SAT, MAY 14, 2022 | 8PM WOOLNER STAGE AT MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL RALEIGH CELEBRATION SPONSOR AN EVENING WITH Grant RenéeLlewellynFleming AND
With our gratitude, The Boards of Trustees of the North Carolina Symphony
This evening we welcome back Grant Llewellyn in his new role as Music Director Laureate. We celebrate his defining accomplishments as our artistic leader, made during his extraordinary tenure of 16 seasons as the North Carolina Symphony’s Music Director. We honor his commitment to developing our music-making in communities large and small, and in concert halls, auditoriums, outdoor settings, and gymnasiums packed full with excited elementary school students. We celebrate Grant as our musical ambassador, who traveled from Murphy to Manteo sharing, with our musicians, the message that “music is for everyone.”
The Musicians and Staff of the North Carolina Symphony Millions of elementary school students Millions of devoted audience members
HONORING MUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE Grant Llewellyn May 14, 2022
We are especially thrilled to present tonight’s concert, with soprano Renée Fleming joining Grant Llewellyn on the Woolner Stage of Meymandi Concert Hall to perform with your North Carolina Symphony.
Thank you and congratulations, Grant, for 16 spectacular seasons. We look forward to your future performances with us as Music Director Laureate.
Arr. Chason Goldschmitz Walking by Flashlight (b. 1960) Our Finch Feeder Spring, the Sky Rippled with Geese Renée Fleming, soprano
Gioachino Rossini Overture to Semiramide Maurice(1792-1868)Ravel Shéhérazade (1875-1937) I. Asie [Asia] II. La Flûte enchantée [The Enchanted Flute] III. L’Indifférent [The Indifferent One] Renée Fleming, soprano
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Cappriccio espagnol, Op. 34 IV. Scena e canto gitano V. Fandango asturiano
Renée
Fleming Grant Llewellyn AN EVENING WITH AND CELEBRATION SPONSOR
Renée Fleming, soprano Grant Llewellyn, conductor
Francesco Cilea “Io son l’umile ancella” from Adriana Lecouvreur (1866-1950) Renée Fleming, soprano
Ruggero Leoncavallo “Musette svaria sulla bocca viva” from La Bohème (1857-1919) Renée Fleming, soprano
Richard Rodgers “The Sound of Music” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” (1902-1979) from The Sound of Music and Oscar Hammerstein II Renée Fleming, soprano Joni(1895-1960)Mitchell “Blue” from Travelogue (b. 1943) Renée Fleming, soprano Andrew Lippa “The Diva” (b. 1964) Renée Fleming, soprano SAT, MAY 14, 2022 | 8PM WOOLNER STAGE AT MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL DUKE ENERGY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Cappriccio espagnol, Op. 34 (1844-1908) I. Alborada II. Variazioni III. Alborada Intermission Maria Schneider / Selections from Winter Morning Walks
About the PerformersRenée
Grant Llewellyn, Music Director TheLaureateMaxine and Benjamin Swalin Chair Music Director of Orchestre National de Bretagne and Music Director Laureate of the North Carolina Symphony, Grant Llewellyn is renowned for his charisma, energy, and easy authority in music of all styles and periods. Born in Tenby, South Wales, Llewellyn won a Conducting Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts in 1985 where he worked with Bernstein, Ozawa, Masur, and Previn.
Notable recordings with the North Carolina Symphony include American Spectrum, featuring saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and Britten’s Cello Symphony and Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante, both with cellist Zuill Bailey; with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he recently recorded a disc of Lowell Liebermann’s orchestral works.
Llewellyn regularly leads education and outreach projects; in 2017 he led the first ever “relaxed” BBC Prom with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a concert specially designed for those with autism, sensory and communication impairments, and learning disabilities.
Advisor for Special Projects at LA Opera, Fleming also leads SongStudio at Carnegie Hall. She is Co-Director of the Aspen Opera Center and VocalArts at the Aspen Music Festival. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the 2018 Broadway production of Carousel. Her other awards include the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize, and France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. Visit www.reneefleming.com to learn more.
Renée Fleming appears by arrangement with IMG Artists, www.imgartists.com. Ms. Fleming is an exclusive recording artist for Decca and Mercury Records (UK). Ms. Fleming’s jewelry is by Ann Ziff for Tamsen Z.
After 16 seasons as the North Carolina Symphony’s Music Director, Llewellyn currently holds the post of Music Director Laureate. He has conducted widely across North America, most notably the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Milwaukee, Montreal, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Toronto, and recently at Caramoor Festival with the Orchestra of St Luke’s. During his time as Music Director of the Handel and Haydn Society, America’s leading period orchestra, he gained a reputation as a formidable interpreter of music of the baroque and classical periods. This season is his seventh as Music Director of the newly designated Orchestre National de Bretagne. Recent guest engagements include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, among others. Llewellyn enjoys a continuing relationship with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales whom he led on tour to Patagonia and South America as well as conducting their Proms in the Park in September 2018. Llewellyn has appeared at opera companies including English National Opera, Opera North, and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Recent productions include the United States premiere of Handel’s Richard the Lionheart with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Fidelio with the Opéra de Rennes, where this season he leads Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.
