Brooklyn Academy of Music 1997 Next Wave Festival

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Julio Galan, Rado, 1996, oil on canvas, 39 if," x 31 '/2" After Mahler Orchestra

PHILIP MORRIS BAM 1997 Next Wave Festival is sponsored by COM PAN I [S INC. Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra Bruce C. Ratner 44th Season 1997-98 Chairman of the Board Robert Spano, Music Director Harvey Lichtenstein Lukas Foss, Conductor Laureate President and Executive Producer , Executive Producer George Nashak, Executive Director

present

Running time: BAM Opera House approximately October 31 and November 1, 1997 one hour and forty-five minutes 7pm including one Pre-concert presentation intermission with Sofia Gubaidulina, Maya Pritsker and Joseph Horowitz

8pm Robert Spano, conductor

Claude Vivier Zipangu (New York premiere)

Gustav Mahler Adagio from Symphony No. 10

Interm ission

Sofia Gubaidulina Stimmen... verstummen (New York premiere)

The November 1 post-concert reception in the BAMcafe is sponsored by Independence Savings Bank.

Baldwin is the official piano of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra.

The organ is provided courtesy of Allen Organ Studios, ·Inc.

BAM thanks the Theater Development Fund for supporting this presentation.

The BPO and BAM gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley H. Kaplan, whose assistance made possible the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center Acoustical Shell. This weekend we present two pieces I was determined to bring to New York: Sofia Gubaidulina's Stimmen. .. verstummen and Claude Vivier's Zipangu. These works represent two of the most distinctive and emotionally charged voices in contemporary music. Vivier is an important North American only now being discovered, one who considered Mahler a key inspiration. Gubaidulina's embattled spiritual strivings are Mahlerian in scope. The larger topic of Mahler's influence then suggested itself for our Saturday afternoon Interplay-in particular, his crucial influence on Shostakovich and, less directly, on the important Russian who followed, including Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke, and Valentin Silvestrov. We open our 1997-98 season with music that speaks to our time. -Robert Spano, Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra

Vivier: Zipangu Claude Vivier's Zipangu is music of an uncompromising strangeness, by a composer whose life was strange. Born in Montreal in 1948, he was placed in an orphanage at birth-a circumstance, he wrote, that allowed him "to make up my origins as I wished, pretend to speak in strange languages." (The vocal music Vivier composed after 1972 in fact utilized an invented language.) He studied in Montreal, then with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne. In 1976 and 1977, he traveled in the Middle East and Asia, and there encountered a variety of influences that helped him focus an original style in which (as in much non-Western music) melody, not harmony or counterpoint, matters most. Vivier had finished some forty works when he was killed in Paris in 1983. He had been composing a piece titled Do You Believe in the Immortality of the Soul?; in the last passage he set, the narrator is murdered by a young man who pulls out a dagger and "thrusts it right into the heart." Vivier's real-life assailant was a nineteen­ year-old man wielding a knife; there were forty-five stab wounds.

The fear and lure of death loomed large for Vivier. He drank heavily, and had many male love partners. He once reported, "Mahler is perhaps the musician to whom I feel closest-an exacerbated sensibility, schmaltz, and at the same time profound desire for purity, and for a purity that's almost libidinal." Addressing another core aspect of Vivier's creative personality, the critic Paul Griffiths adds, "Vivier thought that music in the Western classical tradition was conditioned by the conventional attributes of maleness: determination, purposefulness, independence. Gay music would be different. It would hover; it would glisten. It would be the music of angels."

Zipangu, composed in 1980, is a fourteen-minute work for two groups of strings: six violins (on the left) and a violin, three violas, two cellos, and double bass (on the right). The score requires a range of playing techniques, including "granular sound" produced by exaggerated bow pressure; irregular, accelerating, or decelerating tremolos; and harmonics of unspecified pitch. According to the composer, "Zipangu was the name given to Japan during the time of Marco Polo. Building around a melody, I explore different aspects of color in this piece. I have tried to veil my harmonic structures by using different bow techniques ... In this way melody becomes 'color,' grows lighter and slowly returns to as though purified and solitary." Vivier criticized "the insignificance of people who are unwilling to explore new territory, the Zipangus of the inner planets." The inner-planetary music of Photo, Dan Rest Zipangu is solemn, ritualistic, and superbly exotic. Vivier had planned to integrate a number of related works, including Lonely Child, Bouchara, and Prologue pour un Marco Polo, into a Marco Polo opera "about explorers and dreamers." Zipangu too, is linked to the opera by its thematic material. All four works are recorded by Reinbert de Leeuw and his Schoenberg Ensemble on a 1996 Philips CD (454231-2). -Joseph Horowitz Executive Producer, Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra

Mahler: Adagio from The last photograph of Gustav Mahler was taken aboard ship on his final Symphony No. 10 crossing from New York to Europe in spring, 1911. Fatally ill, thin and hag­ gard, he fixes the camera with weariness and unutterable disgust. Months later, Mahler died in Vienna. "When I took my farewell of his mortal remains," his friend Alfred Roller reported, "his features still bore traces of the suffer­ ing of his final death struggle." But Kurt Moll's death mask shows a differ­ ent, triumphant Mahler. In death, Mahler actually appeared transfigured.

