Program - All Beethoven - Ingrid Michaelson Trio Presents: Songs for the Season w/ Colorado Symphon

Steinway Piano Sponsor:

CLASSICS

2018/19

ALL BEETHOVEN

2018/19 SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS:

COLORADO SYMPHONY HANS GRAF, conductor INON BARNATAN, piano Friday, November 30, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, December 1, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, December 2, 2018, at 1:00 p.m.

Boettcher Concert Hall

BEETHOVEN

Overture to Egmont, Op. 84

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

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, “Pastoral” The Awakening of Cheerful Feelings at the Arrival in the Country: Allegro ma non troppo Scene at the Brook: Andante molto mosso Merry Gathering of the Peasants: Allegro — Thunderstorm: Allegro — Shepherd’s Song - Joyful, Thankful Feelings after the Storm: Allegretto Friday's Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Young and Carolyn Cho Saturday's Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Drs. Sarah and Harold Nelson Sunday's Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Seth Weisberg PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

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CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES

PHOTO: CHRISTIAN STEINER

HANS GRAF, conductor Known for his wide range of repertoire and creative programming, the distinguished Austrian conductor Hans Graf is one of today’s most highly respected musicians. Appointed Music Director of the Houston Symphony in 2001, Mr. Graf concluded his tenure in May 2013 and is the longest serving Music Director in the orchestra’s history. Prior to his appointment in Houston, he was the Music Director of the Calgary Philharmonic for eight seasons and held the same post with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine for six years. He also led the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra from 1984 to 1994 and the Basque National Orchestra from 1994 to 1996. Hans Graf is a frequent guest with all of the major North American orchestras. His recent and upcoming guest engagements include appearances with the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the Boston, San Francisco, St. Louis, Cincinnati, National, Detroit, Dallas, Baltimore, Indianapolis, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Colorado and Utah symphonies, as well as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra among others. Born near Linz, Hans Graf began his musical education studying the violin and piano. After receiving diplomas in piano and conducting from the Musikhochschule in Graz, he continued his studies in Italy with Franco Ferrara and Sergui Celibadache and in Russia with Arvid Jansons. Mr. Graf has been awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Legion d’Honneur by the French government for championing French music around the world as well as the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria. He is also Professor Emeritus for Orchestral Conducting at the Universitat Mozarteum in Salzburg.

PHOTO: MARCO BORGGREVE

INON BARNATAN, piano “One of the most admired pianists of his generation” (New York Times), Inon Barnatan is celebrated for his poetic sensibility, musical intelligence, and consummate artistry. He is the recipient of both a prestigious 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center’s 2015 Martin E. Segal Award, which recognizes “young artists of exceptional accomplishment.” He was recently named the new Music Director of the La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, beginning in 2019. A regular soloist with many of the world’s foremost orchestras and conductors, the Israeli pianist recently completed his third and final season as the inaugural Artist-in-Association of the New York Philharmonic. After his recent debuts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Chicago, Baltimore, and Seattle Symphonies, he opened the season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and made recent debuts with both the London and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras. In recital this season, Barnatan returns to venues including New York’s 92nd Street Y and London’s Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre, besides making Carnegie Hall appearances with soprano Renée Fleming and his regular duo partner, cellist Alisa Weilerstein. A soughtafter chamber musician, he is a former member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program, and makes regular CMS appearances. His passion for contemporary music has seen

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CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES him commission and perform many works by living composers, including premieres of pieces by Thomas Adès, Sebastian Currier, Avner Dorman, Alan Fletcher, Joseph Hallman, Alasdair Nicolson, Andrew Norman, and Matthias Pintscher. “A born Schubertian” (Gramophone), Barnatan’s critically acclaimed discography includes Avie and Bridge recordings of the Austrian composer’s solo piano works, as well as Darknesse Visible, which scored a coveted place on the New York Times’ “Best of 2012” list. His most recent album release is a live recording of Messiaen’s 90-minute masterpiece Des canyons aux étoiles (“From the Canyons to the Stars”), in which he played the formidable solo piano part at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. His 2015 Decca Classics release, Rachmaninov & Chopin: Cello Sonatas with Alisa Weilerstein, earned rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. www.inonbarnatan.com.

