and die his career.) young—Mozart, Schubert, and Shostakovich wasn’t a child prod- Mendelssohn immediately come igy, but he grew up in an unusually to mind—we often undervalue musical home and revealed from the less spectacular accomplish- an early age exceptional talent, a ments of those who burst on the keen ear, a sharp musical memory, scene at a young age and go on and great discipline—all the to live long, full, musically rich essential tools (except, perhaps, lives. Dmitri Shostakovich’s First for self-confidence and political Symphony, written when he was savvy) for a major career in the eighteen—scarcely a less impressive music world. His Symphony no. 1 achievement than the Overture is the first indication of the direc- to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, tion his career would take. Written finished when Mendelssohn was as a graduation thesis at the just seventeen—inaugurated a Saint Petersburg Conservatory, it symphonic career that spanned brought him international atten- nearly half a century and the tion. In the years immediately entirety of Shostakovich’s creative following its first performance in life. (The equally significant string May 1926, it made the rounds of quartets, also fifteen in number, the major orchestras, beginning in

Composed Most recent CSO Approximate 1925 performance performance time December 18, 2004, 28 minutes First performance Orchestra Hall. Andrey May 12, 1926, Leningrad Boreyko conducting CSO recording 1988. Leonard First CSO Instrumentation Bernstein conducting. performance three flutes and two piccolos, Deutsche Grammophon December 28, 1928, two oboes, two clarinets, two A 1977 performance Orchestra Hall. Frederick bassoons, four horns, three (for video) conducted by Stock conducting trumpets, three trombones Sir Georg Solti was released and tuba, timpani, triangle, by C Major. snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, bells, and strings, with an important role for solo piano

12 this country with the Philadelphia in photographs at the time— Orchestra in November 1926 and pokerfaced (with tongue in cheek?), coming to the Chicago Symphony intense, diffident, and—despite the on December 28, 1928. (The reserve in his eyes, shaded by the program note begins, “The name of spectacles that would be his mask Dimitri Szostakowicz will vainly for life—determined to succeed. be searched for in the dictionar- ies of musical biography.” Who he First Symphony begins as at that time could have predicted Tchamber music and ends with that Shostakovich—to use the the kind of orchestral bombast we transliteration that quickly became now know from the Leningrad and standard—would become a house- his other symphonies designed to hold name?) address public issues. It has four Although his development thematically related movements, would be governed by nonmusical with the scherzo placed before forces reflecting some of the most the slow one, which leads with- dramatic social and political events out pause into the finale. A solo of our century, the issues in the piano has a significant role in the First Symphony are purely musical. symphony. (At the conservatory, It’s a technical exercise, evidence Shostakovich had been undecided of a well-earned diploma. (That whether to concentrate on composi- other matriculation symphony, tion or piano; years later he said, Haydn’s Oxford, was performed “If the truth be told, I should have when Haydn, at fifty-six, was done both.”) given an honorary doctorate from The distinctive quality of the first Oxford University.) movement is its crystalline texture, What’s most remarkable about delicate yet razor sharp. From the Shostakovich’s First Symphony opening measures, where a solo isn’t the appearance of so many bassoon converses with a single hallmarks of the composer’s trumpet, individual instruments mature style—biting sarcasm, shine. Important ideas are often unabashed romanticism, dry musi- introduced simply, by one voice cal humor, and moments of public against a spare accompaniment. At rhetoric alongside deeply personal the climax, Shostakovich unex- statements—but that everything is pectedly throws a number of ideas handled with mastery and assur- together, to tremendous effect. ance. It’s easy to tell which compos- The scherzo is an early example ers Shostakovich most admired as of the composer’s humor, refined a young man—there are passing during his days as a pianist in references in particular to his fellow local movie houses, when he often countrymen Prokofiev, Scriabin, laughed so uncontrollably during Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky— his favorite scenes that he had to but the final, lasting image is of stop playing. This movement is Shostakovich himself. It’s the filled with high spirits; the ghostly same Shostakovich who appears trio, with its persistent triangle and

13 snare drum rolls, is oddly mysteri- is more intricate, with wide mood ous. Still, before the movement swings, abrupt tempo changes, bold is over, Shostakovich manages to contrasts (a full orchestral climax combine these two elements into a answered by a timpani solo, for thrilling climax. example), and a general emotional The Lento begins with a plain- complexity that is inevitable at any tive oboe tune, distantly related reunion. But most of all, it confirms to the main theme of the first the arrival on the music scene of an movement, and continues in a exciting and enduring new voice. richly lyrical vein—music that refutes all the later comments about Shostakovich’s lesser melodic talent. The finale, which brings Phillip Huscher is the program annota- © 2012 Chicago Symphony Orchestra © 2012 Chicago together many previous themes, tor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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