PROGRAM

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

Thursday, March 12, 2015, at 8:00 Saturday, March 14, 2015, at 8:00 Tuesday, March 17, 2015, at 7:30

Charles Dutoit Conductor Ravel Rapsodie espagnole Prélude à la nuit Malagueña Habanera Feria D’Indy Symphony on a French Mountain Air, Op. 25 Azzez lent—Modérément animé Assez modéré, mais sans lenteur Animé LOUIS LORTIE

INTERMISSION

Franck Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra LOUIS LORTIE

Ravel Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloe Dawn— Pantomime— General Dance

These performances are made possible in part by a generous gift from the Arthur Maling Trust. CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to 93XRT and RedEye for their generous support as media sponsors of the Classic Encounter series.

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, , France. Rapsodie espagnole

Maurice Ravel was born borrow the score, and his La soirée dans Grenade in the French Pyrenees, (Night in Grenada), written five years later, sug- only a few miles from the gests that he studied it carefully. (The suspicious Spanish border, a geo- similarity of the two pieces contributed to the graphical boundary he eventual falling out between the .) often crossed in his music. Even though his family apsodie espagnole, the only work Ravel moved to Paris while he originally conceived as a concert was still a baby, Ravel piece for orchestra, is his first Spanish came by his fascination music to take advantage of his incomparable with Spain naturally, for his mother was Basque Rear for orchestral color. In 1907, Ravel set out and grew up in Madrid. (His Swiss father to write his first opera and his first orchestral inspired in his son a love for things precise and score. Both works were Spanish in flavor, and, mechanical that carried over into his impeccable although the opera, L’heure espagnole, would music.) Rapsodie espagnole is among his best- take two more years to finish, most of Rapsodie known evocations of the Spain he visited so espagnole was written quickly, as a set of four seldom yet seemed to know so well. (Most of Spanish sketches, incorporating the 1895 Ravel’s Spanish music was written before he had habanera as the third, now in full Technicolor. spent much time in that country, just as his La The first movement, Prelude à la nuit (Prelude valse predates his first visit to Vienna.) to the night), is all atmosphere over a slow, soft, One of Ravel’s earliest pieces—written just but persistent descending ostinato: F, E, D, after he left the Paris Conservatory in 1895—was C-sharp. Malagueña is based on a type of fan- a habanera for two , the first indication dango danced in Malaga, in southern Spain. The that he would join that group of French compos- Habanera is a slow Cuban dance in duple meter ers, which includes Bizet, Lalo, and Chabrier, (with the characteristic tum, ta-tum-tum rhythm) who have written some of our best Spanish that Bizet imported to Seville for Carmen. It has music. The habanera was Ravel’s first music to be been suggested that Ravel’s Habanera, virtually performed publicly, in March 1898, and, despite identical with the 1895 two-piano music, is based the two ’ inability to stay together, it on a song his mother taught him. The final Feria made a strong impression on , is a brilliant festival, complete with . who was in the audience. Debussy asked to —Phillip Huscher

COMPOSED MOST RECENT , , , side drum, 1907 CSO PERFORMANCES , triangle, , May 31, June 1, 2 & 5, 2012, Orchestra castanets, tam-tam, , two FIRST PERFORMANCE Hall. Ludovic Morlot harps, celesta, strings March 15, 1908; Paris, France August 7, 2013, . Carlos APPROXIMATE FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Miguel Prieto conducting PERFORMANCE TIME November 12 & 13, 1909, Orchestra 16 minutes Hall. conducting INSTRUMENTATION two flutes and two piccolos, two July 1, 1944, Ravinia Festival. Pierre CSO RECORDINGS and english horn, two Monteux conducting 1956. Fritz Reiner conducting. RCA and bass , three 1968. conducting. RCA and (traditionally played by contrabassoon), four horns, 1991. Daniel Barenboim conducting. three , three , Erato 2 Vincent d’Indy Born March 27, 1851, Paris, France. Died December 2, 1931, Paris, France. Symphony on a French Mountain Air, Op. 25

