St. Louis Symphony Extra - May 10, 2014

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CONCERT PROGRAMMAY 9-11, 2014

David Robertson, conductorAndrew Kennedy, tenor

MARC-ANDRÉ DALBAVIE La Source d’un regard (2007) (b. 1961)

BRITTEN Les Illuminations, op. 18 (1939) (1913-1976) Fanfare— Villes Phrase— Antique— Royauté Marine Interlude— Being Beauteous Interlude Parade Départ

Andrew Kennedy, tenor

INTERMISSION

TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E minor, op. 64 (1888) (1840-1893) Andante; Allegro con anima Andante cantabile con alcuna licenza Valse: Allegro moderato Finale: Andante maestoso; Allegro vivace

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

These concerts are part of the Wells Fargo Advisors series.

These concerts are presented by Mary Pillsbury.

David Robertson is the Beofor Music Director and Conductor.

Andrew Kennedy is the Sanford N. and Priscilla R. McDonnell Guest Artist.

The concert of Friday, May 9, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from The Margaret Blanke Grigg Foundation.

The concert of Friday, May 9, is followed by a Q&A with David Robertson, sponsored by University College at Washington University professional and continuing education.

The concert of Saturday, May 10, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Dr. and Mrs. Nicholas T. Kouchoukos.

The concert of Sunday, May 11, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from the Steward Family Foundation.

Pre-Concert Conversations are sponsored by Washington University Physicians.

Large print program notes are available through the generosity of Delmar Gardens and are located at the Customer Service table in the foyer.

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FROM THE STAGERoger Kaza, Principal Horn, on Tchaikovksy’s Symphony No. 5: “There’s a monu-mental, an epic quality to this symphony, as with all of Tchaikovsky’s late symphonies, although I find this one less tragic and fatalistic than the Fourth or Sixth. The Fifth is more exuberant throughout, and it contains absolutely brilliant strokes of genius. For example, near the end of the final movement, Tchaikovsky shifts to the dominant chord, and it’s so striking that people will sometimes applaud as if it’s the end of the symphony. But instead Tchaikovsky revisits previous themes. Then in the last bar comes these four pounding chords. It’s the most brilliant effect and always brings the house down. People are incapable of responding indifferently to it.”

Dilip Vishwanat

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TIMELINKS

1888TCHAIKOVSKYSymphony No. 5 in E minor, op. 64Handel’s Israel in Egypt recorded onto wax cylinder, earliest known classical recording

1939BRITTENLes Illuminations, op. 18Germany invades Poland, World War II begins

2007MARC-ANDRÉ DALBAVIELa Source d’un regardSteve Jobs unveils the iPhone

When one examines the lives and work of dif-ferent composers, it becomes evident that the river of music flows from diverse sources. The three works on our program provide an illus-tration. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky was a deeply emotional and introspective artist who created much of his music as a reflection of his own joys and sorrows. He began writing his Fifth Symphony as an account of his own existential struggles, and the music’s journey from dark-ness to light has helped make it one of the most popular of symphonies.

Benjamin Britten often took his inspira-tion from literary sources, not only in his widely esteemed operas but in several song cycles. In Les Illuminations, poetry of Arthur Rimbaud moved him to create one of his most distinctive compositions.

The first work we hear, by the French com-poser Marc-André Dalbavie, is unusual for taking sound itself as its source of inspiration. Dalbavie worked extensively with electronic music early in his career, and through this he developed a keen sensitivity to aural color and texture. La Source d’un regard develops the acoustic implications of fragments from pieces by another French composer, Olivier Messiaen, into something entirely new.

MARC-ANDRÉ DALBAVIELa Source d’un regard

HOMAGE TO MESSIAEN Olivier Messiaen is remembered as one of the foremost French com-posers of the 20th century and as a mentor to many musicians. Marc-André Dalbavie is too young to have studied with Messiaen, but both of his principal teachers, Marius Constant and Pierre Boulez, did so. Moreover, Messiaen’s ideas about composition, sonority, harmony, and instrumen-tal timbre have influenced many younger French composers, including Dalbavie. It is not incon-gruous, then, that Dalbavie should have readily accepted a commission to compose an orchestral

SOURCES OF INSPIRATIONBY PAUL SCHIAVO

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piece marking Messiaen’s centenary. The result, La Source d’un regard, opens our concert.

