RAVEL & CHOPIN

MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Friday, November 18, 2022 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, November 19, 2022 at 7:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

David Robertson, conductor

Orli Shaham, piano

PROGRAM

MAURICE RAVEL

Une barque sur l’océan [A Boat on the Ocean]

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN

Concerto No. 2 in F minor for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 21 / I. Maestoso • II. Larghetto • III. Allegro vivace / Orli Shaham, piano

INTERMISSION

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

L’ascension [The Ascension] / I. Majesty of Christ beseeching His glory of His Father • II. Serene hallelujahs of a soul that longs for heaven • III. Hallelujah on the trumpet, hallelujah on the cymbal • IV. Prayer of Christ ascending to His Father

MAURICE RAVEL

La valse [The Waltz]

The MSO Steinway Piano was made possible through a generous gift from MICHAEL AND JEANNE SCHMITZ. 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

DAVID ROBERTSON

DAVID ROBERTSON

David Robertson – conductor, artist, composer, thinker, and American musical visionary – occupies the most prominent podiums in opera, orchestral, and new music. He is a champion of contemporary composers and an ingenious and adventurous programmer. Robertson has served in numerous artistic leadership positions, such as chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, a transformative 13-year tenure as music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, with the Orchestre National de Lyon, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and, as protégé of Pierre Boulez, the Ensemble InterContemporain.

He appears with the world’s great orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, and many major ensembles and festivals on five continents.

Since his 1996 Metropolitan Opera debut, Robertson has conducted a breathtaking range of Met projects, including the 2019.20 season opening premiere production of Porgy and Bess, for which he shared a Grammy Award, Best Opera Recording, in March 2021. In 2022, he conducted the Met Opera revival of the production, in addition to making his Rome Opera debut conducting Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová.

Robertson is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France and is the recipient of numerous artistic awards. He serves on the Tianjin Juilliard Advisory Council, complementing his role as Director of Conducting Studies, Distinguished Visiting Faculty of The Juilliard School, New York.

ORLI SHAHAM

ORLI SHAHAM

A consummate musician recognized for her grace, subtlety, and brilliance, the pianist Orli Shaham is hailed by critics on four continents. The New York Times called her a “brilliant pianist,” The Chicago Tribune referred to her as “a first-rate Mozartean,” and London’s Guardian said Shaham’s playing at the Proms was “perfection.”

Shaham has performed with many of the major orchestras around the world and has appeared in recital internationally, from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. She is artistic director of Pacific Symphony’s chamber series Café Ludwig in California since 2007 and artistic director of the interactive children’s concert series, Orli Shaham’s Bach Yard, which she founded in 2010.

Highlights of Shaham’s 2022.23 concert season include performances with the Finnish Radio Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, and Vancouver Symphony (USA), where she was named VSO’s inaugural artist-in-residence. In 2022, she released volumes 2 and 3 of the complete Mozart piano sonatas. Her Mozart recording project also includes volume 1 of the piano sonatas and piano concertos with St. Louis Symphony, all of which are part of her discography of a dozen titles on Canary Classics, Deutsche Gramophone, Sony, and other labels. Orli Shaham is a co-host and creative for the national radio program From the Top. She is on the piano and chamber music faculty at The Juilliard School and is chair of the board of trustees at Kaufman Music Center in New York.

Orli Shaham has been a Steinway Artist since 2003. Orli Shaham appears by arrangement with Colbert Artists Management, Inc. colbertartists.com

Program notes by J. Mark Baker

Music mystical, sparkling, and graceful comprises tonight’s concert: Audience favorite Orli Shaham plays Chopin’s second piano concerto, four meditations by Messiaen contemplate religious belief, and two alluring works by Ravel bookend the program.

MAURICE RAVEL

MAURICE RAVEL

Born 7 March 1875; Ciboure, France

Died 28 December 1937; Paris, France

Un barque sur l’océan [A Boat on the Ocean]

Composed: 1904-05 (piano solo); 1906, revised 1926 (orchestration)

First performance: 6 January 1906; Paris, France (piano solo)

Last MSO performance: MSO premiere

Instrumentation: 3 flutes (2nd and 3rd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes; English horn; 2 clarinets; bass clarinet; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, gong, triangle); 2 harps; celeste; strings

Approximate duration: 7 minutes

Un barque sur l’océan [A Boat on the Ocean] began its life as a solo work – and what a pianistic tour-de-force it is! – one of five pieces in a suite entitled Miroirs [Reflections]. Ravel dedicated each of these miniature Impressionistic sound pictures to one of his friends, members of a coterie called Les Apaches [The Hooligans], artistic allies who met for discussion and to share their work. “A Boat on the Ocean” is dedicated to the painter Paul Sordes. A dozen years later, Ravel would orchestrate another of these, Alborado del gracioso [Dawn Song of the Jester]. Both remain favorites in the orchestral repertoire.

