Saturday, March 10, :00 p.m. Symphony Orchestra. Michael Lewanski, conductor. DePaul Concert Hall 800 West Belden Avenue Chicago

Transcription

1 Saturday, March 10, :00 p.m. Symphony Orchestra & Concert Orchestra Michael Lewanski, conductor DePaul Concert Hall 800 West Belden Avenue Chicago

2 Saturday, March 10, :00 p.m. DePaul Concert Hall Symphony Orchestra & Concert Orchestra Michael Lewanski, conductor Program Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977) Aeriality (2011) György Ligeti ( ) Atmosphères (1961) Jean Sibelius ( ) Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 (1919) Tempo molto moderato Andante mosso, quasi allegretto Allegro molto

3 Program Notes Tonight s concert presents music that deals in some way with air, the atmosphere, or the sky, in senses both literal and figurative. - Michael Lewanski Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977) Aeriality (2011) Duration: 13 minutes Aeriality is a work for a large instrumental force, written in 2010/2011, consisting of vast sound-textures combined and contrasted with various forms of lyrical material. The piece was commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra to be premiered November 24, 2011, conducted by Ilan Volkov in Harpa, the new Concert and Conference Center in Reykjavik, Iceland. Aeriality refers to the state of gliding through the air with nothing or little to hold on to as if flying and the music both portrays the feeling of absolute freedom gained from the lack of attachment and the feeling of unease generated by the same circumstances. The title draws its essence from various aspects of the meaning of the word aerial and refers to the visual inspiration that such a view provides. Aeriality is also a play with words, combining the words aerial and reality, so as to suggest two different worlds; reality, the ground, and aerial, the sky or the untouchable. Aeriality can be said to be on the border of symphonic music and sound art. Parts of the work consist of thick clusters of sounds that form a unity as the instruments of the orchestra stream together to form a single force a sound-mass. The sense of individual instruments is somewhat blurred and the orchestra becomes a single moving body, albeit at times forming layers of streaming materials that flow between different instrumental groups. These chromatic layers of materials are extended by the use of quartertones to generate vast sonic textures. At what can perhaps be said to be the climax in the music, a massive sustained ocean of quartertones slowly accumulates and is then released into a brief lyrical field that almost immediately fades out at the peak of its own urgency, only to remain a shadow. Note by Anna Thorvaldsdottir

4 Program Notes György Ligeti ( ) Atmosphères (1961) Duration: 12 minutes It would be hard to overstate the important of György Ligeti s early orchestral works. Immigrating from war-torn Hungary to Vienna in 1956, Ligeti was completely unknown when his first orchestral piece, Apparitions, was premiered in Though such generalizations are difficult to make, Atmosphères is one of the very first large-scale works to present an alternative compositional point of view to the serialism that was so pervasive in post-war Europe at the time. Ligeti found fault in the ways serialism tried to organize all the musical elements [by which he means pitch, duration, attack, timbre, etc.] within a unified plan. The conclusion of Ligeti s critique is worth quoting in full (from his article, Metamorphoses of Musical Form ): The individual character of the various serial arrangements fades as a result of the superposition of several horizontal series, in which, wherever possible, common notes occur at the same pitch. Such interweaving obscures the single serial threads (especially when all the parts are played on one instrument), and the resulting intervals have little or nothing to do with the original arrangement. Where such a procedure is coupled with series of durations the composer can hardly even retain an influence over the intervals that are to result, let alone determine them. They follow automatically from the type of procedure. In this way the pitch series loses its last remnant of function, paralysed by the emerging complex. In works like Atmosphères and Lontano (1967) Ligeti went in a very different direction from the serialism of which he speaks writing a surface in which melody, rhythm, harmony are all eschewed, in favor of texture. The texture, however, is always precisely organized: Technically speaking, I have always approached musical texture through part-writing. Both Atmosphères and Lontano have a dense canonic structure. But you cannot actually hear the polyphony, the canon. You hear a kind of impenetrable texture, something like a very densely woven cobweb... The polyphonic structure does not come through; you cannot hear it; it remains hidden in a microscopic, underwater world, to us inaudible. Thus Atmosphères seems to inhabit two contradictory spheres at the same time: one in which there is no apparent motion, yet motion is omnipresent. The opening, with the strings playing five octaves of every chromatic pitch of a twelve-note scale, seems static until parts begin disappearing or changing

