NOV – DEC / 2014/15 UTAH SYMPHONY SEASON
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Contents PUBLISHER Mills Publishing, Inc. PRESIDENT Dan Miller OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Cynthia Bell Snow ART DIRECTOR / PRODUCTION MANAGER Jackie Medina PROGRAM DESIGNER Patrick Witmer GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Leslie Hanna Ken Magleby Patrick Witmer ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Paula Bell Karen Malan Dan Miller Paul Nicholas OFFICE ASSISTANT Jessica Alder ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Kyrsten Holland EDITOR Melissa Robison Cover photo: Abravanel Hall The UTAH SYMPHONY | UTAH OPERA program is published by Mills Publishing, Inc.,772 East 3300 South, Suite 200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84106. Phone: 801/467.8833 Email: advertising@millspub.com Website: millspub.com. Mills Publishing produces playbills for many performing arts groups. Advertisers do not necessarily agree or disagree with content or views expressed on stage. Please contact us for playbill advertising opportunities.
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UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
25 Cirque de la Symphonie
33 Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra
47 Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
57 Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7
75
67 Messiah Sing-In
Beethoven’s Ninth
83 Joy to the World with Pink Martini 6 Welcome 7 Board of Trustees 8 Testimonial 10 Administration 12 Utah Symphony 13 Musician Spotlight 14 Season Honorees 23 Season Sponsors
87 Here Comes Santa Claus! 90 Campaign for Perpetual Motion 93 Utah Symphony Guild 95 Tanner & Crescendo Societies 97 Planned Giving Council 98 Corporate & Foundation Donors 100 Individual Donors 104 Classical 89 Broadcasts 106 Acknowledgments 5
Welcome
Welcome to Abravanel Hall; we are so glad you’ve joined us for this concert of great, live orchestral music. The holiday season is a natural time to look for inspiration and we hope you are inspired by this experience and take the memory of it with you into your daily life. Shared experiences with music have the ability to enliven us in a unique way. No one could express this more eloquently than Chase Peterson, former Chair of the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera Board who recently passed away and to whose memory our November 14th and 15th concerts are dedicated. “Then Shostakovich exploded…Something happened. Thierry and the Orchestra suddenly captured me, I was in the music, and the music in me, slow moments, crescendo moments, Tad’s clarinet and the percussion of that dear fellow in the back with the drums, and of course the Strings…Thierry weaving and begging and commanding the music that came out of the 80 plus in front of him. It was as if I had never before heard
Melia Tourangeau USUO President & CEO 6
Shostakovich. He ceased to be modern or Russian or unfamiliar, he and it was just a power force of musical beauty. And it was ‘neuro-muscular’ as well. My legs lost their restlessness. I am quite sure that it was not just distraction, it was a reharmonizing of mind, body and spirit…it was just a true and honest expression of the excellence of the human spirit channeled through music. It can happen with a great speech on rare occasions, it does happen with the birth of a beautiful baby, it happens often with our western sunsets over the Great Salt Lake…Last Friday night from eight to ten-thirty it happened in Abravanel Hall, and it is now possessed by my soul as tangibly as anything else I ‘own.’ And in owning, I am merely sharing with all others who were present and ready to admit it into their souls as well.”
-Chase Peterson (December 27, 1929–September 14, 2014)
USUO Lifetime Board Member May you leave us today animated, enlivened, exalted, and inspired by the performance of these talented, hard-working, and inspiring musicians.
Thierry Fischer Utah Symphony Music Director
Dave Petersen USUO Board of Trustees Chair UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Board of Trustees ELECTED BOARD David A. Petersen* Chair
Kristen Fletcher* Kem C. Gardner* David Golden Gregory L. Hardy Thomas N. Jacobson Ronald W. Jibson* Laura S. Kaiser Thomas M. Love R. David McMillan Brad W. Merrill Greg Miller Edward B. Moreton Theodore F. Newlin III* Dr. Dinesh C. Patel Frank R. Pignanelli Mark H. Prothro Brad Rencher Bert Roberts Joanne F. Shiebler* Diane Stewart Naoma Tate
Thomas Thatcher Bob Wheaton John W. Williams
LIFETIME BOARD William C. Bailey Deedee M. Corradini Edwin B. Firmage Jon M. Huntsman Jon Huntsman, Jr.
G. Frank Joklik Clark D. Jones Herbert C. Livsey, Esq. David T. Mortensen Scott S. Parker
Patricia A. Richards* Harris Simmons Verl R. Topham M. Walker Wallace David B. Winder
TRUSTEES EMERITI Carolyn Abravanel Haven J. Barlow John Bates
Burton L. Gordon Richard G. Horne Warren K. McOmber
Mardean Peterson E. Jeffery Smith Barbara Tanner
HONORARY BOARD Senator Robert F. Bennett Rodney H. Brady Kim H. Briggs Ariel Bybee Kathryn Carter R. Don Cash Bruce L. Christensen Raymond J. Dardano
Geralyn Dreyfous Lisa Eccles Spencer F. Eccles Howard Edwards The Right Reverend Carolyn Tanner Irish Dr. Anthony W. Middleton, Jr. Marilyn H. Neilson
O. Don Ostler Joseph J. Palmer Stanley B. Parrish Marcia Price David E. Salisbury Jeffrey W. Shields, Esq. Diana Ellis Smith Ardean Watts
William H. Nelson* Vice Chair Annette W. Jarvis* Secretary John D’Arcy* Treasurer Melia P. Tourangeau* President & CEO Jesselie B. Anderson Edward R. Ashwood Dr. J. Richard Baringer Kirk A. Benson Judith M. Billings Howard S. Clark Gary L. Crocker David L. Dee* Alex J. Dunn
MUSICIAN REPRESENTATIVES
John Eckstein* Travis Peterson* EX OFFICIO
Ann Petersen Utah Symphony Guild Genette Biddulph Ogden Symphony Ballet Association Jennifer Streiff Vivace Judith Vander Heide Ogden Opera Guild *Executive Committee
NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL Joanne F. Shiebler Susan H. Carlyle Chair (Utah) (Texas)
Harold W. Milner (Nevada)
David L. Brown (S. California)
Robert Dibblee (Virginia)
Marcia Price (Utah)
Anthon S. Cannon, Jr. (S. California)
Senator Orrin G. Hatch (Washington, D.C.)
Alvin Richer (Arizona)
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
7
Testimonial
This past August, I was honored to participate in the Utah Symphony’s Mighty 5 Tour commemorating the symphony’s 75th anniversary in the upcoming 2015–16 season. I have always appreciated Utah’s Mighty 5 national parks: Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Zion. Hearing the classical sounds of Gershwin and Dvořák played against the colorful red rocks of Eastern and Southern Utah by this incredible orchestra was absolutely spectacular. The tour wonderfully combined art, nature, people and community. In fact, I overheard some attendees say they had never seen a symphony perform live before. What a great opportunity for these people to experience such a great concert in their own communities. Scott Anderson President & CEO of Zions Bank
I believe the arts bring beauty into our world and make it a better place. They enrich our lives by lifting our souls, elevating our spirits, and bringing a sense of enjoyment and pleasure. My wife, Jesselie, and I truly enjoyed this remarkable experience that combined people and music with the stunning backdrops of our national parks. I appreciate the leadership and inspiration of both Utah Symphony | Utah Opera President and CEO Melia Tourangeau and Music Director Thierry Fischer for creating such an incredible and memorable tour for the symphony and the people of Utah. I had the pleasure of attending all the concerts and saw how much effort went into setting up and breaking down the mobile stage for each performance. I congratulate all those involved in making the Mighty 5 Tour possible. Thank you for bringing the beauty of orchestral music to the state and to our backyards.
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UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Administration ADMINISTRATION
Melia P. Tourangeau President & CEO
Thierry Fischer, Music Director Hillary Hahn
Director of Foundation & Government Gifts
David Green
Ashley Magnus
Julie McBeth
Melanie Steiner-Sherwood
Marsha Bolton
Natalie Cope
Senior Vice President & COO Executive Assistant to the CEO Executive Assistant to the Music Director & the Senior VP & COO
Heather Weinstock Office Manager
SYMPHONY ARTISTIC
Manager of Corporate Gifts Annual Giving Manager Special Events Manager
Ruth Eldredge Grants Manager
Conor Bentley
Development Coordinator
Thierry Fischer
Kate Throneburg
Anthony Tolokan
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Symphony Music Director Vice President of Symphony Artistic Planning
Development Assistant
Eric V. Johnson
Director of Orchestra Personnel
Myroslava Hagen
Orchestra Personnel Manager SYMPHONY OPERATIONS
Jeff Counts
Vice President of Operations & General Manager
Charlotte Craff
Jared Mollenkopf
Patron Information Systems Manager
Julie Cameron
Accounts Payable Clerk EDUCATION
Paula Fowler
Director of Education & Community Outreach
Beverly Hawkins
Symphony Education Manager
Tracy Hansford
Education Assistant
Jared Porter
Director of Public Relations
Symphony Chorus Director
Payroll & Benefits Manager
Renée Huang
Vladimir Kulenovic Barlow Bradford
Alison Mockli
Brooke Adams
Vice President of Marketing & Public Relations
Associate Conductor
Controller
Jon Miles
Jerry Steichen
Principal Pops Conductor
SaraLyn Pitts
Chad Call
Marketing Manager
Aaron Sain
Graphic Design & Branding Manager
Mike Call
Website Manager
Ginamarie Marsala
Marketing Communications Manager
Crystal Young-Otterstrom Vivace & Cadenza Coordinator PATRON SERVICES
Education Fellow
OPERA TECHNICAL
Opera Technical Director
Jay Morris
Assistant Technical Director
Keith Ladanye
Production Carpenter
Kelly Nickle
Properties Master
Lane Latimer Assistant Props
John Cook
Scene Shop Manager & Scenic Artist COSTUMES
Manager of Artistic Operations
Nina Richards
Cassandra Dozet
Operations Manager
Natalie Thorpe
Chip Dance
Production & Stage Manager
Shawn Fry
Mark Barraclough
Assistant Stage & Properties Manager
Faith Myers
Kierstin Gibbs LisaAnn DeLapp
Melissa Robison
Andrew J. Wilson
Vicki Raincrow
Ellesse Hargreaves
Milivoj Poletan
Kati Garcia Ben Ordaz Jackie Seethaler Powell Smith Robb Trujillo
Tara DeGray
Program Publication & Front of House Manager 0PERA ARTISTIC
Christopher McBeth Opera Artistic Director
Caleb Harris
Opera Chorus Master
Carol Anderson Principal Coach
Michelle Peterson
Opera Company Manager
Shaun Tritchler
Production Coordinator DEVELOPMENT
Leslie Peterson
Vice President of Development
Carey Cusimano
Director of Tickets Sales & Patron Services Patron Services Manager Group & Corporate Sales Manager Sales Manager Patron Services Assistant Account Coordinator
Sales Associates
Brooke Adams Nick Barker Emily O’Connor Aubrey Shirts Steven Finkelstein Hilary Hancock Ticket Agents
ACCOUNTING & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Vice President of Development, Deer Valley® Music Festival
Steve Hogan
Shaleane Gee
Mike Lund
Director of Major Gifts
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Vice President of Finance & CFO Director of Information Technologies
Verona Green
Costume Director
Melonie Fitch
Assistant Rentals Supervisor Rentals Assistant
Wardrobe Supervisor Tailor
Cutter/Draper
Anna Marie Coronado Milliner & Crafts Artisan
Chris Hamberg Monica Hansen Yoojean Song Connie Warner Stitchers
Yancey J. Quick
Wigs/Make-up Designer
Shelley Carpenter Tanner Crawford Daniel Hill Wigs/Make-up Crew
We would also like to recognize our interns and temporary and contracted staff for their work and dedication to the success of utah symphony | utah opera.
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
WHERE OTHERS SEE CHALLENGES, WE SEE OPPORTUNITIES.
EXPERTISE
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djplaw.com | 801.415.3000
S A LT L A K E C I T Y | L E H I | O G D E N | S T. G E O R G E | L A S V E G A S
Utah Symphony Thierry Fischer, Music Director / The Maurice Abravanel Chair, endowed by the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation Jerry Steichen Principal Pops Conductor Vladimir Kulenovic Associate Conductor VIOLIN* Ralph Matson Concertmaster The Jon M. & Karen Huntsman Chair, in honor of Wendell J. & Belva B. Ashton Kathryn Eberle Associate Concertmaster The Richard K. & Shirley S. Hemingway Chair
VIOLA* Brant Bayless Principal The Sue & Walker Wallace Chair Roberta Zalkind Associate Principal Joel Gibbs Julie Edwards Silu Fei Carl Johansen Scott Lewis Christopher McKellar Whittney Thomas
Alex Martin Acting Assistant Concertmaster
CELLO* Rainer Eudeikis Principal The J. Ryan Selberg Memorial Chair
Claude Halter Principal Second
Matthew Johnson Associate Principal
Wen Yuan Gu Associate Principal Second
John Eckstein Walter Haman Noriko Kishi†† Anne Lee Kevin Shumway Pegsoon Whang
David Park Assistant Concertmaster
Hanah Stuart Assistant Principal Second Karen Wyatt •• Tom Baron • Leonard Braus • Associate Concertmaster Emeritus Joseph Evans LoiAnne Eyring† Teresa Hicks Lun Jiang Rebekah Johnson Tina Johnson†† Veronica Kulig David Langr Melissa Thorley Lewis Yuki MacQueen Rebecca Moench David Porter Lynn Maxine Rosen Barbara Ann Scowcroft • M. Judd Sheranian Lynnette Stewart Julie Wunderle ••
BASS* David Yavornitzky Principal Corbin Johnston Associate Principal James Allyn Frank W. Asper, Jr. Edward Merritt Claudia Norton Jens Tenbroek Thomas Zera HARP Louise Vickerman Principal FLUTE Mercedes Smith Principal The Val A. Browning Chair Lisa Byrnes# Associate Principal
OBOE Robert Stephenson# Principal
TROMBONE Larry Zalkind† Principal
James Hall Acting Principal
Mark Davidson Acting Principal
Titus Underwood†† Acting Associate Principal
Zachary Guiles†† Acting Associate Principal
Lissa Stolz
CLARINET Tad Calcara Principal The Norman C. & Barbara Lindquist Tanner Chair, in memory of Jean Lindquist Pell
TIMPANI George Brown Principal Eric Hopkins Associate Principal
Lee Livengood
PERCUSSION Keith Carrick Principal
BASS CLARINET Lee Livengood E-FLAT CLARINET Erin Svoboda BASSOON Lori Wike Principal The Edward & Barbara Moreton Chair Leon Chodos Associate Principal Jennifer Rhodes CONTRABASSOON Leon Chodos HORN Bruce M. Gifford Principal Edmund Rollet†† Acting Associate Principal Llewellyn B. Humphreys Ronald L. Beitel Stephen Proser
Melanie LanÇon†† PICCOLO Caitlyn Valovick Moore
Jeff Luke Associate Principal Peter Margulies Nick Norton
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TUBA Gary Ofenloch Principal
Erin Svoboda Associate Principal
TRUMPET Travis Peterson Principal The Robert L. & Joyce Rice Chair
Caitlyn Valovick Moore Acting Associate Principal
BASS TROMBONE Graeme Mutchler
ENGLISH HORN Lissa Stolz
Eric Hopkins Michael Pape†† KEYBOARD Jason Hardink Principal LIBRARIAN Clovis Lark Principal Maureen Conroy Associate Librarian ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL Eric V. Johnson Director of Orchestra Personnel Myroslava Hagen Orchestra Personnel Manager STAGE MANAGEMENT Chip Dance Production & Stage Manager Mark Barraclough Assistant Stage & Properties Manager • First Violin •• Second Violin * String Seating Rotates † Leave of Absence # Sabbatical †† Substitute Member
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Musician Spotlight
My name is Kevin Wayne Shumway, possibly because the actor John Wayne was a big star the year my father Wayne Shumway was born. I studied music in the Midwest, and was thrilled to join the Utah Symphony as it was the orchestra that I grew up listening to. I’m married to Emily Day-Shumway, violinist and Associate Concertmaster of the Ballet West Ochestra. We have three boys. Outside of work, I’m really trying to be a good father, mostly. I’ll be lucky to get a passing grade on that one. I cook a few things pretty well; I fix toys quite well; I garden, and commute by bicycle. I love Brahms, Sibelius, Puccini, Prokofiev. I also like the occasional good Pop song. I credit John Williams’ Star Wars soundtrack with turning me to the Classical Side of the Force. Kevin Shumway Cello
As a section string player, I have to walk a tightrope between playing assertively when the music asks for it, and staying out of the way when clean ensemble is required. The willingness and ability to blend constructively with the group takes time to develop and always requires refinement. The feeling of being part of the gorgeous sound of an orchestra is sometimes ecstatic. I wish everyone could experience it.
UTAH SYMPHONY
PRE-CONCERT LECTURES Arrive early and enjoy our Conductor and/or Guest Artist give a fun, behind the music lecture for the Masterwork Concerts. 7:00 pm in Abravanel Hall.
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
13
Season Honorees Utah Symphony | Utah Opera M I LLE N I U M $250,0 0 0 & A B OV E is grateful to our generous donors who through annual cash gifts and multi-year commitments at the EDWARD R. following levels make our programs ASHWOOD & GAEL BENSON possible. The following listing CANDICE A. reflects contributions and multi-year JOHNSON commitments received between 9/15/2013 and 9/15/2014.
DIANE & HAL BRIERLEY
LAWRENCE T. & JANET T. DEE FOUNDATION
E.R. (ZEKE) & KATHERINE W. DUMKE
KEM & CAROLYN GARDNER
MR. & MRS. MARTIN GREENBERG
ANTHONY & RENEE MARLON
CAROL & THEODORE NEWLIN
PATRICIA A. RICHARDS & WILLIAM K. NICHOLS
MARK & DIANNE PROTHRO CORPORATION
THEODORE SCHMIDT
SHIEBLER FAMILY FOUNDATION
UTAH STATE LEGISLATURE/ UTAH STATE OFFICE OF EDUCATION
JACQUELYN WENTZ
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NAOMA TATE & THE FAMILY OF HAL TATE
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Utah Symphony | Utah Opera 2014-15 Season Sponsor
George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles
Eccles Foundation Board of Directors Robert M. Graham • Spencer F. Eccles • Lisa Eccles
The Tradition Continues
F
or more than 30 years, unwavering support from the George S. and
Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation has been integral to the success of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. It remains so today!
