CLASSICS
2019/20
STRAUSS A HERO’S LIFE CONDUCTED BY BRETT MITCHELL PERFORMED BY YOUR COLORADO SYMPHONY BRETT MITCHELL, conductor THE PERCUSSION COLLECTIVE
2019/20 SEASON PRESENTING SPONSOR:
Saturday's Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Young and Carolyn Cho.
Friday, March 6, 2020 at 7:30pm Saturday, March 7, 2020 at 7:30pm Sunday, March 8, 2020 at 1:00pm Boléro
RAVEL
CHRISTOPHER THEOFANDIS Drum Circles: Concerto for 7 Percussionists and Orchestra Rivers and Anthems Sparks and Chants How Can you Smile When You’re Deep in Thought? Spirits and Drums Three Chords and the Truth -INTERMISSIONR. STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 “Der Held” (The Hero) “Des Helden Widersacher” (The Hero’s Adversaries) “Des Helden Gefährtin” (The Hero’s Companion) “Des Helden Walstatt” (The Hero at Battle) "Des Helden Friedenswerke" (The Hero's Works of Peace) "Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung" (The Hero's Retirement from this World and Completion) CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 35 MINUTES WITH A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION This weekend's Preludes are hosted by Assistant Conductor, Bertie Baigent. Guests will learn all about the weekend's program. There will be a Talkback on Friday, March 6, 2020. PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY SOUNDINGS
2 0 1 9/2 0
PROGRAM I
CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES
PHOTO: ROGER MASTROIANNI
BRETT MITCHELL, conductor Hailed for delivering compelling performances of innovative, eclectic programs, Brett Mitchell was named the fourth Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in September 2016. He served as the orchestra’s Music Director Designate during the 16/17 season and began his four year appointment in September 2017. Mr. Mitchell concluded his tenure as the Associate Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra in August 2017. He joined the orchestra as Assistant Conductor in 2013 and was promoted to Associate in 2015, becoming the orchestra’s first Associate Conductor in over three decades and only the fifth in its 98 year history. In this role, he led the orchestra in several dozen concerts each season at Severance Hall, Blossom Music Center, and on tour. Mr. Mitchell also served as the Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO), which he recently led on a four-city tour of China, marking the ensemble’s second international tour and its first to Asia. In May, 2019 he returned to the Cleveland Orchestra to lead subscription performances of An American in Paris. In addition to his work in Cleveland and Denver, Brett Mitchell is in consistent demand as a guest conductor. Recent and upcoming guest engagements include subscription debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Dallas, San Antonio, Vancouver and New Zealand Symphonies and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Spain, as well as debuts with the Grant Park Music Festival in downtown Chicago and the Indianapolis Symphony during the orchestra’s summer festival at Conner Prairie. He has also appeared with the Detroit, National, Houston, Milwaukee and Oregon Symphonies, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra among others. From 2007 to 2011, Brett Mitchell led over one hundred performances as Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony. He also held Assistant Conductor posts with the Orchestre National de France, where he worked under Kurt Masur from 2006 to 2009, and the Castleton Festival, where he worked under Lorin Maazel in 2009 and 2010. In 2015, Mr. Mitchell completed a highly successful five-year tenure as Music Director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, where an increased focus on locally relevant programming and community collaborations resulted in record attendance throughout his tenure. As an opera conductor, Brett Mitchell has conducted nearly a dozen productions, principally during his tenure as Music Director of the Moores Opera Center in Houston, where he led eight productions from 2010 to 2013. His repertoire spans the core works of Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute), Verdi (Rigoletto and Falstaff), and Stravinsky (The Rake’s Progress), to contemporary works by Adamo (Little Women), Aldridge (Elmer Gantry), Catán (Il Postino and Salsipuedes), and Hagen (Amelia).
PROGRAM II
C O L O R A D O SY M P H O N Y.O R G
CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES In addition to his work with professional orchestras, Mr. Mitchell is also well-known for his affinity for working with and mentoring highly talented young musicians aspiring to be professional orchestral players. His work with COYO during his Cleveland Orchestra tenure was highly praised and he is regularly invited to work with the orchestra at the Cleveland Institute of Music as well as at summer orchestral training programs such as the Texas Music Festival, National repertory Orchestra, Interlochen and Sarasota Music Festival. Born in Seattle in 1979, Brett Mitchell holds degrees in conducting from the University of Texas in Austin and composition from Western Washington University, which selected him as its 2014 Young Alumnus of the Year. He studied at the National Conducting Institute and was selected by Kurt Masur as a recipient of the inaugural American Friends of the Mendelssohn Foundation Scholarship. Mr. Mitchell was also one of five recipients of the League of American Orchestras’ American Conducting Fellowship Program from 2007 to 2010.
