SPOTLIGHT 2021/22
2021/22 SEASON PRESENTING SPONSOR:
MAHLER SYMPHONY NO. 2 “RESURRECTION” PETER OUNDJIAN, conductor COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS, DUAIN WOLFE, director ANNA CHRISTY, soprano MICHELLE DeYOUNG, mezzo-soprano Saturday, April 16, 2022 at 7:30pm Boettcher Concert Hall
MAHLER Symphony No. 2 in C minor, “Resurrection” I. Allegro maestoso II. Andante moderato III. In ruhig fliessender Bewegung IV. Urlicht V. Im Tempo des Scherzo
CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 20 MINUTES WITH NO INTERMISSION
FIRST TIME TO THE SYMPHONY? SEE PAGE 7 OF THIS PROGRAM FOR FAQ’S TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE GREAT!
Tonight's concert is dedicated to Jerome H. Kern and Mary Rossick Kern PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY SOUNDINGS
2021/22
PROGRAM I
SPOTLIGHT BIOGRAPHIES
PHOTO: SIAN RICHARDS
PETER OUNDJIAN, conductor Recognized as a masterful and dynamic presence in the conducting world, Peter Oundjian has developed a multi-faceted portfolio as a conductor, violinist, professor and artistic advisor. He has been celebrated for his musicality, an eye towards collaboration, innovative programming, leadership and training with students and an engaging personality. In February 2022, Oundjian was named Principal Conductor of the Colorado Symphony. Now carrying the title of Conductor Emeritus, Oundjian’s fourteen-year tenure as Music Director of the Toronto Symphony served as a major creative force for the city of Toronto and was marked by a reimagining of the TSO’s programming, international stature, audience development, touring and a number of outstanding recordings, garnering a Grammy nomination in 2018 and a Juno award for Vaughan Williams’ Orchestral Works in 2019. He led the orchestra on several international tours to Europe and the USA, conducting the first performance by a North American orchestra at Reykjavik’s Harpa Hall in 2014. From 2012-2018, Oundjian served as Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra during which time he implemented the kind of collaborative programming that has become a staple of his directorship. Oundjian led the RSNO on several international tours, including North America, China, and a European festival tour with performances at the Bregenz Festival, the Dresden Festival as well as in Innsbruck, Bergamo, Ljubljana, and others. His final appearance with the orchestra as their Music Director was at the 2018 BBC Proms where he conducted Britten’s epic War Requiem. Highlights of past seasons include appearances with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Detroit, Atlanta, Saint Louis, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. With the onset of world-wide concert cancellations support for students at Yale and Juilliard and the creation of a virtual summer festival in Boulder where he is Music Director of Colorado Music Festival became a priority. Winter 2021 saw the resumption of some orchestral activity with streamed events with Atlanta, Colorado, Indianapolis and Dallas symphonies. The 2021/22 season anticipates return visits to Toronto, Kansas City, Seattle, Colorado, Detroit, Baltimore and Indianapolis. Oundjian has been a visiting professor at Yale University’s School of Music since 1981, and in 2013 was awarded the school’s Sanford Medal for Distinguished Service to Music. A dedicated educator, Oundjian conducted the Yale and Juilliard Symphony Orchestras and the New World Symphony during the 2018/19 season. An outstanding violinist, Oundjian spent fourteen years as the first violinist for the renowned Tokyo String Quartet before he turned his energy towards conducting.