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Too Hot to Handel DEC 21-22 FRI-SAT 7:30 Christopher Dragon, conductor Cynthia RenĂŠe Saffron, soprano Lawrence Clayton, tenor Too Hot to Handel Community Chorus, Travis Branam and Mary Louise Burke, directors

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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827): Overture to Egmont, Op. 84 Ludwig van Beethoven was born December 16, 1770 in Bonn, and died March 26, 1827 in Vienna. He composed the incidental music to Goethe’s Egmont of 1787 between October 1809 and June 1810; the Overture was the last of the nine pieces to be written. This music was first heard on June 15, 1810 to accompany a performance of Egmont at Vienna’s Hofburgtheater. The score calls for pairs of woodwinds plus piccolo, four horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. Duration is about 9 minutes.

The last performance was on October 9 & 10, 2010, with Marin Alsop conducting the orchestra.

“The first casualty when war comes,” observed Senator Hiram Johnson in 1917, “is truth.” So when Napoleon invaded Vienna in May 1809, convinced that the Austrian Empire was the major stumbling-block to his domination of Europe, it is not surprising that censorship of literature, of the press, and of the theater were instituted immediately. The months until the French departed in October were bitter ones for the Viennese. The value of the national currency dwindled, food was in short supply, and freedoms were limited. Soon after the first of the year, with Napoleon’s forces gone, the director of the Hoftheater, Josef Härtel, arranged for the production of a series of revivals of the dramas of Schiller and Goethe, the great figures of the German stage. Appropriately, two plays that he chose dealt with the oppression of a noble people by a foreign tyrant, and of the eventual freedom the patriots won for themselves — Schiller’s William Tell and Goethe’s Egmont.

Beethoven was commissioned to write the music for Goethe’s 1789 play. (Adalbert Gyrowetz was assigned William Tell. Rossini’s opera on the tale was still two decades in the future.) Egmont, based on an incident from 1567, depicts the subjugation of the Netherlands to the tyrannical Spanish rulers, the agony of the people, and their growing defiance and dreams of liberty, and ends with Count Egmont’s call for revolution and his vision of eventual victory in the moments before his execution.

The theme of political oppression overthrown in the name of freedom was also treated

by Beethoven in his only opera, Fidelio, and the musical process employed there also served well for Egmont. The triumph of good over evil, of light over darkness, is portrayed through the overall structure of the work: major tonalities replace minor at the moment of victory; bright orchestral sonorities succeed somber, threatening ones; fanfares displace sinuous melodies. The Overture compresses the action of the play into a single musical span. A stark unison begins the introduction. Twice, stern chords from the strings are answered by the lyrical plaints of the woodwinds. The main body of the Overture commences with an ominous melody in the cellos. A storm quickly gathers (note the timpani strokes), but clears to allow the appearance of the contrasting second theme, a quicker version of the material from the introduction. The threatening mood returns to carry the music through its developmental central section and into the recapitulation. A falling, unison fourth followed by a silence marks the moment of Egmont’s death. Organ-like chords from the winds sustain the moment of suspense. Then, beginning almost imperceptibly but growing with an exhilarating rapidity, the stirring song of victory is proclaimed by the full orchestra. Tyranny is conquered. Right prevails.

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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 Though this 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 premiered at Beethoven’s concert in the Theater-an-der-Wien in Vienna on April 4, 1803. The score calls for woodwinds, horns and trumpets in pairs, timpani and strings. Duration is about 34 minutes. David Danzmayr conducted and Stephen Hough was the piano soloist when the Concerto was last performed on December 2-4, 2012.

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 orchestral 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 the Third Piano Concerto. He programmed all of these, and, for good measure, tossed in the First Symphony, which had been 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 only 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. The strings in unison present the main theme; 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 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 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,

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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES and in this Third Concerto, Beethoven continued that search. He 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 of Beethoven’s early maturity.

 Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, “Pastoral” Beethoven began his Sixth Symphony during the summer of 1807 and completed it in June 1808. The premiere took place on December 22, 1808 at the Theater-an-der-Wien in Vienna. The score calls for woodwinds in pairs plus piccolo, two each of horns, trumpets and trombones, timpani and strings.

Duration is about 40 minutes. The last performance was conducted by Douglas Boyd on November 30, December 1 & 2, 2012.

There is a fine and often fluid line that separates program and absolute music. Usually composers intend their work to be heard either with some extra-musical reference or as a universe unto itself, but Beethoven tried to link both worlds in his “Pastoral” Symphony. This work, with its birdcalls and its horncalls, its thunder, wind and rain, its peasant dances and babbling brooks, is decidedly and lovably programmatic. Yet the composer insisted that the Symphony is “more an expression of feeling than painting” — that it is more pure, abstract emotion than mere imitations of various familiar country noises. It is, in truth, both.

The extra-musical associations of the “Pastoral” Symphony run far deeper than its simulations of nightingales and thunderstorms. Actually, there are at least three simultaneous levels of “meaning” here. The first and most obvious of these three is the evocation of natural noises, but this was only a point of departure for Beethoven into the second degree of reference in this work, since these woodland sounds were simply the external manifestations of what was, for him, a much deeper reality: that God was to be found in every tree, in every brook; indeed, that God and Nature are, if not the same, certainly indivisible. The third plane on which the “Pastoral” Symphony exists is heavily influenced by the other two. This third level, the purely musical, reflects the stability, the calm and the sense of the infinite that Beethoven perceived in Nature. “Oh, the sweet stillness of the woods!” he wrote. The “Pastoral” Symphony, among the most gentle and child-like works Beethoven ever composed, grants us not only a deeper understanding of the great composer, but also, through his vision, a heightened awareness of ourselves and the world around us.

Beethoven gave each of the five movements of his “Pastoral” Symphony a title describing its general character. The first movement, filled with verdant sweetness and effusive good cheer, is headed The Awakening of Cheerful Feelings at the Arrival in the Country. The violins present a simple theme that pauses briefly after only four measures, as though the composer were alighting from a coach and taking a deep breath of the fragrant air before beginning his walk along a shaded path.

The melody grows more vigorous before it quiets to lead almost imperceptibly to the second theme, a descending motive played by violins above a rustling string accompaniment. Again, the spirits swell and then relax before the main theme returns to occupy most of the development. To SOUNDINGS

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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES conclude the first movement, the recapitulation returns the themes of the exposition in more richly orchestrated settings. The second movement, Scene at the Brook, exudes an air of tranquility amid pleasing activity. The form is a sonata-allegro whose opening theme starts with a fragmentary idea in the first violins sounded above a rich accompaniment. The second subject begins with a descending motion, like that of the first movement, but then turns back upward to form an inverted arch. A full development section utilizing the main theme follows. The recapitulation recalls the earlier themes with enriched orchestration and leads to a most remarkable coda. In the closing pages of this movement, the rustling accompaniment ceases while all Nature seems to hold its breath to listen to the songs of three birds — the nightingale, the dove and the cuckoo.

Twice this tiny avian concert is performed before the movement comes quietly to its close.

Beethoven titled the scherzo Merry Gathering of the Peasants, and filled the music with a rustic bumptiousness and simple humor that recall a hearty if somewhat ungainly country dance. The central trio shifts to duple meter for a stomping dance before the scherzo returns. The festivity is halted mid-step by the sound of the distant thunder that portends a Storm. As the tempest passes over the horizon, the silvery voice of the flute leads directly into the finale, Shepherd’s Song: Joyful, Thankful Feelings after the Storm. The clarinet and then the horn sing the unpretentious melody of the shepherd, which returns, rondo-fashion, to support the form of the movement. The mood of well-being and contented satisfaction continues to the end of this wonderful work. Š2018 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

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JAN 4-6 FRI-SAT 7:30 â– SUN 1:00

MPAA RATING: PG13

HalfNotes Please join us for family-friendly activities 1 hour before the concert.

