the Chicago Symphony orchestra welcomes gianandrea Noseda, who has graciously agreed to conduct this week’s performances to allow maestro muti additional time to recover from surgery. Please note that Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances replace Varèse’s Arcana.

Program

ONe HuNDreD TweNTieTH SeASON Chicago Symphony orchestra Music Director Helen regenstein Conductor emeritus Yo-Yo ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Thursday, February 17, 2011, at 8:00 Friday, February 18, 2011, at 8:00 Saturday, February 19, 2011, at 8:00 gianandrea Noseda Conductor Stravinsky Divertimento, Suite from The Fairy’s Kiss Sinfonia Danses suisses Scherzo Pas de deux Borodin Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor

INtermISSIoN Brahms No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 Allegro non troppo Allegro appassionato Andante John Sharp, cello Allegretto grazioso LeiF Ove ANDSNeS

Steinway is the official piano of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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

Igor Stravinsky Born June 17, 1882, Oranienbaum, . Died April 6, 1971, .

Divertimento, Suite from The Fairy’s Kiss

gor Stravinsky caught his only When Tchaikovsky died two Iglimpse of Tchaikovsky when weeks later, Stravinsky was deeply he was just eleven years old. moved (when he broke the news of Stravinsky and his mother had Tchaikovsky’s death to his fellow gone to the Mariinsky Theatre to classmates, one of them asked hear Igor’s father, the acclaimed what grade he was in). Igor would bass Fyodor, sing in the fifti- always remember the program eth anniversary production of book for a memorial concert he Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila. and his mother attended, which During the first intermission, had Tchaikovsky’s portrait, framed when they stepped from their box, in black, on the cover. It may well his mother suddenly said: “Igor, have reminded him of the photo- look—there is Tchaikovsky.” As graph signed by Tchaikovsky that Stravinsky later recalled, “I looked hung in his father’s studio, “the and saw a man with white hair, most treasured object” among many large shoulders, a corpulent back, musical treasures. He also knew and this image has remained that, in a letter to Nadezhda von in the retina of my memory all Meck, Tchaikovsky had praised my life.” the elder Stravinsky’s singing.

ComPoSeD CSo PerFormaNCe, INStrumeNtatIoN 1928: The Fairy’s Kiss, StraVINkSkY three flutes and piccolo, two complete ballet oboes and english horn, 1934: Divertimento, suite July 8, 1965; ravinia Festival; three clarinets and bass drawn from ballet the composer conducting the clarinet, two bassoons, complete ballet score four horns, three trumpets, FIrSt PerFormaNCe three trombones and November 27, 1928; ballet moSt reCeNt tuba, timpani, bass drum, CSo PerFormaNCe harp, strings FIrSt CSo April 21, 2007; PerFormaNCe Orchestra Hall; Andrey aPProxImate January 17, 1935; Boreyko, conductor PerFormaNCe tIme Orchestra Hall; the 23 minutes composer conducting CSo reCorDINg 1958; , conductor; rCA

2 In fact, Igor’s father was one of fashioned something Tchaikovsky’s pallbearers, the one purely Stravinskian out of old music who placed the wreath on the grave. Stravinsky had known and loved Tchaikovsky’s music from childhood—certainly ever since he was taken to The Sleeping Beauty for the first time at the age of seven or eight. Some thirty years later, acting on a suggestion from Diaghilev, Stravinsky even orchestrated two passages from The Sleeping Beauty that Tchaikovsky had cut before the first perfor- mance. Stravinsky’s next work, the (left) and , 1921 opera , was dedicated to “the memory of Tchaikovsky, Glinka, and Pushkin,” and prompted by he held in no particular regard, Diaghilev’s Sleeping Beauty revival. The Fairy’s Kiss is a loving homage And so, in 1928, when Stravinsky to his favorite Russian composer. was asked to compose a ballet Later, Stravinsky claimed he could inspired by Tchaikovsky’s music no longer remember “which music for Ida Rubinstein’s new company, is Tchaikovsky’s and which mine,” Stravinsky jumped at the challenge. but at various times he identified The ballet was to be produced in (not always accurately) a number November 1928, on the thirty-fifth of Tchaikovsky’s songs and piano anniversary of Tchaikovsky’s death. pieces that he had borrowed. For his subject, Stravinsky turned (Lawrence Morton eventually to Hans Christian Andersen, whose narrowed the debt list to some powerful and fantastic tales had fourteen works.) been part of Stravinsky’s child- Stravinsky set to work with hood, along with Tchaikovsky’s untiring enthusiasm (once, when music. He picked Andersen’s “The his train was stalled for four hours, Ice Maiden,” apparently finding in he sat in his compartment qui- Tchaikovsky’s creative life (branded etly writing, determined to lose by the Muse’s kiss) a parallel with no time). He rented a room in a the tale of a boy who is doomed by mason’s cottage where he could the kiss of the Ice Maiden. The bal- work undisturbed, although the let was described as an allegory. potent aroma of the family’s lunch Having already breathed new disrupted his thoughts every day life into music by Pergolesi in at noon. The music was barely Pulcinella, here Stravinsky decided completed in time for the premiere, to use music by Tchaikovsky, which the composer conducted, limiting himself only to works not on November 27, 1928; Stravinsky written for orchestra. But where wasn’t entirely pleased with

