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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ABOUT THE MUSIC DIRECTOR
JAHJA LING
CD of Lucas Richman’s Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with soloists Jon Kimura Parker and Orli Shaham distributed by Naxos in 2013. Under his leadership, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra has been designated a Tier One major orchestra by the League of American Orchestras, based on a new level of unprecedented artistic excellence, its continuing increase in audience attendance as well as its solid financial stability.
JAH JA L I NG ‘s distinguished career as an internationally renowned conductor has earned him an exceptional reputation for musical integrity, intensity and expressivity. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, and now a citizen of the United States, he is the first and only conductor of Chinese descent who holds a music director position with a major orchestra in the United States and has conducted all of the major symphony orchestras in North America including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. The 2015-16 season marks his 12th season as Music Director of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. In October of 2013 Mr. Ling led the Orchestra for a sold out concert at Carnegie Hall with Lang Lang as soloist, followed by a tour to China where the Orchestra appeared in five concerts in Yantai (sister city of San Diego), Shanghai and Beijing (at the National Centre for the Performing Arts and at Tsinghua University) with soloists Joshua Bell and Augustin Hadelich. This two week tour was the first international tour and the first appearance of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall (received with great acclaim) in their 104 year history. The Orchestra’s performances conducted by Mr. Ling have also received the highest praise from public and critics alike, having been broadcast both locally and nationally. Mr. Ling and the Orchestra have recently released eight new live recordings (the Orchestra’s first in a decade). Together they have undertaken commissions as well as premieres of many new works and recorded new works of Bright Sheng for Telarc Records (released in summer of 2009) and a new P 4 PERFORMA NCES MAG A Z IN E
In recent and upcoming seasons Mr. Ling returns as guest conductor with the Adelaide Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Jakarta Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Macao Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Philharmonia Taiwan (National Symphony of Taiwan), Royal Philharmonic of London, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, West Australia Symphony as well as Yale Philharmonia and Curtis Symphony Orchestra. In June of 2012 he conducted the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra in Berlin’s O2 World on the occasion of Lang Lang’s 30th birthday concert with Lang Lang, Herbie Hancock and 50 young pianists from around the world. The concert, attended by more than 10,000 people, was also telecast live by German and Spanish TV. Mr. Ling holds one of the longest continuous relationships with one of the world’s greatest orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra. In 2014 he celebrated his 30th anniversary with that esteemed ensemble with performances at Severance Hall, the Blossom Music Festival and Palm Beach, Florida. He first served as Associate Conductor in the 1984-85 season, and then as Resident Conductor for 17 years from 1985-2002 and as Blossom Music Festival Director for six seasons (2000-05). During his tenure with the Orchestra, he conducted over 450 concerts and 600 works, including many world premieres. Among his distinguished services as Resident Conductor, Mr. Ling led the Orchestra’s annual concert in downtown Cleveland, heard by more than 1.5 million people. His telecast of A Concert in Tribute and Remembrance with the Orchestra for 9/11/2011 received an Emmy® Award. The United States House of Representatives presented a Congressional Record of his outstanding achievements in the United States Capitol in September 2006. Prior to his Cleveland appointment, Mr. Ling served as Assistant and Associate Conductor
of the San Francisco Symphony. Deeply committed to education, Mr. Ling served as founding Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (1986-93) and the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (1981-84). Mr. Ling made his European debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1988 to great acclaim. His other engagements abroad have taken him to the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, China Philharmonic in Beijing, Guangzhou Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, Macao Symphony, MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, NDR Radio Philharmonie in Hannover, NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Philharmonic of London, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Shanghai Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic and Tokyo’s Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. Mr. Ling began to play the piano at age four and studied at the Jakarta School of Music. At age 17 he won the Jakarta Piano Competition and one year later was awarded a Rockefeller grant to attend The Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Mieczysław Munz and conducting with John Nelson. After completing a master’s degree at Juilliard, he studied orchestral conducting at the Yale School of Music under Otto-Werner Mueller and received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1985. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Wooster College in 1993. In the summer of 1980 Mr. Ling was granted the Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood, and two years later he was selected by Mr. Bernstein to be a Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. As a pianist Mr. Ling won a bronze medal at the 1977 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Israel and was awarded a certificate of honor at the following year’s Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. He made his Cleveland Orchestra debut as a pianist in 1987 and has appeared as both soloist and conductor with a number of orchestras in the United States and internationally. Mr. Ling makes his home in San Diego with his wife, Jessie, and their young daughters Priscilla and Stephanie. n
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
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 29 & 31 BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 FRIDAY January 29, 2016 – 8:00pm SUNDAY January 31, 2016 – 2:00pm conductor Jahja Ling piano Horacio Gutiérrez JACOBS MASTERWORKS SERIES
All performances at The Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall
PROGRAM LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68: Pastorale Awakening of Cheerful Feelings on Arrival in the Country Scene by the Brook Merry Gathering of the Countryfolk Thunderstorm Shepherd's Song, Glad and Grateful Feelings After the Storm
INTERMISSION
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 Maestoso Adagio Rondo: Allegro non troppo Horacio Gutiérrez, piano
The approximate running time for this concert, including intermission, is one hour and fifty minutes.