PROGRAM II
C O LO R A D O S Y M P H O N Y.O R G
SPOTLIGHT BIOGRAPHIES ANNA CHRISTY, soprano Praised by the New York Times as “nimble of voice, body and spirit,” soprano Anna Christy continues to impress and delight audiences with an extraordinary blend of sparkling voice, powerful stage presence, and innate musicality. The 2018-2019 season saw Ms. Christy as Tytania in Robert Carsen’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Opera Philadelphia. She also debuted with Colorado Symphony Orchestra singing In Terra Pax conducted by Brett Mitchell. The previous season, Anna returned to the Canadian Opera Company as Gilda in Rigoletto. She also returned to Japan for performances of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with Seiji Ozawa. Other roles included the title role in Lucia de Lammermoor with the Florida Grand Opera, Marzelline in Fidelio with Boston Baroque, and Adele in Die Fledermaus with Des Moines Metro Opera. In the 2016-2017 season, Anna Christy was seen as Sophie in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Werther. She returned to Japan for performances of L’enfant et les sortilèges with Seiji Ozawa and sang Carmina burana with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony. At home in Denver, she sang Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Colorado and reprised her performances of Morgana in David Alden’s production of Alcina at Santa Fe Opera, a role she sang to great acclaim at Teatro Real in Madrid and Opéra National de Bordeaux. She returned to the Bayerische Staatsoper as Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites and celebrated the 60th Anniversary of Central City Opera as Baby Doe in The Ballad of Baby Doe. She returned to Japan to sing Adele in Die Fledermaus with Seiji Ozawa to open the new opera house in Kyoto. Last season, Ms. Christy was seen as Morgana in Alcina with Harry Bicket at the English Concert on tour in London, Madrid, Vienna, and New York. She made New York City recital debut at Pace University’s “Voce at Pace” series and was seen with Baroque ensemble Les Vents Atlantiques as Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In the summer of 2015, she returned to Santa Fe Opera as Marie in La fille du régiment. Anna Christy made her role debut as Gilda in Christopher Alden’s production of Rigoletto at the English National Opera. She was also seen at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Adele in Die Fledermaus and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at Central City Opera. Ms. Christy made a triumphant debut in her signature role of Cunegonde in Candide at the Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Christy began the 2012-2013 season as Cleopatra in a new production of Handel’s Julius Caesar at English National Opera, followed by concerts of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Stravinsky’s Le rossignol with Charles Dutoit and the NHK Symphony in Tokyo. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Lisette in the Nicholas Joel production of Puccini’s La rondine and Toronto audiences heard Ms. Christy as Lucia in the highly-acclaimed David Alden production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. She closed the season as Emily Webb in Ned Rorem’s Our Town with Central City Opera, followed by performances of Le feu, La princesse and Le rossignol in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges at the Saito Kinen Festival with Seiji Ozawa conducting. Ms. Christy has been seen as Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann at Lyric Opera of Chicago, followed by her role debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. She has also appeared as Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Metropolitan Opera, Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Lyric Opera Chicago and the English National Opera. She returned to Santa Fe Opera as SOUNDINGS
2021/22
PROGRAM III
SPOTLIGHT BIOGRAPHIES Kitty in the highly-acclaimed production of Menotti’s The Last Savage. Ms. Christy has performed Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the San Francisco Opera and sang the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at English National Opera. She appeared as Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at both the Paris Opera and at the Royal Opera House-Covent Garden. She was Cunegonde in Robert Carsen’s production of Candide at English National Opera with further debuts at Teatro alla Scala and at Théâtre du Châtélet in the same production. Other opera credits include Lisette in La rondine with the San Francisco Opera, Adele in Die Fledermaus in Japan conducted by Seiji Ozawa, and Bianca in Rossini’s Bianca e Falliero with the Washington Concert Opera. She also appeared as Oscar in Un ballo in maschera with San Francisco Opera and as Constance in Robert Carsen’s production of Dialogues des Carmélites at the Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Andrew Davis. In addition, she made her debut at Opéra de Lille as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm and directed by David McVicar. On the concert stage, Ms. Christy has been a featured soloist the New York City Opera Gala “American Voices” and portrayed Angela in a semi-staged version of Kurt Weill’s The Firebrand of Florence with the Collegiate Chorale at Carnegie Hall. She has performed Candide with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Carmina Burana with the Saint Louis Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Candide, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival. Other concert engagements have included appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York Festival of Song, and solo recitals in Japan. Ms. Christy made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Papagena in Julie Taymor’s new production of Die Zauberflöte conducted by James Levine followed by Hortense in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy. Two more debuts followed with appearances as Muffin in the world premiere of William Bolcom’s A Wedding at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Zemire in Zemire et Azor. Other important engagements for Ms. Christy include her San Francisco debut as Angel More in The Mother of us All conducted by Donald Runnicles and directed by Christopher Alden; Marzelline in a concert version Fidelio with the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas; Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the Los Angeles Opera; and Mrs. Nordstrom in A Little Night Music and Annabelle in The Glass Blowers with New York City Opera. She made her Santa Fe Opera debut as Jiang Ching in the world premiere of Madame Mao and later returned as Celia in Lucio Silla. Selected by New York City Opera, Anna Christy is the recipient of the Martin E. Segal Award presented annually to nominees by two of Lincoln Center’s twelve resident arts constituents. She is also the recipient of a Richard Tucker Music Foundation Career Grant, the ARIA Award, Sullivan Foundation Grant, a Richard F. Gold Grant and the Shouse Debut Artist Award from Wolf Trap Opera. Anna Christy was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Pasadena, California. She spent her summers in Tokyo, Japan, at her mother’s family home, and is fluent in Japanese. Ms. Christy attended Polytechnic School in Pasadena and was a founding member of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. She is a graduate of Rice University and the University of Cincinnati, CollegeConservatory of Music. Ms. Christy currently resides with her husband and children in Colorado.
