UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY

Frankfurt Radio Symphony () Dmitri Kitaenko, Music Director and Conductor Cho-Liang Lin, Violinist Sunday Afternoon, October 25, 1992, at 4:00 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

PROGRAM

Passacaglia for Orchestra, Op. 1 ...... Webern

Violin in , Op. 77 ...... Brahms Allegro non troppo Adagio Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100 ...... Prokofiev Andante Allegro marcato Adagio Allegro giocoso

The Radio Symphony Orchestra appears by arrangement with ICM Artists, Lid., New York, Lee Lamont, President. All concertgoers are invited to remain for the Third Annual University Musical Society Benefit Auction to take place in Hill Auditorium immediately following the concert.

EIGHTH CONCERT OF THE 114TH SEASON 114TH ANNUAL CHORAL UNION SERIES PROGRAM NOTES

Passacaglia, Op. 1 Until 17th-century composers began to (1883-1945) write them, passacaglias were Spanish street dances. As a musical form, the passacaglia is Anton Webem was a composer simply a set of continuous variations on a short whose importance and worth are not measured subject, usually just eight measures in length. In by the number of his brief compositions. His earlier examples, it was always in triple meter. A opus numbers run only to 31 and they are all passacaglia subject may be a big melody, as in recorded on just four long-playing records, but Bach's great C-minor Passacaglia for organ, or his musical expression is so condensed, his craft just a succession of chords, as in the Brahms so precise, his ideas so pure in conception, that Symphony, or a mere wisp of a tune, as here. his works affected the composers of Europe and Webern starts with a very simple, soft and America during the twenty-five years after the slow statement of his subject in the strings, Second World War more than did any other muted and plucked. There are 23 variations single influence. that fall into three groups. In the first, the music Webem's first music teacher was his rises in speed, volume and intensity, and then mother, an amateur pianist. He had a classical falls back to the opening levels. The second education as a young man and then studied group makes up a soft and slow central section music history and theory at the University of for the whole piece, with only a slight rise and Vienna, where he earned a doctorate in fall. The third group is freer, more mixed in musicology in 1906. He studied composition character and less tightly tied to the opening with from 1904 to 1908, subject. The music rises to a noble climax and and before long, Webern, his fellow-pupil, fades away in a soft closing coda. Alban Berg, and their teacher came to be seen as Note by Leonard Burkat a new, second Viennese school, historical successors of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, whose careers had been interlocked there more earned his living than a century earlier. Webern Concetto in D major, Op. 77 until the arrival of the Nazis in as a conductor (1833-1897) Austria put an end to most of his professional work. He died, tragically, in an accidental Brahms' first concerto was for shooting by an American soldier. piano the D-minor Concerto and it was Most of Webem's mature works are tiny hissed at its second performance. Twenty years musical microcosms, miniatures in duration but later, the composer was again at work on a so weighty, so highly condensed, that two concerto, this one for violin. The Violin generations of musicians have devoted whole Concerto turned out to be of a decidedly lifetimes of study to them. This early Passacaglia different character than the First Piano is relatively large in scale. It was written in Concerto. It is franker, more exposed; it has 1908, the year in which Webem completed his more solo virtuosity; it is warmer and more studies in Vienna with Schoenberg and left for lyrical. It returns to the classical custom of his first important engagement, at permitting a solo at the discretion (or Bad Ischl, a fashionable resort town where lack of it) of the performer. It is gentler and Brahms had spent many summers. In our time lacks the dark brooding of the D-minor Piano Webern's Op. 1 sounds almost Brahmsian. The Concerto. It sings in the manner of the Second themes and turns of phrase are modem in Symphony, to which it is related most nearly in shape, but they recall Brahms, and the point of chronology (the symphony was written passacaglia form is the one that Brahms chose in 1877, the concerto in 1878), and the place of for the finales of his Fourth Symphony and his composition in both cases was the town of Haydn Variations. Portschach in the Austrian Alps, near the Italian frontier. Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100 (1891-1953) The oft-remarked collaboration between Brahms and the great violinist Joachim came to In an interview with Robert almost nothing in the final version of the Magidoff, an account of which appeared in the concerto. Brahms asked for help from the New York Times in 1945, Prokofiev said of his violinist because Brahms was a pianist. Joachim Fifth Symphony that "It was a very important made many suggestions, most of them aimed at composition for me, since it marked my return removing some of the more painful difficulties to the symphonic form after a long interval from the solo part. Brahms took the suggestions my Fourth Symphony was written in 1928.1 and then ignored them. Joachim did write out regard the Fifth Symphony as a culmination of the first movement cadenza, perhaps the major a large period of my creative life. 1 conceived it concession made by Brahms, and the composer as a symphony on the greatness of the human added the tempo designation non troppo vivace spirit. When war broke out, 1 felt that everyone after the allegro giocoso of the third movement at must do his share and I began composing the suggestion of Joachim. But even this is songs, marches for the front. But soon events meaningless, because violinists now play the assumed such gigantic and far-reaching scope movement as fast as is humanly possible. In any as to demand larger canvases. I wrote the case, the difficulties clearly limit the tempo Symphonic Suite 1941, reflecting my first within certain bounds. impressions of the war. Then I wrote War and The main theme of the first movement Peace. This was conceived before the war, (Allegro non troppo) is announced by cellos, but the war made it compelling for me to violas, , and horns. This subject and complete it. ... Finally, I wrote my Fifth three contrasting song-like themes, together Symphony on which I had been working for with an energetic dotted figure, marcato, furnish several years, gathering themes for it in a special the thematic material of the first movement. The notebook. I always work that way and probably violin is introduced, after almost a hundred that is why I write so fast. The entire score of measures for the orchestra alone, in an extended the Fifth was written in one month in the section, chiefly of passage-work, as a preamble summer of 1944. It took another month to to the exposition of the chief theme. The orchestrate it, and in between I wrote the score caressing and delicate weaving of the solo for Eisenstein's film, Ivan the Terrible." instrument about the melodic outlines of the Prokofiev composed the symphony at his song themes in the orchestra is most summer home in a picturesque Russian village unforgettable. near Ivanov. The work was first performed at a This feature is even more pronounced in concert of Prokofiev's music in the Grand Hall the second movement (Adagio) where the solo of the Moscow Conservatory. It was violin, having made its compliments to the chief immediately acclaimed as one of the most subject, announces a second theme that it important 20th-century Russian symphonic proceeds to embroider with captivating and works. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, under tender beauty. The Finale (Allegro giocoso, ma conductor Serge Koussevitsky, gave the work's non troppo vivace) is a virtuoso's paradise. The American premiere in November 1945. jocund chief theme, in thirds, is stated at once During a long absence from his native land by the solo violin. There is many a hazard for between 1918 and 1933, Prokofiev had won the soloist ticklish passage-work, double- acclaim as an international composer. Such stopping, arpeggios but there is much spirited works as the Classical Symphony (1917), the and fascinating music of rhythmical charm and Scythian Suite (1916), the opera The Love of gusto. Three Oranges (1921), which he composed for the Chicago Opera Association, and the ballet Chouf (1921) had, with their driving energy, clear designs, and bright colors, carried his name throughout the musical world. For those ABOUT THE ARTISTS listeners who have heard only this composer's witty Classical Symphony his first the present symphony may come as something of a Orchestra surprise, for here is a work cast in epic Founded in 1929, the Frankfurt proportions. Symphony Orchestra has been affiliated with The first movement is laid out in Radio broadcasting institutions and systems traditional sonata form with exposition, diverse throughout its history. Its first conductor (until development, recapitulation, and coda. There 1937), , was committed to fostering are five well-defined themes or motives. The both traditional and contemporary music. two principal ideas are presented by pairs of Following the Second World War, Kurt Schroder woodwinds an octave apart: the first for and Winfried Zillig were engaged to rebuild the and , the second for flute and . All orchestra, now the "studio" orchestra of the five ideas are worked out in an extensive Hessischer Rundfunk ( Radio Broadcasting). development section, which culminates in a During this period, Karl Bohm was a frequent guest grand restatement of the movement's opening conductor. and led the theme, in brass. All themes return in the ensemble over three decades, from 1961-1990, a original sequence, and the slow 36-bar coda is period during which the orchestra achieved one of the symphony's most memorable international renown through its collaborations passages. many of the world's most distinguished artists The second movement is a scherzo in 4/4 with and its extensive recording activity. Under Inbal's instead of the usual 3/4 meter. Because of the baton, the orchestra was repeatedly honored for its quick march it could be thought of as a march work on record, earning the Grand Prix du Disque and trio. A buoyant theme played by the for its recordings of the first editions of Bruckner's is immediately followed in other Symphonies No. 3, 4 and 8. It also won the French instruments in modified versions. Most of the Diapson d'Or and the 1988 Deutsche trio is in 3/4, however, again with prominent Schallplattenpreis for the first digital cycle of woodwinds, and the scherzo return builds Mahler symphonies. This afternoon, the orchestra