Bronfman Plays Tchaikovsky 2 Friday, September 16, 2016 | 8pm | Miller Auditorium (Prelude starts at 7pm) Raymond Harvey, Conductor & Yefim Bronfman, Piano HINDEMITH Mathis der Maler Symphony 1895 | 1963 Engelskonzert (Angelic Concert) Die Grablegung (Entombment) Versuchung des heiligen Antonius (Temptation of St. Anthony) SCHELLE from Spirits (1993) b. 1950 The Last Ride (James Dean) Detour to Nowhere (John Dillinger) INTERMISSION TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Major, Op. 44 1840 | 1893 Allegro brillante e molto vivace Andante non troppo Allegro con fuoco Yefim Bronfman, piano Yefim Bronfman’s appearance is underwritten by the Robert and Marianne Denes Fund.
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Paul Hindemith
1895 | 1963
Mathis der Maler Symphony MOVEMENTS I. Engelskonzert (Angelic Concert) II. Die Grablegung (Entombment) III. Versuchung des heiligen Antonius (Temptation of St. Anthony) The Details Scored for 2 flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. Hindemith composed the symphony in 1934. Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted the Berlin Philharmonic gave the first performance on March 12, 1934. Otto Klemperer conducted the symphony with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in October of 1934—the first performance of the work outside of Germany. Approximate duration: 25 minutes in three movements (with pauses). The Background Philosophers, artists, and politicians have long debated the role of the artist in society. John F. Kennedy, in his eulogy for Robert Frost, articulated a forceful vision of the artist’s role in contemporary society. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth… In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society — in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. For Kennedy, art nourishes the roots of our culture and deserves preservation. Therefore, the artist ought to be set free. Leonard Bernstein, the greatest American conductor of his generation, embodied Kennedy’s vision with his activism. Eulogizing Kennedy, Bernstein wrote that every one ought: …to insist, unflaggingly, at risk of becoming a repetitive bore, but to insist on the achievement of a world in which the mind will have triumphed over violence….This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before. This debate stretches across centuries. What exactly is the role of the artist? To provide a critical voice, to remain subservient to authority, to affect moral change? These questions led Paul Hindemith to compose Mathis der Maler. During 1932, his publisher suggested that Hindemith consider writing an opera based on the life of the painter Matthias Grünewald (c. 1475-1528). He was not interested and declined. However, the troubling events of 1933 changed his mind. KalamazooSymphony.com
The Nazi party assumed power in 1933. Hindemith, like most politically liberal Germans, believed that their rule would not last long. He continued teaching at the Berlin Hochschule and made no effort to sever ties with his Jewish friends and colleagues. Privately, he viewed the Nazis with deep contempt and often expressed his scorn for their policies. Though he did not actively usurp the ruling party, Hindemith soon found himself directly in the Nazi’s sights. His music was branded “decadent” and soon performances were banned. Hindemith began to wrestle with what his role ought to be in this society. What is the artist to do? Maintain silence, fight, resist, or create? Accordingly, he found himself drawn deeply to Grünewald’s story writing that Grünewald “speaks to us still today through his art with uncanny intensity and warmth.” The Story Hindemith wrote the libretto himself and based the plot very loosely on history. He explored the difficult ethical, artistic, and philosophical choices an artist must make especially when confronted with oppression. Grünewald sees the injustice faced by the peasants, quits his comfortable life as an artist, and joins their cause. Soon, however, he seeks refuge in the forest to escape the peasant’s violence. In the forest, Grünewald dreams that he is St. Anthony— the subject of two of the paintings found in the Isenheim altarpiece. St. Paul the Hermit tells St. Anthony that it is a sin to forsake God-given artistic talents and urges him to return to painting to become “great, a part of the people, the people itself.” Grünewald returns home and finishes his life painting at a furious pace. The Music Long before he finished the opera, Hindemith created a symphony excerpted from the opera. Each movement of the symphony is based on a scene from the Isenheim altarpiece. The first movement, Engelskonzert, is based on a scene depicting angels serenading Mary and the infant Jesus. The opening of the movement depicts Grünewald’s striking lighting