PROGRAM LEONARD BERNSTEIN Three Dance Variations from Fancy Free Galop Waltz Danzon LEONARD BERNSTEIN Serenade (After Plato's "Symposium") Phaedras—Pausanias: Lento - Allegro Aristophanes: Allegretto Eryximachus: Presto Agathon: Adagio Socrates—Alcibiades: Molto tenuto - Allegro molto
Simone Lamsma, violin
FABIEN GABEL
INTERMISSION
Friday, May 4 | 8PM Sunday, May 6 | 2PM
DANCES, SUITES AND SERENADES A Jacobs Masterworks Concert
RICHARD STRAUSS Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59 JACQUES OFFENBACH Arr. by Manuel Rosenthal Selections from Gaîeté parisienne Ouverture No. 1: Allegro brillante No. 2: Polka No. 6: Allegro No. 8: Valse lente No. 10: Valse moderato No. 13: Allegro molto No. 15: Allegro
conductor Fabien Gabel violin Simone Lamsma
No. 16: Cancan No. 22: Vivo
All performances at the Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall
This concert is made possible, in part, through the generosity of Phyllis and David Snyder
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The approximate running time for this program, including intermission, is one hour and forty-five minutes. S AN DIEG O SYM P H O N Y O RC H ES T RA 2 0 1 7-1 8 S E A S ON M AY 20 1 8
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS Recognized internationally as one of the stars of the new generation, FABIEN GABEL is a regular guest of major orchestras in Europe, North America and Asia. He has been music director of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra since September 2013, and was recently appointed music director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes (French Youth Orchestra). Following a highly-anticipated debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. Gabel embarks on an exciting 2017-18 season that will take him across the United States and Europe, including highprofile performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt’s Hessischer Rundfunk Orchester and the Orchestre de Paris. Additional American appearances include performances with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony and the San Diego Symphony. After an acclaimed debut with the Deutsches Sinfonie Orchestra last season, Gabel’s European engagements will again feature concerts throughout Germany (Staatskapelle Weimar in addition to Frankfurt) as well as welcome returns to the Orchestre de Paris, Helsinki Philharmonic, Antwerp Philharmonic and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Gabel has conducted leading orchestras around the world, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg, the DSO Berlin, Staatskappelle Dresden, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Santa Cecilia di Roma and the Seoul Philharmonic, among others. His rapidly expanding U.S. presence has seen him leading the Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and more.
Concert Sponsor Spotlight
PHYLLIS AND DAVID SNYDER
Dave Snyder has served on the Symphony Board since 2012 and is currently Chair-Elect. DAVE and PHYLLIS co-chaired the Opus Gala in 2012.
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Mr. Gabel has worked with soloists like Emanuel Ax, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Julian Steckel, Johannes Moser, Antonio Meneses, Marc-André Hamelin, Beatrice Rana, Gautier Capuçon and Simone Lamsma, and singers such as Jennifer Larmore, Measha Brueggergosman, Danielle de Niese, Natalie Dessay and Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Mr. Gabel had first attracted international attention in 2004 winning the Donatella Flick competition in London, which subsequently led to his appointment as the London Symphony Orchestra’s assistant conductor for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. Since then, the LSO has engaged him regularly as a guest conductor. He made his professional conducting debut in 2003 with the Orchestre National de France and has since returned frequently. He now regularly conducts this orchestra in subscription concerts at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and recently recorded a French opera aria CD with them and mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Naïve). Born in Paris and a member of a family of accomplished musicians, Fabien Gabel began studying trumpet at the age of six, honing his skills at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, which awarded him a First Prize in trumpet in 1996, and later at the Musik Hochschule of Karlsruhe. He went on to play in various Parisian orchestras under the direction of prominent conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle and Bernard Haitink. In 2002 Fabien Gabel pursued his interest in conducting at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, where he studied with David Zinman, who invited him to appear as a guest conductor at the Festival in 2009. He has worked as an assistant with Bernard Haitink and Sir Colin Davis. n Hailed for her “brilliant…polished, expressive and intense” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and “absolutely stunning” (Chicago Tribune) playing, Dutch violinist SIMONE LAMSMA is respected by critics, peers and audiences as one of classical music’s most striking and captivating musical personalities. With an extensive repertoire of over 60 violin concertos, Ms. Lamsma’s recent seasons have seen her perform with many of the world’s leading orchestras. Notable recent highlights include her debut with the Chicago Symphony, described by the Chicago Tribune as “piercingly beautiful”, as well as performances with The
