PROGRAM

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOURTH SEASON Chicago Zell Music Director Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Thursday, March 19, 2015, at 8:00 Friday, March 20, 2015, at 8:00 Saturday, March 21, 2015, at 8:00

Charles Dutoit Conductor Yo-Yo Ma Robert Chen Violin Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales Modéré Assez lent Modéré Assez animée Presque lent Assez vif Moins vif Epilogue: Lent Debussy Symphonic Fragments from The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian The Court of Lilies Ecstatic Dance and Finale to Act 1 The Passion The Good Shepherd

INTERMISSION

Saint-Saëns La muse et le poète, Op. 132 ROBERT CHEN YO-YO MA First Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concert performances

Lalo Cello in D Minor Prelude: Lento—Allegro maestoso Intermezzo: Andantino con moto—Allegro presto Andante—Allegro vivace YO-YO MA

Thursday’s performance is sponsored by Robert J. Buford. 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 Daniel Jaffé

Maurice Ravel Born March 7, 1875, Ciboure, . Died December 28, 1937, Paris, France. Valses nobles et sentimentales

Franz Schubert was the Ravel had little in common with Schubert, first important composer aside from the slight stature that disqualified to write the word “waltz” both of them from military service. Ravel had the on a score. By then—the social graces and the wardrobe to shine at parties, early 1820s—waltzing as well as the money to enjoy the fine life and to had lived down its collect antiques, mechanical toys, and endless reputation as a scandalous bric-a-brac. This same sensibility encouraged a demonstration of excessive passion for Viennese waltzes at an early age. In speed and intimate 1911, after Ravel discovered Schubert’s physical contact on the waltzes, he decided to write his own set of noble dance floor. Schubert knew the waltz (from the and sentimental waltzes, taking his cue from the German walzen, to turn about) as a charming title and classic simplicity of his predecessor’s social dance, more upbeat than the traditional pieces. He dedicated the score to the “delicious ländler—although he knew it only from the and ageless pleasure of a useless occupation.” safety of his piano stool, where he was spared The eight Valses nobles et sentimentales for piano romantic encounter, the hazards of severe were first performed in May 1911, at a “Concert nearsightedness (he kept his spectacles on even in sans noms d’auteurs,” a kind of concert quiz show bed), and the embarrassment of standing less not unlike Name That Tune, where audience mem- than five feet tall in his dress shoes. From his seat bers were asked to guess the composer of each at the piano, Schubert observed the life that piece on the program. Ravel’s Valses were variously eluded him. (He improvised waltzes throughout attributed to Kodály, Satie, Chopin, and Gounod, the wedding festivities of his dear friend Leopold among others, although apparently no one sug- Kupelweiser, letting no one else near the piano; gested Schubert. However, according to Ravel, “a by a fortuitous stroke of fate, one of the tunes minute majority” correctly identified his music. remembered by the bride and passed down The following year, Ravel agreed to orchestrate through her family was sung to , the waltzes as a ballet score for which he supplied who arranged it for piano in 1943.) In the last the title—Adelaide—and the scenario—a series years of his pitifully brief life, Schubert published of fleeting romantic encounters during a party many of his waltzes, including the thirty-four in Adelaide’s Paris salon. Adelaide is no longer Valses sentimentales and twelve Valses nobles that staged, but Ravel’s music, newly attired in shim- would play some seventy-five mering orchestral colors, quickly found a home in years later. concert halls. —Phillip Huscher

COMPOSED MOST RECENT , tuba, timpani, bass 1911 for piano; orchestrated in 1912 CSO PERFORMANCES drum, side drum, cymbals, triangle, July 18, 1959, Ravinia Festival. Carlos tambourine, glockenspiel, celesta, two FIRST PERFORMANCE Chávez harps, strings May 9, 1911, piano version February 15, 1915, orchestral version January 13, 14, 15 & 16, APPROXIMATE 2011, Orchestra Hall. Juanjo PERFORMANCE TIME FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Mena conducting 16 minutes November 12 & 13, 1920, Orchestra Hall. Frederick Stock conducting INSTRUMENTATION CSO RECORDINGS two flutes, two and english July 24, 1938, Ravinia Festival. Eugene 1957. Fritz Reiner conducting. RCA horn, two , two , Goossens conducting 1963. Charles Munch conducting. VAI four horns, two , three (video) 2 Born August 22, 1862, Saint Germain-en-Laye, France. Died March 25, 1918, Paris, France. Symphonic Fragments from The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian

