Bronfman Plays Beethoven | Program Notes

MASTERWORKS • 2014/15 BRONFMAN PLAYS BEETHOVEN COLORADO SYMPHONY ANDREW LITTON, conductor YEFIM BRONFMAN, piano ALAN OPIE, baritone COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS; DUAIN WOLFE, director Friday’s concert is gratefully dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. James C. Campbell Saturday’s concert is gratefully dedicated to AMG National Trust Sunday’s concert is gratefully dedicated to VAL-U-ADS

Friday, May 22, 2015 at 7:30 pm Saturday, May 23, 2015 at 7:30 pm Sunday, May 24, 2015 at 1:00 pm Boettcher Concert Hall

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Overture to The Wasps

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58

Allegro moderato

Andante con moto

Rondo: Vivace — INTERMISSION —

WALTON

Belshazzar’s Feast

The custom Allen Digital Computer Organ is provided by MervineMusic, LLC

SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 1

MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES

JEFF WHEELER

ANDREW LITTON, conductor Andrew Litton currently serves as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony, Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York City Ballet, Artistic Director of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest and Conductor Laureate of Britain’s Bournemouth Symphony. He was also Music Director of the Dallas Symphony from 1994-2006. He guest conducts the world’s leading orchestras and has a discography of over 120 recordings with awards including America’s Grammy®, France’s Diapason d’Or, and many British and other honours. Litton has also conducted many of the world’s finest opera companies, such as the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Australian Opera. Besides his Grammy®-winning Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with Bryn Terfel and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, he also recorded the complete symphonies

by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, a Dallas Mahler cycle, and many Gershwin recordings, as both conductor and pianist. For Hyperion Andrew Litton’s recordings include piano concertos by Rachmaninov, Liszt and Grieg with Stephen Hough; by Shostakovich, Shchedrin and Brahms with Marc-André Hamelin; and by Alnæs and Sinding with Piers Lane; Prokofiev’s Cello Concerto and Symphony-Concerto with Alban Gerhardt; Viola Concertos by Bartók and Rózsa with Lawrence Power; the complete symphonies by Charles Ives and orchestral works by Joseph Schwantner.

Andrew Litton received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard in piano and conducting.

He is an accomplished pianist, and often conducts from the keyboard and enjoys performing chamber music with his orchestra colleagues.

For further information, visit www.andrewlitton.com.

DARIO ACOSTA

YEFIM BRONFMAN, piano Yefim Bronfman is widely regarded as one of the most virtuosic pianists performing today. His commanding technique and exceptional lyrical gifts have won him consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences worldwide, whether for his solo recitals, his prestigious orchestral engagements or his rapidly growing catalogue of recordings. Bronfman was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize in 1991, and the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in piano performance from Northwestern University in 2010. He was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award in 2009 for his Deutsche Grammophon recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s piano concerto, with whom he won a GRAMMY® Award in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concerti with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This year he has been nominated for a GRAMMY® with the New York Philharmonic for their recording of Magnus Lindberg’s 2nd piano concerto written for him on commission from that orchestra in 2012. Born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union on April 10, 1958, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973. He studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the United States, he studied at The Juilliard School, Marlboro and the Curtis Institute, and with Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher and Rudolf Serkin.

PROGRAM 2 SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES

MICHAEL COOPER

ALAN OPIE, baritone Baritone Alan Opie is a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Santa Fe Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera and Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He has also sung at the Bayreuth Festival singing Beckmesser — a role also repeated in Berlin, Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna and Turin. At ENO he was nominated for the “Outstanding Achievement in Opera” Olivier Award for his performance of Falstaff. His extensive concert work has included performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in San Francisco and Dallas; Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast in Dallas and Carnegie Hall; Britten’s War Requiem in Washington, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony in Los Angeles, Elgar’s The Kingdom with the Halle Orchestra and Apostles at the Proms. Alan Opie has recorded for CBS, EMI, Hyperion, Chandos, and Decca. Releases include “Alan Opie Sings Bel Canto Arias,” Britten’s Gloriana, Albert Herring, Peter Grimes for which he received a Grammy® Award, Death in Venice and The Rape of Lucretia; the title role in Dallapiccola’s Ulisse; Tonio in I Pagliacci; Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor; Smirnov in Walton’s The Bear, Carlo in Ernani, di Luna in Il Trovatore, the title role in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg under Sir Georg Solti for which he received his second Grammy® award. Current season engagements include his return to Metropolitan Opera (Death of Klinghoffer and Merry Widow) Belshazzar’s Feast with the Colorado Symphony and Dream of Gerontius with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

DUAIN WOLFE, director, Colorado Symphony Chorus Recently awarded two Grammys® for Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Recording, Duain Wolfe is founder and Director of the Colorado Symphony Chorus and Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.

