FROM THE
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Photo Credit: Lauren Radack
DEAR FRIENDS, We have had a very exciting fall season, welcoming new artistic partners to our stage and premiering new works by new and old composers. In January we are also featuring a new initiative as we launch a month-long festival which is the first of what we hope will be an annual occurrence. Upright & Grand focuses on the many aspects of the piano. Pianos can be found in concert halls, nightclubs, homes, schools, libraries and department stores. A pianist can play entire symphonies or a solo sonata. The piano can play the role of the orchestra in rehearsals of great opera and ballet scores, and it is a partner to instrumentalists and singers. The piano is both a solitary and independent instrument. In addition, many musical works began as a piece for piano which was then orchestrated. We are featuring many of these works such as Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition as orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, which is also the focus of our very first presentation of “Beyond the Score.”
MARTHA GILMER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
“Beyond the Score” is a creative performance that uses a narrator, actors and musical excerpts by the orchestra to explain the history and context of a piece of music. In the case of Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition, you will discover the story behind the music and its dedication to one of Mussorgsky’s friends, the artist Viktor Hartmann, after his death. After intermission, the work will be performed in its entirety. At the core of this piano festival is the array of acclaimed artists who are at the top of their profession, performing the most exciting repertoire written for the piano – all in the span of just a few weeks. Jeremy Denk, Marc-André Hamelin, Horacio Gutiérrez, Ben Folds, Joshua White, Helen Sung, Eric Reed and our very own Jahja Ling and Jessie Chang, all perform as soloists in the festival. The festival crosses over all of our presentations including Jacobs Masterworks, City Lights and the new Jazz @ The Jacobs, as well as with our collaborative partners. The La Jolla Music Society presents pianist Emanuel Ax along with Itzhak Perlman in a sonata recital at the Jacobs Music Center, as well as a solo recital by Garrick Ohlsson at the Sherwood Auditorium. The San Diego Symphony will perform in Poway as part of Poway OnStage and at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido as part of the festival. Upright & Grand offers the public the opportunity to get involved, both by performing outdoors at any of the ten “Play Me” pianos in public spaces throughout San Diego, and by joining us on January 16 for our first “Community Day” where amateur pianists are welcome to participate in master classes and events, including piano-centric workshops focused on jazz piano and technology and the opportunity to perform on the stage of Copley Symphony Hall! (See page 20 for more information about these community projects). I hope to see you at many of the performances and activities throughout the month, and I thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm. Sincerely,
Martha Gilmer Chief Executive Officer
COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Jeremy Denk – Michael Wilson S AN D IEGO SYMPHO NY ORC HE ST RA WINT ER SEA SO N J A N UAR Y 2 016
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SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
JAHJA LING, MUSIC DIRECTOR
MATTHEW GARBUTT
Principal Summer Pops Conductor
SAMEER PATEL Assistant Conductor
VIOLIN Jeff Thayer Concertmaster DEBORAH
PATE AND JOHN FORREST CHAIR
Wesley Precourt Associate Concertmaster Jisun Yang Assistant Concertmaster Alexander Palamidis Principal II Jing Yan Acting Associate Principal II Nick Grant Principal Associate Concertmaster Emeritus Randall Brinton Yumi Cho Hernan Constantino Alicia Engley Pat Francis Kathryn Hatmaker Angela Homnick Ai Nihira* Igor Pandurski Julia Pautz Susan Robboy Shigeko Sasaki Yeh Shen Anna Skálová Edmund Stein John Stubbs Pei-Chun Tsai Joan Zelickman VIOLA Chi-Yuan Chen Principal KAREN AND WARREN KESSLER CHAIR
Nancy Lochner Associate Principal Rebekah Campbell Wanda Law Qing Liang Caterina Longhi Thomas Morgan Adam Neeley* Ethan Pernela Dorothy Zeavin CELLO Yao Zhao Principal Chia-Ling Chien Associate Principal Marcia Bookstein Glen Campbell Andrew Hayhurst
Richard Levine Ronald Robboy Mary Oda Szanto Xian Zhuo
Douglas Hall
BASS
John MacFerran Wilds Ray Nowak
Jeremy Kurtz-Harris ˆ Principal OPHIE AND ARTHUR BRODY S FOUNDATION CHAIR
Susan Wulff Acting Principal Samuel Hager Acting Associate Principal W. Gregory Berton ˆ P. J. Cinque Jory Herman Margaret Johnston+ Daniel Smith* Michael Wais Sayuri Yamamoto* FLUTE Rose Lombardo Principal Sarah Tuck Erica Peel PICCOLO Erica Peel OBOE Sarah Skuster Principal
TRUMPET Micah Wilkinson Principal
TROMBONE Kyle R. Covington Principal Logan Chopyk Richard Gordon+ Michael Priddy BASS TROMBONE Michael Priddy TUBA Matthew Garbutt Principal HARP Julie Smith Phillips Principal TIMPANI Ryan J. DiLisi Principal Andrew Watkins Assistant Principal PERCUSSION Gregory Cohen Principal
