THE ROMANTIC HERO 09 FEB 10 At the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College THE ORCHESTRA NOW SAT 2/9/19 at 8 PM & SUN 2/10/19 at 2 PM The Richard B. Fisher Center for the MEET THE MUSICIANS Performances #112 & #113: Performing Arts at Bard College Here’s how our vibrant, Season 4, Concerts 18 & 19 Sosnoff Theater young players are sharing Leon Botstein, conductor their love of music with you: • They wrote the concert Richard Wagner Siegfried’s Rhine Journey from (1813–83) Götterdämmerung (1869–74) notes! Read their thoughts starting on page 4. Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32 • Three of them will (1840–93) (1876) introduce the pieces of music on today’s program. - Intermission - • They’ll be in the lobby during intermission. Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), Op. 40 Come say hi and have (1864–1949) (1897–98) The Hero a chat! The Hero's Adversaries The Hero's Companion The Hero's Deeds of War DON’T MISS A NOTE The Hero's Works of Peace Sign up for the TŌN The Hero's Retirement email list by filling –no pause between movements– out the insert in this program. INSPIRE GREATNESS Help us continue concerts like these by making a donation. See page 14 for details. GET SOCIAL Share your photos using The concert will run approximately 2 hours and 5 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission. #theorchnow and tag us @theorchnow. No beeping or buzzing, please! Silence all electronic devices. Photos and videos are encouraged, but only before and after the music. 2 February 2019 THE ORCHESTRA NOW PagesPages 1 1 & & 2: 2: Photos Photos by by Matt Matt Dine Dine THEORCHESTRANOW.ORG THE ORCHESTRA NOW FEBRUARY 2019 3 THE PROGRAM THE PROGRAM The Ring The Background They say that a river cuts through Francesca da Rimini is a symphonic rock not because of its power, but its fantasia written in 1876. It musically persistence. Such a virtue is exemplary depicts the tragic story of the title of Richard Wagner, the composer of the character, as told in the Inferno cantica titanic tetralogy of operas (who actually of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Tchaikovsky used the term music dramas) known as was initially drawn to this tale due to its TŌN’S Der Ring des Nibelungen or “The Ring operatic possibilities, and although an LEONARDO VÁSQUEZ CHACÓN ON of the Nibelung.” The fourth in the saga, TŌN’S SARAH SCHOEFFLER ON opera never came to fruition, the idea WAGNER’S SIEGFRIED’S Götterdämmerung or “Twilight of the TCHAIKOVSKY’S resulted in a work that was successful RHINE JOURNEY Gods,” was completed in 1874 and is FRANCESCA DA RIMINI from its initial premiere and has the opera from which Siegfried’s Rhine become a beloved part of the Journey comes. symphonic repertory. The Themes The Second Circle of Hell The music starts with a somber line in the cellos, depicting Siegfried and Brünnhilde In the fifth canto of Inferno Dante meets Francesca, who narrates the story of how waking up after their first intimate encounter. As the fog dissipates, we hear four French she was forced into a marriage with a cruel warlord husband but instead falls in love horns proudly announcing the hero Siegfried’s theme. This is answered by the clarinet, with his brother. The lovers are discovered after reading the romance of Lancelot which brings a different and much more tender musical idea: Brünnhilde’s theme. and Guinevere together, and in a jealous rage her husband kills them both. The two Wagner keeps developing these two themes throughout the piece by changing their lovers are condemned to the Second Circle of Hell, where their punishment consists character, instrumentation, and the harmony around them, almost like the two lovers of being trapped together and hurled relentlessly about in a violent storm, never to dancing or having a discussion. At some point we also hear the sinuous and ever-flowing walk on firm soil again. This tragic tale was especially popular with the Romantics of music that represents the Rhine river in Das Rheingold, the very first opera of the cycle. this time period, and Franz Liszt used it as inspiration for the Inferno movement of his “Dante” Symphony. One can hear strong influences of both Liszt and Wagner within From Darkness to Heroism Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini. The composer’s mastery in orchestration and use of drama always impacts me. The piece depicts an epic journey filled with contrasts between darkness and heroism, while The Music other parts remind me of the most innocent and tender moments in Debussy or Ravel, Tchaikovsky’s symphonic poem has three parts, with a short introduction. The piece composers of a later