Marin Alsop Conducts MAR 20-22 FRI-SAT 7:30 SUN 1:00 n
Marin Alsop, conductor BARBER Essay No. 2, Op. 17 COPLAND Suite from Appalachian Spring PROKOFIEV Suite from Romeo and Juliet
tickets: coloradosymphony.org
SOUNDINGS
2 0 1 9/2 0
PROGRAM III
CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES THE PERCUSSION COLLECTIVE The Percussion Collective’s latest season was met with extraordinary critical acclaim. Their first tour to China featured performances of Garth Neustadter’s Seaborne in a collection of fabulous venues including Shanghai’s Symphony Hall, the stunning Jiangjsu Grand Theatre in Nanjing, and the mystical Temple in Beijing. “The extraordinary Percussion Collective brought the audience a level of artistry, beauty, and insight more commonly found in great string quartets.” Beijing Morning Post, October 2018 In March, the group was joined by Yellow Barn’s Artistic Director, Seth Knopp for a sold out performance at the Nasher Sculpture Garden in Dallas that included Martin Bresnick’s anti-war piece, Caprichos Enfaticos. The program also included one of percussion’s seminal works, Village Burial With Fire by English composer James Wood. “This was truly masterful performing, and it is a lesson in getting capacity crowds to contemporary music performances.” - TheaterJones Reviews, March 2019 In their first orchestral showcase, The Percussion Collective had three nights of standing ovations for their world premiere performances of Christopher Theofinidis’s Drum Circles with The Oregon Symphony and their Music Director, Carlos Kalmar. In this piece, four members of The Collective and the orchestra’s own percussion section surrounded the orchestra in a circle, creating an extraordinary spatial and theatrical effect. “A phenomenally exciting world premiere performance of Drum Circles by American composer Chris Theofinidis.” - Northwest Reverb, November 2018 The 2019/20 season began with The Collective’s debut at the Aspen Music Festival. The group will perform Theofanidis Drum Circles with the acclaimed Aspen Festival Orchestra under the direction of Michael Stern. Later in the season, the group will perform this exciting new concerto with the Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Curtis Symphony Orchestra in Verizon Hall, and Hartford Symphony. Another orchestral highlight of the season will be the world premiere of Seaborne with Orchestra with the Louisville Orchestra and their Music Director, Teddy Abrams. Spring of 2020, includes The Percussion Collective’s first appearances in Europe, with a tour that includes debut recitals at the Musikverein in Vienna, Amsterdam’s renowned Concertgebouw and the Purcell Room in London. The group will continue their residencies at American universities with master classes and recitals throughout the country including the University of Texas in Austin and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. FIRST TIME TO THE SYMPHONY? SEE PAGE 8 OF THE PROGRAM BOOK FOR FAQ’S TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE GREAT! PROGRAM IV
C O L O R A D O SY M P H O N Y.O R G
CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937): Boléro Maurice Ravel was born on March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France and died on December 28, 1937 in Paris. He composed Boléro between July and October 6, 1928 as a ballet on commission from the dancer Ida Rubinstein, who performed the premiere at the Paris Opéra on November 20, 1928; Walter Straram conducted. The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, oboe d’amore (alto oboe), English horn, E-flat clarinet, two B-flat clarinets, bass clarinet, three saxophones, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, harp, and strings. Duration is about 17 minutes. Bolero was last performed on November 11, 2017, with Christopher Dragon on the podium. Ravel originated what he once called his “danse lascive” at the suggestion of Ida Rubinstein, the famed ballerina who also inspired works from Debussy, Honegger, and Stravinsky. Rubinstein’s balletic interpretation of Boléro, set in a rustic Spanish tavern, portrayed a voluptuous dancer whose stomps and whirls atop a table incite the men in the bar to mounting fervor. With growing intensity, they join in her dance until, in a brilliant coup de théâtre, knives are drawn and violence flares on stage at the moment near the end where the music modulates, breathtakingly, from the key of C to the key of E. So viscerally stirring was the combination of the powerful music and the ballerina’s suggestive dancing at the premiere (November 20, 1928) that a near-riot ensued between audience and performers, and Miss Rubinstein narrowly escaped injury. The usually reserved Pitts Sanborn reported that the American premiere, conducted by Arturo Toscanini at Carnegie Hall on November 14, 1929, had a similar effect on its hearers: “If it had been the custom to repeat a number at a symphonic concert, Boléro would surely have been encored, even at the risk of mass wreckage of the nerves.” Of the musical nature of this magnificent study in hypnotic rhythm and orchestral sonority, Ravel wrote in 1931 to the critic M.D. Calvocoressi, “I am particularly desirous that there should be no misunderstanding about this work. It constitutes an experiment in a very special and limited direction, and should not be suspected of aiming at achieving anything different from or anything more than it actually does achieve. Before its first performance, I issued a warning to the effect that what I had written was a piece lasting about seventeen minutes and consisting wholly of ‘orchestral tissue without music’ — of one long, very gradual crescendo. There are no contrasts, there is practically no invention except the plan and the manner of execution. The themes are altogether impersonal ... folktunes of the usual Spanish-Arabian kind, and (whatever may have been said to the contrary) the orchestral writing is simple and straightforward throughout, without the slightest attempt at virtuosity.... I have carried out exactly what I intended, and it is for listeners to take it or leave it.” Listeners have.