Harrison Linsey Andrea Overturf
Erin Douglas Dowrey Andrew Watkins
ENGLISH HORN Andrea Overturf
PIANO/CELESTE Mary Barranger
DR. WILLIAM AND EVELYN LAMDEN ENGLISH HORN CHAIR
CLARINET Sheryl Renk Principal
ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL MANAGER Magdalena O’Neill ASSISTANT PERSONNEL MANAGER TBA
Theresa Tunnicliff Frank Renk
PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN Courtney Secoy Cohen
BASS CLARINET Frank Renk
LIBRARIAN Rachel Fields
BASSOON Valentin Martchev Principal Ryan Simmons Leyla Zamora
* Long Term Substitute Musician + Staff Opera Musician ˆ On leave
CONTRABASSOON Leyla Zamora
All musicians are members of the American Federation of Musicians Local 325.
HORN Benjamin Jaber Principal Darby Hinshaw Assistant Principal & Utility Danielle Kuhlmann Tricia Skye
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Financial support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.
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JANUARY 16 & 17 BEETHOVEN'S EMPEROR CONCERTO SATURDAY January 16, 2016 – 8:00pm SUNDAY January 17, 2016 – 2:00pm guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru piano Jeremy Denk JACOBS MASTERWORKS SERIES
All performances at The Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall
PROGRAM FRANZ LISZT (Orch. John Adams)
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
The Black Gondola
Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10 Allegretto – Allegro non troppo Allegro Lento Allegro molto – Lento
INTERMISSION LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73: Emperor Allegro Adagio un poco moto Rondo: Allegro, ma non troppo Jeremy Denk, piano
The approximate running time for this concert, including intermission, is one hour and forty minutes.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
BEETHOVEN'S EMPEROR CONCERTO – JANUARY 16 & 17 debuts with the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Dublin and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In North America, his debut appearances include the Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, New World Symphony and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. CRISTIAN MĂCELARU, CONDUCTOR
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inner of the 2014 Solti Conducting Award, C R I S T I A N M ĂC E L A R U has established himself as one of the fast-rising stars of the conducting world. With every concert he displays an exciting and highly regarded presence, thoughtful interpretations and energetic conviction on the podium. Mr. Măcelaru came to public attention in February 2012 when he conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a replacement for Pierre Boulez in performances met with critical acclaim. Since his Chicago debut, he has conducted that orchestra on subscription in three consecutive seasons. The Chicago Sun-Times exclaimed: “Măcelaru is the real thing, displaying confidence without arrogance and offering expressiveness without excess demonstration.” Conductor-in-Residence of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Măcelaru made an unexpected subscription debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in April 2013. Since then, he has conducted Philadelphia on four subscription programs and will lead a subscription program in 2015-16. Of his May 2015 concerts, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “His Beethoven showed the best summation of his talent and why Macelaru is such an upand-coming figure in his field.” The 2015-16 season sees Mr. Măcelaru make his Lincoln Center debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival in August and his New York Philharmonic debut on an all-Rachmaninoff subscription program in November. He returns on subscription to the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra in D.C. Internationally, he makes P16 PERFORMA NCE S MAG A Z IN E
Guest-conducting highlights of the 2014-15 season included Mr. Măcelaru’s Carnegie Hall debut on a program with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and AnneSophie Mutter and subscription concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and symphony orchestras of Chicago, Toronto, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Seattle. Abroad he made debuts with the U.K.’s Hallé Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony, the Hague's Residentie Orkest in the Netherlands and on a four-city tour of Germany with Ms. Mutter and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Măcelaru made his first conducting appearance at Carnegie Hall in 2012, leading a work on a program alongside Valery Gergiev in a Georg Solti Centennial Celebration. In June 2015 he made his Cincinnati Opera debut in highly acclaimed performances of Il trovatorea. In 2010 he made his operatic debut with the Houston Grand Opera in Madama Butterfly and led the U.S. premiere of Colin Matthews’s Turning Point with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as part of the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival. In addition to being appointed the 2014 Solti Fellow, Mr. Măcelaru previously received the Sir Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award in 2012, a prestigious honor only awarded once before in the Foundation’s history. He has participated in the conducting programs of the Tanglewood Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival, studying under David Zinman, Murry Sidlin, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Robert Spano, Oliver Knussen and Stefan Asbury. His main studies were with Larry Rachleff at Rice University, where he received master’s degrees in conducting and violin performance. He completed under-
