CLASSICAL SERIES American Panorama Friday, February 8, 2019 at 10:45 a.m. Friday, February 8, 2019 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall. Sequoia.

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1 JEFF TYZIK Principal Pops Conductor LEONARD SLATKIN, Music Director Laureate Music Directorship endowed by the Kresge Foundation TERENCE BLANCHARD Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair NEEME JÄRVI Music Director Emeritus CLASSICAL SERIES American Panorama Friday, February 8, 2019 at 10:45 a.m. Friday, February 8, 2019 at 8 p.m. in Orchestra Hall LEONARD SLATKIN, conductor WEI YU, cello Morton Gould Star-Spangled Overture on ( ) The Star-Spangled Banner from American Ballads Joan Tower (b. 1938) Sequoia Leonard Bernstein Three Meditations from Mass ( ) Wei Yu, cello Intermission Virgil Thomson Suite from The Plow that Broke the Plains ( ) I. Prelude II. Pastorale (Grass) III. Cattle IV. Blues (Speculation) V. Drought VI. Devasatation Ferde Grofé Grand Canyon Suite ( ) I. Sunrise II. Painted Desert III. On the Trail IV. Sunset V. Cloudburst This Classical Series performance is generously sponsored by Made possible in part by a grant from Friday s performance will be webcast via our exclusive Live From Orchestra Hall series, presented by Ford Motor Company Fund and made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE 21

2 Program Notes Star-Spangled Overture on The Star-Spangled Banner from American Ballads MORTON GOULD B. December 10, 1913, New York, NY D. February 21, 1996, Orlando, FL Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes (1 doubling on English horn), 3 clarinets (1 doubling on E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (1 double on contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. (Approx. 5 minutes) vital advocate of American music, A Morton Gould was a composer, pianist, conductor, arranger, and orchestrator who is now celebrated as one of our country s defining musical figures. He produced works of many styles in his long career from ballet to Broadway and had a knack for incorporating jazz styles and popular idioms into symphonic works. Gould s many awards and honors include a Pulitzer Prize, a Grammy Award, a Kennedy Center Honor, and others. Gould was tapped for three commissions as part of the United States Bicentennial in 1976, one of which is the great American Ballads a six-movement piece based on patriotic themes, which was debuted by the Queens Symphony with Gould conducting. The piece s overture, based on The Star-Spangled Banner, is a rousing alternative to the standard national anthem curtain-raiser that some orchestras have favored since the mid-20th century. Morton Gould s Star-Spangled Overture once, as part of a July 1977 concert at Meadow Brook Amphitheatre that included the complete American Ballads. Gould conducted. Sequoia JOAN TOWER B. September 6, 1938, New Rochelle, NY Scored for 2 flutes (both doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings. (Approx. 17 minutes) The composer writes the following about the piece: Sequoia opens with a very long pedal point on the note G, which expands to a four-octave G and then returns to the central G (in the trumpet part). Around this G begins a balancing action of harmonies that branch out on either side of the G first above, then below like the branching and rooting of a tree. This balancing of registers becomes more and more developed as the piece continues, and the pedal point G begins to move up and down very slowly to create a substructure of balances, a kind of counterpoint of lines. Another kind of branching action occurs in the contrasting of solo lines with big orchestral passages, and of soft and loud dynamics an attempt to explore the enormous textural and dynamic range of the orchestra. The giant redwood tree, the Sequoia, seemed to me to embody these notions in at least two senses: the incredible balancing act achieved in the fullgrown height of the tree, and the striking 22 DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2019

3 contrast of very small pine needles growing on such a large structure. Joan Tower Joan Tower s Sequoia once, in October 1989, conducted by Günther Herbig. Three Meditations from Mass LEONARD BERNSTEIN B. August 25, 1918, Lawrence, MA D. October 14, 1990, New York, NY Scored for solo cello, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, organ, and strings. (Approx. 17 minutes) As he was completing the orchestration of his Third Symphony (Kaddish) in the fall of 1963, Leonard Bernstein learned of President Kennedy s assassination and dedicated the symphony to the slain President s memory. Partly because of that gesture, Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned a work from him to open the newly-built Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC in September Although he was Jewish, Bernstein had long wanted to write some kind of sacred, ecumenical service. The choice of a Catholic liturgical text to dedicate a building honoring the first Catholic President seemed like a perfect option. Bernstein s Mass was for many years characterized by controversy in its commission, premiere, and public reputation afterwards. But today it is regarded as one of the composer s great works and a true American masterpiece, especially for its diverse musical stylings and ambitious mixture of Greek, Latin, Hebrew and English text. Bernstein made a cello and piano arrangement of the meditations that function as orchestral interludes in the work, then created a full orchestra version with a prominent role for solo cello. The first meditation, very slow and inward, is taken from the interlude between the Confession and the Gloria. The second is a set of variations on an 11-note sequence from the choral finale of Beethoven s Ninth Symphony which occurs between the Gloria and the Epistle. The third is derived from various parts of the whole work, namely the Epiphany, the In nomine Patris, and the concluding chorale Almighty Father. Some of these excerpts are widely separated in the original, but there is an underlying thematic unity tying them all together. These performances mark the DSO premiere of Leonard Bernstein s Three Meditations from Mass. Suite from The Plow that Broke the Plains VIRGIL THOMSON B. November 25, 1896, Kansas City, MO D. September 30, 1989, New York, NY Scored for flute, oboe, English horn, 2 clarinets (1 doubling on bass clarinet, alto saxophone, and tenor saxophone), bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, percussion, banjo, guitar, and strings. (Approx. 16 minutes) Virgil Thomson was a many-faceted American composer of great originality, and a brilliant music critic. Using a spare and direct style marked by wit and playfulness, he composed in almost every genre, producing a unique and original body of work rooted in American speech rhythms, hymnbook harmony, DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE 23

