MUSIC OF CLYNE, TCHAIKOVSKY & SHOSTAKOVICH

Milwaukeee Symphony Orchestra

Friday, February 24, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 7:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Han-Na Chang, conductor

Zlatomir Fung, cello

PROGRAM

ANNA CLYNE

This Midnight Hour

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, Opus 33 / Zlatomir Fung, cello

INTERMISSION

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 47

I. Moderato

II. Allegretto

III. Largo

IV. Allegro non troppo

The 2022.23 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND

The length of this concert is approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra can be heard on Telarc, Koss Classics, Pro Arte, AVIE, and Vox/Turnabout recordings. MSO Classics recordings (digital only) available on iTunes and at mso.org. MSO Binaural recordings (digital only) available at mso.org.

Guest Artist Biographies

HAN-NA CHANG

HAN-NA CHANG

Artistic leader and chief conductor of the Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera in Norway since 2017, and newly appointed Erste Gastdirigentin (principal guest conductor) of the Symphoniker Hamburg – Laeiszhalle Orchester commencing in the 2022.23 season, Han-Na Chang’s prestigious and unique international career spans nearly three decades. She first gained international recognition for her precocious musical gifts at the age of 11, when she won the First Prize and the Contemporary Music Prize at the Fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris in 1994, awarded unanimously by the jury led by Mstislav Rostropovich. She made her formal conducting debut in 2007, at the age of 24, and has since then focused her artistic output exclusively to conducting.

Chang started her tenure as the artistic leader and chief conductor of the Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera in 2017. Prior to this appointment, she served as the orchestra’s principal guest conductor from 2013 to 2017. She served as the music director of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra during the 2013.14 season, culminating in their successful and critically acclaimed performance at the 2014 BBC Proms in London. In 2009, she founded and launched the Absolute Classic Festival at Sungnam Arts Center in South Korea and served as its artistic director until 2014.

As a guest conductor, Chang’s upcoming appearances include the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam and Oslo philharmonic orchestras, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Singapore, Atlanta, Vancouver, Detroit, and Milwaukee symphony orchestras, among others. Her cello recordings, exclusively for the Warner Music label, have been nominated for Grammys, and have been awarded two ECHO Klassik awards, the Caecilia and Cannes Classical awards, as well as a Gramophone Concerto of the Year accolade among others, and remain world-wide bestsellers.

Chang was born in Suwon, South Korea, in December 1982. At the age of six, she received her first cello lesson. Her family moved to New York in 1993 in order to support her continuing studies at The Juilliard School, and she has lived in New York since. At the age of 10, she also started studying with Mischa Maisky, who remains her most important influence to this day, and she counts Mstislav Rostropovich and Giuseppe Sinopoli among the most influential mentors of her formative years. More information can be found at hannachangmusic.com.

ZLATOMIR FUNG

ZLATOMIR FUNG

The first American in four decades and youngest musician ever to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division, Zlatomir Fung is poised to become one of the preeminent cellists of our time. A recipient of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2022 and a 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Fung’s impeccable technique demonstrates a mastery of the canon and an exceptional insight into the depths of contemporary repertoire. A winner of the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 2017 Astral National Auditions, Fung has taken the top prizes at numerous competitions and was selected as a 2016 U.S. Presidential Scholar for the Arts. He was recently named to WQXR’s 2023 Artist Propulsion Lab.

Recent summer festival appearances include Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail with the New York Philharmonic and Leonard Slatkin, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, and Verbier. As a soloist, Fung has appeared with the BBC Philharmonic, Detroit, Kansas City, Seattle, and Asheville symphonies, among many others. Past recital highlights include his Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall debut. Upcoming engagements include a recital debut at Wigmore Hall, debuts with the Dallas, Milwaukee, and Rochester symphonies, and recital tours in the U.S. and Europe.

Of Bulgarian-Chinese heritage, Fung began playing cello at age three and earned fellowships at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Heifetz International Music Institute, MusicAlp, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Fung studied at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy. Fung has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and has appeared on From the Top six times. In addition to music, he enjoys cinema, reading, and blitz chess.

Zlatomir Fung appears by arrangement with Kirshbaum Associates, Inc., 307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 506, New York, NY 10001. kirchbaumassociates.com.

Program notes by J. Mark Baker

ANNA CLYNE

ANNA CLYNE

Born 9 March 1980; London, England

This Midnight Hour

Composed: 2015

First performance: 13 November 2015; Plaisir, France

Last MSO performance: MSO premiere

Instrumentation: 2 flutes; piccolo; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; 2 trombones; bass trombone; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, crotales, slapstick, suspended cymbals, tam tam, vibraphone); strings

Approximate duration: 12 minutes

The opening to This Midnight Hour is inspired by the character and power of the lower strings of Orchestre national d’Île-de-France. From here, it draws inspiration from two poems. Whilst it is not intended to depict a specific narrative, my intention is that it will evoke a visual journey for the listener. –Anna Clyne

The British composer Anna Clyne grew up in Abingdon, near Oxford, where her mother earned a living as a midwife. Though music was not a regular part of the family’s life, she took cello lessons and later studied music at the University of Edinburgh. Composition lessons commenced during a year abroad at Queen’s University in Ontario. “It was late to start,” she said in a recent interview, “but I already knew what I wanted to say.”