Dalbavie has emerged as one of the lead-ing composers of his generation. He attended the Conservatoire de Paris and subsequently worked for five years at IRCAM, the institute for music and acoustical research founded by Pierre Boulez, where he investigated electronic sound synthesis and did detailed analysis of tone and sonority. During this time and afterward, he composed in a variety of media, but most sig-nificantly for orchestra. Dalbavie has received commissions from the Chicago Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, Carnegie Hall, and the New York City Ballet, among other institutions; and he has served as composer-in-residence with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and L’Orchestre de Paris. La Source d’un regard was jointly commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and the Philadelphia Orchestra in observance of Messiaen’s centenary, in 2008.

SPECTRAL HARMONIES Dalbavie based this work on fragments from several of Messiaen’s pieces but treated this material in very much his own way. Dalbavie is one of a number of recent com-posers, mostly French, who have developed what has come to be called “spectralism,” a music that derives its harmonies from overtones, the high-pitched resonance that accompanies musical pitches, usually below the threshold of hearing. We encounter this procedure in the opening moments of La Source d’un regard. Here a four-note figure sounds repeatedly, each iteration leaving a kind of sonic halo in its wake. Other sounds—notes from a harp, gong tones, pitches extended by woodwinds—cause changes in that harmonic aura. The pace of events is slow, medi-tative, until a nervous repeated-note figure for trumpet initiates a central episode.

This energetic and dramatic section culmi-nates in a climax involving the entire orchestra. The music then returns to quietly sustained spectral harmonies, though not a reprise of the opening section. Rather, it is austere chant-like phrases that produce a sensuous sonic corona.

BornFebruary 10, 1961, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

Now ResidesSt. Cyprien, France

First PerformanceNovember 8, 2007, in Amsterdam, George Benjamin conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

STL Symphony PremiereThis week

Scoring4 flutes 2 oboesEnglish horn4 clarinets2 bassoonscontrabassoon4 horns4 trumpets3 trombonestubatimpanipercussionstrings

Performance Timeapproximately 16 minutes

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A last swelling of brass sound precedes the deep stillness of the work’s final moments.

BENJAMIN BRITTENLes Illuminations, op. 18

BRITTEN IN EXILE The French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud might seem an unlikely source of interest for a British composer. Cognizant and proud of their country’s rich literary heritage, English musicians have usually turned to English verse for the making of songs and song cycles. Benjamin Britten, the foremost English composer of the last century, tended to follow this practice. His substantial output of vocal music includes set-tings of English poets ranging from John Donne to W. H. Auden. But in 1939, discouraged by what he felt to be a deepening political, social, and artistic conservatism in his homeland, Britten left England for the United States. During much of his three-year self-imposed exile, the composer evidently felt a desire to distance himself not only from his country but also from its traditions and culture. And so, in his first year abroad, Britten wrote two song cycles that avoided English in favor of French and Italian poetry. These were Les Illuminations, op. 18, a setting of verses by Rimbaud; and Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, op. 22.

Britten completed Les Illuminations in October 1939, scoring it for soprano and string orchestra. The work draws its text, and its title, from a series of poems Rimbaud wrote in the early 1870s, during the brief few years of his lit-erary career. (The poet, who worked and lived with a kind of savage intensity, produced his entire literary output before turning 20.) Typical of Rimbaud’s writing, the verses present weird, seemingly hallucinatory images and evocative but often obscure allusions. Britten’s music offers a helpful entry into their strange world.

STRANGE VISIONS The song cycle is built around the recurring image of a parade—a mad parade, “a savage parade,” as the introductory “Fanfare” puts it. “Villes,” the second song, establishes a small-town atmosphere whose familiarity is undermined by surreal happenings, just as in

BornNovember 22, 1913, Lowestoft, England

DiedDecember 4, 1976, Aldeburgh, England

First PerformanceJanuary 30, 1940, in London, Sophie Wyss was the soprano, and Boyd Neel conducted

STL Symphony PremiereThis week

Scoringsolo voicestring orchestra

Performance Timeapproximately 21 minutes

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the music Britten undermines the sound of famil-iar harmonies with unusual chord changes and slithering chromatic runs. “Phrase” heightens the sense of an otherworldly ambience through the use of harmonics—high-pitched, ethereal tones—in the violins. The dance announced in its final line follows in “Antique.”

