REQUIEM & SONG
Friday, May 20, 2022 at 7:30 pm Saturday, May 21, 2022 at 7:30 pm Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 2:30 pm ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL Ken-David Masur, conductor Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano John Brancy, baritone Milwaukee Symphony Chorus Cheryl Frazes-Hill, chorus director
TŌRU TAKEMITSU Requiem for Strings JOSEPH CANTELOUBE Chants d’Auvergne (Songs of the Auvergne) La delaïssádo (The Deserted Girl) Lo fiolairé (The Spinning Girl) Lou boussu (The Hunchback) Malurous qu’o uno fenno (Unhappy He Who Has a Wife) Baïlèro (Shepherd’s Song) Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano John Brancy, baritone MISATO MOCHIZUKI Musubi II
INTERMISSION (Continued on page 22)
REQUIEM & SONG Continued from page 21
MAURICE DURUFLÉ Requiem, Opus 9 I. Introit II. Kyrie III. Domine Jesu Christe IV. Sanctus V. Pie Jesu VI. Agnus Dei VII. Lux aeterna VIII. Libera me IX. In Paradisum Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano John Brancy, baritone Milwaukee Symphony Chorus Cheryl Frazes-Hill, chorus director
The 2021.22 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 KELLEY O’CONNOR Possessing a voice of uncommon allure, the GRAMMY® Awardwinning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor is one of the most compelling performers of her generation. She is internationally acclaimed equally in the pillars of the classical music canon – from Beethoven and Mahler to Brahms and Ravel – as she is in new works of modern masters – from Adams and Dessner to Lieberson and Talbot. In the 2021.22 season, O’Connor returns to the Concertgebouworkest for performances of Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs led by Stéphane Denève, and a robust North American concert calendar includes performances of Mozart’s Requiem with Fabio Luisi conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Asher Fisch and the Seattle Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Jun Märkl and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Juraj Valčuha and the Minnesota Orchestra and with Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony. Additional performances bring her together with Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Houston Symphony for Mahler’s Second Symphony, and with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for Mahler’s Third Symphony. John Adams wrote the title role of The Gospel According to the Other Mary for Kelley O’Connor and she has performed the work, both in concert and in the Peter Sellars fully staged production, under the batons of John Adams, Gustavo Dudamel, Grant Gershon, Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Simon Rattle, and David Robertson. She has sung the composer’s El Niño with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and continues to be the eminent living interpreter of Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, having given this moving set of songs with Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra, with Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Robert Spano and the Minnesota Orchestra, and with David Zinman and the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, among many others. Past performances include Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with Matthias Pintscher and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein’s Songfest for her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut under the baton of Bramwell Tovey, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony, Mahler’s Des knaben Wunderhorn with Krzysztof Urbański and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and Das Lied von der Erde with the symphonies of Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, and Glasgow, among many others.
Guest Artist Biographies JOHN BRANCY GRAMMY Award-winning baritone John Brancy is known for his intense musicality and communicative power. Hailed by The New York Times as “a vibrant, resonant presence,” Brancy is equally at home in staged opera, concert performance, and recital, with a wide-ranging repertoire that includes classical, contemporary world premieres, and musical theater. During the 2021.22 season, Brancy returns to the San Francisco Opera as Guglielmo in Michael Cavanagh’s production of Così fan tutte, conducted by Henrik Nánási; sings the role of Franz Wolff-Metternich in the world premiere of La Beauté du monde, by playwright Michel Marc Bouchard and composer Julien Bilodeau, at Opéra de Montréal under the baton of Jean-Marie Zeitouni; performs the world premiere of the Boston Symphony Orchestra-commissioned work Cantata, by Michael Gandolfi, with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, soprano Sophia Burgos, and pianist Alessio Bax; joins the Rundfunkchor Berlin for performances of human requiem, a scenic realization of Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem staged by Jochen Sandig and members of Sasha Waltz & Guests, at the Ludwigsburg Festival; and reprises his portrayal of Guglielmo for the San Diego Opera production of Così fan tutte led by Bruce Stasyna. In concert, Brancy will appear as soloist at Carnegie Hall in Orff’s Carmina Burana with Cecilia Chorus of New York conducted by Mark Shapiro. June 2021 marked the release of a collaboration between Vocal Arts DC and Avie Records, The Journey Home: Live from the Kennedy Center, which presents Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan in a recital program inspired by the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. The recital was also filmed and aired on the new PBS app AllArts TV over Memorial Day. Additional highlights of the 2020.21 season included recording selections from Hanns Eisler’s Hollywooder Liederbuch with pianist Victoria Kirsch under the auspices Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra in Los Angeles for online streaming and joining forces with Tony Award–winning composer Adam Guettel to create a short film titled Medusa as part of his song cycle Myths and Hymns, produced by MasterVoices, which also featured artists Dove Cameron, Renée Fleming, and Cheyenne Jackson. The 2019 release of Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project with an all-star cast of singers led by Brancy and conducted by Gil Rose, won the 2020 GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording.
