DVOŘ ÁK S NEW WORLD SYMPHONY

Transcription

1 DVOŘ ÁK S NEW WORLD SYMPHONY SUNDAY MATINEES SERIES Pacific Symphony Carl St.Clair, conductor Dvořák SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN E MINOR FROM THE NEW WORLD Adagio Allegro molto Largo Molto vivace Allegro con fuoco Sunday, October 28, 3:00 PM Segerstrom Center for the Arts Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall This concert is generously sponsored by Pangea World (Dr. Hana Alaya). Official Hotel Media Sponsor 23

2 PROGRAM NOTES ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK: SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN E MINOR, OP. 95, FROM THE NEW WORLD Almost exactly 125 years after Dvořák s Op. 95 burst upon the American scene, it s hard for us to imagine the sensation it caused. The strange performance history of this popular symphony is a mix of instant success and lingering disappointment. Contemporary newspaper accounts of the premiere, which took place before Christmas 1893 at Carnegie Hall, evoke a scene of clamorous tribute that was repeated again and again. There was no getting out of it, Dvořák said in describing the ovation to his publisher, and I had to show myself willy-nilly. Subsequent performances took on a carnival atmosphere and were often held outdoors with hugely augmented orchestras. Despite its inescapable nickname, this was not an American symphony, but rather a symphony from the New World. Yes, Dvořák was deeply inspired by American musical sources in composing it. But as a Czech nationalist and visionary music educator, he believed strongly that composers should discover their own musical roots in the cultural sources of their respective homelands. During his stay in New York City from 1892 to 1895 he discovered an abundance of diverse ethnic sources lying fallow in America and a potentially magnificent classical tradition waiting to be born. Not even his passionate advocacy and the public s euphoric embrace of his ninth symphony could bring acceptance of these ideas at least, not in his own lifetime. Dvořák was, with Smetana and Janácek, one of the three principal composers of the Czech nationalist movement and was the one who achieved the greatest international prominence. He had come to New York at the invitation of Jeannette Thurber to serve as director of the National Conservatory of Music. Hearing the richness of what we now call roots music, he was baffled by the American intelligentsia s dismissal of folk music as primitive. In interviews he insisted that the future of American music should be founded on what were called Negro melodies, a classification that also included Native American tunes. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States, he told an interviewer in the New York Herald. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them. Drawing upon Native American songs and African-American spirituals, this symphony broadly captures the spirit of both traditions without specifically quoting individual melodies. Listeners everywhere recognize the distinctively American sound in From the New World as soon as they hear it. The symphony opens with a portentous adagio that gives way to a quick allegro, with a minor key that seems to communicate the excitement of discovery and unknown frontiers. The emphasis on brasses and woodwinds, as opposed to strings, gives the movement a fresh sound that separates it from European idioms. The Czech nationalist propensity for sketching landscape in music is evident in this movement, but the landscape itself with its rocks, crags and rushing waters is like a musical evocation of the heroic landscapes by the Hudson River School of American painters such as Alfred Bierstadt. These artists were active at the time Dvořák composed the symphony and were well known to him. They successfully integrated the same aesthetic elements he sought to include in the symphony: a dramatic evocation of America s unique heritage, a sense of its natural beauty, and an epic, virginal wildness combined with formal execution embodying the refinements of European academic training. Why shouldn t Dvořák, with a new world of folk music at his command, match the visual vocabulary of the Hudson River School s towering cliffs and misty rivers with folk and folk-like melodies? The first of these melodies to some listeners, at least is a solo theme for flute in the first movement that may be suggestive of the spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. But it is in the largo in the second movement, which has gained acceptance as the song Goin Home, that we begin to hear it most clearly. Whether it existed in song form before the symphony was written has not been settled beyond doubt; we do know that in gaining knowledge of the African American legacy of folk song in America including the deeply moving sorrow songs combining the themes of death, loss, and physical return to the Creator Dvořák worked with a remarkable African American named Harry Burleigh, who knew this music firsthand and whose blind grandfather was a former slave. Goin Home certainly has all the characteristics of these songs. It is likely (but not certain) that while working on the symphony, Dvořák demonstrated the melody for Burleigh, who later executed it as a song with the lyricist William Arms Fisher. The sadness and the transcendent quality of Goin Home was perfectly suited to another of Dvořák s primary sources for the Symphony No. 9, Longfellow s Song of Hiawatha. In the symphony s second movement, a quiet largo, this sad theme provides context for the dramatically poignant death of Minnehaha as it unfolds Antonín Dvořák Born: Nelahozeves Died: Prague Symphony No. 9, From the New World Composed: 1893 World premiere: Dec. 16, 1893 at Carnegie Hall in New York Most recent Pacific Symphony performance: Sept. 23, 2017, Carl St.Clair conducting. Instrumentation: two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes (one doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, one tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. Estimated duration: 41 minutes 24 OCTOBER