Season Honorees E N C O R E $10 0, 0 0 0 & A B OV E
DR. J. R. BARINGER & DR. JEANNETTE J. TOWNSEND
R. HAROLD BURTON FOUNDATION
ROGER & SUSAN HORN
THE RIGHT REVEREND CAROLYN TANNER IRISH
GIB & SUSAN MYERS
DELL LOY & LYNNETTE HANSEN
EMMA ECCLES JONES FOUNDATION
WILLIAM H. & CHRISTINE NELSON
EDWARD & BARBARA MORETON
DR. DINESH AND KALPANA PATEL
RESTAURANT TAX RAP TAX
B R AVO $ 50, 0 0 0 & A B OV E
Scott & Jesselie Anderson Thomas Billings & Judge Judith Billings Patricia Dougall Eager† Marriner S. Eccles Foundation The Florence J. Gillmor Foundation Elaine & Burton L. Gordon Grand & Little America Hotels* Frederick Q. Lawson Foundation
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Montage Deer Valley Scott & Sydne Parker Frank R. Pignanelli & D’Arcy Dixon Albert J. Roberts IV St. Regis Deer Valley Stein Eriksen Lodge Wells Fargo Lois A. Zambo
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Exercise Your Brain. Join the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. For inquiring minds aged 50 and better.
One of the smartest things you can do for your brain is to take classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Learn something that you've always wanted to know more about or challenge yourself to learn something you've never thought about. Either way you'll be surrounded by interesting and interested people and have loads of fun while doing something that is good for you. Give your brain the workout it craves and enroll in Osher today.
Join any time. Winter classes start in January. Registration opens in December. Call 801-585-5442 • osher.utah.edu
Season Honorees OV E R T U R E $25, 0 0 0 & A B OV E
Mr. & Mrs. William C. Bailey BMW of Murray
Richard K. & Shirley S. Hemingway Foundation
Harris H. & Amanda Simmons The Sam & Diane Stewart Family
BMW of Pleasant Grove
Janet Q. Lawson Foundation
Chevron Corporation
Jack & Jan Massimino
Norman C. & Barbara Tanner
Thomas D. Dee III &
Carol & Anthony W. Middleton, Jr., M.D.
Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation
James A. Parke
Vivint
Charles Maxfield & Gloria F. Parrish
M. Walker & Sue Wallace
Dr. Candace Dee John H. & Joan B. Firmage Thierry & Catherine Fischer**
Foundation
Foundation
Jack Wheatley
Kristen Fletcher & Dan McPhun
Alice & Frank Puleo
John W. Williams
Holland & Hart**
S. J. & Jessie E. Quinney Foundation
Workers Compensation Fund
Simmons Family Foundation
Edward & Marelynn Zipser
Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery George & Debra Felt Mr. Joseph F. Furlong III Sterling & Shelli Gardner Foundation Gastronomy, Inc.* Douglas & Connie Hayes Susan & Tom Hodgson Hotel Monaco* Hyatt Escala Lodge at Park City** Tom & Lorie Jacobson Jones Waldo** Mr. & Mrs. Charles McEvoy Elinor S. McLaren Harold W. & Lois Milner Rayna & Glen Mintz Moreton Family Foundation Fred & Lucy Moreton Mount Olympus Waters* Mountain Dentistry Sally Boynton Murray Trust Terrell & Leah Nagata New York Ltd. Ogden Opera Guild Park City Chamber/Bureau Mr. David A. Petersen Promontory Foundation ProTel Networks* Residence Inn*
The Joseph & Evelyn Rosenblatt Charitable Fund Salt Lake City Arts Council Lori & Theodore Samuels Peggy & Ben Schapiro Sky Harbor Apartments* Thomas & Marilyn Sutton The Swartz Foundation Jonathan & Anne Symonds Zibby & Jim Tozer Thomas & Caroline Tucker Utah Food Services* Utah Hispanic Chamber Of Commerce* Utah Symphony Guild John & Marva Warnock Wheeler Foundation
M A E S T R O $10, 0 0 0 & A B OV E
Adobe Scott & Kathie Amann American Express Anonymous Arnold Machinery Art Works For Kids! Ballard Spahr, LLP** Bambara Restaurant* Haven J. Barlow Family B. W. Bastian Foundation David & Sylvia Batchelder Brent & Bonnie Jean Beesley Foundation Berenice J. Bradshaw Charitable Trust Judy Brady & Drew W. Browning Carol Franc Buck Foundation Caffe Molise* Marie Eccles Caine Foundation-Russell Family CenturyLink Rebecca Marriott Champion Howard & Betty Clark C. Comstock Clayton Foundation Daynes Music* Skip Daynes* Dorsey & Whitney LLP The Katherine W. Dumke & Ezekiel R. Dumke, Jr. Foundation Sue Ellis
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See pages 98–102 for an additional listing of our generous donors whose support has made this season possible.
* In-Kind Gift ** In-Kind & Cash Gift † Deceased
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Start Early, Start Right Challenger School offers uniquely fun and academic classes for preschool to eighth grade students. Our students learn to think for themselves and to value independence. The results are unmatched at any price! Come see for yourself. Observe our classrooms any time— no appointment needed.
Because You Know the Value of Education An independent private school offering preschool through eighth grade ChallengerSchool.com • Challenger School admits students of any race, color, and national or ethnic origin. © 2014, Challenger Schools
*WFRMLS# 1219384
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Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Dance Around the Maypole, ca. 1625–1630, oil on canvas. Gift of Val A. Browning.
Celebrating 100 Years of Collecting at the University of Utah Art, Films, Music, Talks, Parties, Café, Store umfa.utah.edu MARCIA AND JOHN PRICE MUSEUM BUILDING
A Special Exhibition July 21, 2014 – January 4, 2015
Explore the enduring bond between humans and horses
The Horse is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, United Arab Emirates; the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau-Ottawa; The Field Museum, Chicago; and the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Presenting Sponsor
Major Sponsors
The ALSAM Foundation
R. Harold Burton Foundation
The Natural History Museum of Utah is funded in part by Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts & Parks (ZAP).
301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City nhmu.utah.edu
Utah Symphony gratefully acknowledges the following generous donors who made our 2014–15 season possible.
SEASON SPONSOR
MASTERWORKS SERIES SPONSOR
ENTERTAINMENT SERIES SPONSOR
EMMA ECCLES JONES FOUNDATION FAMILY SERIES SPONSOR
KEM & CAROLYN GARDNER 75TH ANNIVERSARY MAHLER CYCLE SPONSOR
GUEST CONDUCTORS SPONSOR
JOANNE SHIEBLER GUEST ARTIST FUND UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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Cirque de la Symphonie
G U E S T C O N D U C TO R S P O N S O R
program
Cirque de la Symphonie Oct 31–Nov 1 | 8 pm Abravanel Hall Jerry Steichen, Conductor
ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER ARR. CUSTER
Selections from The Phantom of the Opera
Aloysia Gavre & Andrey Moraru, Adagio
GEORGES BIZET ARR. HOFFMAN
“Danse Bohême” from Carmen, Suite No. 2
JOHN WILLIAMS
“Harry’s Wondrous World” from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Vladimir Tsarkov, Ring Juggling Christine Van Loo, Aerial Silks
GIOACHINO ROSSINI ARR. RESPIGHI ARAM KHACHATURIAN
Tarantella from La Boutique fantasque Alexander Streltsov, Spinning Shapes
Waltz from Masquerade
Elena Tsarkova, Contortion
MODEST MUSSORGSKY CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Night on Bald Mountain Danse Macabre, op. 40
Aloysia Gavre, Aerial Rope / INTERMISSION / PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
“Dance of the Swans” from Swan Lake
Vladimir & Elena Tsarkov, Magic Jacket
ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK JOHN WILLIAMS
“Witch’s Ride” from Hansel and Gretel “Devil’s Dance” from The Witches of Eastwick Andrew Moraru, Hand Balance & Dance
ARAM KHACHATURIAN
“Sabre Dance” from Gayaneh
Vladimir Tsarkov, Electric Juggler
ANGEL VILLOLDO ARR. TYZIK JOHANN STRAUSS JR. PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Kiss of Fire
Elena Tsarkova, Ribbon Dance
Thunder & Lightning Polka, op. 324 Valse from Swan Lake
Alexander Streltsov & Christine Van Loo, Aerial Duo
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 Jarek & Darek, Strongmen
DMITRI KABALEVSKY UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Comedian’s Galop, op. 26 ENTERTAINMENT
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Cirque de la Symphonie
artists’ profiles
Maestro Gerald Steichen has established himself as one of America’s most versatile conductors. He currently holds the positions of Principal Pops Conductor of the Utah Symphony and Music Director of the Ridgefield Symphony (Connecticut). He also completed sixteen seasons as Principal Pops Conductor of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Steichen begins his tenure as the Music Director for Ballet West in 2014.
Jerry Steichen Conductor
Steichen is a frequent guest conductor with the New Jersey Symphony and has appeared with the Boston Pops, Cincinnati Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, as well as the symphonies of Naples, Florida; Portland, Oregon; the Florida Orchestra in Tampa; Columbus, Oklahoma City, Hartford and the New York Pops. International appearances include the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo City Symphony, the NDR Philharmonie Hannover at the Braunschweig Festival, and numerous appearances with the Norwegian Radio Symphony. During ten seasons with the New York City Opera, Steichen led performances including La Bohème, L’Elisir d’Amore, Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince, Jonathan Miller’s production of The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. In …one of America’s 2007, he led the New York City Opera Orchestra and soloists in a live WQXR most versatile conductors. broadcast of Wall to Wall Opera from New York’s Symphony Space. A gifted pianist, he performed on stage for the New York City Opera’s acclaimed productions of Porgy and Bess and Carmina Burana. He has also conducted Utah Opera, Anchorage Opera, New Jersey Opera Theater, Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY, and Opera East Texas. Steichen toured nationally as Associate Conductor with The Phantom of the Opera, The Secret Garden, and Peter Pan, and he conducted CATS in New York for two years. He has also appeared on Broadway, portraying Manny the Accompanist in the Tony Award-winning Master Class. In pursuit of his passion for education, Steichen spent eighteen years with the “Meet the Artist” series at Lincoln Center as conductor, clinician and pianist. Originally from Tonkawa, Oklahoma, Maestro Steichen holds degrees from Northern Oklahoma College, Oklahoma City University and the University of Southern California. He currently resides in New York City.
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ENTERTAINMENT
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Cirque de la Symphonie
artists’ profiles
Cirque de la Symphonie is an exciting new production designed to bring the magic of cirque to the music hall. It is an elegant adaptation of some of the most amazing cirque performances witnessed anywhere, and it showcases many of the best artists in the world. The audience is thrilled and bedazzled by aerial flyers, acrobats, contortionists, dancers, jugglers, balancers, and strongmen. These are some of the most accomplished veterans of exceptional cirque programs from across the globe. They include world record holders, gold-medal winners of international competitions, Olympians and some of the most original talent ever seen. Their performances are uniquely adapted to stage accommodations shared with the symphony, and each artist’s performance is choreographed to the music arrangement provided by the maestro. When the artists of Cirque de la Symphonie perform in front of the full orchestra, an incredible fusion of these two great art forms takes place. The aerialists and acrobats turn the concert into a three dimensional entertainment extravaganza, and the orchestra seems to play with enhanced enthusiasm. Veteran concert-goers and new patrons alike are thrilled by the exhilarating cirque performances and the majesty of the live symphony orchestra. Aloysia Gavre an incredible aerial performer from the Ecole National de Cirque, Montreal, with early training from Master Lu-Yi and the Pickle Family Circus School. Her aerial acrobatics and graceful maneuvers on the aerial hoop, suspended high above the stage, add three-dimensional excitement to the symphony and the music hall. Aloysia was the Special Prize Winner at the International Circus Festival in Monte Carlo. A veteran of stage and theater performances worldwide, Aloysia is best known as a veteran of Cirque du Soleil’s “Quidam” and “O.” Her five years with “Quidam” established her as one of the best aerial artists in the world, and today she shares that experience with others as choreographer for Cirque Mechanics and Troupe Vertigo and as director of Cirque School in Los Angeles. Aloysia’s regular performances with Cirque de la Symphonie and live orchestras take aerial acrobatics to a new level. Aloysia Gavre Aerial Rope
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
ENTERTAINMENT
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Cirque de la Symphonie
artists’ profiles
Andrey Moraru is a native of Kiev, Ukraine, and a graduate of the prestigious Kiev Circus School where he trained hand balancing under the legendary Vitold Kuvshinov. Upon graduating with an act fused with both balance and dance, Andrey joined the cast of Le Reve, directed by Franco Dragone in Las Vegas as a hand balancing specialist. After many years with Le Reve, Andrey pursued a solo career, which brought opportunities in Europe for numerous cabarets, variety shows and circuses, including “Flic Flac” from Germany. Los Angeles has since become his new home where he performs with Symbiotic, Quixotic and Troupe Vertigo, as well as teaching master hand balancing classes at Cirque School. Andrey has brought his trademark hand-balancing and acrobatic moves to Cirque de la Symphonie, including partnering for a mesmerizing acrobatic “adagio” act. Andrey Moraru Hand Balance & Dance Vladimir Tsarkov provides a spell-binding performance with combinations of mime and juggling feats. A favorite of the younger members of the audiences, Vladimir’s Red Harlequin act features rings, balls, and batons, and he’s even been known to teach the maestro a trick or two! He is a veteran of Circus Circus, Cirque Ingenieux, and various Cirque de la Symphonie performances. Vladimir graduated from Russia’s prestigious State College of Circus and Theater Arts and won the gold medal at the Cirque de Demain International Festival in France. His performance with the symphony is pure entertainment and guaranteed to please audiences of all ages.
Vladimir Tsarkov Ring Juggling
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ENTERTAINMENT
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Cirque de la Symphonie
artists’ profiles
Christine Van Loo is a seven-time consecutive National Champion, Female Olympic Athlete of the Year, and Athlete of the Decade in acrobatic gymnastics. She was inducted into the USSA (acro-gymnastics) Hall of Fame and the World Acrobatics Society Gallery of Honor. As a professional aerialist and acrobat she has performed in the 2002 Winter Olympics, at two Grammy Awards (with No Doubt and with Ricky Martin), at the American Music Awards (with Aerosmith), the Miss Universe pageant, and Paul McCartney’s European tour. She choreographed the aerials for Britney Spears World Tour and the Stars on Ice United States tour. Christine provides spell-binding performances of static silks, aerial hoop, and duo trapeze with Cirque de la Symphonie.
Christine Van Loo Aerial Silks
Alexander Streltsov Spinning Shapes
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Alexander Streltsov is a Russian aerial artist who started working with future Cirque du Soleil choreographer Pavel Brun and famed producer Valentin Gneushev when he was only twelve, performing on Broadway at the Gershwin Theater. The same year he won the gold medal at the prestigious Festival Mondial Du Cirque De L’Avenir in Paris. His combination of natural strength, artistic expression, and grace sets his performance apart from other aerialists. Also known as “Sasha,” he has performed for three Russian presidents and the Bolshoi Ballet, numerous symphonies in the Unites States and Europe, and elaborate theater and stage productions worldwide. He has made many television appearances, such as the star-studded ABC-TV special “Christopher Reeve—A Celebration of Hope” and the PBS nationwide broadcast of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Fourth of July Celebration. He continues to be a favorite at music halls, where he soars out over the audience in a spectacular display of aerial artistry or performs his riveting spinning cube act.
ENTERTAINMENT
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Cirque de la Symphonie
artists’ profiles
Elena Tsarkova, the “Lady in White,” is a graduate of the famed Moscow Circus School and first-place winner of the prestigious National Russian Circus Festival. From her “Master of Sports” in gymnastics, Elena developed into a unique and graceful performer with the Big Apple Circus, Switzerland’s Circus Knie, and Germany’s Circus Roncalli. Her combination of contortion, balance, and graceful dance moves has made her a major star with Cirque de la Mur in Florida and Circus Circus in Las Vegas. Elena’s experience with many major stage and theater productions offers a professional background that allows for a truly unforgettable performance with the live symphony. The “Lady in White” provides an elegant touch to Cirque de la Symphonie.
Elena Tsarkova Contortion
The mind-boggling strength and agility of Jarek and Darek’s “Duo Design” provides one of the most powerful acts to be included in Cirque de la Symphonie’s captivating program. This dynamic and exciting balancing act consists of Jaroslaw Marciniak and Dariusz Wronski, former Polish national hand-balancing champions. They have competed and performed throughout Europe and the United States, winning championships in Evian, France and Sarasota, Florida. Over the past few years, these prolific performers have thrilled audiences at several NBA halftimes, Cirque du Soleil, Circus Circus, Busch Gardens, and the national tour of Cirque Ingenieux. Their Cirque de la Symphonie performances have left audiences stunned and amazed at music halls everywhere.
Jarek & Darek Strongmen
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ENTERTAINMENT
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Utah musicians on stage at the Gallivan Center
11/6: Steve Lindeman Quintet & Guests: jazz compositions 11/20: Utah Opera Resident Artists: The Romance Concert 12/4: Blue Haiku with Monika Jalili: chamber folk 12/18: Lark & Spur: traditional and modern carols
UTAH SYMPHONY GUILD
GIFT SHOP
Bartók’s Concerto For Orchestra
program
Bartók’s Concerto For Orchestra Nov 7–8 | 8 pm Abravanel Hall Ilan Volkov, Guest Conductor (Utah Symphony Debut) Marc-André Hamelin, Piano
BÉLA BARTÓK
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Hungarian Sketches I. An Evening in the Village II. Bear Dance III. Melody IV. Slightly Tipsy V. Swineherd’s Dance Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in A Major, K. 386 Marc-André Hamelin, Piano
RICHARD STRAUSS
Burleske in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra Marc-André Hamelin, Piano
/ INTERMISSION /
BÉLA BARTÓK
Concerto for Orchestra I. Introduzione: Andante non troppo - Allegro vivace II. Giuocco delle coppie: Allegretto scherzando III. Elegia: Andante non troppo IV. Intermezzo interrotto: Alletretto V. Finale: Pesante - Presto
G U E S T C O N D U C TO R S P O N S O R
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
MASTERWORKS
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Bartók’s Concerto For Orchestra
Ilan Volkov The Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation Guest Conductor
Marc-André Hamelin Piano
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MASTERWORKS
artists’ profiles
Born in Israel in 1976, Ilan Volkov began his conducting career at the age of nineteen. Following studies at London’s Royal College of Music he secured positions as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony. In 2003 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and subsequently became its Principal Guest Conductor in 2009. Volkov took up his new appointment as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the 2011–12 season. A frequent guest with leading orchestras worldwide, Ilan Volkov works regularly with a wide range of ensembles, including the Israel Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, the Orchestre de Paris, the BBC Symphony, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the SWR Sinfonieorchester Freiburg and Ensemble Modern. Highlights of his recent and forthcoming schedule include performances with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin as well as Orchestre National de Belgique, WDR Radio Köln, Malmö and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras.