3 Nijinsky’s choreography (the public but including substantial chunks evidently shared his view), but he from the first three of the ballet’s had been too busy finishing the four scenes. music to check out the dancing. In 1962, Stravinsky returned to The music is prime Stravinsky, Russia after nearly fifty years. The largely based on lesser Tchaikovsky. Stravinskys, along with Robert Only two Tchaikovsky works are Craft, arrived in on used complete; the rest are excerpts. September 21. On October 4, they Most are taken from little-known flew to Leningrad, where Stravinsky songs and piano miniatures. was met by Vladimir Rimsky- Stravinsky’s handling of borrowed Korsakov (the youngest son of the material runs the gamut: he merely composer), who was then living in assigns instruments to the notes of the apartment where Stravinsky had Tchaikovsky’s popular Humoresque written more than half for piano, but much of the original a century before. On October 8, music is so totally transformed that Stravinsky conducted a concert of it’s easy to understand Stravinsky’s his own music. Before the perfor- not remembering which music mance, Stravinsky addressed the was whose. crowd, saying that he had attended As early as 1931, Stravinsky his first concert in this hall: approved playing excerpts from “Sixty-nine years ago I sat with the forty-five-minute ballet score my mother in that corner,” he said, as a concert-hall suite. In 1945, he pointing, “at a concert conducted by finally settled on his own suite, Napravnik to mourn the death of which he called the Divertimento, Tchaikovsky.” He then conducted cutting out nearly half of the music, music from The Fairy’s Kiss.

The FAiry’s Kiss: a BrIeF SYNoPSIS oF the ComPLete BaLLet

The Divertimento draws from her child, who is found happiness in the future, she music from the first three and kissed by a fairy. A takes him to a mill. scenes. The first movement group of villagers passing SCeNe 3. There he finds includes most of scene 1; by discovers the abandoned his fiancée surrounded the second movement is child and takes him away. by her friends. The lovers identical with the opening of SCeNe 2. eighteen years dance together, but when scene 2; the third movement later, the young man and his fiancée retires to put is a shortened version of the his fiancée are taking part on her bridal dress, the beginning of scene 3; the in a village fête. They join in fairy reappears disguised fourth movement consists the country dances. when as the bride and carries of the last three numbers of his fiancée and the villagers him off to her everlasting the pas de deux in scene 3 have gone home, the young dwelling place. with a concert ending. man is approached by the SCeNe 4 (ePILogue). SCeNe 1 (ProLogue). fairy disguised as a gypsy. She then kisses him again, Pursued by spirits in a After reading his hand this time on the sole of storm, a mother is separated and promising him great his foot.

4 alexander Borodin Born November 12, 1833, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Died February 27, 1887, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Polovtsian Dances from Prince igor

n December 3, 1953, a musi- in organic chemistry. He became Ocal called Kismet opened on surprisingly famous as a composer, Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theater. It since he only wrote some forty ran for 583 performances and made works—in fact, it is remarkable that hit songs out of several melodies by he found time to compose at all. Alexander Borodin, although it was Borodin worked intermittently for Robert Wright and George Forrest eighteen years on Prince Igor, a vast who reaped the profits, since they opera in a prologue and four acts; were the ones who borrowed it was the central musical achieve- Borodin’s music, unprotected by ment of his career. international copyright, less than Borodin began Prince Igor in 1869, seventy years after his death. but put it aside almost immediately This was the unfortunate fate— to compose his second symphony. kismet, if you like—of Alexander He picked up the opera again in Borodin. He was not a professional 1874 and worked on it in fits and composer; he earned his living starts until his death. Progress was and much of his fame as a scientist repeatedly stalled by the demands and a professor at the Academy of his “other” career and by his insis- of Medicine in Saint Petersburg. tence on writing his own libretto, Borodin was highly regarded in which, like the music, became a the scientific community, and he perpetual work in progress, often was acknowledged as a pioneer altered or refined but never actually