Program notes by J. Mark Baker Vocal music, both solo and choral, is featured on today’s concert: Canteloube’s disarmingly beautiful Songs of the Auvergne and Duruflé’s exquisite setting of the missa pro defunctis. Instrumental works by Japanese composers Takemitsu and Mochizuki round out the program. Tōru Takemitsu
Born 8 October 1930; Tokyo, Japan Died 20 February 1996; Tokyo, Japan
Requiem for Strings
Composed: 1957 First performance: June 1957; Toyko, Japan Last MSO performance: January 1999; Jun’ichi Hirokami, conductor Instrumentation: strings Approximate duration: 9 minutes One of the most prolific composers of the second half of the 20th century, Tōru Takemitsu was the first Japanese composer fully recognized in the West. His impressive list of works includes over 180 concert pieces, 93 film scores, and several works for theater and dance. His early influences were Debussy, Webern, and Messiaen, but his later music reflects a preoccupation with tone color and an understated, crystalline sound. Precision is ever at the forefront, and silence is fully organized. Takemitsu’s brief Requiem – dedicated to his colleague, the film composer Fumio Hoyasaka – is the composition that first introduced his music to the West. While on tour in Japan in 1959, Igor Stravinsky heard the work, pronouncing it a masterpiece and praising its sustained intensity. The rest, as ’tis said, is history. Cast in a single pseudo-rondo (A-B-C-A) movement, the Requiem opens with muted strings, as static lower voices support intertwining melodies in the violins and violas. These come and go, and the section ends with a brief viola solo. After a transitory pause, the now-unmuted instruments continue the chordal texture, but with a richer sound. In the third section, lyrical passages interrupt a busy rhythmic motif. The piece concludes with a reprise of the opening music, somewhat shortened.
Joseph Canteloube
Born 21 October 1879; Annonay, France Died 4 November 1957; Gridny, France
Chants d’Auvergne (Songs of the Auvergne)
Composed: 1923-30 Last MSO performance: MSO premiere Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes (2nd doubling on English horn); 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 2 horns; trumpet; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals, sleigh bells, suspended cymbals); piano; strings Approximate duration: 16 minutes
The French composer Joseph Canteloube was born in the Auvergne region of south-central France, where his ancestors had long resided. From 1901, he studied at the Paris Schola Cantorum with its founder, the composer Vincent d’Indy. In addition to a meticulous foundation in compositional technique, d’Indy encouraged an all-embracing study of music of the past. Prompted by this influence, Canteloube traveled throughout his homeland collecting folksongs, making artful arrangements of them. The most widely known and admired of these are the Chants d’Auvergne, which were published in five volumes. The Songs of the Auvergne are sung in the distinctive langue d’oc dialect, which combines characteristics of the early Celtic tongue with Latin introduced by Roman invaders. In his vibrant orchestrations, Canteloube melds the timbres of ancient instruments with the color palette of the modern orchestra to create works of singular beauty. We’ll hear five of these charming songs on today’s concert. In “La delaïssádo” (The Deserted Girl), expressive woodwind solos lend plangent tone colors to the tale of a woeful shepherdess, deserted by her lover. “Lo fiolairé” (The Spinning Girl) features another shepherdess; this maiden is lighthearted, and the movement of her spinning wheel is vividly depicted in the orchestra. Canteloube’s piquant orchestration of “Lou boussu” (The Hunchback) is a perfect example of his ability to turn the simplest strophic folksong into an entertaining work of art. “Malurous qu’o uno fenno” (Unhappy He Who Has a Wife) is a bourée, a French folk dance in 3/8 meter; its instrumental interlude appropriately summons the rustic sounds of rural life. The oft-recorded “Baïlèro” (Shepherd’s Song) is probably the best-known of the Auvergne songs; it is an affecting dialogue between a shepherd and his distant lady-love, richly scored.
