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BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL S
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saturday August 9
THE MAGIC OF MOZART The Cleveland Orchestra Matthew Halls, conductor
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2014 Blossom Festival
MedMutual.com
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BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL
Saturday evening, August 9, 2014, at 8:00 p.m.
THE CLEVEL AND ORCHESTRA M AT T H E W H A L L S , conductor
WOLFGANG AMADÈ MOZART
Overture to Idomeneo, K366
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Suite No. 4 (“Mozartiana”) in G major
(1756-1791)
(1840-1893)
1. 2. 3. 4.
Gigue Minuet Prayer Theme and Variations
INTERMISSION MOZART
Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K525 [A Little Night Music] 1. 2. 3. 4.
MOZART
Allegro Romance: Andante Menuetto: Allegretto Rondo: Allegro
Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”) in C major, K425 1. 2. 3. 4.
Adagio — Allegro spiritoso Andante Menuetto Presto
This concert is sponsored by Medical Mutual of Ohio, a Cleveland Orchestra Partner in Excellence. Media Partner: The Plain Dealer
Blossom Music Festival
Program: August 9
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Matthew Halls British conductor Matthew Halls became artistic director of the Oregon Bach Festival in 2013. He first came to prominence as a keyboard player and conductor of early music, but is now recognized for his work with major orchestras and opera companies around the world. He is making his Cleveland Orchestra debut with this evening’s concert. Mr. Halls’s recent and upcoming North American engagements — in repertoire ranging from Bach to Tippett — include appearances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. After his July 2011 debut at the Oregon Bach Festival, he was invited to succeed Helmuth Rilling as artistic director. In Europe and Australia, Matthew Halls has led performances of the BBC Scottish Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Bremen Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Iceland Symphony, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Ireland’s National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Tonkünstler Orchestra, and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he makes regular appearances with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra in Austria and on tour. On the opera podium, Mr. Halls has led performances with Colorado’s Central City Opera, Handelfestspiele Halle, and the Salzburg Landestheater. His operatic repertoire features Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical works, but also extends to later dramatic work, with a particular focus on Benjamin Britten. Matthew Halls’s associations with both the Bavarian State Opera and the Netherlands Opera have included productions of Bellini’s Norma, Britten’s Peter Grimes, and Verdi’s Luisa Miller. Earlier this year, he led Handel’s Ariodante at the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen. Mr. Halls’s discography includes Hyperion’s album of Handel’s Parnasso in Festa, which won the Stanley Sadie Handel Recording Prize. For Linn Records, he has recorded a set of four Bach harpsichord concertos conducted from the keyboard and Bach’s Easter and Ascension oratorios, as well as award-winning albums of Purcell’s Sonatas in Three and Four Parts. Matthew Halls was educated at Oxford University and subsequently taught there for five years. His commitment to education continues to include working with young musicians. He has held positions as artistic director of the King’s Consort and the Retrospect Ensemble, which he founded in 2009.
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Conductor
2014 Blossom Festival
Overture to Idomeneo composed 1780-81
by
Wolfgang Amadè
MOZART born January 27, 1756 Salzburg died December 5, 1791 Vienna
M O Z A R T A T A G E 2 4 had long outgrown his hometown of Salzburg, where he lived under the shadow of his controlling father and worked for a troublesome archbishop. Just as his frustrations were reaching a boiling point, he received a welcome invitation to compose an opera for the Munich court of Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria. Mozart had encountered Theodor’s musical retinue during a 1778 visit to Mannheim, where the young composer made a strong impression on the future ruler of Germany’s third largest state. Mozart began composing the opera Idomeneo in Salzburg, and he completed it in Munich in advance of the January 1781 premiere, which he conducted himself. The high-profile commission proved to be just the boost Mozart needed; after Munich, he quit his Salzburg job and set out as a freelancer in Vienna. For Idomeneo, Mozart followed the template of Christoph Gluck, whose Greek-inspired tragedies for the Paris stage redefined the scope of grand opera in the 1770s. Idomeneo was based on Idoménée, a 1712 French telling of a Greek legend, as rendered into Italian by librettist Giambattista Varesco. The story centers on Idomeneo, the king of Crete, who only survives his return voyage from the Trojan War thanks to intervention by the god Neptune. Idomeneo promises in return to sacrifice the first living creature he sees, who turns out to be his son, Idamante. By the point of the closing ballet, Idamante has been spared, and Idomeneo turns his rule over to Idamante and his new bride, Ilia, a freed Trojan slave. Many of the musicians who first performed Idomeneo were alumni of the legendary Mannheim orchestra, which Karl Theodor brought with him to Munich. The overture’s drawn-out crescendos and dramatic contrasts were just the type of gestures that had marked Mannheim as an orchestral powerhouse, and the prominent woodwind writing (including parts for clarinets, still uncommon in Austrian orchestras) drew upon the world-class soloists in the Munich ensemble. Even though the opera never reached the stage again in his lifetime, Idomeneo succeeded in establishing Mozart as a formidable talent, in no small part thanks to the muscular orchestral writing.