Mahler was obsessed with death. More than any other musical motif, the funeral march permeates his symphonies. Two, the Second and Eighth, set texts describing'an experience of posthumous transcendence. His songs include, amazingly, a set "for Dead Children"-which Mahler subsequently believed contributed to the death of his daughter Maria. In place of a Ninth Symphony, rivaling Beethoven, he composed The Song of the Earth, with its Nirvana-like "Farewell." A Ninth Symphony, now unavoidable, was completed in 1910; its finale, a grieving Adagio, dissolves into the silence of the grave.

Mahler next undertook yet another valedictory statement: tempting fate (and Mahler was nothing if not superstitious), a Tenth Symphony exceeding Beethoven's canonized allotment of nine. He died having nearly finished movements one and three, and leaving an un-orchestrated "short score" for the remaining two scherzos and finale. The opening Adagio, which we hear at these concerts, is-like Schubert's Unfinished Symphony or Bruckner's Ninth-one of music's great torsos. It limns yet another passage into death-one contradicting the Ninth Symphony's grim trajectory, and anticipating the beatific death mask shortly to come.

Three themes permeate the Tenth Symphony's 25-minute Adagio. First, opening the work, a song for unaccompanied violas recalling the famous English horn solo signifying the existential void of Tristan und Isolde, Act III. This wandering tune, tonally adrift, settles magically into F-sharp major to launch a melody marked "softly but very warmly"-the movement's ineffable keynote of striving ascent. Theme three is an impetuous variant of these longer-breathed materials, percolating with trills and pizzicato chords. The three themes intertwine with seeming spontaneity. One of the movement's memorable features, in fact, is an interweaving of the violins so pervasive that two first-violin parts seem to vie toward new altitudes of expression.

In the absence of a strongly defined sonata form, Mahler creates a singular pivotal event: a sudden organ-like chorale, ablaze with sound-"an opening of the portals," writes the British annotator Jeremy Noble, "a transition from this life to another." There ensue episodes of heaped dissonance unique in Mahler. These lift to reveal a final, rarefied revisitation of the three themes. Beside this autobiographical rendering of Death and Transfiguration, Richard Strauss' tone poem seems a cartoon. Mahler: Adagio from Mahler never finished orchestrating this last Adagio. The present performances Symphony No. 10 use the 1972 edition prepared under the supervision of Deryck Cooke, who continued adds various woodwind and brass lines doubling (and therefore reinforcing) existing parts. Cooke's edition also includes the remaining four movements, of which the slow finale re-consolidates the serene close of movement one and so suggests, in Cooke's words, Ila renewed belief in life and a calm accepta nce of the end."

Is the reconstructed five-movement Tenth Symphony viable in performance? Opinions differ. , for one, remained convinced that "Mahler could never have finished the whole symphony, even if he had lived." It could be argued that the Tenth's pregnant ambiguities are more Mahlerian than any finished statement could be. Its radiant coda notwithstanding, the Adagio lacks closure; the harmonic and emotional undertow of its dissonant crisis remains tangible. And Mahler himself is tangibly, crucially ambivalent. He bids the nineteenth century a lingering, loving farewell. He enters the twentieth century tortuously, both bravely and fearfully. He is a poet of nostalgia and a prophet of doom. His range of influence is revealingly contradictory: Berg, Schonberg, Webern, Britten, Shostakovich are all composers deeply beholden to his style or mindset. A terminal Romantic, he spoke to composers seeking an antidote to Romantic inflation. In Soviet , his morbidity, his death­ marches, his penchant for the terse and spare helped shape a dominant idiom -the topic of this weekend's Saturday afternoon Interplay. -Joseph Horowitz

Gubaidulina: She is one of the most unusual people I have ever known. Though you would Stimmen...verstummen never guess it from her modest appearance, soft voice, and polite speech, Sofia Gubaidulina is one of the greatest of contemporary composers and the only woman composer ever to have attained such high standing. Her friend and colleague Alfred Schnittke once said (half-seriously, half-jokingly): IlSofia is a turning point in the history of humankind."

She reached her enormous success quietly, patiently, and modestly-by doing only one thing: composing music. Her life has been completely dedicated to this single yet demanding task. She has never taught, even though a teaching position would have helped her survive those years when her music was neither performed nor published. She preferred to take commissions for film scores. The entire regime of her existence has been shaped by creative goals: early wake-up, physical exercise, no phone calls (her telephone is turned on for a minute a day), and long hours of work, often without a break for food.

