CONCERT PROGRAM April 25-27, 2014

Leonard Slatkin, conductor Conrad Tao, piano

ROBERTO SIERRA Fandangos (2000) (b. 1953)

SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, op. 22 (1868) (1835-1921) Andante sostenuto Allegro scherzando Presto

Conrad Tao, piano

INTERMISSION

COPLAND Symphony No. 3 (1944-46) (1900-1990) Molto moderato—with simple expression Allegro molto Andantino quasi allegretto— Molto deliberato; Allegro risoluto

23 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

These concerts are part of the Wells Fargo Advisors series.

These concerts are presented by the Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation.

Leonard Slatkin is the Monsanto Guest Artist.

Conrad Tao is the Ann and Paul Lux Guest Artist.

The concert of Friday, April 25, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. William C. Rusnack.

The concert of Friday, April 25, includes coffee and doughnuts provided by Krispy Kreme.

The concert of Saturday, April 26, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Barbara Liberman.

The concert of Sunday, April 27, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Mrs. Mary Ann Lee.

Pre-Concert Conversations are sponsored by Washington University Physicians.

Large print program notes are available through the generosity of Dielmann Sotheby’s International Realty and are located at the Customer Service table in the foyer.

24 FROM THE STAGE Jonathan Reycraft, trombone, on Copland’s Symphony No. 3: “Copland’s Symphony No. 3 is a climactic moment for American composition. World War II has ended, and the mood of the nation has grown optimistic, pros- perous. You can hear this in each movement of Copland’s symphony. Each comes from a very different place. “The beginning of the piece has almost a primitive feel to it. For me it’s a look back at the country before it was settled. Copland asks for the first movement to be played ‘with simple expression.’ He contrasts this with the churning, industrial sounds of the second movement. It’s America full of energy, of industrial output. The third movement continues with a devel- opment of themes from the first movement—more reflective, contemplative. There is conflict, but resolution is found in the spirit of dance—the balletic influence that Copland had gained from working with Agnes de Mille and Martha Graham. The final movement is profoundly uplifting, with the famous Fanfare for the Common Man theme. It was a valid message for its time, just as it is today.”

Dilip Vishwanat

Jonathan Reycraft

25 NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BY PAUL SCHIAVO Much orchestral music proudly proclaims its nationality. Dvořák’s mature symphonies and other works use melodic and rhythmic TIMELINKS features of Czech folk music so effectively that we can readily discern their provenance. Bartók similarly infused his orchestral works with 1868 something of his native country (Hungary), SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 2 in as did Sibelius his (Finland), and Glinka and G minor, op. 22 Borodin theirs (Russia). Wagner’s Die Meistersinger But many other composers have managed to premieres in Munich efface national characteristics from their music, cultivating instead what can properly be called 1944-46 an international idiom. Handel may have lived in COPLAND Symphony No. 3 England and Haydn in Austria, but there is little World War II comes to in their music to suggest this. Much the same can an end be said of Beethoven, Liszt, and Berlioz, to name but a few. 2000 Our concert includes music of evident ROBERTO SIERRA Fandangos national identity and, by contrast, of cosmopoli- George W. Bush elected tan character. In the former instance is Aaron President of U.S. after Copland’s magisterial Third Symphony, which Supreme Court decides sounds distinctively American. In the latter is the against ballot recount in Second Piano Concerto of Camille Saint-Saëns, Florida a Frenchman who really was more a global citi- zen. A somewhat special case is Roberto Sierra’s Fandangos, which opens our program. Written by a present-day American composer, this work is redolent not only of Spain but of both the 18th and 21st centuries.

ROBERTO SIERRA Fandangos

A DANCE LEGACY Spain’s cultural treasures include the breathtaking architecture of the Alhambra, the wise humanity of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and—in a more popular vein—many dis- tinctive dances. Of the latter, the fandango is one of the most colorful. The fandango emerged in the early years of the 18th century, originally as a courtship dance, and typically was accompa- nied by guitars and castanets, and sometimes by