As the story goes, in 1905 Ravel accepted an invitation from his friends Alfred Edwards, a journalist, and his Russian wife Misia, a pianist, to join them on a seven-week cruise. It’s quite likely that the feelings and observations he experienced on this sojourn influenced his writing of Un barque sur l’océan. Flowing arpeggios immediately conjure the picture of water, as Ravel employs varied orchestral timbres and techniques to paint the endless space of the ocean. Ravel instructs that the rhythm be souple [flexible], which adds to the swaying effect in both the theme and its accompaniment.

Midway through the piece, the ocean’s serenity is interrupted by a storm, which leads to an immense, dissonant climax. A slower-paced section, set over a G-sharp ostinato, lets us know that the boat has survived the storm. The ending returns us to the peaceful opening where all is quiet. A quietly pealing celesta bids farewell, and Ravel marks the concluding measure s’enteignant [snuffed out].

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN

Born 1 March 1810; Zelazowa Wola (near Warsaw), Poland Died 17 October 1849; Paris, France

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Opus 21

Composed: 1829-30

First performance: 17 March 1830; Warsaw, Poland

Last MSO performance: November 2013; Edo de Waart, conductor; Ingrid Fliter, piano

Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; bass trombone; timpani; strings

Approximate duration: 32 minutes

Music appreciation books sometimes refer to Frédéric Chopin as “the poet of the piano.” And while that appellation is not totally misguided, it remains somewhat shallow. It’s true that, with the exception of the two early concertos, a late cello sonata, some 20 songs, and a few miscellaneous pieces, he wrote exclusively for the solo piano. Nevertheless, as his compositional craft reached its zenith, in his early 30s, his innovative harmonies – clashing melodies, enigmatic sonorities, unresolved seventh chords, surprising modulations, forays into modality or chromaticism – had a profound influence on the music of Liszt, Wagner, Fauré, Debussy, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff, among many others.

Chopin was in his late teens when he penned the F minor concerto. Despite its numbering, it predates the Opus 11 concerto, which was published first. (The same is true of Beethoven’s first two works in the genre.) From its premiere performance, at the National Theatre in Warsaw, the piece was well-received. In the opinion of his compatriots, Chopin was quickly establishing himself as a national composer.

Scholars tell us that Chopin’s Opus 21 owes much of its elegance to the influence of the prolific Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), one most celebrated pianists of the time. The Maestoso opens with a dotted-rhythm from the orchestra, driving the agitated theme forward toward the piano’s first entrance. Translucent, dazzling passages emphasize the soloist’s role; meanwhile, the orchestra functions to undergird, adding color and texture.

The young composer admitted to friends that his infatuation with Konstancja Gładkowska, a soprano and Chopin’s classmate at the conservatory in Warsaw, served to inspire the delicate, languorous A-flat major Larghetto. Here, one senses the Bel Canto ornamentation of the operatic arias of Vincenzo Bellini, with whom Chopin shared a friendship and mutual admiration. Likewise, the movement seems to presage the eloquent nocturnes he would pen in years to come.

In the final Allegro vivace, the piano takes the lead in presenting the thematic material. Chopin features the mazurka, a dance from his native Poland; there’s also a whiff of the Viennese waltz style. The music is playful and coquettish as it scampers all over the keyboard, taking special advantage of the instrument’s bright, higher timbres. The soloist is afforded ample opportunity for flights of virtuosic fancy as the final F major coda brings this affable work to a sparkling conclusion.

