January 31, 2019 Program Notes: Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten intensified feelings of alienation in collaborated with the poet on apart from the close-knit collective his own life. his first opera, Paul Bunyan, and of the townspeople. Grimes’ outsize Born November 22, 1913, in other works. Auden was a literary ambitions fatefully combine with Lowestoft, England; died December • Through Britten’s brilliantly mentor who molded the younger the hostility he arouses from that 4, 1975, in Aldeburgh, England imaginative orchestration, Four Sea community to bring about his self- Interludes not only serve to anchor composer’s sensibility and also destruction. Four Sea Interludes from the opera’s coastal setting but serve became a kind of guru, helping him to come to terms with his sexuality. Peter Grimes, Op. 33a as multilayered commentaries on Britten sensed tremendous operatic It was Auden’s example that the issues it explores. potential in this literary source. Composed: Britten composed the inspired Britten, together with his A story of “the individual against opera, Peter Grimes, from which Four life partner, the tenor Peter Pears, ensitivity to literature and the crowd” is how he described Sea Interludes are drawn between to emigrate on the eve of the war in theater was an indispensable the scenario (the librettist was 1944 and 1945. S 1939 to the United States. In Britain, factor in the formation of Benjamin the leftist poet Montagu Slater), First performance: November 1948, being gay and a pacifist intensified Britten—a factor that made opera which entailed “ironic overtones with Eugene Ormandy conducting the composer’s sense of being his natural element. The premiere for our own situation.” That the Philadelphia Orchestra marginalized. in 1945 of his first large-scale pertained both to the taboo Duration: c. 16 minutes opera Peter Grimes (the source of But Britten’s homesickness was subject of his relationship with Four Sea Interludes) in fact marked awakened when an article by E.M. Pears (who created the role of the Scored for 2 flutes (doubling a watershed not just in the young Forster prompted his discovery protagonist) and to his identity as a piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets composer’s career but for postwar of George Crabbe’s The Borough. conscientious objector. (2nd doubling E-flat clarinet), 2 opera overall. Britten went on to The events of this long narrative bassoons and contrabassoon, The composer was additionally establish himself as one of the most poem from 1810, written in the 4 horns, piccolo trumpet and 2 moved by the richly detailed local significant opera composers of the form of letters, take place along color of The Borough. Britten was trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 20th century, including operatic the East Anglian seacoast where determined to reconnect with his timpani, percussion, harp, and treatments of the work of such the composer had grown up. One roots, and he and Pears ended their strings. literary giants as Shakespeare, of the characters depicted in self-imposed exile, returning to Henry James, Herman Melville, and In sum: the poem is the fisherman Peter what was now an England ravaged Thomas Mann. He also experimented Grimes, who is accused by the by war. The opera includes six • Benjamin Britten’s sensitivity to with the format, producing chamber townsfolk of murdering his young orchestral interludes that gave literature helped him become one operas for small, flexible groups apprentices. Crabbe portrayed Britten space to evoke the ever- of the leading composers of opera as well as for the new medium of Grimes as a sadistic misanthrope, present power of nature and the in the 20th century’s second half. television. “untouched by pity.” Britten’s sea as a character in its own right • Four Sea Interludes is extracted As a young prodigy composer, opera, in contrast, reimagines in Peter Grimes. He extracted four of from his breakthrough 1945 opera Britten became part of the circle the ruthless bully as a movingly these to be performed as a stand- Peter Grimes, which depicts “the around fellow Englishman W.H. ambiguous figure—a “tortured alone concert piece. In the opera, individual against the crowd.” Auden—who features in the idealist,” in the composer’s phrase, these interludes foreground the Britten’s position as a gay pacifist final work on our program—and and, by extension, an outsider set element of the sea setting and