graduate studies in violin performance at the University of Miami. An accomplished violinist from an early age, Mr. Măcelaru was the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Miami Symphony Orchestra and first performed at Carnegie Hall with that orchestra at the age of nineteen. He also played in the first violin section of the Houston Symphony for two seasons. Mr. Măcelaru formerly held the position of Resident Conductor at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he was Music Director of the Campanile Orchestra, Assistant Conductor to Larry Rachleff and Conductor for the Opera Department. A proponent of music education, he has served as a conductor with the Houston Youth Symphony, where he also conceptualized and created a successful chamber music program. As Founder and Artistic Director of the Crisalis Music Project, Mr. Măcelaru spearheaded a program in which young musicians perform in a variety of settings, side-by-side with established artists. Their groundbreaking inaugural season produced and presented concerts featuring chamber ensembles, a chamber orchestra, a tango operetta and collaborations with dancer Susana Collins, which resulted in a choreographed performance of Vivaldi/ Piazzolla’s Eight Seasons. Cristian Măcelaru resides in Philadelphia with his wife Cheryl and children Benjamin and Maria. n
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E R E M Y D E N K is one of America’s foremost pianists – an artist The New York Times hails as someone “you want to hear no matter what he performs.” Winner of a 2013 MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, the 2014 Avery Fisher Prize and Musical America’s 2014 Instrumentalist of the Year award, he has recently appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and London. Last season, he launched a four-season tenure as an Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and he performed Bach concertos with Academy of St. Martin-in-
SAN DI E GO SYM P H O N Y O R C H E ST R A W I N T E R S E AS O N JANUAR Y 2016
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
BEETHOVEN'S EMPEROR CONCERTO – JANUARY 16 & 17 the-Fields in London as well as on tour throughout the US. He also appeared with the New York Philharmonic and LA Philharmonic, conducted by Esa Pekka Salonen, and made his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as at the BBC Proms, both in recital and with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas. Following the release of his disc of the Goldberg Variations – which reached number one on Billboard’s Classical Chart – he performed the piece throughout Europe, including his debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and at London’s LSO St. Luke’s.
JEREMY DENK, PIANO
Mr. Denk’s 2015-16 engagements include a 14-city recital tour of the United States – including performances in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, San Francisco and Miami – culminating in his return to Carnegie Hall. He will return to the Chicago Sym-
phony performing Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto, and to the San Diego, Detroit and Baltimore Symphonies in performances of Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto. He makes his debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony, and in the UK appears on tour in recital (including a return to the Wigmore Hall) and on tour with the Britten Sinfonia in Cambridge, Norwich, Southampton and London. In a specially curated program of the Ives Violin Sonatas, he also performs in North America with Stefan Jackiw and the vocal ensemble New York Polyphony. In 2014 Mr. Denk served as Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival, for which, besides performing and curating, he wrote the libretto for a comic opera. The opera was presented by Carnegie Hall last season. Denk is known for his original and insightful writing on music, which Alex Ross praises for its “arresting sensitivity and wit.” The pianist’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Guardian and on the front page of the New York Times Book Review. One of his New Yorker contributions, “Every Good Boy Does Fine,” forms the basis of a memoir for future publication by Random House in the United States, and Macmillan in the UK. Recounting his experiences of touring, performing and practicing, his blog, Think Denk, was recently selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress web archives. In 2012 Mr. Denk made his Nonesuch debut
