Program

One hunDreD TwenTIeTh 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

Thursday, December 2, 2010, at 8:00 Friday, December 3, 2010, at 8:00 Saturday, December 4, 2010, at 8:00 Pierre Boulez Conductor Christine Brewer Soprano Nancy maultsby Mezzo-soprano Lance ryan Tenor mikhail Petrenko Bass Paul Jacobs Organ Chicago Symphony Chorus Duain Wolfe Director Schoenberg Transfigured Night, Op. 4 INtermISSIoN Janá ˇcek Glagolitic Mass Intrada Úvod Gospodi pomiluj Slava V ˇeruju Svet Agne ˇce Božij Varhany (Organ Solo) Intrada ChrISTIne Brewer nAnCy MAulTSBy lAnCe ryAn MIkhAIl PeTrenkO PAul JACOBS ChICAGO SyMPhOny ChOruS

These concerts are endowed in part by the League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. Steinway is the official piano of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 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

arnold Schoenberg Born September 13, 1874, Vienna, Austria. Died July 13, 1951, Brentwood, California.

Transfigured Night, op. 4

rnold Schoenberg finished chord that they couldn’t find in Athis music in December their textbooks. The sextet was 1899. Written on the eve of a new finally played in March 1902 by century and on the threshold of a group of Viennese musicians artistic revolution, Verklärte Nacht organized by Arnold Rosé, the (Transfigured night) marks a turn- composer’s brother-in-law. Like a ing point in the history of music. number of other works that have It’s one of the last great romantic proven seminal, at its premiere works, and, at the same time, points Transfigured Night provoked catcalls to the future. Schoenberg was only and fistfights and ended in a riot. twenty-five, and this music was his One critic compared it to “a calf calling card; even though it’s his with six feet, such as one sees most traditional work, it made him often at a fair.” (Many years later, few friends. Schoenberg pointed out that six As soon as he completed players actually possess twelve Transfigured Night (in its first ver- feet.) Another observer commented sion for string sextet), Schoenberg that “it sounds as if someone had submitted the score to the Vienna smeared the score of Tristan while Composers’ Guild, whose mem- it was still wet.” bers refused to perform the piece Despite the disastrous reception, because it included a dissonant Rosé decided to repeat Transfigured

ComPoSeD FIrSt CSo aPProxImate 1899, as a sextet for two PerFormaNCe PerFormaNCe tIme violins, two violas, and February 24, 1922, Frederick 29 minutes two cellos Stock conducting CSo reCorDINgS arranged for string orchestra moSt reCeNt 1957, Fritz reiner conduct- in 1917, revised in 1943 CSo PerFormaNCe ing, From the Archives, vol. 1 September 27, 2003, Daniel FIrSt PerFormaNCe 1994, Daniel Barenboim Barenboim conducting March 18, 1902, Vienna, as conducting, Teldec a sextet CSo PerFormaNCeS, March 26, 1919, Vienna, arNoLD SChoeNBerg orchestral version CoNDuCtINg February 8 & 9, 1934

2 Night two years later. One day and World had shocked the liter- during a rehearsal, Gustav Mahler ary establishment when it was wandered in to listen; he was a published in 1896. Schoenberg was complete stranger to Schoenberg intoxicated by Dehmel’s ecstatic and had never heard a note of his verse and liberal ideas, and he music. Mahler was bowled over by set several of the poems as songs. the piece, and the two composers “Your poems have had a decisive struck up a friendship, even though influence on my development as Schoenberg didn’t care for Mahler’s a composer,” he wrote to Dehmel symphonies. (He had recently more than a decade later. “They heard the Fourth.) Schoenberg were what first made me try to find often visited the Mahlers’ apart- a new tone in the lyrical mode. Or ment for dinner and shop talk. rather I found it without even look- Alma Mahler later remembered ing, simply by reflecting in music terrible arguments at the piano and what your poems stirred up in me.” that some evenings ended abruptly, The poem that affected with Schoenberg storming out. Schoenberg most deeply and (Mahler once asked her never to inspired him to write Transfigured readmit “that conceited puppy.”) Night is “Zwei Menschen” (Two But Schoenberg earned the support people). A couple walks together and respect of Mahler, his senior through a cold, moonlit forest. by fourteen years; “He is young The woman speaks: she is carry- and perhaps he is right,” Gustav ing another man’s child. Longing told Alma. In time, Schoenberg for fulfillment as a woman, she changed his mind about Mahler’s gave herself to a stranger. Now, as music, too. In 1910, when Mahler life’s revenge, she is finally brought turned fifty, Schoenberg sent him a together with a man she loves long letter: “I cannot help remem- and who also loves her. The man bering, with much distress, that in tells her not to feel remorse—the earlier days I so often annoyed you strength of their love will include by being at variance with you,” he her child. They embrace and walk wrote. “Perhaps it was shortsighted- on in the brilliant moonlight. ness, perhaps contrariness? Perhaps Schoenberg sensed that the too it was love, for with all this I eroticism and rapture of Dehmel’s have always venerated you awfully.” poem would best be expressed Like Mahler, who regularly through music without words. It composed at top speed, Schoenberg was his masterstroke not to write wrote Transfigured Night in three an orchestral tone poem—like weeks. (Schoenberg never forgot those then all the rage by Richard Mahler’s comment that he com- Strauss—but a piece of chamber posed the entire Eighth Symphony music, normally the most abstract as if from dictation in just two of genres. The idea of writing pro- months.) Schoenberg drew his gram music for a string sextet was inspiration from a poem by Richard as novel as anything in the score Dehmel, whose collection Woman itself, though it was Schoenberg’s