5 Program Notes their timbre (i.e., strings begin playing over the fingerboard or near the bridge). The entrance of the woodwinds and brass seems at first chaotic, but chords emerge from the tar-like texture as dynamics change. Similar gradual textural changes comprise the remainder of the work s sections. Natural harmonics take over the string parts, giving the music a shimmering quality that dies away. All that is left is the low strings of the piano being brushed upon, and even that finally fades. The difference between the presence of music and its absence becomes difficult to distinguish. Jean Sibelius ( ) Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 (1919) Duration: 30 minutes On April 21, 1915, Sibelius wrote the following in his diary while at work on the Fifth Symphony: Today at ten to eleven I saw sixteen swans. One of my greatest experiences! God, how beautiful! They circled above me for a long time. They disappeared into the haze of the sun like a shining silver ribbon. The sounds are like a kind of woodwind, the same as the sound of the cranes, but without the tremolo. The sound of the swans is closer to the trumpet, even if it clearly recalls the timbre of the sarrusophone. A low refrain, which is like the crying of a small child. Nature mysticism and the pain of life! The finale of the fifth symphony. Legato in the trumpets!! A few days later: The swans are constantly in my thoughts and add glory to life. Strangely enough nothing else in this world, not in art, literature or music has the same effect on me as these swans + cranes + geese. Their sounds and essence. Then, towards the end of his life, in a letter to Jussi Jalas, June : I am related to the wading birds; they too live without a clock as I have done during long periods of my life. Much of Sibelius music, in spite of its rigorously logical construction and relative compactness, has a clock-less quality to it, and the Fifth Symphony is one of the most prominent examples. A consistent trope in the reception and interpretation of this composer s work involves invocation of the word natural, for instance Adorno s famously dismissive remark that Sibelius music is all Nature. As musicologist Zachary Wallmark writes:

6 Program Notes Moving now to another feature of Sibelius musical representation of nature, much of the [fifth] symphony demonstrates an easily cognizable sense of thwarted teleology, of musical progression that is frustrated and frozen. In many accounts of musical nature, the rejection of teleology symbolizes the deep stillness of the natural world, its sense of Being rather than Becoming. To many observers, musical teleology the logical thematic progression of material towards a telos, the climactic goal is expressive of striving human passions and heroic narratives, not the vast timescale of nature. Nature has no anthropomorphized form to serve as subject of a bounded story, no tension and release, no ups and downs it simply is. It is this quality of is-ness that Sibelius s anti-teleological structures work to conjure. Sibelius accomplishes this in many ways: thematically, texturally, harmonically, and formally. The first movement is actually a combination of two different symphonic genres a sonata form and a scherzo that was, in the original version, two separated movements. Musicologist James Hepokoski calls this technique a sonata deformation, which is to say, a commentary on the genre of sonata form that both uses its conventions and breaks its rules for greater expressive freedom. The deformation, in this case, involves what Hepokoski calls rotations, rather than traditional sections and developments. In 19th century sonatas, the form is imposed on the musical material, which is put into a mold then subjected to development. Here, however, the musical material seems free to determine the form of the work, rather than vice versa. From the opening horn call, the music seems to unfold naturally. The formal blocks are not strongly delineated; instead, material is repeated and recalled in a recursive manner. The music ruminates rather than develops. This leaves the listener with the (correct) sense that they have heard it all before, but are not sure where. Three separate rotations of the opening material leads to an outpouring of sound, which in turn makes way for an ever-accelerating scherzo that begins with playful woodwind melodies. The music moves forward at a pace so gradual that one wonders how the blazing conclusion was ever anything else. The second movement is a subdued, unassuming set of variations, but one with Sibelius s clear fingerprint. Even the theme itself, first heard in the woodwinds, is structured to sound aimless, like it could mutter on forever with no particular resting place. The movement is a series of gestures that gain and lose momentum, while never achieving a satisfactory sense of closure. Towards its end, a strangely harmonized rising fifth in the trumpets

7 Program Notes prefigures the Finale to come. The movement closes as its material seems to require, by abruptly fading out. The Finale begins immediately, with energetic and excited figures in the strings, its direction no less clear than previous movements. This texture is interrupted, as it were, by the melody in the horns that was inspired by Sibelius encounter with the swans. This interruption, however, is not of the kind that prompts a sudden character change; rather, it creates the sense that this music has been here all along, waiting to be revealed. Its rising and falling fifth, its swinging character, its unvarying tempo, all give it a clockless, non-teleological character. The remainder of the symphony continues the ruminative rethinking of this material that has been characteristic of the piece so far. This procedure culminates in violent, jagged orchestral cacophony of syncopated harmonies, unobvious in its goal, unsettling in its affect. The brilliant home key of E-flat major that breaks through is all the more satisfying because it is unexpected. The work closes with a series of widely spaced, isolated chords, as if a swan s flight between them, the final falling fifth the definitively earned end to a long process that began in the symphony s first bar. Notes by Michael Lewanski

8 Biography DePaul Symphony & Concert Orchestras March 10, 2018 Conductor, educator, and writer Michael Lewanski is a champion of contemporary music and older repertoire alike. His work seeks to create deeper and more engaged connections between audiences, musicians, and the music that is part of their culture and history. He has been on the faculty of the DePaul University School of Music since 2007, where he conducts the Concert Orchestra, Ensemble 20+ (20th century and contemporary music), and works frequently with other ensembles. He is conductor of Ensemble Dal Niente, a Chicago-based new music group. Michael has guest-conducted Lyric Opera of Chicago, chamber ensembles from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Civic Youth Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Fifth House Ensemble, and many others. He has led over 100 world premieres. He was the Conducting Assistant for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2010 to At the 2012 Darmstadt Summer Courses, Ensemble Dal Niente won the prestigious Kranichstein Music Prize under his direction. Michael has an extensive discography as both a conductor and a producer. A native of Savannah, Georgia, he studied piano and violin; he made his conducting debut at age 13, leading his own composition. At 16, he was the youngest student ever accepted into the conducting class of the legendary Ilya Musin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Michael subsequently attended Yale University. His post-yale education featured conducting study with Cliff Colnot and Lucas Vis. Michael s schedule for the concert season includes concerts with DePaul School of Music ensembles, performances with Ensemble Dal Niente (at the Art Institute of Chicago, New York s Metropolitan Museum of Art, residencies at Brown, Brandeis, Northwestern and University of Chicago), guest conducting engagements throughout the US, recording projects, and festival appearances.

