PROGRAM

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THIRD SEASON Chicago Riccardo Muti Director Pierre Boulez Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Thursday, June 12, 2014, at 8:00 Friday, June 13, 2014, at 1:30 Saturday, June 14, 2014, at 8:00 Tuesday, June 17, 2014, at 7:30

Riccardo Muti Conductor David McGill Schubert Symphony No. 6 in C Major, D. 589 Adagio Andante Allegro moderato Mozart Bassoon in B-flat Major, K. 191 Allegro Andante ma adagio : di menuetto DAVID McGILL

INTERMISSION

Schubert Symphony No. 1 in D Major, D. 82 Adagio—Allegro vivace Andante Allegro Allegro vivace

This series is made possible by the Juli Grainger Endowment. Sponsorship of the music director and related programs is provided in part by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation. CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to 93XRT, RedEye, and Metromix 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

Franz Schubert Born January 31, 1797, Himmelpfortgrund, northwest of , Austria. Died November 19, 1828, Vienna, Austria. Symphony No. 6 in C Major, D. 589 Symphony No. 1 in D Major, D. 82

Schubert’s contemporar- Schubert’s were privately performed in the ies—even the few who same city and quickly forgotten. All nine of understood the magni- ’s were published during tude of his talent—did his lifetime; not one piece of Schubert’s orches- not think of him as a tral music appeared in print during his. And of symphonies. yet, for all his apparent lack of public success , who was with the form, Schubert persisted. He started one of his fi rst teachers more symphonies than Beethoven and fi nished and a man who knew the nearly as many—all in a shorter period of time. Viennese music scene as (While Beethoven composed his nine over the well as anyone in the early years of the nine- span of twenty-fi ve years, Schubert completed teenth century, called Schubert a genius, and said seven and left another six unfi nished in just that “he can write anything: songs, masses, string seventeen years.) Schubert was working on his quartets . . . ,” but he failed even to mention newest one—the so-called Symphony no. 10—at the symphony. the time of his death. (In 1995, the Chicago Not one of the eight symphonies by Schubert Symphony performed ’s haunting that Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony and imaginative Rendering, which is based on perform this season was publicly known during Schubert’s sketches for this symphony.) the composer’s lifetime. Most of them weren’t For Dvořák, writing in 1894, Schubert’s fi rst even published until the very end of the nine- six symphonies were recent discoveries, as they teenth century, more than fi fty years after were for all musicians in the late nineteenth Schubert’s death. In 1894, while Antonín Dvořák century. (Th ey were published for the fi rst time was living in the United States, he wrote an article in 1884 and 1885.) He had recently begun to for Th e Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, con- conduct the symphonies and he highly rec- sidering the reasons Schubert “made his way so ommended them to others. “Th e more I study slowly to popular appreciation,” and why the sym- them,” Dvořák concluded, “the more I marvel.” phonies, in particular, did not gain the immediate Written in little more than four years—from admiration of those by other . “He was sometime in 1813 to February of 1818—they young, modest, and unknown,” Dvořák writes, are among the most impressive and substantial “and musicians did not hesitate to slight a sym- of Schubert’s so-called early works (although, as phony which they would have felt bound to study, pointed out long ago, “every work had it borne the name of Beethoven or Mozart.” Schubert left us is an early work”). Th ey are so Th e comparison with Beethoven is both inev- refi ned and assured that it is diffi cult to remem- itable and misleading. Schubert and Beethoven ber that they are the works of a teenage boy. were composing symphonies at the same time in Schubert’s early symphonies come from the Vienna during the fi rst years of the nineteenth busiest time of his life. He was still a school- century—never once meeting nor even crossing master then, a prisoner of the classroom who paths until the very end of Beethoven’s life. Each fi lled his free time writing the music that would of Beethoven’s symphonies was premiered to one day make him famous. Not all this music considerable fanfare in one of Vienna’s main pub- is important or memorable; Schubert must lic theaters within a year or so of its completion. have been writing at breakneck speed and often

2 well into the night. But much of it is unusually finest works—they reveal a gift too strong and impressive regardless of the circumstances, and an imagination too vivid to be stifled even by the some of the songs, in particular, are among his dull rigor of drilling reluctant boys.