Marc-André Hamelin begins the 2014–15 season with a round of recitals in Aspen, New York, Verbier, La Roque d’Anthéron, the Duszniki Festival in Poland, Orford, and in the Montreal Symphony’s Virée Classique. There, he also performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27, K. 595, with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, followed by performances of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl with Stéphane Denève and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He plays a pair of engagements this season with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra; in September, performances of Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 and at the end of the season he performs Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2. In between, he plays subscription weeks with the Symphony Orchestras of Cleveland, New Jersey, Oregon, Seattle, Utah, Vancouver and Philadelphia. At the last of these, he plays the American premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Piano Concerto with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a work they launched together for its world premiere last season in Rotterdam. In the spring of 2015, Hamelin plays the Haydn D Major Concerto from his award-winning recording on a 10-concert, North American tour with Les Violons du Roy. UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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Bartók’s Concerto For Orchestra
program notes
Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Hungarian Sketches Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2nd doubling piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2nd doubling bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2nd doubling contrabassoon; 2 horns, 2 trombones, 2 trumpets, tuba; timpani bass drum, field drum, snare drum, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, triangle, harp; and strings. Performance Time: 12 minutes. BACKGROUND
In music, as in so many things, nothing is more difficult than simplicity. This principle can take years for most of us listeners to grasp. But beginning piano students often learn it in their first weeks of instruction—if they are lucky enough to encounter the Mikrokosmos, Béla Bartók’s six-volume course of piano lessons spanning 153 pieces. The first pieces in volume one, it seems, could not be simpler: The hands find their “home keys” on the piano, and do not move from that position. At no time is more than one key played in each hand. Simple, right? Yet even the simplest of these pieces are full of nuance and sophistication. In Mozart and Bartók we find the exemplars of musical richness in apparent simplicity. The seemingly casual names of the five movements in Bartók’s Hungarian Sketches—dance scenes including “An Evening in the Village,” “Bear Dance,” “Melody,” “Slightly Tipsy” and “Swineherd’s Dance”—conjure uncomplicated pictures of rustic life; in fact, the finale to “Swineherd’s Dance” appears earlier in “For Chidren,” dating from 1908; “An Evening in the Village” and “Bear Dance” date from that same year, included in the (drastically misnamed!) Ten Easy Pieces for piano. Not surprisingly, there are musical riches and hidden complexities within all these works. The subject matter reflects Bartók’s commitment to folk music as a source of classical composition. 36
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Credited as one of the founders of modern ethnomusicology as well as a seminal modernist, Bartók was ethnically Hungarian but hailed from a region that now forms part of Romania, where his father was head of an agricultural college and his mother was a teacher. Both were able musicians, and Béla’s mother gave him his first piano lessons. After his father’s death the family relocated to the city now known as Bratislava, where Béla’s schoolmates included the fellow composer Ernö (Ernst von) Dohnányi. One of the hallmarks of Bartók’s greatness, and of his profound influence upon the classical composers who followed him, is his early scholarship on the relationship between folk sources and classical music. The sketches are his 1931 orchestrations of five piano pieces he composed from 1908 to 1911, a period when he collected and documented folk songs from regions on the western border of Hungary, near Romania. Though all five movements reflect the knowledge he gained through this work, only the “Swineherd’s Dance” is based on an actual folk melody. It’s interesting to note that John Lomax—the foundational scholar of American folk music, though not trained as a classical musician—was collecting previously undocumented ballads from tenant farmers and the children of slaves at the same time as Bartók was collecting songs from Slovak peasants. One can well imagine Bartók retrieving these piano pieces from files that lay dormant for two decades or more and reconsidering them for orchestra. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
The picturesque “Evening in the Village,” a brief rondo, evokes a Transylvanian scene. Woodwinds predominate, beginning with a soft clarinet solo above a gentle accompaniment; after the introduction of a more animated flute theme, the clarinet’s rondo returns in the oboe. Finally, the woodwinds braid together above chords in the strings. “… [it] is an original UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Bartók’s Concerto For Orchestra
program notes
composition with themes of my own invention,” Bartók noted, “but the themes are in the style of the Hungarian-Transylvanian folk tunes. There are two themes. The first one is a parlandorubato rhythm and the second one … is more or less the imitation of peasant flute playing.” Booming and energetic, the “Bear Dance” really does depict a dancing bear in the Eastern European tradition. Again, the woodwinds bear the burden of carrying the melody and setting the scene above a bass ostinato line in the tuba and timpani that conveys ursine robustness. Bartók described the movement as his impression of “a bear dancing to the song of his leader and growling to the accompaniment of a drum.” “Melody,” drawn from the Four Dirges (1910), opens gradually. A slow melody takes shape, based on a five-note scale—a mode that piano students will recognize from Bartók’s Mikrokosmos—takes shape in the strings. Moody and highly textured, this movement intensifies as the melody shifts to the low strings, then diminishes to close quietly with figures taken by the flute. Its subdued tone creates a foil for the next movement, the raucous “Slightly Tipsy,” which begs the question: Just how tipsy is “slightly?” Judging from the music, that descriptor might be an understatement. The inebriation represented in this section seems a bit more extreme, characterized by hiccups (denoted by grace notes), belches (tuba outbursts), and reeling gait. The overall effect is comical, raucous, and brilliantly graphic. “A Bit Tipsy” was originally the second of the Three Burlesques, piano pieces dating from 1911—a favorite piano selection of Bartók’s for inclusion in his piano recitals and, no doubt, a crowd-pleaser as well. The final movement, the “Swineherd’s Dance,” not only incorporates an actual folk melody, but is also imitative of the original folk instrumentation—the bagpipe. The effect is whirling and climactic, bringing the suite to a brilliant close. UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in A Major Instrumentation: 2 oboes; 2 horns; strings; solo piano. Performance Time: 8 minutes. BACKGROUND
What must it have been like to hear and see Mozart play the piano? While he possessed a virtuoso’s skill on the violin and other instruments, the piano held a special place for him, and his piano compositions—including 27 concertos for piano and orchestra—were created in large part as vehicles for his own public performance. He was the greatest pianist of his day, and had played the instrument publicly since early childhood. Contemporary accounts of his performance demeanor are not quite consistent, but we have inherited an image of him as a playful and even flamboyant character in his concert appearances. And why not? A daredevil element was part of his earliest public appearances on tour with his father. His cadenzas were improvised, often astonishing his audiences. It seems likely that excitement attended Mozart at the keyboard. Mozart was a recent arrival in Vienna when he wrote the Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in A Major there in 1782—during the same time period as his three “Early Vienna” piano concertos, Nos. 11, 12 and 13. In fact, the musicologist and Mozart specialist Alfred Einstein believed that Mozart originally composed the Rondo to serve as the finale of the Piano Concerto No. 12, or as a later replacement for the concerto’s original finale. Mozart had moved to Vienna early in 1781 seeking a higher degree of professional and social success than was accessible to him in the comparative backwater of his native Salzburg. And while his time in the Austrian capital was hardly untroubled, his prestige did rise while he was there, based in part on the piano music he composed. MASTERWORKS
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Bartók’s Concerto For Orchestra
program notes
In a famous letter to his father, Leopold, Amadeus characterized the style of the Early Vienna concertos (and, by extension, the Rondo), as follows: “[They]…are a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult; they are very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural, without being vapid. There are passages here and there from which the connoisseurs alone can derive satisfaction; but these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be pleased, though without knowing why…The golden mean of truth in all things is no longer either known or appreciated. In order to win applause one must write stuff which is so inane that a coachman could sing it, or so unintelligible that it pleases precisely because no sensible man can understand it.” From these comments we can discern a balancing act that occupied Mozart throughout his career— satisfying the public taste as well as his own inner ear. The Early Vienna concertos and the Rondo are works intended to entertain audiences as well as to meet Mozart’s internal creative standards. Later concertos he wrote in that city, especially the monumental, brooding No. 24 (Beethoven’s favorite), seem to shift the balance away from sheer entertainment value, toward monumentality. Lighter and more intimately scored, the Rondo veers slightly the other way, while embodying the hallmarks of Mozart’s sublime mastery of keyboard writing. Its string choir, however, is more substantial than that of the Early Vienna concertos, calling for separate, independent lines for the cellos and double-basses. While we think of the Mozart canon as long since established, the Rondo—astonishingly—was considered unfinished until relatively recently; autograph pages were missing when Mozart’s widow, Constanze, sold the manuscript in 1799. The concluding pages were discovered in the British Museum and Library as recently as 1980 by Alan Tyson, a British musicologist specializing in Mozart and Beethoven. Before their discovery, the most reliable performing edition of the Rondo 38
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was a reconstruction by Alfred Einstein published in 1936, augmented in 1962 by the pianist Paul Badura-Skoda and the conductor-arranger Charles Mackerras. Tyson’s breakthrough has been incorporated into the current performing editions of the work. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
The Rondo’s tempo marking, allegretto, is characteristically brisk; the pace is lively without being hurried. It begins as most of the concertos do, with the strings introducing the main theme; after a relatively brief introductory passage (only about a minute), the piano joins the orchestra, taking possession of the main theme. Rondo structure is typified by successive new themes alternating with one original theme, and this structure becomes apparent as the second and third themes emerge in the Rondo in A Major. After the piano states the Rondo’s main theme in an intimate, graceful way, a second theme follows, juxtaposing playful elements with more introspective, lyrical passages; then a restatement of the original theme is followed by still another melody. A final theme takes on greater weight, though the Rondo never strives for the scope or gravity of a concerto. With the coda at its close, the work achieves the symmetrical A-B-A-C-A-D structure of rondo form. Richard Strauss (1864—1949)
Burleske in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 2 trumpets; strings; solo piano. Performance Time: 20 minutes. BACKGROUND
We think of our era as a time of breathtaking, everaccelerating change— and so it is. But consider the changes in geopolitics, and especially in musical trends, experienced by Richard Strauss! When he UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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Bartók’s Concerto For Orchestra
program notes
was born in June of 1864, America was divided and colonial times were recent past, vividly remembered. So was Beethoven. Cars did not exist yet, and nor did the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but within three years it would become one of the world’s great powers. It would be a year before Robert E. Lee would surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox to end the Civil War. Yet by the time Strauss died, in September of 1949, World War II had been over for four years, the atomic age had begun, and Sputnik was eight years away. Few composers could have bestrode all these changes as Strauss did; small wonder that sesquicentennial celebrations of his life and works have been everywhere throughout 2014. But the particular circumstances of the great composer’s life and career make these observances especially rewarding for orchestras and listeners. Born in 1865, Strauss had a long, productive career that began in the late Romantic era and outlasted the most extreme experiments in 20th-century Modernism. Though Strauss lived long enough (and remained productive enough throughout his career) to assume a statesmanlike role in classical music, he began as a young composer and conductor of “promise”—that dangerous word, often leading to disappointment. Expectations for his musical accomplishment were high almost from birth; his father, Germany’s most renowned hornist, was a special favorite of Wagner’s, and young Richard showed great accomplishment from a young age, writing his first composition at age 6. He attended rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra (now the Bavarian State Orchestra) as a boy, and heard his first Wagner operas in Munich, where Wagner has always been venerated, at age 10. Surprisingly, however, Richard’s father, Franz, withheld the serious study of Wagner’s music from his precocious son. Not until age 16 was Richard permitted to see the revolutionary score of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, which had premiered in the Strauss family’s home city of Munich a year after Richard was born. UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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This is more than just a matter of musical chronology. As the late Romantic era drew to a close, the music-going public—especially Germanspeaking listeners—wondered with increasing urgency where compositional techniques would lead. The debate was increasingly partisan, with Johannes Brahms seeming to represent the evolution of old-school Romanticism, while Wagner’s partisans saw him as the revolutionary whose music would free future composers from the restrictions of traditional harmonic theory and melodic structure. As always, the German and Austrian public looked for composers of authoritative genius to secure the future of their musical patrimony, reading the signs of emerging musical celebrity like tea leaves. With Richard, the signs of greatness were there, and expectations were high. Though he began studying violin when he was eight years old, piano and theory studies soon followed. Early in 1882 he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D Minor, playing a piano reduction of the orchestra part himself; a year later he left for Berlin, where he studied briefly and then secured a prestigious assistantship with one of the most prominent conductors and composers of the day, Hans von Bülow. Already a brilliant pianist and a composer of proven ability, Strauss learned conducting technique from Bülow, who had been impressed by another of Strauss’ early compositions, a serenade for winds. What’s more, Strauss also demonstrated a capacity to lead music forward into realms of chromatic and orchestral complexity beyond anything earlier composers had accomplished. Strauss’ harmonic mastery and ingenuity make his scores dizzying to behold and challenging to perform. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Written when Strauss was 21, the Burleske is nothing if not a showpiece. Its virtuosic demands are enjoyably flamboyant. Strauss still had much to prove with the public when he composed the score, which displays his skills both as a composer and MASTERWORKS
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Bartók’s Concerto For Orchestra
program notes
an instrumentalist with such sparkling wit that we almost laugh at its dazzlements. But at least at first, Bülow, its original dedicatee, was having none of it; he called it a “complicated piece of nonsense” and balked at learning it. Bülow also frankly wondered whether it was playable, especially for a pianist of his small handspan, and called the piano part “Lisztian”—a code-word for meretricious, virtually impossible technical display of a kind presumably beneath an eminent pianist and conductor of 55 years. But the younger Strauss, whose father had protected him from the supposed dangers of Wagner, was better-served in looking like a fearless musical renegade, and tested the work with the Meiningen Orchestra, conducting and playing the solo part himself. In a subsequent note to Bülow, he attempts to have it both ways—agreeing with the older musician’s opinion while defending the work itself. “Given an outstanding pianist and a first-rate conductor,” wrote Strauss, “perhaps the whole thing will not turn out to be the unalloyed nonsense I took it for after the first rehearsal.” In style and mood, the Burleske prefigures the Strauss of both the operas and the tone poems—offering us an abundance of drama, highly caloric waltzes, iridescent textures and scintillating harmonies. Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Concerto for Orchestra Instrumentation: 3 flutes, 3rd doubling piccolo, 3 oboes, 3rd doubling English horn, 3 clarinets, 3rd doubling bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 3rd doubling contrabassoon; 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; timpani, bass drum, crash cymbals, snare drum, suspended cymbal, tam tam, triangle, 2 harps; and strings. Performance Time: 35 minutes. BACKGROUND
The special reverence that musicians accord to Béla Bartók is especially strong when they discuss his Concerto for Orchestra. To many it is the proof that Bartók was one of classical music’s transformative figures—a man whose commitment to aesthetic 44
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principles ran as deep as his talent, and whose name should be spoken alongside Bach’s and Beethoven’s…whose creative breakthroughs came precisely when they were needed, in the first half of the 20th century, as music was struggling to find a way to be modern. Bartók’s major works are recognized as masterpieces that have formed a cornerstone of the post-Romantic repertory—pathbreaking music that opened new possibilities in composition even as they resisted imitation. By combining nationally distinctive folk sources with modern compositional techniques, Bartók developed a voice that was both individual and nationalistic, demonstrating how other composers could do likewise. Along the way he became one of the founders of the modern study of ethnomusicology. But after winning recognition in the first half of his career and with every reason to expect an even brighter future, Bartók found the events of his own life paralleling Europe’s grim slide to war in the 1930s. Demoralized by the political landscape and especially by his country’s alliance with the Nazi regime, he left Europe for the U.S. at the start of World War II. Once he arrived, lack of public interest in his work sapped his creative energy just as leukemia began to sap his health. It was in this dark time—in the summer of 1943— when Bartók received the commission for what would become one of his greatest compositions, the Concerto for Orchestra. It came from Serge Koussevitzky, the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a champion of new music. Contemporary observers said that Bartók weighed less than 100 pounds when he began work on the Concerto (and, as composers tell us, the sheer concentration required in composing is physically exhausting). But somehow he rallied, working through the summer and early fall of 1943. The Concerto’s premiere the following December, with war still raging in Europe, is one of classical music’s affirmative moments. It confirmed Bartók’s greatness when both he and his profession needed it, and Bartók’s own comments at the time show UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Bartók’s Concerto For Orchestra
program notes
his gratification at its success: “We [Bartók and his wife, Ditta Pásztory] went there [to Boston] for the rehearsals and performances—after having obtained the grudgingly granted permission of my doctor for this trip…The performance was excellent. Koussevitzky says it is the ‘best orchestra piece of the last 25 years’ (including the works of his idol, Shostakovich!).” Today, more than 70 years later, the Concerto continues to astonish us with a sound that is both new and timeless. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
“Bracing” is a word that is often used to describe the Concerto for Orchestra. It is not a concerto in the grand, Romantic sense of a showcase for a single virtuoso framed by a large orchestra; instead, it is more closely related to the Baroque form of the concerto grosso, which featured foreground and background instruments—a small orchestra of background players, or ripieno, arranged around a concertino of two, three or more soloists. But in listening to Bartók’s concerto we also experience something like a five-movement symphony that presents a unified emotional arc, rather than the Baroque idea of a suite of movements whose alternations are designed to entertain us with contrasting tempos and moods. Bartók was not a symphonist, but invested the Concerto with symphonic ideas. Hearing it takes us from a dark, introspective opening to a triumphant, affirmative close. The structure of the Concerto is beautifully symmetrical, forming an abcba pattern: After the brooding opening, we hear a lighter second movement (b) mirrored by the fourth (d). The grave sound of the tragic c movement, the Concerto’s emotional center, seems to
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embody Bartók’s revulsion at the horrors of fascism, and some listeners hear echoes of the savage indictment of totalitarianism that Shostakovich poured into his seventh symphony. But the mood of Bartók’s third movement is not one of hopelessness, but rather of elegiac contemplation of themes taken up from the Concerto’s opening. Bartók’s own program note on the Concerto offers the following description: The general mood of the work represents, apart from the jesting second movement, a gradual transition from the sternness of the first movement and the lugubrious death-song of the third, to the life-assertion of the last one...The title of this symphony-like orchestral work is explained by its tendency to treat the single orchestral instruments in a concertant or soloistic manner. The ‘virtuoso’ treatment appears, for instance, in the fugato sections of the development of the first movement (brass instruments), or in the perpetuum mobile-like passage of the principal theme in the last movement (strings), and especially in the second movement, in which pairs of instruments consecutively appear with brilliant passages. The lightness of the fourth movement leads us to a finale that is breathtaking both in its pace and in its sense of triumph—a presto movement of fanfares in the brasses and whirling effects in the strings. We owe the joy of hearing this great work to two heroes of music: Béla Bartók, who composed it in the bleakest of circumstances, and Serge Koussevitzky, who provided the commission and recognized its merits.