with a pairing of masterpieces old and new: Beethoven’s final Piano Sonata, Op. 111, and Ligeti’s Études. The album was named one of the best of 2012 by The New Yorker, NPR, and The Washington Post; Mr. Denk’s account of the Beethoven sonata was selected by BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library as the best available version recorded on modern piano. Mr. Denk has a long-standing attachment to the music of American visionary Charles Ives, and his recording of Ives’s two piano sonatas featured in many “best of the year” lists. In March 2012 the pianist was invited by Michael Tilson Thomas to appear as soloist in the San Francisco Symphony’s American Mavericks festival, and he recorded Henry Cowell’s Piano Concerto with the orchestra. Having cultivated relationships with many living composers, he currently has several commissioning projects in progress. Mr. Denk has toured frequently with violinist Joshua Bell, and their recently released Sony Classical album, French Impressions, won the 2012 Echo Klassik award. He also collaborates regularly with cellist Steven Isserlis, and he has appeared at numerous festivals, including the Italian and American Spoleto Festivals and the Verbier, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Aspen Music and Mostly Mozart Festivals. Jeremy Denk graduated from Oberlin College, Indiana University and The Juilliard School. He lives in New York City, and his website and blog are at jeremydenk.net. n
ABOUT THE MUSIC The Black Gondola (an orchestration by John Adams of Liszt’s La lugubre gondola II) F R A NZ L I S ZT Born October 22, 1811, Raiding, Hungary Died July 31, 1886, Bayreuth This piece bears the imprint of three quite different composers. Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt were once very good friends. Liszt admired Wagner’s operas, conducted the premiere of Lohengrin, and supported Wagner in many other ways. But Liszt’s daughter Cosima abandoned her husband to run off with Wagner, bear his three
illegitimate children and eventually become his wife and posthumous champion. Relations between Liszt and Wagner were badly strained in the wake of all this, and only slowly were the two composers able to resume a (somewhat) cordial relationship. In December 1882 Liszt and Wagner were both living in Venice, and one day Liszt saw a procession of black-draped funeral gondolas move across the water toward a cemetery. Instantly he was assailed by a premonition of Wagner’s death and wrote a short piece for piano that he titled La lugubre gondola,
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setting it in the rocking 6/8 meter of the barcarolle, the traditional song of the gondoliers. And then in one of those strange coincidences, Wagner died two months later in Venice (though his body was transported to Bayreuth for burial). Three years after that, Liszt returned to La lugubre gondola and revised the piece, re-casting it in 4/4 in the second version. Liszt’s career as a touring virtuoso was now long in the past, and in his final years his dedication to “hurl my javelin into the infinite space of the future,” as he defined his mission
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ABOUT THE MUSIC
BEETHOVEN'S EMPEROR CONCERTO – JANUARY 16 & 17 as a composer, led him to compose music that might be best called experimental; his late piano music brings new conceptions of form, sound and harmony. La lugubre gondola is one of those pieces. Rather than being a portrait of the funeral gondolas themselves, it is an expression of grief – and a very spare one. Textures are lean here (the melodic line is often un-harmonized), strange dissonances emerge from the quiet textures, silences interrupt the progress of the line, and rhythms are fluid (despite being in 4/4, the second version preserves some of the rocking accompaniment of the original). At several places Liszt marks the music piangendo (“weeping”), and it rises to a climax marked appassionato before falling away to drift into silence. It is a strange piece, and in its odd way a moving one. Liszt is not at first the sort of composer who might seem attractive to the American composer John Adams, who writes a very different kind of music. But Adams was drawn to the second version of La lugubre gondola, and in 1989 he arranged it for small orchestra, titling his orchestral version The Black Gondola. Adams conducted the premiere with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra on October 27, 1989. Of his arrangement, Adams said: “The music is a genuine outpouring of deeply felt loss, and its wonderfully ambivalent harmonic language is remarkably prescient, given when it was composed. The chiaroscuro of the phrasing and the swelling and receding of the long, sinuous themes seemed to call out for an orchestral treatment, although my orchestration probably owes more to Wagner than to Liszt.” Adams may acknowledge the influence of Wagner on his orchestration, but this arrangement is for a small orchestra: woodwinds in pairs, three horns (but no other brass), timpani, harp and strings. n
Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10 D MI TR I S H O STAKOVICH Born September 25, 1906, St. Petersburg Died August 9, 1975, Moscow In the fall of 1924 a music student sat down at his desk in frosty St. Petersburg to complete a graduation requirement: he had to write a symphony. Dmitri Shostakovich – thin, P18 PERFORMA NCES MAG A Z IN E