ComPoSeD FIrSt CSo INStrumeNtatIoN Prince Igor: 1869–1887 PerFormaNCe two flutes and piccolo, two October 17, 1924; Orchestra oboes and english horn, two FIrSt PerFormaNCe Hall; Frederick Stock, clarinets, two bassoons, Polovtsian Dances: conductor four horns, two trumpets, March 11, 1879; Saint three trombones and tuba, Petersburg, russia moSt reCeNt timpani, triangle, tambou- Prince Igor: November 16, CSo PerFormaNCeS rine, cymbals, snare drum, 1890; Saint Petersburg, April 17, 1994; bass drum, glockenspiel, russia Orchestra Hall; valery harp, strings Gergiev, conductor July 20, 1997; ravinia aPProxImate Festival; erich Kunzel, PerFormaNCe tIme conductor 14 minutes

5 completed. At the time of his death, lavish second-act banquet scene, Prince Igor was still unfinished and where the tribal chief and his slaves large portions entertain the prisoners. Borodin of the score finished writing the dances in weren’t yet 1875, but didn’t get around to orchestrated. orchestrating them; when Rimsky- Although Korsakov decided to perform them Rimsky- on a concert in Saint Petersburg Korsakov and in 1879, he, Borodin, and com- Alexander poser Anatoly Liadov had to work Glazunov through the night to finish the filled out the scoring. (The completed pages were instrumen- hung up to dry on a clothesline tal writing stretched across Rimsky’s study.) and pieced The dances achieved their first together international success outside the Composer Anatoly Liadov the third opera house when Sergei Diaghilev act, which choreographed them for his Paris was left in a troupe in 1909. Several separate particularly sketchy state, Prince Igor dances, both lovely and savage, are never found sufficient popularity to presented in an uninterrupted flow. justify Borodin’s great hopes and They slowly gain in momentum protracted labor. as they proceed, and then they are The opera tells the story of an combined in a grand finale. Their expedition undertaken in 1185 by melodic flair and exotic orchestral Prince Igor and his son Vladimir color have made them a favorite against the Polovtsi, a tribe of in the concert hall—without the nomads. They are taken prisoner, chorus that Borodin originally and, in traditional operatic fash- called for—although the famous ion, Vladimir falls in love with oboe melody is still known to many the daughter of the enemy. The concertgoers as Kismet’s biggest hit, Polovtsian Dances crown the “Stranger in Paradise.”

6 Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany. Died April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria.

Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, op. 83

ike Dürer, Goethe, and a composer), and a walking Baedeker. Lnumber of German composers During their travels, Brahms was before him, Brahms found inspi- moved to put pen to paper, not to ration in Italy. His first trip was record the pleasures of the trip—at in the spring of 1878, and, as he least not in the form of a conven- wrote home to his publisher Fritz tional diary—but to begin sketch- Simrock, it was filled with “magical ing a new piano concerto in B-flat. days.” Brahms made eight Italian At home, Brahms put this music sojourns over the next few years (he aside, as if, finding himself stuck liked to spend his birthday there in Vienna, he couldn’t continue if possible), preparing each time with music conceived in the warm with his characteristic compulsion Italian sun. Soon his attention was by reading guidebooks and study- diverted by his violin concerto, a ing treatises on art. His personal work that sublimated some of the guide on the first trip was Theodore ideas for the piano concerto, and, Billroth, a prominent Viennese sur- at the same time, gave birth to geon, a devoted amateur musician new ones that he would use when (he played piano duets with the he returned to it. Back in Italy

ComPoSeD moSt reCeNt CSo reCorDINgS 1878–July 7, 1881 CSo PerFormaNCeS 1958; , piano; Fritz October 27, 2007; Orchestra reiner, conductor; rCA FIrSt PerFormaNCe Hall; emanuel Ax, piano; 1960; , November 9, 1881; the , conductor piano; , composer as soloist July 7, 2009; ravinia Festival; conductor; rCA yefim Bronfman, piano; FIrSt CSo 1961; , piano; James Conlon, conductor PerFormaNCe Fritz reiner, conductor; rCA A 1977 performance with March 1, 1895; Auditorium INStrumeNtatIoN , piano, Theatre; rafael Joseffy, solo piano, two flutes and and , piano; Theodore piccolo, two oboes, two conductor, is included in Thomas, conductor clarinets, two bassoons, Chicago Symphony Orchestra: four horns, two trumpets, The First 100 Years timpani, strings

