BEETHOVEN Ideals of the French Revolution ORCHESTRE SYMPHONIQUE DE MONTRÉAL Kent Nagano CD1 The General, for orchestra with soprano, choir and narrator Music by Ludwig van Beethoven Text by Paul Griffiths © Maximilian Schell, narration Adrianne Pieczonka, soprano OSM Chorus Marika Kuzma, Chorus Director 1. Overture 8:29 [Egmont: Ouverture] 2. No.1 Song: A drum in the distance 3:55 [Egmont: No.1, Song: Die Trommel gerühret] 3. No.2 Melodrama: One thing I learned 2:03 [König Stephan: No.7, Melodrama] 4. No.3 Melodrama: Informants, spies 0:49 [König Stephan: No.5, Melodrama] 5. No.4 Interlude 1 3:34 [Egmont: No.6, Entr’acte 4] 6. No.5 Interlude 2 5:08 [Leonore Prohaska: Funeral March] 7. No.6 Interlude 3 / Melodrama: I could do something 3:18 [Egmont: No.2, Entr’acte 1] 8. No.7 Interlude 4 5:31 [Egmont: No.3, Entr’acte 2] 9. No.8 Interlude 5 2:14 [Egmont: No.7, Clara’s Death] 1 10. No.9 Melodrama: I was one human being 3:11 [Egmont: No.8, Melodrama] 11. No.10 Song: Lost and despairing 1:23 [Egmont: No.4, Song: Freudvoll und leidvoll] 12. No.11 Interlude 6 4:04 [Egmont: No.5, Entr’acte 3] 13. No.12 Interlude 7 1:40 [König Stephan: No.8, Solemn March] 14. No.13 Melodrama: I had nothing to say to these people 3:30 [König Stephan: No.8, Melodrama from Grave risoluto e ben marcato] 15. No.14 ‘Victory Symphony’ 0:28 [Egmont: No.9] 16. No.15 Finale 5:30 [Opferlied, Op.121b] CD2 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) Symphony No.5 in C minor, Op. 67 1. Allegro con brio 6:56 2. Andante con moto 8:49 3. Allegro 7:56 4. Allegro 10:30 Egmont, Op. 85 (excerpts) 5. Overture 8:29 6. Lied Die Trommel gerühret, No.1 3:55 7. Lied Freudvoll und leidvoll, No.4 1:23 8. Opferlied (“Die Flamme lodert”), Op. 121b 5:30 2 ORCHESTRE SYMPH O NIQUE DE MO NTRÉAL Founded in 1934 by a group of devoted The Orchestra has toured in Asia nine music lovers, with the backing of the Québec times, visiting Japan on six of those, and has Government, the Orchestre symphonique de toured Europe on nine occasions and South Montréal is one of the major cultural organ- America twice. The OSM has also performed izations of the city whose name it bears with at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as the Ravinia pride. and Tanglewood festivals. Moreover, since The music directors who have contributed to 1982 the Orchestra has been an almost its growth and success are Wilfrid Pelletier, annual visitor to Carnegie Hall, where it plays a Montrealer by birth and conductor at the to packed houses. Metropolitan Opera in New York who be- In 2006 the OSM offered a concert at the came the first Artistic Director of the OSM; Paris Théâtre du Châtelet, its first international Désiré Defauw; Igor Markevitch; Zubin Me- concert with Kent Nagano. In April 2007 the hta, who guided the OSM from 1961 to Orchestra completed its first coast-to-coast 1967, bringing increased prestige to the Canadian tour, placed under the direction of Orchestra since under his direction the OSM Kent Nagano. They made their Carnegie Hall began its touring career in Europe; Franz-Paul debut in March of 2008, and will embark on Decker; Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos; Charles a multi-city tour of Japan and South Korea Dutoit, from 1977 to 2002, with whom the this coming April. OSM assumed an important place on the The OSM has produced 95 recordings, earn- international stage; and, since September ing 47 national and international awards, in- 2006, Kent Nagano. cluding two Grammys. 3 KENT NAGAN O Music Director and Conductor led to European appointments: Music Director of the Opéra National de Lyon (1988-1998), Music Director of the Manchester Hallé Or- chestra (1991-2000) and Associate Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2003, Kent Nagano became the first Music Director of Los Angeles Opera after having already held the position of Principal Conductor for two years. A very im- portant period in his career was his time as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2000-2006 after which he was then given the title Honorary Conductor. As a much sought-after guest conductor he has worked with most of the world’s finest orchestras. World premieres from the past Kent Nagano has established a reputation as seasons include Bernstein’s A “White House a gifted interpreter of both the operatic and Cantata” and operas by Peter Eötvös (Three symphonic repertoire. In September 2006, Sisters), John Adams (“The Death of Klinghof- Nagano became Music Director of the Or- fer” and “El Niño”), Kaija Saariaho’s “L’amour chestre symphonique de Montréal and also de loin” at the Salzburg Festival and Unsuk began his tenure as General Music Director of Chin’s “Alice in Wonderland” at