needle-sharp and nervous (at eighteen, he was already a chain-smoker) – got the first two movements done by December and the third in January 1925. Then he stopped. A friend lay dying, and the teenaged composer had to force himself to complete the finale in April. He pressed on to finish the orchestration on July 1, satisfying the assignment. But what he had written was not just an academic exercise. Premiered in St. Petersburg on May 1, 1926, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 went around the world like a shot. Bruno Walter led it in Berlin the following year, Stokowski conducted the American premiere in 1928, and even Arturo Toscanini – no particular friend of new music – introduced it to New York Philharmonic audiences in 1931. Almost overnight, an unknown Russian music student had become a household word – and for good reason. Unlike the other “student” symphony to make it into the repertory – the Bizet – Shostakovich’s First is a mature work of art by a composer with a distinct voice and in command of all the resources to bring that voice to life. In retrospect, this symphony’s success should have been no surprise. This is fun music, alive with a fizzing energy that can be cheeky one second, lyric the next. And at 18, Shostakovich already had an instinctive grasp on symphonic form, that unteachable ability to make basic ideas evolve into fullscale musical structures. (Even Schoenberg – no admirer of Shostakovich’s music – conceded that the young composer had “the breath of the symphonist.”) Also apparent from this youthful start is Shostakovich’s assured command of the orchestra – this symphony just plain sounds good, with imaginative solos for winds and strings, unusual groupings of instruments and a dynamic range that extends from the delicate to the ear-splitting. An original voice rings out from the first instant, where a muted trumpet sets the piquant tone, and this Allegretto introduction presents theme-shapes that will evolve across the span of the symphony. At the Allegro non troppo the clarinet spins out the saucy main idea (this symphony has a terrific part for solo clarinet), and the second subject arrives as a limpid, off-the-beat little waltz for solo flute – the ballerina from
Stravinsky’s Petrushka was clearly dancing in young Shostakovich’s memory as he wrote this. After all its energy, this sonata-form movement vanishes in a wisp of sound. The brusque start of the second movement – a scherzo marked Allegro – turns into a blistering dance for ricochet violins, and off the movement flies, enlivened by the sound of the piano, which had been silent until now. The central episode is introduced by a pair of flutes, whose wistful little duet gives way to a lugubriously slow return of the opening. This is a wonderful moment: slowly the music eases ahead, then takes off, and Shostakovich deftly combines his main themes as the music races at white heat to a sudden stop. Three fierce piano chords crack through that silence, and the music disintegrates before us. Writing to a friend just after completing these two movements, Shostakovich caught their character perfectly: “In general, I am satisfied with the symphony. Not bad. A symphony like any other, although it really ought to be called a symphony-grotesque.” And this points toward a curious feature of the First Symphony – it falls into two distinctly different halves. The grotesquerie of the first two movements gives way to a much darker tone in the final two. Solo oboe sings the angular, grieving main melody of the Lento, a subtle evolution of the first movement’s main theme, but in the course of this movement an entirely new idea begins to intrude: a six-note motto is stamped out by the trumpets and then repeated across the remainder of the movement. The Lento fades away on faint echoes of the motto, and without pause a snare drum rushes us into the anguished beginning of the finale. This movement will be full of surprises, pitching between madcap energy one moment, dark chamber music the next, and it seems to race to a thunderous cadence. But this is a false ending. Out of that silence, the timpani stamps out the six-note motto (now inverted), and slowly this motto nudges the music ahead – gently at first, then faster, and then in a rush to the emphatic close. Shostakovich died exactly 50 years after he completed his Symphony No. 1 during the summer of 1925, and over that half-century he would compose 14 more symphonies. He would have one of the most difficult
SAN DI E GO SYM P H O N Y O R C H E ST R A W I N T E R S E AS O N JANUAR Y 2016
ABOUT THE MUSIC
BEETHOVEN'S EMPEROR CONCERTO – JANUARY 16 & 17 careers ever endured by an artist, a life tormented by suffocating political repression, foreign invasion and personal tragedy. Written before these catastrophes, the First Symphony reminds us that the essence of Shostakovich’s mature musical language – a sardonic wit, a Mahler-like fusion of the tragic and the commonplace and an assured handling of the orchestra – were all present in this dazzling music by an 18-year-old. n
