Elgar "Enigma Variations" | Program Notes

MASTERWORKS • 2015-2016 ELGAR “ENIGMA VARIATIONS” COLORADO SYMPHONY COURTNEY LEWIS, conductor COURTNEY HERSHEY BRESS, harp Friday’s concert is gratefully dedicated to Merrill Lynch Saturday’s concert is gratefully dedicated to Frank and Ginny Leitz

Friday, October 16, 2015 at 7:30 pm Saturday, October 17, 2015 at 7:30 pm Boettcher Concert Hall

HAYDN Symphony No. 60 in C major, “Il distratto” Adagio — Allegro di molto Andante Menuetto Presto Adagio (di Lamentatione) Finale: Prestissimo DEBUSSY Danse sacrée et danse profane

for Harp and String Orchestra Danse sacrée: Très modérè Danse profane: Modérè RAVEL

Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet, and Strings — INTERMISSION —

ELGAR

Variations on an Original Theme, Op.36, “Enigma Variations” Enigma: Andante Variation I (C.A.E.): L’istesso tempo Variation II (H.D. S.-P.): Allegro Variation III (R.B.T.): Allegretto Variation IV (W.M.B.): Allegro di molto Variation V (R.P.A.): Moderato Variation VI (Ysobel): Andantino Variation VII (Troyte): Presto

Variation VIII (W.N.): Allegretto Variation IX (Nimrod): Adagio Variation X (Dorabella): Intermezzo: Allegretto Variation XI (G.R.S.): Allegro di molto Variation XII (B.G.N.): Andante Variation XIII (* * *): Romanza: Moderato Variation XIV (E.D.U.): Finale: Allegro

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MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES

TRAVIS ANDERSON

COURTNEY LEWIS, conductor With clear artistic vision, subtle musicality, and innovative programming, Courtney Lewis has established himself as one of his generation’s most talented conductors. The 2015/16 season marks his first as Music Director of the Jacksonville Symphony. Lewis also continues his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Previous appointments have included Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, where he made his subscription debut in the 2011/12 season, and Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he debuted in 2011. From 2008 to 2014, Lewis was the music director of Boston’s acclaimed Discovery Ensemble, a chamber orchestra dedicated not only to giving concerts of contemporary and established repertoire at the highest level of musical and technical excellence, but also bringing live music into the least privileged parts of Boston with workshops in local schools. Lewis made his major American orchestral debut in November 2008 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and has since appeared with many other orchestras. In the 2015/16 season he will make his subscription debuts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, return to the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and assist Thomas Adès at the Salzburg Festival for the world première of Adès’s opera The Exterminating Angel. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lewis read music at the University of Cambridge during which time he studied composition with Robin Holloway and clarinet with Dame Thea King. After completing a master’s degree with a focus on the late music of György Ligeti, he attended the Royal Northern College of Music, where his teachers included Sir Mark Elder and Clark Rundell.

COURTNEY HERSHEY BRESS, harp Courtney Hershey Bress joined the Colorado Symphony as Principal Harp in 2001. She has appeared with the orchestra as a soloist on numerous occasions. Before coming to Colorado, Bress enjoyed a wide and varied freelance career, including engagements with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She was also the Principal Harpist of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She has served as Acting Principal of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and was Principal Harp with the United States Army Field Band in Washington, D.C. where she toured the 48 continental states, playing concertos and concerts. Bress is much sought-after as a teacher and has given master classes around the country. In addition to her private teaching studio, she is the Affiliate Professor of Harp at Metropolitan State University of Denver and has been a visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music. She has also served as a juror for the American Harp Society National Competition. Bress was a 2005 GRAMMY® nominee for her performance of George Crumb’s chamber work Ancient Voices of Children. She is a member of Duo Classique, a duo harp chamber group, with her mentor Kathleen Bride. Besides recordings with Naxos, Bridge, and Albany records, one can find her music in many albums with the U.S. Army Field Band. Bress earned a Bachelor of Music degree and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and she received her Master of Music in Orchestral Studies from the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University.

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MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809): Symphony No. 60 in C major, “Il distratto” Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732 in Rohrau, Lower Austria, and died on May 31, 1809 in Vienna. He composed the Symphony No. 60 in 1774; it was first performed under his direction on an unknown date at the Esterháza Palace in Hungary. The score calls for two oboes, bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. Duration is about 28 minutes. Last performance by the orchestra was on March 28-30, 2008, with Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting.