Vincent d’Indy was part considered early music: he presented the first of the late-nineteenth modern performances of Monteverdi’s operas century circle of Orfeo and L’incoronazione di Poppea, and of Paris-based composers Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, Castor et Pollux, and headed by César Dardanus, as well as championing works by Bach Franck—including and Gluck. Duparc, Chausson, and Though a leading of his generation, Chabrier—which with at least two major operas to his credit, unexpectedly became the two very fine string quartets, and a deal of precursor of Les six. piano music, d’Indy’s reputation in that field While Chabrier, for instance, was greatly was eclipsed not long after the end of his life admired and emulated by , in 1931. Possibly this was due to his right-wing d’Indy, more directly, was a forebear of Arthur and, in particular, his anti-Semitic views; these Honegger: not only was he Honegger’s teacher, did not affect his professional relations with but he also shared with his Swiss pupil both a Jewish colleagues—he held in high sober sense of duty to his art and a certain regard, who in turn hailed d’Indy as “one of the religious devotion. D’Indy also passed to his greatest French musicians”—yet, by the 1940s, pupils a masterful inventiveness in writing for the they were sufficient grounds for many, including orchestra—having himself learned his craft by Pierre Boulez, to reject his work out of hand. playing timpani and horn in various . Just twenty years after d’Indy’s death, the French Other d’Indy pupils associated with Les six music specialist Edward Lockspeiser noted that included Georges Auric, whose irreverence was only three of his works were at all known even in quite contrary to his teacher’s sensibility, though d’Indy’s own country: a set of orchestral varia- d’Indy was widely recognized for nurturing the tions, Istar; the symphonic poem Jour d’été à la compositional talent of pupils even contrary to montagne; and his earliest masterpiece, now being his own style; and Erik Satie, the “godfather” of performed at this concert, the Symphonie sur un Les six. chant montagnard français. The latter two pupils studied under d’Indy The Symphony on a French Mountain Air was at the Schola Cantorum, France’s major composed in 1886, ten years after d’Indy had alternative center of higher music education attended the premiere of Wagner’s Ring cycle established by d’Indy in 1894 to rival the Paris at the opening festival of Bayreuth—d’Indy Conservatory. D’Indy’s activities as composer becoming thereafter a devotee of Wagner’s and teacher were complemented by his work as a work and aesthetic theories—and about eight scholar, researching and editing what was then years before he founded the Schola Cantorum.

COMPOSED MOST RECENT INSTRUMENTATION 1886 CSO PERFORMANCES solo piano, three flutes and piccolo, February 13, 1945, Orchestra Hall. two oboes and english horn, two FIRST PERFORMANCE Robert Casadesus as soloist, Désiré clarinets and , three March 20, 1887, Paris Defauw conducting bassoons, four horns, two trumpets and two cornets, three trombones, August 7, 1947, Ravinia Festival. FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings Maxim Schapiro as soloist, Pierre March 20 & 21, 1903, Auditorium Monteux conducting Theatre. Rudolph Ganz as soloist, APPROXIMATE Theodore Thomas conducting PERFORMANCE TIME 27 minutes