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PROGRAM NOTES | DANCES, SUITES AND SERENADES – MAY 4 & 6 Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, National Symphony Washington, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, Les Siècles, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Hessischer Rundfunk, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, RTVE Symphony, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony and a tour of China with the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden. Highlights for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons include debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig, Basque National Orchestra and Sydney Symphony, and returns to the Warsaw Philharmonic, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, RTE National Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, Quebec Symphony, Oregon Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony. In addition she will be returning to the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Past seasons also marked several premières of new works by Ms. Lamsma, among which were the world première of a violin concerto by Matijs de Roo during the ZaterdagMatinee series at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and a successful performance of the French première of Michel van der Aa’s Violin Concerto with the Orchestre National de Lyon. Stand-out recent festival appearances include her return to the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Festival in 2015, debuts during the Enescu Festival with Les Siècles under François–Xavier Roth, Bravo! Vail Festival with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden and the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, about which the San Diego Reader wrote: “[Lamsma] appeared to be engaged with Beethoven on a level we seldom encounter… Beethoven’s music was coming through her in a pure state.” Besides her close collaboration with Jaap van Zweden, Ms. Lamsma has worked many other eminent conductors including Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Neville Marriner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, James Gaffigan, Sir Andrew Davis, Mark Wigglesworth, Andrès Orozco-Estrada, Jiří Bělohlávek, Carlos Kalmar, Marc Albrecht, Stéphane Denève, Edo de Waart, Hannu Lintu, Juanjo Mena, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Lawrence Foster, Robert Trevino, Fabien Gabel, François–Xavier Roth and James Feddeck. A dedicated chamber musician, recent recital appearances include Ms. Lamsma’s highly anticipated debuts in London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall in March 2017 with pianist Robert Kulek.
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Ms. Lamsma’s most recent recording featuring Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto and Gubaidulina’s In Tempus Praesens with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic under James Gaffigan and Reinbert de Leeuw was released in 2017 on Challenge Classics and received high accolades from the press, as did her previous Mendelssohn, Janáček and Schumann CD with pianist Robert Kulek. In addition to her many international prizes and distinctions, Ms. Lamsma was awarded the national Dutch VSCD Classical Music Prize in the category “New Generation Musicians” in 2010, awarded by the Association of Dutch Theatres and Concert Halls to artists that have made remarkable and valuable contributions to the Dutch classical music scene. In 2011 Ms. Lamsma was invited to perform during the Queen’s Day Concert, in the presence of HRH Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands – a concert that was broadcast nationally on Dutch television. Simone Lamsma began studying the violin at the age of 5 and moved to the UK at age 11 to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Professor Hu Kun. At the age of 14 Ms. Lamsma made her professional solo debut with the North Netherlands Orchestra performing Paganini’s 1st Violin Concerto; her debut was highly praised by the press. She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Professor Hu Kun and Professor Maurice Hasson, where she graduated aged 19 with first class honors and several prestigious awards. In 2011 she was made an Associate of the RAM, an honor given to those students who have made significant and distinguished contributions to their field. She currently lives in The Netherlands. Ms. Lamsma plays the “Mlynarski” Stradivarius (1718), on generous loan to her by an anonymous benefactor. n
ABOUT THE MUSIC Three Dance Variations from Fancy Free LEONARD BERNSTEIN Born August 25, 1918, Lawrence, MA Died October 14, 1990, New York City Some musical geography is necessary here, because the situation can be confusing. In the fall of 1943, the 25-year-old Leonard Bernstein became an overnight sensation when he replaced an ailing Bruno Walter and led a nationally-broadcast concert by the New York Philharmonic. At exactly the same moment, choreographer Jerome Robbins approached Bernstein and proposed that he write a ballet about three sailors on leave in New
