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The Philadelphia

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Beyond the Score ®®®: Elusive Simplicity?

Jeffrey Kahane Conductor and Gerard McBurney Narrator Alex Bechtel Actor Charlotte Dobbs Soprano Aaron Cromie Mime Artist Lee Ann EtzolEtzoldddd Mime Artist

A multimulti----mediamedia exploration of Mozart’s No. 27

Intermission

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595 I. Allegro II. Larghetto III. Allegro

This program runs approximately 2 hours.

This concert is sponsored by BBBankBank of America.

Philadelphia Orchestra performances of Beyond the Score® are made possible by support from the Hirschberg-Goodfriend Fund in memory of Adolf Hirschberg as established by Juliet J. Goodfriend and by the Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation. Additional funding comes from the Annenberg Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

Beyond the Score® is produced by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Gerard McBurney, Creative Director, Beyond the Score Martha Gilmer, Executive Producer, Beyond the Score Caroline Moores, Production Stage Manager

Acknowledgments The Art Institute of Chicago The British Library Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien Mary Evans Picture Library

Currently in his 15th season as music director of the Chamber Orchestra, was previously music director of the Colorado Symphony and the Santa Rosa Symphony. He received the 2007 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming for his work in both Los Angeles and Denver. Highlights of his 2011-12 season include programs playing and with the and the Vancouver, Seattle, and symphonies; his debut conducting the Juilliard Orchestra at ; and a solo/chamber music program at Disney Hall presented by the in honor of his 15th anniversary as music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Mr. Kahane's recordings include works of Gershwin and Bernstein with cellist Yo-Yo Ma for Sony, 's Four Parables with the New World Symphony conducted by for Decca/Argo, Strauss’s on Telarc with the Cincinnati Symphony and Jesús López-Cobos, and Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos (on harpsichord) with the Orchestra and on the Haenssler label. Mr. Kahane has also recorded Schubert’s complete works for and piano with for RCA, Bach's sinfonias and Partita No. 4 for Nonesuch, and Bernstein's Age of Anxiety for Virgin Records, which was nominated for Gramophone magazine’s Record of the Year.

Mr. Kahane is a native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the Conservatory of Music. His early piano studies were with Howard Weisel and . First-prize winner at the 1983 Rubinstein Competition and a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, Mr. Kahane was also the recipient of a 1983 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the first Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award in 1987. Also an avid linguist, he received a master's degree in Classics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011.

Mr. Kahane, who made his debut in 1983, resides in Santa Rosa with his wife, Martha, a clinical psychologist. They have two children; Gabriel, a composer, , and singer/songwriter, and Annie, a dancer and poet.

A native of England, Gerard McBurney studied in Cambridge and at the Conservatory before returning to London, where he worked for many years as a composer, arranger, broadcaster, teacher, and writer. He is artistic programming advisor for the Chicago Symphony and creative director of Beyond the Score.

Mr. McBurney’s original compositions include orchestral works, a ballet, a chamber opera, songs, and chamber music, as well as many theater scores. He also is well known for his reconstructions of various lost and forgotten works by .

As a scholar Mr. McBurney has published mostly in the field of Russian and Soviet music. His journalistic work includes articles on many different musical subjects. For 20 years he created and presented hundreds of programs on BBC Radio 3, as well as occasional programs for other radio stations in the U.K., , and the former . He has also written, researched, and presented more than two dozen documentary films for British and German television channels.

For many years Mr. McBurney lectured and taught, first at the London College of Music and then for more than 10 years at the . He has also acted as advisor and collaborated with many and presenters, including Lincoln Center, the , and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which premiered his reconstruction of Shostakovich’s newly-discovered operatic fragment Orango in December 2011, under the direction of Peter Sellars and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Mr. McBurney joined the staff of the Chicago Symphony in September 2006 and made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2009. Alex Bechtel is a Philadelphia-based actor, writer, composer, and music director who has worked with the Walnut Street Theatre ( The Musical of Musicals ), 1812 Productions ( This Is the Week That Is ), New Paradise Laboratories ( FATEBOOK ), Act II Playhouse ( First Impressions, Here’s Tony) , Theatre Horizon ( Honk!, An American Songbook ), and Philadelphia Theatre Workshop ( Traveling Light) . He has also given readings, concerts, and workshops at 1812, the Wilma Theater, and Pig Iron Theatre Company. Mr. Bechtel is co- creator and co-star of The Bech/Doh Sketch/Show —a comedy show with writer/actor Michael Doherty.

