WEEK ONE IN THE OLD STYLE Sunday Afternoon, August 5, 2018 at 3:00 Spa Little Theatre SUMMER WARMTH Tuesday Evening, August 7, 2018 at 8:00 Spa Little Theatre WWW.SPAC.ORG WWW.CHAMBERMUSICSOCIETY.ORG A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Friends, Welcome to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s 2018 Season! As I begin my second summer in Saratoga, I am so grateful for the community’s enthusiastic embrace of our new initiatives, new partnerships and new collaborations. This season you can expect exhilarating performances from our beloved resident companies, the return of new “classics” like “Live at the Jazz Bar,” “SPAC on Stage” and “Caffe Lena @ SPAC,” and the Saratoga debuts of the National Ballet of Cuba and Trinity Irish Dance Company. SPAC and its home, the Spa State Park, represent a perfect confluence of manmade beauty and natural beauty and it is the inspiration of place that made us want to explore the interplay between the natural world and the world of art, the nexus between Art & Cosmos. This year, we launch the Out of this World festival, kicked off by a performance of Holst’s The Planets with spectacular NASA Space footage, followed by star-gazing around the reflecting pool. Audiences will engage with roaming astronomers, experience virtual reality space expeditions and even attend a special children’s chamber concert that examines the creative connection between Einstein and Mozart. And we introduce a new SPAC Speakers series with thought-provoking “stars” from the worlds of space, science and the arts. There are so many other new experiences and surprises in store. We welcome you to a new summer of discovery. Elizabeth Sobol PRESIDENT AND CEO CMS AT SPAC A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN Dear Friends, On behalf of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Board of Directors, thank you for your support and attendance at this performance. The strength and progress of SPAC has always depended on the contributions of its audiences and the many sponsors, donors and partners who recognize SPAC’s impact on the cultural and economic life of this region. Thanks to you, as we lift the curtain on our season, we do so in a strong position financially, artistically and as an institution. Last season, we welcomed Elizabeth Sobol to Saratoga Springs as SPAC’s new president and CEO. In less than two years, Elizabeth has implemented a new vision and path for the Center with innovative programming and an increased emphasis on affordability, accessibility and community outreach. SPAC’s reduced $30 amphitheater ticket and the expanded Fidelity Kids in Free program welcomed hundreds of new guests who had previously never been to the Center. Educational programming such as Classical Kids, Summer Nights at SPAC and the Performance Project have expanded exponentially, reaching more than 23,000 students in over 70 schools. These are just a few of the successes that we will continue to build upon. Looking ahead to the future, I’d also like to extend a special thanks to New York State for its capital investment of $1.75 million to rehabilitate and upgrade SPAC’s amphitheater ramps, lighting and other high priority infrastructure. The new project is slated to be completed in advance of the 2019 season and is part of the Board’s and SPAC President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol’s vision to strengthen our partnerships and make critical investments into our facilities for generations to come. As always, your presence and support is what makes this season possible. We invite you to join us often this summer to experience world-class artistry in our world-class venue. Ron Riggi CHAIRMAN CMS AT SPAC IN THE OLD STYLE Sunday Afternoon, August 5, 2018 at 3:00 Spa Little Theatre GILLES VONSATTEL, piano SCHUMANN QUARTET NICOLAS DAUTRICOURT, violin ERIK SCHUMANN, violin KEN SCHUMANN, violin LIISA RANDALU, viola MARK SCHUMANN, cello ALFRED SCHNITTKE Suite in Old Style for Violin and Piano (1934-1998) (1972) Pastorale: Moderato Ballet: Allegro Minuet: Tempo di menuetto Fugue: Allegro Pantomime: Andantino DAUTRICOURT, VONSATTEL DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Quintet in G minor for Piano, Two Violins, (1906-1975) Viola, and Cello, Op. 57 (1940) Prelude: Lento— Fugue: Adagio Scherzo: Allegretto Intermezzo: Lento— Finale: Allegretto VONSATTEL, DAUTRICOURT, K. SCHUMANN, RANDALU, M. SCHUMANN —INTERMISSION— LUDWIG Quartet in C-sharp minor for Strings, VAN BEETHOVEN Op. 131 (1825-26) (1770-1827) Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo— Allegro molto vivace— Allegro moderato—Adagio— Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile— Presto— Adagio quasi un poco andante— Allegro E. SCHUMANN, K. SCHUMANN, RANDALU, M. SCHUMANN PLEASE TURN OFF CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES. Photographing, sound recording, or videotaping this event is prohibited. NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Suite in Old Style for Violin and Piano ALFRED SCHNITTKE works gained him a reputation as a Born November 24, 1934 in modernist, and he was accepted as Engels, Russia. a member of the Composers’ Union Died August 3, 1998 in Hamburg, Germany. following his graduation in 1958 as much to tame his avant-garde Composed in 1972. tendencies as to promote his creative Duration: 16 minutes work. He tried writing Party-sanctioned pieces during the next few years—the Alfred Schnittke was born on 1959 cantata Songs of War and Peace November 24, 1934 in Engels on was his frst published score—but the the Volga, in the Russian steppes, ft was uncomfortable on both sides, 500 miles southeast of Moscow. He and during the 1960s and early 1970s, showed enough musical ability to when performances of his works were receive an audition at the Central offcially discouraged, he devoted Music School for Gifted Children in most of his creative energy to scoring Moscow in May 1941, but the following three or four flms a year. In 1962, month the Germans invaded Russia he started teaching part-time at the and the opportunity for early training Moscow Conservatory (the Soviet vanished. In 1945, after the war, Harry offcials would not grant him a full-time Schnittke, a journalist, got a job on a appointment), leaving little opportunity German-language newspaper in Vienna for original creative work. In 1972, he published by the occupying Russian resigned from the conservatory to forces. He brought his family to the city devote himself to composition. the following year, and there 12-year- Schnittke composed prolifcally old Alfred had the world of music during the following years, and opened to him through his frst piano by the early 1980s he had won an lessons and attendance at operas international reputation. In 1989, he and concerts. The city of Mozart and accepted a grant that allowed him to Schubert inspired Schnittke’s earliest live in Berlin for a year, after which he attempts at composition. settled in Hamburg. During his later When the Viennese paper ceased years, Schnittke was invited regularly operations in 1948, the Schnittkes to attend performances of his works returned to Russia, where Alfred from Tokyo to Leipzig to Santa Fe, but gained admittance to the October he was limited in traveling because of Revolution Music College in Moscow; allergies, migraines, kidney disease, in the autumn of 1953, he entered and three serious strokes suffered the Moscow Conservatory. His early between 1985 and 1994, though he CMS AT SPAC SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2018 proved remarkably resilient in carrying made a transcription for chamber on his creative work until his death in orchestra alone the following year.) Hamburg on August 3, 1998. The work is in a mock-Baroque style In developing his own distinctive that places it in the line of such earlier musical speech, Schnittke sifted musical homages to bygone eras through a wide range of music, old as Tchaikovsky’s Mozartiana Suite, and new, and came to understand Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, and Ravel’s Le that he could forge a style of personal Tombeau de Couperin. Schnittke’s lilting expression that could encompass, Pastorale glows with a sunny sweetness perhaps might even be formed from, that recalls tender movements by references to other music and other Vivaldi and Handel; the music stops ages. “A mixture of styles which are before it reaches its apparent fnal worked with as they are,” he explained, cadence chord. The Ballet is nimble and “not in the sense of a synthesis but bustling, with a brief central section that as ‘poly-stylism,’ in which the various is more veiled in expression. The Minuet idioms appear to speak as individual is slow in tempo and surprisingly keys on a large keyboard.” Though lugubrious, giving it the effect of a clearly products of the late 20th century, sad lullaby. The Fugue is more a jaunty Schnittke’s compositions are essentially contrapuntal dialogue than a formally old-fashioned and Romantic in trying developed example of its genre. The to create a sense of musical journey, of closing Pantomime, a sort of modern emotions excited, of memories evoked, Musical Joke, tosses satiric gibes at of communication from an insightful the banalities of some lesser Baroque author to an attentive mind and heart. music. Some dissonant harmonies The Suite in Old Style was composed escape to mark the movement’s mid- in 1972 for violin and keyboard (piano or point, after which the banal music harpsichord), and arranged in 1987 for resumes unfustered. Like the Pastorale, viola d’amore and chamber orchestra. the Pantomime ends before it makes it (Vladimir Spivakov and Mikhail Milman to the expected fnal resolution. Quintet in G minor for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello, Op. 57 DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Shostakovich’s mother, Sofa Born September 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg. Vasilievna, was a skilled pianist Died August 9, 1975 in Moscow.