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Chase N. Peterson with his wife, Grethe Balliff Peterson Photo courtesy of U of U Alumni Association
Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
program
Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 Nov 14–15 | 8 pm Abravanel Hall Thierry Fischer, Conductor Celena Shafer, Soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, Mezzo-soprano Barlow Bradford, Chorus Director
JOSEPH HAYDN
Utah Symphony Chorus Utah Chamber Artists University of Utah A Capella Choir University of Utah Chamber Choir
Symphony No. 5 in A Major I. Adagio ma non troppo II Allegro III. Menuet IV. Presto / INTERMISSION /
GUSTAV MAHLER
Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, “Resurrection” I. Allegro maestoso II. Andante moderato III. In ruhig fliessender Bewegung IV. Urlicht V. Scherzo Guest Soloists and Choirs
This performance is dedicated with love and gratitude to the memory of Chase N. Peterson.
M A H L E R C YC L E S P O N S O R
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UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
artists’ profiles
Swiss conductor Thierry Fischer recently renewed his contract as Music Director of the Utah Symphony Orchestra, where he has revitalised the music-making and programming, and brought a new energy to the orchestra and organization as a whole. Fischer was Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from 2006-2012 and returned as a guest at the 2014 BBC Proms. Guest engagements have included the Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Suisse Romande, Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, BBC Symphony, Scottish Chamber and London Sinfonietta. In October 2014 he made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Thierry Fischer Music Director The Maurice Abravanel Chair, endowed by the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation
Fischer has made numerous recordings, many of them for Hyperion Records, whose CD with Fischer of Frank Martin’s opera Der Sturm with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus was awarded the International Classical Music Award (opera category) in 2012.
Fischer started out as Principal Flute in Hamburg and at the Zurich Opera. His conducting career began in his 30’s when he replaced an ailing colleague, subsequently directing his first few concerts with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe where he was Principal Flute under Claudio Abbado. He spent his apprentice years in Holland, and then became Principal “The Swiss conductor is the Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Ulster Orchestra 2001–06. He was Chief real thing—a musician of clear Conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic 2008–11, making his Suntory Hall intelligence, technical skill, and debut in Tokyo in May 2010, and is now Honorary Guest Conductor.
podium personality, drawing
performances that blended impeccable balancing, textural clarity and fizzing exhilaration” - Chicago Classical Review, July 2013
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Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
artists’ profiles
After two summers as an apprentice at The Santa Fe Opera, the career of Soprano Celena Shafer was launched to critical raves as Ismene in Mozart’s Mitridate, re di ponto. She spends much of her time on the concert stage, where she appears regularly with orchestras in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and with leading conductors such as Christoph von Dohnányi, Alan Gilbert, Loren Maazel, Bernard Labadie, Nicholas McGegan, Kent Nagano, Donald Runnicles, Michael Tilson Thomas, David Robertson and Sir Andrew Davis.
Celena Shafer Soprano Artist-in-Residence
A celebrated artist in her home state of Utah, Ms. Shafer has a long relationship with Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. Following her highly acclaimed 2013–14 appearance with Utah Opera as Constanze in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, Ms. Shafer toured the “Mighty 5”National Parks of Utah with Utah Symphony and Music Director Thierry Fischer. Throughout this season she appears as Artist-in-Residence in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 and Symphony No. 4, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
Jennifer Johnson Cano is a 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant and George London Winner who joined The Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera in 2008 and made her Met debut in 2009–10. Over the last two seasons, Ms. Cano has bowed at The Metropolitan Opera in Falstaff and Andrea Chénier. Other operatic debuts include Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust in collaboration with the Tucson Symphony, Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen with the Cleveland Orchestra, and La Calisto with Cincinnati Opera. Ms. Cano is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Webster University and her master’s degree from Rice University.
Jennifer Johnson Cano Mezzo-soprano
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Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
artists’ profiles
Conductor, composer, arranger, pianist, and teacher Barlow Bradford founded the Utah Chamber Artists in 1991 and has since led the organization to international acclaim for its impeccable, nuanced performances and award-winning recordings. His focused, energetic conducting style led to his appointment as Music Director of the Orchestra at Temple Square in Salt Lake City and Associate Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1999–2003. In 2012 Dr. Bradford was named the Ellen Nielsen Barnes Presidential Chair of Choral Studies at the University of Utah, where he conducts the University’s Chamber Choir and A Cappella Choir and directs the graduate choral conducting program. Under Bradford’s direction, the University Chamber Choir won both the Grand Prix and Audience Favorite awards at the Florilege Vocal de Tours 2014 international competition. Dr. Bradford was named Chorus Director of the Utah Symphony Chorus in the fall of 2013. Barlow Bradford Symphony Chorus Director
Bradford’s compositions and arrangements have garnered much attention for their innovation and dramatic scope, from delicate, transparent intimacy to epic grandeur. Many of his arrangements have been performed and/or recorded by Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Utah Chamber Artists. His music is performed throughout the world by prominent university, high school and church choirs.
Utah Symphony Chorus Soprano Christin Abbott* Brooke Elise Adams Stephanie Bradshaw* Erica Glenn* Renee L. Hunter* Martha F. Lauritzen* Bryn McDougal Shelby McDowell* Kimberly S. Metcalfe* Hannah LaRue Miller Karem Rodriguez-Ryker* Norma F. Sonntag Miranda D. Yonus* Alto DaVauna Arbon Jessica Benson* Joan Jensen Bowles Mary Burris 50
Tarasina Compagni* Molly Dickamore Rena D’Souza Susan Fazio Kate Fitzgerald Marilyn K. Heightman Jeanne Marie Kelly Jeanne Leigh-Goldstein* Nancy B. Matro Susan Moore Kristine B. Motta Rebecca Nelson* Victoria Norton-Strong Celeste Porter* Patricia A. Richards Ruth Rogers* Carolee R. Schofield Jennifer Tanner Michele Golder Tyler* Amanda Watson
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Tatjana Weser Nina Wolf Tenor Robert Aamodt* Andrew Blunt* Benjamin Ebel* Stephen Fife* Jerry Hatch Vince Huntington Phillip A. Lammi* Nathan Moulton* David Naylor Lo Nestman* Glenn D. Prestwich Kevin S. Rowe* Richard Stephenson Peter Tang
Bass Stephen Bradley Mark Brocksmith David A. Ebert Rulon Galloway* Randy S. Hunter Michael J. Hurst* John T. Jorgensen James Marshall Steve McGregor* Russell D. Merrill* Jonathan Morris Mark J. Morrise* Ryan Oldroyd Doug Pike* Michael Provard Dee L. Russell Wayne L. VanTassell
*performing in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
artists’ profiles
Utah Chamber Artists Soprano Suzie Clark Ashley Davis Ali Engebretsen Sarah Jackson Caitlyn Jones Rachel Kelson Melinda Kirigin-Voss Julie Hadlock Marjorie Lowder Cami Mower Melissa Stettler Stephanie Stiles
Alto Anna Bradford Valerie Christensen Laura Durham Hillary Emmer Barbara Gill Kacee Mickelsen Brenda Miles Rebecca Nelson Annette Hatch Nichols Susan Bennett Nichols Liberty Pierce Shauna Ruske Renel Rytting
Bass Rob Baskin Nate Benincosa John Bonner Matthew Bryner Carter Durham Brett Finlay Joel Longhurst Brad Lowder Andrew Luker James Marshall Hal Mauchley Eric Schmidt
Cami Talbot Lisa Walz Tenor Darin Carter Weston Eldredge Jared Gunnerson David Hansen John Hansen John Hayward Matt Hope David Layton Alan Quarnberg
University of Utah A Cappella Choir Soprano Christin Abbott Brooke Elise Adams Stephanie Bradshaw Anadine Burrell Erica Glenn Renee L. Hunter Martha F. Lauritzen Bryn McDougal Shelby McDowell Kimberly S. Metcalfe Hannah LaRue Miller Karem Rodriguez-Ryker Danielle Smith Norma F. Sonntag Miranda D. Yonus Alto DaVauna Arbon Jessica Benson
Joan Jensen Bowles Mary Burris Tarasina Compagni Molly Dickamore Rena D’Souza Susan Fazio Kate Fitzgerald Marilyn K. Heightman Jeanne Marie Kelly Jeanne Leigh-Goldstein Nancy B. Matro Susan Moore Kristine B. Motta Rebecca Nelson Victoria Norton-Strong Celeste Porter Patricia A. Richards Ruth Rogers Carolee R. Schofield Jennifer Tanner
Michele Golder Tyler Amanda Watson Tatjana Weser Nina Wolf Tenor Robert Aamodt Andrew Blunt Benjamin Ebel Stephen Fife Jerry Hatch Vince Huntington Phillip A. Lammi Nathan Moulton David Naylor Lo Nestman Glenn D. Prestwich Kevin S. Rowe Richard Stephenson Peter Tang
Bass Steven DiTomaso Stephen Bradley Mark Brocksmith David A. Ebert Rulon Galloway Randy S. Hunter Michael J. Hurst John T. Jorgensen James Marshall Steve McGregor Russell D. Merrill Jonathan Morris Mark J. Morrise Ryan Oldroyd Doug Pike Michael Provard Dee L. Russell Wayne L. VanTassell
University of Utah Chamber Choir Soprano Madelyn Ashton Michelle Dean Kiersten Erickson Laura Jones Mikaela Holbrook Lexi Midgley Cadie Payne Madelyn Shearer
Alto Anna Bradford Rebekka Days Lillian Dixon April Iund Amy Livingston Aerin Loizos Sonja Sperling Jessica Wadley
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Tenor Alex Bowen Tyler Elwood Tanner Dehaan Christian Ruske Hunter Olson Nathan Curtis Mark Hayward
Bass John Bergquist Skyler Bluemel Dallin Brown Zach Dickison Spencer Hunter Brandan Ngo Matt Robertson Eric Schmidt Brenner Swenson MASTERWORKS
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Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
program notes
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Symphony No. 5 in A Major Instrumentation: 2 oboes, bassoon; 2 horns; harpsichord; and strings. Performance Time: 82 minutes. BACKGROUND
Joseph Haydn’s first important appointment as a professional musician was to the court of Count Morzin, an aristocrat of the Austrian Empire whose palace was in the village of Dolní Lukavice, near the city we now know as Pilsen (Plzeň) in the modern Czech Republic. The year was either 1757 or 1759—Haydn would have been either 25 or 27 years of age. Georg August Griesinger, Haydn’s first major biographer, reported the following based on an interview with Papa Haydn himself: In the year 1759 Haydn was appointed in Vienna to be music director to Count Morzin with a salary of two hundred gulden, free room, and board at the staff table. Here he enjoyed at last the good fortune of a carefree existence; it suited him thoroughly. The winter was spent in Vienna and the summer in Bohemia, in the vicinity of Pilsen. Not only the exact year, but even the particular individual who hired Haydn is contested; was it Ferdinand Maximilian Morz2in or his son and heir, Karl Joseph? On such questions hang questions of objectivity in music journalism. The late H.C. Robbins Landon, an important authority on Haydn and Mozart, believed that the young Haydn’s patron was in fact the senior Count Morzin, a more powerful figure in Austrian politics. On the other hand, James Webster, writing almost 15 years later in the generally authoritative New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, identifies Haydn’s benefactor as Ferdinand Maximilian’s son, Karl. 52
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As it happens, H.C. Robbins Landon was a generous colleague and friend to the author of the article you’re reading now—which may be one reason why I am inclined to believe him regarding the facts of Haydn’s biography. But another reason is how well it supports our understanding of Haydn’s unusual life as a composer. To put a Trekkie spin on it, Haydn lived long and prospered, applying his great musical gifts with discipline, judgment and political surefootedness. His agreeable character and musical accomplishments had already become known within and outside his professional world. All of these virtues were instrumental in building his reputation as a patriarch of the Classical age, and his appointment by the senior Count Morzin while still in his twenties to a position in which he could call himself Kapellmeister would have been an important early stage in his professional life. The Kapellmeister’s lifestyle during the Classical era reflects the same pattern that prevails today, with the new “season” of music beginning each fall. It has often been described as migratory, and kept Haydn where his employer wanted him—on the Count’s hereditary estate in the country during the summers, and in the thick of the Austrian capital’s musical and social scene in the winters. The one blot on Haydn’s seemingly charmed development as a composer was his marriage to Anna Maria Keller in 1760, just a year or two after his appointment by Count Morzin. Haydn’s contract with the count expressly barred him from marriage, but he apparently was able to keep his employer unaware of his alliance with Anna—a marriage that, despite its general unhappiness, endured 40 years. But this potential obstacle proved moot. Writing just a year after the composer’s death, Haydn biographer Albert Christoph Dies notes: A year passed without Count Morzin’s knowing of the marriage of his Kapellmeister, UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
program notes
but something else came up to alter Haydn’s situation. The Count found himself obliged to reduce his heretofore great expenditures. He dismissed his musicians and so Haydn lost his post as Kapellmeister. A setback? Nothing of the kind: Count Morzin helped Haydn gain an appointment as Vicekapellmeister in the service of the very prestigious Prince Anton Esterházy at Eisenstadt, where he worked as composer, conductor and administrator, advancing his career significantly. With the incumbent Kapellmeister in ill health, Haydn assumed that position in all but name, and at a salary much higher than the amount he originally received from Count Morzin. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Haydn’s canon of 104 symphonies begins with his appointment by Count Morzin. It is believed that 11 of his early symphonies were written for the Count, though they are not numbered consecutively and there is some debate as to exactly which of these works were written for him. (The numbers range up into the 30s, with significant gaps in the chronology.) But Webster and Robbins Landon both place the Symphony No. 5 in the period when Haydn was composing for the house of Morzin. In later symphonies we hear Haydn creating a sound that is familiar to us as “symphonic scale,” for an ensemble of about 60 players. (The post-Romantic symphony orchestra generally numbers at least 70, sometimes many more). But the symphonies written for Count Morzin were scaled for a smaller orchestra and had a more intimate sound. Based on scores for another of Haydn’s composers, Robbins Landon estimated that Count Morzin’s orchestra comprised six to eight violins; a basso section of one cello, one bassoon and one double-bass; and a “wind-band” sextet of oboes, bassoons UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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and horns. The resulting sound is more akin to a chamber ensemble than to that of a larger ensemble that can blast out Brucknerian thunder. What we hear is not the dramatic intensity of a Romantic symphony, but the beauty and symmetry of the Classical era at a scale that brings us close to the heart of the music, as in a chamber work. The textures are transparent, and the instruments are somewhat exposed. The symphony is classed as a sonata da chiesa (a “church sonata”) not because of any sacred themes associated with it, but because of its formal structure and the alternating pacing of its four movements, which are marked adagio ma non troppo (slow, but not too slow), allegro (fast), menuet and trio (stately), and presto (fast). The slow movements are formidably challenging for horn players; only in his 51st symphony do we hear such difficult playing for the horns. Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, “Resurrection” Instrumentation: 4 flutes, 4 doubling piccolos, 4 oboes, 2 doubling English horns, 5 clarinets, 3rd doubling bass clarinet, 4rth doubling E-flat clarinet and B-flat and A clarinet, 4 bassoons, 2 doubling contrabassoons;10 horns (4 offstage), 10 trumpets (4 offstage), 4 trombones, tuba; 3 timpani, chimes, orchestra bells, large tam tam, snare drum, triangle, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, tam tam, bass drum, rute, bass drum with attached cymbals, harp, orgran; strings; vocal soloists; and chorus. Performance Time: 77 minutes. BACKGROUND
Critics of the past are easy targets for today’s music fans—perhaps too easy when they pan the music that we have come to love. But in the case of Gustav Mahler, reading contemporary assessments of his compositions MASTERWORKS
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Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
program notes
is fascinating. In the century since his death, Mahler has come to be celebrated as perhaps the greatest symphonist since Beethoven. But the recognition was long in coming. During his lifetime, Mahler had greater success as a conductor than as a composer, and even that was mitigated by problems in Vienna and New York City, where he became Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in 1907 and also led the New York Philharmonic. Though his performances earned tremendous acclaim, his conflicts with the trustees of both organizations broke his spirit and damaged his health, and in 1911 he returned to Vienna, where he died of pneumonia that same year. The magisterial eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1911, was known to provide authoritative explanations of anything worth explaining; its compilers did not see fit to include an article on Mahler. The highly respected New York paper the Herald Tribune, in noting Mahler’s passing, was respectful of his achievements as a conductor, but noted “We cannot see how any of his music can long survive him.” The lack of popular enthusiasm that had greeted Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 had taken him by surprise, and it was a worrisome development for him—not just a matter of public taste or current musical trends, but a signal that his broader ambitions for the symphonic form might not be understood by his audiences. Though music historians tell us that he composed that work between late 1887 and the spring of 1888, it was really the culmination of an effort of years, incorporating music that Mahler had composed for early compositions. His belief in his own abilities as a composer remained unshaken, but not his confidence in his place in the music world. He worked on his Symphony No. 2 from 1888 to 1894 and almost 54
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surely suffered the sophomore jitters over it (as did Brahms with his second, despite the success of his first). But during his lifetime, Mahler saw the Symphony No. 2 become his most successful and popular work with the exception of his eighth. Fate intervened to give impetus to its composition. Mahler initially framed its first movement as a stand-alone symphonic poem called Totenfeier (“Funeral Rites”); then, he became unsure of whether to keep it in that form or to make it the opening movement of a symphony. Mahler sought advice on the composition, from a senior colleague he greatly admired, the eminent conductor and composer Hans von Bülow. The session during which Mahler played it through on the piano for Bülow—reportedly, the bewildered and unaccepting Bülow kept his hands over his ears the entire time—has passed into music legend. It may have been a bitter pill for Mahler, but he and Bülow retained their mutual respect, and Mahler often served as substitute conductor for Bülow as the older man’s health declined. In 1893 Mahler launched into the second and third movements, and a symphony began to take shape. But lacking a finale, its overall form was still unclear. Then, in 1894, Bülow died, and Mahler heard a setting of Klopstock’s Resurrection Hymn at the memorial service. “It struck me like lightning, this thing,” Mahler wrote to the German writer and dramatist Arthur Seidl, “and everything was revealed to my soul clear and plain.” Combining the first two stanzas of Klopstock’s hymn with additional verses of his own, Mahler gives us a choral testament on the themes of final judgment and resurrection in the symphony’s finale. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Mahler’s sense of drama in music is an UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
program notes
essential complement to his ability to explore large ideas in a way that suspends time, and we hear this in abundance in his Symphony No. 2. He surrounds us with sound that is magisterial yet sensuous—tense, languorous and triumphant by turns. His musical subjects are often described as death-obsessed (or, by wags, as eternal), and this symphony, which was catalyzed by the death of a friend and colleague, is cited as an example. But this music is actually a joyful affirmation…a radiant musical account of life triumphant. After the stormy “funeral rites” opening movement, the second movement offers idyllic, dancing themes. (Mahler called for a long pause between these two very
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different sections, allowing us—and the orchestra—to “shift gears.”) In the third movement, enthusiasts will recognize music borrowed from his beautiful song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“the child’s magic horn”) crafted into a leisurely scherzo. As we transition to the fourth movement, with its mezzo-soprano soloist, the music’s focus seems to shift from the pleasures of temporal life to the splendors of the eternal. Again, we hear a charming melody from the Wunderhorn. The orchestration seems to shift to textures that are intimate yet celestial, accompanying the sung text with clarinets, glockenspiel, harp and solo violin. This smaller scale vocal offering prepares us for the monumentality of the chorale in the symphony’s fifth and final movement.