by juxtaposing G Major chords against rising phrases in G Minor. The trombones introduce a medieval German song, Es sunken drew Engel (Three angels were singing). After the slow opening, the music picks up with a bright new theme introduced by the violins. Next the violins introduce another new theme. A third theme, introduced by the flute seems to evoke the fluttering of the angel’s wings accompanied by chirping eighth-notes in the violins. Hindemith develops each of these thematic ideas to creat music which emulates the painting with bright splashes of sound. Hindemith bases the second movement, Die Grablegung (Entombment), on a panel depicting the crucified Jesus being laid in the tomb. Borrowed from the final scene of the opera when Grünewald’s last great burst of painting and his life come to an end. The music is sombre and dark. The strings introduce the first theme—soft, pulsating, sighing music which evokes the feeling of grief. The woodwinds answer in the same vein and the anguish grows. After a solo by the flute, the oboe introduces a new theme accompanied by soft pizzicato in the strings. The music builds and grows to a climax. A solo clarinet sounds a soulful lament and the music ends with one last lament by solo horn accompanied by C-sharp Major chords. 2016 | 2017 Season
The last movement uses music from the extended climactic scene of the opera. Based on two of the Isenheim paintings depicting two scenes—first, St. Anthony assailed by grotesque demons and second, St. Anthony meeting St. Paul the Hermit. The music is turbulent, reflecting the inner conflict of Grünewald. The music builds to a climax and dissolves into a single trill in the first violins. What follows is music of great depth and pathos. Next the brass introduce a jaunty theme constructed of descending steps. The music builds and recedes as Hindemith develops the thematic material. Shortly before the end, the woodwinds introduce the 13th century plain chant “Lauda Sion Salvatorem” and the brass answer with majestic “Alleluias.”
Michael Schelle
b. 1950
Spirits
MOVEMENTS VI. The Last Ride II. Detour to Nowhere The Details Commissioned in 1993 by The Indiana Orchestra Consortium. Scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two B-flat clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, harp and strings. Approximate duration: 11 minutes in two movements (with a pause). The Background Michael Schelle (b. 1950 in Philadelphia) was raised in northern New Jersey. Over the past thirty years, he served as Composer in Residence at Butler University. Over 350 orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, as well as orchestras in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Louisville, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Cleveland have performed his works. Among his many awards are the Rockefeller Foundation Composition Prize and two Pulitzer Prize nominations. Schelle also composed scores for films including The Mummy, G Men from Hell, and Bikini Prison. He dedicated Spirits, a work composed in 1993, “to Indiana…and to the memory and spirit of Mr. Richard Scharf.” (Scharf was a past Executive Director of the Northwest Indiana Symphony and President of the Indiana Orchestra Consortium which commissioned the work.) Each of Spirit’s six movements is dedicated to an infamous Hoosier. In the score, the composer indicates that the movements may be programmed as a group, or individually. For this performance, two movements will be performed—VI. The Last Ride (James Dean) and II. Detour to Nowhere (John Dillinger). KalamazooSymphony.com
The Music The brash introduction of The Last Ride (James Dean) bristles with excitement. Layers of ostinati build and then quickly recede over and over. After a sudden pause, a cluster chord played by the brass and piano give way to tense, mysterious music. Tension builds as the composer builds layers of ostinato. Dissonant chords build and build until an exposed piano and harp glissando leads to the final chord which quickly fades out. Detour to Nowhere (John Dillinger), according to the composer, “recalls the ‘film noir’ and gangster movies of the 1940’s—anxiety, neuroses, claustrophobia, on the run from the copper!!” The listener can’t help but remember Cagney, Bogart, Bacall, etc. Rowdy music sets the stage in the first section. After a bit, a solo violin introduces a tender melody. However, rowdy music returns and then gives way to that lush melody again—this time played by the entire first violin section with counterpoint provided by the French horn. A loud orchestral chord punctures the mood and gives way to menacing music again. Trumpets provide fleeting glimpses of heroism and impassioned violins play rich themes inspired by old hollywood. Menacing music continually interrupts and finally obliterates everything else.