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PROGRAM NOTES | DANCES, SUITES AND SERENADES – MAY 4 & 6 York City. This became Fancy Free, Bernstein’s first ballet, and it was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on April 18, 1944. That summer, Bernstein’s friend, the lyricist Adolph Green, suggested to the young composer that the situation of the ballet – three sailors on leave in New York City – could be made into a musical. Bernstein quickly composed the music, and On the Town opened on Broadway in December 1944 and ran for 463 performances. But while the situation of the ballet and the musical comedy are exactly the same, the music is not. Bernstein was adamant that “not one note” of Fancy Free appeared in On the Town – he composed the musical absolutely fresh. Fancy Free was the first ballet by both Robbins and Bernstein, and it was an instant success: The New York Times reviewer called it “a smash hit.” The plot of Fancy Free is quite simple. Three sailors have a 24-hour pass in wartime New York City. They go into a bar in search of companionship and eventually interest two young women. But three sailors and two women make an awkward combination. Someone will be left out, so the sailors devise a solution: each will dance, the women will choose the “loser” among the three dances, and he will have to leave. Each sailor performs his dance, but the women are unable to choose. At this point the sailors get into a terrific fistfight, and the horrified women vanish. The sailors pick themselves up, regroup, and set off in pursuit of the next attractive woman who passes by. Bernstein pulled a suite of movements out of Fancy Free and led the premiere with the Pittsburgh Symphony on January 14, 1945. The present concert offers three movements from Fancy Free that are often performed by themselves under the title “Three Dance Variations.” These are the dances the individual sailors dance in their competition for the women: a spirited Galop, a slinky Waltz and a jazzy Danzon. n
Serenade (After Plato’s “Symposium”) LEONARD BERNSTEIN Born August 25, 1918, Lawrence, MA Died October 14, 1990, New York City Three unrelated events in the early 1950s led Leonard Bernstein to compose his Serenade. In June 1951 Bernstein’s mentor Serge Koussevitzky died, and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation commissioned an orchestral work from the young composerconductor in his memory. Second, violinist Isaac Stern asked Bernstein to write a violin concerto for him. And finally, while staying at an inn in Cuernevaca, Mexico, in the fall of 1953, Bernstein discovered in his room a copy of Plato’s Symposium, a work he had read while a student at Harvard. The Symposium tells of a dinner party for the friends of Socrates in Athens at which they discuss the nature of love. Bernstein, who was on
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his honeymoon at that time, was particularly struck by their examination of the meaning of love. He decided to make that dinner-party-with-discussion the basis of his violin concerto for Stern, a work that also satisfied the commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation. He began the new piece, which he called a “serenade” rather than a “concerto,” later that the fall and finished it while on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard during the summer of 1954. Stern was soloist and Bernstein the conductor at the premiere in Venice on September 12, 1954. Plato’s Symposium, an account told by Apollodorus, takes place during a dinner at the home of Agathon in Athens. The literal meaning of “symposium” is “drinking party,” but at such a gathering the point was to allow each guest not only to drink but to participate fully in the discussion of the topic of the evening. At this symposium each of the guests – Pausanias, Erixymachus, Alcibiades and the rest – contributes his own views on love. While each section of Bernstein’s Serenade bears the name of one of these speakers, listeners need not know Plato’s Symposium to understand or enjoy this music. In fact, it might be simplest to take Bernstein’s movement titles only as a general guide and listen to the Serenade as a virtuoso work for violin and orchestra; though this may not be called a “Violin Concerto,” Isaac Stern clearly got his wish for a concerto. Bernstein chose his title carefully–a “serenade” is a love-song – and he described his Serenade as “a series of related statements in praise of love.” Formally, the Serenade might be thought of as a sequence of progressive variations: it is in five movements, and each of these grows out of material presented in the previous movement. Bernstein used the Symposium only as a general guide for his piece – he re-arranged the order of the speakers and eliminated several of them. He also recognized that few listeners would be familiar with Plato, so he prepared a general program note “for the benefit of those interested in literary allusion.” That note is worth quoting at length: I. Phaedrus; Pausanias (Lento; Allegro). Phaedrus opens the symposium with a lyrical oration in praise of Eros, the god of love (Fugato, begun by the solo violin). Pausanias continues by describing the duality of lover and beloved. This is expressed in a classical sonata-allegro, based on the material of the opening fugato. II. Aristophanes (Allegretto). Aristophanes does not play the role of clown in this dialogue, but instead that of the bedtime storyteller, invoking the fairy-tale mythology of love. III. Erixymachus (Presto). The physician speaks of bodily harmony as a scientific model for the workings of love-patterns. This is an extremely short fugato scherzo, born of a blend of mystery and humor.
