Program - All Beethoven featuring Symphony No. 7 by Colorado Symphony

Colorado Symphony 2016/17 Season Presenting Sponsor:

MASTERWORKS • 2016-2017 ALL BEETHOVEN FEATURING SYMPHONY NO. 7 COLORADO SYMPHONY DAVID DANZMAYR, conductor STEPHEN HOUGH, piano This Weekend’s Concerts are Gratefully Dedicated to AMG National Trust Bank Friday’s Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Delta Dental Plan of Colorado Saturday's Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Harvey and Maureen Solomon Sunday's Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Seth Weisberg

Friday, December 2, 2016, at 7:30pm Saturday, December 3, 2016, at 7:30pm Sunday, December 4, 2016, at 1:00pm Boettcher Concert Hall

BEETHOVEN

Overture to Coriolan, Op. 62

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 Allegro con brio Largo Rondo: Allegro — INTERMISSION —

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 Poco sostenuto – Vivace Allegretto Presto Allegro con brio

SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 1

MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES DAVID DANZMAYR, conductor Described by The Herald as “extremely good, concise, clear, incisive and expressive,” David Danzmayr is widely regarded as one of the most talented and exciting European conductors of his generation. Danzmayr is Chief Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the first to hold this title in seven years. As leader of this orchestra, he follows in the footsteps of famous conductors like Lovro von Matacic, Kazushi Ono, and Dmitri Kitajenko. In the U.S., Danzmayr is Music Director of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and the Artistic Advisor of the Breckenridge Music Festival. Previously, he served as Music Director of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra in Chicago, where he was lauded by the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Classical Review. Danzmayr has quickly become a sought-after guest conductor, having worked with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Detroit Symphony, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Mozarteum Orchester, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Lousiana Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Chamber Philharmonic, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Danzmayr received his musical training at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg where, after initially studying piano, he went on to study conducting in the class of Dennis Russell Davies.

SIM CANETTY-CLARKE

STEPHEN HOUGH, piano Stephen Hough is regarded as a renaissance man of his time. Over the course of his career he has distinguished himself as a true polymath, not only securing a reputation as a uniquely insightful concert pianist but also as a writer and composer. He is commended for his mastery of the instrument along with an individual and inquisitive mind which has earned him a multitude of prestigious awards and a long-standing international following. Mr. Hough was the first classical performing artist to receive a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2011, and in 2013 was named a Commander of the British Empire. He regularly contributes articles for The Guardian, The Times, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine, and from 2009 to 2016, wrote more than six hundred articles for his The Telegraph blog, which became one of the most popular and influential forums for cultural discussion. He has appeared with most of the major European and American orchestras and plays recitals regularly in major halls and concert series around the world. His 2016-17 North American season includes appearances with the New York Philharmonic and Atlanta, Colorado, Oregon, Puerto Rico, St. Louis, and Seattle symphonies. As a composer, Mr. Hough has written works for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, and solo piano, and performs his own Sonata III (Trinitas) in solo recitals this season. He has recorded more than 50 albums for Hyperion, and his most recent release features Schumann and Dvořák piano concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Follow Mr. Hough on Twitter at @houghhough.

PROGRAM 2 SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

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MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) : Overture to Coriolan, Op. 62 Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770, in Bonn and died on March 26, 1827, in Vienna. He wrote the Coriolan Overture early in 1807; it was premiered at a private concert conducted by the composer in Vienna at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz in March 1807. The score calls for woodwinds, horns and trumpets in pairs, timpani, and strings. Duration is about 7 minutes. Last performance by the orchestra was on March 20 & 21, 2008. Marin Alsop was on the podium. This Overture was inspired by, rather than composed for, the tragedy Coriolan (1802) by Heinrich Joseph von Collin (1771-1811), a jurist, poet, and, from 1809, court councilor who enjoyed much theatrical success in Vienna with this play. The play’s story, which may be either fact or fable, tells of Gaius Marcius, a patrician Roman general of extraordinary bravery who led the Roman armies to a great triumph over the Volscians, the people of the hill country south of Rome. For capturing their city of Corioli, he received the honorary name of Coriolan. His return to Rome found him embroiled in the conflict between patricians and plebeians, the latter claiming insufferable oppression. The aristocratic Coriolan so vilified the populace that the senate, yielding to plebeian pressure, voted his permanent exile. So bitter and vengeful did he become that he went to the conquered Volscians, swore allegiance to them, and offered to lead them against Rome. He besieged the city, rejecting all ambassadors until his mother and his wife came to entreat him to abandon his wrathful revenge. They subdued his bitter arrogance and pride and he withdrew the Volscians, who turned against him. In Shakespeare’s version, he is slain by them; in Collin’s adaptation, he commits suicide. The Overture opens (C minor) with stern, unison notes in the strings punctuated by slashing chords from the full orchestra. A restless, foreboding figure of unsettled rhythmic character constitutes the main theme. The second theme is a lyrical melody, greatly contrasting with the preceding measures, but not immune from their agitated expectancy. The tempestuous development derives its mood and its material from the main theme. The recapitulation recalls the opening gestures, but in F minor rather than C minor. The C tonality returns with the second theme. A lengthy coda, almost a second development, pits the lyrical melody against the imperious statement. The final outburst of the unison gesture spread across the full orchestra represents the dramatic denouement and the extinction of Coriolanus’ awful pride. The Overture dies away amid sighs and silence.

