ABOUT THE WORKS
12 + 13 JUN
This concert features the debut of a new work by Canadian composer Dorothy Chang, commissioned by the Calgary Philharmonic. She has provided the following programme note: SKIZZEN (SKETCHES) (WORLD PREMIERE) Dorothy Chang (b. 1970) In composing my new work, Skizzen (Sketches), I took inspiration from Beethoven’s famous sketchbooks that survive in libraries around the world. Drawing from sketches and material from his fifth symphony, I sought not to re-compose Beethoven’s music, but instead to reference his ideas in raw form, when they were merely flashes of inspiration and not yet developed into one of the most significant compositions Beethoven was to create. As they appear in his sketchbooks, these fragments are incomplete, disconnected, and often in only rough outline form. Some pages are curiously barren; others densely covered with chaotic scribbles, scratches, headless note-stems, and messy inkblots. Similarly, Skizzen presents a selection of Beethoven’s musical fragments, at times distinctly recognizable and elsewhere transformed, emerging from and returning to a haze of obscurity. Certain musical moments appear in just brief flashes; others spin off into new directions and interpretations, much as a composer explores the potentialities of a musical germ during the composition process. One might listen as one would view a faded and brittle document that captured the very initial sparks of a masterpiece, some 200 years ago.
Friday 12 June 2020 / 7:30PM Saturday 13 June 2020 / 7:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall Showcase
Beethoven 5: Epic SPONSORS + SUPPORTERS New Commission Supporter: DeBoni New Works Guest Artist Supporter: Naomi + John Lacey Virtuoso Programme Concert Supporter: Rozsa Foundation Conductor Couturier: Umberto Custom Tailors Ltd.
PROGRAMME Rune Bergmann, conductor Dorothy Chang, composer Inon Barnatan, piano Dorothy Chang
Skizzen (Sketches)
10'
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major (Emperor) I. Allegro II. Adagio un poco mosso III. Rondo: Allegro
38'
Intermission
20'
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 I. Allegro con brio II. Andante con moto III. Allegro IV. Allegro Programme and artists subject to change without notice
54 | PRELUDE calgaryphil.com | 403.571.0849
indicates Canadian artist or composer
31'
PIANO CONCERTO NO. 5 IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 73 (EMPEROR) Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 to 1827) Beethoven composed the Emperor Concerto from 1808 to 1809, against the backdrop of Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to the zenith of his power. Beethoven had admired the so-called ‘Little Corporal’ for his early devotion to the Rune Bergmann biography on page 7