Where did this almost fanatical devotion come from? She was born in Kazan in 1931. Her grandfather was a mullah (which in the spelled trouble for the family). Though she did not become a Muslim, the ideas of God, spirituality, and faith were not as alien to her as to most of her Soviet contemporaries. Later she became a devout Orthodox Christian (and Christian images and topics would inspire many of her compositions).

However paradoxically, Soviet Russia sustained a Romantic notion of the artist as prophet and missionary. During years of suppression, the arts assumed responsibility for sustaining the holy fire of the human soul. Sofia Gubaidulina responded wholeheartedly to this calling. She sees composition as a kind of religious revelation. IlComposition is an intuitive, meditative type of existence. Music in itself is a spiritual art form." Gubaidulina considers herself /l a place where East and West meet." From the East come her extraordinary imagination and inventiveness in timbre and rhythm; from the West, her capacity for logical structure and also her sense of dialectical drama. /lAII my life I have been interested in the con­ frontation of absolute opposites and in the point where these opposites meet."

Stimmen... verstummen is one of the most powerful realizations of her style and beliefs. First performed in 1986 in West Berlin by the Orchestra of the USSR Ministry of Culture under Gennady Rozhdestvensky (to whom it is dedicated), the symphony was an instant success. Performances followed in Moscow, Western Europe, and-its sole previous American hearing­ Tanglewood. Critics perceived a /lprofoundly serious dialogue between sound and silence," a /ltheater of inner feelings." The public was fascinated by the originality and intense emotion of the score.

The idea of the symphony, whose title can be translated as Voices.. .grow silent, stems from Gubaidulina's previous composition Perception (for two voices and seven instruments), whose subject was silence impregnated with symbols and mysteries. In the symphony such meaningful silence becomes a key image, the center of a philosophical drama in 12 continuous movements. Skillfully, step by step, with meticulous thematic development building on the principle of the Fibonacci series, the composer leads us through an eternal yet modern conflict between harmony and chaos, light and darkness, heaven and hell, joy and sorrow. In effect, the score is a subjective narrative---a direct expression of successive interior states of being.

The astonishingly beautiful first movement, with its palpitating consonances, contrasts with the sorrows and chromatic turmoil of movement two, whose motifs include a slurred octave leap. This duality informs the entire composition. The third, fifth, and seventh movements, based on the opening material, recur as /lislands" (becoming smaller with each repetition) of eternal harmony amid chaos; the fourth, sixth, and eighth movements develop, in growing length and complexity, the ideas of movement two. The eighth movement is a tragic climax of screams and angry gestures, of fear, frustration, and agony.

Is there an answer to this frustration? What is the solution for lost and suffering humankind? Silence, filled with labor of mind and soul. Gubaidulina does not leave us alone in this ninth movement of silent meditation. The conductor (Lord of Music, or just another Man?), shaping the silence with prescribed gestures of inquiry and concentration, helps to restore harmony. (This cadenza for conductor, the symphony's turning point, was for Gubaidulina the most difficult passage to compose: /II spent three whole months just listening to silence.") In the tenth movement, the heavenly opening theme returns­ briefly. Movement eleven sinks back into disorder.

But nothing can any longer be the same. Though closely related to movements two, four, six and eight, the eleventh is much more /lsubjective"-a more personal expression of grief, and also the most melodically significant episode. The final twelfth movement, riddled with anxiety, does not bring a sense of conclusion. But the reassuring, seemingly infinite harp figurations, a constant backdrop, reaffirm the music of light. We are left with a powerful image of time never-ending, of spiritual forces which reign above all else. -Maya Pritsker Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra Bruce C. Ratner 44th Season 1997-98 Chairman of the Board Robert Spano, Music Director Harvey Lichtenstein Lukas Foss, Conductor Laureate President and Executive Producer Joseph Horowitz, Executive Producer George Nashak, Executive Director present

Interplay

Running time: BAM Opera House Oksana Krovytska, soprano approximately November 1, 1997 at 3pm Laura Park, violin two and one-half Darryl Kubian, violin hours including one Sarah Adams, viola intermission Ch ris Fi nckel, cello , piano

Gustav Mahler Three songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn Wo die sch6nen Trompeten blasen Irdisches leben Urlicht performed by Oksana Krovytska and Mykola Suk Commentary by Maya Pritsker and Joseph Horowitz Alfred Schnittke Piano Quintet Moderato; Tempo di Valse; Andante; Lento; Moderato pastorale performed by Laura Park, Darryl Kubian, Sarah Adams, Chris Finckel and Mykola Suk

Intermission

Valentin Silvestrov Three Postludes No.1 for soprano, violin, cello, and piano No. 2 for violin (American premiere) No. 3 for cello and piano performed by Oksana Krovytska, Laura Park, Chris Finckel and Mykola Suk Dmitri Shostakovich Seven Songs on Poems by Aleksandr Blok, Op. 127 performed by Oksana Krovytska, Laura Park, Chris Finckel and Mykola Suk Post-concert discussion

The song texts can be found in the back of this program. Baldwin is the official piano of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. Though Gustav Mahler's music was not performed in Russia for about three decades, beginning in the 1930s, no music culture is connected with Mahler's legacy as strongly as the Russian, and nowhere is this connection more clearly evident than in the special importance accorded the subject of death.