Misato Mochizuki
Born 31 January 1969; Tokyo, Japan
Musubi II
Composed: 2013 First performance: 21 September 2013; Besançon, France Last MSO performance: MSO premiere Instrumentation: 3 flutes; 3 oboes; 2 clarinets; bass clarinet; 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; percussion (bass drum, crotale, glockenspiel, plastic blocks, roto toms, sandpaper blocks, tam tam, 2 vibraphones); strings Approximate duration: 13 minutes Equally active in Europe, North America, and Japan, Misato Mochizuki’s musical vocabulary is a unique combination of Occidental tradition and the Asiatic sense of breathing – developing electrifying rhythms and unique sounds in a manner that allows great freedom, in terms of both style and form. Her catalogue contains nearly 60 works, including 16 orchestral compositions and 15 pieces for ensemble. Between 2011 and 2013 Misato Mochizuki was composer-in-residence at the Festival international de musique de Besançon, where she hosted numerous workshops and conferences. Mochizuki was also on the jury panel for the renowned young conductors’ competition. Musubi II was written as a text piece for the finalists. The term “musubi” means to forge a relationship. In this work, Mochizuki turns to the simplicity of ancient Gregorian chant, utilizing a variety of instrumentation to generate several layers of engaging tone colors. “My wish,” she said, “was that this piece would somehow be a musical manifestation of the energies of various beings and periods of time.”
Maurice Duruflé
Born 11 January 1902; Louviers, France Died 16 June 1986; Paris, France Requiem, Opus 9 Composed: 1947 First performance: 1947; Paris, France Last MSO performance: MSO premiere Instrumentation: 3 flutes (2nd and 3rd doubling piccolo); 2 oboes (2nd doubling English horn); English horn; 2 clarinets; bass clarinet; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; timpani; percussion (bass drum, cymbals, suspended cymbal, tam tam); harp; celeste (doubling on organ); strings Approximate duration: 45 minutes Though greatly beloved by church organists and choral singers, Maurice Duruflé is probably not a household name. This is due in part to his own fastidiousness and high standards; he published just over a dozen works across a lifetime of 84 years. As the man himself stated, “[I feel] incapable of adding anything significant to the piano repertoire, view the string quartet with apprehension, and envisage with terror the idea of composing a song after the finished examples of Schubert, Fauré, and Debussy.” Born in the small village of Louvier, at age ten he became a chorister at Rouen Cathedral. The choral plainsong tradition there was a strong and lasting influence on Duruflé. Moving to Paris at age 17, he studied with Charles Tournemire and, subsequently, at the Paris Conservatoire with Eugène Gigout. In 1927, he became Louis Vierne’s assistant at Notre Dame and two years later was appointed titular organist at Saint-Ètienne-du-Mont, a post he held for the rest of his life. A world-class organist by any standard, he gave the premiere of Poulenc’s organ concerto (1939), and advised the composer on the registrations of the organ part. Duruflé’s Requiem dates from 1947, and is dedicated to the memory of his father, a music-lover who recognized his young son’s precocious talent – as a preschooler, he’d come home from mass and pick out the plainchants on the family harmonium – and enrolled him in the choir school at Rouen. In each of the movements, Duruflé makes use of the Gregorian chant melodies from the missa pro defunctis. His sensuous harmonies suffuse every note with heartfelt emotion. “This Requiem is not an ethereal work that sings of detachment from human concerns,” he wrote in 1980. “It reflects, in the unchanging form of Christian prayer, the anguish of man faced with the mystery of his final end. It is often dramatic, or filled with resignation, or hope or terror, like the same words of the scripture used in the liturgy. It tries to translate the human feeling in front of their terrifying, inexplicable, or consoling destiny.” Indeed, the Requiem presents the whole spectrum of human emotion. But most especially it offers great consolation, and has brought comfort and solace to countless thousands across its 75-year lifetime.