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PROGRAM NOTES | DANCES, SUITES AND SERENADES – MAY 4 & 6 IV. Agathon (Adagio). Perhaps the most moving speech of the dialogue. Agathon’s panegyric embraces all aspects of love’s powers, charms and functions. This movement is a simple three-part song. V. Socrates; Alcibiades (Molto tenuto; Allegro molto vivace). Socrates describes his visit to the seer Diotima, quoting her speech on the demonology of love. This is a slow introduction of greater weight than any of the preceding movements, and serves as a highly developed reprise of the middle section of the Agathon movement, thus suggesting a hidden sonata-form. The famous interruption by Alcibiades and his band of drunken revelers ushers in the Allegro, which is an extended rondo ranging in spirit from agitation through jig-like dance music to joyful celebration. If there is a hint of jazz in the celebration, I hope it will not be taken as anachronistic Greek party-music, but rather the natural expression of a contemporary American composer imbued with the spirit of that timeless dinner-party. Bernstein conceived this music with Isaac Stern’s talents specifically in mind, and there is some spectacular writing for violin here – it is by turn lyric, brilliant, reflective, animated. If one hears traces of jazz and Stravinsky in this music, Bernstein makes those influences fully his own, and the range of sounds he gets from his string-and-percussion orchestra is striking. There may have been many influences on the creation of the Serenade, but the result was one of Bernstein’s most successful works for the concert hall. n
Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59 RICHARD STRAUSS Born June 11, 1864, Munich Died September 8, 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen Richard Strauss achieved international notoriety with a pair of shocking operas in the first decade of the twentieth century. Salome (1907), based on the Oscar Wilde play and essentially a study in sexual pathology, included the infamous Dance of the Seven Veils and the appearance on stage of the decapitated head of John the Baptist. Electra (1909), the story of the murder of Agamemnon and the revenge of his children, went even further in its lurid details and harmonic dislocation. Both operas were huge successes (and both made the composer a great deal of money), but he himself felt that he had gone too far with them, and now he wanted to pull back from the brink and write something sparkling, light and fun. That new direction came quickly. In February 1909, only a month after the premiere of Electra, Strauss’ librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote him a letter, suggesting a new project: “I have spent three quiet afternoons here drafting the
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full and entirely original scenario for an opera, full of burlesque situations and characters, with lively action, pellucid almost like a pantomime. There are opportunities in it for lyrical passages, for fun and humor…Period: the old Vienna under Empress Maria Theresa.” That sketch would become, with considerable modification, Der Rosenkavalier, which Strauss composed in 1909-10. The premiere in Dresden on January 26, 1911, was a complete success, and Der Rosenkavalier remains one of the most impressive (and best-loved) operas ever written. And for very good reasons. At one level, it is a satisfying love story, as young Octavian (a role sung by a soprano) falls in love with the beautiful young Sophia. At another level, it is terrific comedy, as the boorish Baron von Ochs is outwitted at every turn. But finally Der Rosenkavalier touches something deeper: the aging Marschallin begins the opera as Octavian’s lover but eventually recognizes the rightness of his love for Sophia, releases him, and accepts life and her role with dignity. Lotte Lehmann, one of the great singers to take the part of the Marschallin, said of her: “To experience growing old with dignity, to endure the inevitable with a smile, that is her determination, her philosophy, her realization. It is the way of the world.” The Marschallin, however, stands for something much more important than a wise older woman. Her given names – Maria Therese – are also those of Vienna’s great eighteenth-century empress, and the Marschallin comes to symbolize an older Vienna, a city of vanished elegance, a code of behavior, and civility. In a famous remark late in his long life, Strauss said, “I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.” Listening to Der Rosenkavalier, however, it is hard to place Strauss anywhere but among the absolute first rank of composers. This is some of the greatest music ever written – sparkling, beautiful, brilliant, moving, subtle, energetic – all of it perfectly conceived for the complex human situations that are evolving onstage. And along the way it offers some of the most memorable waltzes ever to set an audience swaying along with them. The opera was such a success that special “Rosenkavalier trains” ran from Berlin to Dresden to carry the thousands of people who wanted to see it. Strauss’ music is too good to remain in the opera house, but Rosenkavalier is a difficult opera to excerpt because it is a unified music-drama rather than a series of set-pieces that can be detached easily for concert performances. Various people (the conductor Artur Rodzinski among them) have drawn symphonic suites from the opera by gathering and stitching together its purely instrumental sequences, and music from Der Rosenkavalier is performed in various forms (including – sometimes – just the waltz sequences). The version performed at these concerts, published by Boosey and Hawkes, has become the most famous of these, but its provenance is unclear – did Strauss himself assemble