This year marks Wolfe’s 31st season with the Colorado Symphony Chorus.

The Chorus has been featured at the Aspen Music Festival for over two decades. Wolfe, who is in his 21st season with the Chicago Symphony Chorus has collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, and the late Sir George Solti on numerous recordings including Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, which won the 1998 Grammy® for Best Opera Recording. Wolfe’s extensive musical accomplishments have resulted in numerous awards, including an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Denver, the Bonfils Stanton Award in the Arts and Humanities, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline and the Michael Korn Award for the Development of the Professional Choral Art. Wolfe is also founder of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, from which he retired in 1999 after 25 years; the Chorale celebrated its 40th anniversary last season. For 20 years, Wolfe also worked with the Central City Opera Festival as chorus director and conductor, founding and directing the company’s young artist residence program, as well as its education and outreach programs. Wolfe’s additional accomplishments include directing and preparing choruses for Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, the Bravo!Vail Festival, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has worked with Pinchas Zuckerman as Chorus Director for the Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra for the past 13 years.

SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 3

MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS The 2014-2015 Colorado Symphony concert season marks the 31st season for the Colorado Symphony Chorus. Founded in 1984 by Duain Wolfe at the request of Gaetano Delogu, the Music Director of the Denver Symphony, the chorus has grown over the past three decades into a nationally respected ensemble. This outstanding chorus of volunteers joins the Colorado Symphony for numerous performances each season. The repertoire of the Chorus has been wide and diverse. Performing with all past/present Music Directors as well as countless guest conductors, highlights include Bernstein’s Mass with Marin Alsop, Kanchelli’s Styx with Jeffrey Kahane, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Duain Wolfe, and Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, and Hough’s Missa Mirabilis with Andrew Litton. In addition, the Chorus has performed at noted music festivals in the Rocky Mountain region, including the Colorado Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, where it performed with the New York, Philadelphia, and Dallas Orchestras. For over two decades, the Chorus has been featured at the Aspen Music Festival, performing such diverse repertoire as Mahler’s monumental Eighth Symphony, Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, Britten’s Peter Grimes, Berlioz’ Requiem, and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, with conductors Lawrence Foster, James Levine, Murray Sidlin, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, and Robert Spano. The Colorado Symphony Chorus has appeared at select public and special events, and has collaborated with many renowned Colorado arts ensembles, including the Colorado Children’s Chorale, Central City Opera, Opera Colorado, and the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. The chorus sang at the 1991 opening gala for the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre, provided choral support for international opera stars José Carreras and Andrea Bocelli, participated in the 1993 visit to Denver of Pope John Paul II. The chorus has performed the works of a number of Colorado composers, including Samuel Lancaster and John Kuzma, and has had works written especially for it by CSO composers-in-residence Jon Deak and Libby Larsen. The CSO Chorus is featured on an upcoming Hyperion release of Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabilis, conducted by Andrew Litton. In July 2009, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the chorus, Duain Wolfe led the chorus on a concert tour of Europe, presenting Verdi’s Requiem in Budapest, Vienna, Litomysl and Prague. Chorus members come from all over the Denver metro area. For an audition appointment, call 303.308.2483.

