PERCUSSION & INTERLUDES

MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

WATER FESTIVAL

Friday, January 20, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 7:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Ken-David Masur, conductor

Christopher Lamb, percussion

Robert Klieger, percussion

Chris Riggs, percussion

PROGRAM

TAN DUN

Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra

Prelude: Largo molto rubato

I. Adagio molto misterioso

II. Andante molto animato

III. Allegro molto agitato

Christopher Lamb, percussion

Robert Klieger, percussion

Chris Riggs, percussion

INTERMISSION

BEDŘICH SMETANA

“Vltava” [The Moldau] from Má vlast [My Fatherland]

ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK

An American Port of Call

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

“Four Sea Interludes” from Peter Grimes, Opus 33a

I. Dawn: Lento e tranquillo

II. Sunday morning: Allegro spiritoso

III. Moonlight: Andante comodo e rubato

IV. Storm: Presto con fuoco

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

The length of this concert is approximately 2 hours.

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

CHRISTOPHER LAMB

CHRISTOPHER LAMB

Grammy Award–winning percussionist Christopher Lamb has been hailed as a dynamic and versatile performer. Having joined the New York Philharmonic as principal percussionist and The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of the Philharmonic Chair in 1985, he subsequently made his solo debut with the orchestra in the world premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Percussion Concerto, one of several commissions celebrating the Philharmonic’s 150th anniversary. He has since performed the work to critical acclaim with orchestras throughout the U.S., and in 2011, he won a Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Soloist for his recording with the Nashville Symphony. Lamb also gave the world premiere of Tan Dun’s Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra, a second work commissioned for him by the New York Philharmonic, and he has performed it in South America, as well as in Asia and Europe with such notable orchestras as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In the U.S., he has performed the work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, and the Pacific Symphony. New York Philharmonic Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur selected Lamb’s performance of Tan Dun’s Water Concerto for release in the orchestra’s collection of recordings highlighting his tenure as music director.

Lamb has recorded chamber works on the New World, Cala, and CRI labels, and his Grammy Award–winning performance of Schwantner’s Percussion Concerto is available on the Naxos label. Lamb is a former member of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Buffalo Philharmonic and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music.

A faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music since 1989, Lamb has led clinics and master classes throughout the U.S. and on almost every continent. In 2010, Lamb was invited to join the faculty of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as an international fellow.

ROBERT KLIEGER

ROBERT KLIEGER

Since 2011, percussionist Robert Klieger has been a part of the Milwaukee Symphony and Santa Fe Opera orchestras, where he serves as principal percussionist. Prior to this, he was a member of the West Virginia and Canton symphonies and completed a fellowship with the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, where he had the opportunity to perform as both an orchestra member and soloist.

Throughout his career, Klieger has had the opportunity to perform with various orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and Hawaii Symphony, as well as participating in international tours with the Cleveland Symphony and National Symphony. In

the 2019.20 season, he joined the San Francisco Symphony for a one-year appointment as percussionist.

CHRIS RIGGS

CHRIS RIGGS

Klieger holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Southern Methodist University, where he studied with Douglas Howard and Kalman Cherry. He later completed postgraduate work at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Richard Weiner and Paul Yancich. In addition to his work as a performer, he has also participated in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and various summer festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, the Verbier Festival, and the Center for World Music Workshop and Festival in Bali, Indonesia. In his free time, he enjoys building things, solving problems, traveling, and trying new local cuisines.

A native of Edmond, Oklahoma, Chris Riggs joined the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2017. Prior to starting in Milwaukee, he was a fellow at the New World Symphony from 2012 to 2015, and began freelancing with various orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

As an educator, Riggs was an adjunct percussion professor at Sam Houston State University, where he taught on topics including percussion methods, percussion composition and arranging, music therapy, and percussion’s role in the orchestra. He has also worked with various high schools and universities as a drumline instructor and arranger.

Riggs earned his master’s degree in percussion performance and literature from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in percussion performance and a minor in philosophy from the University of Oklahoma. His principal teachers were Lance Drege, Michael Burritt, She-e Wu, and James Ross.

Outside of performing, Riggs enjoys spending time with his family and always looks for an excuse to get to the mountains.