Among the most eagerly awaited visitors during the summer months to Esterháza Palace in western Hungary, where Haydn spent much of his working life, was the theatrical troupe headed

by Karl Wahr, a fine actor and a capable businessman. The company’s principal fare was comedy and farce, but Wahr balanced this light repertory with such weightier material as King Lear, Hamlet and Richard III, given in translations specially prepared for Esterháza. Haydn provided the incidental music for these productions or arranged it from other sources. His score for Hamlet, composed in 1774, has not survived; some music for King Lear, once attributed to him, is probably by one W.G. Stegmann. During the 1774 season, Wahr also presented the comedy Der Zerstreute (“The Distracted One”), a German translation of an old French farce by Jean François Regnard (1655-1709) titled Le Distrait. The play concerns Leandre, a man of nearly oblivious absentmindedness — he dresses his servant instead of himself in the morning; he nibbles on his fingers rather than the bread at meals; he gets into the wrong coach, the wrong house and the wrong bed after leaving a party; and he almost forgets his own wedding. Haydn’s music for this merry exercise was received enthusiastically. Soon after Der Zerstreute was first presented at Esterháza in June 1774, Haydn compiled the overture and the entr’actes into a suite of music that he issued as the Symphony No. 60 in C major under the Italian rendering of the play’s title, “Il distratto.”

Though the six movements of the Symphony No. 60 are chock full of tunes in the popular style of the day, some borrowed, some original with Haydn, the work begins with a stately slow introduction. The serious mood, however, is soon broken by a jolly little triple-meter ditty, given in tightly packed harmonies by the violins and oboes, which serves as the main theme of the movement, the overture for the original production. The music chuckles its way into the second theme, but then the strings threaten to doze off (“perdendosi” — “dying away” — instructs the score) and need to be reawakened by a noisy clattering from the impatient ensemble. The development section is concerned with the main theme and a descending arpeggio motive.

A recapitulation of the earlier themes and another traversal of the soft-loud joke round out the movement. The Andante is based on a graceful melody repeatedly interrupted by rude fanfares from the winds. The dainty music continues for most of the movement, but gives way in its middle regions to a two-voiced passage in trilled notes which some old editions labeled “ancien chant français,” though exactly which old French song is unknown. The Menuetto proceeds according to the proper courtly manner, but its central trio offers a tiny parade of craggy Balkan folk tunes. The following Presto begins in a tempestuous Sturm und Drang mode, but then resumes the quotation of Balkan folksongs before ending in a sunburst of C major.

The penultimate movement is subtitled “di Lamentatione” in a reliable old manuscript copy preserved at the monastery of Melk in Austria. The phrase may refer simply to the nostalgic mood of the music, or it may indicate a thematic source in an as-yet-unidentified Gregorian chant. The trumpets and drums barge into this serene episode with a noisy fanfare, but some PROGRAM 4 SOUNDINGS 2015-2016 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES calming pizzicato notes from the strings return the movement to its original path. The finale bolts out of the gate at a breakneck pace, but stops cold when the violins remember that they forgot to tune their instruments. That bit of business achieved, the movement resumes its moto perpetuo frenzy, pausing just once for the quotation of a morose little tune, given in unison by the strings.

o CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918): Danse sacrée et danse profane for Harp and String Orchestra Claude Debussy was born on August 2, 1862 in St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, and died on March 25, 1918 in Paris. His Danse sacrée et danse profane for Harp and String Orchestra was composed in 1904 and premiered on November 6, 1904 in Paris, conducted by Édouard Colonne with Lucille Wurmser-Delcourt as soloist. Duration is about 11 minutes. Last performance by the orchestra was on February 17-19, 1975, with Helen Hope as the harp soloist and Brian Priestman conducting.

o MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937): Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet, and Strings Maurice Ravel was born on March 3, 1875 in Ciboure, France, and died on December 28, 1937 in Paris.

He composed the Introduction and Allegro in 1905; it was premiered on February 22, 1907 in Paris, conducted by Charles Domergue with Micheline Kahn as soloist. Duration is about 11 minutes. Helen Hope was the harpist when the piece was last performed on November 15, 17, & 18, 1984. Sixten Ehrling conducted.

The harp is among the most ancient of instruments. Its existence in Mesopotamia is documented as far back as 3,000 B.C., and it was known virtually from the dawn of recorded history in Egypt, Israel and Greece. Harps were common throughout Christian Europe; it is still the heraldic symbol of Ireland. The instrument remained essentially unchanged in its construction until about 1810, when the Parisian piano maker Sébastien Érard introduced a system of pedals to chromatically alter the pitches of the open strings. Though this instrument could effectively negotiate every note within its range, it was somewhat clumsy of operation, and various attempts were made to simplify the harp’s mechanics. At the end of the 19th century, Gustave Lyon developed a “chromatic harp,” a pedal-less instrument in which a single string was devoted to each chromatic note. The Parisian instrument-making firm of Pleyel put Lyon’s invention into production in 1897, in direct competition with Érard et Compagnie and its long-established harp. By the turn of the century, Pleyel was casting about for ways to win some business from Érard, and asked Claude Debussy to compose a work specifically for the new instrument. In the spring of 1904 he wrote a matched pair of dances, one “sacred” and one “profane,” for chromatic harp and string orchestra. The work was first heard at a Parisian concert conducted by Édouard Colonne on November 6, 1904; Lucille Wurmser-Delcourt was soloist. It should be added that Lyon’s chromatic harp, with its vast curtain of strings, found little favor, and SOUNDINGS 2015-2016 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 5

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES that it is Érard’s double-action pedal harp which remains the standard instrument to this day.