No one was more sur- envisioned a grand miracle play that combined prised by the failure of drama, dance, staging, and music. The Martyrdom of Saint Once Rubinstein agreed to dance the role Sebastian than Gabriel of Saint Sebastian, d’Annunzio began to pick Astruc, its producer at the his other collaborators. Debussy was not even Théâtre du Châtelet: “I his first choice—at Rubinstein’s suggestion, he have brought together the initially approached Jean Roger-Ducasse, who greatest musician, the declined. (Florent Schmitt also was under con- greatest poet, the greatest sideration.) D’Annunzio finally wrote to Debussy designer, the greatest on November 25, 1910, and the composer choreographer—and it’s bad!” The poet was promptly replied: “The mere thought of working Gabriele d’Annunzio, the designer Léon Bakst, with you gives me a sort of anticipatory fever.” the choreographer Michel Fokine, and the But he told his wife that the proposal meant composer Claude Debussy. A man of no apparent nothing to him. Still, perhaps mainly because he talent himself, Astruc had hoped to take credit needed the money, Debussy joined d’Annunzio’s for combining so much genius on one stage, even dream team. though the idea was not his to begin with. By the end of January 1911, Debussy had not For many years, d’Annunzio had dreamed written a note of music (he told d’Annunzio that of writing a work based on the story of Saint he had “reached the point where all music seems Sebastian, who was martyred by Emperor to me useless by comparison with the constantly Diocletian’s archers. When d’Annunzio saw Ida renewed splendors of your imagination”). By Rubinstein, the tall Russian ballerina of “mys- mid-February, panic had set in. Realizing that he teriously androgynous beauty,” in Sheherazade could not comfortably finish composing nearly an at the Paris Opéra in 1910, he is said to have hour of music in time for the May premiere—just exclaimed: “Here are the legs of Saint Sebastian two months to pull off “a score which would for which I have been searching for years!” normally have taken me a year,” as he put it—he D’Annunzio, who had already created a sensa- enlisted André Caplet, who had already been tion with his flamboyant poetry and the novel engaged to conduct the work, to help with the The Flame of Life, which depicted his mistress, orchestration. (For many years Caplet also was the celebrated actress Eleonora Duse, now credited with composing a long stretch of the

COMPOSED August 6, 1950, Ravinia Festival. Pierre trumpets, three trombones, tuba, 1911, as incidental music for Gabriele Monteux conducting timpani, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, d’Annunzio’s miracle play celesta, three harps, strings March 29, 30 & 31, 1990, Orchestra Hall. Erich Leinsdorf conducting FIRST PERFORMANCE APPROXIMATE May 22, 1911, Théâtre du Châtelet PERFORMANCE TIME MOST RECENT (complete) 24 minutes CSO PERFORMANCES January 4, 1914, Paris. Edgard November 26 & 27, 2010, Orchestra CSO RECORDING Varèse conducting (four symphonic Hall. Pierre Boulez conducting 1995. Pierre Boulez conducting. CSO fragments arranged by André Caplet) (From the Archives, vol. 19: A Tribute to INSTRUMENTATION Pierre Boulez) FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES four flutes and two piccolos, two March 28 & 29, 1913, Orchestra Hall. oboes and english horn, three clarinets Frederick Stock conducting (Preludes and bass , three bassoons to acts 1 and 2) and contrabassoon, six horns, four