3 music that caused all the con- compositions—was accepted into troversy. Schoenberg eventually the repertory. In 1937, Schoenberg conceded that Transfigured Night wrote of its singular success in gained in stature, without losing an essay entitled, “How One any of its intimacy, when played Becomes Lonely.” “My Transfigured by larger forces, and, in 1917, he Night . . . ,” he writes, “has made published the version for full string me a kind of reputation. From it I orchestra that is performed at can enjoy (even among opponents) these concerts. some appreciation which the works Schoenberg wasn’t interested in of my later periods would not have musically representing the events procured for me so soon. This work in Dehmel’s poem, but rather has been heard, especially in its in capturing its powerful emo- version for orchestra, a great many tions, the moonlit night, and an times. But certainly nobody has overwhelming sense of destiny. heard it as often as I have heard this Later, Schoenberg pointed out a complaint: ‘If only he had con- few correspondences between the tinued to compose in this style!’ ” verses and the score, but he always Schoenberg always protested that maintained that Transfigured Night he still did and that people didn’t worked equally well as pure music. listen carefully enough to recog- In fact, the first time Dehmel heard nize it, but, in fact, he knew that Schoenberg’s score he became so Transfigured Night would always be absorbed in the music that he forgot his most popular composition. to follow his own poem, which he Gustav Mahler remained an had open on his lap. ardent supporter of Schoenberg’s To our ears, Schoenberg’s music work; perhaps he also found logically extends the language of comfort in their shared understand- Brahms and Wagner (Schoenberg ing of public rejection. Mahler later confessed he was under their didn’t understand Schoenberg’s spell at the time), but at first audi- music himself, but he was a faithful ences only heard it as a distortion of and loyal friend. No doubt he saw a great tradition. Transfigured Night himself in Schoenberg’s willingness begins in D minor and progresses to risk everything for the music he circuitously, like the couple’s walk, felt compelled to write. “I was not toward the brilliance of D major. destined to continue in the manner Schoenberg’s sense of drama and of Transfigured Night,” Schoenberg evolving emotions is uncanny. At said nearly a half century later. “The the heart of the piece, just before Supreme Commander had ordered the man addresses the woman, there me on a harder road.” is a moment of total silence. The Mahler continued to attend ending—the “high, bright night” concerts of Schoenberg’s music; of Dehmel’s poem—is music of during a performance of the First incomparable delicacy and splendor. Chamber Symphony in 1907 he Ultimately Transfigured Night— attempted to silence the rowdy almost alone of all Schoenberg’s audience, and at the end he stood

4 at the front of his box, applauding, 1911, Schoenberg’s career was at a until everyone had left the hall. crossroads; recognizing that he had During the last year of his life, carried music to the edge of tonal- he lent Schoenberg 800 crowns, ity, he was uncertain how to go on. approximately one year’s rent. He For a while, he turned to painting. surely guessed that things would Most of the pictures are studies of only grow worse for his friend. his face, as if he were examining his In his final year, Mahler worried: very existence, but one shows the “Who will look after him when I grave at Mahler’s funeral; it is lined am gone?” When Mahler died in with mourners.