Mahler's influence was inevitable, given the tragic and farcical reality of Russia's twentieth century, the awful mixture of nightmare and grotesquerie, the highest spirituality and nobility, the lowliest betrayal. It was impossible to embody all of that without relying on the prophecies of Mahler.

The link to Mahler was forged by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75). He was introduced to Mahler's music during his conservatory years in St. Petersburg/ Leningrad. Mahler had himself conducted in St. Petersburg with great success in 1908. A crucial subsequent influence was Shostakovich's best friend, the brilliant scholar Ivan Sollertinsky. He was the driving force behind many Mahler performances in Leningrad during his years with the Leningrad Philharmonic, for which he served as artistic director. Recognizing stylistic affinities between the two composers, Sollertinsky inspired Shostakovich to investigate Mahler. Shostakovich later talked about his "infatuation" with Mahler and stated, "studying Mahler changed many things in my tastes as a composer." His mature symphonic style (beginning with the Fourth Symphony) is unthinkable without the example of Mahler's symphonies. It is equally clear that his tragic cycle of Jewish songs (1948) has much in common with Mahler's songs both in musical style and emotional complexion.

In 1967, when Shostakovich wrote his Seven Songs to the verses of the great Russian Symbolist poet Aleksandr Siok (1880-1921), Mahler's spirit was again rekindled. The Siok cycle marked the beginning of the last period of Shostakovich's creative work. A series of illnesses afflicted him beginning in 1966; thoughts of impending death penetrated almost everyone of his late works. This obsession-so unusual (and ideologically incorrect) for Soviet art-began with the Siok suite.

The composer turned to seven of Siok's early tragic poems. Using a laconic, even ascetic style-a style combining linear texture with a recitative-like vocal line sensitized to the emotion and "melody" of each word-Shostakovich created a seven-movement suite for voice, violin, cello, and piano evoking a doomed world. Through deeply introspective or stormy musical pictures -the only light image appears in movement three as a memory of love long vanished-the composer reached an unexpected conclusion: the seventh movement is a hymn to music as a symbol of universal harmony, as well as the essence of Shostakovich's life, his only refuge and the keeper of his most intimate thoughts. His Fourteenth Symphony (1969) and the vocal cycles on poems of Marina Tsvetayeva (1973) and Michelangelo (1974) revisit this image of art and creativity as a single alternative to death.

In the last years of his life Shostakovich felt more and more isolated from his younger colleagues. The new generation was investigating the long-suppressed Western avant-garde. And yet it was in these years that Alfred Schnittke (b. 1934), one of the new leaders of Russian music, composed his Piano Quintet "In Memoriam" (1972-76). It supplied striking evidence of the vitality of Shostakovich's legacy-not only with regard to musical language, but in terms of a wider conceptual aspect. Because for Schnittke (as for Sofia Gudaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Giya Kancheli and many others) to compose music still meant to create one's own "picture of the world," addressing eternal questions of human existence.

Schnittke's quintet was written in memory of his mother, Maria Vogel, who died in 1972. Schnittke fixes on the enigma of death. A stream of conscious­ ness, a flow of memory and feeling informs an effort to grapple with an exis­ tential problem. Following Mahler's symphonic tradition, the quintet suggests a narrative-a journey through personal trials and changes. And, like many of Mahler's forms, it has an open ending. Avoiding the multiple contrasts typical of his earlier works, Schnittke here opts for the slow, meticulously detailed development of a few musical elements drawn from the initial theme. The main motif is the semitone or half-step, a musical symbol of grief or pain that undergoes numerous transformations. There are other symbols: the major triad as an image of eternal light; a stream of micro-intervalic passages and clusters depicting chaos and frustration. Also evoked is the intervention of the "outside world:" a dark and melancholic waltz based on the monogram BACH, whose oft-used German musical equivalent is B/NC/B-flat. (Is this because Maria Vogel was German and taught music? Because the B/NC/B-flat monogram is commonly associated with images of the cross and death?)

The quintet moves from grief and reflection to relief and consolation. Almost palpable pain and deadly torpidity (first movement) are followed by delirious waltz-memories and waltz-ghosts (second movement), and a tense journey into the subconscious (third and fourth movements, which are in fact a complex, spiraling development of the first movement's themes). The growing tensions of the fourth movement finally resolve into a D-flat major passacaglia. Its diatonic profile, calm rhythm, and transparent texture convey child-like purity and, at the same time, the infinity of life-a sudden step into harmony and eternity. Schnittke convinces us: death is not just an end, but a tran­ scendent moment of truth. Pondering such momentous Schnittke scenarios, the musicologist Richard Taruskin has written, "With a bluntness and an immodesty practically unseen since the days of Mahler, Schnittke tackles life-against-death, love-against-hate, good-against-evil, freedom-against­ tyranny, and ... I-against the world ...When the stakes are raised so high, a composer who can come up with musical matter of sufficient interest and pliancy to sustain the tension of argument over a vast Schnittkean time-span can engineer a mighty catharsis indeed."