PROGRAM 4 SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES Duain Wolfe, Chorus Founder and Director; Mary Louise Burke, Associate Chorus Director Travis Branam, Assistant Chorus Director; Taylor Martin, Intern Conductor Eric Israelson, Chorus Manager; Barbara Porter, Assistant Chorus Manager Laurie Kahler, Principal Accompanist Soprano I Brown, Jamie Campbell, Lindsay R. Causey, Denelda Choi, LeEtta H. Colbert, Gretchen Daniels, Kaylin E. Dirksen, Sarah Dukeshier, Laura Emerich, Kate A. Gile, Jenifer D. Gill, Lori C. Graber, Susan Harpel, Jennifer Hedrick, Elizabeth Hinkley, Lynnae C. Hupp, Angela M. Jensen, Erika Joy, Shelley E. Kirschner, Mary E. Kushnir, Marina Look, Cathy Maupin, Anne Moraskie, Wendy L. Porter, Barbara A. Ropa, Lori A. Ross, Kelly G. Saddler, Nancy C. Sladovnik, Roberta A. Solich, Stephanie A. Sowell, Kelly Stegink, Nicole J. Tate, Judy Travis, Stacey L. Wood, Linda K. Soprano II Blum, Jude Bowen, Alex S. Brauchli, Margot L. Christus, Athanasia Coberly, Ruth A. Cote, Kerry H. Dakkouri, Claudia Eberl, Lacey Gross, Esther J. Kraft, Lisa D.

Nova, Ilene L. Nyholm, Christine M. O’Nan, Jeannette R. Rae, Donneve S. Rattray, Rebecca Rider, Shirley J. Snyer, Lynne M. Von Roedern, Susan K. Walker, Marcia L. Weinstein, Sherry L. Wells. Kirsten Woodrow, Sandy Young, Cara Alto I Adams, Priscilla P. Boothe, Kay A. Brady, Lois F. Branam, Emily M. Brown, Kimberly Buesing, Amy Carlisle, Allison Conrad, Jayne M. Costain, Jane A. Daniel, Sheri L. Dunkin, Aubri K. Franz, Kirsten D. Gayley, Sharon R. Groom, Gabriella D. Guittar, Pat Holst, Melissa J. Hoopes, Kaia M. Horle, Carol E. Kolstad, Annie Kraft, Deanna McWaters, Susan Meromy, Leah Passoth, Ginny Tannenbaum, Clair Thayer, Mary B. Virtue, Pat Wise, Sara Wood, Heather

Alto II Cox, Martha E. Deck, Barbara R. Dominguez, Joyce Eslick, Carol A. Golden, Daniela Hoskins, Hansi Jackson, Brandy H. Janasko, Ellen D. Kibler, Janice London, Carole A. Maltzahn, Joanna Marchbank, Barbara J. Mendicello, Beverly D Millar, Kelly T. Nittoli, Leslie M. Scooros, Pamela R. Trierweiler, Ginny Tenor I Dougan, Dustin Dukeshier, Brian Gewecke, Joel C. Gordon, Jr., Frank Guittar, Jr., Forrest Hassell, Christopher Hodel, David K. Moraskie, Richard A. Muesing, Garvis J. Nicholas, Timothy W. O’Donnell, William Reiley, William G. Snook, David Van Milligan, John P. Waller, Ryan Zimmerman, Kenneth A. Tenor II Babcock, Gary E. Bradley, Mac Davies, Dusty R. Dixon, Stephen C. Fuehrer, Roger A. Gale, John H. Kolm, Kenneth E. Martin, Taylor S. Mason, Brandt J.

Milligan, Tom A. Ruth, Ronald L. Sims, Jerry E. Struthers, David R. Wolf, Jeffrey P. Wyatt, Daniel L. Bass I Adams, John G. Branam, Travis D. Carlton, Grant H. Cowen, George Drickey, Robert E. Eickhoff, Benjamin Gray, Matthew Hesse, Douglas D. Hume, Donald Jirak, Thomas J. Mehta, Nalin J. Parce, Frank Y. Quarles, Kenneth Rutkowski, Trevor B. Williams, Benjamin M Wood, Brian W. Bass II Fletcher, Jonathan S. Friedlander, Bob Gibbons, Dan Israelson, Eric W. Jackson, Terry L. Kent, Roy A. Kraft, Mike A. Millar, Jr., Robert F. Moncrieff, Kenneth Morrison, Greg A. Nelson, Chuck Nuccio, Eugene J. Phillips, John R. Skillings, Russell R. Swanson, Wil W. Virtue, Tom G.

SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 5

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Overture to The Wasps Ralph Vaughan Williams was born on October 12, 1872 in Down Ampney, Great Britain, and died on August 26, 1958, in London. Overture to The Wasps was composed in 1909. It is scored for 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), pairs of oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. The duration is approximately 9 minutes. Last performed by the orchestra on February 12 & 13, 1988, with James Setapen conducting.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (incidentally, pronounced “Rayf, not Ralf”) is perhaps Britain’s most important and influential composer of the first half of the twentieth century. Prolific in most musical genres, he was an active composer from his student days right up until his death in 1958, at the age of eighty-six. He composed dozens of works that are part of the core repertory of British music of the last century, including the important series of nine symphonies, a variety of other orchestral works, and a wealth of vocal music.

He lived a long life — long enough to have written in a number of rather different styles, all of them authentic and reflective of his changing interests and the times. He was born into an educated, upper middle class family — related to both the famous Wedgwoods and the Darwins — attended Cambridge University, and studied with eminent musicians and scholars, including a stint with Maurice Ravel. Among his early close friends and fellow students were such luminaries as Bertram Russell, Leopold Stokowski, and, of course, Gustav Holst. Not a precocious musician, he began modestly, studied diligently, and slowly achieved public recognition as a composer, not publishing until his early thirties. In addition to his copious activities as a composer, he spent his entire life engaged in championing the support of English music, whether as teacher, writer, festival organizer, or conductor — including the most modest levels of amateur music making.

In addition to his early activities as a rising composer, he and Holst were among the leaders in the efflorescence of serious study and collection of English folksong that arose in the late nineteenth century. He and Holst frequently spent time in the countryside tracking the rapidly vanishing body of song, writing them down, and preserving them. He later served as president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. And, inevitably, his appreciation of this great literature became a major influence on one facet of his musical style — evidenced by every American band student’s encounter with his English Folksong Suite. An important interest and activity of his early on was his editorship of the English Hymnal (1906), his interest in the great English composer, Henry Purcell, and of all of the music, in general, of the Renaissance in England.

After WW II, his musical stock languished to a large degree, owing to the predominance of radical musical modernism, and it became fashionable to denigrate Vaughan Williams and his British peers as hopelessly passé. Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Holst, Delius, and others were snidely dismissed as “pastoralists,” — composers of lush, beguiling, tuneful, nationalistic music that reeked of nature. Benjamin Britten scornfully deemed them the “cowpat” school. Time has erased that woeful assessment.

Early in his career, in 1909, not long before the successes that first brought him widespread accolades, he was commissioned to provide incidental music for the Cambridge Greek Play, an old tradition at the University of Cambridge wherein every three years one of the great Greek plays is given entirely in the ancient Greek language. The play chosen in 1909 was Aristophanes’ PROGRAM 6 SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES “The Wasps,” considered one the greatest comedies in theatre. The play is a rousing satire of the Athenian judiciary, with the behavior of elderly jurors generating a comparison with the eponymous insects. Having said that, Vaughan Williams’ music for the play has absolutely nothing to do with wasps or ancient Greece. Rather, it is typical of the composer’s folksonginflected, cheerful, and witty British style. The music is a suite comprised of an overture, two entr’actes, an eccentric little middle movement called “March Past of the Kitchen Utensils,” and a “Ballet and Final Tableau.” They are all charming, tuneful, and perfect accompaniment to an evening of comedy in ancient Greek for an educated audience. It must be admitted, though, that the opening of the “Overture” is a perfect imitation of swarming wasps, but that little bit of musical onomatopoeia just sets the stage, so to speak, and doesn’t return as a signature musical element. After the opening swarm of wasps, the overture lays out a bustling succession of tunes in the best traditional Vaughan Williams style. His forays with Holst collecting English folksongs bears fruit here, as well as his study with Ravel. But, there’s nothing French about it, simply an eloquent and mellifluous testimony to the composer’s innate musical gifts. The attentive listener will spot any number of Vaughan Williams’ signature stylistic features: pentatonic and modal melodies, broad lyrical tunes combined polyphonically with “dancing” faster tunes — even snatches of later, well-known compositions of his. These, and the rousing ending all are harbingers of his musical maturity, and lasting significance.

o LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 Beethoven was born on December 15, 1770 in Bonn, Germany, and died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna.

