NASHVILLE SYMPHONY GIANCARLO GUERRERO, conductor PAUL JACOBS, organ

Transcription

1 AEGIS SCIENCES FOUNDATION CLASSICAL SERIES EST FRIDAY & SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6 & 7, AT 8 PM NASHVILLE SYMPHONY GIANCARLO GUERRERO, conductor PAUL JACOBS, organ MICHAEL DAUGHERTY Once Upon A Castle Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra (2003/rev. 2015) I. The Winding Road to San Simeon II. Neptune Pool III. Rosebud IV. Xanadu Paul Jacobs, organ World Premiere, revised version This work is being recorded for a forthcoming release on Naxos. T H A N K YO U T O OUR SPONSORS MEDIA PARTNER OFFICIAL PARTNER INTERMISSION ANTON BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, Romantic I. Bewegt, nicht zu schnell II. Andante - andante quasi allegretto III. Scherzo: Bewegt IV. Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell INCONCERT 19

2 TONIGHT S CONCERT AT A GLANCE MICHAEL DAUGHERTY Once Upon A Castle HEARST CASTLE The Nashville Symphony has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Michael Daugherty, one of the country s top 10 most-performed composers. Since 2007, the orchestra has commissioned and premiered several of his works, and the orchestra s Naxos recording of his Metropolis Symphony and Deus ex Machina garnered three GRAMMY Awards in 2011, including Best Classical Contemporary Composition. These performances of Once Upon A Castle are being recorded for a forthcoming release on Naxos that will also include Daugherty s American Gothic and the Tales of Hemingway cello concerto, both performed by the Nashville Symphony in April Once Upon A Castle is inspired by Daugherty s own visits to Hearst Castle, the private residence of media mogul William Randolph Hearst that sits high above the Pacific Ocean in San Simeon, California. The seaside elements of the famed landmark and Hearst s own enormous persona are evident throughout the four movements of the piece, which create what the composer calls a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Organ soloist Paul Jacobs has compiled a career full of groundbreaking and remarkable achievements. The first and only organist to ever win a GRAMMY Award (for his 2011 recording of Messiaen s Livre du Saint-Sacrement), Jacobs made musical history when he was only 23 years old by playing Bach s complete organ works during a marathon 18-hour performance on the 250th anniversary of the composer s death. ANTON BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 Romantic BRUCKNER ORGAN A late bloomer who did not begin composing until he was 37, Bruckner was a renowned teacher at several Austrian conservatories and earned a reputation as one of Europe s best organists. Much like Bach, he was actually better known as an organist than a composer, and his love for the instrument has been memorialized for posterity. In accordance with his wishes, Bruckner is buried in the vault beneath the organ he played in the Augustinian monastery of St. Florian in Linz, Austria now known as The Bruckner Organ. The Romantic subtitle affixed to Bruckner s Fourth Symphony (the only one of his nine with a subtitle) doesn t actually refer to the modern concept of romantic love. Instead, the piece evokes themes of Teutonic Romanticism, a medieval-era form with spectacle-filled tales of adventure that usually center around a quest or a hunt. This is particularly evident in Bruckner s prominent use of the horns, most commonly associated with the idea of a pursuit. 20 NOVEMBER 2015