PROGRAM IV
C O LO R A D O S Y M P H O N Y.O R G
SPOTLIGHT BIOGRAPHIES MICHELLE DeYOUNG, MEZZO-SOPRANO Michelle DeYoung has already established herself as one of the most exciting artists of her generation. She appears frequently with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Met Orchestra (in Carnegie Hall), the Met Chamber Ensemble, Vienna Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper Orchestra, Berliner Staatskapelle, Sao Paulo Symphony, and the Concertgebouworkest. She has also appeared in the prestigious festivals of Ravinia, Tanglewood, Aspen, Cincinnati, Saito Kinen, Edinburgh, Salzburg, St Denis, and Lucerne. The conductors with whom she has worked include Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Sir Colin Davis, Stéphane Denève, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniele Gatti, Alan Gilbert, Bernard Haitink, Manfred Honeck, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Andre Previn, David Robertson, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mariss Jansons, Michael Tilson Thomas, Franz Welser-Möst, and Jaap van Zweden. Ms. DeYoung has also appeared with many of the finest opera houses of the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Glimmerglass Opera, La Scala, Bayreuth Festival, Berliner Staatsoper, Hamburg State Opera, Opera National de Paris, Thèâtre du Châtelet, Opéra de Nice, English National Opera, Theater Basel, and the Tokyo Opera. She was also named the 2015 Artist in Residence at Wolf Trap Opera. Her many roles include the title roles in Samson et Dalila and The Rape of Lucretia, Fricka, Sieglinde and Waltraute in The Ring Cycle; Kundry in Parsifal, Venus in Tannhäuser, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, Herodias in Salome, Ježibaba in Rusalka, Eboli in Don Carlos, Amneris in Aida, Santuzza in Cavelleria Rusticana, Marguerite in Le Damnation de Faust, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, Didon in Les Troyens, Gertrude in Hamlet, and Jocaste in Oedipus Rex. She also created the role of the Shaman in Tan Dun’s The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera. In recital, Ms. DeYoung has been presented by the University of Chicago Presents series, the Ravinia Festival, Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performances series, Cal Performances in Berkeley, SUNY Purchase, Calvin College, the Pittsburgh Symphony, Roy Thomson Hall, the Thèâtre du Châtelet, the Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon) the Edinburgh Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and Brussels’s La Monnaie. Ms. DeYoung’s recording of Kindertotenlieder and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS Media) was awarded the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Classical Album. She has also been awarded the 2001 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording for Les Troyens with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live). Her growing discography also includes recordings of Mahler Symphony No. 3 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Haitink (CSO Resound) and with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck (PID); Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, ‘Jeremiah’ with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Leonard Slatkin (Chandos), Das Klagende Lied with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas (BMG),and Das Lied von der Erde with the Minnesota Orchestra (Reference Recordings). Her first solo disc was released on the EMI label. SOUNDINGS
2021/22
PROGRAM V
SPOTLIGHT BIOGRAPHIES DUAIN WOLFE, director, Colorado Symphony Chorus Three-time Grammy® winner for Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Recording, and Best Opera Performance, Duain Wolfe is Founder and Director of the Colorado Symphony Chorus and Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. This year marks Wolfe’s 37th 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 28th season with the Chicago Symphony Chorus has collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, and 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 the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Denver, the Bonfils Stanton Award in the Arts and Humanities, 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 Founder of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, from which he retired in 1999 after 25 years. 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 other 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 and Alexander Shelly as Chorus Director for the Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra for the past 20 years.
COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS
The 2021-2022 Colorado Symphony concert season marks the 38th season of the Colorado Symphony Chorus. Founded in 1984 by Duain Wolfe at the request of Gaetano Delogu, then the Music Director of the Symphony, the chorus has grown into a nationally respected ensemble. This outstanding chorus of volunteers joins the Colorado Symphony for numerous performances each year, to repeated critical acclaim. 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 Music Festival, where it has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony, under conductors Alan Gilbert, Hans Graf, Jaap van Zweden, and Yannick NézetSéguin. For over two decades, the Chorus has been featured at the world-renowned Aspen Music Festival, performing many great masterworks under the baton of conductors Lawrence Foster, James Levine, Murry Sidlin, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, and Robert Spano. Among the eight recordings the CSO Chorus has made is a NAXOS release of Roy Harris’s Symphony No. 4. The Chorus is also featured on a Hyperion release of the Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabilis. Most recently, the Colorado Symphony and Chorus released a world-premiere recording of William Hill’s The Raven. In 2009, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the chorus, Duain Wolfe conducted the chorus on a three-country, two-week concert tour of Europe, presenting the Verdi Requiem in Budapest, Vienna, Litomysl and Prague; and in 2016 the chorus returned to Europe for concerts in Paris, Strasbourg and Munich featuring the Fauré Requiem. The summer of 2022 will see the return of the Chorus to Europe to open the famed Salzburg Music Festival with Bruckner’s majestic Te Deum. PROGRAM VI
C O LO R A D O S Y M P H O N Y.O R G
SPOTLIGHT BIOGRAPHIES COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS
Duain Wolfe, Founding Director and Conductor Mary Louise Burke, Associate Director Taylor Martin, Assistant Conductor Hsiao-Ling Lin, Shao Chun Tsai, pianists Eric Israelson, Barbara Porter, Chorus Managers
SOPRANO I Black, Kimberly Brown, Jamie Causey, Denelda Coberly, Sarah Collins, Suzanne Dobreff, Mary Gile, Jenifer Gill, Lori Graber, Susan Hedrick, Elizabeth Heintzkill, MaryTherese Hittle, Erin Hupp, Angela Jones, Kaitlyn Jordan, Cameron Knecht, Melanie Look, Cathy Machusko, Rebecca Maupin, Anne Moraskie, Wendy Porter, Barbara Sladovnik, Roberta Stegink, Nicole Wuertz, Karen SOPRANO II Ascani, Lori Blum, Jude Brauchli, Margot Coberly, Ruth Collums, Angie Cote, Kerry Dakkouri, Claudia Ewert, Gracie Galante, Leontine Headrick, Alaina Kermgard, Lindsey Kraft, Lisa Kushnir, Marina
Lang, Leanne Linder, Dana Montigne, Erin Nyholm, Christine O’Nan, Jeannette Perry, Lorena Pflug, Kim Rae, Donneve Roth, Sarah Tate, Judy Timme, Sydney Von Roedern, Susan Walker, Marcia Woodrow, Sandy Zisler, Joan ALTO I Adams, Priscilla Braud-Kern, Charlotte Conrad, Jayne Darone, Janie Fairchild, Raleigh Friedman, Anna Gayley, Sharon Groom, Gabriella Guittar, Pat Haller, Emily Holst, Melissa Hoopes, Kaia Kim, Annette Kolstad, Annie Long, Tinsley Major, Alice McNulty, Emily McWaters, Susan Nordenholz, Kristen Rudolph, Kathi Short, Chloe Stevenson, Melanie Thaler, Deanna
Thayer, Mary Tiggelaar, Clara Trubetskoy, Kimberly Virtue, Pat ALTO II Chatfield, Cass Cox, Martha Deck, Barbara Golden, Daniela Haxton, Sheri Jackson, Brandy Janasko, Ellen LeBaron, Andrea London, Carole Maltzahn, Joanna Müller, Abigail Worthington, Evin TENOR I DeMarco, James Dougan, Dustin Gordon, Jr., Frank Guittar, Jr., Forrest Hodel, David Jordan, Curt Moraskie, Richard Mosser, Shane Muesing, Garvis Nicholas, Timothy Rehberg, Dallas Roach, Eugene Thompson, Hannis Zimmerman, Kenneth TENOR II Babcock, Gary Carlson, James Davies, Dusty Dinkel, Jack Fuehrer, Roger SOUNDINGS
Gale, John Ibrahim, Sami Johnson, Trey Kolm, Kenneth Lively, Mark Milligan, Tom Richardson, Tyler Ruth, Ronald Seamans, Andrew Sims, Jerry BASS I Adams, John Aychman, Jacob De Cecco, Daniel Gray, Matthew Grossman, Chris Hatton, Phill Hesse, Douglas Hunt, Leonard Jirak, Thomas Joseph, Jared Lingenfelter, Paul Mehta, Nalin Pilcher, Ben Quarles, Kenneth Ragan, Jimmy Smedberg, Matthew BASS II Friedlander, Robert Griffin, Tim Hamlyn, Nicholas Israelson, Eric Jackson, Terry Morrison, Greg Potter, Tom Richards, Joshua Skillings, Russell Swanson, Wil Virtue, Tom
2 0 2 1 / 2 2 PROGRAM VII