He composed the Piano Concerto No. 4 in 1805-1806. In addition to the solo piano, the score calls for flute, pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, timpani, and strings. The duration is about 35 minutes. The piece was last performed on November 20 & 21, 2010, with Arild Remmereit conducting the orchestra and Jon Kimura Parker as the piano soloist.

Beethoven wrote five piano concertos; the first two in the 1790s owe much to the example of Mozart. The third, in C minor, was completed in 1803, around the time of his second symphony, and it is a far darker and impassioned work than the previous ones. By the time of the fourth concerto, finished in 1806, Beethoven had undergone remarkable growth as a composer. He had resolutely fought his way out of the deep suicidal depression occasioned by his increasing deafness. The monumental Eroica (third symphony), his opera, Fidelio, and the Rasumovsky string quartets had been created, and revealed the musical power, psychological depth, and progressive imagination of the mature composer. As such, the fourth piano concerto is of great significance in his oeuvre. Beethoven played the première of the concerto in December of 1808 — his last public performance as a soloist. That long concert has gone down in history as pretty much of a fiasco for a number of reasons that need not detain us here. But it was the Vienna première of not only the fourth piano concerto, but also of the fifth and sixth symphonies.

In the fourth concerto one notices straightaway in the first movement that, unlike the two early concertos — typical for their time — there obtains much greater strength and independence in the rôle of the piano. Moreover, in a decided contrast to typical concerto first SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 7

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES movements, the soloist begins the movement alone, quietly and unaccompanied, with an almost hymn-like idea. The orchestra answers after only a few bars, but in the striking key of B major — one of Beethoven’s favorite harmonic modernisms. So far the mood is rather like a slow movement, not a typical bustling opening. Soon, however a more conventional rhythmic activity ensues, the orchestra makes its way to the “right key” and there follows significant interplay between soloist and orchestra. The solo oboe announces the second theme — also in a slightly surprising key (A minor), and other keys follow as well. It and the memorable opening rhythmic figure are then well worked out with the composer’s usual thoroughness. This unusually nuanced and reflective — and long — first movement ultimately leads to a substantial cadenza for the soloist to top it all off.

The seventy-two measure Andante con moto that follows the first movement is eloquent evidence of Beethoven’s ability to work with thematic transformation in a small frame. The orchestra is decidedly in a robust frame of mind, beginning with stentorian pronouncements in the strings alone. But, the piano soloist insists on a thoughtful, lyrical mood. Ultimately, the piano wins, and by the end, the orchestra submits to the gentle lead of the soloist. Historically, much has been made by commentators about the movement as a realization of the myth of Orpheus charming the beasts — the orchestra, I suppose, being the beasts. There’s no harm, of course, in this conceit, but Beethoven’s dramatic sense needs no help here, in this brief, charming episode.

The finale is cast in the typical form for this genre: a rondo (simply a section with a catchy theme that keeps coming back after some diversions — easy to follow). Its tumultuous, jolly nature provides a perfect contrast to the preceding tranquility, and reminds us once again of Beethoven’s sense of humor. Another surprise opens this movement as well; it’s in the “wrong key” of C major. Soon the orchestra arrives at the conventional G major, and the trumpets and timpani, which have been silent for two movements, finally join us, carrying the general upbeat mood to the triumphant end. This wonderful concerto didn’t achieve popularity at first, everyone seemed to prefer numbers 3 and 5, but after a few decades it gained its rightful place in the repertoire.

o WILLIAM WALTON: Belshazzar’s Feast William Walton was born on March 29, 1902 in Oldham, Lancashire, Great Britain and died on March 8, 1983, in Ischia, Italy. Belshazzar’s Feast was composed in 1930-1931 and calls for a large orchestra consisting of two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, three clarinets (2nd doubling E-flat clarinet, 3rd doubling bass clarinet), alto sax, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, two offstage brass bands each consisting of three trumpets, three trombones, and tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, organ (doubling piano), and strings. The duration of the piece is approximately 36 minutes. Last performance by the orchestra was on February 10 & 11, 1975, with Brian Priestman on the podium.