3 MICHAEL DAUGHERTY Born on April 28, 1954, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan Once Upon a Castle: Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra (2003/rev. 2015) Nashville Symphony Orchestra under Giancarlo Guerrero. Once Upon A Castle: Symphonie Concertante for organ and orchestra was commissioned by the Ann Arbor Symphony and a consortium consisting of the Cedar Rapids Symphony, the Rockford Symphony Orchestra, and the West Michigan Symphony Orchestra. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR CLASSICAL Composed: 2003; revised in 2015 First performance: The original version was premiered on November 15, 2003, by the Ann Arbor Symphony conducted by Arie Lipsky, with Steven Ball as the organist. First Nashville Symphony performance: These are the orchestra s first performances. Estimated length: 25 minutes The music of GRAMMY Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty has entered the orchestral, band, and chamber music repertoire. According to the League of American Orchestras, he ranks as one of the 10 most-performed American concert music composers today. He has been hailed by The Times of London as a master icon maker with a maverick imagination, fearless structural sense, and meticulous ear. Daugherty is the son of a dance-band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. He joined the Composition Department at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where, since 1991, he has been a mentor to many of today s most talented young composers. He first came to international attention in 1994, when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, performed his Metropolis Symphony at Carnegie Hall. In 2011 the Nashville Symphony s Naxos recording of Daugherty s Metropolis Symphony and Deus ex Machina was honored with three GRAMMY Awards, including Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In 2016 Naxos will release a recording of his cello concerto Tales of Hemingway, the organ concerto on this program, and American Gothic all performed by the The composer has provided the following description: One of my favorite places to visit is Big Sur, a sparsely populated refuge located along the Pacific coast s Highway 1 between Monterey and Cambria, California. It is hard when driving this scenic route not to notice the Hearst Castle set high above the Pacific Ocean on the barren mountains of San Simeon. The Hearst Castle was the vision and private residence of American media mogul William Randolph Hearst ( ) and was designed by architect Julia Morgan ( ). Construction of the colossal castle began in 1919 and continued for nearly 30 years. By 1947, the Hearst Castle was a grand estate of 165 rooms. Today, it is a museum and National Historic Landmark which I have often visited over the years. My composition for organ and orchestra is a nostalgic trip down memory lane to a time that was once upon a castle. 1. The Winding Road to San Simeon. The music of the first movement evokes the five-mile road winding up the San Simeon Mountains to the Hearst Castle. The music crescendos until we reach the entrance of the castle, where lush major chords in the organ and panoramic rhythmic sweeps of orchestral color evoke the spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean high above the coastline. As one of the world s richest men at the time, Hearst had the means to travel the world to purchase extravagant European classical paintings, tapestries, sculptures, and antiquities to decorate the rooms, terraces, pools, and walkways of his beloved castle. It is not by chance that I have composed music for this movement that might occasionally remind the listener of a musical antique. 2. Neptune Pool. The centerpiece of the Hearst Castle, and of my organ concertante, is INCONCERT 21

4 CLASSICAL the Neptune Pool. Framed by statues of the seagod Neptune and his Nereids, this magnificent outdoor Olympic-sized pool seems to hover above the clouds of the Pacific Ocean. For this movement, I have composed reflective water music which wistfully mirrors the grandeur of this aquatic wonder. This movement is dedicated to the memory of William Albright ( ), who was my colleague for two decades in the composition department at the University of Michigan and is considered to be one of the 20th century s greatest composers of contemporary organ music. 3. Rosebud. In the shadow of the Hearst Castle is Citizen Kane (1941), the groundbreaking film starring and directed by Orson Welles. The film presents an apparently unflattering caricature of Hearst (Charles Foster Kane), his mistress Marion Davies (Susan Alexander), and life at the Hearst Castle (Xanadu). My music for this movement echoes a brilliant scene in the film where the boisterous Kane (the organ) and lonely Susan (the solo violin) argue from opposite ends of a cavernous empty room in the castle. The sleigh bells remind us of Kane s final word before he dies alone: Rosebud, painted on his childhood sled. 4. Xanadu. Hearst and his longtime companion Marion Davies were high society s premier Hollywood couple, throwing lavish weekend parties at the Hearst Castle during the 1920s and 1930s. Among those who received and accepted the coveted invitations were important political dignitaries such as Winston Churchill and famous film stars of the day including Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, and Greta Garbo. For the final movement, I also had in mind fragments of Samuel Taylor Coleridge s 1798 poem, Kubla Khan: In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree, Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. My Xanadu is filled with exotic organ chords and virtuoso bass pedal riffs surrounded by sizzling strings, rumbling brass, shimmering percussion, and pulsating timpani. In the middle of the proceedings, I briefly return to an elaborate development of music from the first movement. DAUGHERTY SAYS HIS COMPOSITION FOR ORGAN AND ORCHESTRA IS A NOSTALGIC TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE TO A TIME THAT WAS ONCE UPON A CASTLE. After this flashback I pull out the stops for a dramatic ending, which concludes my tour of Xanadu and the pleasure-dome that Hearst built once upon a castle. In addition to solo organ ( theater or classical ), Once Upon A Castle is scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 3 percussionists, and strings. ANTON BRUCKNER Born on September 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, near Linz, Austria; died on October 11, 1896, in Vienna Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major ( Romantic ) Composed: First performance: October 25, 1875, in Boston, with Hans von Bülow as the piano soloist and Benjamin Johnson Lang conducting First performance: February 20, 1881, with Hans Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. First Nashville Symphony performance: October 25 & 27, 1984, with Music Director Kenneth Schermerhorn Estimated length: minutes T he Fourth Symphony is the only one Anton Bruckner published with an official title: the Romantic. He additionally supplied brief but rambling programmatic descriptions of the music. These conjure images of medieval knights riding forth from a city, spurned love, a hunt complete 22 NOVEMBER 2015