—Aaron Grad © 2014
The Cleveland Orchestra
About the Music
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Suite No. 4 (“Mozartiana”) in G major, Opus 61 composed 1886-87
as a musical Christ,” wrote Tchaikovsky in an 1886 diary entry. “It is my profound conviction that Mozart is the highest, the culminating point that beauty has reached in the sphere of music. Nobody has made me cry and thrill with joy, sensing my proximity to something that we call the ideal, in the way that he has.” Tchaikovsky’s work translating The Marriage of Figaro into Russian in 1884 had sparked the idea to create a suite of orchestral arrangements drawn from Mozart. Tchaikovsky gathered a selection of short works in 1886, and found time in the summer of 1887 to assemble his Orchestral Suite No. 4, nicknamed “Mozartiana” — timing the Moscow premiere to coincide with the centennial of the opera Don Giovanni. The suite begins with a transcription of Eine kleine Gigue (“A Little Jig”), K574, which Mozart penned in Leipzig in 1789. The orchestral treatment preserves Mozart’s crisp counterpoint and angular lines, written in a style that harkens to the days of Bach and Handel. The choice of a Menuet for the suite’s second movement also recalls music from before Mozart’s time, evoking the stately grandeur of a French court dance. Tchaikovsky’s version uses the fullness of the orchestral sound to heighten the pungency of passing dissonances within an otherwise placid movement. The third movement, Pregheira (“Prayer”), is an arrangement of Mozart’s last motet, Ave verum corpus, K618, except that Tchaikovsky worked from a transcription for piano by Franz Liszt. Thus twice removed from its source, this orchestral version is the most Romantic music of the suite, its hallowed melodies draped with harp strums and lush chord voicings. A substantial finale, in the form of a theme and variations, begins with a melody that Mozart borrowed from the opera composer Christoph Gluck. Tchaikovsky’s adaptation of Mozart’s keyboard music spreads the virtuosic flourishes around the orchestra, including sprightly passages for the woodwinds alone and a gleeful conclusion splashed with cymbal crashes. “MOZ ART I LOVE
by
Pyotr Ilyich
TCHAIKOVSKY born May 7, 1840 near Votkinsk, Russia died November 6, 1893 St. Petersburg
—Aaron Grad © 2014 Aaron Grad is a composer, guitarist, and author based in Seattle, Washington. He writes program notes for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, and other ensembles.