generation. Wagner’s music is something that even musicians in opens with a dark, somber effect by the basses and winds, which portrays Dante a professional symphony orchestra do not always get to perform because it is mostly as he strays from the right path. The influence of Wagner is clearly felt in the tonally in the field of opera companies, so being able to perform it today is really a great ambiguous harmonies of the introduction. As Dante proceeds deeper into the circles of opportunity. Hell, the music continues into the first main section of the piece. In the second section, the tempo accelerates into a syncopated Allegro as Dante watches the violently Thank You, Wagner spinning storm of souls in the second circle of Hell. In the last section, the music calms Like the Rhine river that knows no rest, Richard Wagner’s relentlessness gave us a work as Dante requests to speak to the condemned lovers. This section is introduced by a comprised of four operas that needs four days to be performed—almost 17 hours of heartrending clarinet solo, which depicts Francesca’s point of view. The piece ends with music. His use of Norse mythology, along with plots that involve romance, murder, a large orchestral tutti as we are drawn, along with Dante, through the terrifying tempest magic, etc. are what inspired much of our modern epic sagas like The Lord of the Rings of souls once more. and Game of Thrones. Next time you find yourself awestruck by the latest episode of your favorite show, remember you have Wagner to thank. 4 FEBRUARY 2019 THE ORCHESTRA NOW Photos by Matt Dine THEORCHESTRANOW.ORG THE ORCHESTRA NOW FEBRUARY 2019 5 THE PROGRAM THE PROGRAM MEET THE CONDUCTOR The Inspiration Written in the summer of 1898 while staying in a Bavarian mountain resort, Ein Heldenleben depicts a hero conquering his enemies. Strauss was convinced that Beethoven’s great “Eroica” (Heroic) Symphony was underperformed, and that it was his job to eradicate this injustice with his own homage to “Eroica.” “Thus to fulfill a pressing need I am TŌN’S SOPHIA BERNITZ ON composing a largish tone poem entitled R. STRAUSS’ EIN HELDENLEBEN Ein Heldenleben, admittedly without a (A HERO’S LIFE) funeral march, but nonetheless in E-flat major, with lots of horns—which is always a measure of heroism,” he wrote. The Music The work is made up of six movements played without interruption. In “The Hero” the E-flat major theme ranges upwards of five octaves. “The Hero’s Adversaries” are signaled by a very sarcastic flute melody. “The Hero’s Companion” is a substantial portrait between solo violin and the orchestra. I will be playing the solo violin part, which is a portrayal of Strauss’ wife, Pauline Maria de Ahna. She is a complex woman with many sides to her—“never twice the same,” as Strauss said. “The Hero’s Deeds of War” is the climax of the work. It uses eight horns, three offstage trumpets, and a significant amount of percussion. “The Hero’s Works of Peace” is where the hero shows off his “accomplishments” by presenting themes from eight of his other great works, most famously Don Juan, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Till Eulenspeigel’s Merry Pranks, Don Quixote, and Death and Transfiguration. If you are familiar with any of these works, it is fun to try to find them! And finally, in “The Hero’s Retirement,” the motive from the second section returns with a ferocious episode, followed by a calming theme in the English Horn. This leads into the peaceful ending, where the violin solo and the home Leon Botstein key of E-flat major return, signifying the Hero’s completion and fulfillment. conductor The Reception After its premiere, some called Ein Heldenleben “revolutionary in every sense of the Leon Botstein brings a renowned career as both a conductor and educator to his role word,” while others thought it was far too egotistical. In later years, Strauss denied as music director of The Orchestra Now. He has been music director of the American that he was the hero depicted in this work. However, it is fairly obvious that that is a Symphony Orchestra since 1992, artistic codirector of Bard SummerScape and the falsehood. Nonetheless, it is one of the most challenging and fulfilling pieces in the Bard Music Festival since their creation, and president of Bard College since 1975. He orchestral repertoire to this day. This is my first time playing it, and I am so fortunate to was the music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra from 2003–11, and is now be able to portray Pauline’s wild personality for all of you, along with the rest of this great conductor laureate. In 2018 he assumed artistic directorship of the Grafenegg Academy work with my colleagues.