traNSFIgureD NIght Richard Dehmel

Two people walk through a bare, cold grove; May the child you’ve conceived The moon keeps pace and draws their gaze. not burden your soul. The moon passes over the tall oak trees, See how brightly the universe shines! no wisp of a cloud to dim heaven’s light Its radiance casts its halo around us! Into which the black jagged tips reach up. you’re drifting beside me upon a cold sea, A woman’s voice speaks: yet there passes a glow of inmost warmth From you to me, and from me to you. I am carrying a child, but not by you; That warmth will transfigure the I walk beside you in a state of sin. stranger’s child, I have done myself the most grievous wrong. And you’ll bear me that child, begot by me; no longer did I believe in joy you’ve transfused me with radiance And yet had a great desire And made me a child myself. For a meaning to life, for a mother’s joys And duties; and so, with a shudder, he puts his arms around her strong hips, I allowed my sex to be held Their breath commingles in an airy kiss, In a stranger’s embrace Two people walk on through the high, And even thought myself blessed. bright night! now life has had its revenge: now I have met you, yes, you! She walks on, stumbling. She gazes aloft, the moon keeps pace. her somber gaze is drowned in light. A man’s voice speaks: Translation by Stewart Spencer

5 Leoš Janá ek ˇc Born July 3, 1854, Hochwald (Hukvaldy), Northern Moravia. Died August 12, 1928, Moravska Ostravá, Czechoslovakia.

Glagolitic mass

eoš Janáček is music’s most his stride. But artistically, Janáček Lextraordinary late starter—a doesn’t belong to their generation. composer who completed his The period of his most significant earliest important score at the age and original work is the time of of fifty, first attracted international Berg, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartók, attention at sixty-one, and entered and Schoenberg—younger compos- the most prolific and adventure- ers forging a new language—and some stage of his career as he the era of landmarks such as neared his seventies. It is the works Berg’s Wozzeck, Stravinsky’s of his final years, composed in the Les noces, and Schoenberg’s first 1920s, which have given him a twelve-tone pieces. place among the important com- Janáček composed the Glagolitic posers of his time. Mass in 1926, at the age of seventy- Janáček was born in 1854, the two. He had first found his voice year Liszt published his revolu- and developed his personal har- tionary B minor piano sonata and monic and melodic style writing Wagner began Die Walküre. the opera Jenůfa, which he worked His contemporaries were Elgar, on for nearly ten years beginning in Humperdinck, Mahler, and 1894. (His idiosyncratic language Wolf—composers who all finished is highly indebted to the study of their life’s work before Janáček hit Moravian folk music he undertook

ComPoSeD FIrSt CSo and bass clarinet; three bas- October 1926, based on PerFormaNCe soons and contrabassoon; a mass for chorus and May 14, 1970, Charles four horns; four trumpets; organ left incomplete in Mackerras conducting three trombones and tuba; 1908; revised 1927. Paul timpani; percussion (small wingfield’s reconstruction moSt reCeNt drum, triangle, tam-tam, of the 1926 score is used at CSo PerFormaNCe cymbals, bells); two harps; these performances. november 4, 2000, Pierre celesta; strings Boulez conducting FIrSt PerFormaNCe aPProxImate December 5, 1927, Brno INStrumeNtatIoN PerFormaNCe tIme (then in Czechoslovakia, now soprano, alto, tenor, and 41 minutes in Moravia) bass soloists; mixed chorus; organ soloist; four flutes and CSo reCorDINg three piccolos; two oboes and 2000, Pierre Boulez conduct- english horn; three clarinets ing, From the Archives, vol. 19

6 more than a decade before the surprising late-in-life creative famous explorations by Bartók and surge, particularly since he had long Kodály.) He completed the score claimed to be an agnostic. When in 1903, the year he turned fifty. a Prague music critic reported that Jenůfa was premiered the following the composer, “an old man, now a year in Brno, a provincial capital firm believer, feels with increasing far from the centers of new music urgency that his life’s work should activities, and it didn’t attract atten- not lack an element expressing his tion in the larger music world until relationship to God,” Janáček shot it was staged in Prague in 1916. back a terse reply by postcard: “No After that, Janáček quickly found old man, no believer!”, later adding international fame. “Not till I see for myself.” Until the In the years immediately follow- day in 1921 when Janáček heard ing World War I, Janáček worked the feeble music in the church near in a sudden, unexpected flurry of his hometown of Hukvaldy, he had creative energy and boldness, as given little thought to composing if to make up for lost time. This religious music. Once, in 1907, wasn’t so much an Indian summer, he had begun to compose a Latin like the renaissance of Strauss’s last mass, simply to show his composi- years, as the final realization of a tion students how to set a sacred slowly maturing genius—a thrilling text. At the time, he had told them climax to a faltering, often unex- to “write Latin, but think Czech.” ceptional career. Janáček may have With the Glagolitic Mass, he took been inspired, as is often claimed, his own suggestion one step farther, by his love for Kamila Stösslová, choosing to set not the traditional the wife of an antique dealer whom Latin words, but the Old Church he met in 1917. (Although Kamila, Slavonic text that was no longer who was thirty-eight years younger in use. It was a way of identifying than the composer, didn’t return his with his roots and his nationality affection, he persisted in thinking without openly embracing religion. of her as his love and his muse, and “I wanted to express faith in the he wrote to her regularly—some certainty (certainty of survival, seven hundred unanswered let- that is) of the nation,” he wrote ters—until his death.) In the last later, “not on a religious basis, but eight years of his life, he composed on a moral one which calls God most of the music for which he is to witness.” known today, including four pow- The work was drafted between erful operas, two revealing string August 2 and 17, and Janáček was quartets (subtitled Kreutzer and pleased to discover that he could Intimate Letters), the Sinfonietta make good use of the music he that soon became an orchestral had already composed for his 1907 staple, and his single large-scale Latin mass, even though he was sacred work—the Glagolitic Mass. now using Old Church Slavonic The Glagolitic Mass was the most words. In September, he extensively unexpected product of Janáček’s revised the score twice, each time