These performances include FULL SCREENING OF THE FEATURE FILM!

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HOLIDAY

2018/19

2018/19 SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS:

INGRID MICHAELSON TRIO PRESENTS: SONGS FOR THE SEASON WITH THE COLORADO SYMPHONY SCOTT O'NEIL, conductor INGRID MICHAELSON TRIO, vocalists Monday, December 3, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.

Boettcher Concert Hall

Selections to be announced from stage

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HOLIDAY BIOGRAPHIES SCOTT O’NEIL, conductor As a conductor, Scott O’Neil recently completed a nine-year tenure as Resident Conductor with the Colorado Symphony in Denver. During his time there he performed with some of the classical world’s elite soloists, such as Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Pinchas Zukerman, Lang Lang, Van Cliburn, Christopher O’Riley, Cameron Carpenter and Sharon Isbin, as well as leaders in the larger musical world, such as Steve Vai, Chris Botti, Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten, Tracy Silverman, Eileen Ivers, Sarah McLachlan, Ben Folds, Ingrid Michaelson, Amos Lee, Rufus Wainwright, Gregory Alan Isakov, Devotchka, The Lumineers, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Susan Egan and Will Chase. Mr. O’Neil has also created and developed an extensive series of concerts, entitled Inside the Score, which combine art, entertainment and enlightenment to engage audiences in explorations of a wide variety of music and ideas. Under the umbrella of Inside the Scorefall a number of sub-series, including biography (Letters from Mozart, The Best of Beethoven, Brahms: A Life in Music, Rachmaninoff: From Tragedy to Triumph), individual masterpieces (Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony – This I Believe!, Eroica!, Beethoven’s Fifth, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, Debussy’s La mer, the “The Debussy Code”) and a cross-genre concert – Shuffle – which includes everything from Bach, Elgar, and Prokofiev to Metheny, Björk, and Philip Glass, as well as a feature concert with cross-over artist Kip Winger. (Once the front man for the band Winger, he now composes “classical” music reminiscent of Honegger and Messiaen.) In this vein, O’Neil has also presented Masterworks programs with “cross-over” elements, notably featuring Victor Wooten, performing the premiere of his own Bass Whispererconcerto, co-written with Conni Ellisor. Mr. O’Neil’s engaging manner in addressing audiences has led to extensive speaking engagements, including a TED-talk on music he composed for Arrow Electronics. As an arranger/orchestrator, Mr. O’Neil has created and orchestrated numerous works for the Colorado Symphony (Arrow: Five Years Out! – an original composition, Pat Metheny’s “The First Circle” as well as Minuano, Björk’s Overture, “107 Steps” and “New World,” a live version of Philip Glass’s Changing Opinions); he has also written orchestrations for Ingrid Michaelson, Eileen Ivers and Bela Fleck. Scott O’Neil continues to guest conduct and to lead his own ensemble, the Rosetta Music Society, in Denver, creating new, innovative programming and constantly seeking to draw wider audiences to live performances of music from Bach to today’s cutting-edge artists.

INGRID MICHAELSON Ingrid Michaelson was born in New York City and raised by her mother, a sculptor, and her father, a classical composer, so the arts have always been close to her heart. Since her college musical theater beginnings, Ingrid has gone on to release all of her music on her own independent label, Cabin 24 Records. She is best known for her gold and platinum hits including, “The Way I Am,” “Girls Chase Boys” and “You & I.” The New York Times weighs in, declaring her songwriting smart, her tunes irresistible, and her live show seamless. While continuing to write music for herself and other artists, Ingrid most recently, made her film debut in the feature film Humor Me, also starring Jemaine Clement and Elliott Gould. She is also currently co-writing a script about her life for Hulu, as well as music for upcoming film, television, and stage projects. In 2017 she also made her Broadway debut as Sonya in Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812. For the latest on Ingrid please visit www.ingridmichaelson.com SOUNDINGS

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