As Artistic Advisor to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, she launched the first ongoing collaboration between America’s national cultural center and the National Institutes of Health. She has presented her program Music and the Mind in more than 50 cities around the world. In 2020, she launched Music and Mind LIVE, a weekly web show exploring the connections between arts, human health, and the brain— amassing nearly 700,000 views from 70 countries.
Fleming’s concert calendar this season includes appearances in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, London, Los Angeles, and Houston, as well as at Carnegie Hall. In March, she joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in a world premiere concert of The Hours, a new opera based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and awardwinning film. She will appear in the fully staged premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in November. During the pandemic, her performances on digital platforms included streamed online concerts for the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Baltimore Symphony FlemingOrchestra.has sung not only with Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, but also with Elton John, Paul Simon, Sting, Josh Groban, and Joan Baez. She has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, and her voice is featured on the soundtracks of Best Picture Oscar winners The Shape of Water and The Lord of the Rings. Her latest album is Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene. A collection of classical songs and world premieres, the album focuses on nature as both inspiration and casualty of humans. In recent years, Fleming has become a leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience.
Fleming, soprano Honored with four Grammy® awards and the United States’ National Medal of Arts, Renée Fleming has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. In 2014 she became the first classical artist ever to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.
Je voudrais voir des pauvres et des reines; Je voudrais voir des roses et du sang; Je voudrais voir mourir d’amour ou bien de haine.
IAsia,should like to leave with the schooner Rocking tonight in the harbor, Mysterious and alone, And at last unfurling purple sails Like an huge night bird in the golden sky. I should like to leave for the flower islands Listening to the perverse ocean sing To an old, bewitching rhythm.
I should like to see pipes in mouths Surrounded by white beards; I should like to see grasping merchants with shady looks, And cadis and viziers, Who with a mere crook of the finger Dispense life or death at will. I should like to see Persia, and India, and then China, Pot-bellied mandarins under umbrellas, And princesses of slender hands And scholars arguing Over poetry and beauty; I should like to linger in the enchanted palace And, like a foreign traveller, Contemplate at leisure painted landscapes
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Shéhérazade Three
Je voudrais voir Damas et les villes de Perse Avec les minarets légers dans l’air. Je voudrais voir de beaux turbans de soie Sur des visages noirs aux dents claires; Je voudrais voir des yeux sombres d’amour Et des prunelles brillantes de joie Et des paux jaunes comme des oranges; Je voudrais voir des vêtements de velours Et des habits à longues franges. Je voudrais voir des calumets entre des bouches Tout entourées de barbe blanche; Je voudrais voir d’âpres marchands aux regards louches, Et des cadis, et des vizirs Qui du seul mouvement de leur doigt qui se penche Accordent vie ou mort au gré de leur désir.
Je voudrais voir des assassins souriants Du bourreau qui coupe un cou d’innocent Avec son grand sabre courbé d’Orient.
Je voudrais voir la Perse, et l’Inde, et puis la Chine, Les mandarins ventrus sous les ombrelles, Et les princesses aux mains fines, Et les lettrés qui se querrellent Sur la poésie et sur la beauté; Je voudrais m’attarder au palais enchanté Et comme un voyageur étranger Contemple à loisir des paysages peints
Sur des étoffes en des cadres de sapin Avec un personnage au milieu d’un verger;
Et puis m’en revenir plus tard
On fabrics in pine-wood frames With a figure in the middle of an orchard; I should like to see assassins smiling As the executioner cuts off an innocent head With his great curved Eastern saber. I should like to see paupers and queens; I should like to see roses and blood; I should like to see dying of love or else of hate. And then return Poems by Tristan Klingsor Translation by D. Kern Holoman
continued...
Text and Translation I. Asie Asie, Asie, Asie Vieux pays merveilleux des contes de nourrice Où dort la fantaisie comme une impératrice En sa forêt emplie de mystère. JeAsie,voudrais m’en aller avec la goëlette Qui se berce ce soir dans le port, Mystérieuse et solitaire, Et qui déploie enfin ses voiles violettes Comme un immense oiseau de nuit dans le ciel d’or. Je voudrais m’en aller vers des îles de fleurs En écoutant chanter la mer perverse Sur un vieux rythme ensorceleur.
I. Asia Asia, Asia, Asia Ancient, marvelous lands of nursery tales Where imagination sleeps like an empress In her forest, surrounded in mystery.
I should like to see Damascus and the cities of Persia With light minarets in the air. I should like to see beautiful silk turbans Over faces with sparkling smiles; I should like to see eyes darkened with love And pupils shining with joy Against faces aglow like oranges; I should like to see velvet clothes And robes with long fringes.