3 within her father Nokomis wigwam with Nokomis on watch and Hiawatha separated from her in the forest. Is the symphony specifically programmatic, a musical retelling of Longfellow s poem? While the idea of the sorrow song supports this idea in a general way, the frenzied scherzo that follows the second movement largo seems much more specific. The musicologist Joseph Horowitz relates it to the dance of Pau- Puk-Keewis at Hiawatha s wedding, and Hiawatha s pursuit through the forest; wild and percussive, its whirling rhythms match both the Native American sources Dvořák studied in the U.S. and the driving metrics of Longfellow s poem, underlined by re-emergent timpani. It can also suggest Hiawatha s own feelings of grief and expiation. But when specific lines of Hiawatha s dance are juxtaposed with the music of the scherzo, one cannot escape the conclusion that Dvořák wrote the movement as a literal dance for Pau Puk Keewis. Even more convincing is the matching of scherzo passages to Hiawatha s chase through the woods and climactic battle with Pau-Puk-Keewis, even though this music like the rest of the symphony can be fully enjoyed as abstract expression for its own sake. The final movement is an allegro that moves from the scherzo s E minor into a triumphant E major, the first sustained major section in the symphony. Here Dvořák seems to shift his gaze upward from a single, poignant tale to a distant horizon, presenting us with a nation s destiny. There is a fateful quality to the clarion brasses and thundering percussion as the symphony draws to a close; in it, contemporary listeners heard a musical portrait of a young country that was youthful but vigorous and bold, ready for a place of leadership in the community of nations. It took more than a century, but Dvořák s conception of an intrinsically American compositional style has finally prevailed not only in our great jazz composers, but also in the unclassifiable works by musicians such as Mark O Connor and Bela Fleck, whose creations can quote Bach and Bluegrass in a single bar. Michael Clive is a cultural reporter living in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut. He is program annotator for Pacific Symphony and Louisiana Philharmonic, and editor-in-chief for The Santa Fe Opera. PANGEA WORLD Pangea World s mission is founded upon the principles and credentials of the TCR economic development model ( Tourism for Conservation through Research ). The TCR is a vision and art of crafting and distinguishing a strategic union of an economic or business aspiration (of a nation or a tourism/hotel enterprise), frontier scientific research and proactive natural and cultural conservation. This union is catalyzed by an original instrument of TCR Heritage Themes that capture the dynamics and inter relationships among multiple heritage resources in a manner that systematically and simultaneously augments the scientific, conservation and economic importance of these resources. Pangea World s president, Dr. Hana Ayala, is the originator of the TCR model. The TCR has been endorsed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution that has produced one of the most extensive databases available in the tropics), and other prominent international agencies. The TCR has been featured in media ranging from Insula International Journal of Island Affairs (September 1995), Hotels (March 1999), Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly (August 1997, October 1998, February 2000, and June 2000), and Condé Nast Traveller U.K. (December 1999) to Science (28 May 1999), Scientific American (December 1999), Architecture (April 1999), Civilization The Magazine of the Library of Congress (December 1999/January 2000) and Business Panama (May 2004 and August 2004). Dr. Ayala has woven the TCR model into Pangea World s ultimate objective to value the earth s evolutionary and ecological fabric as an unbounded reservoir of latent scientific knowledge that could propel the emerging global knowledge economy as profoundly as oil has shaped the industrial economy. This objective was formally unveiled at a United Nations invited event in New York in September 2010 and at international conferences hosted by the West Coast Headquarters (Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center) of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in September 2005, April 2009 and February Top officials at UNESCO and the National Academy of Sciences as well as several Heads of State and diplomats have endorsed Pangea World s mission and its potential to expand the world s geography of sustainable wealth. Villa Tugendhat architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe s World Heritage masterpiece of free-flowing space, located in Brno in the Czech Republic is now the official emblem of Pangea World s transnational endeavor to ignite a next-generation knowledge economy powered by free-flowing natural knowledge capital. BARUCH GAYTON ENTERTAINMENT GroupWayne Baruch and Charles F. Gayton conceive, produce and direct milestone events, television broadcasts, concert and theatrical productions, and recordings throughout the