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73: Emperor LU DW I G VA N B EET HOVEN Born December 17, 1770, Bonn Died March 26, 1827, Vienna In the spring of 1809 Napoleon – intent upon consolidating his hold on Europe – went to war with Austria. He laid siege to Vienna in May, and after a brief bombardment the city surrendered to the French and was occupied through the remainder of the year. The royal family fled early in May and did not return until January 1810, but Beethoven remained behind throughout the shelling and occupation, and it was during this period that he completed his Piano Concerto No. 5. Some critics have been ready to take their cue from the French occupation and to understand the concerto as Beethoven’s response to it. Alfred Einstein identified what he called a “military character” in this music, and Maynard Solomon has particularized this, hearing “warlike rhythms, victory motifs, thrusting melodies and affirmative character” in it. But far from being swept up in the fervor of the fighting, Beethoven found the occupation a source of stress and depression. During the shelling, he hid in the basement of his brother Caspar’s house, where he wrapped his head in pillows to protect his ears. To his publishers, Beethoven wrote: “The course of events has affected my body and soul…Life around me is wild and disturbing, nothing but drums, cannons, soldiers, misery of every sort.” The concerto he wrote during this period may be noble and powerful music, but it is noble and powerful in spite of the military occupation rather than because of it. And in fact, Beethoven had done much of the work on the concerto before the French army entered Vienna: his earliest sketches date from February 1809, and he appears to
have had the concerto largely complete by April, before the fighting began. Beethoven defies expectations from the opening instant of this music. The Allegro bursts to life with a resplendent E-flat Major chord for the whole orchestra, but this is not the start of the expected orchestral exposition. Instead, that chord opens the way for a cadenza by the solo piano, a cadenza that the orchestra punctuates twice more with powerful chords before sweeping into the movement’s main theme and the true exposition. This first movement is marked by a spaciousness and grandeur far removed from Beethoven’s misery over the fighting that wracked Vienna. This is music of shining sweep, built on two main ideas, both somewhat in the manner of marches: the strings’ vigorous main subject and a poised second theme, sounded first by the strings, then repeated memorably as a duet for horns. After so vigorous an exposition, the entrance of the piano feels understated, as it ruminates on the two main themes, but soon the piano part – full of octaves, wide leaps, and runs – turns as difficult as it is brilliant. This Allegro is music of an unusual spaciousness: at a length of nearly 20 minutes, it is one of Beethoven’s longest first movements (and is longer than the final two movements combined). Beethoven maintains strict control; he does not allow the soloist the freedom to create his own cadenza but instead writes out a brief cadential treatment of the movement’s themes. The Adagio un poco mosso transports us to a different world altogether. Gone is the energy of the first movement, and now we seem in the midst of sylvan calm. Beethoven moves to the remote key of B Major and mutes the strings, which sing the hymn-like main theme. There follow two extended variations on that rapt melody. The first, for piano over quiet accompaniment, might almost be labeled “Chopinesque” in its expressive freedom, while the second is for winds, embellished by the piano’s steady strands of sixteenth notes. As he did in the Piano Concerto No. 4, Beethoven links the second and third movements, and that transition is made most effectively here. The second movement concludes on a low B, and then Beethoven drops everything one half-step to B-flat. Out
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of that expectant change, the piano begins, very gradually, to outline a melodic idea, which struggles to take shape and direction. And then suddenly it does – it is as if these misty imaginings have been hit with an electric current that snaps them to vibrant life as the main theme of final movement. This Allegro is a vigorous rondo that alternates lyric episodes with some of Beethoven’s most rhythmically energized writing – this music always seems to want to dance. Near the close comes one of its most striking moments, a duet for piano and timpani, which taps out the movement’s fundamental rhythm. And then the piano leaps up to energize the full orchestra, which concludes with one final recall of the rondo theme. At the time he wrote this concerto, Beethoven was 38, and his hearing was deteriorating rapidly. It had become so weak by this time that he knew he could not give the first performance of the concerto; this is the only one of his piano concertos for which he did not give the premiere. That premiere had to wait two years after the concerto’s completion. It took place in Leipzig on November 28, 1811, with Friedrich Schuster as soloist. That performance, which Beethoven did not attend, was a great success; a reviewer wrote that “It is without doubt one of the most original, imaginative, most effective but also one of the most difficult of all existing