"I consider him one of the greatest composers," Schnittke once said of his Ukrainian contemporary Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937). Silvestrov studied with Boris Lyatoshinsky, the leading Ukrainian composer of the time. From the first he challenged the extremely conservative official Ukrainian culture of the sixties, seventies, and eighties. After trying his hand at serialism and "instrumental theater," Silvestrov unexpectedly turned to a completely different style. This occurred in the mid 1970s (the time of Shostakovich's death and Schnittke's quintet). Silvestrov called it a "metaphoric style in the spirit of a new traditionalism and neo-Romanticism." He revisited the language of classical Russian song and of nineteenth century Romantic music (since childhood Chopin has been Silvestrov's favorite composer). This was a "search for time lost," an attempt to rediscover or recall not just a forgotten language, but forgotten feeling and lost harmony. Silvestrov's music "for the end of a century" does not, however, recreate any older styles. It is unmis­ takably modern in its atmosphere of loss and nostalgia. The violinist Gidon Kremer, currently a great champion of Silvestrov, has pertinently remarked, "In Silvestrov's music there is really something of Mahler. This music is like a mass for everything that exists, that is desirable, unattainable or only to be arrived at in one's imagination."

Silvestrov's voice is often tragic, yet devoid of conflict and struggle. It is neither imperative nor pathetic. Melodic lines and motives emerge and disappear. There are sounds of nature or echoes of melodies one is trying unsuccessfully to recollect. This endless half-dream, half-meditation is pregnant with silence, with unexpected pauses and ritardandos. It demands a certain approach to instrumental and vocal articulation-simpler and more natural, more satta voce.

All these features are fully realized in a series of "Postludes." During the eighties and nineties Silvestrov wrote three chamber Postludes (1981-82) and a Postlude for piano and orchestra (1984), as well as several pieces which, though bearing other titles, match the genre: the Fifth Symphony (1982), the violin sonata Post Scriptum (1990~91), and Dedication for violin and orchestra (1991). Actually, almost everything Silvestrov has written in the last two decades could be called a "postlude" because of the distinctive feeling of "afterwards" or-very often-after the catastrophe. (It is impossible to listen to the Fifth Symphony without thinking of Chernobyl.) "Everything is memory," comments the musicologist Joel Sachs. "As the music unfolds, it also decays, the memory dims, and only an aura remains. One is, in effect, experiencing the future of an event long gone."

The three chamber Postludes can be performed separately or-as at today's concert-as a cycle. The first Postlude is scored for soprano, violin, cello, and piano, the second for solo violin, the third for cello and piano. It is suggestive that though Silvestrov assembles the same ensemble Shostakovich uses in his Blok settings, the two cycles develop in opposite directions: Silvestrov starts with all four participants and dissipates the texture; Shostakovich slowly and rationally gathers the voices toward the final movement.

The three Postludes are united by the concept of memory. The first, recalling Shostakovich, is based on the motif D/E-flaVC/B-flat. (The German spelling of the first letters of the composer's name-DSCH-produces this famous musical monogram, which can be found in many of Shostakovich's own works beginning with the Eighth Quartet.) The hint of a Ukrainian folk tune in the second Postlude reminds us that Silvestrov's fascination with melody, and his reliance on melody in building his forms, is partly rooted in the melodic richness of Ukrainian musical culture. Finally, Silvestrov's favorite Romantic epoch is refracted in the last Postlude.

No less than Mahler, Shostakovich, or Schnittke, Silvestrov deals with death­ of an epoch, a culture, a tradition. From an attempt to confront the inevitable to nostalgic meditation "after the catastrophe"-is not this the way of our century? -Maya Pritsker Three songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn Three songs from Youth's Magic Horn

Wo die schiinen Trompeten blasen Where the Fine Trumpets Blow

Wer ist denn draussen und wer klopfet an, Who is outside, who is knocking, Der mich so leise wecken kann? Waking me so gently?

Das ist der Herzallerliebste dein, It is your sweetheart steh' auf und lass mich zu dir ein! Get up and let met me in to see you! Was soli ich hier nun langer steh'n? Why should I stand out here any longer?

Ich seh' die Morgenrbt' aufgeh'n, I see the dawn coming up, die Morgenrbt', zwei helle Stern'. The dawn and two bright stars. Bei meinum Schatz da war' ich gem! I wish I were with my love! Bei meinem Herzallerliebsten! With my sweetheart!

Das Madchen stand auf und liess ihn ein, The girl arose and let him in, sie heisst ihn auch willkommen sein. And she bade him welcome.