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Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7
program
Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 Nov 20 | 7:30 pm de Jong Concert Hall Nov 21–22 | 8 pm Abravanel Hall Thierry Fischer, Conductor Fumiaki Miura, Violin
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Mein Heim, “My Home,” op. 62 Concerto No. 3 in B Minor for Violin and Orchestra, op. 61 I. Allegro non troppo II. Andantino quasi allegretto III. Molto moderato e maestoso - Allegro non troppo Fumiaki Miura, Violin
/ INTERMISSION /
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, op. 70 I. Allegro maestoso II. Poco adagio III. Scherzo: Vivace IV. Finale: Allegro
CONCERT SPONSOR
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Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7
artist’s profile
Please see page 48 for Thierry Fischer’s profile.
Fumiaki Miura, the First Prize winner of the International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition, Hannover, 2009 was born in Japan in 1993 and comes from a musical family. His father is a concertmaster and his sister studies the piano. Miura began to play the violin at the age of three. In 2008 he was admitted to the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo as one of the most promising talents, and until recently he studied there with Tsugio Tokunaga. Since the 2009–10 winter semester he has continued his studies at the Vienna Conservatory with Professor Pavel Vernikov. He regularly attends master classes with Pavel Vernikov, Jean-Jacques Kantrow, and Zakhar Bron, among others. He has performed with many orchestras around the globe including the NDR Radiophilharmonie, Polish Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Ensemble Kanazawa, Osaka Philharmonic, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, and the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra.
Fumiaki Miura Violin
In the 2012–13 season, Fumiaki gave his debut with NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, at Konzerthaus Vienna with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and he has also …the First Prize Winner made his first appearance in the United States with Utah Symphony. A particular of the International Joseph Joachim highlight of the season was the Polish premiere of Penderecki’s Concerto for Violin Competition… Viola and Violin in November 2012 with Julian Rachlin and Poznan Philharmonic. Miura not only won the First Prize of the Hannover ViolinCompetition—he also won the Music Critics’ Prize and the Audience Prize of the 2009 competition and is therefore not only the youngest winner in the history of the competition, but also the one with the most prizes. In both 2003 and 2004—as an elementary school student— Miura won Second Prizes in the All Japan Students’ Music Competition. In 2006, he was awarded the Second Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition for Young Violinists. While attending the Music Academy in Miyazaki, he was named one of the best performers in 2008 and 2009.
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Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7
program notes
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
Mein Heim (My Home) Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, triangle; and strings. Performance Time: 16 minutes. BACKGROUND
Along with Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, 40 years his senior, Dvořák, himself Czech, was a great champion of the belief that nationalism and indigenous folk music were the creative wellspring for classical composers. But Dvořák stands alone in his success in combining folk melodies and European classical traditions in the symphonic form. His call to folk music was nowhere more relevant than in America, where musically rich folkways overspread the country like a giant quilt. That’s one reason why the visionary philanthropist Jeanette Thurber, when she founded the National Conservatory of Music, invited Dvořák to become its director. When he came to New York in 1892, Dvořák applied his knowledge to the field that would become ethnomusicology, exploring the richness of African American and American Indian musical sources. His Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” was commissioned and premiered during this period and became a sensation of a kind unprecedented in U.S. classical music performance—half spectacle and half musical event, it drew crowds of thousands and gained wild acclaim wherever it was played. His kinship with the U.S. even extended to rural Iowa, where he spent the summer of 1893 with his family in the town of Spillville. At the National Conservatory Dvořák worked closely with his student Harry Burleigh, one of the earliest African American composers. UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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Despite the depth of his American connection—or perhaps because of it—some musicologists consider America’s failure to absorb Dvořák’s essential message to be one of the central tragedies of American culture. When Dvořák left the U.S. in 1895, the National Conservatory’s finances were in a shambles, his salary was in arrears, and his health was poor, and his gift to American culture went unrecognized. Half a century later, American classical composers were still struggling to find a voice and ignoring the musical riches within their grasp. Though its composition preceded his time in the U.S. by more than a decade, Dvořák’s overture Mein Heim strongly reflects his nationalist principles, and even its cross-cultural name—in the original Czech it is known as Domov můj—reminds us of his fellow-Czech colleague Bedrich Smetana’s suite Ma vlást, “My Homeland.” Dvořák began work on the overture at the end of 1881; he had just passed his 40th birthday, and thanks in large measure to the influence of his friend Johannes Brahms, his success as a composer was beginning to gel internationally. Works including the Slavonic Rhapsody No. 3, the Stabat Mater, the Czech Suite and his fifth and sixth symphonies became popular during this period of his life. Dvořák’s affinity for Slavic folk sources was in tune with Czech yearning for national identity, which was bursting forth after generations of oppression by the Austrian Empire. We can see this nationalist feeling in the very fact of the commission for Mein Heim. It was one of nine pieces that Dvořák provided as incidental music for a play by one Czech nationalist playwright, Frantisek Ferdinand Samberk, celebrating the life of another—the dramatist, writer and actor Josef Kajetán Tyl. The overture’s title is taken MASTERWORKS
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from a poem written by Tyl and incorporates a melody written by their fellow countryman František Škroup in 1834, “Kdo domov můj” (“Where Is My Home?”). Though this song was an original composition, it has the feeling of a folk tune. After the founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918, this song became the national anthem of the new nation and is the anthem of the Czech Republic today. Of Dvořák’s original suite of incidental music, only the overture has remained in the international repertory, and it took on the more recognizable name Mein Heim when it was published by his Berlin-based publisher, Simrock. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
“Kdo domov můj” is one of two songs that Dvořák includes in Mein Heim. This melody, with its lyrical, almost sentimental quality, is introduced as the overture’s secondary theme, following the initial statement of the song “In Our Courtyard Yonder.” The latter song may have been included in part as a reference to Tyl’s play The Bagpiper of Strakonice, in which it is mentioned (and perhaps played on the bagpipe?). But despite its primacy of position, it is eventually eclipsed by Dvořák’s repeated treatment of “Where Is My Home?”, which recurs with increasing emphasis as rhythmic, harmonic and melodic variation adds depth to its effect. This dominance was in accord with the wishes of the playwright Samberk, who wanted the musical message embodied in “Where Is My Home?” to be prominent at the end of each act. Formally, the structure of Mein Heim unfolds as a classical overture. First we hear a slow introduction, after which Dvořák hews to traditional sonata-allegro exposition and development. The drama and patriotic feeling of the overture is intensified with 60
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each recurrence of the “Where Is My Home?” melody. Eventually it becomes the centerpiece of a rousing coda, set off by ingenious use of counter-voices and brilliant orchestration. This dramatic finale takes on the feeling of a triumphal march. Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Saint-Saëns: Concerto No. 3 in B Minor for violin Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2nd doubling piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones; timpani; strings; and solo violin. Performance Time: 29 minutes. BACKGROUND
Born in 1835, when the Romantic era was still young, the spectacularly gifted Saint-Saëns lived through one of the most turbulent periods in music history. The magisterial music critic Harold C. Schonberg, who reigned for two decades at The New York Times, described him as the greatest of all music prodigies, outpacing even Mozart and Mendelssohn. As an adult, SaintSaëns recalled experiencing the aleatoric sounds of early childhood as music; his description of the “symphony of the kettle” he overheard as a two-year-old, with its slow, eventful crescendo and climactic whistle, is vivid. He began composing at age three, and performed one of Beethoven’s violin sonatas in a Paris salon at age four; by age ten, in a legendary concert at the Salle Pleyel, he followed his performance of a movement from Beethoven’s C Minor Piano Concerto with an offer to play any of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas from memory. “This young man knows everything, but he lacks in experience,” noted Berlioz—not a surprising observation, considering the age of the “young man” in question. UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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Saint-Saëns became a protege of Franz Liszt, who declared him “the world’s greatest organist,” and he won the ungrudging admiration of Berlioz, who called him “an absolutely shattering master pianist.” His mastery of the composer’s tools was staggering: encyclopedic knowledge of the orchestral instruments, of music history and theory, of harmony and structure. He was a visionary, co-founding the Société Nationale de Musique for the advancement of French music and appreciating his mentor Liszt as few of his contemporaries did. With remarkable insight, Saint-Saëns noted that they celebrated Liszt as the world’s greatest pianist in part because that was easier than appreciating his innovations and importance as a composer.
was concertizing on the violin by age four— meant he did not have to seek the advice of violinists regarding technique and playability (as did, for example, Tchaikovsky—with problematic results). We can appreciate this before we even hear a note of his Violin Concerto No. 3; its key, B minor, is one that a less expert composer would not have dared for the violin.
Saint-Saëns seemed to harbor no illusions about his own gifts as a composer. “First among composers of the second rank” was his famously modest self-assessment, perhaps underestimating his own achievements. But this remark would be echoed later by critics. Did he make it all seem too easy? Throughout his career Saint-Saëns produced music with a touch of the old masters and seeming effortlessness, “as a tree produces apples.” His tone poems, operas, symphonies and concertos mobilize the astounding grasp of cultural history and musical erudition he was famous for, but his harmonic and melodic inventiveness—dazzling on their own terms—remained resolutely traditional at a time of musical revolution. By the time of Saint-Saëns’ death in 1921, his style of composition was in the background while experimental forms and atonal exploration were in the foreground.
The concerto opens with a movement marked allegro non troppo that George Bernard Shaw—a prolific, opinionated music critic as well as a playwright—noted for its “poetic atmosphere and compelling melodiousness.” The movement proceeds in a manner that is portentous, even edgy, with an introductory melody that rises from the violin’s lower reaches, eventually blooming into passionate utterance from the soloist. An alternate theme provides the opportunity for virtuoso passages as the two themes alternate in a kind of rivalry; eventually, the initial theme is reprised in a brilliant coda.
Living through the great age of the Romantic concerto, Saint-Saëns’ incredible facility with instruments as well as theory—remember, he UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Saint-Saëns composed the concerto in 1880, when he was 45. Its dedicatee is the great Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate, for whom the composer had written his Violin Concerto No. 1 and the Rondo capriccioso. Sarasate performed the premiere in Paris the following year. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
The second movement is marked andantino quasi allegretto, and is dominated by a traditional Sicilian theme. As the movement proceeds, a discourse arises between the solo violin and the woodwinds. The 6/8 rhythm, danceable yet dignified, lends an air of stateliness. As the movement settles into a serene closing section, the violin traces ascending arpeggios that are quietly virtuosic, requiring exquisite control as they rise to harmonic whispers that seem to reach into the heavens. MASTERWORKS
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For many of Saint-Saëns’ contemporaries, heroic display—to play with seemingly impossible speed or dexterity—was the very essence of the Romantic concerto. For them, the concerto’s third movement, almost always marked at a breakneck tempo and incorporating a flashy cadenza, was the climactic “big finish” that made the rest of the concerto worthwhile. And while this concerto respects the norm, it also tweaks our expectations: marked molto moderato e maestoso, it opens with a passage that sounds much like a closing cadenza, simultaneously building suspense and chiding us to be patient as we listen. The violin’s lines alternate with orchestral flourishes. Eventually the solo voice modulates back to the concerto’s B-Minor key. Inevitably, the movement’s development leads us to a high-energy finale full of gorgeous pyrotechnic display. The triumphant close finds us in B-Major. Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
Symphony No. 7 in D Minor Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2nd doubling piccalo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones; timpani; and strings. Performance Time: 38 minutes. BACKGROUND
Of all the great European symphonists who came after Beethoven—the towering figure in whose shadow they all labored—Antonin Dvořák holds a special place in the hearts of American listeners. We can hear some of the reasons in his music: its winsome optimism, its grandeur and its reverence for folk traditions could describe the American spirit as well as the culture of Dvořák’s native Bohemia. There’s also that swing—the soulful, syncopated 62
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rhythm that suffuses all of Dvořák’s music with the same energizing lilt that Ellington taught us about: without it, music “don’t mean a thing.” And for both of these great composers, we can trace the syncopated rhythms back to the basic human impulse to get up and move to the music. In leading a rehearsal of the trumpet fanfare that opens the last movement of the Symphony No. 8, the conductor Rafael Kubelik—a noted interpreter of Dvořák, and like him, a Czech—said “Gentlemen, in Bohemia the trumpets never call to battle. They always call to the dance!” In his seventh symphony we hear this wonderfully Bohemian lilt, but we also hear a dramatic impetus borne of his strong feelings about the struggles of the Czech nation. What we now know as Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 was originally published as his Symphony No. 2. He began composing it late in 1884, when he was 43 and had heard Brahms’ third symphony, which had premiered the previous year. Dvořák was so impressed with his mentor’s composition that he immediately began thinking of writing a new symphony of his own. An invitation from the Philharmonic Society of London to join their organization and provide a symphony for his induction provided a welcome reason to follow through on his idea. For some composers (for example, Ravel), the polyrhythmic thrum of a train ride has provided inspiration for a composition. In Dvořák’s case, it was a train’s actual arrival that set his creative juices flowing. It was his habit to take daily walks to the railway station in Prague, and he reported that “the first subject of my new symphony flashed into my mind upon the arrival of the festive train bringing our countrymen from Pest.” These countrymen were Czechs on their way to the National UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7
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Theatre in Prague, where a musical was planned to support the political emergence of the Czech nation. One can only wish that this great Czech composer could have known that a century later, his music would be the living soul of the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989 that liberated Czechoslovakia from Communist rule. That movement’s leaders, including Vaclav Havel himself, considered nightly performances of Dvořák’s music to be absolutely essential to their revolution’s success. Dvořák’s correspondence suggests he worked on the seventh symphony with almost feverish intensity. “I am now busy with this symphony for London, and wherever I go I can think of nothing else. God grant that this Czech music will move the world!” His sketch of the symphony’s first movement was finished in about five days, and a sketch of its slower second movement was completed about 10 days later. “What is in my mind is Love, God, and my Fatherland,” he wrote. But personal tragedy also occupied his thoughts—the recent death of his mother, and perhaps the earlier death of his eldest child as well. A footnote references the symphony’s second movement as “from the sad years.” Premiered in London under the direction of Dvořák himself, the Symphony No. 7 was a brilliant success (though the recalcitrance of his Berlin-based publisher, Simrock, made its publication a nightmare). It is considered one of the high watermarks of his career—“surely Dvořák’s greatest symphony,” according to the Dvořák scholar John Clapham, although his ninth, “From the New World,” is probably more popular in this country.
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WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
From its opening movement, a darkling allegro maestoso, this symphony announces itself as serious, even brooding. After a harsh climax early in the movement, a theme introduced by clarinets provokes orchestral responses that accrete into a struggle that subsides into melancholy as the movement ends. In the second movement, a beautiful yet elusive feeling of lamentation prevails—first in the woodwinds and then, searchingly, in the strings. A third theme, also retrospective and regretful, suggests Wagner’s influence on Dvořák. In the movement’s recapitulation, Dvořák’s sumptuous, soulful cellos repeat the opening theme with an expressiveness that reminds us of the composer’s deep understanding of this instrument. (His cello concerto is one of the landmarks of the literature.) In the third movement, marked scherzo: vivace—poco meno mosso, we hear the symphony’s brightest expressions of mood: sounds that suggest the cheerful twittering of birds and woodland hunting calls. The movement’s central section is built on an energetic furiant, a Bohemian dance in 3/4 time. As the movement nears its close it grows quieter, with cellos reprising the earlier adagio’s horn theme. It is a lovely, wistful moment that leads us to a dazzling finish, but the tone of relaxed contemplation does not last; in the final movement, an allegro, we hear expressions of deep anguish that are at once thrillingly beautiful and agonizingly heartfelt. The symphony closes with a sob of grief, an eloquent outcry against pain and loss. The pain of past generations of political oppression? Or the more recent loss of loved ones? Or both?
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/upcoming concerts New Year’s in Vienna Jan 2–3 / 8 pm Abravanel Hall Thierry Fischer, conductor SHOSTAKOVICH BORODIN SHOSTAKOVICH BERLIOZ J. STRAUSS, Jr.
Festive Overture Polovtzian Dances Jazz Suite No. 2 Hungarian March Künstlerleben
LUMBYE WOLFGANG RIHM BRAHMS J. STRAUSS, Jr. J. STRAUSS, Jr.
Champagne Galop Sehnsuchtswalzer from Drei Walzer Hungarian Dance No. 5 Im Krapfenwald’l Eljen A Magyar
Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Jan 9–10 / 8 pm Abravanel Hall Jan 9 / 10 am Finishing Touches Mark Wigglesworth, conductor SHOSTAKOVICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony No. 15 The Nutcracker, Act 2
Debussy, FranÇaix, Poulenc, & Ibert Jan 15 / 8 pm St. Mary’s Church - Park City, UT Vladimir Kulenovic, conductor Debussy FranÇaix Poulenc Ibert
Six épigraphes antiques Sérénade Sextet Divertissement
Access to Music: Concert for Children with Special Needs and their Families January 22 / 7 pm Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre If you are a family with children with special needs, please join us for our annual Access to Music performance. This concert is free but registration is required.
/upcoming concerts Strauss’ A Hero’s Life Jan 30–31 / 8 pm Abravanel Hall Thierry Fischer, conductor WAGNER BERG R. STRAUSS
Baiba Skride, violin
Siegfried Idyll Violin Concerto “To the memory of an angel” A Hero’s Life
Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 Feb 6–7 / 8 pm Abravanel Hall Thierry Fischer, conductor Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano Women of the Utah Symphony Chorus The Madeleine Choir School MAHLER
Symphony No. 3
The Streisand Songbook Feb 13–14 / 8 pm Abravanel Hall Jerry Steichen, conductor
Ann Hampton Callaway, vocalist
Platinum Award winning singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway joins forces with the Utah Symphony to celebrate the music of Barbra Streisand, one of America’s most powerful and enduring musical artists.