7 erasing more and more traces of he had written music his perform- the earlier model, adding bolder ers often couldn’t manage. Over the effects and stronger colors. Janáček weeks leading up to the premiere, also changed his title from Missa Janáček was forced to make many slavnija to changes, large and relatively insig- Missa glagoljs- nificant ones alike, in a last-ditch kaja—from attempt to simplify his score in the Slavonic to hope of a decent performance. Glagolitic The Glagolitic Mass that was Mass—in presented in Brno that December both cases was a mere shadow of the fearlessly retaining original work he had envisioned. the subtitle With the composer’s death just he bor- eight months after the premiere, rowed from the hope of restoring the Glagolitic Beethoven, Mass to its original form died, too. Missa solemnis. As a result, the work that has been (Janáček had performed for decades represents conducted Janáček’s desperation effort—a Beethoven’s revision that weakened the dra- Leoš Janá ˇcek with his great mass matic power and obscured the most wife Zdenka during his radical features of his work. It is early years only with Paul Wingfield’s recent in Brno.) reconstruction of the original Sometime in November, Janáček score, which is performed at these decided to add a new movement concerts, that the Glagolitic Mass for solo organ, and then he put the can take its rightful place not only work aside. among Janáček’s most adventure- “My mind has never been so some works, but also alongside the empty of ideas before now,” he great monuments of sacred music. wrote to the novelist Max Brod just To accommodate the inadequate before the new year. “Ordinarily, Brno performers, Janáček cut, as I am finishing one work I am altered, or toned down nearly already starting another.” By every page of his score. When the February, Janáček had begun a new orchestra members couldn’t manage opera, From the House of the Dead, the rhythmic structure of the Úvod, that he wouldn’t live to finish, which boldly layered patterns of but in May, when the premiere of three, five, and seven notes, he the mass was announced for the lined them up in neat, regular following December in Brno, he groups. He redid the outer sections turned again to this work. He now of the Gospodi (Kyrie), which were made still more revisions, bring- written in 5/4, in common 4/4. In ing the score to its final shape. But the Veřuju (Credo), he condensed once rehearsals got underway in the orchestral interlude that pre- November, Janáček discovered that cedes the account of the crucifixion,

8 softening the violent interjec- imagination. Like a man used to tions originally led by three sets writing his own opera librettos, of timpani. The powerful climax Janáček even adapts the text to suit of the Svet (Sanctus) was pruned his vision, omitting lines at will and by fourteen measures, undercut- leaving his audience not with the ting its harmonic plan. Janáček traditional words of benediction, made many other changes, few “Grant us peace,” but simply, even as large or as damaging as these, darkly, with “have mercy on us.” but each one chipped away at the And he follows that with a wild, radical and thrilling sound world of raging solo for organ that shatters his imagination. any lingering notion that this mass Janáček’s original plan was to could be performed as part of a begin and end with festive, cer- conventional liturgical service. emonial orchestral music—a true A word about the title, which intrada. (In church, this would is something of a misnomer. It accompany the entrance and exit of was Janáček’s intention to use the the clergy.) Next, and next-to-last, language of the first Christian he placed two more instrumental missionaries to the Slavs, Cyril and movements—an “introduction” to Methodius, ninth-century leaders the mass and, at its conclusion, the who translated parts of the Bible organ solo he added after he had into the earliest written Slavic written the other movements. But language, known as Old Church in the years after the composer’s Slavonic. For this purpose, Cyril death, his written instructions were invented a new alphabet called misinterpreted, and the intrada that “Glagolitic” (from “glagolv” for he envisioned as both prelude and “word”). Neither Janáček, his per- postlude was played only at the end, formers, nor his audience knew how destroying the intended symmetry. to read this obsolete, ornate script, (At these performances, as at the which had long been abandoned. two given during Janáček’s own But Janáček liked the word and its lifetime, the intrada frames the rest connotations of history and tradi- of the mass.) tion, and that is the title he kept, Even in their sanitized ver- despite the many changes he made sions, the five movements of the in the score itself. mass itself still stunned the first audiences with their bold, the- atrical strokes and extraordinary sonorities. They are stronger and stranger still as Janáček originally conceived them. Janáček was clearly not thinking of the church as his performance space—this is music meant for the concert hall and driven by the composer’s uncanny Phillip Huscher is the program annota- dramatic instinct and operatic tor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