Soprano Charlotte Dobbs made her European debut in 2009 as Corinna in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims at the Pesaro Rossini Festival and returned to Italy to sing Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in Jesi, Fermo, and Ravenna. She made her debut with the Chicago Opera Theater as Servilia in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, returning to Chicago in 2010 as Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Music of the Baroque. Other recent highlights include the Governess in the Chateauville Foundation’s production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw with , and Amina in Bellini’s La sonnambula, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the title role in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, Nuria in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar , and the Countess in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with the Curtis Opera Theater. She has appeared with the Alabama Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Saratoga Chamber Players, and at the Marlboro Music Festival. Her recent appearances include the title role in Gluck’s Iphigenie in Aulide and Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo at the . Ms. Dobbs made her debut in Nielsen's Third Symphony with the Curtis Symphony in 2008. She received a master’s degree from both Curtis and Juilliard and a bachelor’s degree in English and Music from Yale.

Aaron Cromie is a Philadelphia based director, performer, and mask and puppet designer who has appeared on stage with the Walnut Street Theatre, the Arden Theatre Company, the Philadelphia Theatre Company, 1812 Productions, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. He is currently directing the upcoming production of Titus Andronicus for the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre and has directed for such companies as Azuka Theatre, the Lantern Theater Company, and the Commonwealth Classic Theatre Company. As a mask and puppet designer, he has created objects for the Folger Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., the Wilma Theater, and Theatre Exile, among others. He has been honored with three Barrymore awards for choreography/movement and music direction. Mr. Cromie’s original work has been supported by the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, the Independence Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Jim Henson Foundation. He is co-founding faculty of the Headlong Performance Institute, teaches at the University of the Arts, and is a graduate of the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre.

Lee Ann Etzold is a Philadelphia-based theater artist and teacher who has worked in the U.K., Spain, France, the Czech Republic, and the U.S., at such theaters as the Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, the Delaware Theatre Company, PS 122, and 7 Stages in Atlanta. She co-founded New Paradise Laboratories and has also created original physical theater works with Pig Iron Theatre Company, Headlong Dance Theater, Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, and Bill Irwin (Barrymore Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play). She studied clown in Paris with Ami Hathab, completed the Lincoln Center Theatre’s Directors Lab in , and is a member of the Young Vic Directors Program in London. Ms. Etzold has been a teaching artist and creative consultant for many organizations and institutions, including the National Constitution Center and White Box Theatre. She is currently the co-artistic director of Brat Productions and continues to collaborate on new work.

BEYOND THE SCORE

Begun in 2005 the Chicago Symphony’s Beyond the Score ® seeks to open the door to the symphonic repertoire for first-time concertgoers as well as to encourage an active, more fulfilling way of listening for seasoned audiences. The lifeblood of Beyond the Score is its firm rooting in the live tradition: musical extracts, spoken clarification, theatrical narrative, and hand-paced projections on a large central screen are performed in close synchrony—an arresting and innovative approach that illuminates more idiomatically than other methods (program notes, pre-concert lectures, filmed documentary, etc.). After each 60-minute program focusing on a single masterwork, audiences return from intermission to experience the piece performed in a regular concert setting, equipped with a new understanding of its style and genesis.

This format’s potential was quickly recognized by orchestras in the and abroad; a rapidly expanding licensing program has since brought Beyond the Score to audiences throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and Holland, presented by organizations of many sizes. Recognizing that a large population is economically or geographically unable to attend these performances in person, the Chicago Symphony also offers digital video downloads of selects programs from its website at www.beyondthescore.org.