Willkommen, lieber Knabe mein! Welcome, my darling boy! So lang hast du gestanden! You have been standing there so long! Sie reich!' ihm auch die schneeweisse Hand. And she gave him her snow-white hand. Von ferne sang die Nachtigall, The nightingale sang from afar, Das Madchen fing zu weinen an. The girl began to weep.

Ach weine nicht, du Liebste mein! o do not weep, my darling! Auf's Jahr sollst du mein Eigen sein. Within the year you shall be mine. Mein Eigen sollst du werden gewiss, Mine shall you surely be, wie's keine sonst auf Erden ist! As no other is on earth! o Lieb auf gruner Erden. o my love on the green earth, Ich zieh' in Krieg auf grune Heid'; I go to wa r on the green heath, die grune Heide, die ist so weit! The green heath, it is so fa r!

Allwo dart die schbnen Trompeten blasen Where the fine trumpets blow, Da ist mein Haus von grunen Rasen! There is my house of green tu rf.

Das irdische Leben Earthly Ufe

"Muter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich. "Mother, mother I am hungry Gib mir Brot, sonst sterbe ich!": Give me bread, or I shall die!" "Warte nur, warte nur, mein liebes Kind! "Wait, just wait, my darling child! Morgen wollen wir ernten geschwind!" Tomorrow we shall quickly reap the corn!"

Und als das Korn geerntet war, And when the corn was reaped, rief das Kind immerdar. The child still kept on crying. "Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich, "Mother, mother, I am hungry, gib mir Brot, sonst sterbe ich!" Give me bread, or I shall die!" "Warte nur, warte nur, mein liebes Kind! "Wait, just wait, my darling child! Morgen wollen wir dreschen geschwind!" Tomorrow we shall quickly thresh the corn!"

Und als das Korn gedroschen war, And when the corn was th reshed, rief das Kind noch immerdar. The child still kept on crying. "Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich, "Mother, mother, I am hungry. gib mir Brot, sonst sterbe ich!" Give me bread, or I shall die!" "Warte nur, warte nur, mein liebes Kind! "Wait, just wait, my darling child! Morgen wollen wir backen geschwind!" Tomorrow we shall quickly bake the bread!"

Und als das Brot gebacken war, And when the bread was baked, lag das Kind auf der Totenbahr! the child was laid out on the bier! Urlicht Primal light o Raschen rot! o red rose! Der Mensch Iiegt in grasster Not! Mankind lies in greatest need! Der Mensch liegt in grasster Pein! Mankind lies in greatest pain! Wie lieber macht ich im Himmel sein! Much rather would I be in heaven!

Da kam ich auf einem breiten Weg: . Then I came upon a broad path; Da kam ein Engelein und wollt' ich wolll' mich abweisen. Then an angel came and wanted to dismiss me. Ach nein! Ich Iiess mich nicht absweisen. Ah no! I would not be dismissed! Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott! I am from God and would return to God! Der Iiebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben, Dear God will give me a little light, wird leuchten mir bis an das ewig selig Leben! Will light me to eternal blissful life!