Further visions are conveyed in “Royauté,” “Marine,” and “Being Beauteous.” In setting these poems, Britten employs a wide range of string sonorities to capture their varied moods. “Interlude” brings mostly an instrumental epi-sode but concludes with a reprise of the dec-laration that opened the cycle, the words now set to what seems haunted, wistful music. With “Parade,” we reach the climax of the cycle, as swirling sonorities and crazed march figures sug-gest something of the disturbing procession the verses describe. “Départ” now provides a denoue-ment, as poet and composer quietly take leave of the strange psychic landscape they have visited.

PYOTR IL’YICH TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E minor, op. 64

SYMPHONY AND PSYCHE Tchaikovsky con-ceived his mature symphonies as enactments of his own psychic conflicts. Each of his last three works in this genre were written to express a highly subjective program, a drama born of his struggle for happiness—or at least some measure of emotional equilibrium—in the face of difficult personal circumstances. But the composer grew increasingly reticent about the details of these programs as the years went by. With regard to his Fifth Symphony, written during the summer of 1888, he revealed only a short scenario concern-ing its first movement.

Tchaikovsky set forth the dramatic premise for the symphony in a brief note on the opening movement, written shortly before he began com-posing the work:

Introduction: complete resignation before Fate or, which is the same thing, the unfath-omable workings of Providence. Allegro:

BornMay 7, 1840, Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia,

DiedNovember 6, 1893, St. Petersburg

First PerformanceNovember 17, 1888, in St. Petersburg, the composer conducted

STL Symphony PremiereFebruary 4, 1909, Max Zach conducting

Most Recent STL Symphony PerformanceSeptember 25, 2010, Louis Langrée conducting

Scoring3 flutespiccolo2 oboes2 clarinets2 bassoons4 horns2 trumpets3 trombonestubatimpanistrings

Performance Timeapproximately 50 minutes

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(I) Murmurs, doubts, pleas, reproaches. ... (II) Shall I throw myself in the embraces of faith?”

Although this is certainly vague and incomplete, there is little need for further programmatic details. Even without fuller explanation from the com-poser, it is clear that the Fifth Symphony addresses programmatically the same issues of destiny and the quest for happiness that shaped Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Its tone, however, is entirely more optimistic than that of the earlier composition—or, for that matter, that of the tragic Symphony No. 6 that would follow. Here the music conveys a progression from crisis to triumph, a “plot” that has a venerable tradition in the symphonic literature.

FROM RESIGNATION TO EXULTATION The first movement opens with a somber introduction whose tone is well suited to Tchaikovsky’s description of “complete resignation.” Its melody, announced by the clarinets in their low register, is a “motto” theme, one that will recur in each of the symphony’s four movements. (Nearly all commentators refer to it as the “Fate” or “Providence” theme.) The main body of the movement begins with a sturdy march subject introduced also by the clarinets but quickly taken up by other instruments. Tchaikovsky counters this idea with several others of more genial character, the tension between them and the martial first theme accounting for much of the move-ment’s excitement.

The ensuing Andante cantabile unfolds under the spell of a handsome melody presented as a horn solo in its opening moments. Its mood of enchant-ment twice is broken, however, by the return of the motto figure, now more menacing in tone. The third movement offers waltz melodies that seem to belong to one of Tchaikovsky’s fairy-tale ballets. Once again, near the close of the movement, the theme from the introduction is heard, but it seems tame and powerless in the ideally elegant world suggested by the music we have just heard.

In the finale, Tchaikovsky comes to grips with the persistent motto theme. Here he transforms the melody that opened the symphony into a triumphal march, the furious outbursts midway through the movement only serving to make its final apotheosis more impressive. There is also a brief remembrance of the march subject from the first movement during the closing moments.