Beethoven’s Violin Concerto Feb 20–21 / 8 pm Abravanel Hall Thierry Fischer, conductor PROKOFIEV AUGUSTA READ THOMAS BEETHOVEN
ReseRve youR seats today at
Baiba Skride, violin Symphony No. 1 “Classical” EOS (World Premiere Commission) Violin Concerto
utahsymphony.oRg oR call 801-355-ARTS (2787)
MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR and ORCHESTRA AT TEMPLE SQUARE
Mack Wilberg, conductor
COMING IN 2015! A LANDMARK NEW recording of Messiah by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square.
of the Choir. With world-class soloists and the artistic mastery you expect from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, this will be a This new recording will contain every note of Handel’s masterwork must-have for every music lover. in an insightful interpretation by Go to motab.org/Messiah Mack Wilberg, music director for details.
Š 2014 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Mormon Tabernacle Choir is an ambassador for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Printed in the USA. English approval: 1/14. PRJ25006
Messiah Sing-In
program
Messiah Sing-In Nov 29–30 | 7 pm Abravanel Hall Thierry Fischer, Conductor Melissa Heath, Soprano Abigail Levis, Mezzo-Soprano GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
Tyson Miller, Tenor Thierry Fischer, Baritone Utah Symphony Chorus
Messiah
Part I: Prophecy and Fulfillment Sinfonia Comfort ye, comfort ye my people Ev’ry valley shall be exalted And the Glory of the Lord** Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts But who may abide the day of his coming? Behold, a virgin shall conceive O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion ** For unto us a Child is Born ** There were shepherds abiding in the field And the angel said unto them And suddenly, there was with the angel Glory to God in the Highest ** Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion Then shall the eyes of the blind He shall feed his flock…Come unto him His yoke is easy, His burden is light**
BÄRENREITER
G. SCHIRMER
4 7 12 22 25 45 46 64 83 84 85 86 93 101 101 105
7 10 16 24 27 47 47 66 79 80 81 82 87 94 94 98
/ INTERMISSION / **Please join the singing of these Choruses CONCERT SPONSOR
Utah Symphony gratefully thanks the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for tonight’s use of the harpsichord, and portative organ.
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Part II: Passion and Resurrection Behold the Lamb of God** He was despised Surely, He hath borne our griefs** And with His stripes we are healed** All we like sheep have gone astray** Why do the nations so furiously rage together He that dwelleth in heaven Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron Hallelujah** I know that my Redeemer liveth Since by man came death** Behold, I tell you a mystery The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised Worthy is the Lamb that was slain**
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113 118 123 128 135 215 233 234 238 251 257 260 261 287Â
104 108 113 117 122 174 188 189 193 204 210 214 214 237
**Please join the singing of these Choruses
1344 S 2100 E Salt Lake City (801) 521- 4773 everybloomingthing.com
Messiah Sing-In
artists’ profiles
Please see page 48 for Thierry Fischer’s profile.
Soprano Melissa Heath enjoys a varied career of opera, concert and recital work. She received her Bachelor’s degree in voice from Brigham Young University (2003), and her Master’s Degree in voice from the University of Utah (2009). Ms. Heath currently studies with Dr. Robert Breault. Recently Ms. Heath performed in Verdi’s Rigoletto with La Musica Lirica in Cesena, Italy; Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Adamo’s Little Women, Bernstein’s Candide and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at University of Utah; Mechem’s Tartuffe, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel at Brigham Young University. She has also performed in Salt Lake Symphony’s production of Scarlatti’s Christmas Cantata; Ballet West’s production of Orff ’s Carmina Burana and Salt Lake Choral Artists production of Rutter’s Mass of the Children, Rutter’s Requiem and Faure’s Requiem. Ms. Heath placed first at the NATS Utah Northern competition in 2008, and was both a State and Regional Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council competition in 2006. Ms. Heath lives in Murray, Utah with her son, Joey, and enjoys spending time with family and friends, cooking, shopping and traveling.
Melissa Heath Soprano
Mezzo-soprano Abigail Levis is emerging as one of the most exciting young singers of today. As a professional singer, Ms. Levis has appeared as a soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra, Ars Lyrica Houston, and the Utah Symphony in addition to the Handel and Haydn Society. She is also the winner of several competitions, including the 2014 William C. Byrd Competiton, 2014 Wilhelm a Stenhammar competition (third prize), the 2014 Luis Mariano competition (second prize) 2013 Classical Singer Competition, and the 2013 Oratorio Society of New York Competition (second place). She is a recent graduate of the Vocal Arts program at the Bard College Conservatory where she studied with renowned soprano, Dawn Upshaw. Ms. Levis is currently a second-year Resident Artist with Utah Opera and is a student of Edith Bers. Abigail Levis Mezzo-Soprano
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artists’ profiles
Tenor Tyson Miller returns to the Utah Symphony |Utah Opera after appearing last season in Kathleen Cahill’s Fatal Song as well as La Traviata, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the Resident Artists’ production of The Elixir of Love. A native of Belton, Texas, Mr. Miller received a bachelor of music in vocal performance from Baylor University, and holds a master of music in vocal performance from Rice University. In 2009, Mr. Miller was a recipient of the Encouragement award from the Southwest Region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and in 2010 was a studio artist with Central City Opera. Most recently, Mr. Miller performed in Milton Granger’s Talk Opera with Lone Star Lyric Opera, Natoma with the Victor Herbert Foundation and The Picture of Dorian Gray with the Aspen Music Festival. As a Resident Artist with Utah Opera, Mr. Miller’s upcoming performances include The Rake’s Progress. Tyson Miller Tenor
Christopher Clayton Baritone
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Baritone, Christopher Clayton has appeared with companies such as Utah Opera, Opera Birmingham, Portland Opera, Sacramento Opera, Chautauqua Opera, the Skylight Opera and Opera Idaho. He has appeared in Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, Albert Herring, Carmen, Die Zauberflöte, Faust and Gianni Schicchi. Most recently he has appeared as a soloist in Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ, Bernstein’s Mass and in Handel’s Messiah with the Utah Symphony, as the Baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with Utah Voices and as the soloist in Cimarosa’s Il Maestro di Capella with the Walla Walla Symphony. Mr. Clayton was a Portland Opera Studio Artist and a young artist with the Chautauqua Opera in both the apprentice and studio programs. He received a professional studies certificate and master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music where he worked closely with Warren Jones and Daona Caughn. He received bachelor’s degrees in vocal performance and mechanical engineering from the University of Utah.
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Messiah Sing-In
program notes
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
Messiah Instrumentation: 2 oboes, bassoon; 2 trumpets; timpani, harpsichord, organ; strings; chorus; soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and baritone. Performance Time: 106 minutes. BACKGROUND
Messiah is the most popular and frequently performed oratorio ever written; we all know and love it. Composed in an intense burst of inspiration fairly late in Handel’s career, Messiah has inspired jazz, soul and Dixieland versions. Individual choruses and solo passages have gained the familiarity of pop songs. For Handel himself and for millions of listeners it is not only a thrilling entertainment but also a deep expression of religious faith that sounds new no matter how many times we have heard it. Yet it was also a commercial imperative for Handel, who was a canny entrepreneur and investor as well as a musical genius. After a hugely successful run writing and producing his own operas, Handel turned to the oratorio form when the public taste for his operas was fading. Messiah is the foremost example of what became known as the English oratorio, in which Handel combined religious texts with elements of intense drama. What exactly is English oratorio about? At the most basic level, oratorio is music with a story, often religious in nature, sung by a chorus and/or soloists, accompanied by an orchestra and/or an organ. The choral forces are usually
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the familiar four-part SATB mix—soprano, alto, tenor, bass—that you know if you sang chorus in high school or in church, or if you watched Glee on television. Without their predominately religious themes and their lack of staging, many of Handel’s oratorios would be indistinguishable from his operas; in fact, some of those are religious stories as well. Many of his oratorios combine biblical and non-biblical texts, though Messiah is drawn entirely from the Bible. Despite the commercial considerations that were never far from Handel’s mind, Messiah is first and foremost an expression of faith. Of the glorious melodies that pour forth from it, Handel said that the heavens seemed to open to him as he composed. Messiah has gained a household familiarity that is rare among classical compositions—especially such long ones. Once Thanksgiving is over, Messiah seems to be everywhere, in both concert and sing-along formats. With this kind of familiarity, it’s always instructive and often surprising to take a second look—especially considering that behind the gloriously hummable melodies of favorite passages like the Hallelujah Chorus and “For Unto Us,” oratorio as a genre has grown rarer in the nearly three centuries since Handel wrote Messiah. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
The drama and beauty of Messiah flow first from its beautiful melodies, which inspire us while capturing the revelatory emotions described in the text. But they also gain extraordinary intensity through the baroque compositional technique of “word painting,” in which the flow of notes in the music actually seems to replicate
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Messiah Sing-In
program notes
a shape or contour that the notes describe. One frequently cited example of word painting occurs early in Part I, in the tenor aria “Every valley shall be exalted.” Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill made low The crooked, straight And the rough places plain. On the word “mountain,” the tenor’s voice rises to a high F#, creating a literal peak of sound; then it drops by an octave, showing how the mountain is made low. On “crooked,” the melodic line vacillates between the jagged C# and the straight B, coming to rest on the straight B. Similarly, the word “exalted” is raised up by an octave in its final syllable.
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For many listeners, a climactic and favorite painterly effect is the heavenly fluttering of wings when angels appear to the shepherds by night, as conveyed by arpeggios in the strings: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying…” This moment, which forms a dramatic climax about two-thirds of the way through Part I, is as graphic and immediate as a movie; think of Handel’s score as the CGI of its day.
For all of its vividness, Handel’s mastery of word painting accounts for just part of the dramatic impact of Messiah. It combines with his gift for melody and a sympathetic understanding of psychology that appeals to us in a way that is less literal, but more deeply human. When we hear the soprano soloist singing “Come unto Messiah teems with effects like these, which Him, all ye that…are heavy laden,” who can fail deepen our experience of the text with almost to take comfort at the tenderness of her vocal palpable realism. For example, slightly later in line? Equally intense are the passages of joyful Part I, in the chorus “And He shall purify,” note anticipation and of triumph, as in the prophecy the way the articulations on the word “purify” expressed in “For unto Us” and in the glorious leap like the flames of the refiner’s fire in the “Hallelujah” chorus, which so overwhelmed text. The effect of word painting can even focus Handel’s contemporary audiences that, we on a single syllable—as when, two choruses are told, they spontaneously rose to their feet later in “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion,” in awe—a tradition that persists to this day in the alto soloist leaps up a fourth on the word many parts of the world. “up”: “get thee up unto the high mountains.”
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Beethoven’s Ninth
program
Beethoven’s Ninth Dec 5–6 | 8 pm Abravanel Hall Thierry Fischer, Conductor Celena Shafer, Soprano Cynthia Hanna, Mezzo-Soprano
HENRI DUTILLEUX
Chad Shelton, Tenor Michael Dean, Bass-Baritone Utah Symphony Chorus
5 Métaboles I. Incantatoire II. Lineaire III. Obsessionnel IV. Torpide V. Flamboyant / INTERMISSION /
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, op. 125, “Choral” I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso II. Molto vivace III. Adagio molto e cantabile IV. Presto - Allegro assai - Allegro assai vivace Celena Shafer, Soprano Cynthia Hanna, Mezzo-Soprano Chad Shelton, Tenor Michael Dean, Bass-Baritone Utah Symphony Chorus
CONCERT SPONSOR
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B E E T H OV E N M I N I - S E R I E S S P O N S O R
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artists’ profiles Please see page 48 for Thierry Fischer’s profile. Please see page 49 for Celena Shafer’s profile. Please see page 50 for Utah Symphony Chorus listing.
Cynthia Hanna made her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as the Third Wood Nymph in Rusalka and returned to the American Symphony Orchestra as Wigelis in Feuersnot. In the 2013–14 season she sang the role of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Opera Grand Rapids and Meg Page in Falstaff with Emerald City Opera. Recently she sang her first performances of Verdi’s Requiem with the Charleston Symphony and Dalila in Samson et Dalila as a guest artist at Hamilton College. She made her international operatic debut as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly at the Savonlinna Festival and subsequently returned to the company for roles in two world premieres: Joan of Arc in Free Will, composed by an international community online, and the Guard in Hakola’s La Fenice. She returned to Washington National Opera as the Page in Salome. She joined Utah Opera for Meg Page in Falstaff; on the concert stage, she has joined the Utah Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem. Ms. Hanna holds a Master of Music degree from University of South Carolina, where she also sang Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri and Charlotte in A Little Night Music. Additionally, she is the 2010 winner of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the North Carolina district as well as the third-place winner of the Southeastern region.
Cynthia Hanna Mezzo-Soprano
In the 2014–15 season, Chad Shelton sings his first performances of Mao Tse-tung in John Adams’ Nixon in China with San Diego Opera and Lechmere and the Narrator in Owen Wingrave in a return to Opéra National de Lorraine. He also joins Lyric Opera Baltimore for Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly in addition to joining The Metropolitan Opera roster for its production of The Rake’s Progress. Mr. Shelton is equally in demand as a concert soloist and has joined the Minnesota Orchestra for Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Vanished, as well as the title role in concert performances of Candide. He has sung Siegel’s Kaddish with the Houston Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Pacific Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and Colorado Music Festival and Mozart’s Requiem with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Handel’s Messiah with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and a gala concert of opera favorites with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. He is the recipient of a Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant and the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. He holds a Master of Music degree and Artist diploma from the Yale University School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from Louisiana State University.
Chad Shelton Tenor
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Beethoven’s Ninth
artists’ profiles
American bass-baritone Michael Dean has appeared with leading opera houses and orchestras of the U.S. and Europe. During the 2013–14 season his appearances included Handel’s Messiah with the Eugene Concert Choir and Pacific Symphony, and Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park. Engagements during the 2014–15 season include debuts with the Boulder Bach Festival performing Bach’s Mass in B-minor, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra performing Messiah, as well as a return with the Winter Park Bach Festival for performances and a new recording of Mozart’s Requiem.
Michael Dean Bass-Baritone
Michael Dean made his New York Philharmonic debut in the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Garden of Light, and returned the following season for a concert performance of Street Scene. His other recent appearances on the concert stage include Handel’s Messiah with the Alabama Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Nashville Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and I Musici de Montréal; Mozart’s Requiem with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Modesto Symphony, and Quad City Symphony; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Richmond Symphony; and Haydn’s Creation and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Louisiana Philharmonic. Michael Dean is currently Music Department Chair and Associate Professor of Voice at The University of California-Los Angeles and a member of the voice faculty at the Chautauqua Music Festival.
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program notes
Henri Dutilleux (1916–2013)
5 Métaboles Instrumentation: 4 flutes, 2 doubling piccolo, 3 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabasson; 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; timpani, xylophone, glockenspiel, snare drum, bass drum with pedal, crash cymbals, tom tom in 3 pitches, triangle, chinese cymbals, cowbell, suspended cymbal, temple blocks, large tam tam, medium tam tam, harp, celeste; and strings. Performance Time: 16 minutes. BACKGROUND
Brief biographical sketches are stock in trade for musicologists and critics. When describing the wonderful French composer Henri Dutilleux, these short bios often say he was active in the second half of the 20th century. True enough— but also a bit misleading, since Dutilleux was born in 1916 and was productively engaged in music throughout his long life. He died in 2013 at age 97. The rediscovery of Dutilleux’s compositions after 1950 might be one reason why they are so popular with the public and critics alike. Their beauty is not in dispute; his is a voice that is unique, gripping, sensuous. But earlier in the century, when the breakthroughs of Impressionist music were already in the past but doctrinaire conflicts between new composers were raging, Dutilleux’s music might have been forced into a category such as Impressionist, atonal, serialist or Neo-Romantic. In the U.S., the arguments seemed to reflect the partisan hostility of the global Cold War, with composers in opposing political camps questioning each other’s legitimacy—the extremes represented by revolutionaries such as Milton Babbitt and traditionalists such as Gian Carlo Menotti. “What I reject is the dogma and the authoritarianism which manifested themselves in that period,” said Dutilleux, who patiently refused to be associated with any one school of composition. Later in the century, when theory wars abated, we were better able to hear that 78
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Dutilleux’s music incorporates all these styles, yet sounds like none of them: it is simply Dutilleux. Born to a family of artistic and scholarly accomplishment, Dutilleux studied harmony, counterpoint and piano at the Douai Conservatoire before leaving for the Paris Conservatoire, where he enrolled in 1944. There he continued his studies in music theory and history, winning the coveted Prix de Rome for his cantata L’anneau du roi in 1938. He was 23 and in the first year of his residency in Rome when World War II began, and volunteered for work as a medical orderly. He returned to Paris in 1940 and found work during the occupation as a pianist, arranger and music teacher. As the Western world emerged from war, Dutilleux remained active as a music educator and programmer, remaining outside the scholarly debate on the future of classical music composition while cultivating his own unique compositional style. He worked as head of music production for Radio France from 1945 to 1963, was professor of composition at the École Normale de Musique in Paris from 1961 to 1970, and was appointed to the faculty of the Conservatoire national Supérieur de Musique in 1970. His activities also extended to the U.S., where he served as composer-in-residence at Tanglewood in 1995 and 1998. His roster of composition students was broadly international, including French composers Gérard Grisey and Francis Bayer, Canadians Alain Gagnon and Jacques Hétu, the Briton Kenneth Hesketh, and Americans Derek Bermel and David Sampson. In 2006 he became the sixteenth composer to be honored with a Komponistenporträt at the Rheingau Musik Festival in Germany. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Dutilleux numbered Debussy, Ravel, Bartók and Stravinsky among his chief influences, along with such repertory staples as Beethoven’s late string quartets and Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande. When we listen to his works, what we hear is not an extension of any particular style— UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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not even echoes of Debussy or of his own French contemporaries, Boulez and Messiaen— but a new aural environment that applies mastery of all these styles in a highly sensual way. But his musical tastes ran far outside the classical realm, as well; for example, he loved jazz singers, especially the great Sarah Vaughan. Some listeners hear echoes of jazz in the flow of his music, which is singing rather than spiky, and in his use of complex syncopations.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
The sensual appeal of Dutilleux’s voice works in tandem with some of the most difficult qualities of modern music, making them accessible and enjoyable. For example, though his work is generally atonal, dominant bass notes provide an aural context that make “pitch centers” clear. We do not hear traditional melodies in works such as the 5 Métaboles, but the very strong sense of structure and symmetry give us a clear sense of the themes and their transformations. And throughout, there is the appeal of Dutilleux’s coloration, written in the great French tradition of orchestration.
Beethoven’s ninth symphony occupies a unique place in global culture and in the popular imagination. In a world in which we have come to accept and celebrate diversity, the Ninth symbolizes something universal: the human aspiration to be free. This yearning is so basic to our national ideals that we value Beethoven—dark, brooding and Germanic— as one of our own. He was, after all, the most prominent classical composer to “go rogue,” reinventing a familiar form in a heroic new way with the Symphony No. 9. We appreciate that kind of daring and inventiveness, and we see a Promethean sacrifice in the way Beethoven suffered and pushed himself to transmute the symphony’s formally abstract structure into a philosophical statement. Most of all we cherish the statement itself: a hymn to freedom and brotherhood, values we claim as American.