concertos…the crowded audience was soon put into such a state of enthusiasm that it could hardly content itself with the ordinary expressions of recognition and enjoyment.” But the Vienna premiere – on February 12, 1812, with Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny as soloist – did not have a success. One journal noted the difficulty of the music and suggested that “It can be understood and appreciated only by connoisseurs.” The nickname Emperor did not originate with the composer, and Beethoven’s denunciation of Napoleon’s self-coronation several years earlier suggests that he would not have been sympathetic to it at all. Despite various theories, the source of that nickname remains unknown, and almost certainly Beethoven never heard this concerto referred to by the nickname that we use reflexively today. n PROGRAM NOTES BY ERIC BROMBERGER
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ABOUT THE MUSIC
BEETHOVEN'S EMPEROR CONCERTO – JANUARY 16 & 17 PERFORMANCE HISTORY
by Dr. Melvin G. Goldzband, Symphony Archivist The Liszt piano piece, The Black Gondola, is being played at these concerts for its first hearing here, using an orchestral transcription by the American composer, John Adams. The Symphony No. 1 by Dimitri Shostakovich was premiered as his graduation thesis at the Leningrad Conservatory under the direction of Nicolai Malko, who showed the score to the impressed visiting conductor Bruno Walter, and subsequently fled the then-new Soviet Union – not because of the Shostakovich work, of course, but because of political persecution. The two maestri took the piece all over the musical world, including Chicago, where I first heard it, under Malko, introducing it and Shostakovich to numerous audiences who always were initially surprised at the very self-announcing composer's intentional nose-thumbing brashness. In time, it has ceased to be surprising at all, and it has become a frequently-played selection of the standard musical repertory. Earl Bernard Murray introduced it here in the 1959-60 season, and the performances at this concert are its sixth here. It had last been played by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra during the 1994-95 season, under the guest baton of Otto-Werner Mueller. The appropriately nicknamed Emperor Concerto, the fifth of Beethoven's piano concerti, was introduced to San Diego Symphony Orchestra audiences when Rudolf Serkin played it under Robert Shaw's direction during the 1955 summer season. A deserved favorite of all audiences (as well of great pianists), the current performances here are the 20th presentation of this great work, preceded by the 2012-13 season performance by Lang Lang, under Jahja Ling’s direction. n
HANDS ON: Play A Little, Learn A Lot
PLAY ME: Pianos In Public Spaces
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 12PM-5PM
JANUARY 8 – FEBRUARY 8
Jacobs Music Center
FREE Community Day
For one day only, we’re inviting the community into our concert hall for FREE for some “hands on” piano fun! Walk onto the Copley Symphony Hall stage for an opportunity to perform in front of all your friends and neighbors.
GUIDANCE FOR ALL LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE MASTERCLASSES • WORKSHOPS • PERFORMANCES
San Diego is about to be invaded… by a fleet of colorfully painted pianos! They’ll pop up where you least expect, and you’re invited to sit down and play your heart out. You’ll see some UPtown, you’ll see some DOWNtown, you’ll be seeing pianos ALL AROUND! Whether it’s CHOP-sticks or CHOP-in, all that matters is that you make those keys and pedals sing! LIBERTY STATION/NTC • CALIFORNIA CENTER FOR THE ARTS • THE QUARTYARD • IRVINE BOX OFFICE LOBBY AT SYMPHONY TOWERS • HORTON PLAZA • THE OLD GLOBE COURTYARD AT BALBOA PARK • THE HEADQUARTERS • DOWNTOWN CENTRAL LIBRARY • MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SD DOWNTOWN • CORONADO FERRY LANDING
More Information
SANDIEGOSYMPHONY.ORG P 20 PERFORMA NCES MAG A Z IN E
SAN DI E GO SYM P H O N Y O R C H E ST R A W I N T E R S E AS O N JANUAR Y 2016
SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
PATRON INFORMATION
TICKET OFFICE HOURS Jacobs Music Center Ticket Office (750 B Street) Monday through Friday, 10 am to 6 pm Concert Tuesdays through Fridays: 10 am through intermission Concert Weekends: 12 noon through intermission
be allowed into the concert hall. They must be held by an adult and may not occupy a seat, unless they have a ticket.
SUBSCRIPTIONS San Diego Symphony Orchestra offers an attractive array of subscription options. Subscribers receive the best available seats and (for Traditional subscribers) free ticket exchanges (up to 48 hours in advance for another performance within your series). Other subscriber-only benefits include priority notice of special events and (for certain packages) free parking. For more information, call the Ticket Office at 619.235.0804.
UNUSED TICKETS Please turn in unused subscription tickets for resale to the Ticket Office or by mailing them to 1245 7th Ave., San Diego, CA 92101 (Attn: Ticket Office). Tickets must be turned in anytime up to 24 hours in advance of your concert. A receipt will be mailed acknowledging your tax-deductible contribution.