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PROGRAM NOTES | DANCES, SUITES AND SERENADES – MAY 4 & 6 this version? No one knows. In any case, this Suite offers some of the best-loved music from the opera, and listeners will recognize favorite moments. This suite opens with the opera’s buoyant introduction, then includes music drawn from the opening lovescene, the presentation of the rose, a number of different waltz episodes (including those that bring Act II to its close) and the defeat of Baron von Ochs in Act III. It proceeds to music from the great trio for the three lead sopranos in the final act, but – rather than finishing up with the music that brings the opera to its close – it circles back for another waltz episode and concludes with a concert ending. n
Selections from Gaîté parisienne JACQUES OFFENBACH Born June 20, 1819, Cologne Died October 5, 1880, Paris Gaîté parisienne is one of Jacques Offenbach’s best-known scores, but he never heard it. In fact, he didn’t even know it existed. In 1937, more than fifty years after Offenbach’s death, the choreographer Léonide Massine wished to create an entirely new ballet based on music by Offenbach, and he asked French composer-conductor Maurice Rosenthal to compile a score by arranging movements and melodies from Offenbach’s operettas. Working from the scores (sometimes from the piano scores) of Offenbach’s operettas, Rosenthal created a nineteen-movement ballet, occasionally re-composing Offenbach’s music to fit the needs of Massine’s story-line and in a few cases composing new music of his own. Rosenthal turned in his score and promptly got a bad surprise: Massine did not like it, and it took the intervention of Igor Stravinsky to convince Massine to accept what Rosenthal had created. Stravinsky’s instincts were correct: Gaîté parisienne (“Parisian Gaiety”), as it was called, was a huge success when the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo gave the premiere in Paris on April 5, 1938. Ironically, Gaîté parisienne – a piece Offenbach never heard of – has become one of his most famous works: the ballet is still produced, the music has been recorded many times, and the ballet has been made into several films. Offenbach would have been amazed (and delighted). The plot of Gaîté parisienne is much too complicated to explain, and perhaps it is simplest just to describe the setting and situation. The ballet tells the story of a wealthy Peruvian Tourist (none of the characters has a name) who comes to Paris and encounters its rich nightlife. The cast is full of types (soldiers, waiters, cleaning women, women of doubtful reputation, and so on), as well as a few characters identified only by profession: Glove Seller, Flower Girl, etc. Much of the music comes from Offenbach’s La vie parisienne, but Rosenthal also drew music from Orpheus in the Underworld,
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Tales of Hoffmann and other operettas. The characters dance, flirt, pair off, fight, and finally pair off again, departing into the night as couples and leaving the Peruvian Tourist alone and forlorn on the stage. Conductors have felt free to create their own suites from Rosenthal’s ballet score, and this concert offers ten of its 19 movements. These excerpts do not attempt to “tell” the story of Gaîté parisienne, and they should be enjoyed simply as the sparkling miniatures they are. Most are dances – waltz, polka, laendler, can-can, galop, and so on – and all are full of attractive tunes and sizzling energy. Listeners will discover that they already know many of these toe-tapping melodies (and the only mystery surrounding this music is why Massine at first rejected it). Sit back, let Offenbach and Rosenthal transport you back to the Paris of 150 years ago, and enjoy a piece of music that sets out deliberately to be fun. And succeeds brilliantly. n -Program notes by Eric Bromberger
Performance History
by Dr. Melvin G. Goldzband, Symphony Archivist Bernstein's Three Dances Variations from his World War II ballet, Fancy Free, are being heard for the first time at these concerts. His piece for violin soloist, almost a concerto but titled Serenade, has been heard once before at these concerts, in the season 2005-06, when Jennifer Frautschi played it with the orchestra under the direction of Jahja Ling. The very popular suite from Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier was introduced to San Diego Symphony audiences when Maurice Abravanel conducted it in the summer of 1958. It has been repeated thirteen times at these concerts, most recently when Henry Lewis conducted it in the 1994-95 season. The gap between that performance and this concert is the longest in the orchestra's history for this piece. In the summer of 1960, Earl Bernard Murray introduced the Offenbach suite from the ballet Gaîté parisienne to delighted San Diego Symphony audiences. Andre Kostelanetz repeated it three summers later with the orchestra, but it has never been played at these concerts again, although excerpts have been played at numerous popular and family concerts. n
Come early for "What's the Score?" Learn more about our classical programs by attending “What’s the Score?,” a lively preconcert talk beginning 45 minutes before the top of Jacobs Masterworks concerts, usually hosted by longtime San Diego Symphony host and presenter, Nuvi Mehta.
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