3 finale, although the manuscript is carefully Opening night did not go well either. The written in Debussy’s own hand.) performance lasted just over five hours, test- Work progressed quickly, but not smoothly. ing the patience of everyone save perhaps the Debussy was irritated by Rubinstein’s demands ever-hopeful Astruc. The music was sloppily and furious that he had to work around Fokine’s played, partly because Bakst had arranged the other com- chorus members onstage by the color of their mitments. costumes rather than by voice part. (Assistant Two weeks conductors, disguised in hooded outfits, roamed before the the stage, quietly giving cues and attempting to premiere, the restore order.) Few audience members paid serious archbishop attention to Debussy’s music—as carefully colored of Paris as ever, but now spare and as tough as steel. The threatened critics were baffled by the event, although both to excom- Marcel Proust and the young Jean Cocteau, who municate any were present, were deeply moved. The failure of Catholic who Saint Sebastian secretly wounded Debussy, who attended the later wrote to his publisher that the whole experi- performances; ence had drained him more than he realized. the spectacle, Rubinstein arranged a few subsequent pro- he said, would ductions of The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, offend the including one at La Scala conducted by Christian Toscanini, and in 1914 Debussy and d’Annunzio conscience. even talked about a film version. Although the (He was complete work has not been performed in recent particularly decades, Debussy’s incidental music is occasion- disturbed ally revived, most often in a narrated version that Saint devised by Germaine Inghelbrecht, the wife of Sebastian was the original chorus master, with the approval of to be danced the composer and d’Annunzio. Debussy’s score Ida Rubinstein in The Martyrdom of by a woman, is best known, however, in the suite of four Saint Sebastian, 1911 and a Jew symphonic fragments arranged by Caplet. at that.) In The first of the fragments, a slow, sustained, response to and gentle piece with massed winds, is the the archbishop’s ban, Debussy said, “I have writ- prelude to the complete work. The second excerpt ten the music as though it were commissioned depicts Sebastian ecstatically dancing on live for a church.” Trouble continued to overshadow coals. In the brooding music of The Passion, the production. On the morning of the dress Sebastian mimes the role of Christ. The Good rehearsal, which had been marketed as a major Shepherd, the luminous prelude to act 4 of society event, the French minister of war was d’Annunzio’s play, finds Debussy reaching for a killed in an airplane crash. (The rehearsal went new simplicity of expression. on, but the socialites were sent home.) —Phillip Huscher

4 Camille Saint-Saëns Born October 9, 1835, Paris, France. Died December 16, 1921, Algiers, Algeria. La muse et le poète, Op. 132

Saint-Saëns was hailed in indebted first and foremost to his beloved his youth by Berlioz as “a Mozart, though also owing a deal to Beethoven fine musician nineteen and Mendelssohn—the same formative influ- years old,” who, alongside ences, it has to be said, behind his most charac- Gounod, represented teristic piano composed in the previous France’s brightest hope in century and which he himself performed to music. He began his unanimous praise. Saint-Saëns once revealingly career as a staunch wrote: “The artist who does not feel thoroughly supporter of “music of the satisfied with elegant lines, harmonious colors, or future,” championing the a fine series of chords does not understand art.” works by Liszt, Schumann, and Wagner. By the turn of the twentieth century, though, he t is this aesthetic—one, it may seem, of a increasingly appeared a curmudgeonly old disappointed romantic—which informs his reactionary who railed against the innovations of touching and still little-known late master- Debussy and Ravel (though the latter claimed Ipiece La muse et le poète, composed in 1909, the artistic kinship with Saint-Saëns). Apparently very year when Diaghilev’s held its guarded and suspicious towards the world at first season in Paris. Saint-Saëns’s work appears large, he refused to show indulgence or ordinary as if from a previous epoch, yet such is the acts of kindness to rising young composers until limpid quality of its expression that it effectively they had measured up to his own stringent transcends any specific style or period (save, standards. Those who knew him, though, or who perhaps, for the orchestra’s triumphal interlude could penetrate his prickly exterior, soon discov- near its end), and speaks just as directly today as ered a man of warm sensibility whose friendship, it did when it was first performed in London on once earned, was steadfast. June 7, 1910, with Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe Having made his reputation with such sensu- and Dutch cellist Josef Hollmann as the soloists. ous and voluptuous works as the Introduction and Although Saint-Saëns never divulged a rondo capriccioso for violin and orchestra and the program for this work, it was apparently inspired Samson et Dalila, as well as works of osten- by a series of four lyrics by the poet Alfred de tatious grandeur such as the Organ Symphony Musset, in which a poet, disappointed in love, (the frivolity of Carnival of the Animals was not to is consoled and inspired by a series of dialogues be generally known until after his death), in the with his muse. Therefore the title, though new century, Saint-Saëns increasingly resorted imposed by Saint-Saëns’s publisher rather than to a more restrained “classical” style. This was chosen by the composer himself, is apt, with the

COMPOSED MOST RECENT INSTRUMENTATION 1909 CSO PERFORMANCES solo violin and solo cello, two July 8, 2010, Ravinia Festival. Pinchas flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two FIRST PERFORMANCE Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth as bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, June 7, 1910, London soloists, conducting three trombones, timpani, harp, strings These are the Chicago Symphony FIRST CSO PERFORMANCE APPROXIMATE Orchestra’s first subscription con- June 25, 2000, Ravinia Festival. PERFORMANCE TIME cert performances. Robert Chen and Yo-Yo Ma as soloists, 16 minutes conducting