January 31, 2019 January 31, 2019 function as wordless commentaries (prelude to the final act), provides that might be compared to the tragic a counterpart to “Dawn.” A silvery Greek chorus. rain of woodwind and percussion intermittently splashes, as yearning What to listen for harmonies slowly throb with The First Interlude (“Dawn”) serves increasingly troubled intensity. as the transition between the trial Britten’s achievement offers much scene of the Prologue (where Grimes more than picturesque “nature is exonerated) and the first act. painting.” The seascapes here Against the thin glint of sunlight function as a screen onto which breaking through on high, menacing human emotions are projected. brass harmonies swell from below. Thus the Fourth Interlude (“Storm”) This music returns to end the opera, doubles as scene-change music suggesting that nature’s eternal for the opera’s first act and as a patterns are indifferent to the human metaphoric commentary on Grimes’ suffering that has been witnessed. inner psychic turmoil. As a temporary refuge from the storm—captured by The Second Interlude (“Sunday the music’s thrashing violence—a Morning”) prefaces the second act sweeping melodic arc interpolates a with extroverted, brightly rhythmic passing vision of peace. But its hope tolling as the community gathers for is battered by the tempest’s savage worship. final surge. “Moonlight,” the Third Interlude —© 2019 Thomas May

January 31, 2019 January 31, 2019 January 31, 2019 Program Notes: Hannah Kendall

Hannah Kendall newly awakened state the unnamed to the poem of the same title by the whom I now felt a contempt such Invisible Man experiences. British writer Lemn Sissay (whose as only a disillusioned dreamer feels Born 1984 in London; currently theme involves the 1888 strike for those still unaware that they resides in New York City dream . . .” hen Berkeley Symphony by London matchgirls protesting inhumane working conditions). Disillusioned Dreamer decided to include a brand- Kendall notes that the vulnerability W Premiered at the BBC Proms in 2017 Composed: 2018 new work for this program built expressed here shares a similarity around composers’ responses to by the renowned Chineke! Orchestra with The Knife of Dawn. “Black male First performance: This is the world the written word, Hannah Kendall (an ensemble whose mission is “to vulnerability—here, his realization premiere emerged as a natural choice to provide career opportunities to that his race renders him invisible young Black and Minority Ethnic Duration: c. 12 minutes receive the commission. The young in society—is something that isn’t artist, who was born in London to (BME) classical musicians in the UK explored to a great extent in art or Scored for 2 flutes (both doubling first-generation immigrants from and Europe”), The Spark Catchers will in music. That’s why I was drawn to piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, Guyana, has earned acclaim for a receive its U.S. debut in June by the this source. This book changed my 2 bassoons (2nd doubling growing body of compositions that Seattle Symphony, with Jonathon life and view on how things work contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 are characteristically inspired by Heyward conducting. and on the reality of being black in trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 2 society.” poetic or other literary sources. Disillusioned Dreamer percussionists, harp, and strings. is another Indeed, her chamber opera The Knife example of Kendall’s musical The composer typically devotes a of Dawn, In sum: which premiered in October treatment of a source she lot of time and care to choosing 2016 in London, pays homage to the encountered in literature: here, the right title for a new project. In • The young London-born Hannah real-life story of Martin Carter (1927- a passage from Ralph Ellison’s fact, the title serves as the starting Kendall, who has emerged as an 1997), a Guyanese poet and political Invisible Man (first published in its point, along with a graphic score, eloquent new voice both in the activist who made resistance to entirely in 1952). Narrated by an “because whenever I am writing concert hall and in the opera house, colonialism a central theme. The unnamed protagonist, Ellison’s or sketching, it has to go back to is frequently inspired by literary libretto—by the Guyanese-born landmark novel grapples with the title. It’s almost as if the DNA sources. Canadian novelist Tessa McWatt— issues of racism in American structure of the piece is embedded “touches on the vulnerable aspects • Disillusioned Dreamer, a Berkeley society and black identity. The in it.” Symphony commission, is Kendall’s of a black Caribbean man who is passage in question (from chapter While Kendall could have chosen musical response to a passage finding his identity through his 12) describes the narrator being “any combination of words” about awakening to the reality poetry and his politics,” according to overcome “by a sense of alienation from this passage about an of racism from Ralph Ellison’s Kendall. and hostility” as he awakens to awakening experience, the phrase landmark novel Invisible Man. Even when her work does not an awareness that those around “disillusioned dreamer” stood out • Kendall writes fluently for large directly set a text, the composer him in the lobby of a Harlem as especially potent, since it marks orchestra in this work, using frequently finds stimuli for her meeting house are “still caught up “the moment that the Invisible striking contrasts in timbre and musical imagination in the power in the illusions that had just been Man realizes that he has himself gesture to pit the sense of an of words. She wrote the orchestral boomeranged out of my head.” They been dreaming up to that point and illusory dreamworld against the piece The Spark Catchers in response include “the younger crowd for has been awakened to the realities