The Danse sacrée et Danse profane comprises two brief works joined as one. The Danse sacrée is said (by the conductor Ernest Ansermet) to have been suggested to Debussy by a piano piece of his friend, the Portuguese composer and conductor Francisco de Lacerda (1869-1934).

According to no less an authority than Manuel de Falla, the Danse profane was influenced by Spanish dance and techniques of melodic embellishment. * * * To counter Pleyel’s commercial advances represented by Debussy’s Danses Sacrée et Profane, Érard commissioned a harp piece from Maurice Ravel later that year; the Introduction and Allegro was premiered in Paris on February 22, 1907, with Micheline Kahn as soloist. The Introduction, limpid and atmospheric, not only previews some of the thematic material that returns later in the work but also opens an opulent world of sonority that seems out of all proportion to its limited instrumental resources. The Allegro is in a simple three-part form: two themes are presented in the opening section and repeated at the close, while the melody of the introduction and the second theme are elaborated in the central portion.

o SIR EDWARD ELGAR (1857-1934): Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, “Enigma Variations” Edward Elgar was born on June 2, 1857 in Broadheath, England, and died on February 23, 1934 in Worcester. The Enigma Variations was composed in 1898-1899 and premiered under the direction of Hans Richter at St. James’s Hall, London on June 19, 1899. The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, organ ad libitum and strings. Duration is about 30 minutes. Last performed by the orchestra on April 16-18, 2010, with Douglas Boyd on the podium.

Throughout his life, Edward Elgar had a penchant for dispensing startling or mystifying remarks just to see what response they would elicit. Turning this trait upon his music, he added the sobriquet “Enigma” above the theme of the splendid set of orchestral variations he composed in 1898-1899. He posited not just one puzzle in the Enigma Variations, however, but three. First, each of the fourteen sections was headed with a set of initials or a nickname that stood for the name of the composer’s friend portrayed by that variation. The second mystery dealt with the theme itself, the section that bore the legend “Enigma.” It is believed that the theme represented Elgar himself (note the similarity of the opening phrase to the speech rhythm of his name — Ed-ward EL-gar), thus making the variations upon it portraits of his friends as seen through his eyes. The final enigma, the one that neither Elgar offered to explain nor for which others have been able to find a definitive solution, arose from a statement of his: “Furthermore, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’ but is not played.... So the principal theme never appears, even as in some recent dramas — e.g., Maeterlinck’s L’Intruse and Les Sept Princesses — the chief character is never on stage.” Conjectures about this unplayed theme that fits each of the variations have ranged from Auld Lang Syne (which guess Elgar vehemently denied) to a phrase from Wagner’s Parsifal. One theory was published in 1975 by the Dutch musicologist Theodore van Houten, who

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MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES speculated that the phrase “never, never, never” from the grand old tune Rule, Britannia fits the requirements, and even satisfies some of the baffling clues that Elgar had spread to his friends. (“So the principal theme never appears.”) We shall never know for sure. Elgar took the solution to his grave.

Variation I (C.A.E.) is a tender depiction of the composer’s wife, Alice. Variation II (H.D. S.-P.) represents the warming-up finger exercises of H.D. Steuart-Powell, a piano-playing friend. Variation III (R.B.T.) utilizes the high and low woodwinds to portray the distinctive voice of Richard Baxter Townsend, an amateur actor with an unusually wide vocal range. Variation IV (W.M.B.) suggests the considerable energy of William Meath Baker. Variation V (R.P.A.) reflects the frequently changing moods of Richard Penrose Arnold, son of the poet Matthew Arnold. Variation VI (Ysobel) gives prominence to the viola, the instrument played by Elgar’s pupil Isobel Fitton. Variation VII (Troyte) describes the high spirits of Arthur Troyte Griffith. Variation VIII (W.N.) denotes the grace of Miss Winifred Norbury. Variation IX (Nimrod) is a moving testimonial to A.J. Jaeger, Elgar’s publisher and close friend. Variation X (Dorabella): Intermezzo describes Dora Penny, a friend of hesitant conversation and fluttering manner. Variation XI (G.R.S.) portrays the organist George R. Sinclair and his bulldog, Dan, out for a walk by the River Wye. Variation XII (B.G.N.) honors the cellist Basil G. Nevinson. Variation XIII (* * *): Romanza was written while Lady Mary Lygon was on a sea journey.

The solo clarinet quotes a phrase from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture and the hollow sound of the timpani played with wooden sticks suggests the distant rumble of ship’s engines. Variation XIV (E.D.U.): Finale, Elgar’s self-portrait, recalls the music of earlier variations. ©2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

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