The metamorphosis over the course of the symphony of a single theme—in this case, the motto idea—from an expression of pathos to one of exultation has its original precedent, of course, in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Whether Tchaikovsky managed to make his finale as convincing as Beethoven’s has been widely debated. It is a matter that listeners have repeated opportunity to judge for themselves, for the symphony’s perennial popularity assures its place in the orchestral literature.

Program notes © 2014 by Paul Schiavo

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DAVID ROBERTSONBEOFOR MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR

A consummate musician, masterful program-mer, and dynamic presence, David Robertson has established himself as one of today’s most sought-after American conductors. A passionate and compelling communicator with an exten-sive orchestral and operatic repertoire, he has forged close relationships with major orches-tras around the world through his exhilarat-ing music-making and stimulating ideas. In fall 2014, Robertson begins his 10th season as Music Director of the 134-year-old St. Louis Symphony. While continuing as Music Director with St. Louis, in January 2014, Robertson assumed the post of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia.

In 2012-13, Robertson led the St. Louis Symphony on two major tours: his first European tour with the orchestra—its first European engagements since 1998—in fall 2012, which included critically-acclaimed appearances at London’s BBC Proms, at the Berlin and Lucerne Festivals, and at Paris’s Salle Pleyel; and a spring 2013 California tour which included a three-day residency at the University of California-Davis and performances at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and venues in Costa Mesa, Palm Desert and Santa Barbara. Highlights of his 2013-14 season with St. Louis include the recording of a St. Louis Symphony co-com-mission, John Adams’ Saxophone Concerto. Nonesuch Records will release the disc featur-ing the concerto, along with the orchestra’s per-formance of Adams’ City Noir, in 2014. In addi-tion, Robertson and the Symphony performed a historic performance of Britten’s Peter Grimes at Carnegie Hall, on the late composer’s 100th birthday in November.

Robertson is a frequent guest conductor with major orchestras and opera houses around the world. In the 2013-14 season, in addition to launching his first year at the helm of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, David Robertson con-ducted the U.S. premiere of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys in a new production at the Metropolitan Opera.

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David Robertson recently extended his contract as St. Louis Symphony Music Director through the 2017-18 season.

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ANDREW KENNEDYSANFORD N. AND PRISCILLA R. MCDONNELL GUEST ARTIST

Andrew Kennedy studied at King’s College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London. He was a member of the Young Artists Program at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he performed many solo princi-pal roles. Kennedy has won numerous prizes and awards including the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Prize. He is a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award winner and won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artists’ Award in 2006. He was also a member of BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Scheme.

His major operatic roles include Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress at La Scala, La Monnaie, and Opéra de Lyon; Vere in Billy Budd and Quint in The Turn of the Screw with Houston Grand Opera; Tito in La clemenza di Tito at Opéra de Lyon and Oper Frankfurt; Tamino in The Magic Flute with English National Opera and Opéra Toulon; Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni; and a staged Messiah at Opéra de Lyon.

Kennedy’s recent performances of Benjamin Britten’s work include Nocturne with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, David Atherton conducting; Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with the Helsinki Philharmonic and con-ductor Sir Neville Marriner; Les Illuminations at the Edinburgh International Festival with the Scottish Ensemble; and Spring Symphony with BBCNOW, conducted by Atherton.

Equally passionate about song repertoire, Kennedy gives numerous recitals in Europe and the U.K., is a frequent performer at the Wigmore Hall, London, and appears regularly with the pianists Julius Drake, Iain Burnside, Malcolm Martineau, and Eugene Asti.

Recent and forthcoming engagements include the role of Pang in Turandot in a con-cert performance for Scottish Opera at Usher Hall, Britten’s Serenade with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and St. John Passion with Sir Roger Norrington at the BBC Proms.

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Andrew Kennedy most recently performed with the St. Louis Symphony in October 2010.

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PLAYING TCHAIKOVSKY 5:ROGER KAZA, PRINCIPAL HORN

“The second movement contains the most famous and extensive solo in the horn repertoire. Horn players prob-ably learned some version of it when they were 12. The composer has left empowering instructions. There are no dynamic markings at all. The tempo tells the orchestra to sing with artistic license, and the horn specifically to play sweetly and expressively. Tchaikovsky is telling you to make it your moment.”