SPOTLIGHT PROGRAM NOTES GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911) Symphony No. 2 for Soprano and Mezzo-Soprano Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra in C minor, “Resurrection” Gustav Mahler was born on July 7, 1860 in Kalischt, Bohemia, and died on May 18, 1911 in Vienna. He composed his “Resurrection” Symphony between 1888 and 1894. Richard Strauss conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in the work’s first three movements on March 4, 1895. Mahler himself led the first complete performance later that year, on December 13th with the Berlin Philharmonic. The score calls for four piccolos, four flutes, four oboes, two English horns, two E-flat clarinets, four B-flat clarinets, bass clarinet, four bassoons and contrabassoon; six horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba plus trumpets and horns off-stage; two timpani and percussion on-stage plus timpani, bass drum, cymbals and triangle off-stage; two harps; organ; strings; soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists, and large chorus. This piece was last performed February 19-20, 2016, with conductor Andrew Litton, soprano Sarah Fox, and mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor. In August 1886, the distinguished conductor Arthur Nikisch, later music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, appointed the 26-year-old Gustav Mahler as his assistant at the Leipzig Opera. At Leipzig, Mahler met Carl von Weber, grandson of the composer, and the two worked on a new performing edition of the virtually forgotten Weber opera Die drei Pintos (“The Three Pintos,” two being impostors of the title character). Following the premiere of Die Drei Pintos, on January 20, 1888, Mahler attended a reception in a room filled with flowers. That seemingly beneficent image played on his mind, becoming transmogrified into nightmares and waking visions, almost hallucinations, of himself on a funeral bier surrounded by floral wreaths. The First Symphony was completed in March 1888, and its successor was begun almost immediately. Mahler, spurred by the startling visions of his own death, conceived the new work as a tone poem entitled Totenfeier (“Funeral Rite”). The title was apparently taken from the translation by the composer’s close friend Siegfried Lipiner, titled Totenfeier, of Adam Mickiewicz’s Polish epic Dziady. Though he inscribed his manuscript “Symphony in C minor/First Movement,” Mahler had no idea at the time what sort of music would follow Totenfeier, and he considered allowing the movement to stand as an independent work. The next five years were ones of intense professional and personal activity for Mahler. He resigned from the Leipzig Opera in May 1888 and applied for posts in Karlsruhe, Budapest, Hamburg and Meiningen. To support his petition for this last position, he wrote to Hans von Bülow, director at Meiningen until 1885, to ask for his recommendation, but the letter was ignored. Richard Strauss, however, the successor to Bülow at Meiningen, took up Mahler’s cause on the evidence of his talent furnished by Die Drei Pintos and his growing reputation as a conductor of Mozart and Wagner. When Strauss showed Bülow the score for the Weber/Mahler opera, Bülow responded caustically, “Be it Weberei or Mahlerei [puns in German on ‘weaving’ and ‘painting’], it makes no difference to me. The whole thing is a pastiche, an infamous, out-of-date bagatelle. I am simply nauseated.” Mahler, needless to say, did not get the job at Meiningen, but he was awarded the position at Budapest, where his duties began in October 1888. In 1891, Mahler switched jobs once again, this time leaving Budapest to join the prestigious Hamburg Opera as principal conductor. There he encountered Bülow, who was director of the Hamburg Philharmonic concerts. Bülow had certainly not forgotten his earlier low estimate of Mahler the composer, but after a performance of Siegfried he allowed that “Hamburg has now acquired a simply first-rate opera conductor in Mr. Gustav Mahler.” Encouraged by Bülow’s admiration of his conducting, Mahler asked for his comments on the still-unperformed Totenfeier. Mahler described their encounter: “When I played my Totenfeier for Bülow, he fell into a state of extreme nervous tension, clapped his hands over his ears and exclaimed, ‘Beside your music, Tristan sounds as simple as PROGRAM VIII C O LO R A D O S Y M P H O N Y.O R G