4 Program Notes Civil War songs, cowboy songs, barndance music, Baptist hymns, folk songs, popular songs, parlor waltzes, and the blues a style which became emblematic of Roosevelt s New Deal Era. The Plow that Broke the Plains is a 25-minute 1936 documentary written and directed by Pare Lorentz about the Dust Bowl; considered a classic among documentaries, it investigates how this tragic situation occurred as a result of misuse of our environment, as well as the waste of human and natural resources. Lorentz felt very strongly that a score equal in power to the visual elements was vital in telling this important story, and so he interviewed 12 composers before settling on Virgil Thomson. In 1942 Thomson extracted a six-movement concert suite from the film s score, and this is the version most often heard today. Whereas many composers would tie their music to the emotional states in a film, Thomson related his music to the film s images. In the score, each movement has an evocative superscription: Prelude: This is a record of land of soil, rather than people a story of the Great Plains Pastorale (Grass): The grass lands a treeless wind-swept continent of grass Cattle: First came the cattle For a decade the world discovered the grass lands and poured cattle into the plains. Blues (Speculation): Then we reaped the golden harvest then we really plowed the plains we turned under millions of new acres for war. Drought: A country without rivers without streams the sun baked the earth. Devastation: Their homes were nightmares of swirling dust night and day Blown out, baked out and broke The sun and winds wrote the most tragic chapter in American agriculture. Virgil Thomson s Suite from The Plow that Broke the Plains once, in January 1944, conducted by Karl Krueger. Grand Canyon Suite FERDE GROFÉ B. March 27, 1892, New York, NY D. April 3, 1972, Santa Monica, CA Scored for 3 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, and strings. (Approx. 30 minutes) Ferde Grofé s greatest success as a composer was the Grand Canyon Suite, a pictorial evocation in sound of one of this country s great natural wonders, which he had seen in his early days roaming the American southwest. He fell under the spell of the Canyon s scenic beauty and vowed to translate its impressions into musical substance. As he once wrote, It became an obsession. The richness of the land and the rugged optimism of its people fired my imagination, and I determined to someday put it all to music. Grofé completed his goal by 1931, and the piece was a hit distinguished conductors like Arturo Toscanini, Eugene Ormandy, Arthur 24 DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2019

5 Fiedler, and Andre Kostelanetz lined up to perform it, cementing the suite as a true American classic. The titles of the work s five movements are basically self-explanatory, with the famous On the Trail depicting a braying mule riding down the canyon walls. Toscanini once described the final movement, Cloudburst, as one of the most vivid and terrifying musical pictures he ever encountered. The DSO most recently performed Grofé s Grand Canyon Suite at Meadow Brook in July 2010, conducted by Andrew Grams. The DSO first performed the piece in February 1942, conducted by Andre Kostelanetz. Profile WEI YU Principal Cello James C. Gordon Chair Wei Yu made his DSO subscription debut in November 2015, performing Dvořák s Cello Concerto under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. Before joining the DSO, Yu was a member of the New York Philharmonic for seven seasons. An avid chamber musician, Yu has been invited to the Marlboro and Ravinia music festivals, and has collaborated with a wide range of musicians: cellist David Soyer, pianists Richard Goode and Menahem Pressler, violinists Midori and Pinchas Zukerman, and members of the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets. As a member of the New York Philharmonic Ensembles, he makes regular appearances at Merkin Concert Hall. In the summers of 1998 through 2000, Yu participated in the Morningside Music Bridge program at Mount Royal University in Calgary. He subsequently enrolled in the University s Gifted Youth program under the tutelage of John Kadz and is currently on the faculty of the Morningside Music Bridge program. He has given cello master classes at universities and festivals in the United States, Canada, and China. Born in Shanghai, Yu began studying the cello at age 4 and made his concerto debut at age 11, performing Elgar s Cello Concerto with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. He received his bachelor s degree from North Park University in Chicago and his master s degree from the Juilliard School. His principal teachers include Mei-Juan Liu, John Kadz, Hans Jørgen Jensen, and David Soyer. MOST RECENT APPEARANCE (AS A SOLOIST) WITH THE DSO: January 2019 on the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series, performing Dvořák s Cello Concerto (cond. Ken-David Masur) FIRST APPEARANCE (AS A SOLOIST) WITH THE DSO: November 2015, performing Dvořák s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (cond. Leonard Slatkin) DSO PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE 25