3 Having been encouraged by Wagner to seek woodwinds accompanied by fluttering strings, out national characteristics of his own home- soon enters more turbulent emotional territory. land which paralleled those he admired in With the development section, there is a striking the German composer’s music dramas, d’Indy episode involving rippling piano and woodwind began researching folk music in such hitherto figuration which anticipates the dawn sequence little-examined regions in southeast France as of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. The movement Vercors, and particularly in his own ancestral eventually reaches a rousing climax, involving homeland within the Ardèche: Vivarais, and the climbing dotted rhythm, with brass fore- Périer, overlooking the Cévennes mountains, most (involving several harmonic turns which where he notated the mountain song upon which clearly inspired Fauré in later works). After the symphony is based (hence the alternative title the english horn’s recapitulation of the folk sometimes given the work, Symphonie cévenole. theme, the movement ends wistfully, some of D’Indy himself thought the scoring Wagnerian, its mildly sinister inflections recalling Berlioz, yet included in the work a virtuoso part for a very another composer d’Indy greatly admired. un-Wagnerian instrument—the piano. There The second movement evokes the great was some precedent in Franck’s Symphonic distances and valleys of the mountains. It opens Variations for piano and orchestra, composed just with the piano soloist playing yet another variant a year earlier, whose final section d’Indy’s work on the folk theme, answered by orchestra. Not appears to echo. The piano’s prominent role in all long afterwards, piano and bassoons introduce a three movements of d’Indy’s work has prompted darker, “oriental”-sounding theme, and the music some writers to suggest it is in effect a sinfonia becomes emotionally turbulent. Calm is restored concertante, though the ’s role is not so as horns and muted brass fanfare as if across much that of an individual soloist as a “first great spaces in the mountains. The music then among equals”—a leading spokesman for the seems to boil and reaches a brass-capped climax. orchestra, often interacting with the harp. Calm returns once more, albeit one senses only of a temporary nature, as the “oriental” theme he first movement, Assez lent, in alternates with the brass fanfares. the form of a slow introduction and The finale opens in bubbling good humor— sonata allegro, opens with two rather another variant on the folk theme presented by sinister-soundingT notes sounded by bassoons the piano—and reaches an exuberant climax and clarinets; this proves to be an introductory before being succeeded by a mellow second upbeat to a charming english horn solo, evoca- theme presented by clarinet. This being a cyclic tive of a shepherd’s pipe, playing the Périer folk work, several themes from previous movements song. The song is taken up, maintaining the make their reappearance here, including a fierce pastoral atmosphere, by flute supported by horns. rendition of the “oriental” theme. In the end, Clouds appear to gather with shuddering bass though, it is variants of the folk theme which strings, but with the piano’s entry, the music ultimately triumph, the movement ending with a livens up and brightens, building to the main dramatic flourish which perhaps recalls Berlioz’s sonata section with a climbing dotted rhythm. Harold in Italy. After the piano has initiated a development of the song, a second theme, introduced by —Daniel Jaffé

4 César Franck Born December 10, 1822, Liège, Belgium. Died November 8, 1890, Paris, France. Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra

César Franck matured as ranck next won fame as an organist and a a composer very late in composer of organ music (his impassioned life, but he first won organ improvisations were greatly cele- acclaim as a child prodigy. Fbrated). Then, in middle age, he devoted himself to He was born in Liège, in teaching, and, in the process, influencing an entire the French-speaking generation of French composers. Like Bruckner Walloon district of the (with whom he has sometimes been compared), Netherlands; this heritage Franck came into his own as a composer late in was reflected in the his career. His major works—the Symphony in mixture of French and D minor, the and piano quintet, Flemish in his name. Early on he showed unusual several symphonic poems, and these Symphonic musical talent, which his father, Nicolas-Joseph, Variations—were all composed between 1880 and set about nurturing, promoting, and finally 1890, the last decade of his life. He was sixty-three exploiting. César made his first tour as a virtuoso when he wrote the Symphonic Variations, his pianist at the age of eleven, traveling throughout only significant work for piano and orchestra. the newly formed kingdom of Belgium. (His Often considered the composer’s masterpiece, specialty was playing variations on popular opera the Symphonic Variations is indebted to both themes à la Liszt.) Franck’s flair for improvisation and the influence Having outgrown the Liège Conservatory, two of Liszt’s concept of thematic metamorphosis. years later César moved to Paris, with his entire It’s really a set of variations framed by a large family in tow, for advanced study. When the introduction and a finale that’s more than twice Paris Conservatory initially rejected his applica- as long as the variations themselves. It opens tion because of his Belgian birth, Nicolas-Joseph with a dramatic encounter between stern and applied for French naturalization papers. César assertive string octaves and dreamy piano music, was an exemplary student, and he walked off not unlike the two factions that dominate the with many top prizes. He was always interested slow movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano in composing, but his father discouraged him Concerto, where Orpheus supposedly tames the from entering the prestigious Prix de Rome Furies. Here, the two forces merely engage in competition in the hope that he would devote his dialogue while awaiting the arrival of a lyrical life to concertizing. Nicolas-Joseph even pulled new theme, which is then ingeniously and César out of school in 1842 to send him off on seamlessly elaborated in six variations. The finale, another recital tour, which was highlighted by a signaled by a long trill in the piano and only meeting with , who encouraged him distantly related to the preceding variations, is to keep composing. music of dance and an almost reckless joy. —Phillip Huscher