Shostakovich: Seven Songs, Op. 127

1. Ophelia's Song 5. The Storm When you left me, The storm rages wildly my dear friend, you promised to love me, outside my window, You left for a distant land, the clouds fly over, the rain teems down, and swore to keep your promise! and the wind whines, and moans! Beyond the happy land of Denmark, What a dreadful night! the shores are in darkness... On such a night I pity people The angry waves wash without a shelter, over the rocks ... but my pity rushes only My warrior shall not return, into a cold embrace! all dressed in silver... The poor must fight The bow, and the black feather will the night and the rain ... restlessly lie in their grave... 0, how the wind blows 2. Gamayun, Bird of Prophecy wildly outside my window! (Picture by Viktor Vaznetsov) 6. Secret Signs The endless plains of the seas The secret signs appear on are bathed in the purple hue of sunset. the impenetrable wall. The bird sings and warns us, Golden and crimson poppies Too feeble to lift its wings... blossom in my dreams. It warns us of the wicked tartars, I drown in the caverns of night, and of the bloody murders to come, and forget the magic of my dreams. of fear, and hunger, and fire, My fanciful thoughts of attacks by evil forces ... are reflected in the bright heavens. Fi lied with the prophecies of horror, These short moments will disappear, the perfect face burns with love, and the beautiful maiden's eyes its lips covered in blood, will close, like the pages of a book. repeat the dreadful prophecy! The canopy of the stars is now low, 3. We Were Together the darkest dreams lie heavy in the heart. I remember, when we were together... My end is near, fate has ordained it, The night was filled with movement... with war and fire that lie before me. You were mine then, 7. Music more beautiful with each moment, When the night brings peace, And to the peaceful murmur of the stream, and the city is bathed in darkness, your lips, hiding a woman's secret, how heavenly is the music, begged to be kissed, what wonderful sounds can be heard! like the strings of love in my heart. .. Forget the stormy hours of life, 4. The Town Sleeps when you can see such roses bloom! The town sleeps, covered in darkness, Forget the sorrows of mankind the street lights barely flickering... when you see the crimson sunset. Beyond the river Neva, in the distance, o Sovereign of the Universe, I see the coming of dawn. accept through pain, through blood, I see my days filled with longing, this cup, filled to the brim in the reflection of the light. .. with the desires of your slave.- Aleksandr Blok Robert Spano, now in his second season as music The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra is the director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Resident Orchestra of Brooklyn Academy of Music. has conducted nearly every major North American Its music director, succeeding Lukas Foss (now orchestra, including the Boston Symphony, Conductor Lau.reate) and Dennis Russell Davies, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los is Robert Spano. The BPO is an acknowledged Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony and national leader in finding ways to renew "classical Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also conducted music" for late twentieth century audiences. It is orchestras and opera companies throughout also a local ensemble, providing New York's most Europe and Asia, including the Frankfurt Radio populous borough with a wide range of distinctive Orchestra, Orchestra of The Hague, Helsinki community and educational services. The orches­ Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic (Tokyo), tra takes part in more than fifty concerts annually, Royal Opera at Covent Garden, Tonhalle-Orchester and reaches over 70,000 people. The BPO's of Zurich, and Welsh National Opera. He appears signature festival weekends, which are interdis­ regularly at the Aspen Music Festival and is on ciplinary and thematic, have been adapted by the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center, orchestras around the country, including the where he will head the Conducting Fellowship Chicago Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, Program starting next summer. Mr. Spano is also and the New World Symphony of Miami. Sole on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, where recipient of the 1996 ASCAP / Morton Gould he has been music director of the Opera Theater Award for Innovative Programming, the orchestra since 1989. is regularly heard on National Public Radio's Performance Today. Its state-of-the-art More than Mr. Spano's recent and upcoming engagements Music program, in Brooklyn's public schools, include debut appearances with the Chicago Lyric creates education concerts hosted and mainly Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, San performed by the students themselves. Its Free Francisco Symphony, Ensemble Intercontemporain Schooltime Concerts at BAM, conducted for more (Paris), and Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala than twenty years by David Amram, serve more (Milan). than 10,000 elementary school students. Its most recent recordings, on MusicMasters, feature the Born in Conneaut, Ohio, and raised in Elkhart, music of Colin McPhee and Lou Harrison con­ Indiana, Mr. Spano grew up in a musical family, ducted by Dennis Russell Davies. playing flute, violin and piano, and composing. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory The Brooklyn Philharmonic's 1997-98 sub­ where he studied conducting with Robert scription season at BAM opens this weekend Baustian. He continued his studies at the Curtis with After Mahler. Messiaen / Part (December 5 Institute of Music with the late Max Rudolf. and 6) includes the American premiere of Arvo In 1990, Mr. Spano was appointed by Seiji Part's Psalom. Csardas! (February 20 and 21), Ozawa as assistant conductor of the Boston with preeminent Hungarian folk and Gypsy Symphony Orchestra. He made his critically musicians, juxtaposes folk sources with music accla imed debut there in Februa ry 1991. by Schubert, Brahms, Liszt, Bartok, Kodaly, Ligeti, and Kurtag. Sibelius (March 20 and 21) An accomplished pianist, Mr. Spano, performs includes the New York professional premiere of chamber music concerts with many of his Oberlin, Sibelius' monumental Ku//ervo Symphony, Boston Symphony and Brooklyn Philharmonic alongside the Violin Concerto with soloist colleagues. He is also a composer, whose Joshua Bell. The season closes with semi-staged Quaderno for viola and piano will be performed performances of Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust on the St. Louis Symphony's chamber music (April 14 and 17) with tenor Vinson Cole and "Discovery" series this season. He makes his mezzo-soprano Sara Fulgoni. All five programs home in Brooklyn Heights. are conducted by Robert Spano. Music Director Director of Development Development Associate / Director of Finance Robert Spano Joseph Chart Artists' Services Vincent Funke Erik E. Ochsner Conductor Laureate Orchestra Manager Director of Marketing Lukas Foss Lisa Takemoto Artistic Consultant and Promotion Maurice Edwards Tambra Dillon Executive Producer Assistant Conductor / Joseph Horowitz Music Coordinator Education Coordinator Public Relations Federico Cortese Kenneth Adams Agnes Bruneau Executive Director & Associates George Nashak

Chairman Executive Vice Presidents William F. Kuntz II Advisory Board Robert C. Rosenberg Cra ig G. Mattews Gloria Messinger Jack Litwack, Chairman John Tamberlane Peter M. Meyer Lillian Besunder Charman Emeritus Julie Ratner Henry J. Foner Stanley H. Kaplan Vice Presidents Allan Schwartz Nicholas M. Infantino Jerry Jacobs Honorary Chairman Tazewell Smith Arnold L. Sabin John M. Powers, Jr. I. Stanley Kriegel Bruce Van Dusen Hon. Edolphus Towns Laura Walker Treasurer Honorary Chairpersons Volunteer Council Directors Kevin Burke Hon. Elizabeth Holtzman Jules Hirsh, President Russell A. Campbell Hon. Howard Golden Laura Keith, Vice President Secretary Emilie A. Cozzi Rabbi Eugene J. Sack Kathy Cole, Vice President Paul Travis Timothy Gilles Marcia Stecker, Secretary Joan Glatman Honorary Directors Harriet Goodman, D.S.W. Daniel Eisenberg Joseph Scorcia