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PROGRAM 4 SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 Though the Third Concerto was largely composed in 1800, the earliest sketches for it date from 1797, and the finishing touches were not applied until 1803. It was first heard at Beethoven’s concert in the Theater-an-der-Wien, Vienna, on April 4, 1803. The score calls for woodwinds, horns and trumpets in pairs, timpani, and strings. Duration is about 34 minutes. The concerto was last performed on December 1 & 2, 2012, with Lise de la Salle as the soloist and Douglas Boyd leading the orchestra. By 1803, Emanuel Schickaneder, the colorful character who figured so prominently in the closing pages of Mozart’s life as the librettist and producer of The Magic Flute, had taken over the management of Vienna’s Theater-an-der-Wien. His house was locked in a fierce competitive battle with the court-subsidized Kärtnertortheater, run by Baron Peter von Braun. When von Braun hired the distinguished Luigi Cherubini as resident composer, Schickaneder felt obliged to counter with his own music master, and he approached Beethoven with an offer. Beethoven, who had felt the need to write for the stage for some time, accepted gladly—especially since the job carried free lodgings in the theater as part of the compensation. He and Schickaneder dutifully plowed through a small library of possibilities for an operatic subject, but none inspired Beethoven until he took up work on Fidelio late in 1803. In the meantime, Beethoven took advantage of his theatrical connection to put some of his instrumental works on display. Since opera was forbidden in Catholic countries during Lent at that time, the Theater-an-der-Wien was available for concerts in the early spring, and Beethoven scheduled such an event during April 1803. It had been fully three years since he last presented a concert entirely of his own music, and he had several scores that were awaiting their first presentations, including the Second Symphony, the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, and this Third Piano Concerto. He programmed all of these and, for good measure, tossed in the First Symphony, which had premiered at his concert three years earlier. Beethoven proceeded enthusiastically with plans for the concert, working right up to the last minute putting finishing touches on the new compositions. (His pupil Ferdinand Ries found him in bed writing trombone parts for the oratorio only three hours before the rehearsal began.) He had just a single rehearsal on the concert day for this wealth of unfamiliar music, and, with his less-than-adept players, it is little wonder that it went poorly. The public and critical response to the concert was lukewarm, undoubtedly due in large part to the inadequate performance. Beethoven, however, was delighted to have played his music for the Viennese public, and he was well on his way to becoming recognized more for his ability as a composer than as a pianist. The Third Concerto’s first movement opens with the longest introductory orchestral tutti in Beethoven’s concertos, virtually a full symphonic exposition in itself. The strings in unison present immediately the main theme, “a group of pregnant figures,” assessed the eminent British musicologist Sir Donald Tovey, “which nobody but Beethoven could have invented.” The lyrical second theme is sung by violins and clarinet in a contrasting major mode. The closely reasoned development section grows inexorably from thematic fragments heard in the exposition. The recapitulation begins with a forceful restatement of the main theme by the full orchestra. The second theme and other melodic materials follow, always given a heightened emotional weight over their initial appearances, and lead to a cadenza written by Beethoven that takes on the character of a development section for the soloist. The orchestra re-enters, at first accompanied by quiet, ethereal chords in the piano but soon rising to a stern climax which draws the movement to a close. SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 5

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES The second movement is a nocturne of tender sentiments and quiet moods. Though analysis reveals its form to be a three-part structure (A–B–A), it is in spirit simply an extended song—a marvelous juxtaposition of hymnal tranquility and a sensuous, operatic love scene. The traditional, Classical rondo was a form of simple, high spirits meant to send the audience away in a bubbling mood. Mozart, in his incomparable late concertos, had begun to explore the emotional depth possible with the rondo, and in this Third Concerto Beethoven continued that search. (Mozart’s Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 was an important model for Beethoven’s work.) Beethoven incorporated elements of sonata design into the finale to lend it additional weight, even inserting a fugal passage in the second episode. Only in the closing pages is the dark world of C minor abandoned for a vivacious romp through C major to close this wonderful work.

 Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 Beethoven composed this work between the autumn of 1811 and June 1812. He conducted the premiere on December 8, 1813, at a Viennese concert to benefit the Austrian and Bavarian soldiers wounded in the struggle against Napoleon at the Battle of Hanau. The score calls for woodwinds, horns and trumpets in pairs, timpani, and strings. Duration is about 40 minutes. The symphony was last performed on October 14-16, 2011, with Peter Oundjian conducting the orchestra. In the autumn of 1813, Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, the inventor of the metronome, approached Beethoven with the proposal that they organize a concert to benefit the soldiers wounded at the recent Battle of Hanau—with, perhaps, two or three repetitions of the concert to benefit themselves. Beethoven was eager to have the as-yet-unheard A major Symphony of the preceding year performed, and thought the financial reward was worth the trouble, so he agreed. The concert consisted of this “Entirely New Symphony” by Beethoven, marches by Dussek and Pleyel performed on a “Mechanical Trumpeter” fabricated by Mälzel, and an orchestral arrangement of Wellington’s Victory, a piece Beethoven had concocted the previous summer for yet another of Mälzel’s musical machines, the “Panharmonicon.” The evening was such a success that Beethoven’s first biographer, Anton Schindler, reported, “All persons, however they had previously dissented from his music, now agreed to award him his laurels.” The Seventh Symphony is a magnificent creation in which Beethoven displayed several technical innovations that were to have a profound influence on the music of the 19th century: he expanded the scope of symphonic structure through the use of more distant tonal areas; he brought an unprecedented richness and range to the orchestral palette; and he gave a new awareness of rhythm as the vitalizing force in music. It is particularly the last of these characteristics that most immediately affects the listener, and to which commentators have consistently turned to explain the vibrant power of the work. Perhaps the most famous such observation about the Seventh Symphony is that of Richard Wagner, who called the work “the apotheosis of the Dance in its highest aspect ... the loftiest deed of bodily motion incorporated in an ideal world of tone.” Couching his observation in less highfalutin language, John N. Burk PROGRAM 6 SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES believed that its rhythm gave this work a feeling of immense grandeur incommensurate with its relatively short forty-minute length. “Beethoven,” Burk explained, “seems to have built up this impression by willfully driving a single rhythmic figure through each movement, until the music attains (particularly in the body of the first movement and in the Finale) a swift propulsion, an effect of cumulative growth which is akin to extraordinary size.” A slow introduction, almost a movement in itself, opens the Symphony. This initial section employs two themes: the first, majestic and unadorned, is passed down through the winds while being punctuated by long, rising scales in the strings; the second is a graceful melody for oboe. The transition to the main part of the first movement is accomplished by the superbly controlled reiteration of a single pitch. This device both connects the introduction with the exposition and also establishes the dactylic rhythm that dominates the movement. The Allegretto scored such a success at its premiere that it was immediately encored, a phenomenon virtually unprecedented for a slow movement. In form, the movement is a series of variations on the heartbeat rhythm of its opening measures. In spirit, however, it is more closely allied to the austere chaconne of the Baroque era than to the light, figural variations of Classicism. The third movement, a study in contrasts of sonority and dynamics, is built on the formal model of the scherzo, but expanded to include a repetition of the horn-dominated Trio (Scherzo – Trio – Scherzo – Trio – Scherzo). In the sonata-form finale, Beethoven not only produced music of virtually unmatched rhythmic energy (“a triumph of Bacchic fury,” in the words of Sir Donald Tovey), but did it in such a manner as to exceed the climaxes of the earlier movements and make it the goal toward which they had all been aimed. So intoxicating is this music that some of Beethoven’s contemporaries were sure he had composed it in a drunken frenzy. An encounter with the Seventh Symphony is a heady experience. Klaus G. Roy, the former program annotator for The Cleveland Orchestra, wrote, “Many a listener has come away from a hearing of this Symphony in a state of being punch-drunk. Yet it is an intoxication without a hangover, a dopelike exhilaration without decadence.” To which the composer’s own words may be added. “I am Bacchus incarnate,” boasted Beethoven, “appointed to give humanity wine to drown its sorrow.... He who divines the secret of my music is delivered from the misery that haunts the world.”

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SOUNDINGS 2016-2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 7

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