SOUNDINGS
2 0 1 9/2 0
PROGRAM V
CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS (b. 1967): Drum Circles for Percussion Quartet and Orchestra Christopher Theofanidis was born on December 18, 1967 in Dallas. He composed Drum Circles in 2019. It was premiered on March 9, 2019 in Portland by the Oregon Symphony with The Percussion Collective as soloists, conducted by Carlos Kalmar. The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. Duration is about 25 minutes. This is the first performance of the work by the orchestra. (Theofanidis Christopher Theofanidis, one of America’s most prominent composers, was born in Dallas on December 18, 1967, and studied at the University of Houston (B.M.), Eastman School of Music (M.M.) and Yale University (M.A. and D.M.A.). He has served on the faculty of the Yale University School of Music since September 2008; his previous teaching appointments include the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Juilliard School, University of Houston, American Festival of the Arts, Texas Piano Institute, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and HighSCORE Festival in Italy. In summer 2014, he joined the faculty the Aspen Music Festival, where he is now Composerin-Residence and Co-Director of the Composition Program. Theofanidis has held residencies with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, California Symphony and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and has also served as a delegate to the United States–Japan Foundation’s Leadership Program. His numerous awards include the Prix de Rome, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Barlow Prize, Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Bearns Prize of Columbia University, Fulbright Fellowship for study in France, six ASCAP Morton Gould Prizes, and a 2007 Grammy nomination for The Here and Now for chorus and orchestra, based on the poetry of Rumi. In October 2003, his Rainbow Body won the First Prize of £25,000 in the Masterprize Competition, a London-based, British-American partnership of EMI, London Symphony Orchestra, Gramophone magazine, Classic FM, and National Public Radio whose winner is chosen jointly by the public and a panel of experts; Rainbow Body has subsequently become one of the most frequently performed pieces by a living composer. Among Theofanidis’ commissions are compositions for the 25th anniversary of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., 700th anniversary of the Grimalkin Empire in Monaco, opening of Bass Hall in Fort Worth, 100th anniversary of the Oregon Symphony, and Heart of a Soldier for the San Francisco Opera in observance of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Theofanidis said that Drum Circles, composed in 2019 on a joint commission from the Colorado Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Curtis (Institute) Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra, and Oregon Symphony, “keeps coming back to the idea of dialogue and delight, and centers around the joy of sound and collaboration.” Drum Circles calls for a solo percussion quartet as well as three percussionists from the orchestra, and derives its title from the distribution of the instruments around the orchestra. Theofanidis commented, “I like the idea of definition of personality characteristics — the specific character of the music — threading through each movement. Each movement’s personality determines all the musical decisions I made, from timbre to rhythm to phrasing to melodic line…. The first movement, Rivers and Anthems, is a flood of bright clangorous chimes, bells, crotales [finger cymbals], vibraphone, xylophone; they’re playing ‘super melodies’ on top of these cascades of rivers. In contrast, Sparks and Chants features marimbas in a brittle environment created by PROGRAM VI
C O L O R A D O SY M P H O N Y.O R G
CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES ‘dry’ instruments: slats, woodblocks, and claves, while the orchestra focuses on strings. The central movement, How Can You Smile When You’re Deep in Thought?, has a bright, punchy sound, like something from the 1940s. Spirits and Drums is shockingly different. It’s ritualistic — all the soloists are playing drums [rather than pitched instruments]. The sound is somewhat threatening, with a lot of low sonorities. The orchestra’s strong statements are punctuated by silence and space. Three Chords and Truth (or, Learning to Breathe Again) is like contemporary country western music and also blues, which can say a lot with a very restricted number of chords played in different voicings. The movement is intimate and lyrical rather than going out with a bang.”
RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949): Ein Heldenleben (“A Hero’s Life”), Op. 40 Richard Strauss was born on June 11, 1864 in Munich and died September 9, 1949 in GarmischPartenkirchen. Ein Heldenleben was begun during the summer of 1898 and completed on December 27th of that year. The composer conducted the Orchestra of the Musikgesellschaft of Frankfurt-amMain in the premiere on March 3, 1899. The score calls for piccolo, three flutes, four oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two B-flat clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, eight horns, five trumpets, three trombones, tenor and bass tubas, timpani, percussion, two harps, and strings. Duration is about 43 minutes. Ein Heledenleben was last performed on March 8-10, 2013, with Jun Märkl on the podium. “No man is perhaps a hero to his valet; but Strauss is evidently a hero to himself.” The autobiographical nature of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben did not slip past Philip Hale, nor has it been less than obvious to anyone else. Literary autobiography and self-portraiture (à la Rembrandt) had been acceptable artistic genres for centuries. So why not music? So why not Strauss? In 1898, the year of Ein Heldenleben, Strauss was the most talked-about composer in the world. This work was the seventh of his orchestral tone poems, each new arrival greeted with a flurry of international interest by press and public alike. They (Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, Also sprach Zarathustra, et al.) were sensational works that carried programmatic music and the art of orchestration to heights that no one else, except Berlioz, had conceived. Strauss was also one of the preeminent conductors of the day, and when he composed Ein Heldenleben he was principal conductor of the Berlin Court Opera and past music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. He parlayed all these activities into an immense income, and it is quite likely that he was the wealthiest composer of concert music ever. With all this, he had a right to be proud. Early in 1898, Strauss undertook to portray a general overview of the heroic spirit in a tone poem. He painted six aspects of this spirit in Ein Heldenleben. The first three sections portray the participating characters: “The Hero” (“his pride, emotional nature, iron will, richness of imagination, inflexible and well-directed determination supplant low-spirited and sullen obstinacy” noted the modest composer); “His Adversaries” (Strauss said nothing about them — the cackling, strident music speaks for itself ); and “His Beloved” (“It’s my wife I wanted to show. SOUNDINGS
2 0 1 9/2 0 PROGRAM VII
CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES She is very complex, very feminine, a little perverse, a little coquettish”). The fourth section, in which the hero girds his loins to do battle against his enemies, was considered the height of modernity when it was new. Section five is an ingenious review of at least thirty snippets selected by Strauss from nine of his earlier works. The finale tells of the hero’s withdrawal from the earthly struggles to reach “perfection in contemplative contentment,” in the obscure words of the composer. For Strauss’ appearance as guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic in 1921, Lawrence Gilman prepared the following synopsis of Ein Heldenleben, to which the composer gave his approval: “1. Der Held (The Hero). We hear first the valorous theme of the Hero. Subsidiary themes picture his pride, depth of feeling, inflexibility, sensitiveness, imagination. “2. Des Helden Widersacher (The Hero’s Adversaries). Herein are pictured an envious and malicious crew, filled with all uncharitableness. The theme of the Hero appears in sad and meditative guise. But his dauntless courage soon reasserts itself, and the mocking hordes are put to rout. “3. Des Helden Gefährtin (The Hero’s Companion). A solo violin introduces the Hero’s Beloved. After an earnest phrase heard again and again, the orchestra breaks into a love song of heroic sweep and passion. As the ecstasy subsides, the mocking voices of the foe are heard remotely. “4. Des Helden Walstatt (The Hero at Battle). Suddenly the call to arms is heard. Distant fanfares (trumpets off-stage) summon the Hero to the conflict. The orchestra becomes a battlefield. A triumphant outburst proclaims his victory. “5. Des Helden Friedenswerke (The Hero's Works of Peace). Now begins a celebration of the Hero’s victories of peace, suggesting his spiritual evolution and achievements. We hear quotations of themes from Strauss’ earlier works: reminiscences of Death and Transfiguration, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, Macbeth, Also sprach Zarathustra, the music-drama Guntram, and the exquisite song Traum durch die Dämmerung (‘Dream at Twilight’). “6. Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung (The Hero's Retirement from this World and Completion). The tubas mutter the uncouth and sinister phrase that voices the dull contempt of the benighted adversaries. Furiously, the Hero rebels and the orchestra rages. His anger subsides. An agitated memory of storm and strife again disturbs his mood, but the solo violin reminds him of the consoling presence of the Beloved One. Peace descends upon the Hero’s spirit, and the finale is majestic and serene.” ©2019 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
PROGRAM VIII C O L O R A D O SY M P H O N Y.O R G