dynamically into a brusque conclusion. its Ann Arbor debut. The powerfully eloquent third movement makes Dmitri Kitaenko has been Music Director of is also cast in ternary form. The elegiac first the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra since the theme, like several others in this symphony, is beginning of the 1990-91 season. He also serves as scored for a pair of instruments in parallel Music Director of the Bergen Philharmonic and as motion (here for and bass clarinet at a Permanent Guest Conductor of the Danish Radio distance of two octaves, alternating with flute Orchestra in Copenhagen. He is also a frequent and bassoon). The second theme rises from the guest conductor with such ensembles as the Berlin depths of the orchestra (bassoons, tuba, double Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the basses) through a soaring line that spans three Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Symphony, the octaves. The large agitated middle section is Pittsburgh Symphony, the Bavarian Radio followed by a quiet restatement that builds Orchestra and the Philharmonic and at dynamically again before the coda and a new such renowned opera houses as the Bolshoi Theatre theme for piccolo and horns. the Staatsoper in Vienna, and the After a prelude that quotes the first theme in Moscow, Staatsoper in Munich. of the Andante, the clarinet plays the finale's Maestro Kitaenko was born in 1940 in principal theme over a repeated (ostinato) Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and began his pattern in the horns. The music is mostly witty, musical studies at the choral school of the optimistic, and energetic, and makes some Leningrad Choir. In 1958 he entered the Leningrad references to earlier material. Woodwinds Conservatory, where he studied choral conducting, monopolize the lyric statements and the and later pursued graduate studies at the Moscow orchestra is used brilliantly, especially in the Conservatory. He then attended the Vienna peroration. where he studied with Note by Benning Dexter Academy of Music, Today, the violinist is acclaimed throughout the world for his distinctive artistry. Mr. Lin's 1992-93 season began with European engagements as guest artist with the Halle Orchestra and the Danish Radio Symphony. In the United States he tours with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Dmitri Kitaenko, performing at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, B.C., and Orchestra Hall in Chicago, among other cities. He will also join Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to play and record Prokofiev's Violin Nos. 1 and 2. He will then make his first tour of with Leonard Slatkin and the Israel Philharmonic. His 1993 itinerary includes a tour of Australia, where he will appear with that country's major . Mr. Lin records exclusively for the Sony Swarowsky and Oesterreicher and received a Classical label. His latest discs are the Brahms Sextets, diploma with honors. In Vienna he also participated Opp. 18 and 36, with Isaac Stem, Jaime Laredo, in several conducting seminars with Herbert von Michael Tree, Yo-Yo Ma and Sharon Robinson, and Karajan. After receiving first prize at von Karajan's Mozart's Concertante and Concertone for first International Competition for Conductors in Two and Orchestra with Mr. Laredo and the 1969, Kitaenko rose to international prominence. English Chamber Orchestra directed by Raymond In 1970 the conductor returned to Moscow Leppard. His recording of Stravinsky's Violin where he was invited to join the Stanislavsky Concerto with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Theater. He was soon named Chief Conductor of the Angeles Philharmonic will be released in 1993. Theater orchestra and his successes there included an Also in 1993, Mr. Lin will record Schubert, and acclaimed new production of Carmen, staged by the Brahms string quintets with Messrs. Stern, Laredo, German director Walter Felsenstein, as well as Tree, and Ma. productions of La Boheme and Katerina hmailova. Many of Mr. Lin's albums have garnered In 1976 Kitaenko became Music Director of the awards and critical acclaim. The British magazine Moscow Philharmonic, a position he held for 14 Gramophone named his recording of the Sibelius and years. Under his leadership, the orchestra achieved Nielsen concertos "Record of the Year." The same great success both in the Soviet Union and on several magazine has also placed several of Mr. Lin's tours abroad. It was with that orchestra that Kitaenko recordings among its "Critic's Choice of the Year." has previously appeared in Ann Arbor. In the United States, Stereo Review has named two of his other albums as "Record of the Year." This /\t the age of five, enraptured by the afternoon marks his Ann Arbor debut. sound of a violin coming from a neighbor's window in his native Taiwan, Cho-Liang Lin persuaded his parents to buy him a small instrument. He gave his first public performance two years later and, when he was 12, was sent to Australia to study at the Sydney Conservatorium. Inspired by a master class given there by Itzhak Perlman, Mr. Lin became determined to study with Mr. Perlman's teacher, Dorothy DeLay. He arrived in New York in 1975 and enrolled in The Juilliard School immediately following his audition. He is now a member of the Juilliard faculty. He became a United States citizen in 1987. Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Hessischer Rundfunk) Dmitri Kitaenko, Music Director and Conductor