Symphony No. 6 in C Major, D. 589

n November of 1816, the Italian music. Yet, for all the ways the great Italian Company made its first visit to the great composer’s music enlivened and enriched music capital of Vienna, bringing with it Schubert’s orchestral writing, by 1817, with IRossini’s Tancredi and L’inganno felice. This was several symphonies already completed, Schubert Vienna’s first taste of Rossini’s , and soon had become an assured symphonic composer the city’s large musical public, including the with a voice of his own. One can still pinpoint nineteen-year-old , could not influences and cross-references—a Mozartean get enough of this intoxicating music. Word introduction to open the score, the Haydn-like of Rossini’s recent extraordinary successes in touch of beginning the allegro with the winds had sent shock waves through the musical alone, the instrumental fireworks of Rossini establishment in Germany and Austria—he through the movement, a speeded-up coda that had first drawn international attention in 1813 echoes the effect of Rossini’s signature windup with the serious Tancredi and the comedy, crescendos. The third movement, the first L’italiana in Algeri. In the home of the great in Schubert’s output to be labeled a scherzo, classical masters, his music had quickly been resembles Beethoven’s in its power and thrust. condemned: “He could have become one of But more revealing are gestures and ideas, the most outstanding vocal composers of our particularly in the finale, that are the seeds of time,” wrote the composer Ludwig Spohr, “if he the other C major symphony to come—the had been methodically instructed in Germany one that would eventually be called Great to and guided on the one true path through distinguish it from this somewhat slighter one in means of Mozart’s classical masterworks.” the same key. Schubert went to hear Tancredi and left the With the Sixth Symphony, we find Schubert theater enraptured. “You cannot deny that he steeped in the conventions of the classical has extraordinary genius,” he wrote to his friend symphony, but striving to break free and forge Anselm Hüttenbrenner. “The is his own path, as only the greatest of symphony highly original at times, and occasionally so is the composers can. It is a work of consolidation, vocal writing . . . .” In the thrall of the new Rossini but more importantly, one of anticipation. After rage sweeping Vienna, Schubert composed two completing this score in February of 1818, “in the Italian style,” trying out a new Schubert began and abandoned several sym- way of writing that immediately changed his own. phonies, including the one we now know as the Schubert’s Sixth Symphony is the main Unfinished. But it would be another decade before beneficiary of his discovery of Rossini’s he would actually finish one last symphony.

COMPOSED MOST RECENT APPROXIMATE October 1817–February 1818 CSO PERFORMANCES PERFORMANCE TIME January 26, 27 & 31, 1995, Orchestra 28 minutes FIRST PERFORMANCE Hall. Zubin Mehta conducting December 14, 1828; Vienna, Austria CSO RECORDING INSTRUMENTATION 1979. Sir Georg Solti conducting. FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES two , two , two , EuroArts (video) February 7 & 8, 1957, Orchestra Hall. two , two horns, two Sir Thomas Beecham conducting trumpets, , strings

3 Symphony No. 1 in D Major, D. 82

chubert knew the orchestra from the melody, the harmonic progressions, and in many inside—he began playing in the student exquisite bits of orchestration.” In other words, ensemble of Vienna’s Imperial and Royal Schubert already sounded like Schubert, even in SCity College at the age of twelve—and we might a work as early as his First Symphony (it is only well guess from listening to his Symphony no. 1 number 82 in ’s comprehen- that closes this concert that, as an orchestral sive catalog of 998 compositions). musician, he regularly played symphonies by The teenage Schubert was unafraid to put his as well the first two by own stamp on the symphonic design that Haydn Beethoven. Schubert had perfected in his six- enjoyed the luxury of ties. Against convention, hearing his own First Schubert brings back his Symphony played by Adagio introduction in the this same ensemble—an body of the Allegro music invaluable experience for that follows (Schubert a young composer (he was does not slow the tempo, just sixteen at the time) but merely incorporates still getting accustomed the gist of his opening to matching the music in material into the flow of his head with the reality A sketch of Vienna faster music). The entire of how it sounded in first movement has a kind performance. Schubert never heard his First of coltish energy that carries to the rousing final Symphony again during his lifetime; decades measures, with their uncommonly high trumpet passed, in fact, before it was introduced to the lines. Schubert apparently had second thoughts public. It was the last of Schubert’s sympho- about his extended adaptation of Beethoven’s nies to be played by the Chicago Symphony Prometheus tune, and he later cut an entire pas- in Orchestra Hall, in 1982, more than ninety sage just before the development section. Clearly, years after the CSO’s founding—and it has for all his early mastery of smaller forms such as not been played by our orchestra since. the song, he was already beginning to think in Mozart and Haydn may have been his inher- large architectural terms, like a true symphonist. itance, and Beethoven an irresistible contempo- Schubert’s slow movement, spacious and not rary influence, but, from the start, Schubert was surprisingly songful, shares much, in spirit and eager to strike out on his own. The blueprint of in detail, with the corresponding movement in Schubert’s Symphony no. 1 in D major follows the Symphony, Schubert’s favorite of the the great classical model of Haydn’s last London Mozart symphonies. The third movement is an Symphonies in its scoring and broad outlines, old-school and trio. Although Schubert with a grand slow introduction to the opening stays in D major throughout, he achieves a allegro and a light, almost breathless finale. surprising sense of variety in this most rigid of Schubert even “borrows” Beethoven’s Prometheus forms by shifting orchestral colors even as the theme in his first movement—a rare admission music repeats. The finale is brisk and effective, of the other Viennese master’s influence. But, as with subtle reference to thematic material in the Dvořák pointed out, “Schubert’s musical indi- opening movement that cannot be explained viduality is unmistakable in the character of the merely as natural family resemblance.

