11 minute read
BEETHOVEN & LÓPEZ-GAVILÁN
Friday, November 3, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 4, 2023 at 7:30 pm
ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL
Ken-David Masur, conductor
Aldo López-Gavilán, piano
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
Cheryl Frazes Hill, director
Program
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Overture to Fidelio, Opus 72
ALDO LÓPEZ-GAVILÁN
Emporium
Aldo López-Gavilán, piano
IN TERMISSION
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, Opus 112 [Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage]
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Fantasia in C minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Opus 80, “Choral Fantasy”
I. Adagio
II. Finale: Allegro - Allegretto ma non troppo, quasi andante con moto
Aldo López-Gavilán, piano
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
The MSO Steinway Piano was made possible through a generous gift from MICHAEL AND JEANNE SCHMITZ. The 2023.24 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND and ROCKWELL AUTOMATION.
The length of this concert is approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Guest Artist Biographies
ALDO LÓPEZ-GAVILÁN
Aldo López-Gavilán is a Cuban-born virtuoso pianist, composer, arranger, and multiple award-winner known for his exceptional talent and innovative approach to music. Born on 20 December 1979, in Havana, Cuba, he comes from a musical family, with a father, mother, and older brother who are all very accomplished musicians.
López-Gavilán’s musical journey began at an early age when he displayed prodigious abilities on the piano. He received formal training at the respected Manuel Saumell and Amadeo Roldán Music Conservatories in Havana, and later at the prestigious Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London, England, where he quickly gained recognition for his exceptional technique and captivating performances. Throughout his career, López-Gavilán has collaborated with renowned artists and orchestras worldwide, showcasing his versatility and musical prowess. His compositions often incorporate complex rhythms, rich harmonies, and improvisational elements, reflecting his Cuban heritage and his deep understanding of various musical traditions.
In addition to his virtuosity as a pianist, López-Gavilán is a prolific composer, creating works that encompass a wide range of emotions and themes. His compositions have been performed by prominent orchestras and chamber ensembles, earning him accolades and recognition for his innovative contributions to contemporary music.
López-Gavilán’s performances and compositions have transcended cultural boundaries, captivating audiences across the globe. His music not only showcases technical brilliance but also resonates with emotional depth, inviting listeners to embark on a musical journey that is both intellectually stimulating and profoundly moving.
López-Gavilán’s performances and compositions have transcended cultural boundaries, captivating audiences across the globe. His music not only showcases technical brilliance but also resonates with emotional depth, inviting listeners to embark on a musical journey that is both intellectually stimulating and profoundly moving.
As a trailblazer in the world of music, López-Gavilán continues to push artistic boundaries, fusing genres and creating a musical legacy that bridges cultures and celebrates the universal language of music. His ability to communicate complex emotions through his music and his dedication to pushing artistic boundaries make him a true luminary in the modern musical landscape.
Program notes by Elaine Schmidt
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Overture to Fidelio, Opus 72
Composed: 1804 – 1805 (revised for performances in 1806 and 1814)
First performance: 20 November 1805; Vienna, Austria
Last MSO performance: 18 May 1969; Kenneth Schermerhorn, conductor
Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; tenor trombone; bass trombone; timpani; strings
Approximate duration: 6 minutes
Given Beethoven’s famously mercurial temperament and the consuming anger and frustration he felt over his progressive hearing loss, it takes little imagination to picture livid outbursts when things did not go well. But in fairness, the trials of getting a workable version of Fidelio in front of an appreciative audience were probably worth an outburst or two.
In Beethoven’s day, operas were a litmus test of sorts for composers, making or breaking their careers. Any composer hoping to be taken seriously had to write operas — and ones that were deemed successful by the nobility financing them. Haydn and Mozart, in whose footsteps Beethoven was following, had written 26 and 22 operas respectively, with Mozart accomplishing that feat before his untimely death at age 35.
Beethoven began his first opera in 1803, at age 33, using a libretto by impresario, composer, and librettist Emanuel Schikaneder, who also wrote the libretto of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Beethoven began working on the project, but could not warm up to the libretto, eventually turning to a French “rescue opera” — so named for the plot device of a main character needing to be rescued from a dire situation. Based on a thready-at-best plot, the opera opened under the name Fidelio in 1805, despite Beethoven having given it the dubious title Leonore, or The Triumph of Married Love. It premiered in Vienna, in German, before an audience of the French soldiers who were occupying the city at the time. Not shockingly, it was not well received.
A reworked version of the opera fared somewhat better a year later, but it was not until Beethoven completed a wholesale overhaul of it in 1814, calling himself a martyr to the task, that it achieved success. His hearing significantly diminished by this point, Beethoven conducted with an “assistant” conductor following and conveying his movements to the orchestra and singers. This scene would be repeated, quite famously, 10 years later at the premiere of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Disheartened, angry, and exasperated by his 11 years of toil on Fidelio, Beethoven vowed never to write another opera. It was a vow he kept.
ALDO LÓPEZ-GAVILÁN
Emporium
Composed: 2017
First performance: 29 July 2017; Incline Village, Nevada, United States
Last MSO performance: MSO Premiere
Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; timpani; percussion (bass drum, chimes, cymbals, snare drum, tam-tam, tom-tom, triangle, vibraphone); strings
Approximate duration: 32 minutes
If you look closely at this evening’s program, you will discover that Cuban pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán appears not just as the featured soloist on both halves of the concert, but also as the composer of the piece that opens the evening. And what a piece it is!
