Program Notes - Beyond the Score: Isle of the Dead

PROGRAM Beyond the Score®: Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 Rite of Passage?

Beyond the Score® is a production of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Gerard McBurney, Creative Director for Beyond the Score®

INTERMISSION SERGEI RACHMANINOFF "THE ISLE OF THE DEAD" BY ARNOLD BÖCKLIN

The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29

Friday, February 9 | 8PM

BEYOND THE SCORE ®: RACHMANINOFF: THE ISLE OF THE DEAD, OP. 29 RITE OF PASSAGE? A Jacobs Masterworks Concert

conductor Sameer Patel narrator Nuvi Mehta actor Paul Maley See page 19 for Sameer Patel biography

Performance at the Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall

This concert is made possible, in part, through the generosity of an anonymous donor.

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The approximate running time for this program, including intermission, is one hour and fifty minutes.

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PROGRAM NOTES | BEYOND THE SCORE®: THE ISLE OF THE DEAD – FEBRUARY 9

ABOUT THE ARTISTS For newcomers to classical music and longtime aficionados alike, each BEYOND THE SCORE® presentation is a dramatic exploration of a composer’s music. Through live actors, stunning visual projections and virtuosic fragments of live music performed by members of the CSO, the compelling story of the composer’s life and art unfolds, illuminating the world that shaped the music’s creation. Under creative director Gerard McBurney’s leadership, each of the 30 Beyond the Score® presentations weave together theater, music and design to draw audiences into the concert hall and into a work’s spirit.

Initially conceived in 2005 by Martha Gilmer (now CEO of the San Diego Symphony), Beyond the Score® has become one of the most successful and original audience development tools in the field of classical music. The program seeks to open the door to the symphonic repertoire for first-time concertgoers as well as to encourage an active, more fulfilling way of listening for seasoned audiences. At its core is the live format of musical extracts, spoken clarification, theatrical narrative and handpaced projections on large central surfaces, performed in close synchrony. After each program, audiences return from intermission to experience the resulting work performed in a regular concert setting, equipped with a new understanding of its style and genesis.

Beyond the Score® was quickly recognized by orchestras in the United States and abroad; and its expanded licensing program has since brought performances to live audiences throughout the United States and the world. In addition, selected performances are also available for online viewing at www.beyondthescore.org. n

ABOUT THE MUSIC The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Born April 1, 1873, Oleg Died March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills In 1880 the Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin painted the first of what would be a series of one of the spookiest, most evocative images ever committed to canvas. Over the next few years he would produce four variations of that painting, which would eventually come to be known as Die Toteninsel: “The Isle of the Dead.” All versions of the painting show essentially the same thing. Against a dark and threatening sky, a small island reflects the late afternoon sun, which illuminates its rock cliffs and towering cypresses, a tree identified with cemeteries and with death. In the foreground a small boat approaches the island. A dark-clad oarsman sits in the stern, and in front of him a figure shrouded in pure white stands slightly hunched over a long white box garlanded (in some versions of the painting) with red flowers. All who see the painting are quick to interpret what it “means.” Some have seen it as a depiction of Charon bearing the dead across the River Styx, but Böcklin refused to offer an explanation of his work. He is reported to have told a friend that “it must produce such an effect of stillness that anyone would be frightened to hear a knock on the door,” And so he intentionally left it mysterious (even the name Die Toteninsel was supplied by someone else). But no one can see that painting without an immediate visceral response, and over a century later it continues to haunt all who see it.

Among those haunted was Serge Rachmaninoff, who composed his tone poem The Isle of the Dead in 1909, eight years after Böcklin’s death.

One of the most effective things about Böcklin’s painting is his eerie combination of colors (gray, gold, black, dark green, deep blue), but the curious thing is that Rachmaninoff first encountered the image in Paris in Böcklin’s black and white sketch for the painting, and the composer much preferred that to the color version, which he came to know only later. He said: “I was not much moved by the color of the painting. If I had seen the original first, I might not have composed my Isle of the Dead. I like the picture best in black and white.”