A BRIEF EXPLANATIONYou don’t need to know what “andante” means or what a glockenspiel is to enjoy a St. Louis Symphony concert, but it’s always fun to know stuff. For example, what is “Andante cantabile con alcuna licenza”?

Andante cantabile con alcuna licenza: Tchaikovsky indicates that the second movement of his Symphony No. 5 is flowing and songlike, and to be played somewhat freely, whether in terms of tempo or expression

Roger Kaza

Dilip Vishwanat

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YOU TAKE IT FROM HEREIf these concerts have inspired you to learn more, here are suggested source materials with which to continue your explorations.

Google Search: Marc-André Dalbavie, Composing in Color NPRAn excellent piece, in both print and audio form, by National Public Radio about Marc-André Dalbavie and his music

Neil Powell, Benjamin Britten: A Life for MusicHenry HoltA centennial biography of the composer

britten100.orgA website devoted to Britten on the occasion of his recent centenary

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky: Letters to His Family (An Autobiography)Cooper Square PressTchaikovsky’s letters provide the most valuable source of information about his life and psyche

David Brown, Tchaikovsky: The Final Years 1885-1893 W. W. NortonThe conclusion of the four-volume life-and-works study by the leading Tchaikovsky scholar, with detailed discussion of the Fifth Symphony

Read the program notes online at stlsymphony.org/planyourvisit/programnotes

Keep up with the backstage life of the St. Louis Symphony, as chronicled by Symphony staffer Eddie Silva, via stlsymphony.org/blog

The St. Louis Symphony is on

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ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRA:PINES OF ROME

JUNE 1

For its final concert of the 2013-14 season, the YO performs selections from Copland’s Rodeo, the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, contemporary American composer Adam Schoenberg’s Up!, and Respighi’s thrilling Pines of Rome.

Tickets are free with a $1 service fee.

Presented by the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation, with support from the G.A., Jr. and Kathryn M. Buder Charitable Foundation.

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CORPORATE BOX SPONSORSHIPCorporate Box sponsorships support St. Louis Symphony programs while providing opportunities to build strategic relationships, entertain clients, reward employees, and communicate key messages to loyal audiences.

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• Sponsorship recognition in Powell Hall and on STL Symphony marketing materials

• Priority seating for subscription series and Live at Powell events• Pre-paid parking passes

For more information, contact Julie Ferrie at 314-286-4479 or [email protected].

Corporate Box sponsorships offer a variety of benefits.

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Andrew Kennedy was unable to perform Britten’s Les Illuminations with the St. Louis Symphony this weekend. The Symphony is grateful to Nicholas Phan for accepting this engagement on short notice.

NICHOLAS PHAN

American Nicholas Phan continues to distinguish himself as one of the most compelling young tenors appearing on the prestigious concert and opera stages of the world. Phan’s many engagements this season included appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Boston Baroque, Chicago Bach Project, Oratorio Society of New York in Carnegie Hall, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and recitals in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York, and Istanbul. This summer he returns to the Oregon Bach Festival and makes his debut with the Boston Symphony as the title role in Candide at Tanglewood, and next season he returns to the Houston Grand Opera for Sweeney Todd and appears in concert with the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, and the Baltimore Symphony. Phan’s most recent solo album, Still Fall the Rain (AVIE) was named one of the best classical recordings of 2012 by the New York Times. His debut solo album, Winter Words (AVIE) made the “Best of 2011” lists of the New York Times, The New Yorker, the Boston Globe, TimeOut NY, and the Toronto Star. His growing discography includes the Grammy-nominated recording of Stravinksy’s Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO Resound) and the opera L’Olimpiade with the Venice Baroque Orchestra (Naïve). A graduate of the University of Michigan, Nicholas Phan is the 2012 recipient of the Paul C. Boylan Distinguished Alumni Award. He also studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. He was the recipient of a 2006 Sullivan Foundation Award and 2004 Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation.

Nicholas Phan performed in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony last December.