9 Personnel Violin I Farid Ishkinyaev, concertmaster Luis Angel Salazar Avila* Nelson Mendoza Brent Taghap* Wan-Chun Hu Megan Faw Jong Sean Lee* Amber Daughtry Angelo Horngtay Chi Lee* Maria Campos Joseph Jung* Bernini Chan Ruoyao Li* Yeyoung Yoon Cello Vincent Ramirez-Boyce, principal Philip Lee* David Sands* Sarah Yang Margaret Wenzel Nomin Zolzaya* Caley Koch Zachary Sears* Joel Rosen Jingjing Hu* Isabella Kruger-Seiler Michelle Dodson* Timothy Sutton Malik Johnson Oboe Young Sun Yoo Lillia Woolschlager Ashley Ertz Erik Andrusyak Jacob Shapiro English Horn Jacob Shapiro Clarinet Yongchuan Chen Jesse Bruer Julia Janda Mike Ippolito Jesse Bruer Violin II Caitlin Edwards, principal Yefim Romanov* Valentina Guillen Lina Mar Yamin Noronha Alina Kobialka* Alexandra Kagan Marian Mayugai Sofie Yang* Sungjoo Kang Heidi Hatch* Yu Xin* Vincent Wong Barbora Valiukeviciute* William Bontempo Viola Seth Pae, principal Michael Fuentes Aleksa Kuzma* Georges Mefleh David Beytas* Marc Hornig Jonathan Walters* Karlita Williams Caleb Henry* Jordan Martin Bass Andrew French, principal Micah Stoddard* Mary Halm Theodore Gabrielides* Austen Goebbel Chris DeMarco* Davis Smith Ryan MacDonald Flute Anatolia Evarkiou-Kaku Ana Boulas Emily Bieker Jen Klimek Piccolo Anatolia Evarkiou-Kaku Ana Boulas Emily Bieker Jen Klimek E-Flat Clarinet Jesse Bruer Bass Clarinet Mike Ippolito Bassoon Elliot Cobb Carlos Ruiz Jenna Cole Contrabassoon Jenna Cole Horn Ali Nizamani Rebecca Hiigel Melody Lin Fernando Chapa Emily Whitaker Miles O Malley Trumpet Claire Hendrickson Michael Verbic J. R. Buzzell David Wagner

10 Personnel Trombone William Riley Leitch Matthew Jarosch Colin Towbin Matthew Jarosch Lucas Steidinger Ben Zisook DePaul Symphony & Concert Orchestras March 10, 2018 Bass Trombone Ben Zisook Tuba Akshat Jain Aden Beery Timpani George Tantchev Percussion Sarah Weddle Miyu Morita Cristian Torres Piano Casey Dahl Philip Rapa Librarians Rasa Mahmoudian Elliot Cobb Ensemble Assistant William Riley Leitch *Denotes DPSO Player

11 Gifts of every amount make an important impact on the next generation of musicians and support the mission of the School of Music. Make your gift today by visiting alumni.depaul.edu/givetomusic For more information, please contact: Stephanie Carper, Director of Development Office of Advancement, DePaul University 1 East Jackson Boulevard Chicago, IL (312) scarper@depaul.edu

12 Upcoming Events Sunday, March 11 3:00 p.m. Student Center 2250 North Sheffield Avenue Chicago Jazz Orchestra Monday, March 12 7:00 p.m. Recital Hall Jazz Combos IV Monday, March 12 8:00 p.m. Concert Hall Composers Forum Sunday, March 16 11:00 a.m. Concert Hall Masterclass: Boris Slutsky, piano Sunday, March 18 3:00 p.m. Concert Hall DePaul Community Chorus Concert Tuesday, March 27 8:00 p.m. Concert Hall Faculty Artist Series: Nicole Cabell & Christopher Magiera Thursday, March 29 8:00 p.m. Concert Hall Brass Ensemble Concert As a courtesy to those around you, please silence all cell phones and other electronic devices. Flash photography is not permitted. Thank you. Sign up for DePaul E-Notes! Receive monthly updates in your inbox on performances taking place at the School of Music, as well as special offers and discounts to ticketed events! You can choose to unsubscribe from the list at any time. We have a strict privacy policy and will never sell or trade your address. You can sign up for E-Notes by visiting music.depaul.edu and clicking on Concerts and Events. DePaul University School of Music Concert Hall 800 West Belden Avenue Chicago Recital Hall 804 West Belden Avenue Chicago music.depaul.edu