United States and worldwide. In 2006, Baruch Gayton Entertainment Group created and produced the Opening Celebration of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa; in 2016, they produced Carnegie Hall s 125th Birthday Concert Gala, featuring performers ranging from Yo Yo Ma to James Taylor to Michael Feinstein. Baruch Gayton Entertainment Group s distinguished track record of producing spectacular events includes the Bicentennial Celebrations of the U.S. Constitution, Presidency, and Bill of Rights; the Eiffel Tower Centennial; 50th Anniversary of Israel; various Three Tenors and Luciano Pavarotti concerts and television specials; They have produced FIFA World Cup Opening and Closing Ceremonies, America s Cup Opening Ceremonies, and Super Bowl halftime shows, as well as contributing artistically to two different Olympic Opening and Closing ceremonies. 25

4 CARL ST.CLAIR The season marks Music Director Carl St.Clair s 29th year leading Pacific Symphony. He is one of the longest tenured conductors of the major American orchestras. St.Clair s lengthy history solidifies the strong relationship he has forged with the musicians and the community. His continuing role also lends stability to the organization and continuity to his vision for the Symphony s future. Few orchestras can claim such rapid artistic development as Pacific Symphony the largest-budgeted orchestra formed in the United States in the last 50 years due in large part to St.Clair s leadership. During his tenure, St.Clair has become widely recognized for his musically distinguished performances, his commitment to building outstanding educational programs and his innovative approaches to programming. In April 2018, St.Clair led Pacific Symphony in its Carnegie Hall debut, as the finale to the Hall s yearlong celebration of pre-eminent composer Philip Glass 80th birthday. He led Pacific Symphony on its first tour to China in May 2018, the orchestra s first international tour since touring Europe in The orchestra made its national PBS debut in June 2018 on Great Performances with Peter Boyer s Ellis Island: The Dream 16 OCTOBER of America, conducted by St.Clair. Among St.Clair s many creative endeavors are the highly acclaimed American Composers Festival, which began in 2000; and the opera initiative, Symphonic Voices, which continues for the eighth season in with Puccini s Madame Butterfly, following the concert opera productions of The Magic Flute, Aida, Turandot, Carmen, La Traviata, Tosca and La Bohème in previous seasons. St.Clair s commitment to the development and performance of new works by composers is evident in the wealth of commissions and recordings by the Symphony. The season featured commissions by pianist/composer Conrad Tao and composer in residence Narong Prangcharoen, a follow-up to the recent slate of recordings of works commissioned and performed by the Symphony in recent years. These include William Bolcom s Songs of Lorca and Prometheus ( ), Elliot Goldenthal s Symphony in G sharp Minor ( ), Richard Danielpour s Toward a Season of Peace ( ), Philip Glass The Passion of Ramakrishna ( ), and Michael Daugherty s Mount Rushmore and The Gospel According to Sister Aimee ( ). St.Clair has led the orchestra in other critically acclaimed albums including two piano concertos of Lukas Foss; Danielpour s An American Requiem and Goldenthal s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio with cellist Yo Yo Ma. Other commissioned composers include James Newton Howard, Zhou Long, Tobias Picker, Frank Ticheli, Chen Yi, Curt Cacioppo, Stephen Scott, Jim Self (Pacific Symphony s principal tubist) and Christopher Theofanidis. In , St.Clair led the orchestra s historic move into its home in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The move came on the heels of the landmark season that included St.Clair leading the Symphony on its first European tour nine cities in three countries playing before capacity houses and receiving extraordinary responses and reviews. From , St.Clair was general music director for the Komische Oper in Berlin, where he led successful new productions such as La Traviata (directed by Hans Neuenfels). He also served as general music director and chief conductor of the German National Theater and Staatskapelle (GNTS) in Weimar, Germany, where he led Wagner s Ring Cycle to critical acclaim. He was the first non-european to hold his position at the GNTS; the role also gave him the distinction of simultaneously leading one of the newest orchestras in America and one of the oldest in Europe. In 2014, St.Clair became the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Costa Rica. His international career also has him conducting abroad several months a year, and he has appeared with orchestras throughout the world. He was the principal guest conductor of the Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart from , where he completed a three year recording project of the Villa Lobos symphonies. He has also appeared with orchestras in Israel, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South America, and summer festivals worldwide. In North America, St.Clair has led the Boston Symphony Orchestra (where he served as assistant conductor for several years), New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver symphonies, among many. A strong advocate of music education for all ages, St.Clair has been essential to the creation and implementation of the Symphony s education and community engagement programs including Pacific Symphony Youth Ensembles, Heartstrings, Sunday Matinées, OC Can You Play With Us?, arts-x-press and Class Act.