5 with a picnic interlude, woodland magic, and the like. But these explanations of Bruckner s musical thoughts are nothing more than a red herring. They were provided well after he had actually written the music. Such postscripts, with their romanticizing, extra-musical captions for an abstract concert score, were trendy at the time. It would be safer to say that these descriptions represent the composer s understandable attempt to sell music that was more out of sync with his era than in tune with it. Bruckner s symphonies create a sense of sonic spaciousness and awe that is unique to him. Robert Simpson, an insightful commentator on Bruckner (and a composer in his own right), argued in his classic study from 1967 that the flight from reality and emotional egotism characteristic of 19thcentury Romanticism held little attraction for Bruckner. Indeed, Simpson suggested, his music is profoundly anti-romantic, insofar as its processes differ from Romanticism s familiar patterns of tension and release. The Fourth marks a major milestone in Bruckner s attempt to establish a symphonic design capable of sustaining his innovative musical thought. He made extensive revisions to the score as he groped his way through this uncharted terrain. Deciding on the authentic final score that should be performed has remained a matter of ongoing debate for many of Bruckner s symphonies especially in the case of the Fourth. Although Bruckner composed the first version of this work in 1874, he withdrew the score before it had been performed. (That original version didn t appear in print until 1975.) From 1878 to 1880 he reworked material from the first two movements and rewrote both the Scherzo and the finale, arriving at the version that was premiered in February 1881; this provides the basis for the edition that we hear tonight (known as the 1878/80 version). Through its combination of readily attractive elements and impressive architecture, the Fourth became one of the composer s most popular BRUCKNER S SYMPHONIES CREATE A SENSE OF SONIC SPACIOUSNESS AND AWE THAT IS UNIQUE TO HIM. works. The premiere in fact gave Bruckner his first taste of success as a symphonic composer in Vienna. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR ruckner s treatment of tonality, which B involves laying out enormous spans of time and majestic blocks of sound, transcends the classical polarity of major and minor home keys. The Fourth s opening acquires something of its mysterious power by incorporating a minor-key inflection into the horn call s otherwise simple harmonic palette, all set against a pregnant backdrop of trembling strings. Despite its foundation in the heroic key of E-flat major (the key Beethoven used for his Eroica), Bruckner s music intimates an epic that is more elemental even cosmic in its pared-down majesty. The prominence of the horn is a hallmark of the work, and that instrument appears almost as a protagonist in its own right. Meanwhile, in the second part of the opening theme group, Bruckner has the full ensemble hammer out a 2-plus-3 pattern that will serve as a unifying device across the span of the work. Often tagged the Bruckner rhythm because it recurs as a kind of tic in other symphonies as well, this rhythmic thumbprint has been related to the composer s fascination with numerology and obsessive counting of daily prayers, church steeples, and the like. With the second, rustically flavored theme group, Bruckner establishes a contrast to the epic opening nature viewed from close up versus nature from an enormous, cosmic distance. This contrast applies to the Fourth on a larger structural level as well. After an expansive development, new perspectives accompany the recapitulation, which is signaled by the flute s counter-commentary against the opening horn call. A superbly paced coda ends the movement. Bruckner establishes a solemnly measured gait in the march-like Andante, a slow movement in C minor that builds on the ideas heard in three interconnected sections. The composer s recapitulation of this material crests into another enormous coda that reaches a powerful climax CLASSICAL INCONCERT 23