January 31, 2019 January 31, 2019 of being a minority.” Kendall also journey of coming out of that dream.” incorporates phrases from the text as A gesture of pulsation recurs performance instructions. with varying timbral colorations Kendall has already acquired (harp, pizzicato strings doubled by impressive experience writing the woodwinds). “So much spins for large orchestral ensembles. around this pulsing, which keeps “The sound of a full orchestra is so the material rooted, like an idea that incredible,” she says. “I decided to use is quite fixed—almost as though large forces for the instrumentation the Invisible Man is mulling over to bring across this idea of this new revelation he has had.” dreaming and being disillusioned Intricate woodwind figures evoke the by interweaving lines of intricate dreamworld in contrast, while the use material. The only way to make that of high registers elicits what Ellison work logically is to have as many describes as the “bright, buzzing” instruments as you can to make it environment around the narrator. fluid and transparent.” “It’s a bit like when you dream about people you know and don’t know and What to listen for can’t grasp what you’ve just dreamt Cast as a single movement, about.” Disillusioned Dreamer opens with Kendall emphasizes that her pieces gestures from the percussion that are not tone poems or “specific alternate with unsettling pauses, replications of a text.” Disillusioned which together establish an Dreamer is not intended as a musical atmosphere “of being in suspense representation of what is being said. and slightly restless. You don’t know Instead, the composer has taken “a what is coming next,” according to few aspects from the text and tried the composer. “I usually have a very to express something new based on climactic point relatively early on. what I was responding to at the time.” Here, it conveys the idea of being awakened— the Invisible Man’s —© 2019 Thomas May