SPOTLIGHT PROGRAM NOTES a Haydn symphony! If that is still music then I do not understand a single thing about music!’ We parted from each other in complete friendship, I, however, with the conviction that Bülow considers me an able conductor but absolutely hopeless as a composer.” Mahler, who throughout his career considered his composition more important than his conducting, was deeply wounded by this behavior, but he controlled his anger out of respect for Bülow, who had extended him many kindnesses and become something of a mentor. Bülow did nothing to quell his doubts about the quality of his creative work, however, and Mahler, who had written nothing since Totenfeier three years before, was at a crisis in his career as a composer. The year after Bülow’s withering criticisms, Mahler found inspiration to compose again in a collection of German folk poems by Ludwig Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano called Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”). He had known these texts since at least 1887, and in 1892 set four of them for voice and piano, thereby renewing some of his creative self-confidence. The following summer, when he was free from the pressures of conducting, he took rustic lodgings in the village of Steinbach on Lake Attersee in the lovely Austrian Salzkammergut, near Salzburg, and it was there that he resumed work on the Second Symphony, five years after the first movement had been completed. Without a clear plan as to how they would fit into the Symphony’s overall structure, he used two of the Wunderhorn songs from the preceding year as the bases for the internal movements of the piece. On July 16th, he completed the orchestral score of the Scherzo, derived from Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt, a cynical poem about St. Anthony preaching a sermon to the fishes, who, like some human congregations, return to their fleshly ways as soon as the holy man finishes his lesson. Only three days later, Urlicht (“Primal Light”) for mezzo-soprano solo, was completed; by the end of the month, the Andante, newly conceived, was finished. By the end of summer 1893, the first four movements of the Symphony were finished, but Mahler was still unsure about the work’s ending. The finality implied by the opening movement’s “Funeral Rite” seemed to allow no logical progression to another point of climax. As a response to the questions posed by the first movement, he envisioned a grand choral finish for the work, much in the manner of the triumphant ending of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. “My experience with the last movement of my Second Symphony was such that I literally ransacked world literature, even including the Bible, to find the redeeming word.” Still, no solution presented itself. In December 1892, Bülow’s health gave out, and he designated Mahler to be his successor as conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic concerts. A year later Bülow went to Egypt for treatment, but died suddenly at Cairo on February 12, 1894. Mahler was deeply saddened by the news. He met with Josef Förster the same day and played through the Totenfeier with such emotion that his friend was convinced it was offered “in memory of Bülow.” Förster described the memorial service at Hamburg’s St. Michael Church: “Mahler and I were present at the moving farewell.... The strongest impression to remain was that of the singing of the children’s voices. The effect was created not just by Klopstock’s profound poem [Auferstehen — ‘Resurrection’] but by the innocence of the pure sounds issuing from the children’s throats. The funeral procession started. At the Hamburg Opera, where Bülow had so often delighted the people, he was greeted by the funeral music from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung [conducted by Mahler]. “Outside the Opera, I could not find Mahler. But that afternoon I hurried to his apartment as if to obey a command. I opened the door and saw him sitting at his writing desk. He turned to me and said: ‘Dear friend, I have it!’ I understood: ‘Auferstehen, ja auferstehen wirst du nach kurzen Schlaf.’ I had guessed the secret: Klopstock’s poem, which that morning we had heard from the mouths of children, was to be the basis for the finale of the Second Symphony.” On June 29, 1894, three months later, Mahler completed his monumental “Resurrection” Symphony, six years after it was begun. SOUNDINGS
2021/22
PROGRAM IX
SPOTLIGHT PROGRAM NOTES The composer himself wrote of the emotional engines driving this Symphony: “1st movement. We stand by the coffin of a well-loved person. His life, struggles, passions and aspirations once more, for the last time, pass before our mind’s eye. — And now in this moment of gravity and of emotion which convulses our deepest being, our heart is gripped by a dreadfully serious voice which always passes us by in the deafening bustle of daily life: What now? What is this life — and this death? Do we have an existence beyond it? Is all this only a confused dream, or do life and this death have a meaning? — And we must answer this question if we are to live on. “2nd movement — Andante (in the style of a Ländler). You must have attended the funeral of a