6 CLASSICAL and then subsides. Bruckner s characteristic use of pauses is meditative rather than dramatic. The Scherzo, with its overlapping Bruckner rhythms in horns and brass, instills a rush of energy to counter the slow motion of the preceding march. As with rest of this work, the Scherzo juxtaposes the epic and the rustic that are twin poles of the Fourth at large. No part of the work posed more difficulty for Bruckner than the finale. What we hear in this version of the symphony represents his third major overhauling of this movement. The titanic opening shows the composer at his most confident and evokes a sense of mystery similar to what we heard at the beginning of the Fourth. The main theme coalesces against thundering timpani, while the fundamental contrast of epic and rustic returns once more in the second theme group. Material from the previous movements comes back in new guises. By the time Bruckner arrives at the stunning final coda, we experience what Simpson calls the final intensification of an essence an effect altogether different from the warring of emotive elements we typically hear in Romantic symphonies of this era. The score for the 1878/80 version of the Fourth Symphony calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings. Thomas May, the Nashville Symphony s program annotator, is a writer and translator who covers classical and contemporary music. He blogs at memeteria.com. ABOUT THE SOLOIST PAUL JACOBS, organ Organist Paul Jacobs is known for his imaginative interpretations and charismatic stage presence. The New Yorker s Alex Ross called him one of the major musicians of our time, while Washington Post critic Anne Midgette celebrated him as one of the great living virtuosos. Arguing that the organ has been excluded for too long from the mainstream of classical music, he has been an important influence in the revival of symphonic music featuring the organ. The first and only organist ever to have won a GRAMMY Award (in 2011, for his recording Messiaen s Livre du Saint-Sacrement), Jacobs combines a probing intellect and extraordinary technical skills with a repertoire that spans the gamut of music written for his instrument. A fierce advocate of new music, he has premiered works by Samuel Adler, Mason Bates, Michael Daugherty, Wayne Oquin, Stephen Paulus, and Christopher Theofanidis, among others. Jacobs s 2015/16 season includes solo appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Lexington Philharmonic. At the Pacific Symphony, he curates and performs at a multi-day organ festival in February He and dramatic soprano Christine Brewer will tour the program of their upcoming Naxos album Divine Redeemer, with appearances at Lincoln Center s White Nights Festival, at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Symphony Hall in San Francisco, St. Louis Cathedral, and Spivey Hall in Atlanta. At 15, Jacobs was appointed head organist of a parish of 3,500 in his hometown of Washington, Pennsylvania. He would go on to make musical history at age 23 when he played J.S. Bach s complete organ works in an 18-hour marathon performance on the 250th anniversary of the composer s death. He has also performed the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in marathon performances throughout North America, and recently reached the milestone of having performed in each of the 50 United States. Jacobs studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, double-majoring with John Weaver for organ and Lionel Party for harpsichord, and at Yale University with Thomas Murray. He joined the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2003, and was named chairman of the organ department in 2004, one of the youngest faculty appointees in the school s history. He received Juilliard s prestigious William Schuman Scholar s Chair in NOVEMBER 2015