aPProxImate PerFormaNCe tIme 48 minutes

7 several months later, Brahms was Like the composer’s first piano filled with feelings he could hardly concerto, it was designed for his name; he returned to Vienna noting own hands, and most since that it seemed “wrong” to call it have found it somewhat unwieldy. home after days of such unex- Brahms played the solo at the pected contentment elsewhere. He premiere on November 9, 1881, in immediately turned to his sketches, , and in many additional and, in one virtually uninterrupted performances that season—in sweep, forged his most magnificent Stuttgart, Zurich, Breslau, , concerto, one of the largest—both Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, grand and long—in the literature. and Utrecht, among others. Soon We could read all of Brahms’s ’s curiosity was aroused, letters and learn very little about particularly because the distin- his music. Like many compos- guished conductor Hans von Bülow ers, he said what he had to say (who had been married to Liszt’s in the pages of his scores. His daughter Cosima before Wagner few, sporadic comments about took her) was a strong supporter of composition were often either Brahms’s music, and he asked to self-deprecating or teasing. He have a copy of the new work sent introduced this concerto to his dear to him. Probably only a composer friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg whose own wildly virtuosic piano as “a tiny little piano concerto with concertos had turned heads a a tiny little wisp of a scherzo”— quarter century before could find words contradicted by a cursory this concerto “a little gray in tone,” glance at the score. Another letter but Liszt cautiously admitted his more accurately calls it “the long admiration for this music, “in terror,” which most pianists will which thought and feeling move in readily confirm. But of the actual noble harmony.” Brahms had long details of composition, its unprec- known that he and Liszt were of edented scale, or wide emotional radically different musical tempera- range, Brahms said nothing. When ments—probably since the day they Billroth asked the most obvious met during the summer of 1853, question—why he had added a when Brahms was twenty, and fourth movement to the custom- Liszt, forty-one, whipped through ary three, all of extraordinary the young composer’s piano music size and scope—Brahms only at sight. said that the first movement was Liszt surely didn’t think that it so harmless (simpel) that another was novel to bring the soloist in at movement seemed in order before the start of a concerto, as Brahms the Andante. does here, but Liszt also knew Billroth was with the composer enough about Brahms to know when he drafted the concerto, that novelty is seldom at the heart and he was present the evening of his achievements. In its general Brahms first played through the plan, the opening of the B-flat finished work for a group of friends. concerto suggests no one more

8 than Beethoven, who in his fifth energetic and tempestuous between and unfinished sixth concertos the broad, magnificent expanses of introduces the early on, the first movement and the serene with a cadenza-like flourish. The and spacious Andante. The slow beginning of this concerto is pure, movement surely benefits from the characteristic Brahms, however: delay. Coming some twenty-five the lone call of the horn (a sound minutes into the concerto, and Brahms grew to love from his earli- following so much brilliant and est days, when he often heard his dramatic music, the breathtakingly father practicing the instrument) beautiful cello solo with which answered by slowly blossoming the Andante opens is music from phrases from the piano. another world—and temporary With this magical introduc- consolation for the fact that Brahms tion, the impassioned “cadenza” never wrote a cello concerto. (After that follows, and another fifteen hearing Dvořák’s, Brahms admit- minutes of strong and demanding ted he was sorry he had never tried, music, Brahms’s first movement is and then made partial amends with far from “harmless.” Donald Tovey the Double Concerto.) was perhaps the first to point out The finale is a lilting dance of that, although it’s conventional in a uncertain Hungarian heritage, concerto for the orchestra to deliver transparently scored and filled with “with massive force what the solo sparkling effects from the piano. In player can make subtle and delicate lesser hands, such childlike happi- with eloquence and ornamenta- ness might have seemed inappropri- tion,” Brahms switches roles, ate or simply too lightweight after allowing the piano some grand and so much serious and even tragic powerful statements where we least music, but Brahms’s touch is very expect them. Tovey also notes that sure—he easily convinces us that Brahms lets the orchestra borrow the only thing that can follow some material from the soloist, rather of the most sublime slow music ever than the reverse. Brahms has deci- written is a gypsy dance. sively placed his soloist on equal footing with the orchestra. Brahms contemplated inserting a scherzo in his violin concerto— written while the B-flat piano concerto sat on the shelf—but thought better of it. Here, however, Phillip Huscher is the program annota- he very shrewdly placed something tor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Symphony Orchestra © 2011 Chicago

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