Violin I Viola Jules Hirsh Trumpet Laura Park, concertmaster Janet Hill* Jack Wenger Wilmer Wise* Yuval Waldman Sarah Adams Roger Wagner Jim Stubbs Robin Bushman Ron Carbone Don Batchelder Flute Debora h Wong Veronica Salas Carl Sakofsky Timothy Malosh* Carlos Villa Karen Ritscher David Wechsler, alto flute Trombone Ann Labin Monica Gerard Dan Gerhard, piccolo Hugh Eddy* Matthew Loden Debra Shufelt Robert Bush Richard Chamberlain Calvin Wiersma Nancy Uscher Vernon Post Fritz Kra kowski Juliet Haffner Oboe Lawrence Benz Aloysia Friedmann Elizabeth Handman Henry Schuman* Sa ra Pa rki ns Richard Spencer Melanie Feld Tuba Conrad Harris Maxine Roach David Kossoff Andrew Seligson* Gayle Dixon Violoncello Clarinet Timpani Heidi Modr Chris Finckel* Steven Hartman* Richard Fitz* Joanna Whang David Calhoun Laura Flax, E-flat clarinet Nam Sook Lee Percussion Lanny Paykin Paul Garment, tenor sax James Preiss* Dennis Smylie, Violin II Joshua Gordon William Trigg bass clarinet Darryl Kubian* Peter Rosenfeld David Frost Katherine Hannauer Sally Cline Albert Regni, alto sax Eugen ie Seid Kroop Harp Annabelle Hoffman Bassoon Shinwon Kim Michael Finckel Karen Lindquist* Frank Morelli* Marisol Espada Victoria Drake Sebu Sirinian Jeff Marchand Stephani J. Bell Robert Larue Dennis Godburrn Piano Wharim Kim Georgiy Ginovker Tom Sefcovic, Ken Bowen, organ* Leona Nadj Ted Mook contrabassoon William Grossman, celeste Jean Perrault Double Bass Victor Heifets French Horn Personnel Manager Joseph Bongiorno* Rena Isbin Francisco Donaruma* Jonathan Taylor Gregg August Lisa Ferguson Leise Paer Judith Sugarman Peter Weimar Scott Temple *Principal Louis Bruno Yoon Mi 1m Larry DiBello Janet Conway Barbour Sarah Adams, assistant principal violist of the Brooklyn Laura Park, in her second season as concertmaster of Philharmonic, was formerly associate principal violist of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, was previously assistant the Houston Symphony, and violist of the Cassatt String concertmaster of the Boston Symphony for five years. Quartet. She teaches at , and is a She has appeared as soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, member of Parnassus and the New York Chamber the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Ensemble. Orchestra, and in Korea. This season she performs the Ligeti Violin Concerto with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Chris Finckel, principal cellist of the Brooklyn (February 20-21) and the New World Symphony. Philharmonic, is also a member of the Manhattan String Quartet, with which he performs throughout the United Maya Pritsker studied musicology at the Gnessin State States and Europe. He has been part of 's Institute in Moscow. During the 1980s she served as contemporary music scene for over 20 years in such music critic for the Soviet magazine Musical Life. She groups as the New York New Music Ensemble, Parnassus, currently serves as music critic and cultural editor for the the Contemporary Chamber ensemble, and Speculum Novoye Russkoye Siovo, the largest Russian language Musicae. daily newspaper in the Western hemisphere.

Darryl Kubian, principal second violinist of the Brooklyn Pianist Mykola Suk, a native of Kiev, studied and then Philharmonic, is also a member of the New Jersey taught at the Moscow Conservatory before moving to Symphony. As a composer, he has worked for such New York, where he is artist-in-residence at the television series as "Really Wild Animals" and "Animal Ukrainian Institute of America and artistic director of the Tales" for National Geographic. Institute Series. His international career was launched in 1971 when he won First Prize at the Liszt-Bartok Ukrainian soprano Oksana Krovytska returns to the Competition in . He has since concertized New York City Opera for the fifth consecutive year this throughout the former Soviet Union, North America, season to sing Madama Butterfly and Musetta in La Australia, Europe and the Middle East. His recordings boheme, and returns to the Colorado Symphony in include the complete Beethoven sonatas for violin and Rossini's Stabat Mater. Her repertoire with the City Opera piano, with . has ranged widely, embracing such varied roles as Donna Elvira, Violetta, Micaela, and Liu.