Program notes by J. Mark Baker

TAN DUN

TAN DUN

Born 18 August 1957; Changsha, China

Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra

Composed: 1998-99

First performance: 3 June 1999; New York, New York

Last MSO Performance: October 2011; Edo de Waart, conductor; Yuri Yamashita, percussion

Instrumentation: 2 piccolos; 2 oboes; clarinet; bass clarinet; bassoon; contrabassoon; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; 2 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (agogo bells, bass bows, slapsticks, water basins, water cup drums, water gongs, waterphones, water tubes); harp; strings

Approximate duration: 30 minutes

The Chinese-born American composer and conductor Tan Dun has been based in New York City since 1993, having received a doctorate from Columbia University. His music draws its inspiration from both Western and Chinese influences. The recipient of numerous awards, his catalogue includes operas, orchestral music, vocal works, solo and chamber music, a passion oratorio, and film music. From the latter category, movie-goers may remember his scoring of Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which garnered both an Academy Award and a Grammy. Tan Dun’s fascinating Water Concerto was written in memory of his fellow composer Tōru Takemitsu. (For more information on Takemitsu, please see page 39.) Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic commissioned it for that orchestra’s principal percussionist, Christopher Lamb, who will be performing the work with the Milwaukee Symphony this evening. It is as much a piece of theatre as a piece of music. “What I want to present,” the composer said, “is music that is for listening in a visual way, and watching in an [aural] way. I want it to be intoxicating. And I hope some people will listen and rediscover life’s elements, things that are around us, but we don’t notice.”

Set in four continuous sections, Water Concerto explores how the sounds of H2O itself can be audibly manipulated – patting, pounding, dribbling, swirling, pouring, splashing. Simple water drips are heard as pitch bends, which then go into the orchestra, and vice versa. Implements dipped in water and used percussively – chutes, plastic cups, wooden bowls, African agogo bells, gongs – demonstrate their kaleidoscope of timbral possibilities. Likewise, instruments that contain water or evoke water sounds, including a Slinky (!), are exploited.

As the soloist presents a tour de force of tone colors, the orchestra provides both imitation and contrast. The strings can sing a melody, act as percussion, or underpin with tremolandos and glissandos. The winds both blare and whine. Detached mouthpieces squawk and buzz. The whole experience is hypnotic, both visually and aurally. Following the premiere, The New York Times declared the concerto “a grand and entertaining circus of a piece.” (Performances are available on DVD and YouTube; it’s hard to imagine experiencing only the audio portion.)

Encapsulating his use of water in several works, including the Water Passion According to St. Matthew (2020), Tan Dun has written:

So many cultures use water as an essential metaphor – there is the symbolism of baptism; it is associated with birth, creation, and re-creation. If you think of the water cycle, where it comes down to the earth and returns to the atmosphere, only to return – that is a symbol of resurrection. I think of resurrection not only as a return to life, but as a metaphor for hope, the birth of a new world, a better life.

BEDŘICH SMETANA

BEDŘICH SMETANA

Born 2 March 1824; Litomyšl, Bohemia / Died 12 May 1884; Prague, Bohemia

“Vltava” [The Moldau] from Má vlast [My Fatherland] Composed: 1874

First performance: 1875 (“Vltava”); 5 November 1882 (Má vlast); Prague, Bohemia

Last MSO performance: November 1991; Zdeněk Mácal, conductor

Instrumentation: 2 flutes; piccolo; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals, suspended cymbals, triangle); harp; strings

Approximate duration: 12 minutes

The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana – in his eight operas and most of his tone poems – drew on his country’s legends, history, characters, scenery, and ideas. His technical expertise and originality in handling national subjects instilled in his people both self-confidence and a new musical identity. He is rightly regarded as the first major nationalist composer of Bohemia. Má vlast [My Fatherland], a cycle of six symphonic poems composed c1872-79, is a paean of praise to the land he loved so deeply. Composed shortly after Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saëns had started to experiment with new possibilities in programmatic music, it is, according to scholar John Clapham, “the most heroic instrumental work since Beethoven, and extended the scope and purpose of the symphonic poem beyond the aims of any later composer.”

Vltava [The Moldau] is the second piece in the cycle, and by far the best-known. Smetana described the work as follows:

This composition follows the course of the Vltava. We hear the sounds of its two sources of origin, the “warm” and the “cold” water streams that are united and flow through meadows and groves, and on through places where country folk are celebrating their festivals. Water nymphs perform their dances in the silvery moonlight; we float past proud fortresses, fine castles, and noble ruins, overgrown like the craggy rocks on which they stand. The Vltava froths and eddies over the rapids of St. Johann, then streams on in a broad torrent toward Prague, with the castle of Vyšehrad coming into sight on its bank. The Vltava surges majestically onward, disappearing from view and finally flowing into the Elbe.

ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK

ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK

Born 17 April 1941; Rochester, New York

An American Port of Call Composed: 1985

First performance: Autumn 1985; Norfolk, Virginia

Last MSO performance: MSO premiere

Instrumentation: 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 3 bassoons (3rd doubling on contrabassoon); 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 2 trombones; bass trombone; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, gong, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam tam, tenor drum, triangle, whip, woodblock, xylophone); piano; strings

Approximate duration: 10 minutes

The catalogue of Adolphus Hailstork includes major works in a variety of genres, from musical comedy to piano solo to choral music. His compositions have been performed by major orchestras, including the Chicago, Baltimore, and Detroit symphonies. Dr. Hailstork grew up in Albany, New York, where he took lessons in singing, violin, piano, and organ. He studied composition at Howard University and the Manhattan School of Music, and in France with Nadia Boulanger. Following a stint in the military, he pursued his doctorate at Michigan State University. Dr. Hailstork is emeritus professor of music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

An American Port of Call was composed for the Virginia Symphony, who gave its premiere in 1985. Its bustling vitality brings to mind William Walton’s Portsmouth Point overture (1925). Dr. Hailstork offered this summary of the piece: “The concert overture, in sonata-allegro form, captures the strident (and occasionally tender and even mysterious) energy of a busy American port city. The great port of Norfolk, Virginia, where I live, was the direct inspiration.”

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

Born 22 November 1913; Lowestoft, England / Died 4 December 1976; Aldeburgh, England

“Four Sea Interludes” from Peter Grimes, Opus 33a Composed: 1945

First performance: 7 June 1945; London, England (opera) 13 June 1945; Cheltenham, England (“Four Sea Interludes”)

Last MSO performance: April 2018; Asher Fisch, conductor

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (1st and 2nd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes; 2 clarinets (2nd doubling on Eb clarinet); 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; piccolo trumpet; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, chimes, cymbals, snare drum, tam tam, tambourine, xylophone); harp; strings

Approximate duration: 16 minutes

Benjamin Britten has been hailed as “the greatest English composer since Purcell.” His prodigious output includes operas, solo vocal music, chamber music, concertos, symphonic works, film music, and choral music. Britten’s War Requiem (1961) is one of the towering works of the 20th century.

Peter Grimes is a singular masterpiece, a watershed in the history of English opera. Its central character – the first of many roles written for the tenor Peter Pears, Britten’s life partner –

is a misanthrope, a proud fisherman whose boy apprentice has died under “accidental circumstances.” Grimes resolves to “fish the sea dry” and to create a respectable place for himself in the seaside village society by marrying the schoolmarm Ellen Orford.

When a second boy falls to his death while descending from Grimes’s cliffside hut, Peter is demonized by the townsfolk. Pressed to the brink of insanity by the guilt inflicted upon him, he ultimately takes his fishing boat out to sea and sinks it, drowning himself in the process.

Britten’s opera is remarkable for its insightful delineation of character – the principals, the secondary roles, and the sea itself. Its intricately rich score includes six orchestral interludes, four of which comprise the suite heard on today’s concert. In “Dawn,” which acts as a transition between the Prologue and Act 1, we can hear in the flute and violins a thin glint of sunlight breaking through the clouds; harp, violas, and clarinets add glimmering arpeggios; the sonorous brass harmonies call to mind the deep sea below. At opera’s end, after Peter has drowned himself, this music returns to remind us of nature’s endless patterns, indifferent to the quotidian events of humanity.

“Sunday Morning” opens Act 2. Accented notes from the horns evoke large, clanging church bells; woodwinds, strings, and trumpets suggest smaller bells; and a solo flute portrays waking birds. A full-bodied tonal palette emerges as textures are overlaid and actual bells now announce the Lord’s Day. Britten said “Moonlight” – which introduces Act 3 – depicts “summer night, seascape, quiet.” Its unsteady rhythm and restless harmony might evoke the ebb and flow of moonlit waves, but there’s also a sense of foreboding. (Things are not going to go well for Peter Grimes.)

“Storm” links Scenes 1 and 2 in the first act. It vividly portrays not only a gale blowing in from the sea, but also the protagonist’s anxiety-ridden psychological state. An arching melody – with the characteristic interval of an ascending ninth – is heard as the storm subsides a bit; it is to this melody that Peter had sung “What harbor shelters peace, away from tidal waves and storms?” in the foregoing scene. The dream it articulates is drowned by the squall’s turbulent swell.

Reginald Goodall conducted the premiere of Peter Grimes at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. A few days later, Britten conducted the “Four Sea Interludes” on a concert in Cheltenham.