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COMING UP NEXT | JACOBS MASTERWORKS SERIES
SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE
FRIDAY February 26, 2016 – 8:00pm JOSHUA WEILERSTEIN, CONDUCTOR
SATURDAY February 27, 2016 – 8:00pm SUNDAY February 28, 2016 – 2:00pm conductor Joshua Weilerstein; flute Rose Lombardo ROUSE: Bump NIELSEN: Flute Concerto BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 Hector Berlioz blazing fever-dream of a symphony highlights this Jacobs Masterworks concert which features Principal Flute Rose Lombardo and Lausanne Chamber Orchestra director Joshua Weilerstein.
ROSE LOMBARDO, FLUTE
Information and Tickets
SANDIEGOSYMPHONY.ORG or call 619.235.0804
ABOUT THE MUSIC Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68: Pastorale LU DWI G VAN BEET HOVEN Born December 17, 1770, Bonn Died March 26, 1827, Vienna After making sketches for several years, Beethoven composed his Symphony No. 6 during the summer of 1808, and it was first performed at the Theater an der Wien on December 22 of that year. The Sixth is unique among Beethoven’s symphonies because it appears to be program music. Beethoven himself gave it the nickname Pastorale and further headed each movement with a descriptive title that seems to tell a “story”: the arrival in the country, impressions beside
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a brook, a peasants’ dance that is interrupted by a thunderstorm, and a concluding hymn of thanksgiving once the storm has passed. Some have claimed that romantic music begins with the Pastorale Symphony – they see it as a precursor of such examples of musical painting as Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Mendelssohn’s fairyland scenes and Liszt’s tone poems – while others have tried to stage this music, complete with characters, costumes and scenery. Beethoven would have been astonished. He had no use for program music or musical portraiture, which he considered cheap trickery. His Sixth Symphony is in classical symphonic forms throughout; even its
“extra” movement, the famous thunderstorm, can be understood as a brief transition between the scherzo and the rondo-finale. And while this symphony refers to something outside the music itself, Beethoven wanted it understood as “an expression of feelings rather than painting.” The Sixth may lack the stark drama and tension of such predecessors as the Eroica or the Fifth, but it depends on the same use of sonata form for its musical argument, and finally it aims for the same feeling of transcendence those earlier works achieved, even if – as Joseph Kerman has wryly noted – all that is being transcended here is the weather. Beethoven liked to get out of Vienna during
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
BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 – JANUARY 29 & 31 the stifling summer months and would take rooms in a rural village, where he could combine composing with long walks through the fields and woods. A journal entry from 1815, seven years after the Pastorale, suggests his feelings about these walks: “The Almighty in the woods! I am happy, blessed in the forests.” This symphony seems similarly blessed. Its first movement (“Awakening of Cheerful Feelings on Arrival in the Country”) is built on two completely relaxed themes. These do not offer the contrast that lies at the heart of sonata form, but instead create two complementary “cheerful feelings.” One of the other unusual features of this movement is Beethoven’s use of the second measure of the opening theme in so many ways: as theme, as accompaniment, as motor rhythm. This simple falling figure saturates the movement, and over its ostinato-like repetitions Beethoven works some wonderful harmonic progressions, all aimed at preserving this movement’s sense of calm. The second movement – “Scene by the Brook” – is also in a sonata form built on two themes. The title “Scene” may imply dramatic action, but there is none here. Over murmuring lower strings, with their suggestion of bubbling water, the two themes sing gracefully. The movement concludes with three brief bird calls, which Beethoven names specifically in the score: nightingale (flute), quail (oboe) and cuckoo (clarinet). Despite the composer’s protests to the contrary, the third and fourth movements do offer pictorial representations in sound. The scherzo (“Merry Gathering of the Countryfolk”) is a portrait of a rural festival; its vigorous trio echoes the heavy stamping of a peasant dance. Beethoven offers a da capo repeat of both scherzo and trio, yet just as the scherzo is about to resume it suddenly veers off in a new direction. Tremulous strings and distant murmurings lead to the wonderful storm, which remains – nearly two centuries after its composition – the best musical depiction ever of a thunderstorm, with great crashes of thunder in the timpani and lightning flashing downward in the violins. (One desperately literal-minded early critic complained that this was the only storm he had ever heard of where the thunder came before the lightning!)