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About the Music
Blossom Music Festival
Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K525
[“A Little Night Music” or “A Small Serenade”] composed 1787
by
Wolfgang Amadè
MOZART born January 27, 1756 Salzburg died December 5, 1791 Vienna
Blossom Festival 2014
M O Z A R T C O M P O S E D most of his serenades and divertimentos during his teens and early twenties, writing to entertain Salzburg’s wealthy families as a side activity to his official service to the archbishop. Whereas many serenades by earlier composers tended to be forgettable light works meant for a single use, Mozart elevated the genre into something more lasting and refined, whether in the grand showcases for large ensembles or in the more intimate scores for solo strings. The final example of Mozart’s “night music” dates from 1787, around the time of Don Giovanni. There is no record of what prompted the work, only an entry in Mozart’s log of compositions listing Eine kleine Nachtmusik, or “a little serenade.” (The more common and literal English translation of “A Little Night Music” is less accurate but more poetic.) In its original form, the work had five movements, but only four survived in the first publication from 1827. While Mozart probably intended the score to be played by individual players — two violins, viola, cello, and bass — the music works equally well with the broad sound of a string orchestra. The opening phrases of the Allegro first movement are no less brilliant for all their familiarity — a questioning rise answered by a balanced descent, each speaking in unadorned octaves. Mozart’s genius, even in seemingly light music, was to find delight and surprise within such straightforward gestures, as in the whimsical key change that jumpstarts the movement’s central development section. In calling the second movement a Romanze, Mozart grouped it with a tradition of tuneful music inspired by an earlier song style. The long skeins of melody remind us that Mozart was always, at heart, an opera composer. The Menuetto borrows the courtly, three-beat stride of the French minuet, while the movement’s contrasting trio section glosses the melodies with slurred phrases. The finale takes the shape of a rondo, returning at key junctions to the main theme, each entrance prefaced by an upward arpeggio that echoes the memorable first phrase of the serenade. —Aaron Grad © 2014 About the Music
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Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”) in C major, K425 composed 1783
by
Wolfgang Amadè
MOZART born January 27, 1756 Salzburg died December 5, 1791 Vienna
M O Z A R T D E F E R R E D T O H I S F A T H E R in most matters, but one notable act of defiance was his marriage to Constanze Weber in 1782, a union that Leopold only grudgingly approved, with his consent arriving a day after the nuptials. Mozart knew he should visit Salzburg to smooth over matters with his family, but he postponed the trip several times. Finally, the young couple left Vienna in July 1783, and Constanze met Leopold for the first time, as well as Mozart’s beloved (and equally disapproving) sister, Nannerl. Beyond the tension one might expect from such an introduction, Wolfgang and Constanze also had to face the news that their first son, born only a few weeks earlier and left behind in Vienna, had died. Several months later, the young couple stopped in Linz on their way back to Vienna. Their host, Count Johann Joseph Anton von Thun-Hohenstein, welcomed them to his palace and arranged for the court orchestra to perform a concert. Mozart wrote to his father, “I really cannot tell you what kindnesses the family are showering on us. On Tuesday, November 4, I am giving a concert in the theater here and, as I have not a single symphony with me, I am writing a new one at breakneck speed, which must be finished by that time.” It was breakneck speed indeed, for Mozart only arrived on October 30, leaving him less than five days to compose the new piece, copy out the parts, and rehearse with the orchestra. Mozart’s Symphony in C major, nicknamed “Linz” for its city of origin (and designated as “No. 36” after the composer’s death), betrays no evidence of strained composition. In fact, it is rare among Mozart’s symphonies in that it begins with a leisurely introduction. The opening harmonies wander away from C major and settle in C minor, creating a moody counterpoint to the generally sunny disposition of the symphony. Further detours into minor keys, in the first movement’s secondary theme and later in the graceful Andante, echo the tonal rub of the introduction. After a playful little Minuet, the Presto finale sprints through a fluid range of themes, with short motifs bouncing among sections. Here, there is a family resemblance with the C-major finale of Mozart’s last symphony, No. 41 or “Jupiter,” which also has a closing contrapuntal movement.
—Aaron Grad © 2014
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About the Music
2014 Blossom Festival
MOZART T I M E L I N E 1756
Born January 27, in Salzburg, the seventh and last child of Leopold and Anna Maria. (Only two of their children survived infancy.) Baptized “Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart.”
1759
At age 3, Wolfgang begins to play the harpsichord.
1761
At age 5, he begins to compose.
1762
His father takes Wolfgang (and his sister, Nannerl, four years older) on the road as child prodigies. Over the next four years, they will visit and perform before royalty in Vienna, Paris, and London.
1767
He begins writing his first operas, completing four in two years.
1770
Wolfgang (age 14) and his father visit Italy for the first time, and are exposed to Italian opera in its native land.
1771
At age 15, he begins his service with his father’s employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg.
1778
While he and his mother are in Paris looking for lucrative employment for Wolfgang, Anna Maria is taken ill and dies. Wolfgang must bury her alone, and then tell his father and sister back in Salzburg the news.
1781
After looking for a job in Vienna, Wolfgang is dismissed from his post with the Archbishop and decides to begin life as a freelance artist.
1782
Marries Constanze Weber on August 4. They will have six children, but (typical for the era) only two will survive to adulthood (and neither of them will have progeny of their own).
1783
Over the next several years, he writes and performs a series of mature piano concertos and creates six string quartets dedicated to Haydn, making for himself both a name and a good living.
1785
Meets Haydn, who praises Mozart as “the greatest living composer.”