In any case, Rachmaninoff caught the mood of Böcklin’s painting perfectly. The Isle of the Dead has one of the most somber openings in all of music. It begins quietly and slowly, with the 5/8 meter catching perfectly the sound of softly-lapping water as the oarsman directs the boat toward the forbidding island. A lonely horn solo sets the bleak mood, and this figure is quickly taken up solo oboe and then trumpet.

Pay particular attention to that horn solo: embedded within it is the shape of the ancient Dies Irae plainchant, a theme that virtually obsessed Rachmaninoff (and Berlioz and Liszt before him). The music builds to a great brass chorale on this shape, and soon a dancing violin melody arcs high above. This has been called the “life theme,” a counterbalance to the dark opening, though one should not interpret this music too literally – it remains a mood-piece throughout. The Isle of the Dead builds to a huge climax on great chords spit out by brass and timpani. In the aftermath of that violence, tremolo strings gloomily intone the Dies Irae motif, the music winds down on a quiet wind chorale, and on the rocking 5/8 meter from the very beginning The Isle of the Dead fades into mysterious silence. n

-Program notes by Eric Bromberger

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PROGRAM NOTES | BEYOND THE SCORE®: THE ISLE OF THE DEAD – FEBRUARY 9 NAVROJ (NUVI) MEHTA serves the San Diego Symphony as pre-concert lecturer, multi-media presenter and community outreach speaker. Nuvi Mehta joined the Ventura Music Festival in 2004 as Artistic Director, and was formerly conductor for the International Russian Music Piano Competition, as well as Music Director of the Marquette Symphony Orchestra and the Nova Vista Symphony. Mr. Mehta has also been Assistant Conductor and Director of Outreach Programs with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, and he served as apprentice conductor with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. Nuvi Mehta previously hosted San Diego Symphony appearances on XLNC 104.9FM and KPBS 89.5FM, and he served as host of the Symphony's "Classical Edge" concert series.

As a violinist, Nuvi Mehta served as concertmaster with the New World Symphony in Miami and performed for several seasons with the San Diego Symphony. A graduate with honors of Indiana University (BA in Music) and Juilliard (MA in Music), he studied conducting with Charles Bruck and attended conducting seminars with Leonard Bernstein. Nuvi Mehta comes from a long musical tradition. His father, Dady Mehta, studied piano at the Vienna Academy. Simultaneously, Nuvi Mehta's mother had begun her voice training and his father's cousin, Zubin Mehta, was studying conducting. Nuvi Mehta's brother, Bejun Mehta, is a countertenor who has sung with the Metropolitan Opera. n

Performance History

by Dr. Melvin G. Goldzband, Symphony Archivist Yoav Talmi conducted the first San Diego Symphony Orchestra performances of the Rachmaninoff tonepainting of Boecklin's haunting The Isle of the Dead, during the 1992-93 season. Talmi and the San Diego Symphony

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PAUL MALEY is a professional theatre artist based in San Diego. He graduated from UCLA’s Theatre program in 1984. He and his wife moved to San Diego in 1990 to work at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado, where Paul spent 20 years as an actor, playwright, director, designer, outreach manager and grant writer. LPT acting credits include Shadowlands, The Boys Next Door, Leaving Iowa, See How They Run and over 2,000 educational outreach performances. For the last ten years, he has also had the privilege of performing in numerous programs with the San Diego Symphony, including Young People's Concerts, Family Concerts, Symphony Exposé and Beyond the Score®. He has also performed with Write Out Loud, SeaWorld, Oceanside Theatre Company, Scripps Ranch Theatre and his family’s own company, StageWorks!

subsequently recorded the piece, along with several shorter Rachmaninoff works, for Intersound Recordings, in the then-new, digital-surround sound format. Johannes Debus led the work on its only other performance during these concerts on the occasion of his SDSO debut in the 2015-16 season. n

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