In his 5 Métaboles, which was commissioned by George Szell for the Cleveland Orchestra in 1964, Dutilleux takes us on a spiraling journey. The title tells us much, once we decode it: According to popular anecdote, Dutilleux named the five-movement orchestral suite by first looking up all the words in the dictionary beginning with the prefix “meta.” He selected “Métaboles” when he saw its technical meaning—a physiological process involving a continuous chemical transformation of one compound into another. We hear that kind of gradual, incremental transformation as we listen to the Métaboles. After the compelling introduction, each of its five movements is a transformation of the movement that precedes it; in the final movement, we hear an organic synthesis of everything that has come before. A different section of the orchestra dominates each of the first four movements; in the fifth, all are brought together. UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Symphony No. 9, “Choral” Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons; 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones; timpani, crash cymbals, triangle, bass drum; strings; vocal soloists, choir. Performance Time: 67 minutes. BACKGROUND
The symphony’s breakthrough fourth movement takes a form that no composer had ever before imagined: a symphonic chorale with full chorus and soloists joining forces to sing Friedrich Schiller’s ecstatic Ode to Joy. This movement is the culmination of a meditation on brotherhood that spans the entire symphony, and it is the whole world’s hymn to freedom. Small wonder that in the most populist and all-American of art forms, Charles Schultz’s Schroeder idolizes Beethoven above all other composers in the comic strip Peanuts. And why Lucy van Pelt, the supremely American pragmatist, gets it. It’s the melding of two great myths. MASTERWORKS
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program notes
But the symphony’s mythic status encompasses some misconceptions, and correcting them does nothing to diminish its greatness. Perhaps the most dramatic of these is the notion that Beethoven’s deafness tragically prevented him from understanding the extent of his triumph. The symphony’s premiere on May 7, 1824, was one of those rare musical events that seems to have been fully appreciated by its audience. Reports of listeners’ enthusiasm for the bold new work suggest that on that historic Friday evening, with nearly a thousand in attendance, there was a collective understanding of their profound, shared experience, with Beethoven fully acknowledged by the cheering crowd. While music-class accounts of the premiere sometimes depict an oblivious Beethoven conducting the orchestra in his head after the real instrumentalists had stopped playing, it is far more likely he was indicating his preferred tempos and gesturing expressively in a manner that did not depend upon precise cues. Here is how the revered English writer George Grove, author of Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies, describes the premiere’s dramatic final moments: His turning around and the sudden conviction thereby forced on everybody that he had not so before because he could not hear what was going on, acted like an electric shock on all present, and a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration. Grove drew this vivid picture only after consulting with a member of the orchestra, and other period accounts support his description. According to another player, “Beethoven directed the piece himself; that is, he stood before the lectern and gesticulated furiously. At times he rose, at other times he shrank to the ground; he moved as if he wanted to play all the instruments himself and sing for the whole chorus. All the musicians minded his rhythm alone while playing.” The composer’s place in the score may have been several measures off, or he may simply have been giving a general indication of rhythm and expression; in any case, his intentions seem to have been clear to the ensemble. 80
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WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
In 1823 Beethoven finally integrated the three critical elements of the Ninth Symphony: a primarily instrumental symphony, the introduction of vocal elements, and a fourth movement incorporating Schiller’s Ode to Joy. But how could a fourth movement with chorus and vocal soloists fit naturally into a symphony whose first three movements were purely instrumental? The simple words “Let us sing the song of the immortal Schiller” became the basis for Beethoven’s introduction to the Symphony’s fourth movement, solving the monumental task of integrating the choral elements into the rest of the work. He later revised this line and added a phrase, “not with these tones,” a dramatically effective interruption of the movement’s furiously chaotic opening bars, which seem to depict humankind’s pointless conflict and striving; these resolve into clarity and light. Beethoven’s Ninth is big in its dimensions as well as its ideas, and the experience of listening to it typically takes more than an hour. But in that time we are transported from a place of esthetic contemplation to a more elevated realm where the abstract beauty of music amplifies the beauty of philosophical ideas. The symphony’s opening movement, marked allegro ma non troppo, creates an unsettled feeling. Like human endeavor, the movement’s melodic phrases could develop in any direction, major or minor—as if they were natural expressions of nature and evolution. Beethoven follows this opening by inverting the traditional movement order, placing a scherzo of almost electric energy in second position, where a slower tempo would ordinarily hold sway. The dithering, bouncing pace of this movement gives the impression of the random, jagged disorder of human activity—providing an earthly context for the transcendence of the final, choral movement. The third movement, a sublime adagio, provides the contemplative introduction for the momentous choral movement to follow. By the time it ends, we have been transported to some of the noblest heights music has ever reached. UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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Joy To The World with Pink Martini
program
Joy To The World with Pink Martini Dec 12–13 | 8 pm Abravanel Hall Jerry Steichen, Conductor
Selections to be announced from the stage
C O N D U C TO R S P O N S O R S
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Joy To The World with Pink Martini
artists’ profile
Please see page 26 for Jerry Steichen’s profile.
concerts at Carnegie Hall; the opening party of the remodeled Museum of Modern Art in New York City; the Governor’s Ball at the 80th Annual Academy Awards in 2008; the opening of the 2008 Sydney Festival in Australia; multiple sold-out appearances, and a festival opening, at the Montreal Jazz Festival, two sold-out concerts at Paris’ legendary L’Olympia Theatre in 2011; and Paris’ fashion house Lanvin’s 10-year anniversary celebration for designer Alber Elbaz in 2012.
Pink Martini
Featuring a dozen musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America and North America. Pink Martini made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998 under the direction of Norman Leyden. Since then, the band has gone on to play with more than 50 orchestras around the world, including multiple engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London. Other appearances include the grand opening of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, with return sold-out engagements for New Year’s Eve 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2011; four sold-out
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ENTERTAINMENT
The band has collaborated and performed with numerous artists, including Jimmy Scott, Carol Channing, Jane Powell, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Henri Salvador, Chavela Vargas, New York performer Joey Arias, puppeteer Basil Twist, Georges Moustaki, Michael Feinstein, filmmaker Gus Van Sant, Courtney Taylor-Taylor of The Dandy Warhols, clarinetist and conductor Norman Leyden, Japanese legend Hiroshi Wada, Italian actress and songwriter Alba Clemente, DJ Johnny Dynell and Chi Chi Valenti, Faith Prince, Mamie Van Doren, the original cast of Sesame Street, the Bonita Vista High School Marching Band of Chula Vista, California, the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and the Pacific Youth Choir of Portland, Oregon. Singer Storm Large began performing with Pink Martini in March 2011, when China Forbes took a leave of absence to undergo surgery on her vocal cords. Forbes made full recovery and now both she and Large continue performing with Pink Martini. Pink Martini has an illustrious roster of regular guest artists: NPR White House correspondent Ari Shapiro, Cantor Ida Rae Cahana (who was cantor at the Central Synagogue in NYC for five years), koto player Masumi Timson, harpist Maureen Love, and Kim Hastreiter (the publisher/editor-in-chief of Paper magazine).
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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program
Here Comes Santa Claus!
Here Comes Santa Claus! Dec 13 | 11 am & 12:30 pm Abravanel Hall Vladimir Kulenovic, Conductor
VARIOUS
Holiday Fanfare Medley
LOWELL MASON
Joy to the World
ERNST ANSCHÜTZ
O Christmas Tree
JAMES M. STEPHENSON JESTER HAIRSTON VARIOUS GENE AUTRY/ OAKLEY HALDEMAN JOHNNY MARKS VARIOUS
A Charleston Christmas Mary’s Little Boy Chile Swing Carol Fantasy Here Comes Santa Claus Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Holly and Jolly Sing-Along All pieces on this program arranged by James M. Stephenson
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UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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artist’s profile
Here Comes Santa Claus!
Currently Associate Conductor of Utah Symphony, Music Director of Lake Forest Symphony and Resident Conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic, Vladimir Kulenovic has also served as Principal Conductor of the Kyoto International Music Festival in Japan. Among his 2012–13 season highlights were debuts with the Leipzig Symphony, Zagreb Philharmonic and with the Jacksonville Symphony as one of the six top emerging conductors chosen by the League of American Orchestras for its bi-annual Bruno Walter National Conducting Preview. During the 2013–14 season he made debuts with Evergreen Symphony (Taipei), Grand Rapids Symphony, Knoxville Symphony and Lake Forest Symphony, and returned to lead the Jacksonville Symphony and Macedonian Philharmonic. Other recent engagements include performances with the Beethoven-Orchester Bonn at the Beethovenhalle, Deutsche Kammerakademie/Neuss am Rhein, the Juilliard Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and the Slovenian Vladimir Kulenovic Philharmonic. Festival appearances include Aspen, Cabrillo, Salzburg Associate Conductor Mozarteum and Verbier. As conducting fellow at the Verbier Festival in 2009, Mr. Kulenovic conducted two “An admirable statement internationally televised performances and was subsequently invited to serve as the of talent and potential…” conducting assistant to Kurt Masur at the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He also - The Baltimore Sun had the honor of preparing the Belgrade Philharmonic at the Dubrovnik Festival for Zubin Mehta. He has collaborated with celebrated soloists such as Leon Fleisher, Augustin Hadelich, Mischa Maisky, Philippe Quint, Joseph Silverstein and Akiko Suwanai. Vladimir Kulenovic was awarded the Alfred B. Whitney Award for highest scholastic achievement at The Boston Conservatory, where he graduated summa cum laude and as valedictorian, earning a Bachelor’s degree in piano performance and a Master’s degree in conducting. Among his other awards are the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Scholarship, the 2012 and 2013 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Development Award, and the Charles Schiff Conducting Prize for Excellence. Mr. Kulenovic holds graduate diplomas from both the Peabody Conservatory and The Juilliard School and has studied with Marin Alsop, James DePreist, Kurt Masur and Gustav Meier. vladimirkulenovic.com
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UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
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CAMPAIGN LEADERSHIP Campaign Co-Chairs
Scott and Jesselie Anderson Lisa Eccles Kem and Carolyn Gardner Gail Miller and Kim Wilson Bill and Joanne Shiebler
Honorary Co-Chairs Spencer F. Eccles
Jon M. Huntsman The Right Reverend Carolyn Tanner Irish
UTAH SYMPHONY | UTAH OPERA IN PERPETUAL MOTION
We are grateful for the momentum of The Campaign for Perpetual Motion, a $20 million public campaign to celebrate Utah Symphony’s 75th Anniversary in 2015–16. We have exciting plans leading up to this anniversary—including recording, broadcasting, and touring at the state and national levels, and even internationally. We look forward to sharing these plans with you in the coming months. We launched the Campaign with a remarkable $5 million lead gift from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, whose tradition of support totaling more than $32 million spans three decades. This lead gift was made in addition to a $1 million gift from the Foundation to our Leadership Campaign, which during 2011 and 2012 prepared a solid foundation for the public fundraising effort. More than 35 individuals, corporations, and foundations contributed to the Leadership Campaign, including an extraordinary $4.6 million capstone gift from O.C. Tanner Company. Stay tuned—we know you will be proud of our plans to build and showcase your world-class symphony and opera throughout Utah and beyond. Find out more at usuo.org/support.
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P E RP ET UAL motion
We are forever grateful to the following leaders whose visionary support secured the permanence of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera through our Leadership Campaign in 2011 and 2012, and who are setting the stage for its bright future as lead supporters of The Campaign for Perpetual Motion.
FOUNDING CAMPAIGN DONORS George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation ($6 Million) O.C. Tanner Company ($4.6 Million) PRINCIPAL GIVING ($1 Million & above) Gael Benson The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Foundation Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation Kem & Carolyn Gardner Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation Mark & Dianne Prothro Questar® Corporation Patricia A. Richards & William K. Nichols Shiebler Family Foundation Sorenson Legacy Foundation Zions Bank LEADERSHIP GIVING (up to $1 Million)
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Anonymous (2) Scott & Jesselie Anderson Edward R. Ashwood & Candice A. Johnson Mr. & Mrs. William C. Bailey Dr. J. R. Baringer & Dr. Jeanette J. Townsend Thomas Billings & Judge Judith Billings R. Harold Burton Foundation Howard & Betty Clark Thomas D. Dee III & Dr. Candace Dee Deer Valley Resort E.R. (Zeke) & Katherine W. Dumke Burton & Elaine Gordon Mr. & Mrs. Martin Greenberg Dell Loy & Lynette Hansen Roger & Susan Horn Anthony & Renee Marlon
Carol & Anthony W. Middleton, Jr., M.D. Edward & Barbara Moreton William H. & Christine Nelson Carol & Ted Newlin Scott & Sydne Parker Dr. Dinesh & Kalpana Patel Frank R. Pignanelli & D’Arcy Dixon John & Marcia Price Family Foundation Bert Roberts Theodore Schmidt Norman C. & Barbara Tanner The Right Reverend Carolyn Tanner Irish Naoma Tate & the Family of Hal Tate M. Walker & Sue Wallace Wells Fargo UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Utah Symphony Guild
The Utah Symphony Guild welcomes you to the 2014–15 Utah Symphony season and invites you to join the Utah Symphony Guild and help support the many community and symphony events this season. For more information on membership and events please contact: Donna Smith, Executive Vice President at 801-209-8669 or dlsmithdonnasmith@yahoo.com
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The Nutcracker december 5-6 and 18-31
The ultimate enchanted holiday classic. 801路869路6900 | balletwest.org
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Tanner & Crescendo Societies Utah Symphony | Utah Opera thanks the members of our Tanner and Crescendo Societies, patrons who have included USUO in their financial and estate planning. Membership is open to all those who express their commitment through a planned gift at any level. Please contact Shaleane Gee at sgee@usuo.org or 801.869.9013 for more information.
Tanner Society of Utah Symphony Beethoven Circle gifts valued at more than $100,000 Anonymous (3) Dr. J. Richard Baringer Haven J. Barlow Alexander Bodi† Edward† & Edith Brinn Captain Raymond & Diana Compton Elizabeth W. Colton† Anne C. Ewers
Flemming & Lana Jensen James Read Lether Daniel & Noemi P. Mattis Joyce Merritt† Anthony & Carol W. Middleton, Jr., M.D. Robert & Dianne Miner Glenn Prestwich & Barbara Bently Kenneth A. & Jeraldine S. Randall
Robert L.† & Joyce Rice Mr. & Mrs. Alvin Richer Patricia A. Richards Sharon & David† Richards Harris H. & Amanda P. Simmons E. Jeffrey & Joyce Smith G. B. & B. F. Stringfellow Mr. & Mrs. Norman C. Tanner Mr. & Mrs. M. Walker Wallace
Herbert C. & Wilma Livsey Mrs. Helen F. Lloyd† Gaye Herman Marrash Ms. Wilma F. Marcus† Dr. & Mrs. Louis A. Moench Jerry & Marcia McClain Jim & Andrea Naccarato Pauline C. Pace† Mr. & Mrs. Scott Parker Mr. & Mrs. Michael A. Pazzi Richard Q. Perry Chase† & Grethe Peterson Glenn H. & Karen F. Peterson Thomas A. & Sally† Quinn
Helen Sandack† Mr. Grant Schettler Glenda & Robert† Shrader Dr. Robert G. Snow† Mr. Robert C. Steiner & Dr. Jacquelyn Erbin† Kathleen Sargent† JoLynda Stillman Edwin & Joann Svikhart Frederic & Marilyn Wagner Jack R. & Mary Lois† Wheatley Afton B. Whitbeck† Edward J. & Marelynn Zipser
Mahler Circle Anonymous (3) Dr. Robert H.† & Marianne Harding Burgoyne Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth E. Coombs Patricia Dougall Eager† Mr. & Mrs.† Sid W. Foulger Paul (Hap) & Ann† Green Robert & Carolee Harmon Richard G. & Shauna† Horne Mr. Ray Horrocks† Richard W. James† Estate Mrs. Avanelle Learned† Ms. Marilyn Lindsay Turid V. Lipman
Crescendo Society of Utah Opera Anonymous Mr. & Mrs. William C. Bailey Alexander Bodi† Berenice J. Bradshaw Estate Dr. Robert H. † & Marianne Harding Burgoyne Elizabeth W. Colton† Dr. Richard J. & Mrs. Barbara N. Eliason Anne C. Ewers Edwin B. Firmage
Joseph & Pat Gartman Paul (Hap) & Ann† Green John & Jean Henkels Clark D. Jones Turid V. Lipman Herbert C. & Wilma Livsey Constance Lundberg Gaye Herman Marrash Richard W. & Frances P. Muir Marilyn H. Neilson Carol & Ted Newlin
Pauline C. Pace† Stanley B. & Joyce Parrish Patricia A. Richards Mr. & Mrs. Alvin Richer Robert L.† & Joyce Rice Richard G. Sailer† Jeffrey W. Shields G. B. & B. F. Stringfellow Norman & Barbara Tanner Dr. Ralph & Judith Vander Heide Edward J. & Marelynn Zipser †Deceased
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2014/15 UTAH SYMPHONY SEASON
DO YOU LOVE MUSIC AND KIDS?
Volunteer with Utah Symphony to teach kids about symphony concerts or help run a kids’ music program. Two of Utah Symphony’s programs for youth need volunteers who would like to share their love of music with students. Utah Symphony 5th Grade ConCertS are made more memorable because of the talents of our docents, who visit classrooms to prepare students for a concert in Abravanel Hall. We provide the materials and train docents in their use. Docents visit nearly every school that sends 5th grade students and teachers to our concerts at Abravanel Hall, serving schools in the Alpine, Canyons, Davis, Granite, Jordan, Salt Lake and Tooele school districts. To learn more, contact Beverly Hawkins at bhawkins@usuo.org.
“Love this program!”
“Thank you for giving us the tools to look good and smart at our presentations.”
the mUSiC oUtreaCh proGram offers free group violin lessons at an afterschool program in Rose Park. Volunteers help with set up, class organization and logistics. Ability to play the violin (even a little) is helpful but not necessary. Contact Doyle Clayburn at dcsunset13@gmail.com if you’re interested in helping with this program.
help ensure the future of music in our community by joining our team to share your love of music with our young people. Please support our Education and Community Outreach programs. By donating you help provide arts events for students, aid classroom teachers, invest in the future citizens of Utah, and support your Utah Symphony and Utah Opera. Donate today! Contact our Development Department at 801-869-9015.