William Walton was the most important British musician in the generation immediately after that of Vaughan Williams. His artistic orientation was quite different from that of the

PROGRAM 8 SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES older man, and while certainly not an adherent of the revolution in musical style wrought by Schoenberg and his students, Walton was nevertheless a true child of the new currents in music of the 1920s. The music of Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel, and Bartók were influential, but it must be said that he directed more attention to the big traditional forms of concerto and symphony than did those luminaries. Today, he is appreciated, not only for his two symphonies and three important concertos for viola, violin, and violoncello, respectively, but also for his contributions in the great English choir tradition. While he could be devastating in his trenchant musical commentaries on the inflated excesses of Edwardian English culture, he was equally capable of composing magnificent ceremonial music for the royal coronations of 1937 and 1953, as well as miscellaneous royal weddings in Westminster Abby. Those august occasions would not be the same without the soaring choral works with large organ, trumpets, and the like that have almost come to define them in our imaginations. Throw in his magisterial, grand processional marches, Orb and Scepter and Crown Imperial and that picture is complete.

He did not begin this way, however. Born to a poor, but musical family, he was fortunate to be taken in as a chorister at Christ Church, Oxford, where he received an excellent musical education. Later, he entered university there, continuing his studies, and establishing his complete mastery of the great English choral tradition. But after that, the road takes a completely different twist. He fell in with one of the most distinguished, controversial — and eccentric, it must be said — literary families in the British arts of the time: Edith Sitwell, and her brothers, Osbert and Sacherverell. He moved in with them, and they took him on as a kind of project, shepherding him around Europe, introducing him to every important person in the continental arts scene and exposing him to all the latest trends.

Taking somewhat of an inspiration from Schoenberg’s experimentation with the spoken or recited voice with musical accompaniment, Walton and Edith Sitwell collaborated to create Façade (1923). In it, Sitwell recited her acerbic and somewhat obscure poems through a megaphone, accompanied by Walton’s rather French, neo-classic music. Decidedly avant-garde, it was a mixed success, to say the least — fiercely debated on all sides. But, it became a lasting classic. Other important works ensued that brought him recognition. He soon rather turned his reputation as a bad boy in music on its head with his widely acclaimed viola concerto (1929), which took its place in the standard repertoire. That leads us to Belshazzar’s Feast.

His growing reputation led in the same year to a commission by the BBC for a broadcast of a work for chorus, vocal soloist, and very small orchestra. That did not immediately pan out, but Walton labored assiduously, as, like Topsy, the project just grew. Walton enlarged the orchestra to a very imposing one, including saxophone, organ, piano, and a formidable percussion section replete with a whip and a large anvil. His friend, Osbert Sitwell provided the libretto, taking sections from the Bible: the book of Daniel, Psalms, and Revelations. It is, of course, the familiar story of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, the captivity of the Jews, and the familiar path from hubris to downfall — predicted by the moving finger of fate. The première eventually occurred in October of 1931, conducted by Malcolm Sargent. It was a smash hit. Its clever combination of jazzy elements of popular music, mastery of orchestral color, and splashy dramatic music matched to an equally dramatic story has secured its place in the genre.

After a blast from unison trombones — evoking ancient horns — the unaccompanied chorus opens the work with Isaiah’s dour narrative of Israel’s sons’ conscription as eunuchs at Belshazzar’s court. There follows the chorus of Israelites bemoaning their captivity, so familiar SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 9

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES from musical settings from Palestrina to Verdi. The chorus’ narrative briefly turns lyrical when reminiscing about hanging their “harps upon the willows,” but turns rhythmic and vengeful when singing of their cruel captors’ demand for “mirth” in their crushing captivity. The baritone narrator then swears an oath for them, should they forget Jerusalem, followed by a brief reprise of the opening lament.

Walton’s gift for choral drama comes to the fore in the following, fierce denunciation of Babylon and her sordid riches, and the prediction of her ultimate doom. An inventory of all her largess follows — the narrator ending it dolefully by including “the souls of men.” The incensed chorus then rages — with the full force of the colorful orchestra at their disposal — at Belshazzar’s idolatrous feast, made outrageous by his wives and concubines using the sacred vessels of the Jewish temple as a table setting. A march follows; mastery of the genre was one of Walton’s gifts as a composer. The virtuosic scoring for orchestra sarcastically enhances the Babylonians’ insolent praise of the various gods of their wealth. Walton’s penchant for striking, choral gestures and orchestral genius is on full display — it will surface again in his remarkable coronation music in later years. A recap of the feast follows.