26 singing in the impassioned gypsy manner known as cante jondo. The fandango eventually made its way into the works of many composers, not all Spanish. Christoph Willibald Gluck used a fandango melody in his ballet Don Juan, as did Mozart in his opera The Marriage of Figaro. Domenico Scarlatti cast one of his keyboard sonatas in fandango rhythms. Later, the Russian composer Rimsky- Korsakov and others would write fandango- type melodies to evoke a Spanish ambience. But Born perhaps the most famous fandangos in concert October 9, 1953, Vega Baja, music are the harpsichord piece Fandango, by Puerto Rico the Spanish composer Antonio Soler (1729-83), Now Resides and the finale of the Quintet in G for Guitar and Ithaca, New York Strings by Soler’s younger Italian contemporary, First Performance Luigi Boccherini. February 28, 2001, at These last two pieces, as well as the general the Kennedy Center in style and spirit of the fandango, are at the heart Washington, D.C., Leonard Slatkin conducted the of Fandangos, by the American composer Roberto National Symphony Sierra. Born in Puerto Rico, Sierra received his edu- Orchestra cation there at the Conservatory of Music and the STL Symphony Premiere University of Puerto Rico. He subsequently pur- This week sued advanced studies in England and in Europe. Scoring His compositions have been performed by major 2 flutes orchestras and other ensembles throughout the piccolo United States, England and Europe, and they 2 oboes have been widely recorded. Sierra has served English horn as Composer-in-Residence with the Milwaukee 2 clarinets bass clarinet Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the 2 bassoons New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. contrabassoon 4 horns SUPER-FANDANGO Fandangos dates from 2000 3 trumpets and was commissioned by Leonard Slatkin and 3 trombones the National Symphony Orchestra. The piece is tuba timpani based largely on Soler’s Fandango, which Sierra percussion says has always fascinated him. He describes his harp composition as “a fantasy, or a ‘super-fandango,’ piano that takes as point of departure Soler’s work and celesta incorporates elements of Boccherini’s fandango strings and my own Baroque musings.” Performance Time The piece begins with a rhapsodic introduc- approximately 12 minutes tion but soon acquires a steady rhythmic pulse and strong tonal profile. The latter provides a short sequence of recurring harmonies that underlies nearly the entire work. The music is seductively melodious, and its scoring, with

27 castanets, tambourines, and imitations of guitar strumming, creates a strong Spanish flavor. But from time to time, the work falls into a different idiom, one very much of our own era. Such diversions are always short lived, the fandango music quickly emerging and continuing on its way. Sierra notes that “in these paren- thetical commentaries, the same materials heard before are transformed, as if one would look at the same objects through different types of Born lenses or prisms.” Distorting lenses or prisms, it October 9, 1835, Paris might seem, but the brief views they provide are Died fascinating. December 16, 1921, Algiers First Performance May 13, 1868, in Paris, the CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS composer played the solo Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, op. 22 part, and Anton Rubinstein conducted PRODIGY AND POLYMATH Camille Saint-Saëns STL Symphony Premiere was one of the most fascinating musicians of the January 7, 1909, Adela Verne 19th century. During the course of a long career was soloist, with Max Zach (he began composing at age four and continued conducting to do so for the next 82 years) he produced an Most Recent STL Symphony impressive quantity of music in every genre and Performance distinguished himself as a pianist, organist, and May 2, 2009, Marc-André Hamelin was soloist, with Yan conductor as well. A man of considerable intel- Pascal Tortelier conducting lect, Saint-Saëns also wrote plays and poetry, Scoring studied archeology, astronomy, and other sci- solo piano ences, and wrote treatises on philosophy and 2 flutes ancient music. 2 oboes Saint-Saëns composed his Second Piano 2 clarinets Concerto in the spring of 1868 for a concert in 2 bassoons Paris. Because the performance had been hastily 2 horns 2 trumpets arranged, the composer had to work quickly, and timpani he completed the concerto in a mere 17 days. He percussion played the solo part at the premiere. “Not having strings had the time to practice it sufficiently,” Saint- Performance Time Saëns recalled, “I played very badly, and except approximately 24 minutes for the scherzo ... it did not go well.” But despite its unhappy debut, the work has become the most popular of Saint-Saëns’ five concertos -fea turing the piano.

RETHINIKING THE CONCERTO In this composition, Saint-Saëns adopted an innovative approach to the concerto form. The piece begins not with the customary orchestral exposition but with a long prologue by the solo instrument. Here we 28 find an instance of the enduring influence of J. S. Bach on musicians of different temperament and outlook down through the generations. This opening idea is very much in the style of Bach’s keyboard preludes, though touched by a Lisztian type of virtuosity. This music returns, following the dramatic main body of the movement, to con- clude the initial portion of the concerto. In place of the customary slow second movement, Saint-Saëns offers a breathless scherzo, with fleet figuration and gossamer textures. Here, Born the composer assigns the opening gesture to November 14, 1900, Brooklyn, the timpani, an effective and original touch. The New York finale brings a tour de force of energy and bra- Died vura piano writing. December 2, 1990, Tarrytown, New York First Performance AARON COPLAND October 18, 1946, in Symphony No. 3 Boston, Serge Koussevitzky conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra A TRULY AMERICAN SYMPHONY Aaron Copland’s position as America’s emblematic composer STL Symphony Premiere February 7, 1964, Eleazar De stems largely from the extraordinary success of Carvalho conducting that portion of his output which is in some way theatrical or descriptive. Copland’s ballet music Most Recent STL Symphony Performance for Billy the Kid, Rodeo and above all Appalachian November 23, 2003, Joseph Spring, his film scores for The Red Pony and Of Swensen conducting , and the narrative cantata Mice and Men Lincoln Scoring Portrait have touched millions of listeners and are 3 flutes widely regarded as musical embodiments of an 2 piccolos essential and idealized American spirit. Although 3 oboes these are Copland’s best-known compositions, English horn his most impressive and important music lies in 2 clarinets bass clarinet his more abstract concert works. Notable among E-flat clarinet the latter pieces are the strong and sober Piano 2 bassoons Variations and the Symphony No. 3, which closes contrabassoon our program. 4 horns Copland wrote his Third Symphony between 4 trumpets 3 trombones 1944 and 1946, and its music is stylistically tuba related to Appalachian Spring, Lincoln Portrait, timpani and other works he produced during the early percussion and mid-1940s. But the symphony is distinct 2 harps from many of Copland’s pieces in three impor- celesta tant respects. First, it has no extra-musical under- piano strings pinnings—no ballet story, film scene, or text to provide a structure or suggest its themes. It is, in Performance Time other words, a piece of “pure” music, non-refer- approximately 43 minutes ential and self-sufficient. The second difference, 29 in part a result of the first, is that the symphony contains no quotations of folk music. In Billy the Kid, Lincoln Portrait, and Appalachian Spring, Copland used traditional American song melodies to impart a distinctly American ethos to his music. In the Third Symphony, however, the composer showed that he could preserve the essence of his populist American style—its tunefulness, its sense of strength, and its broadly spaced harmonies—without relying on folk- song quotations. Finally, in contrast to Copland’s usual modesty and restrained musical rhetoric, the Third Symphony accepts the heroic character traditional to its genre. Indeed, Copland admitted that in writing this piece “I ... was reaching for the grand gesture.”

DIGNITY, GRANDEUR, ELEGY, AND FANFARE The symphony unfolds in four movements, the first beginning with a declamatory theme presented by the strings and marked by Copland’s characteristic wide melodic leaps. Following a second subject, closely related to the first in its contours, there appears a more energetic idea announced in the trombones. The eloquence of these materials imparts a strong sense of dignity and grandeur to the music. Copland con- ceived the movement, he noted, as an arch whose apex is the animated central section. A broad coda, or epilogue, brings this first portion of the symphony to a close. More regular in form, the second movement follows the outline of a traditional symphonic scherzo. Its first portion is boisterous, at times nervous and even strident. Copland offers effective contrast in a lyrical central section that begins with pastoral sounds from the woodwinds. A striking piano solo leads back to a reprise of the scherzo music. The third movement brings a moving elegy, beginning with the icy sounds of the violins in their highest register. Only briefly, during the middle of the movement, does the prevailing somber tone give way to music in a more animated vein. Although Copland employed no traditional melodies in his symphony, he did quote one of his own earlier works. This is the stirring and justly famous Fanfare for the Common Man, composed in 1942, whose music serves as a prologue to the finale. As the strains of the fanfare die away, we hear the oboe musing in what seems an almost improvisational manner on a simple motif. Other woodwinds now join in, their lines flowing together into a stream of melody that forms the principal theme for the main portion of the movement. Copland develops this subject in fluid contrapuntal textures and later adds both the signal motif of the fanfare and a broad new melody to the sonic mix. Finally, he recalls the first theme of the opening movement, thereby bringing the symphony full circle to its point of origin. The work closes on a note of exultation.

30 LEONARD SLATKIN MONSANTO GUEST ARTIST

Leonard Slatkin is Music Director of both the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de Lyon, France. During the 2012-13 season he led the DSO in highly acclaimed concerts at Carnegie Hall, including one concert in which all four Charles Ives symphonies were presented in a single evening; directed the Orchestre National de Lyon in a triumphant Paris concert of Ravel’s L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges; and celebrated Rachmaninoff’s 140th anniversary with Denis Matsuev and the State Symphony of Russia in Moscow. During the 2013-14 season, Slatkin con- ducts at Penderecki’s 80th birthday celebration in Warsaw, records with Anne-Akiko Myers and herman J. S

the London Symphony, and appears with the te v e Chicago Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and S Leonard Slatkin was St. Louis the Boston Symphony at the Tanglewood Music Symphony Music Director Festival and School. from 1979-96, and appeared Slatkin has received the prestigious National on the Symphony conductor Medal of Arts, the American Symphony Orchestra roster under various titles from 1968-78. He most League’s Gold Baton Award, and several ASCAP recently conducted the awards. He has earned France’s Chevalier of the orchestra in January 2013. Legion of Honor, Austria’s Declaration of Honor in Silver, and honorary doctorates from the Juilliard School, Indiana University, Michigan State University, and Washington University in St. Louis. He is also the recipient of a 2013 ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award for his book Conducting Business. Founder and director of the National Conducting Institute and the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, Slatkin continues his conducting and teaching activities at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School. Born in Los Angeles to a distinguished musical family, he is the son of conductor-violinist Felix Slatkin and cellist Eleanor Aller, founding members of the famed Hollywood String Quartet. He began his musical studies on the violin and studied conducting with his father, followed by Walter Susskind at Aspen and Jean Morel at the Juilliard School. Leonard Slatkin is Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony. 31 CONRAD TAO ANN AND PAUL LUX GUEST ARTIST

Born in Urbana, Illinois, to parents of Chinese descent, Conrad Tao was found playing children’s songs on the piano at 18 months of age, gave his first piano recital at age four, and four years later made his concerto debut performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major, K. 414. In June 2011, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and the Department of Education named Tao a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts awarded him a YoungArts gold medal in music. Later that year, Tao was named a Gilmore Young Artist, an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pia- nists of the new generation. Tao was also the only classical musician on Forbes’ 2011 “30 Under 30” list of people changing the world. In May 2012, Conrad Tao most recently performed with the St. Louis he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Symphony in February 2013. Career Grant. In June 2013, Tao kicked off the inaugural edition of his UNPLAY Festival at the power- House Arena in Brooklyn. The festival featured Tao with guest artists performing a wide variety of new works. That same week, Tao, an exclusive EMI recording artist, released Voyages, his debut full-length album for the label. Tao’s 2013-14 season includes two tours of South America featuring Benjamin Britten’s piano concerto; two tours of Europe including performances on the ARTE network, with the Swedish Radio Orchestra, and a recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; a third con- secutive annual recital at Carnegie’s Weill Hall; and performances in North America with the Detroit Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Utah Symphony, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada, among others. Conrad Tao currently attends the Columbia University/Juilliard School joint degree program and studies piano with Professors Yoheved Kaplinsky and Choong Mo Kang at Juilliard. He studies composition with Professor Christopher Theofanidis of Yale University.

32 A BRIEF EXPLANATION You don’t need to know what “andante” means or what a glockenspiel is to enjoy a St. Louis Symphony concert, but it’s always fun to know stuff. For example, What is “Coplandesque”?

Coplandesque: listen to the Fanfare for the Common Man theme in the last movement of the Symphony No. 3, and hear many of the elements that are referred to as Coplandesque—melodic, open intervals (distance between pitches), layered and expressive harmonies; many hear in Copland an evocation of wide spaces, or of small-town virtues, which is curious, since much of his style first emerged when he was writing in Paris under the influence of the legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger and the modernist Stravinsky; but in films, advertising, political campaigns—even the theme of The Simpsons—we hear something Coplandesque, something singularly American

BRASS ENDURANCE: JONATHAN REYCRAFT, TROMBONE

Dilip Vishwanat “Copland’s style of writing has a lot of open intervals, spread out wide across the range of the brass. Endurance is a factor, especially in the formidable part for the first trumpet. In the last movement, the tuba part in Fanfare goes very high, which you would think would be the climax, but it’s not. It’s only the beginning of the coda.”

Jonathan Reycraft

33 YOU TAKE IT FROM HERE If these concerts have inspired you to learn more, here are suggested source materials with which to continue your explorations.

robertosierra.com Composer Roberto Sierra’s website

John Lithgow, Carnival of the Animals Simon & Schuster The famed actor is also a popular children’s book author, with this volume inspired by Saint-Saëns’ magical work; the Symphony will perform the Saint-Saëns next season with another Lithgow work, Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo, for Education and Family Concerts

Aaron Copland and Vivian Perlis, Copland, 1900 Through 1942 and Copland Since 1943 St. Martin’s Press Essentially a two-volume autobiography, though it contains reminiscences and comments by many who knew Copland.

Read the program notes online at stlsymphony.org/planyourvisit/programnotes

Keep up with the backstage life of the St. Louis Symphony, as chronicled by Symphony staffer Eddie Silva, via stlsymphony.org/blog

The St. Louis Symphony is on

34 CLASSICAL CONCERT: TCHAIKOVSKY 5

MAY 9-11 David Robertson, conductor; Andrew Kennedy, tenor

DALBAVIE La Source d’un regard BRITTEN Les Illuminations TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5

Despair, the edge of the abyss—these are motifs identified with Tchaikovsky. But out of his dark nights there is revealed a more profound vision of humanity, as in his Fifth Symphony, a life made richer for its suffering. Arthur Rimbaud’s vision in his great book Les Illuminations is wild, erotic, dizzying, and provocative. Benjamin Britten creates the most compelling music to match Rimbaud’s words. Contemporary French composer Marc-André Dalbavie is interested in vision too. The title may be translated as “the source of a glance.”

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Corporate Box sponsorships offer a variety of benefits.

36 AUDIENCE INFORMATION BOX OFFICE HOURS POLICIES Monday-Saturday, 10am-6pm; Weekday You may store your personal and Saturday concert evenings through belongings in lockers located on the intermission; Sunday concert days Orchestra and Grand Tier Levels at a 12:30pm through intermission. cost of 25 cents. Infrared listening headsets are available at Customer Service. TO PURCHASE TICKETS Cameras and recording devices are Box Office: 314-534-1700 distracting for the performers and Toll Free: 1-800-232-1880 audience members. Audio and video Online: stlsymphony.org recording and photography are strictly Fax: 314-286-4111 prohibited during the concert. Patrons A service charge is added to all are welcome to take photos before the telephone and online orders. concert, during intermission, and after the concert. Please turn off all watch alarms, cell SEASON TICKET EXCHANGE POLICIES phones, pagers, and other electronic If you can’t use your season tickets, devices before the start of the concert. simply exchange them for another All those arriving after the start of the Wells Fargo Advisors subscription concert will be seated at the discretion concert up to one hour prior to your of the House Manager. concert date. To exchange your tickets, please call the Box Office at 314-534- Age for admission to STL Symphony 1700 and be sure to have your tickets and Live at Powell Hall concerts with you when calling. varies, however, for most events the recommended age is five or older. All patrons, regardless of age, must have GROUP AND DISCOUNT TICKETS their own tickets and be seated for all concerts. All children must be seated 314-286-4155 or 1-800-232-1880 Any with an adult. Admission to concerts is group of 20 is eligible for a discount on at the discretion of the House Manager. tickets for select Orchestral, Holiday, or Live at Powell Hall concerts. Call Outside food and drink are not for pricing. permitted in Powell Hall. No food or drink is allowed inside the auditorium, Special discount ticket programs are except for select concerts. available for students, seniors, and police and public-safety employees. Powell Hall is not responsible for Visit stlsymphony.org for more the loss or theft of personal property. information. To inquire about lost items, call 314-286-4166. POWELL HALL RENTALS Select elegant Powell Hall for your next special occasion. Visit stlsymphony.org/rentals for more information. 37 POWELL HALL

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