In September 2008 the Chicago Symphony released Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony, led by its then-principal conductor, , on its CSO Resound label. Accompanying this Grammy Award-winning recording of the Symphony is a free bonus DVD video of the Beyond the Score production examining Shostakovich’s controversial and powerful work— the first commercially released video from this acclaimed concert series.

For more information on Beyond the Score, including video downloads, please visit www.beyondthescore.org.

ELUSIVE SIMPLICITY?

Beneath the simplicity of Mozart's final piano concerto lies one of the most subtle and perfect architectural structures in music. Composed less than a year before Mozart's untimely death, this concerto evokes a variety of intensely personal and painful experiences. By turns mysterious, luminous and tragic, this kaleidoscope of sound is magically held together by a blend of elegance and poignancy.

Parallel Events 1791 Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 Music Haydn Symphony No. 96 Literature Paine The Rights of Man, Part I Art Morland The Stable History Louis XVI and his family caught at Varennes trying to flee France Piano Concerto No. 27

Wolfgang Amadè Mozart Born In Salzburg, January 27, 1756 Died In Vienna, December 5, 1791

Since the Concerto in B-flat major, K. 595, is Mozart’s last piano concerto, there is a tendency among commentators to describe the work as in some way valedictory. The impulse is understandable, as it often is with late works, such as Beethoven’s last string quartets, the final symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler, or the concluding pieces of . Yet there is little reason to believe Mozart felt his days were numbered when he wrote the Concerto or that he intended this particular work as some kind of final statement on the genre he had, well, if not invented, then at least elevated to a new artistic stature.

The B-flat Concerto’s reserved, almost chamber-like character, especially in relation to the two preceding “public” concertos, and the modest orchestration (no or ), may relate to its intended function and audience. Mozart was keenly aware of the technical strengths and weaknesses of the individual instrumentalists and singers for whom he composed and would craft works accordingly. So, too, he fashioned his concertos with the venue and audience in mind. Whereas in his heyday in the mid-1780s he had presented concertos on his own concerts, the relative decline in Viennese concert life that attended war and recession later in the decade apparently relegated the performance of this final one to a concert presented by someone else. Moreover, given a three-year hiatus since composing his previous piano concerto, it is hardly surprising that this new work displays somewhat different qualities than earlier ones. In short, the “farewell” mood some perceive may simply reflect new experiences and circumstances, not any premonition of death.

Vehicles for Fame During Mozart’s years in Vienna—the last decade of his life—piano concertos best allowed him to display the scope of his gifts as both composer and performer. Concertos became the star vehicles for the fame he sought during the 1780s. He presented them at concerts for which he personally took financial responsibility in the hopes of supporting his growing family. For some years, he did quite well in these ventures and brought the keyboard concerto to a new level of artistic and public prominence. Programs often also included one of his symphonies or a vocal work, and so much the better: Audiences made the connections among his pieces, which only added to their popularity, and to the composer’s.

By studying the music paper Mozart used when writing the B-flat major Concerto, musicologist Alan Tyson argued that the composition was begun in 1788. While the exact chronology is unclear, Mozart entered the Concerto into the meticulous catalogue he kept of his works on January 5, 1791; it may have been played at one of various concerts later that month to mark a visit from the King and Queen of Naples. The traditional view is that Mozart first performed the work in a concert on March 4, presented by clarinetist Joseph Bähr, but there is no certainty of the specific piece played on that occasion, his last public appearance as a keyboard soloist. He was joined on the concert by his first great love (and eventual sister-in-law), soprano Aloisia Weber Lange. The Wiener Zeitung reported that “everyone admired [Mozart’s] art, in composition as well as performance.”

A Closer Look The first movement Allegro begins in a way similar to that of the composer’s Symphony No. 40: an empty measure of “filler” accompaniment—only then does the first of a series of themes enter in the . The melodies show utter ease, grace, and some playfulness, all seamlessly connected. In this last piano concerto, Mozart displays more unity than contrast, both with respect to the melodies and to the interaction of the soloist with the full ensemble. The piano enters with a slightly ornamented version of the opening orchestral material. The middle development section, with its adventurous tonal travels and minor key poignancy, is one of Mozart’s most remarkable.