The narrator then intones the eerie scene of the disembodied hand, the mood set by dark, low strings, piano and the death rattle of the castenets. The writing is on the wall, and the king is slain. “Slain,” the chorus screams, the death throes depicted by knife-like brass, and a general celebration by the Israelites ensues — a rip-roaring affair “à la Walton.” The moral triumph is complete, interrupted only by a brief, tranquil reflection on the fate of the heathen feasters. The ending builds to the kind of thrilling, sonic conclusion familiar from the composer’s later Westminster Abby glories. One of the great choral experiences of the twentieth century concludes with a paroxysm of sound — literally pulling out all of the stops. It never fails to please, and for good reason.

— Wm. E. Runyan ©William E. Runyan

PROGRAM 10 SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

MASTERWORKS TEXTS Belshazzar’s Feast Thus spake Isaiah – Thy sons that thou shalt beget They shall be taken away, And be eunuchs In the palace of the King of Babylon Howl ye, howl ye, therefore: For the day of the Lord is at hand!

By the waters of Babylon, By the waters of Babylon There we sat down: yea, we wept And hanged our harps upon the willows.

Babylon was a great city, Her merchandise was of gold and silver, Of precious stones, of pearls, of fine linen, Of purple, silk and scarlet, All manner vessels of ivory, All manner vessels of most precious wood, Of brass, iron and marble, Cinnamon, odours and ointments, Of frankincense, wine and oil, Fine flour, wheat and beasts, Sheep, horses, chariots, slaves And the souls of men.

For they that wasted us Required of us mirth; They that carried us away captive Required of us a song.

Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

In Babylon Belshazzar the King Made a great feast, Made a feast to a thousand of his lords, And drank wine before the thousand.

How shall we sing the Lord’s song In a strange land?

Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, Commanded us to bring the gold and silver vessels: Yea! the golden vessels, which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, Had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem.

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.

Yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

By the waters of Babylon There we sat down: yea, we wept.

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, Happy shall he be that taketh thy children And dasheth them against a stone, For with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down And shall be found no more at all.

He commanded us to bring the golden vessels Of the temple of the house of God, That the King, his Princes, his wives And his concubines might drink therein.

Then the King commanded us: Bring ye the cornet, flute, sackbut, psaltery And all kinds of music: they drank wine again, Yea, drank from the sacred vessels, And then spake the King:

SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 11

MASTERWORKS TEXTS Praise ye The God of Gold Praise ye The God of Silver Praise ye The God of Iron Praise ye The God of Wood Praise ye The God of Stone Praise ye The God of Brass Praise ye the Gods!

Thus in Babylon, the mighty city, Belshazzar the King made a great feast, Made a feast to a thousand of his lords And drank wine before the thousand.

Belshazzar whiles he tasted the wine Commanded us to bring the gold and silver vessels That his Princes, his wives and his concubines Might rejoice and drink therein.

After they had praised their strange gods, The idols and the devils, False gods who can neither see nor hear, Called they for the timbrel and the pleasant harp To extol the glory of the King.

Then they pledged the King before the people, Crying, Thou, O King, art King of Kings: O King, live for ever...

And this was the writing that was written: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN’ ‘THOU ART WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE AND FOUND WANTING’.

In that night was Belshazzar the King slain And his Kingdom divided.

Then sing aloud to God our strength: Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Take a psalm, bring hither the timbrel, Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, Blow up the trumpet in Zion For Babylon the Great is fallen, fallen.

Alleluia!

Then sing aloud to God our strength: Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob, While the Kings of the Earth lament And the merchants of the Earth Weep, wail and rend their raiment.

They cry, Alas, Alas, that great city, In one hour is her judgement come.

The trumpeters and pipers are silent, And the harpers have ceased to harp, And the light of a candle shall shine no more.

Then sing aloud to God our strength.

Make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob.

For Babylon the Great is fallen.

Alleluia!

And in that same hour, as they feasted Came forth fingers of a man’s hand And the King saw The part of the hand that wrote.

PROGRAM 12 SOUNDINGS 2014/15 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG