COPLAND & STRAUSS CONCERT DEEP DIVE Saturday, September 14 & Sunday, September 15, 2019 Performances #130 & #131 Season 5, Concerts 1 & 2 Fisher Center at Bard Sosnoff Theater PLEASE KEEP PHONE SCREENS DIM Silence all electronic devices PHOTOS AND VIDEOS ARE ENCOURAGED but only before and after the music ENTER TO WIN TICKETS by signing up for TŌN email in the lobby INSPIRE GREATNESS by making a donation at theorchestranow.org GET SOCIAL by sharing your photos using @theorchnow and #theorchnow scarcely premiered outside of Russia until THE MUSIC she was nearly 50 years old. Ustvolskaya, perhaps boldly, claimed that her musical GALINA USTVOLSKAYA’S catalogue of fewer than 30 published works SYMPHONIC POEM NO. 1 did not resemble any musical style of her predecessors or contemporaries, saying Notes by TŌN bassoonist Matthew “there is no link whatsoever between my Gregoire music and that of any composer, living or dead." Her style is characterized by surprising instrumental combinations (such as her Symphony No. 1 for orchestra and two boys’ voices, or her Benedictus, Qui Venet for four flutes, four bassoons, and piano), use of tone clusters, transparent texture, and excessively repeated “blocks” of sound, a technique that prompted Dutch music critic Elmer Shonberger to name her “the Matt Dine Matt lady with the hammer.” The Composer The Separation Galina Ustvolskaya was once hailed by her Ustvolskaya’s relationship with her teacher teacher, Dmitri Shostakovich, as a unique was about as complicated as her music. talent, one that would “achieve world fame” Shostakovich respected Ustvolskaya’s with her unprecedented compositional works and often sought her criticisms style. However, that sentiment would for his own unfinished compositions. never reach fruition during Shostakovich’s Shostakovich also harbored romantic lifetime. In fact, Ustvolskaya’s works were feelings for his student, affections that THEORCHESTRANOW.ORG THE ORCHESTRA NOW CONCERT DEEP DIVE were ultimately rejected. Shostakovich’s life. Today, her compositions have achieved Heimliche Aufforderung AARON COPLAND’S Fifth String Quartet even reflects his increasing appreciation, especially in the Third in the set, “Heimliche Aufforderung” SYMPHONY NO. 3 heartache, quoting Ustvolskaya’s Trio West, as they represent a composer that (“Secret invitation”) is set to the text of Notes by TŌN trumpet player Guillermo from 1949. Following their separation in struggled against all odds and influences to a love poem by Scottish-German poet García Cuesta 1947, Ustvolskaya rejected any musical foster an inimitable artistic vision. John Henry Mackay. This is an ardent love or personal connection she had with her song about a secret tryst amidst a joyous mentor of eight years, even stating later RICHARD STRAUSS’ FOUR feast of merrymakers. Rippling figurations in life that she dismissed Shostakovich’s SONGS, OP. 27 accompany the yearning vocal line and perceived genius as a composer, and Notes by TŌN violinist Gaia Mariani a peaceful postlude follows the voice’s considered his works too “depressing” and Ramsdell rapturous plea for night to fall so the lovers lacking innovation. In 1995, she said, “At no can meet. time, not even when I was still a student, did I feel any affinity whatsoever with either his Morgen! music or his personality. This supposedly The fourth song, “Morgen!” (“Tomorrow!”), is exceptional man is far from exceptional to one of Strauss’ most well-known works. Set Matt Dine Matt me. On the contrary, he has ruined my life to another text by John Henry Mackay, this and has utterly destroyed my most heartfelt rapturous love song paints the inner elation The Work feelings.” of a lover staring into the eyes of his beloved. Aaron Copland's 3rd Symphony is probably The voice waits a considerable amount of the biggest American symphony ever The Music time before entering with “and tomorrow written. Copland began working on it in 1944 The pieces she wrote in the decade the sun will shine again,” as if caught mid- and finished it in 1946, which means the following her tutelage with Shostakovich Ruhe, meine Seele! thought in dreamy revery. Strauss uses compositional process started during World are described as meeting the Russian Completed in 1894, Richard Strauss the solo violin to emphasize the theme, War II and finished once the war was over. aesthetic standards, but perhaps do not composed his set of Four Songs as a creating a sense of sweet nostalgia, and It was premiered in Boston by the Boston reflect her unique style, which at the time wedding present for his wife, the eminent a succession of chords that never resolve Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge had not earned a place in the concert hall. soprano Pauline de Ahna. The first song, Dine Matt perfectly depicts the lover’s yearning for Koussevitzky in October of 1946. If we count Her Symphonic Poem No. 1 is considered “Ruhe, meine Seele!” (“Rest, my soul!”), is his beloved. Copland's 1930 Dance Symphony, the 3rd among these less radical works, and