In fact, when Michael Butterman, conductor of the Boulder [Colorado] Philharmonic Orchestra, heard the Performance Today broadcast of the piece’s premiere from the 2017 Classical Tahoe Festival on his car radio while driving home, he ended up sitting in his driveway listening to it and trying to figure out who the composer was.
Butterman, who conducted the second U.S. performance of the work with the BPO, was quoted as describing the piece as “a cornucopia” for its mix of elements “from every possible genre and place [he] could imagine.” He said it contained bits and pieces of Philip Glass, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Prokofiev, and the Downton Abbey theme music, among other things. He also referred to it as “bamboozling” once he studied the mixture of meters and rhythms in the score.
López-Gavilán has described his Emporium as “a full piano concerto, with full orchestra and piano solo, and the Classical-era structure of three movements.” He has also explained that it contains classical and jazz elements, along with Cuban and African culture. But the loveliest thing he has said about it is that “it is about love. I have twin daughters and a few years ago, on their birthday, I improvised the main theme of the concerto for them as a birthday present — and they loved it.” His daughters have apparently inherited the aptitude and passion for music that has shaped the previous three generations of their family, having both earned top honors in the first Pequeño Pianista (Little Pianist) category of the first Concurso Latinamericano de Piano competition.
If you find yourself entranced by Emporium and need to hear it again, join the club. It has become the most-listened-to piece of López-Gavilán’s Soundcloud page: soundcloud.com/ aldolopezgavilan. It has not yet been commercially recorded.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, Opus 112
[Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage]
Composed: 1814 – 1815
First performance: 22 December 1815; Vienna, Austria
Last MSO performance: MSO Premiere
Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; strings
Approximate duration: 8 minutes
The English translation of Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, the title of Beethoven’s Opus 112 cantata, is “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.” Although that sounds a good deal like the mariner’s toast to a good voyage one hears today, “Fair winds and following seas,” it actually has quite a different meaning. The cantata’s title and text come from two poems written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the famous German poet, playwright, novelist, and critic (and more) whose works countless German composers have set to music.
Goethe intended the poems, “Meeresstille” and “Glückliche Fahrt,” as a pair or a set, which is the way they were published in 1795. They are often listed as having been “written by 1795,” because it is not clear when Goethe wrote them. But even if he wrote them in the year of their publication, it means they were written about 40 years before the invention of a steam ship that could traverse open water, as opposed to just a river. In Goethe’s day, calm seas could be disastrous for sea-faring vessels, which depended on wind in their sails for propulsion. Calm seas could ruin perishable cargo and, if the calm lasted too long, being stuck on a calm sea could doom the crew to death by starvation and thirst.
Goethe depicted a boatsman’s fear of the “deathly, terrible quiet” of the calm sea in the first poem and his palpable relief and joy when the winds stir again in the second poem. The delicious contrast in emotions between the two poems proved irresistible for both Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn, whose own setting of the pair of poems as an orchestral concert overture with the same title was first performed in 1828. Mendelssohn was aware of Beethoven’s setting of the two poems, which he acknowledged by using the key Beethoven had used, D major, for his concert overture. Franz Schubert’s 1815 Lied (song), entitled “Meeresstille,” is a setting of just the first poem.
Fantasia in C minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Opus 80, “Choral Fantasy”
Composed: 1808
First performance: 22 December 1808; Vienna, Austria
Last MSO performance: 18 September 1977; Kenneth Schermerhorn, conductor; Michel Block, piano
Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; strings
Approximate duration: 18 minutes
Beethoven, like Mozart before him, was a freelance musician in Vienna. He performed as a pianist and conductor, wrote pieces on commission, negotiated the publication of his music, and dedicated pieces to wealthy individuals in hopes of securing their patronage. This was not a stable income, even in a good year, but in 1808, with his hearing in decline and the threat of a second French occupation looming large, Beethoven’s life was particularly tough.
Hoping to make a good impression (and a lot of money), he scheduled a benefit concert for
himself — something that was not uncommon at the time. Eager to succeed, Beethoven got a bit carried away in programming the concert. He included the premieres of his fifth and sixth symphonies and his fourth piano concerto (with himself as soloist), some of his own solo piano improvisations, a few solo vocal works, and parts of his Mass in C major. He also wrote a new piece as a grand finale, featuring himself at the piano, joined by the orchestra and chorus: his Choral Fantasy. The concert was four hours long.
It was brutally cold in Vienna on the night of the premiere, and the heating system was out at the theater. Members of the orchestra were angry with Beethoven over a tense encounter some days earlier. In addition, the players had so little time to rehearse the new fantasy, which Beethoven had just completed, that they were actually sight-reading parts of it at the performance. At one point, part of the orchestra took a written repeat, while another part of the orchestra did not. Someone shouted out instructions and they pulled back together, only to fall apart again, which forced them to stop and restart.
Despite its ragged premiere, this enduring piece shows us innovative Beethoven at his best. If you keep the final movement of his Symphony No. 9 (the “Ode to Joy”) in the back of your mind as you listen to the Choral Fantasy, you will begin to hear hints and snippets of that familiar, great work — a piece he would not begin to work on for another 14 years.