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Born 10 December 1908; Avignon, France

Died 27 April 1992; Paris, France

L’ascension [The Ascension]

Composed: 1933; transcribed for organ in 1934

First performance: 1935; Paris, France

Last MSO performance: October 2016; Yaniv Dinur, conductor

Instrumentation: 3 flutes; 2 oboes; English horn; 2 clarinets; bass clarinet; 3 bassoons; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum; cymbals; tambourine, triangle); strings

Approximate duration: 27 minutes

Oliver Messiaen holds an important place in music of the 20th century, both as the father of the European avant-garde and as a highly original figure in his own right. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Paul Dukas and Marcel Dupré and later taught there (Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen were among his pupils), while also serving as the organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, in the tradition of Franck and Widor. Always religiously devout, many of his works are explorations of Roman Catholic mysticism, but with strong pantheistic overtones. Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time (1940), written in a Silesian Nazi POW camp for the only available instruments – violin, clarinet, cello, piano – is one of the great chamber music works of the 20th century.

Messiaen was in his mid-20s when he composed L’ascension, which he described as “four symphonic meditations for orchestra.” Each movement includes a quotation that identifies the inspiration for its descriptive title:

I. Majesty of Christ beseeching His glory of His Father: “Father, the hour is come! Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee.” (John 17:1) “Very slow and magisterial,” the composer instructs. The principal trumpet acts as the voice of Christ, its plaintive, ascending motifs seeming to call out to heaven, supported by highly chromatic harmony from the winds and brass. Silence plays a key role here, as each of the entreaties breaks off into a moment of reflection.

II. Serene hallelujahs of a soul that longs for heaven: “We beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we may in mind dwell in Heaven.” (Ascension Mass) At the outset, the stark beauty of plainchant is suggested by unison winds, playing a winding melody. The sylvan voice of the English horn then converses with a chorus of birdsong (a characteristic of much of Messiaen’s music), supported by string harmonics. Textures vary, but thicken as the movement continues, eventually ending in jubilation.

III. Hallelujah on the trumpet, hallelujah on the cymbal: “The Lord is gone up with the sound of a trumpet. O clap your hands all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.” (Psalm 47: 1, 5) Sprightly trumpet fanfares open the third meditation, a dazzling scherzo marked “Vif et joyeux” [lively and cheerful]. Toward the end, there’s an exuberant, dancing fugato.

IV. Prayer of Christ ascending to His Father: “ I have manifested Thy name unto men… And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee.” (John 17: 6, 11) Scored entirely for divided strings, “extremely slow and solemn,” the final meditation perfectly depicts its title. The music – celestial, mysterious, luminous – ascends heavenward.

Having completed the orchestral version, Messiaen – virtuoso organist that he was – felt the need to transcribe L’ascension for his instrument. The work is more often heard in that version,

in which the composer chose to write a more idiomatic keyboard toccata in place of the orchestral scherzo. Its title is Transports de joie d’une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne [Transports of joy of a soul before the glory of Christ which is his].

MAURICE RAVEL

MAURICE RAVEL

Born 7 March 1875; Ciboure, France

Died 28 December 1937; Paris, France

La valse [The Waltz]

Composed: 1919-20

First performance: 12 December 1920; Paris, France

Last MSO performance: January 2018; Fabien Gabel, conductor

Instrumentation: 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo); 3 oboes (3rd doubling on English horn); 2 clarinets; bass clarinet; 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (antique cymbals, bass drum, castanets, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, tam tam, tambourine, triangle); 2 harps; strings

Approximate duration: 12 minutes

La valse is Ravel’s masterfully evocative homage to the Viennese waltz. He provided a brief programmatic description:

Swirling clouds afford glimpses, through rifts, of waltzing couples. The clouds scatter little by little; one can distinguish an immense hall with a whirling crowd. The scene grows progressively brighter. The sight of chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo. An imperial court, about 1855.

Composed at the behest of Sergei Diaghilev, La valse was not what the Ballet Russe impresario expected. “This is not a ballet,” he opined. “It is a painting of a ballet.” Diaghilev refused to stage it, and he and Ravel never worked together again. Undeterred, the French master published the opus as a “choreographic poem for orchestra.” It was finally presented as a ballet in 1926 when Ida Rubinstein’s troupe presented it in Antwerp. Two years later, they introduced it to Paris, and gave the premiere of Bolero two days later.

In a 1937 tribute to Ravel, following the composer’s death, the French musicologist Paul Landormy said of La valse: “[It is] the most unexpected of the compositions of Ravel, revealing to us heretofore unexpected depths of Romanticism, power, vigor, and rapture in this musician whose expression is usually limited to the manifestations of an essentially classical genius.”