“Walking by Flashlight” Walking by flashlight at six in the morning, my circle of light on the gravel swinging side to side, coyote, raccoon, field mouse, sparrow, each watching from darkness this man with the moon on a leash.
III. L’Indifférent Tes yeux sont doux comme ceux d’une fille, Jeune étranger, Et la courbe fine De ton beau visage de duvet ombragé Est plus séduisante encor de ligne. Ta lèvre chante sur le pas de ma porte Une langue inconnue et charmante Comme une musique fausse . . . EtEntre!que mon vin te réconforte . . . Mais non, tu passes Et de mon seuil je te vois t’éloigner Me faisant un dernier geste avec grâce Et la hanche légèrement ployée Par ta démarche féminine et lasse. . .
To recount my adventures to those curious of dreams, Raising, like Sinbad, my old Arab cup
II. The Enchanted Flute
Text and Translation continued
II. La Flûte enchantée L’ombre est douce et mon maître dort, Coiffé d’un bonnet conique de soie Et son long nez jaune en sa barbe blanche. Mais moi, je suis éveillée encor Et j’écoute au dehors Une chanson de flûte où s’épanche Tour à tour la tristesse ou la joie. Un air tour à tour langoureux ou frivole Que mon amoureux chéri joue, Et quand je m’approche de la croisée Il me semble que chaque note s’envole De la flûte vers ma joue Comme un mystérieux baiser.
Your eyes are gentle as a girl’s, Young stranger, And the delicate curve
The shadows are gentle, and my master sleeps Under his conical silk night cap And his long nose in his white beard. But I am still awake
“Spring, the Sky Rippled with Geese” Spring, the sky rippled with geese, but the green comes on slowly, timed to the ticking of downspouts. The pond, still numb from months of ice, reflects just one enthusiast this morning, a budding maple whose every twig is strung with beads of carved cinnabar, bittersweet red.
olive drab like little commandos cling to the perches, six birds at a time, ignoring the difficult ride.
To interrupt the tale, artfully. . . .
Maria Schneider (b. 1960) Poems from Winter Morning Walks; 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison, by Ted Kooser, published by Carnegie Mellon University Press
Narrer mon aventure aux curieux de rêves
From time to time to my lips
“Our Finch Feeder” Our finch feeder, full of thistle seed oily and black as ammunition, swings wildly in the wind, and the finches
And I am listening To a flute-song outside, from which pours, By turns, sadness and joy. A song by turns langorous or merry That my dear love plays, And when I go to the window
III. The Indifferent One
It seems to me that each note flies From the flute to my cheek Like a mysterious kiss.
En élevant comme Sinbad ma vieille tasse arabe De temps en temps jusqu’à mes lèvres Pour interrompre le conte avec art. . . .
Of your beautiful face, shadowed with down, Is yet more seductive of contour. On my doorstep your lips sing An unknown and charming language Like music out of tune . . . AndEnter!let my wine refresh you . . . But no, you pass, And from my doorsill I see you move away Making me a last gracious gesture, And your hips lightly swing In your languid, feminine gait. . .
Francesco Cilea (1866-1950) “Io son l’umile ancella” from Adriana Lecouvreur Libretto by Arturo Colautti
The sweetest of songs are on Musette’s lips: her voice flows as if from a spring into a thousand little fountains. She sings of youth and the silvery sound invites everyone to dance; Love leads her from her latest delight toward a new hope. In the shadow of her long eyelashes there sparkles a flirtatious laugh; and desires with talons showing take flight around her! Ah! She yields, rejects and loves again according to her heart’s desire: charms and wealth mean nothing to her: there’s only one treasure she adoreslove!
Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) “Musette svaria sulla bocca viva” from La bohème
See, I can scarcely breathe…. I am the humble maidservant of the creative spirit; he offers me the words and I make them known to people’s hearts. I give the verses their stress and echo the human drama, I am the delicate instrument that serves the hand. Quiet, happy, terrible; my name is Fidelity. My voice is but a breath which tomorrow will die.
Musette svaria sulla bocca viva le canzonette belle: rompe la voce come da sorgiva per mille fontanelle. Canta i vent’anni e al fresco tintinnire il piè muove alla danza; la scorge Amor dall’ultimo gioire alla nuova speranza. Brilla ne l’ombra dei suoi lunghi cigli un riso civettuolo; e i desideri con aperti artigli levanle intorno il volo! Ah! Ella consente, nega e rinnamora come le parli il core: non vezzi ed ori seguita: ella adora un tesorol’amor!
Ecco: respire appena…. io son l’umile ancella del Genio creator; ei m’offre la favella, io la diffondo ai cor. Del verso io son l’accento, l’eco del drama uman, il fragile strumento vassallo della man. Mite, gioconda, atroce, mi chiamo Fedeltà: un soffio è la mia voce, che la novo di morrà
The program notes, instrumentation, and roster of NCS musicians are available in our digital program book. To view the program, text the word program to 919.364.6864 or scan this QR code with your mobile device.
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