Gradually the storm moves off, and the music proceeds directly into the last movement, where solo clarinet and horn outline the tentative call of a shepherd’s pipe in the aftermath of the storm. Beethoven then magically transforms this call into his serene main theme, given out by the violins. If ever there has been music that deserved to be called radiant, it is this singing theme, which unfolds like a rainbow spread across the still-glistening heavens. The finale is a moderately-paced rondo (Beethoven’s marking is Allegretto). Along the way appear secondary themes that once again complement rather than conflict with the mood of the rondo theme, and at the end a muted French horn sings this noble melody one last time. The petulant young Debussy, an enemy of all things German, once sneered that one could learn more about nature from watching the sun rise than from listening to the Pastorale Symphony. This is strange criticism from the man who would go on to write La mer, which sets out to do exactly the same thing as the Pastorale: to evoke the emotions generated by nature rather than trying to depict that same nature literally. Beethoven did not set out to teach or to show his audience anything. Rather, he wrote a symphony in classical form, which he wanted understood as music: “It is left to the listener to discover the situations for himself…Anyone with a notion of country life can imagine the composer’s intentions without the help of titles or headings.” n
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 JOHAN N E S BR A H MS Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg Died April 3, 1897, Vienna Robert Schumann met Brahms when the latter was still just a rosy-cheeked boy of 20 but immediately recognized his talent and became his enthusiastic champion. In a review that must have seemed overpowering to the young man, Schumann proclaimed Brahms “a young eagle” and said: “When he holds his magic wand over the massed resources of chorus and orchestra, we shall be granted marvelous insights into spiritual secrets.” And almost immediately came
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disaster: Schumann went into steep mental decline, attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine and died two years later in a mental asylum. It was natural for the young composer to try to register his feelings in music (and at a subconscious level to try to justify Schumann’s faith in him), and in March 1854, only weeks after Robert’s suicide attempt, Brahms set out to create that most dramatic and challenging of forms, a symphony. He was not even 21 at this time and had never written anything for orchestra, so he first sketched this symphony as a sonata for two pianos. Brahms soon realized that he was not yet ready to compose a symphony. He abandoned the project but salvaged a great deal of music from his sketches: ten years later the symphony’s projected slow scherzo became the second movement – Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras – of his German Requiem. Brahms saw more immediate possibilities in the pianistic brilliance of the sketches and decided to transform the first movement into the opening movement of a piano concerto. Once this was completed, he composed a new slow movement and a new rondo-finale. Still desperately uncertain of his abilities, Brahms worked on this concerto for four years before he was willing to try it out in a private performance in March 1858. The first public performance did not take place until January 1859, nearly five years after he had set out to write his symphony. Brahms marks the first movement Maestoso, but it hardly feels majestic. Instead, it feels catastrophic. Brahms told Joseph Joachim that this violent opening was a depiction of his feelings when he learned of Schumann’s suicide attempt. At well over 20 minutes, this is a huge movement, and Malcolm MacDonald has described it as “nearly the longest, and probably the most dramatic, symphonic movement since Beethoven.” After the opening sound and fury, the piano makes a deceptively understated entrance, and this in turn points to a remarkable feature of this movement: in general, the orchestra has the more aggressive material, the piano the friendlier music. While the piano part is extremely difficult, this is not an ostentatiously virtuoso concerto in the manner of Liszt and other pianist-composers P E R FOR M AN C E S MAGAZ I NE P29
ABOUT THE MUSIC
BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 – JANUARY 29 & 31 at mid-century (this massive first movement has no cadenza, in fact). To call this a “symphony-concerto,” as some have done, goes too far, but such a description does point toward the unusually dramatic character of this music and its refusal to treat the piano as a display instrument. The huge exposition leads to a relatively brief development that includes a shimmering, dancing episode in D Major, but the recapitulation is long and fairly literal. It offers no emotional release, no modulation into a major key, and the movement drives unrelentingly to its close in the mood of the very opening. Relief arrives with the Adagio. In the early stages of its composition, Brahms had written in the manuscript “Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini”: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” The young Brahms had playfully addressed the older Schumann as “Domini,” and some have felt that this must be a tribute to that composer, but in a letter from December 1856 Brahms wrote to Clara: “I am also painting a lovely
