Katherine Chi performs Beethoven

Friday 12 May / 7:30PM

Saturday 13 May / 7:30PM

Jack Singer Concert Hall

Curated Series 1

Supported by

Guest Artist Supporter: Naomi + John Lacey Virtuoso Program

Commission Supporter: DeBoni New Works

Program

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor

Katherine Chi, piano

Jocelyn Morlock, composer

Jocelyn Morlock Interloper (World Premiere) 12'

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, 34' Op. 58

I. Allegro moderato

II. Andante con moto

III. Rondo: Vivace

Intermission 20'

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, 34' Op. 60

I. Adagio – Allegro vivace

II. Adagio

III. Allegro vivace

IV. Allegro ma non troppo

Program and artists subject to change without notice

Interloper

Jocelyn Morlock

(b. 1959)

A 21st-century listener hearing Beethoven’s fourth symphony drinks in the mysterious slow introduction to the work, comfortably expecting the energetic first movement proper that we’ve heard dozens of times; but in 1806, beginning a work titled Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major in the minor mode was transgressive — then, as now, a living composer was out to surprise, to shock us, maybe make us laugh, maybe scare us a little. Beethoven was an interloper himself; he struggled to improve his social and financial status, gradually morphing from a socialist outlier to a colossus. But I’ve been wondering — must the image of Beethoven be mutated from one of quirky, humorous, disruptive artist, to deified cultural icon — and is this truly a positive transformation? I came to classical music in late adolescence — as with many composers of my generation, by way of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — and felt like I’d passed through a magic portal. Since then, I’ve been inviting myself into the musical worlds of great western art music composers of the past and making myself at home. Interloper’s adoptive home is those first three notes of Beethoven’s fourth symphony, the unexpected minor mode, and the commensurate sense of strangeness and unreality which might be either comforting or disturbing. Elements of comedy and tragedy battle each other, and it is anyone's guess which might win.

Program note by Jocelyn Morlock © 2023

Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 to 1827)

Ludwig van Beethoven won his first fame in Vienna as a pianist. He composed solo piano works for his own performance, and by 1803, the first three of his five concertos for piano and orchestra.

He created the exceptionally beautiful Piano Concerto No. 4 in 1805 and 1806. During this highly fertile period, he also produced the Violin Concerto, which shares this Piano concerto’s warm, contented nature.

As he had done with his three previous piano concertos, he played the solo part at the first performance himself, in March 1807, before an aristocratic audience in the Vienna home of a friend. Listeners responded with polite applause. It was only when no less a soloist than Felix Mendelssohn took it up during the 1830s that it finally began to make its mark.

Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60

Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven did most of the work on Symphony No. 4 in 1806. One of its primary characteristics is a gruff sense of humour. That autumn, he visited his patron Prince Lichnowsky at his summer estate. There he met the Prince’s neighbour, Count Franz von Oppersdorff. The Count invited Beethoven and the Prince to his castle. He had his private orchestra perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, then commissioned two new symphonies from him (No. 4 and 5) It is likely that the Count’s orchestra gave the fourth symphony its premiere. The first fully documented reading was a private one in Vienna in March 1807.

During Beethoven’s 1806 stay with the Prince, he had a stormy encounter with another guest, a French General. Beethoven refused Lichnowsky's request to play the piano to entertain the General. This was Beethoven’s way of protesting the Napoleonic Wars, which were devastating much of Europe, and continued the disgust that led him to cancel the dedication of Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) to Bonaparte.

Beethoven stormed out of the castle and trudged through the rain to spend the night in the nearest town. Before departing for Vienna the following day, he sent Lichnowsky this oft-quoted note:

Prince! What you are, you are by accident of birth. What I am, I am through myself. There have been and will be thousands of princes. There is only one Beethoven.

Program notes by Don Anderson © 2023

Mei-Ann Chen Conductor

Praised for her dynamic, passionate conducting style, Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen has been Music Director of the MacArthur Award-winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011. Chen has been Chief Conductor of Austria’s Recreation Orchester at Styriarte since the fall of 2021 (following two seasons as the orchestra’s first-ever Principal Guest Conductor), making her the first female Asian conductor to hold this position with an Austrian orchestra. She also serves as the first-ever Artistic Partner of Houston’s River Oaks Chamber Orchestra since 2019, and this fall began her new role as Artistic Partner with Washington state’s Northwest Sinfonietta. Highly regarded as a compelling communicator and an innovative leader both on and off the podium, and a sought-after guest conductor, she has appeared with distinguished orchestras throughout the Americas, Europe, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, and Scandinavia, and continues to expand her relationships with orchestras worldwide (over 120 orchestras to date). Honours include being named one of the 2015 Top 30 Influencers by Musical America, the 2012 Helen M Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras, winner of the 2007 Taki Concordia Fellowship founded by Marin Alsop, 2005 First Prize Winner of the Malko Competition, and ASCAP awards for innovative programming.

Katherine Chi Piano

Katherine Chi, firmly established as one of Canada’s most sought-after pianists, has performed throughout Europe and North America to great acclaim. As noted by The New York Times, “Ms. Chi display[s] a keen musical intelligence and a powerful arsenal of technique.” While hailed for her interpretations of Mozart, she is also acclaimed for performances of major romantic and 20th-century concertos. The Globe and Mail described Chi’s performance as “… the most sensational but, better, the most unfailingly cogent and compelling Prokofiev’s Third I have heard in years.” With her energy, character, and spunk, Chi has been described as a “shining star” (Lake Superior News) known to “bring the house down” (The Chronicle Journal), performing concerto repertoire ranging from Bach to Bartók to Liszt to Schoenberg. In 2000, Chi won first prize in the Honens International Piano Competition and was the first Canadian to win this prestigious Calgary award.

Jocelyn Morlock Composer

Jocelyn Morlock is a composer living in Vancouver, Canada, the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. She came to classical music in late adolescence by way of the film Amadeus, and felt like she’d passed through a magic portal, never to return. Her music is inspired variously by birds, insomnia, nature, fear, other people’s music and art, nocturnal wandering thoughts, lucid dreaming, death, and the liminal times and experiences before and after death. Morlock was the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s first female Composer-in-Residence (2014–2019), and inaugural Composer-in-Residence for Vancouver’s Music on Main (2012–2014.) She won a 2018 Juno Award for her piece My Name is Amanda Todd — written as part of the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s multi-media work Life Reflected, celebrating four remarkable Canadian women. As a listener and music educator, she has a broad-ranging interest in all kinds and styles of music and is grateful to be living in a time and place where we can hear so many diverse voices express their identity in music. She believes in the proliferation of positive energy that a large group of people can create together, through many small actions.