The Cleveland Orchestra
Mozart Timeline
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1786
The Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna on May 1.
1787
He travels to Prague early in the year to see Figaro, where it is acclaimed a masterpiece. Prague asks him to write a new opera. Father Leopold dies on May 28. Don Giovanni, his second collaboration with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, is premiered in October in Prague. Wolfgang is appointed to the relatively minor (and not very well-paid) post of “chamber composer” by Emperor Joseph II.
1788
Mozart composes what become his last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41) in anticipation of a series of benefit concerts that never take place. His finances are increasingly limited and problematic, and he moves around Vienna several times in the next few years to find lodgings he can work in or afford.
1790
Così fan tutte is premiered in Vienna. Mozart attends the coronation of Emperor Leopold II.
1791
Composes the operas The Magic Flute and La clemenza di Tito, and begins work on his Requiem Mass. Dies on December 5 at the age of 35. After a simple funeral service, he was buried in an unmarked grave following customs of the time in Vienna.
What’s his name?! Mozart was baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. His first two baptismal names, Johannes Chrysostomus, represent his saints’ names, following the custom of the Roman Catholic Church at the time. In practice, his family called him Wolfgang. Theophilus comes from Greek and can be rendered as “lover of God” or “loved by God.” Amadeus is a Latin version of this same name. Mozart most often signed his name as “Wolfgang Amadè Mozart,” saving Amadeus only as an occasional joke. At the time of his death, scholars in all fields of learning were quite enamored of Latin naming and conventions (this is the period of the classification and cataloging of life on earth into kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, etc.) and successfully “changed” his name to Amadeus. Only in recent years have we started remembering the Amadè middle name he preferred.
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Mozart Timeline
Blossom Music Festival
A portrait of Mozart, painted in 1819 by Barbara Kraft, based on paintings created during the composer’s lifetime
I cannot write in verse, for I am no poet. I cannot arrange the parts of speech with such art as to produce effects of light and shade, for I am no painter. Even by signs and gestures I cannot express my thoughts and feelings, for I am no dancer. But I can do so by means of sound, for I am a musician. —W. A. Mozart, November 1777
THE CLEVELAND ORCH THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA E CLEVELAND O30RCHESTRA A THE CLEVELAND ORCHE
News
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Franz Welser-Möst led a commemorative concert of the Vienna Philharmonic in the atrium of Sarajevo’s rebuilt City Hall on June 28, 100 years after the assassinations of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in that city began a series of events that resulted in the outbreak of World War I — and the start of a war-torn century for Sarajevo itself. A giant screen was erected to broadcast the concert for a crowd gathered outside on the opposite side of the Miljacka River. Broadcasters for Eurovision relayed the concert to more than 40 countries across Europe. “This is a very symbolic day in a very symbolic location,” said Clemens Hellsberg, the outgoing president of the Philharmonic. “We wanted it to be not a view back into history, but a view into the future, after the catastrophe of war.” In choosing the Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ as part of the concert, Welser-Möst said, “we wished to express the hope that war should never happen on the soil of Europe again.” Welser-Möst continued, saying that he and the Philharmonic saw themselves performing in this special concert a similar role of reconciliation that conductor Daniel Barenboim has sought with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, whose mixture of Israeli and Arab players also work to surmount the hatreds and divisions of the past.
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Benefit performance on August 13 tells story of musical inspiration On Wednesday, August 13, the Women’s Committee of The Cleveland Orchestra presents a special evening featuring Orchestra cellist Brian Thornton, who will perform and share his story about his teacher, Lev Aronson. Aronson survived torture and loss in Nazi concentration camps before coming to America to become a beloved and inspiring teacher. He served as principal cello of the Dallas Symphony for many years, and taught and mentored many top cellists through his fiery teaching style. Wednesday evening’s benefit event is led by honorary chairs Audrey and Albert Ratner and takes place at the Mayfield Sand Ridge Club in South Euclid. A reception and silent auction begins at 5:30 p.m., with performance and dinner to follow. Tickets start at $150 per person. All proceeds benefit The Cleveland Orchestra. For further information or to make reservations, please email Barbara Wolfort at barbwolfort@gmail.com.
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As a courtesy to the performers onstage and the entire audience, late-arriving patrons in the Pavilion cannot be seated until the first break in the musical program.
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