January 31, 2019 January 31, 2019 January 31, 2019 Program Notes: Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein for a wordless but highly eventful Bernstein decided to respond for an essay he was planning in the symphony—the second of to the poem in the form of an 1940s, Auden for his part mused Leonard Bernstein: born August 25, Bernstein’s three works in this genre unconventional symphony on the image of the mirror, which 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts; (each of which was inspired by for orchestra and solo piano. plays an important role throughout died October 14, 1990, in New York textual sources). Commissioned by the Boston The Age of Anxiety: “Every child, as City • Bernstein also assigns a Symphony, his Second Symphony he wakes into life, finds a mirror Symphony No. 2 for Piano prominent role to solo piano, but he was written while the composer underneath his pillow. Look in it and Orchestra, The Age of did not consider The Age of Anxiety to traveled widely during 1948 and 1949 he will and must, else he cannot Anxiety be a piano concerto per se. (including a tour under wartime know who he is, a creature fallen conditions in the newly created from grace, and this knowledge is a • The Age of Anxiety synthesizes an Composed: 1947-48; revised in 1965 state of Israel). Bernstein drew necessary preliminary to salvation. eclectic spectrum of musical styles, First performance: April 8, on some earlier material but also Yet at the moment he looks into ranging from lively jazz idioms to 1949, with Serge Koussevitzky returned to the score years later his mirror, he falls into mortal twelve-tone austerity. conducting the Boston Symphony to revise it. He dedicated The Age of danger, tempted by guilt into a and the composer as pianist Anxiety to Serge Koussevitzky, one despair which tells him that his t was Leonard Bernstein who of his most important mentors and isolation and abandonment is [sic] Duration: c. 35 minutes I conducted the American a deeply influential father figure. irrevocable. It is impossible to face In addition to solo piano, scored premiere of Peter Grimes—at Despite the prominent role of the such abandonment and live, but as for 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes Tanglewood, in 1946. The year after solo pianist, Bernstein insisted long as he gazes into the mirror he and English horn, 2 clarinets that, W.H. Auden—who had since that his Second Symphony is “no need not face it; he has at least his and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons become estranged from his former concerto, in the virtuosic sense.” mirror as an illusory companion.” and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 close friend Britten—published a Instead, the piano soloist functions Auden’s poem, heavily allegorical trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, remarkable book-length poem titled as an alter ego who combines and Jungian, introduces three men timpani, percussion, celesta, 2 The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue. aspects of the four individual and a woman who meet in a bar in harps (second optional), “pianino” An unsentimental, hard-edged characters delineated by Auden. New York during wartime. (Hints (upright piano), and strings. exploration of the modern spiritual predicament (but paradoxically Some remarks by Bernstein and of On the Town: indeed, Bernstein’s In sum: using an archaic Anglo-Saxon Auden suggest a fascinating parallel longtime collaborator Jerome meter), this poem immediately with the issues of identity and self- Robbins choreographed a ballet • Leonard Bernstein, himself a attracted Bernstein’s attention. deception that Hannah Kendall version of the score in 1950.) They talented writer, was drawn to Still working out how to balance takes up in her new Disillusioned try to come to terms with feelings W.H. Auden’s innovative long- his allegiances to “serious” music Dreamer. Bernstein wrote: “The of loss deep in their innermost form poem The Age of Anxiety and the call of the Broadway stage, piano provides an almost selves as they face a fragmented, as a powerful expression of young Bernstein intended to autobiographical protagonist, set meaningless world. As in an Edward contemporary alienation and follow Auden’s lead in composing against an orchestral mirror in Hopper painting, their respective spiritual crisis. “the record of our difficult and which he sees himself, analytical, insecurities reinforce the loneliness • The poem served as the basis problematic search for faith.” in the modern ambience.” In notes each feels, even when together.

January 31, 2019 January 31, 2019 Attempts to escape through alcohol leads the descent further into the fuel the narrative with a sense of unconscious. underlying despair. They are having, The second set of variations (“The as Bernstein puts it, “the kind of good Seven Stages”) traces the collective time which one hour later is horrible.” dream of the characters as they What to listen for search for meaning. Part One ends with emphatic but hollowly assertive Each of the six movements has its music. own subtitle; the movements are also grouped into two larger parts, each of Part Two has three sections marked roughly equal length. “The Prologue”’s by striking contrasts. The first, “The duet of clarinets introduces an Dirge,” derives its main theme from atmosphere of somber reflection. a 12-tone row, which represents a vain search for authority. Its piano- At its close, the flute’s descending dominated middle section echoes figure—a key motif throughout the Stravinsky in neoclassical guise. work—leads us, in Bernstein’s words, This eventually dissolves into “The “into the realm of the unconscious” Masque” (scored for just piano, harp, (made more permeable by the copious celesta, and percussion), a full-blown drinking of the protagonists). jazz scherzo, where the quartet of Two sets of seven variations each characters try to party before they follow. The first set (“The Seven fizzle out. It all ends in a ghostly Ages”) involves not a theme per se disintegration. A four-note figure but various fragments of the material from the trumpet signals a return to from The Prologue presented in sober reality for “The Epilogue.” This shifting configurations: piano motif of lingering hope (first sounded solo, piano with the ensemble, by the trumpet) blends with a reprise and orchestra alone. The unstable of the somber strains from “The rhythmic energy of the fourth Prologue.” Bernstein later added variation introduces a strain of a solo piano cadenza at this point, nervous humor that is part of The Age following which the orchestra joins in, transforming the hope motif into of Anxiety’s soundscape. A haunting a passionate affirmation of life—with reprise of The Prologue, expanded all its anxieties. beyond the clarinets, occurs in the seventh variation, before the piano —© 2019 Thomas May

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