Program

ONe HuNdRed TWeNTy-FiRST SeASON Chicago Symphony orchestra riccardo muti Music director Pierre Boulez Helen Regenstein Conductor emeritus Yo-Yo ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Wednesday, January 18, 2012, at 6:30 (Afterwork Masterworks, performed with no intermission) manfred Honeck conductor Till Fellner piano Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15 Dvo ˇrák Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to WBBM Newsradio 780 and 105.9 FM for its generous support as the media sponsor for the Afterwork Masterworks series.

Thursday, January 19, 2012, at 8:00 Friday, January 20, 2012, at 8:00 Saturday, January 21, 2012, at 8:00 manfred Honeck conductor Till Fellner piano J. Strauss, Jr. Overture to Die Fledermaus Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15 Allegro con brio Largo Rondo: Allegro TiLL FeLLNeR

InTermISSIon Dvo ˇrák Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 Allegro con brio Adagio Allegretto grazioso Allegro ma non troppo

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

Johann Strauss, Jr. Born October 25, 1825, , . Died June 3, 1899, Vienna, Austria.

overture to Die Fledermaus

ven Brahms and Wagner, the At the height of his popularity, the Etwo competitive, heavyweight younger Strauss employed several composers of the era, shared a great orchestras—all bearing his name— fondness for the music of Johann and dashed from one ballroom to Strauss, Jr. It is difficult today to another to put in a nightly appear- imagine music that is so popular ance with each. Eventually Johann with average people and connois- Strauss, Jr., would be acclaimed as seurs, liberals and conservatives, the Waltz King, although, in fact, young and old alike, and to recog- he wrote nearly as many polkas as nize that in the nineteenth century waltzes and could have earned his this music was serious business, if reputation on the basis of his sixteen not serious music. operettas alone. Johann Strauss, Sr., a gifted Die Fledermaus (The bat) is the composer who started the family most famous of the stage works, dynasty, tried to dissuade his three although the operetta was not an sons from the music business, but he instant success, hitting Vienna lost on all three counts, and before just as it was reeling from a stock he died in 1849, at the age of forty- market crash. Like many operas, four, he saw his oldest son, Johann, it is a comedy of errors; disguise Jr., surpass him in fame and fortune. and mistaken identity play central

ComPoSeD moST reCenT aPProxImaTe 1874 CSo PerFormanCeS PerFormanCe TIme March 30, 1996, 9 minutes FIrST PerFormanCe Orchestra Hall. Michael April 5, 1874, Vienna Gielen conducting CSo reCorDIng 1992. daniel barenboim July 28, 2007, Ravinia FIrST CSo conducting. erato PerFormanCe Festival. Christoph November 14, 1933 (popular eschenbach conducting concert), Orchestra Hall. InSTrumenTaTIon Paul Kerby conducting two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings

2 roles. (The title refers to a costume finally, everyone simply drinks a worn at a masked ball.) The plot is toast to the wonders of champagne. not easily or sensibly summarized: A story scarcely worth telling has as in Mozart’s Figaro, a man sets been made unforgettable by music. out to deceive, and in the end is The overture is a potpourri of the deceived himself. (In both cases, a operetta’s best moments, and it philandering husband unwittingly includes, as its centerpiece, a waltz flirts with his own wife.) There tune so great that if Strauss had are many loose ends—too many to written nothing else, he would still be resolved except in opera—and, be loved today.

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3 Born December 16, 1770, Bonn, Germany. Died March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria.

Piano Concerto no. 1 in C major, op. 15

his is not Beethoven’s first piano and performed for the first time Tconcerto. We are usually taught in 1943.) that the B-flat major concerto Jumping ahead nearly a decade, known as no. 2 is really no. 1, we come to the first works in the but that is not entirely accurate genre that Beethoven wished to either. Sometime in 1784, when acknowledge: a concerto in B-flat, Beethoven was only fourteen years probably begun before 1793, and old, he wrote a piano concerto the C major concerto on this pro- in E-flat major. It is the sort of gram, which was composed in 1795. sprawling, self-important, and Both works were published in 1801, florid music that teenagers often but in the reverse order. Although write (assuming that they compose Beethoven played both of these music at all), and it is a greater concertos in public on several occa- testament to the young Beethoven’s sions, he was intensely self-critical, apparent virtuosity as a and, when it came time to publish than to his incipient talent as a them, he could think of nothing composer. Although the full score good to say about either one: is lost, we still have a copy of the piano part, including indications One of my first concertos [in for orchestral cues. (The concerto B-flat] and therefore not one of was reconstructed by Willi Hess the best of my compositions is