COMPOSED January 26 & 27, 1906, Orchestra Hall. May 22, 23, 24 & 27, 2003, Orchestra 1885 Raoul Pugno as soloist, Frederick Hall. Emanuel Ax as soloist, Daniel Stock conducting Barenboim conducting FIRST PERFORMANCE May 1, 1886; Paris, France. The August 4, 1945, Ravinia Festival. INSTRUMENTATION composer conducting Leon Fleisher as soloist, Leonard solo piano, two flutes, two oboes, two Bernstein conducting clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES two trumpets, timpani, strings March 7, 1898, . Raoul MOST RECENT Pugno as soloist, Theodore Thomas CSO PERFORMANCES APPROXIMATE conducting (U.S. premiere) August 14, 1998, Ravinia Festival. PERFORMANCE TIME André Watts as soloist, Christoph 15 minutes Eschenbach conducting 5 Maurice Ravel Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloe

Maurice Ravel wrote avel wrote Daphnis and Chloe for Sergei home from his first tour Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. It was of the in begun in 1909, before Diaghilev’s troupe 1928: “I am seeing Rhad set Paris ablaze with a series of new ballets magnificent cities, unlike anything the worlds of music or dance enchanting country, but had known, starting with Stravinsky’s Firebird the triumphs are in 1910 and climaxing with the scandalous fatiguing. Besides, I am premiere of The Rite of Spring in May 1913. dying of hunger.” Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe wasn’t introduced until Although he found June 8, 1912, due to the composer’s difficulty in American food alarming (Ravel traveled with his finishing the score, compounded by backstage own favorite wines and cigarettes) and the pace squabbling once rehearsals began. Although relentless, in city after city Ravel was reminded Daphnis and Chloe wasn’t well received, that of the extent of his celebrity. At the matinee date isn’t engraved in music history, for this concert of the Chicago Symphony on January 20, isn’t music to provoke fistfights or catcalls. 1928, Ravel accepted enthusiastic applause The principal players in the creation of Daphnis throughout the afternoon, a standing ovation at and Chloe were a distinguished group: Sergei the conclusion of the program, and a fanfare Diaghilev, the impresario; Michel Fokine, the from the orchestra he conducted. (The second choreographer; Léon Bakst, the designer; Pierre performance, the following night, started a good Monteux, the conductor; and Vaslav Nijinsky and half hour late because Ravel, a famously Tamara Karsavina, the leading dancers. Ravel impeccable dresser, discovered that he had left worked tirelessly with Fokine to translate the his evening shoes in a trunk at the train station most famous of the Greek prose pastorals into and would not go onstage until they had been a scenario for ballet—the collaboration partly retrieved—by his Sheherazade soloist Lisa Roma, hampered, as the composer admitted, because no less.) The Chicago program included, as its “Fokine doesn’t know a word of French, and I centerpiece, the second suite from the ballet know only how to swear in Russian.” Daphnis and Chloe, which Ravel later called his At first, there was also a serious difference most important score. of opinion about the style of the piece. “My

COMPOSED July 21, 2012, Ravinia Festival. James APPROXIMATE 1909–1912 Conlon conducting PERFORMANCE TIME 16 minutes FIRST PERFORMANCE CSO PERFORMANCE, THE ballet: June 8, 1912, Paris COMPOSER CONDUCTING CSO RECORDINGS Suite no. 2: April 30, 1914, Paris January 20 & 21, 1928, Orchestra Hall. 1958. Carlo Maria Giulini conducting. Maurice Ravel conducting CSO (From the Archives, vol. 9: A Tribute FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES to Carlo Maria Giulini) November 2 & 3, 1923, Orchestra Hall. INSTRUMENTATION 1964. Jean Martinon conducting. RCA Frederick Stock conducting two piccolos, two flutes and alto flute, two oboes and english horn, 1987. Sir Georg Solti conducting. CSO July 4, 1936, Ravinia Festival. Ernest two clarinets, E-flat clarinet and bass (Chicago Symphony Orchestra: The First Ansermet conducting clarinet, three bassoons and contra- 100 Years) , four horns, four trumpets, MOST RECENT 1991. Daniel Barenboim conducting. three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass CSO PERFORMANCES Erato drum, snare drums, cymbals, triangle, November 10, 11, 12 & 15, tambourine, castanets, glockenspiel, 2007. Chicago Symphony Chorus 2011, Orchestra Hall. Stéphane two harps, celesta, strings, optional (Duain Wolfe, director), Bernard Denève conducting wordless chorus (omitted at Haitink conducting. CSO Resound these performances) (complete ballet)