9 gLagoLItIC maSS goSPoDI PomILuJ KYrIe

Gospodi, pomiluj. Lord, have mercy. Chrste, pomiluj. Christ, have mercy. Gospodi, pomiluj. Lord, have mercy.

SLava gLorIa

Slava vo vyšńich Bogu i na zeml’i mir, Glory to God in the highest, and peace člověkom blagovol’enija. Chvalim to his people on earth. We adore you, te, blasgoslovl’ajem te, klańajem ti we worship you, we give you thanks, se, slavoslovim te, chvaly vzdajem we praise you for your glory, Lord God, tebě velikyje radi slavy tvojeje, Bože, heavenly king. Otče Vsemogyj.

Gospodi, Synu jedinorodnyj, Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Isuse Chrste; Gospodi Bože, Agneče Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you Božij, Synu Oteč, vzeml’ej grěchy mira, take away the sin of the world, have pomiluj nas. Primi mol’enija naša. mercy on us. Receive our prayer. You Sědej o desnuju Otca, pomiluj nas. are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.

Jako ty jedin svet; ty jedin Gospod; For you alone are the Holy One, you ty jedin vyšńij, Isuse Chrste so Svetym alone are the Lord, you alone are the Duchom, vo slavě Boga Otca. Amin. Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen. v eruˇ Ju CreeD

Věruju v jedinogo Boga, Otca I believe in one God, the Father Vsemoguštago, tvorca nebu i zeml’i, almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of vidimym vsěm i nevidimym. Amin. all that is seen and unseen. Amen. And Věruju i v jedinogo Gospoda Isusa I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Chrsta, Syna Božija jedinorodnago, i ot only Son of God, eternally begotten of Otca roždenago prěžde vsěch věk, the Father; before all ages,

10 Boga ot Boga, Svět ot Světa, Boga God from God, Light from Light, true istina ot Boga istinago, roždena, ne God from true God; begotten, not stvoŕena, jedinosuštna Otcu, imže vsa made; one in Being with the Father. byše; iže nas radi člověk i radi našego Through him all things were made. spasenija snide s nebes, Who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven: i vplti se ot Ducha Sveta iz by the power of the Holy Spirit he Marije Děvy, věruju, raspet že za ny was born of the Virgin Mary. I believe mučen i pogreben byst; i voskrse v tretij for our sake he was crucified, he den po Pisaniju, suffered, and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; i vzide na nebo, sědit o desnuju he ascended into heaven and is seated Otca; i paky imat priti sudit živym i at the right hand of the Father. He will mrtvym so slavoju; jegože cěsarstviju come again in glory to judge the living nebudet konca. and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

Věruju i v Ducha Svetago, Gospoda And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the i životvoreštago, ot Otca i Syna Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds ischodeštago, s Otcem že i Synom from the Father and the Son. With the kupno poklańajema i soslavima, iže Father and the Son he is worshiped glagolal jest Proroky; and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets; i jedinu Svetuju, Katoličesku i And in one, holy, catholic, and Apostolsku Crkov; i spovědaju jedino apostolic Church; and I acknowledge krštenije v otpuštenije grěchov; one baptism for the forgiveness of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, i căju voskrsenija mrtvych i života and the life of the world to come. buduštago věka. Amin. Amen.

11 Svet SaNCtuS

Svet, svet, svet, Gospod Bog Sabaot, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, plna sut nebesa, zeml’a slavy tvojeje. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Blagoslovl’en gredyj v ime Gospodńe. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Osana vo vyšńich. Hosanna in the highest. agNeC ˇe BoŽIJ agNuS DeI

Agneče Božij, pomiluj nas. Lamb of God, have mercy on us. Agneče Božij, vzeml’ej grěchy mira. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. Agneče Božij, pomiluj nas. Lamb of God, have mercy on us. © 2010 Chicago Symphony Orchestra © 2010 Chicago

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