2021.22 SEASON KEN-DAVID MASUR Music Director Polly and Bill Van Dyke Music Director Chair EDO DE WAART Music Director Laureate YANIV DINUR Resident Conductor CHERYL FRAZES HILL Chorus Director Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair TIMOTHY J. BENSON Assistant Chorus Director FIRST VIOLINS Ilana Setapen, Acting Concertmaster Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair Jeanyi Kim, Acting Associate Concertmaster (2nd Chair) Chi Li, Acting Assistant Concertmaster Alexander Ayers Michael Giacobassi Yuka Kadota Dylana Leung Lijia Phang Margot Schwartz SECOND VIOLINS Jennifer Startt, Principal Andrea and Woodrow Leung Second Violin Chair Timothy Klabunde, Assistant Principal Glenn Asch John Bian Lisa Johnson Fuller Paul Hauer Hyewon Kim Shengnan Li Laurie Shawger Mary Terranova VIOLAS Robert Levine, Principal Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner Family Principal Viola Chair Samantha Rodriguez, Acting Assistant Principal Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Viola Chair Alejandro Duque, Acting 3rd Chair Assistant Principal Elizabeth Breslin Nathan Hackett * Erin H. Pipal Helen Reich
CELLOS Susan Babini, Principal Dorothea C. Mayer Cello Chair Nicholas Mariscal, Assistant Principal Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus Madeleine Kabat Gregory Mathews Peter Szczepanek Peter J. Thomas Adrien Zitoun BASSES Jon McCullough-Benner, Principal Donald B. Abert Bass Chair Andrew Raciti, Associate Principal Scott Kreger Catherine McGinn Rip Prétat HARP Julia Coronelli, Principal Walter Schroeder Harp Chair FLUTES Sonora Slocum, Principal Margaret and Roy Butter Flute Chair Heather Zinninger Yarmel, Assistant Principal Jennifer Bouton Schaub PICCOLO Jennifer Bouton Schaub OBOES Katherine Young Steele, Principal Milwaukee Symphony League Oboe Chair Kevin Pearl, Assistant Principal Margaret Butler ENGLISH HORN Margaret Butler Philip and Beatrice Blank English Horn Chair in memoriam to John Martin CLARINETS Todd Levy, Principal Franklyn Esenberg Clarinet Chair Benjamin Adler, Assistant Principal, Donald and Ruth P. Taylor Assistant Principal Clarinet Chair William Helmers E FLAT CLARINET Benjamin Adler BASS CLARINET William Helmers BASSOONS Catherine Chen, Principal Muriel C. and John D. Silbar Family Bassoon Chair Rudi Heinrich, Assistant Principal Beth W. Giacobassi
CONTRABASSOON Beth W. Giacobassi HORNS Matthew Annin, Principal Krause Family French Horn Chair Krystof Pipal, Associate Principal Dietrich Hemann Andy Nunemaker French Horn Chair Darcy Hamlin TRUMPETS Matthew Ernst, Principal Walter L. Robb Family Trumpet Chair David Cohen, Associate Principal Martin J. Krebs Associate Principal Trumpet Chair Alan Campbell, Fred Fuller Trumpet Chair TROMBONES Megumi Kanda, Principal Marjorie Tiefenthaler Trombone Chair Kirk Ferguson, Assistant Principal BASS TROMBONE John Thevenet, Richard M. Kimball Bass Trombone Chair TUBA Robert Black, Principal TIMPANI Dean Borghesani, Principal Chris Riggs, Assistant Principal PERCUSSION Robert Klieger, Principal Chris Riggs PIANO Melitta S. Pick Endowed Piano Chair PERSONNEL MANAGERS Françoise Moquin, Director of Orchestra Personnel Paul Beck, Interim Assistant Personnel Manager LIBRARIANS Patrick McGinn, Principal Librarian, Anonymous Donor, Principal Librarian Chair Paul Beck, Associate Librarian PRODUCTION Tristan Wallace, Technical Manager & Live Audio Supervisor Paolo Scarabel, Stage Technician & Deck Supervisor
* Leave of Absence 2021.22 Season