person dear to you and then, perhaps, the picture of a happy hour long past arises in your mind like a ray of sun undimmed — and you can almost forget what has happened. “3rd movement — Scherzo, based on Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt. When you awaken from the nostalgic daydream [of the preceding movement] and you return to the confusion of real life, it can happen that the ceaseless motion, the senseless bustle of daily activity may strike you with horror. Then life can seem meaningless, a gruesome, ghostly spectacle, from which you may recoil with a cry of disgust! “4th movement — Urlicht (mezzo-soprano solo). The moving voice of naïve faith sounds in our ear: I am of God, and desire to return to God! God will give me a lamp, will light me to eternal bliss! “5th movement. We again confront all the dreadful questions and the mood of the end of the first movement. The end of all living things has come. The Last Judgment is announced and the ultimate terror of this Day of Days has arrived. The earth quakes, the graves burst open, the dead rise and stride hither in endless procession. Our senses fail us and all consciousness fades away at the approach of the eternal Spirit. The ‘Great Summons’ resounds: the trumpets of the apocalypse call. Softly there sounds a choir of saints and heavenly creatures: ‘Rise again, yes, thou shalt rise again.’ And the glory of God appears. All is still and blissful. And behold: there is no judgment; there are no sinners, no righteous ones, no great and no humble — there is no punishment and no reward! An almighty love shines through us with blessed knowing and being.” ©2021 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
PROGRAM X
C O LO R A D O S Y M P H O N Y.O R G
SPOTLIGHT TRANSLATION Urlicht (“Primal Light”) O Röschen rot! Der Mensch liegt in grösster Not! Der Mensch liegt in grösster Pein! Je lieber möcht’ ich im Himmel sein!
Oh red rose! Man lies in deepest need, Man lies in deepest pain. Much would I rather be in heaven!
Da kam ich auf einen breiten Weg: Da kam ein Engelein und wollt’ mich abweisen! Ach nein! Ich liess mich nicht abweisen! Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott! Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben, Wird leuchten mir in das ewig selig Leben!
Then I came onto a broad path: An angel came and wanted to send me away. Ah, no! I would not be sent away. I am from God and will return to God! Dear God will give me a light, Will illumine me to eternal, blessed life!
* * * Chorus and Soprano Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n wirst du, mein Staub, nach kurzer Ruh: Unsterblich Leben wird der dich rief dir geben.
Rise again, yes you will rise again, my dust, after a short rest: Immortal life will He who called you grant to you.
Wieder aufzublüh’n wirst du gesät! Der Herr der Ernte geht und sammelt Garben uns ein, die starben!
To bloom again you are sown! The Lord of the harvest goes and gathers sheaves, even us, who died! Mezzo-Soprano
O glaube, mein Herz, o glaube, es geht dir nichts verloren! Dein ist, was du gesehnt, dein was du geliebt, was du gestritten!
O believe, my heart, o believe, Nothing will be lost to you! What you longed for is yours, Yours, what you have loved, what you have struggled for!
O glaube, du warst nicht umsonst geboren! Hast nicht umsonst gelebt, gelitten!
O believe, You were not born in vain! You have not lived in vain, Suffered in vain! Chorus
Was entstanden ist, das muss vergehen! Was vergangen, aufersteh’n! Hör auf zu beben! Bereite dich zu leben!
What was created must pass away! What has passed away must rise! Cease trembling! Prepare yourself to live! SOUNDINGS
2021/22
PROGRAM XI
SPOTLIGHT TRANSLATION Soprano and Mezzo-Soprano O Schmerz! Du Alldurchdringer, dir bin ich entrungen! O Tod! Du Allbezwinger, nun bist du bezwungen! Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen, in heissem Liebesstreben, werd’ ich entschweben zum Licht, zu dem kein Aug’ gedrungen!
O suffering! You that pierce all things, From you have I been wrested! O death! You that overcome all things, now you are overcome! With wings that I have won for myself in the fervent struggle of love, I shall fly away to the light which no eye has pierced. Chorus
Sterben werd’ ich, um zu leben!
I shall die in order to live! Soloists and Chorus
Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu! Was du geschlagen, zu Gott wird es dich tragen!
Rise again, yes you will rise again, my heart, in the twinkling of an eye! What you have conquered will carry you to God!
An Evening with Kristin Chenoweth and the Colorado Symphony AUG 12 | FRI 7:30 Boettcher Concert Hall PROGRAM XII C O LO R A D O S Y M P H O N Y.O R G