5 PACIFIC SYMPHONY Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair for the last 29 years, has been the resident orchestra of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall for over a decade. Currently in its 40th season, the Symphony is the largest-budgeted orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last 50 years and is recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scene, as well as in its own community of Orange County. In April 2018, Pacific Symphony made its debut at Carnegie Hall as one of two orchestras invited to perform during a yearlong celebration of composer Philip Glass 80th birthday, and the following month the orchestra toured China. The orchestra made its national PBS debut in June 2018 on Great Performances with Peter Boyer s Ellis Island: The Dream of America, conducted by St.Clair. Presenting more than 100 concerts and events a year and a rich array of education and community engagement programs, the Symphony reaches more than 300,000 residents from school children to senior citizens. The Symphony offers repertoire ranging from the great orchestral masterworks to music from today s most prominent composers. Eight seasons ago, the Symphony launched the highly successful opera initiative, Symphonic Voices, which continues in February 2019 with Puccini s Madame Butterfly. It also offers a popular Pops season, enhanced by state-of-the-art video and sound, led by Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman. Each Symphony season also includes Café Ludwig, a chamber music series; an educational Family Musical Mornings series; and Sunday Matinées, an orchestral matinée series offering rich explorations of selected works led by St.Clair. 4 OCTOBER Founded in 1978 as a collaboration between California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), and North Orange County community leaders led by Marcy Mulville, the Symphony performed its first concerts at Fullerton s Plummer Auditorium as the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of then-csuf orchestra conductor Keith Clark. Two seasons later, the Symphony expanded its size and changed its name to Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Then in , the orchestra moved to Knott s Berry Farm for one year. The subsequent four seasons, led by Clark, took place at Santa Ana High School auditorium where the Symphony also made its first six acclaimed recordings. In September 1986, the Symphony moved to the new Orange County Performing Arts Center, and from , the orchestra additionally presented a Summer Festival at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. In 2006, the Symphony moved into the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, with striking architecture by Cesar Pelli and acoustics by Russell Johnson and in 2008, inaugurated the Hall s critically acclaimed 4,322-pipe William J. Gillespie Concert Organ. The orchestra embarked on its first European tour in 2006, performing in nine cities in three countries. The season continued St.Clair s commitment to new music with commissions by pianist/composer Conrad Tao and former composer in residence Narong Prangcharoen. Recordings commissioned and performed by the Symphony include the release of William Bolcom s Songs of Lorca and Prometheus in , Richard Danielpour s Toward a Season of Peace and Philip Glass The Passion of Ramakrishna in ; and Michael Daugherty s Mount Rushmore and The Gospel According to Sister Aimee in In , Elliot Goldenthal released a recording of his Symphony in G-sharp Minor, written for and performed by the Symphony. The Symphony has also commissioned and recorded An American Requiem by Danielpour and Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio by Goldenthal featuring Yo Yo Ma. Other recordings have included collaborations with such composers as Lukas Foss and Toru Takemitsu. Other leading composers commissioned by the Symphony include Paul Chihara, Daniel Catán, James Newton Howard, William Kraft, Ana Lara, Tobias Picker, Christopher Theofanidis, Frank Ticheli and Chen Yi. In both 2005 and 2010, the Symphony received the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. Also in 2010, a study by the League of American Orchestras, Fearless Journeys, included the Symphony as one of the country s five most innovative orchestras. The Symphony s award winning education and community engagement programs benefit from the vision of St.Clair and are designed to integrate the orchestra and its music into the community in ways that stimulate all ages. The Symphony s Class Act program has been honored as one of nine exemplary orchestra education programs by the National Endowment for the Arts and the League of American Orchestras. The list of instrumental training initiatives includes Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble and Pacific Symphony Santiago Strings. The Symphony also spreads the joy of music through arts-x-press, Class Act, Heartstrings, OC Can You Play With Us?, Santa Ana Strings, Strings for Generations and Symphony in the Cities.

6 PACIFIC SYMPHONY CARL ST.CLAIR, Music Director William J. Gillespie Music Director Chair RICHARD KAUFMAN, Principal Pops Conductor Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation Principal Pops Conductor Chair ROGER KALIA, Assistant Conductor Mary E. Moore Family Assistant Conductor Chair FIRST VIOLIN Dennis Kim Concertmaster; Eleanor and Michael Gordon Chair Paul Manaster Associate Concertmaster Jeanne Skrocki Assistant Concertmaster Nancy Coade Eldridge Christine Frank Kimiyo Takeya Ayako Sugaya Ann Shiau Tenney Ai Nihira Robert Schumitzky Agnes Gottschewski Dana Freeman Angel Liu Marisa Sorajja SECOND VIOLIN Bridget Dolkas* Elizabeth and John Stahr Chair Jennise Hwang** Yen Ping Lai Yu Tong Sharp Ako Kojian Ovsep Ketendjian Linda Owen Sooah Kim MarlaJoy Weisshaar Alice Miller Wrate Shelly Shi * Principal ** Assistant Principal On Leave Celebrating or years with Pacific Symphony this season. VIOLA Meredith Crawford* Catherine and James Emmi Chair Joshua Newburger** Carolyn Riley John Acevedo Adam Neeley Julia Staudhammer Joseph Wen Xiang Zhang Cheryl Gates Margaret Henken CELLO Timothy Landauer* Catherine and James Emmi Chair Kevin Plunkett** John Acosta Robert Vos László Mezö Ian McKinnell M. Andrew Honea Waldemar de Almeida Jennifer Goss Rudolph Stein BASS Steven Edelman* Douglas Basye** Christian Kollgaard David Parmeter Paul Zibits David Black Andrew Bumatay Constance Deeter FLUTE Benjamin Smolen* Valerie and Hans Imhof Chair Sharon O Connor Cynthia Ellis The musicians of Pacific Symphony are members of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 7. PICCOLO Cynthia Ellis OBOE Jessica Pearlman Fields* Suzanne R. Chonette Chair Ted Sugata ENGLISH HORN Lelie Resnick CLARINET Joseph Morris* The Hanson Family Foundation Chair David Chang BASS CLARINET Joshua Ranz BASSOON Rose Corrigan* Elliott Moreau Andrew Klein Allen Savedoff CONTRABASSOON Allen Savedoff FRENCH HORN Keith Popejoy* Adedeji Ogunfolu Kaylet Torrez** TRUMPET Barry Perkins* Susie and Steve Perry Chair Tony Ellis David Wailes TROMBONE Michael Hoffman* David Stetson BASS TROMBONE Kyle Mendiguchia TUBA James Self* TIMPANI Todd Miller* PERCUSSION Robert A. Slack* HARP Mindy Ball* Michelle Temple PIANO CELESTE Sandra Matthews* PERSONNEL MANAGER Paul Zibits LIBRARIANS Russell Dicey Brent Anderson PRODUCTION & STAGE MANAGER Will Hunter STAGE MANAGER & CONCERT VIDEO TECHNICIAN William Pruett DIRECTOR OF IMAGE MAGNIFICATION Jeffery Sells POPS AND OPERA LIGHTING DIRECTOR Kathy Pryzgoda 5