ComPoSeD moST reCenT CaDenzaS 1795 CSo PerFormanCeS beethoven January 15, 2008, Orchestra FIrST PerFormanCe Hall. Piotr Anderszewski, aPProxImaTe december 18, 1795, Vienna. piano; Alexander PerFormanCe TIme The composer as soloist Polianichko conducting 37 minutes

FIrST CSo July 15, 2010, Ravinia CSo reCorDIngS PerFormanCe Festival. Jorge Federico 1972. Vladimir Ashkenazy, March 12, 1915, Orchestra Osorio, piano; James piano; Sir Georg Solti Hall. Rudolph Ganz, piano; Conlon conducting conducting. Frederick Stock conducting InSTrumenTaTIon 1983. , solo piano, one flute, two piano; James Levine oboes, two clarinets, two conducting. Philips bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings

4 to be published by Hofmeister, great mastery. Perhaps inspired by and Mollo is to publish a Mozart’s great C major concerto, concerto [in C major] which which he undoubtedly knew by indeed was written later but the time this piece was written, which also does not rank Beethoven works on a larger canvas among the best of my works in here than in the B-flat concerto. this form. (He also adds clarinets, trumpets, and timpani to the orchestra.) By 1801, Beethoven’s style had Beethoven begins quietly, having changed dramatically. He recently already learned that a soft open- had begun a third piano concerto ing is often the quickest way to in C minor, one of the works capture an audience’s attention. with which he would establish his The music is robust and energetic, primacy in the new century. From despite the dynamic, and it soon our viewpoint, the Third Piano bursts forth with typical Beethoven Concerto does not mark a critical fervor. There is some characteristic advance over the first two, but, for horseplay with the choice of keys— Beethoven, every step forward was the second theme begins in faraway important and hard won. Later E-flat—and Beethoven borrows generations, in fact, would lump all from Mozart the unexpected touch three concertos together as “early of allowing the piano to enter period” works, although that does with music the orchestra has not not mean lesser Beethoven. already presented (although, unlike Beethoven apparently was more Mozart, he never returns to the interested in the C major concerto piano’s new theme). than he let on because he composed The slow movement is longer three cadenzas for its first move- than the corresponding movement ment. All three are obviously later of any other concerto by Beethoven, efforts, apparently dating from but here he has learned how to 1809, the time of the Emperor move through slow music so that it Concerto—his fifth and last piano never drags; the extra length is all concerto. By then, Beethoven bonus. The leisurely coda includes a realized that his worsening deaf- poignant conversation between the ness would soon force him off the piano and the first clarinet. A look concert stage, and he wrote out through all the Mozart and Haydn definitive versions of the cadenzas finales will not produce a jazzier that he previously had improvised. ending than this boisterous rondo, It’s not difficult to understand full of pranks and surprises. The why this music still held interest good time goes on for nearly six for Beethoven as late as 1809, for hundred measures without seeming it is impressive material used with a moment too long.

5 antonín Dvo ˇrák Born September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, Bohemia. Died May 1, 1904, Prague.

Symphony no. 8 in g major, op. 88

n August 12, 1893, Antonín numbering. By now, even genera- ODvořák conducted his tions of music lovers who grew up G major symphony at the World’s knowing this genial G major Columbian Exposition in Chicago. symphony as no. 4 have come to According to the printed booklet accept it as no. 8. prepared for Bohemian Day at By the time he came to Chicago, the fair, the Exposition Orchestra Dvořák had already conducted this consisted of the Chicago Orchestra symphony several times, always (as it was then known) “enlarged to to an enthusiastic response—first 114 men.” The G major symphony in Prague and then in London, was listed as no. 4, which is how it Frankfurt, and Cambridge, when was known during the composer’s he received an honorary doctor lifetime, although we now number of music degree there in 1891. it the eighth of Dvořák’s nine (“Nothing but ceremony, and symphonies. In fact, to the late nothing but doctors,” he remem- nineteenth century, Dvořák was the bered. “All faces were serious, and composer of just five symphonies; it seemed to me as if no one knew only with the publication of his any other language but Latin.”) first four symphonies in the 1950s The Chicago reception, capped by did we begin to use the current “tremendous outbursts of applause,”