This Midnight Hour was co-commissioned by the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France and the Seattle Symphony. At the time, Clyne was composer-in-residence for the former ensemble, who gave its premiere – conducted by Enrique Mazzola – at the Théâtre Espace Coluche, in the Paris suburb of Plaisir. Cast in one movement, it uses orchestration identical to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 (“Little Russian;” 1872, rev. 1880), which was on the same program.

Clyne said she took inspiration from two poems: “La Musica” by Juan Ramón Jiménez and “Harmonie du soir” by Charles Baudelaire. The work’s accessible, almost-cinematic style depicts the mysterious midnight journey of a woman. Full of energy, its moods range from the ominous to the playful. Listen for folklike woodwind solos, some deliberately out-of-tune strings that evoke the sound of a tipsy accordion, and a duet for two trumpets placed on either side of the stage. Lyrical moments alternate with a scampering motif and, at the end, there is a hymn-like melody before the timpani and bass drum bring the proceedings to an abrupt conclusion.

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Born 7 May 1840; Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia / Died 6 November 1893; St. Petersburg, Russia

Variations on a Rococo Theme, Opus 33

Composed: 1876

First performance: 30 November 1877; Moscow, Russia

Last MSO performance: April 2016; Ben Gernon, conductor; Narek Hakhnazaryan, cello

Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 2 horns; strings

Approximate duration: 18 minutes

Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo” Variations date from December 1876, following closely on the heels of his symphonic fantasy Francesca da Rimini. That piece, with its torrential and tortured emotional outpourings, is in stark contrast to the order and calm of the Variations. This delightfully crafted music displays the elegance of an 18th-century divertimento and is the closest the composer ever came to writing a cello concerto.

Music historian David Brown has suggested that, whereas Stravinsky, in his neoclassical works, sought self-discovery by subjecting styles from the past to his Russian flair for creative caricature, Tchaikovsky’s focus on the 18th century was the opposite: a means of psychological escape. At this time in his life – at age 36 – he was already preparing for what ultimately would be a disastrous marriage, in a desperate attempt to gain release from his homosexuality and its accompanying bitter self-hatred.

Following a brief orchestral introduction, the solo cello states the simple, elegant theme. Though it sounds like it might have been written in the 1700s, Tchaikovsky’s melody is of his own devising. Seven variations follow, one after another. (The brief orchestral ritornellos allow the soloist only a moment’s rest.) The harmonic underpinning of the theme – and indeed, even its general melodic contour – is retained throughout. The fifth variation features two cadenzas: one brief, the other more extended. The final variation, replete with blazing 32nd notes, propels the work to a stunning conclusion.

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

Born 25 September 1906; St. Petersburg, Russia / Died 9 August 1975; Moscow, Russia

Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 47

Composed: 1937

First performance: 21 November 1937; Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia

Last MSO performance: February 2011; Carlo Rizzi, conductor

Instrumentation: 2 flutes; piccolo; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; E-flat clarinet; 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, tam tam, triangle, xylophone); harp; celeste; piano; strings

Approximate duration: 44 minutes

Widely regarded as the greatest symphonist of the mid-20th century, the Russian master Dmitri Shostakovich wrote 15 works in that genre. Additionally, his impressive compositional catalogue includes six concertos for various instruments, chamber music (including 15 string quartets), solo piano music, two operas and an operetta, several cantatas and oratorios, three ballets, 36 film scores, incidental music for 11 plays, choral music, and songs.

Along with his older contemporaries Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Shostakovich represents the apotheosis of 20th-century Russian music. Unlike them, however, the whole of his compositional output was created within the confines of Soviet aesthetics. He was educated entirely under the Soviet system, and his loyalty to his country and to his government never wavered, even during those times when he himself fell into disfavor with the powers-that-be. It is a credit to his remarkable genius that he overcame the limitations of the “socialist realism” expected of him, to the point where it no longer impeded his musical creativity.

Shostakovich’s Opus 47 was a smashing success at its premiere and has continued to be the best-known and most-often-performed of his symphonies. Its backstory is a bit darker, however. His opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1934, rev. 1963) came under the approbation of Stalin’s cultural commissars, who denounced it in the pages of Pravda as “muddle instead of music … un-Soviet, unwholesome, cheap, eccentric, tuneless and leftist.” By this time, Shostakovich had begun work on his Symphony No. 4 (1936). After hearing it in rehearsal, he was unhappy with the piece and withdrew it from performance. Following some soul-searching, he started work on the Fifth in April 1937, completing it three months later.

The Symphony No. 5 has proven to be an enduring work. Cast in four movements, each displaying taut structural design, it opens with a potent Moderato whose emotional power is anything but “moderate.” By comparison, the lively Scherzo is succinct; one can picture the smirk on Shostakovich’s lips as he makes a few Mahler-like nods toward far-off folk music. The luxurious F-sharp minor Largo’s long-lined melodies are yearningly exquisite; note that there are no brass instruments of any kind. In the manic, over-the-top Allegro non troppo, it’s as though Shostakovich is sticking his thumb in the eye of the Soviet authorities. “You want raucous, celebratory music,” he seems to say, “I’ll damn well give you some.” In his somewhat-controversial posthumous memoirs, Testimony (1979), he explained: “The rejoicing is forced, created under threat … It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing.’”