portrait of you; it is to be the Adagio.” When this music was published, however, Brahms had removed the Latin inscription and any hint of larger reference. In D Major, this movement has a quiet expressiveness, an almost consoling quality after the furies of the opening movement. The last movement, a vigorous rondo, returns to the mood – and D minor tonality – of the opening. Solo piano leads the way here, and all the movement’s thematic material seems to grow out of this opening theme. The theme itself makes few literal returns but is skillfully transformed on each reappearance, including one use as the subject for a brief fugue. Brahms offers two cadenzas in this movement, the first almost Bachian in its keyboard writing, and at the end the rising shape of the rondo theme helps propel the movement – finally in D Major – to a heroic close. Initial reaction to this concerto was harsh. After a performance in Leipzig, Brahms wrote to Clara: “You have probably already heard
WHY THIS PROGRAM? WHY THESE PIECES? by Dr. Melvin G. Goldzband, Symphony Archivist
In the opinion of our conductor, “The Pastorale is the most lyrical and joyous of the Beethoven symphonies. Jahja Ling continued, “That may make it even more difficult for some conductors who may be far more used to the emotionally thunderous Beethoven, different from the natural, refreshing-sounding thunderstorm he introduces in this work. But he makes it actually easier not to be otherwise thunderous when, at the end, he introduces an old German hymn to serve as the bridge before the final movement which, in itself, is a hymn to God. It even ends with a musical “Amen,” instead of the usual lengthy Beethoven codas and endings with loud, multiply-repeated chords. All of that, of course, fits in so well with my own deep feelings of faith and hope. The feeling of the whole piece is so different from all the others, so much more lyrical. Stokowski conducted this work more than any other Beethoven symphony, including it in the original Disney Fantasia – and I have conducted it only once before here. It really needs repetition here.” Jahja Ling also told me that he really feels very close to the Brahms First Piano Concerto as both conductor and pianist. When he was much younger and more active as a pianist, he spoke of needing to prepare it for competitions. “In contrast to the symphony on
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that it was a complete fiasco; at the rehearsal it met with total silence, and at the performance (where hardly three people raised their hands to clap) it was actually hissed.” A Leipzig critic described the concerto as “a composition dragged to its grave. This work cannot give pleasure…it has nothing to offer but hopeless desolation and aridity… for more than three quarters of an hour one must endure this rooting and rummaging, this straining and tugging, this tearing and patching of phrases and flourishes! Not only must one take in this fermenting mass; one must also swallow a dessert of the shrillest dissonances and most unpleasant sounds.” It must have given Brahms particular pleasure when – 35 years later, in 1894 – he conducted a program in Leipzig that included both his piano concertos. He heard this product of his youth cheered in the same hall where it had been reviled so many years before. n PROGRAM NOTES BY ERIC BROMBERGER
this program, this Brahms concerto actually continues the heroic, fighting spirit of Beethoven in its outer movements, so familiar in so much of Beethoven's music. Everything is power in this concerto, like so much of Beethoven, but with a big, Brahmsian, romantic orchestra. Some musical authorities have referred to it as the mightiest of all piano concertos. Its second movement, though, is actually a Benedictus, and it can really be chanted as one. At the end of the great cadenza in that movement, Brahms has incorporated an old folk song about longing and loneliness, obviously reminiscent of his deep, never fulfilled feelings toward and about Clara Schumann. So despite being mighty, this concerto is also heartfelt.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY Gary Graffman was the soloist when the San Diego Symphony, under the baton of Earl Bernard Murray, presented Brahms' immensely powerful Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1961. The orchestra's ninth, most recent presentation of this great music was during the 2006-07 season, when Garrick Ohlsson was the soloist under Jahja Ling's baton. Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony, always an audience favorite, was first heard at these concerts under the direction of Earl Bernard Murray, during the season 1961-62. Jahja Ling conducted the most recent performance of this work at the Opening Weekend performances of the 2007-08 season. That was the ninth San Diego Symphony presentation of this beloved work. n
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