Utah Symphony welcomes and recognizes the members of our newly formed Utah Symphony | Utah Opera Planned Giving Council Mike Poulter, Council Chairman Market Leader, SVP, The Private Client Reserve U.S. Bank Jeff Paoletti Executive Director of Planned Giving and Associate General Counselor for Development University of Utah (retired) Dave Loach VP Business Development IC Group Matt Mitton Shareholder, Chair, Business Department Jones Waldo Barry Moore Sales Vice President Highland Capital Tammy Richards Senior Trust & Fiduciary Services Specialist, Estate Services Wells Fargo Together with the members of our Tanner and Crescendo Societies, Council members are ensuring that great live music is preserved for future generations. We have a series of related new programs and activities planned as we prepare to celebrate the Utah Symphony’s 75th Anniversary in 2015–16. Stay tuned for more information. In the meantime, to learn how you can help plan the future of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, please contact us at 801.869.9013 or sgee@usuo.org.
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UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
Corporate & Foundation Donors We sincerely appreciate our annual contributors who have supported our programs throughout the last year with gifts up to $10,000. For a listing of our Season Honorees, who have made gifts of $10,000 and above, see pages 14–18.
$5,000 to $9,999 Anonymous (2) Bourne-Spafford Foundation Doubletree Suites* Durham Jones & Pinegar, P. C. The Jarvis & Constance Doctorow Family Foundation Spencer F. & Cleone P. Eccles Family Foundation EY Henry W. & Leslie M. Eskuche Charitable Foundation Hyatt Place Hotel* Every Blooming Thing* Fabian & Clendenin Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar* Goldener Hirsch Inns* Martine* Marriott City Center* McCarthey Family Foundation Louis Scowcroft Peery Charitable Foundation Rasmussen Landscapes* Ruth’s Chris Steak House* Selecthealth Stoel Rives Union Pacific Foundation The Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank U. S. Bancorp Foundation Victory Ranch Club Wrona, Gordon & DuBois $1,000 to $4,999 Advanced Retirement Consultant Bertin Family Foundation Rodney H. & Carolyn Hansen Brady Charitable Foundation Robert S. Carter Foundation
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Castle Foundation Chevron Humankind Matching Gift Fund City Creek Epic Brewery* ExxonMobil Foundation Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund Goldman Sachs Victor Herbert Foundation Thomas A. & Lucille B. Horne Foundation Iasis Healthcare J. Wong’s Thai & Chinese Bistro* Jones & Associates Jones Waldo Park City Kirton | McConkie Love Communications M Lazy M Foundation Macy’s Millcreek Cacao Roasters* Millcreek Coffee Roasters* George Q. Morris Foundation Nebeker Family Foundation Nordstrom Park City Foundation Ray, Quinney & Nebeker Foundation The Charles & Annaley Redd Foundation Shilo Inn* Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. Snow, Christensen & Martineau Foundation Squatters Pub Brewery* Strong & Hanni, PC Summit Sotheby’s Swire Coca-Cola, USA* Bill & Connie Timmons Foundation United Jewish Community Endowment Trust Utah Families Foundation Wasatch Advisors
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
The Romantics
Utah Symphony | Utah opera’S CUltUral FeStival 2014/15
The artistic movement we call Romanticism swept through Western civilization at the beginning of the 1800s. Its practitioners rebelled against the structure and order cherished by previous generations, and regarded the free expression of individual feelings and experiences as more reliable sources of truth than rational thought. In the 2014-15 season, Utah Symphony Utah Opera celebrates the Romantics of the 19th century. We will explore art, dance, food, film, and music created under the Romantic influence.
>> For additional information visit:
usuo.org/festival
Individual Donors We sincerely appreciate our annual contributors who have supported our programs throughout the last year with gifts up to $10,000. For a listing of our Season Honorees, who have made gifts of $10,000 and above, see pages 14–18. ABRAVANEL & PETERSON SOCIETY $5,000 to $9,999 Anonymous (2) Doyle Arnold & Anne Glarner Mr. & Mrs. Chris Canale Hal M. † & Aileen H. Clyde Dr. & Mrs. Ralph Earle Spencer & Cleone† Eccles Thomas & Lynn Fey Jeffrey L. Giese, M.D. & Mary E. Gesicki Gary & Christine Hunter Mary P. Jacobs & Jerald H. Jacobs Family G. Frank & Pamela Joklik John & Adrian McNamara Rich & Cherie Meeboer Richard & Jayne Middleton Brooks & Lenna Quinn James & Gail Riepe Stuart & Molly Silloway Janet Sloan David & Susan Spafford George & Tamie Speciale Sam & Diane Stewart Dr. Paula M. Swaner Thomas & Kathy Thatcher Melia & Mike Tourangeau Albert & Yvette Ungricht Kathleen Digre & Michael Varner John Williams Tom & Wendy Wirth $3,000 to $4,999 E. Wayne & Barbara Baumgardner Dr. & Mrs. Clisto Beaty Robert W. Brandt Brian Burka & Dr. J. Hussong Mr. & Mrs. Neill Brownstein Jonathan & Julie Bullen Mr. & Mrs. William D. Callister, Jr. Mark Casp Hal & Cecile Christiansen Edward & Carleen Clark Amalia Cochran Debbi & Gary Cook Mr. James Davidson B. Gale† & Ann Dick J. I. “Chip” & Gayle Everest Midge & Tom Farkas Jack & Marianne Ferraro Robert & Elisha Finney Drs. Fran & Cliff Foster Robert & Annie-Lewis Garda
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Mr. & Mrs. Eric Garen Shari Gottlieb Ray & Howard Grossman Dr. & Mrs. Bradford D. Hare Jennifer & T. William Hickman Annette & Joseph Jarvis Dale & Beverly Johnson Barbara Jones Mr. & Mrs. Kent Jones Robert & Debra Kasirer Hanko & Laura Kiessner Jeanne Kimball Elizabeth & Michael Liess Mr. & Mrs. Wayne Lyski Daniel & Noemi P. Mattis Michael & Julie McFadden Mr. & Mrs. Richard Mithoff Leslie Peterson & Kevin Higgins Victor & Elizabeth Pollak Dr. Glenn Prestwich & Dr. Barbara Bentley Mr. & Mrs. Alvin Richer Dr. Wallace Ring Mr. & Mrs. Robert Rollo Henry & Kathie Roenigk James Romano Estate of Kathy Lynn Sargent William G. Schwartz & Joann Givan Elizabeth Solomon Verl & Joyce Topham Dr. Jeannette J. Townsend Mr. & Mrs. Glen R. Traylor Mr. & Mrs. Vincent Trotta Dr. Ralph & Judith Vander Heide Ardean & Elna Watts Jeremy & Hila Wenokur Ms. Gayle Youngblood $2,000 to $2,999 Anonymous (5) Craig & Joanna Adamson Robert & Cherry Anderson Drs. Wolfgang & Jeanne Baehr Mr. & Mrs. William Bierer Richard & Suzanne Burbidge Mr. & Mrs. Michael Callen Lindsay & Carla Carlisle Robyn Carter Raymond & Diana Compton Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth R. Cutler Dr. & Mrs. J. Michael Dean James & Rula Dickson Mr. & Mrs. Robert Ehrlich Heidi Gardner Randin Graves
David & SandyLee Griswold Dennis & Sarah Hancock John B. & Joan Hanna Kenneth & Geraldine Hanni Sunny & Wes Howell Dixie S. & Robert P. Huefner Jay & Julie Jacobson M. Craig & Rebecca Johns Bryce & Karen† Johnson Neone F. Jones Family J. Allen & Charlene Kimball Carl & Gillean Kjeldsberg Donald L. & Alice A. Lappe Roger Leslie James Lether Harrison & Elaine Levy Herbert C. & Wilma S. Livsey Milt & Carol Lynnes David & Donna Lyon Jed & Kathryn Marti David Mash David & Nickie McDowell Warren K. & Virginia G. McOmber George & Nancy Melling Linda Mendelson Dr. Louis A. Moench & Deborah Moench Mr. & Mrs. Barry Mower Marilyn H. Neilson Bradley Olch Joseph & Dorothy Ann Palmer Dr. Thomas Parks & Dr. Patricia Legant Linda S. Pembroke Chase† & Grethe Peterson Jon Poesch Dan & June Ragan Dr. & Mrs. Marvin L. Rallison Dr. Richard & Frances Reiser Frank & Helen Risch Richard & Carmen Rogers David & Lois Salisbury Mark & Loulu Saltzman Margaret P. Sargent Bertram H. & Janet Schaap Deborah Schiller Mr. & Mrs. Eric Schoenholz K. Gary & Lynda Shields Gibbs & Catherine W. Smith Christine St. Andre Jerry Steichen Drs. Gerald B. & Nancy Ahlstrom Stephanz JoLynda Stillman Bill & Connie Timmons Foundation Ann Marie & William Thomas
Frederic & Marilyn Wagner David J. & Susan Wagstaff John & Susan Walker Gerard & Sheila Walsh Bryan & Diana Watabe Suzanne Weaver Mr. & Mrs. E. A. Woolston $1,000 to $1,999 Anonymous (4) Fran Akita Christine A. Allred Alex Bocock & Amy Sullivan Joseph & Margaret Anderson Drs. Crystal & Dustin Armstrong Daniel & Sheila Barnett Richard & Alice Bass David Bateman Mr. Barry Bergquist James & Marilyn Brezovec Mr. & Mrs. Lee Forrest Carter William J. Coles & Dr. Joan L. Coles Dr. & Mrs. David Coppin Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Coppin Margaret Dreyfous Alice Edvalson Naomi K. Feigal Edward B. & Deborah Felt Robert S. Felt, M.D. Robert & Elisha Finney Blake & Linda Fisher Mr. & Mrs. Richard R. Graham Anabel Greenlee Geoffery Grinney C. Chauncey & Emily Hall Mr. G. K. Handley Kenneth & Kate Handley Robert & Marcia Harris Lex Hemphill & Nancy Melich John Edward Henderson Connie C. Holbrook Bob† & Ursula Hoshaw Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Huffman Ms. Caroline Hundley Scott Huntsman Mr. Todd James Drs. Randy & Elizabeth Jensen Jill Johnson Chester & Marilyn Johnson Mr. & Mrs. Clark D. Jones Mr. & Mrs. Alan D. Kerschner
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014
OUT ON THE TOWN
dining guide THE NEW YORKER 60 West Market Street. SLC’s premier dining establishment. Modern American cuisine is featured in refined dishes and approachable comfort food. From classic to innovative, from contemporary seafood to Angus Beef steaks – the menu provides options for every taste. Served in a casually elegant setting with impeccable service. Private dining rooms for corporate and social events. Lunch & Dinner. No membership required. L, D, LL, AT, RR, CC, VS. 801.363.0166
Consistently Rated “Tops”–Zagat 60 W. Market Street • 801.363.0166
Salt Lake City’s #1
MARKET STREET GRILL DOWNTOWN 48
Most Popular Restaurant
West Market Street. Unanimous favorites for seafood dining, providing exceptional service and award winning. The contemporary menu features the highest quality available. Select from an abundant offering of fresh seafood flown in daily, Angus Beef steaks, and a variety of non-seafood dishes. Open 7 days a week serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, Sunday Brunch. B, L, D, C, AT, S, LL, CC, VS. 801.322.4668
MARTINE 22 East 100 South. Award winning ambience, located in a historic brownstone. Martine offers Salt Lake City a sophisticated dining experience kept simple. Locally sourced ingredients, pre-event $25 three course prix fixe. Extensive bar and wine service. martinecafe.com L, D, T, LL, RA, CC, VS. 801-363-9328
–Zagat
48 W. Market Street (340 South) 801.322.4668
• An intimate euro café • Free Valet Parking 22 East 100 South
Phone • 801.363.9328 www.martinecafe.com Top Photo: Image licensed by Ingram Image
B-Breakfast L-Lunch D-Dinner S-Open Sunday DL-Delivery T-Take Out C-Children’s Menu SR-Senior Menu AT-After-Theatre LL-Liquor Licensee RR-Reservations Required RA-Reservations Accepted CC-Credit Cards Accepted VS-Vegetarian Selections
THANK YOU TO OUR ADVERTISERS Ballet West Bambara Bank of Utah BMW of Murray Challenger School The Children’s Hour City Creek Living Classical 89 Daynes Music Deer Valley Resort distraction.gov Durham Jones & Pinegar Every Blooming Thing Excellence in the Community Fleming’s Grand America
Hamilton Park Interiors Kirton McConkie KUED Larry H. Miller Lexus Little America McCune Mansion Mormon Tabernacle Choir Natural History Museum of Utah OC Tanner Parsons Behle & Latimer Peter Prier & Sons Violins Porcupine Pub ProTel Networks RC Willey Regence
Roland Hall Ruby’s Inn Ruth’s Chris Steak House United Way University of Utah Healthcare University of Utah School of Music Utah Museum of Fine Arts Utah Vein Specialists Zions Bank If you would like to place an ad in this program, please contact Dan Miller at Mills Publishing, Inc. 801-467-8833
Individual Donors Eunice Kronstadt Mr. & Mrs. Melvyn L. Lefkowitz Bill Ligety & Cyndi Sharp Mac & Ann MacQuoid Rick Mastain Christopher & Julie McBeth Michael Geary Janet O. Minden Dr. Michaela S. Mohr Mary Muir Oren & Liz Nelson Stephen & Mary Nichols Dr. & Mrs. Richard T. O’Brien Ann G. Petersen Eugene & Pamela Podsiadlo W. E. & Harriet R. Rasmussen Mr. & Mrs. William K. Reagan Dr. Barbara S. Reid Mr. August L. Schultz Mr. & Mrs. D. Brent Scott David & Claudia Seiter Karen Shepherd
Margot L. Shott Barbara Slaymaker Dorotha Smart Dr. Otto F. Smith & Mrs. June Smith Brian & Deborah Smith Dr. & Mrs. Michael H. Stevens Mr. & Mrs. G. B. Stringfellow Douglas & Susan Terry Ann Jarcho Thomas Robb Trujillo Mrs. Rachel J. Varat-Navarro William & Donna R. Vogel Mr. & Mrs. Brad E. Walton Susan Warshaw Pam & Jonathan Weisberg David & Jerre Winder Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Zumbro We regret that space prohibits listing our many Friends below the $1,000 level, but please know how grateful we are for your support throughout the season.
In Honor of Barbara & Steven Anderson H. Brent & Bonnie Jean Beesley Dr. & Mrs. Joseph C. Bentley Paula J. Fowler Mark & Dianne Prothro Patricia A. Richards Barbara Ann Scowcroft William & Joanne Shiebler Joe V. Siciliano Melia Tourangeau In Memory Of Berry Banks David Wells Bennett Dr. Robert H. Burgoyne Stewart Collins Kathie Dalton Carolyn Edwards Loraine L. Felton Neva Langley Fickling Calvin Gaddis Herold L. “Huck” Gregory Carolyn Harmon Duane Hatch
Mary Louis Scanlan Humbert Howard Keen Robert Louis Beverly Love Clyde Meadows Scott Pathakis Chase N. Peterson Kathy Sargent Shirley Sargent Ruth Schwager Ryan Selberg Dr. Ann O’Neill Shigeoka Robert P. Shrader John Henry “Jack” Totzke Roger Van Frank Rosemary Zidow *In-kind gift **In-kind & cash gift †Deceased Donations as received between 9/15/2013 and 9/15/2014
THREE DELICIOUS COURSES ONE INCREDIBLE EVENING
202 S. Main, Salt lake City (801) 363-5454 | baMbara-SlC.CoM Bambara is hip urban chic, casual and comfortable upscale American bistro dining; bringing a sophisticated, yet approachable element to Salt Lake City’s dining scene. Enjoy Bambara’s seasonally inspired menu for special occasions or business...before and after the arts...or just because. Voted: 2011 Best Lunch Salt Lake magazine Annual Dining Awards.
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Classical 89 Broadcasts
Nov 1 | 9:30 AM BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique, Mvts IV, V
Dec 6 | 9:30 AM SAINT-SAËNS Carnival of the Animals: The Swan
Thierry Fischer, conductor (recorded 4/27/13)
Thierry Fischer, conductor (recorded 9/13/13)
Nov 8 | 9:30 AM DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto
Dec 13 | 9:30 AM NIELSEN Symphony No. 1, Mvt. 3: Allegro Comodo
Augustin Hadelich, violin Vladimir Kulenovic, conductor (recorded 5/25/13)
Thierry Fischer, conductor (recorded 9/13/13)
Nov 15 | 9:30 AM DVOŘÁK Slavonic Dances, Nos. 1-4
Dec 20 | 9:30 AM NIELSEN Symphony No. 1, Mvt. 4: Finale: Allegro con fuoco
Vladimir Kulenovic, conductor (recorded 5/25/13)
Thierry Fischer, conductor (recorded 9/13/13)
Nov 22 | 9:30 AM BRAHMS Symphony No. 2
Dec 27 | 9:30 AM WAGNER Siegfried: Forest Murmurs
Vladimir Kulenovic, conductor (recorded 5/25/13)
Thierry Fischer, conductor (recorded 9/13/13)
Nov 29 | 9:30 AM BEETHOVEN Egmont: Overture
Thierry Fischer, conductor (recorded 9/13/13)
classical89.org 89.1 & 89.5 fm
MUSIC IN THE K E Y O F G R E AT
Acknowledgments UTAH SYMPHONY | UTAH OPERA 123 West South Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84101 801-533-5626 EDITOR
Melissa Robison
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Cultural writer Michael Clive is program annotator for the Utah Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the Pacific Symphony, and is editor-in-chief of The Santa Fe Opera. HUDSON PRINTING COMPANY www.hudsonprinting.com 241 West 1700 South Salt Lake City, UT 84115 801-486-4611 AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING SERVICES PROVIDED BY
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Proud Supporters of the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera
Voicing Our Community Since 1984
Frank Pignanelli, Esq. Utah Symphony | Utah Opera is funded by the Utah Arts Council, Professional Outreach Programs in the Schools, Salt Lake City Arts Council, Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks Tax (ZAP), Summit County Restaurant Tax, Summit County Recreation, Arts and Parks Tax (RAP), Park City Chamber Bureau, and the Utah Humanities Council. The organization is committed to equal opportunity in employment practices and actions, i.e. recruitment, employment, compensation, training, development, transfer, reassignment, corrective action and promotion, without regard to one or more of the following protected class: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, family status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity and political affiliation or belief. Abravanel Hall and Capitol Theatre are owned and operated by Salt Lake County Center for the Arts. By participating in or attending any activity in connection with Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, whether on or off the performance premises, you consent to the use of any print or digital photographs, pictures, film, or videotape taken of you for publicity, promotion, television, websites, or any other use, and expressly waive any right of privacy, compensation, copyright, or ownership right connected to same.
801-485-1107
UTAH SYMPHONY NOV-DEC 2014