TICKET EXCHANGE POLICY • Aficionado subscribers may exchange into most Winter series concerts for free! All exchanges are based on ticket availability. • Traditional subscribers receive the best available seats and may exchange to another performance within their series for free. Build Your Own subscribers and Non-subscribers can do the same, with a $5 exchange fee per ticket. • Exchanged tickets must be returned to the Ticket Office 24 hours prior to the concert by one of the following ways: In person, by mail (1245 Seventh Ave., San Diego, CA 92101, Attn: Ticket Office) or by fax (619.231.3848). LOST TICKETS San Diego Symphony concert tickets can be reprinted at the Ticket Office with proper ID. GROUP SALES Discount tickets for groups are available for both subscription and non-subscription concerts (excluding outside events). For further information, please call 619.615.3941. YOUNGER AUDIENCES POLICY Jacobs Masterworks, Classical Specials, and Chamber Music: No children under five years of age will be allowed into the concert hall. Children five and older must have a ticket and be able to sit in an unaccompanied seat. City Lights, Jazz @ The Jacobs, International Passport, Fox Theatre Film Series: No children under the age of two years will be allowed into the concert hall. Children two and older must have a ticket and be able to sit in a seat. Family Festival Concerts: Children three years and older must have a ticket and be able to sit in a seat. Babies and children two years old and younger who are accompanied by a parent will
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GIFT CERTIFICATES Gift certificates may be purchased in any amount at the Jacobs Music Center Ticket Office in person, online, by phone, or by mail. They never expire!
Large-Print Programs: Large-print program notes are available for patrons at all Jacobs Masterworks concerts. Copies may be obtained from an usher. PUBLIC RESTROOMS AND TELEPHONES Restrooms are located on the north and south ends of the upper lobby, and the north end of the lower lobby. An ADA compliant restroom is located on each floor. Please ask an usher for assistance at any time. Patrons may contact the nearest usher to facilitate any emergency telephone calls. COUGH DROPS Complimentary cough suppressants are available to symphony patrons. Please ask our house staff for assistance.
QUIET ZONE Please turn all cellular and paging devices to the vibrate or off position upon entry into Symphony Hall. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated by fellow concertgoers and performers.
LOST & FOUND Report all lost and/or found items to your nearest usher. If you have discovered that you misplaced something after your departure from Jacobs Music Center, call the Facilities Department at 619.615.3909.
RECORDING DEVICES No unauthorized cameras or recording devices of any other kind are allowed inside the concert hall. Cell phone photography is not permitted.
PRE-CONCERT TALKS Patrons holding tickets to our Jacobs Masterworks Series concerts are invited to come early for “What’s The Score?” preperformance conversations beginning 45 minutes prior to all Jacobs Masterworks programs (Fridays and Saturdays, 7:15 pm; Sundays, 1:15 pm).
SMOKING POLICY Smoking is not permitted in Jacobs Music Center, its lobbies or the adjoining Symphony Towers lobby. Ashtrays can be found outside the building on both 7th Avenue and B Street. ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES AND REFRESHMENTS Alcoholic beverages are available for sale in Jacobs Music Center lobbies before the concert and during intermission. Please have valid identification available and please drink responsibly. Refreshment bars offering snacks and beverages are located on both upper and lower lobbies for most events. Food and beverages are not allowed in performance chamber for concerts. LATE SEATING Latecomers will be seated at an appropriate interval in the concert as determined by the house manager. We ask that you remain in your ticketed seat until the concert has concluded. Should special circumstances exist or arise, please contact the nearest usher for assistance. SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS Seating: ADA seating for both transfer and non-transfer wheelchairs, as well as restrooms, are available at each performance. Please notify the Ticket Office in advance at 619.235.0804, so that an usher may assist you. Assistive Listening Devices: A limited number of hearing enhancement devices are available at no cost. Please ask an usher for assistance.
HALL TOURS Free tours of the Jacobs Music Center are given each month of the winter season. Check the “Jacobs Music Center” section of the website, or call 619.615.3955 for more details. No reservations are necessary.
JACOBS MUSIC CENTER TICKET OFFICE 750 B Street (NE Corner of 7th and B, Downtown San Diego) San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619.235.0804 Fax: 619.231.3848 SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ADMINISTRATION OFFICE 1245 7th Avenue San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619.235.0800 Fax: 619.235.0005
Our Website: SanDiegoSymphony.com
Contact us to receive mailed or e-mailed updates about Orchestra events. All artists, programs and dates are subject to change.
SAN DI E GO SYM P H O N Y O R C H E ST R A W I N T E R S E AS O N JANUAR Y 2016