6 intention in writing [Daphnis and Chloe],” Ravel homogeneity.” Daphnis and Chloe is perhaps the later said, “was to compose a vast musical greatest example of Ravel’s remarkable ear for in which I was less concerned with archaism than orchestral sounds, and of the subtlety with which with reproducing faithfully the Greece of my he shades and colors his canvas. Few passages in dreams, which is very similar to that imagined music are as justifiably famous as the opening of by French artists at the end of the eighteenth this suite, when the rising sun gently bathes the century.” But Fokine had in mind the “ancient music in warmth and light. dancing depicted in red and black on Attic vases.” The result has something of the classical he story is adapted from a tale by the austerity of Jacques-Louis David’s canvases as fifth-century Greek author Longus. well as the stunning clarity of Greek pottery. But Daphnis and Chloe, abandoned as it is both more sumptuous and subtle than either. childrenT and raised by shepherds, have fallen In rehearsal, Fokine and Nijinsky fought in love (Daphnis charmed Chloe by playing endlessly over the choreography, and Diaghilev for her on his pan-pipes). In the first part of grew so tired the ballet, Daphnis earns Chloe’s kiss; pirates of serving as land and abduct Chloe. In part 2, Pan and intermediary his warriors rescue Chloe; part 3 reunites the that he finally lovers. Ravel arranged two sets of symphonic threatened fragments from the ballet for the concert hall. to cancel the The second suite—the one the Chicago project. As Symphony played under Ravel’s baton in 1928— it was, he includes the music of part 3 of the ballet. It opens was forced with the sounds of daybreak, one of the most to postpone magical depictions of the gradual awakening of the premiere nature in all music. The birds (three solo violins twice, largely and piccolo) sing and the shepherds stir, and the because Ravel music is slowly warmed by the brightening rays was having of the sun. Daphnis wakens and joins Chloe. It is trouble com- now full day. pleting the In a gentle pantomime, Daphnis and Chloe final dance, recreate the old story of Pan wooing the nymph on which, Syrinx—the very event that Pan recalled and Sergei Diaghilev by the first which moved him to intervene with the pirates rehearsals, he and return Chloe to Daphnis. Pan’s seductive had labored flute solo is one of the most famous in music. for a full year. (And then, when the music Daphnis and Chloe eventually forget their roles was delivered at last, Diaghilev’s dancers were and fall into each other’s arms, declaring their stymied by the finale’s asymmetrical 5/4 meter— love. All that’s left is celebration, accomplished Ravel suggested chanting “Ser-gei-Dia-ghi-lev” in an extraordinary final dance that took Ravel, to each measure to help them keep their place.) perhaps the greatest perfectionist among com- Ultimately, the rancor and tension of the Daphnis posers, a year to polish and fine tune. rehearsals led to a rift between Diaghilev and Fokine, who left the company at the end of —Phillip Huscher the season. Daphnis and Chloe is the largest orchestral work Ravel wrote; he called it a “choreographic Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago symphony in three parts,” and in its scale and Symphony Orchestra. developmental detail it’s as close as he ever Daniel Jaffé is a regular contributor to BBC Music came to tackling symphonic form. “The work Magazine and a specialist in English and Russian is constructed symphonically,” Ravel said at music. He is author of a biography of Sergey Prokofiev the time, “out of a small number of themes, (Phaidon) and the Historical Dictionary of Russian Music the development of which ensures the work’s (Scarecrow Press). © 2015 Chicago Symphony Orchestra 7