COMPOSED FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENTATION Completed by October 1813 August 16, 1974, Ravinia Festival. one , two oboes, two clarinets, two David Zinman conducting bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, FIRST PERFORMANCE timpani, strings January 7, 8 & 9, 1982, Orchestra Hall. date unknown Dennis Russell Davies conducting APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 29 minutes 4 SCHUBERT’S SYMPHONIES: FROM THE SKETCHED AND UNFINISHED TO THE NUMBERED AND COMPLETE

rom sometime around 1811 until his death only in sketches and was left incomplete at the seventeen years later, Franz Schubert began composer’s death, has been reconstructed by at least thirteen symphonies. This season, other hands and published as no. 10. Here is the FRiccardo Muti and the CSO will play the eight that have come down to us in performable condition, including one famous symphony, known as no. 8, that is itself unfinished. The numbering of Schubert’s symphonies has long presented quandaries. Although Schubert sketched Symphony no. 7 in full, he never orchestrated the score, and it is therefore unplayable (except as orchestrated by oth- ers). As a result, some scholars have proposed Gustav Klimt. Schubert at the , oil on canvas, 1899 renumbering sympho- nies nos. 8 and 9 and as nos. 7 and 8, respectively. (The suggestion has rundown of all of Schubert’s symphonic attempts not caught on; the CSO sticks to the original that survive, with the standard catalog numbers numbering.) A final symphony, which exists assigned by Otto Erich Deutsch in 1951. —P.H.

Symphony, D major. First movement only. ?1811 D. 2b Symphony No. 1. D major Completed by October 1813 D. 82 Symphony No. 2. B-flat major December 1814–March 1815 D. 125 Symphony No. 3. D major May–July 1815 D. 200 Symphony No. 4. C minor. (Tragic) Completed by April 1816 D. 417 Symphony No. 5. B-flat major September–October 1816 D. 485 Symphony No. 6. C major. [Sometimes known as the Little C major] October 1817–February 1818 D. 589 Symphony. D major. Two movements in piano sketch May 1818 D. 615 Symphony. D major. Sketches After 1820 D. 708a Symphony No. 7. E major. Sketched in score; not orchestrated August 1821 D. 729 Symphony No. 8. B minor. (Unfinished) October 1822 D. 759 Symphony No. 9. C major. (Great) 1825–1828 D. 944 Symphony. D major. [Sometimes known as no. 10]. Sketches mid-1828 D. 936a

5 Wolfgang Mozart Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Austria. Died December 5, 1791, Vienna, Austria. Bassoon Concerto in B-fl at Major, K. 191

Although Mozart may specifi c and creative ways, with the individual have written as many as needs of his client. Mozart often wrote music fi ve bassoon , for performer-friends, but we cannot be certain this is the only one that for whom this concerto was intended. Th ere are has survived. It is the several possible candidates, including two bas- earliest of all Mozart’s soonists employed by the archbishop of Salzburg concertos for wind at the time, as well as Th addäus von Dürnitz, an instruments, and, despite amateur bassoonist from Munich who apparently the fact that it is the work had commissioned bassoon works from several of an adolescent, this is a composers, including Mozart. little masterpiece. Th e score is contemporary with Th e fi rst movement highlights the bassoon’s Mozart’s fi rst , in D major, and his many virtues, including its extraordinary fi rst concertos—all products of the mid- agility and the ability to trill, leap (nearly two . Th ese are works that show Mozart fully octaves in this case), repeat notes rapid-fi re, engaged in putting his own stamp on traditional sing lyrically, and sit comfortably on prominent forms and procedures; he is no longer an low notes. Th e interaction with the orchestra apprentice—even one with the most astonishing is lively and conversational, not that of a star gifts—but a man establishing his own practice. performer with its supporting cast. Th e second Mozart would never quit learning, borrowing, movement is a dreamy aria, with an elaborately and assimilating what he picked up in the musical embroidered melody over muted strings—an world at large, but the process of transforming early essay in the mood of the Countess’s “Porgi and personalizing had already begun. amor” from Th e Marriage of Figaro. Th e fi nale is Even though the bassoon was not a common a minuet—not music designed for the ballroom, solo instrument at the time, the main thematic but based on the lilting rhythms of the standard material of this concerto was carefully designed courtly dance. expressly for the instrument, showcasing its unique qualities and disguising its limitations in power and range. In this piece, Mozart has already moved beyond mastering the general Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago demands of concerto form to deal, in very Symphony Orchestra.

COMPOSED MOST RECENT CADENZAS 1774 CSO PERFORMANCES David McGill December 1, 2 & 3, 2011, Orchestra FIRST PERFORMANCE Hall. David McGill as soloist, Jaap van APPROXIMATE date unknown Zweden conducting PERFORMANCE TIME 18 minutes FIRST CSO PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENTATION November 10, 1956, Orchestra Hall. solo bassoon, two oboes, two CSO RECORDING Leonard Sharrow as soloist, Fritz horns, strings 1984. Willard Elliot as soloist, Reiner conducting Claudio Abbado conducting. Deutsche Grammophon

© 2014 Chicago Symphony Orchestra 6