The piano states an unassuming theme to open the Larghetto,Larghetto, which is immediately taken up by the orchestra. Pianist and scholar Charles Rosen has observed that this movement, as well as that of Mozart’s later Concerto, “aspire and attain to a condition of absolute simplicity: the slightest irregularity of phrase structure of their themes would have appeared like an intrusion. The melodies accept the reduction to an almost perfect symmetry and triumph over all its dangers. It is fitting that Mozart, who perfected as he created the form to the classical concerto, should have made his last use of it so completely personal.”

The final Allegro uses a lyrical theme that is related to one of Mozart’s own songs, “Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling” (Yearning for Spring). This is the first of a collection of Three German Songs, which Mozart entered into his catalogue immediately after the Concerto and dated January 14. (It was later assigned the next Köchel number: K. 596.) The tune has a childlike simplicity—hardly surprising as Mozart got the text for the song from a book of children’s verses. ( would later set the same text in his Liederalbum für die Jugend, Op. 79, No. 9.) The words are: “Come, lovely May, and make the trees turn green again, and let the little violets bloom for me by the brook!” The final movement contains two cadenzas, both written by Mozart, as is the one for the first movement.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Mozart composed the K. 595 Piano Concerto from 1788 to 1791.

Alec Templeton was the soloist in The Philadelphia Orchestra’s first performances of the Piano Concerto No. 27, in April 1948; conducted. Since then the work has been performed only nine times: in January 1962 with Rudolf Serkin and Ormandy; in January 1964 with Lee Luvisi and William Smith; in November 1978 with Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Ormandy; in April 1986 with Walter Klien and Smith; in March 1992 with Evgeny Kissin and ; in January 1995 with and Christian Thielemann; in May 2002 with and Wolfgang Sawallisch; in January 2005 with Emanuel Ax and ; and, most recently, in February 2006 with and .

The Philadelphians recorded the Concerto once, in 1962, with Serkin and Ormandy.

The score calls for an orchestra of , two , two , two horns, and strings, in addition to the solo piano.

The Concerto runs approximately 30 minutes in performance.

Program note © 2012. All rights reserved. Program note may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

GENERAL TERMS Cadence: The conclusion to a phrase, movement, or piece based on a recognizable melodic formula, harmonic progression, or dissonance resolution Cadenza: A passage or section in a style of brilliant improvisation, usually inserted near the end of a movement or composition Chord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tones Chromatic: Relating to tones foreign to a given key (scale) or chord Coda: A concluding section or passage added in order to confirm the impression of finality Development: See sonata form K.: Abbreviation for Köchel, the chronological list of all the works of Mozart made by Ludwig von Köchel LegLegato:ato: Smooth, even, without any break between notes Meter: The symmetrical grouping of musical rhythms Minuet: A dance in triple time commonly used up to the beginning of the 19th century as the lightest movement of a symphony Modulate: To pass from one key or mode into another Octave: The interval between any two notes that are seven diatonic (non-chromatic) scale degrees apart Rondo: A form frequently used in symphonies and concertos for the final movement. It consists of a main section that alternates with a variety of contrasting sections (A-B-A-C-A etc.). Scherzo: Literally “a joke.” Usually the third movement of symphonies and quartets that was introduced by Beethoven to replace the minuet. The scherzo is followed by a gentler section called a trio, after which the scherzo is repeated. Its characteristics are a rapid tempo in triple time, vigorous rhythm, and humorous contrasts. Sonata form: The form in which the first movements (and sometimes others) of symphonies are usually cast. The sections are exposition, development, and recapitulation, the last sometimes followed by a coda. The exposition is the introduction of the musical ideas, which are then “developed.” In the recapitulation, the exposition is repeated with modifications. Tonality: The orientation of melodies and harmonies towards a specific pitch or pitches Tonic: The keynote of a scale

THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo) Allegro: Bright, fast Larghetto: A slow tempo