FIRST VIOLINS CELLOS FRENCH HORNS Ulrich Edelmann Victor Yoran* John MacDonald* Conccrlmaster Peter Wolf* Wolfgang Wipfler* Guenther Salber** Kaamel Salah Eldin John Slobart Michael Wild*' Imke Searcy Peter Steidle Melitta Keller Sonja Winter Gerda Sperlich Heli Kerzisnik Wolfram vom Stain Ursula Kepser Hans-Alfred Helm Veil Kynast Annette Mainzer Ulrich Waller Uwe Voget Hans-Rudolf Kahl Reinhold Friedrich* Harm Otten Joerg Wiederhold Wolfgang Bauer-Wueslehube* Hiroko Kondo Christiane Peters Bernhard Schmid Tamas Paul Wolf Tormann Norbert Haas Henryka Trzonek Klemens Kerkhoff Marat Dickermann BASSES Sorin lonescu Alfred Sapper* TROMBONES Petru Agoston Kai von Goetze* Klaus Bruschke* Thomas Mehlin Rudolf Neudoerfer Oliver Siefert* Alfred Oppelcz Heinz Peus Hans Ruekert Bernd von Scheel Ulrich Franck Hans Kuhner Timm-Johannes Trappe Lothar Schmitt SECOND VIOLINS Manfred Boening Paul Hartwein* Maithias Espitalier TUBA Gerhard Miesen* Johannes Staehle David Glidden Wolfgang Ludwig Peter Seebach HARP Egbert Rheker Waller Buechsel* Charlotle Yoran Klaus Schwamm Vladislav Brunner Uwe Fietkau Thaddeus Waison PIANO/CELESTE/ORGAN Alois Niessner Sebastian Witliber Fritz Walther-Lindqvist Gunter Simon Jeryl Burneue Brigitte Robiller Stojan Radanov Peter Wirweiizki Michael Hahn Fabian Menzel* Karin Hendel Liviu Varcol* PERCUSSION Elisabeth Krause-Stephan Michael Sieg Knut Weinstock* Arndt Heyer Thomas Gimnich-Antal Burkhardt Lange Konrad Zeller Konrad Graf VIOLAS Hans-Joerg Bayer Bodo Hersen* CLARINETS Gunier Moeller Gerd Groetzschel* Ulrich Mehlhart* Michael Meyer Armin Ziegler ORCHESTRA ADMINISTRATION Waller Mueller Ulrich Buesing Hans-Martin Hoepner, Alfred Meusel Sven van der Kuip General Manager Manfred Liebert Rainer Mueller van Recum Siegfried Barnikow, Manager Arnt Martin Ingeborg Haeuser, Secretary Joerg Heyer BASSOONS Klein, Technician Golthard Kloehn Carslen Wilkening* Josef Schuetller, Ingrid Albert Ralph Sabow* Technician Victoria Hill Wolfgang Buttler Sven Winkler, Technician Martin Jaenecke Mailhias Roscher Jurgen Lange, Tour Director Wolfgang Geese Bernhard Slraub Michael Lehmann, Tour Director Dieter Hannemann, PR Manager

ICM ARTISTS TOURING DIVISION: Byron Gustafson, Vice President and Director; Leonard Stein, General Manager; Richmond Davis, Stage Manager

** Assistant Concerlmaster Principal