5 roles of Muse and Poet taken by a solo violinist the violinist—note how the music appears to and a solo cellist, respectively. The work opens brighten in its tonality with the soloist’s entry. in a mood The cello replies, clearly in despondent mood. of gentle There is no need to translate into words the melancholy— import of the subsequent dialogue between the wistful, as if soloists—the music they play is eloquent enough, expressing reminding one of a famous saying by one of the poet’s Saint-Saëns’s favorite composers, Mendelssohn: unfulfilled “What a piece of music that I love expresses to love. First me are not thoughts that are too vague to be to initiate contained in words, but rather too precise.” the con- versation is —Daniel Jaffé

Alfred de Musset

Edouard Lalo Born January 27, 1823, Lille, France. Died April 22, 1892, Paris, France. Cello Concerto in D Minor

Although the surname string quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Lalo is of Spanish origin, Beethoven. (The quartet was sometimes joined Edouard Lalo came by his by high-profile pianists such as Clara Schumann French first name (not to and Camille Saint-Saëns.) mention his middle Lalo didn’t attract attention as a composer names, Victoire Antoine) for some time, largely because he favored the naturally. His family had then-unfashionable forms of . For been settled in Flanders a while he gave up on composition altogether. and in northern France In 1866 (he was now forty-three), he finally since the sixteenth broke his silence with the opera Fiesque, which century, and his father had fought for Napoleon. he entered in a competition sponsored by the Edouard was determined to study music early on, Théâtre-Lyrique. After his work failed to win, but his father, a highly decorated military man, Lalo was so incensed that he published the balked at the idea of having his firstborn become score at his own expense; however, it was never a professional musician. At the age of sixteen, performed. Then, in the 1870s, Lalo’s fortunes Edouard left home for Paris, where he took violin turned after he met the virtuoso Spanish violinist and composition lessons. He decided to stay in Pablo de Sarasate and immediately set to work this great music capital, and for many years he on a series of concertolike pieces for Sarasate made his living there quietly teaching violin and and other leading performers of the day. In playing chamber music with the Armingaud 1874, Sarasate premiered Lalo’s Violin Concerto Quartet, which he put together to promote the (now forgotten), followed by the still-popular

6 Symphonie melody, both in moments of powerful and urgent espagnole the music or in displays of simple lyricism. next year. (This In the 1880s, after this string of virtuoso new surge of concertos and the eventual triumph of Le roi d’Ys, inspiration also Lalo’s music was wildly popular, defying Paul produced a second Dukas’s tongue-in-cheek prediction that Lalo opera, Le roi d’Ys, would never find easy success with the general although this public because he “showed himself to be incur- work too was at ably, unpardonably a musician.” Lalo himself first considered always resisted defining his own musical style: unstageworthy, “While I do not know exactly what I am, I do despite the know what I am not. I am not a member of any support of school, and I do not adhere to any system. I agree Pablo de Sarasate .) with the poet Musset: ‘My glass is small, but I In 1877, Lalo drink from my glass.’ ” composed this concerto for the Belgian cellist Adolphe Fischer. —Phillip Huscher Coming just five years after Saint-Saëns’s own cello concerto, this work helped to draw attention to Lalo as a composer of remarkable melodic and Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago orchestral gifts. Lalo’s cello concerto is more ath- Symphony Orchestra. letic and outgoing than Saint-Saëns’s, although Daniel Jaffé is a regular contributor to BBC Music both works share the idea of a middle movement Magazine and a specialist in English and Russian that is part slow movement and part scherzo. music. He is author of a biography of Sergey Prokofiev Throughout the concerto, Lalo gives his soloist (Phaidon) and the Historical Dictionary of Russian Music a nearly unending flow of sheer, sumptuous (Scarecrow Press).

COMPOSED MOST RECENT APPROXIMATE 1877 CSO PERFORMANCES PERFORMANCE TIME September 15, 2000, Orchestra 25 minutes FIRST PERFORMANCE Hall. Yo-Yo Ma as soloist, Daniel December 9, 1877; Paris, France Barenboim conducting CSO RECORDING 1988. Matt Haimovitz as August 8, 2003, Ravinia Festival. FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES soloist, conducting. Claudio Bohórquez as soloist, January 5 & 6, 1900, Auditorium Christoph Eschenbach conducting Theatre. Elsa Ruegger as soloist, Theodore Thomas conducting INSTRUMENTATION July 29, 1967, Ravinia Festival. solo cello, two flutes, two oboes, two János Starker as soloist, Jean clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, Martinon conducting two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings

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