Piotr Tchaikovsky
1840 | 1893
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Major, Op. 44 MOVEMENTS I. Allegro brillante e molto vivace II. Andante non troppo III. Allegro con fuoco The Details Composed October 1879-May 1880. First performed in November of 1881, New York, NY with Theodore Thomas conducting the New York Philharmonic Society and Madeleine Schiller as soloist. Dedicated to Nicolai Rubenstein. Scored for solo piano, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. Approximate duration: 37 minutes in three movements (with pauses). The Background In October of 1879, Tchaikovksy travels to his sister’s country estate in Kamenka. Two days later he writes a letter to his patron Nadezhda von Meck confessing his boredom. He continues, “I realized that what I lacked was work and began to apply myself a little. Immediately the boredom went, 2016 | 2017 Season
and I have felt altogether lighter in spirit. I have begun to compose a piano concerto.” By November of 1879, he has made considerable progress on the concerto. In another letter to von Meck, Tchaikovsky writes “I want to dedicate it to N.G. Rubenstein in recognition of his magnificent playing of my First Concerto and of my Sonata which left me in utter rapture after he performed it for me in Moscow.” In order to understand the significance of this dedication, we must look back a few years. In fact, this was not the first time Tchaikovksy tried to dedicate a concerto to Rubenstein. In 1875, Tchaikovsky dedicated his first piano concerto to Rubenstein and brought the music to him for final review. Rubenstein declared the concerto unplayable. Tchaikovsky was deeply wounded by this criticism--never able to fully recover. Fortunately, In the years after his initial criticism, Rubenstein added the work to his repertory to great acclaim. Fast forward back to 1879 and we find Tchaikovsky fretting. In fact he writes to his publisher, “I tremble at the thought of the criticisms I may again hear from Nicolai Grigorevich [Rubenstein]...Still, even if once more he does criticize, yet goes on to perform it brilliantly, as with the First Concerto, I won’t mind.” Within six months, Tchaikovsky completes the concerto. In a dramatic turn of events, Rubinstein dies on March 23, 1880 while in Paris. Alas, he is unable to perform the premiere of a Tchaikovsky concerto yet again. Tchaikovsky chooses Sergei Tanayev to replace Rubinstein and asks Rubenstein’s brother Nikolai to conduct. Due to the delay, the premiere of the concerto takes place in the United States with Theodore Thomas conducting the New York Philharmonic Society and Madeleine Schiller as soloist. The first Russian performance took place on May 18, 1882 at the Industrial and Cultural Exhibition in Moscow. The Music The second concerto’s opening movement, Allegro brilliante e molto vivace is a vast sonata structure on three subjects--a martial first theme, a lyrical contrasting theme initiated by the clarinet and horn, and a melancholy theme comprising short orchestral fragments heavily decorated by the piano. The movement contains two solo cadenzas, both placed, most unusually, in the development section. The second one, as in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, also serves as the bridge to the recapitulation. The Andante is a large ternary form (A–B–A). With it’s prominent solos for violin and cello, the second movement blurs the line between piano concerto and triple concerto. The finale, Allegro con fuoco, contains virtuosic writing in a loose sonata structure.
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KALAMAZOO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FIRST VIO L IN Saeka Matsuyama Concertmaster Julia Neckermann Mark Portolese Tigran Shiganyan Eleanor K. Pifer Oleg Bezuglov Violetta Todorova Sita Yetasook Krishna Baraily Andrew Koehler Joanna Steinhauser Jordan Curry* Joo Yun Preece Zoe Schlussel* SE CON D VIO L IN Lisa A. Williams Julie Evans Little Nicholas Naegele Hsin-Ju Yu Benita Barber Cori Somers Tatiana Zueva Terry Lynn Vantine Jean Watson Roberts Norma-Jean Forshey Megan Healy* Eric Alfredo Dalmau Aguilo* VIOLA Grace Byrd Arturo Ziraldo Nora R. Frisk Sara Rogers Patricia Goodman Diane Taylor Kathy Connor
Tomio Anderson Chi-Jui Lee Mikhail Bugaev
BASSOON William Wheeler Alan Palider
CELLO Igor Cetkovic Carol Bullock Russell Lisa Bressler Calin Muresan Silvia Sidorane Nola Matthews Thole Stefan Koch David Machavariani David Rezits Brook Bennett
F RE N CH H ORN Michael Wood Lin Foulk Elizabeth Fairlie Judge Tamara Kosinski Margaret Hamilton
BAS S Charles Ingrassia Anders Dahlberg Matthew Boothe Frank R. Tramp Jason Niehoff Noah Krzan Dominic Azkoul Brett Lewis
T ROM BON E Edward S. Hickman Rick Uren Scott Grupke
F L UT E Yukie Ota Nancy Rinaldi Williams Jenny Robinson O BO E Gabriel Renteria Brad Smith C L ARIN E T Georgiy Borisov Frank X. Silva Nicholas Thompson
T RU M P E T Scott Thornburg Pamela Smitter Keith Geiman
T U BA Robert Whaley T YM P AN I Mark Guthrie PE RCU SSION Judy Moonert Kenneth Jones Greg Secor HARP Evelyn Iversen PIAN O Reiko Yamada
*Western Michigan University Artist Scholar
2016 | 2017 Season
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