the Munich the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Opera Festival. His early professional years were spent in Boston, working in the opera house and as assistant conductor to Seiji Ozawa at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He played a key role in the world premiere of Messiaen’s opera “Saint François d’Assise” at the request of the composer. Nagano’s success in America 4 PAUL GRIFFITHS Author, critic, librettist and musicologist (1982-92) and The New Yorker (1992-96), and wrote regularly for The New York Times (1996-2003). His first book, A Concise His- tory of Modern Music, came out in 1978, and has been translated into several languages. He has published studies of Boulez, Cage, Messiaen, Ligeti, Davies, Bartók, Stravinsky, Barraqué, and the string quartet, as well as the Penguin Companion to Classical Music (2004). He is also a novelist—Myself and Marco Polo won the 1989 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize—and a librettist: among other works are texts to music by Mozart (The Jewel Box, 1991), Tan Dun (Marco Polo,1996) and Elliott Carter (What Next?, 1999). He has given lectures and courses on various musical topics and on libretto writing, invited by insti- tutions ranging from the Munich Biennale to aul Griffiths worked for thirty years as a P Harvard University. music critic in London and New York. In 2002 he was made a Chevalier in the Ordre A selection of his reviews and essays was pub- des Arts et des Lettres. lished in 2005 as The Substance of Things Heard. Other recent publications include He lives in Manorbier, Wales, and New York. The New Penguin Dictionary of Music and A Concise History of Western Music. Paul Griffiths was born in Bridgend, Wales, in 1947. He studied biochemistry at Oxford, and joined the editorial team of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians in 1973. Around the same time he began writing on music for various London papers; he was chief critic of The Times of London 5 MAXIMILIAN SCHELL Actor In addition to his international film career he has been active as a director, writer and ac- tor in European theatre, and he has also kept busy directing opera on both sides of the Atlantic. Maximilian Schell is highly acclaimed around the world as a star of film, theatre and tele- vision. Twice nominated for an Academy Award, for Julia and Judgment at Nuremberg, he won the coveted Oscar as Best Actor in the latter. He made his Hollywood debut in 1958 in The Young Lions, which also starred Marlon Brando. In 1974 he wrote, poroduced, directed and starred in The Pedestrian, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. 6 ADRIANNE PIECZ O N K A Soprano Garden, Los Angeles, and La Scala, Adrianne has performed at some of Europe’s finest summer festivals including Salzburg, Bay- reuth, Glyndebourne and Lucerne. Her reper- toire of over 30 roles embraces the music of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Janacek, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Richard Strauss. Particularly renowned for her interpretation of Verdi, Strauss and Wagner roles, Adrianne was called the “Sieglinde of our time” by Die Zeit at her Bayreuth Festival debut in 2006. Her impressive discography features operatic and symphonic works and her solo album of Wag- ner and Strauss arias (Orfeo) was nominated in 2007 for a Juno Award. Adrianne is an Officer of the Order of Can- ada and, in 2007, was named a Kammer- Dramatic and stunning, Canadian soprano sängerin by the Austrian government. Origin- Adrianne Pieczonka is hailed for her “lushly ally bestowed by the royal courts, the title beautiful sound and poignant vulnerability.” “Kammersänger(in)”, or chamber singer, is (New York Times) She performs on leading awarded to distinguished singers who have opera and concert stages throughout Europe, made a significant career in Austria. North America and Asia under the direction She makes her home in Toronto, Canada. of such conductors as the late Sir Georg Solti, Sir Colin Davis, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Valery Giergiev, Kent Nagano, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Loren Maazel, the late Richard Bradshaw, Christian Thielemann and many others. In addition to appearances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Vien- na Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House Covent 7 LUDWIG VAN BEETH O VEN (1770-1827) Beethoven was eighteen years old when end of this movement’s lengthy coda, which the Bastille fell—of an age to be excited maintains the minor key. The slow move- by the promise that now all human be- ment, in A flat, is relaxed only in speed. By ings could live as free equals.