ComPoSeD November 15, 1945, aPProxImaTe August 26–November 8, 1889 Orchestra Hall. Hans PerFormanCe TIme Lange conducting 36 minutes FIrST PerFormanCe February 2, 1890, Prague. moST reCenT CSo reCorDIngS The composer conducting CSo PerFormanCe 1978. Carlo Maria June 11, 2009, Giulini conducting. CSo PerFormanCe Orchestra Hall. Sir Mark deutsche Grammophon ConDuCTeD BY elder conducting A 1966 performance with THe ComPoSer Rafael Kubelík conducting InSTrumenTaTIon August 12, 1893, World’s was released on From the two flutes and piccolo, two Columbian exposition Archives, vol. 16. oboes and english horn, two FIrST CSo clarinets, two bassoons, PerFormanCeS four horns, two trumpets, August 4, 1939, three trombones and tuba, Ravinia Festival. Artur timpani, strings Rodzinski conducting

6 according to the Tribune, was since his last—and that he was equally positive. eager to compose something “dif- In the 1880s and 1890s, Dvořák ferent from the other symphonies, was as popular and successful as with individual thoughts worked any living composer, including out in a new way.” Brahms, who had helped promote Composition was remarkably Dvořák’s music early on and had untroubled. “Melodies simply pour even convinced his own publisher, out of me,” Dvořák said at the time, Simrock, to take on this new and both the unashamedly tuneful composer and to issue his Moravian nature of this score and the time- Duets in 1877. Dvořák proved to be table of its progress confirm the a prudent addition to the catalog, composer’s boast. He began his new and the Slavonic Dances he wrote symphony on August 26; the first the following year at Simrock’s movement request became one of the firm’s was finished all-time best sellers. Dvořák was in two weeks, then insulted and outraged, when, the second in 1890, Simrock offered him only a week later, a thousand marks for his G major and the symphony (particularly since the remaining two company had paid three thousand movements marks for the last one), and he gave in just a few the rights to the London firm of days apiece. Novello instead. (At least he did The orches- not follow the greedy example set tration took by Beethoven and sell the same only another score to two different publishers.) six weeks. Dvořák’s G major symphony is The first his most bucolic and idyllic—it movement An image believed to be Dvo ˇrák conducting at is, in effect, his Pastoral—and is, as Dvořák the World’s Columbian like Brahms’s Second or Mahler’s predicted, Exposition in 1893 Fourth, it stands apart from his put together other works in the form. Like the in a new way. subsequent New World Symphony, The opening theme—pointedly in composed in a tiny town set in G minor, not the G major promised the rolling green hills of northeast by the key signature—functions as Iowa, it was written in the seclusion an introduction, although, sig- of the countryside. In the sum- nificantly, it is in the same tempo mer of 1889, Dvořák retired to his as the rest of the movement. It country home at Vysoká, away from appears, like a signpost, at each of the pressures of urban life and far the movement’s crucial junctures— from the demands of performers here, before the exposition; later, and publishers. There he realized before the start of the development; that he was ready to tackle a new and finally, to introduce the reca- symphony—it had been four years pitulation. Dvořák is particularly

7 generous with melodic ideas in this was rescued from Dvořák’s comic movement. As Leoš Janáček said opera The Stubborn Lovers, where of this music: “You’ve scarcely got Toník worries that his love, Lenka, to know one figure before a second will be married off to his father. one beckons with a friendly nod, The finale begins with a trum- so you’re in a state of constant but pet fanfare and continues with a pleasurable excitement.” theme and several variations. The The second movement, an adagio, theme, introduced by the , is alternates C major and C minor, a natural subject of such deceptive somber and gently merry music, simplicity that it cost its normally as well as passages for strings and tuneful composer nine drafts before winds. It is a masterful example he was satisfied. The variations, of complexities and contradic- which incorporate everything from tions swept together in one great a sunny flute solo to a determined paragraph. The central climax, with march in the minor mode, eventu- trumpet fanfares over a timpani ally fade to a gentle farewell before roll, is thrilling. Dvořák adds one last rip-roaring The third movement is not a page to ensure the audience enthu- conventional scherzo, but a lilting, siasm that, by 1889, he had grown radiant waltz marked Allegretto to expect. grazioso—the same marking Brahms used for the third move- ments of his second and third sym- Phillip Huscher is the program annota- © 2012 Chicago Symphony Orchestra © 2012 Chicago phonies. The main theme of the trio tor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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