shows set to the text of a poem by the German Symphony would be his fourth work under significant evidence that Ustvolskaya was poet Karl Henckell. Of the four songs, this this form. indeed capable of appealing to a wider one is perhaps the most somber. The poem audience with more comprehensible scores. urges the listener to rest their spirit and try The Sound The Poem even sported a programmatic to forget all sufferings, reassuring them that Copland is a great icon of the orchestral title, The Light of the Steppes, before being their troubles will soon be over. sound that we identify as American. His renamed by the composer in its addition music always sounds to me like open to the official catalogue. Ustvolskaya, Cäcilie fields, the far West, and a quest for land however, largely rejected the aesthetics The second song, “Cäcilie,” is one of Strauss’ and freedom. When I was first discovering of the USSR and chose to remain true to her most impassioned love songs. Composed his music back in the day, as a teenager in own unique artistic voice, a decision that the day before his wedding, it uses the text a small town in Spain, I could easily imagine ultimately would prove to be a detriment of a love poem by German writer Heinrich Copland wearing a big cowboy hat like John to her financial success as an artist. Hart, who fittingly wrote the poem for Wayne did in the movies, riding a horse out Despite its relative accessibility, the First his own wife, Cäcilie Hart. Strauss uses a on the prairie. Well, it wasn't like that. Aaron Symphonic Poem was declared a failure at passionately churning accompaniment and Copland was born into a family of Lithuanian its premiere in Leningrad, an event at which soaring vocal line to express what the love immigrants. He was a gay, Jewish New Yorker Shostakovich only half-heartedly defended of his wife means to this ecstatically happy . and he never rode a horse. her, possibly fueling Ustvolskaya’s hostile husband. feelings toward him in the later half of her 2 / SEP 2019 / THE ORCHESTRA NOW THEORCHESTRANOW.ORG / SEP 2019 / 3 THE ORCHESTRA NOW CONCERT DEEP DIVE American Brass Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra; advanced certificate in Orchestra Studies. The last movement of this symphony American way of playing those instruments, recently recorded Anthony Cheung’s All The orchestra’s home base is the Frank features Copland's most famous creation, and for a European who grew up listening thorn, but cousin to your rose with the Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard, which also works as a piece on its own, to Hollywood soundtracks (even though International Contemporary Ensemble’s where they perform multiple concerts orchestrated only for brass and percussion: many of them were recorded by English Jacob Greenberg, premiered in 2017 at each season and take part in the annual the Fanfare for the Common Man. Copland’s orchestras), playing this symphony, here the Tanglewood Music Center Festival of Bard Music Festival. They also perform way of writing for brass, no doubt, helped to in New York, is a dream come true. Contemporary Music regularly at the finest venues in New York, create the characteristic including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The This season debuts with Broad Street Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others Orchestra and Penn Sound Collective across NYC and beyond. HuffPost, who has called TŌN’s performances “dramatic Musical Quarterly, and has received many Education Eastman School of Music, and intense,” praises these concerts as “an THE ARTISTS honors for his contributions to music. studied with Anthony Dean Griffey and Rita opportunity to see talented musicians early Shane; Bard College Conservatory of Music in their careers.” LEON BOTSTEIN conductor More info online at leonbotstein.com. Graduate Vocal Arts Program, studied with Sanford Sylvan PAULINA SWIERCZEK soprano The orchestra has performed with many THE ORCHESTRA NOW distinguished guest conductors and soloists, including Neeme Järvi, Vadim Repin, Fabio Luisi, Peter Serkin, Gerard Schwarz, Tan Dun, The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a group of Zuill Bailey, and JoAnn Falletta. In the 2019– vibrant young musicians from across the 20 season, conductors Leonard Slatkin and globe who are making orchestral music Hans Graf will also lead TŌN performances. relevant to 21st-century audiences Recordings featuring The Orchestra Now by sharing their unique personal include Ferdinand Ries piano concertos insights in a welcoming environment. with Piers Lane on Hyperion Records, and Matt Dine Matt Hand-picked from the world’s leading a Sorel Classics concert recording of pianist conservatories—including The Juilliard Anna Shelest performing works by Anton Leon Botstein brings a renowned career as School, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Rubinstein with TŌN and conductor Neeme both a conductor and educator to his role Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and the Järvi.