PROGRAM. Thursday, February 23, 2017, at 8:00 Friday, February 24, 2017, at 8:00 Saturday, February 25, 2017, at 8:00

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1 PROGRAM ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIXTH SEASON Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Zell Music Director Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Thursday, February 23, 2017, at 8:00 Friday, February 24, 2017, at 8:00 Saturday, February 25, 2017, at 8:00 Riccardo Muti Conductor Gérard Depardieu Ivan the Terrible Yasen Peyankov Narrator Michael Brown The Holy Fool Sasha Cooke Mezzo-soprano Mikhail Petrenko Bass Chicago Symphony Chorus Duain Wolfe Director Chicago Children s Choir Children s Chorus Josephine Lee Artistic Director Prokofiev Ivan the Terrible, Op. 116 These are the first performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. There will be no intermission. This performance is generously sponsored by an anonymous donor. The appearance of this evening s guest artists is made possible with the generous sponsorship of Josef and Margot Lakonishok. The appearance of the Chicago Symphony Chorus is made possible by a generous gift from Jim and Kay Mabie. Saturday s concert is endowed in part by the League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and the National Endowment for the Arts. Supertitle Coordinator: Derek Matson English supertitles: Salzburg Festival, Beate Kuhn-Delestre Supertitle System by Digital Tech Services, LLC, Portsmouth, VA

2 COMMENTS by Phillip Huscher Sergei Prokofiev Born April 23, 1891; Sontsovka, Ukraine Died March 5, 1953; Moscow, Russia Ivan the Terrible (Arranged in the form of an oratorio by Abram Stasevich) In 2015, a popular historical exhibition held near the Kremlin set out to reframe the reputation of Ivan IV, the sixteenth-century Russian tsar who forged immense autocratic power over a vast and ethnically diverse land. Ivan the Terrible... should really be considered Ivan the Not So Bad was how the New York Times encapsulated this latest makeover of one of history s most notorious leaders. The process of rewriting history and reevaluating and sanitizing history has followed the saga of the Russian tsar for centuries, and the film Sergei Eisenstein and Sergei Prokofiev made about Ivan the Terrible in the 1940s was itself a victim of political maneuvering from its bureaucratically motived inception and divisive reception to its later reappraisal. The film s history and that of the oratorio score drawn from the soundtrack that is performed this week could hardly be more complex. In 1941, Eisenstein and Prokofiev set out to make a monumental multipart film about Tsar Ivan IV, a follow-up to their collaboration on Alexander Nevsky. It is likely that Stalin initiated the new project, and that the film was intended to help legitimize Stalin s reign of terror by justifying Ivan s own role as warrior-king. Part 1, which opened in 1944, won Stalin prizes for both Eisenstein and Prokofiev. Part 2, which was completed two years later, was banned. Part 3, which was not even in the original scheme, was begun and abandoned. Both Eisenstein and Prokofiev died before part 2 was finally released for public viewing in A performing version of Prokofiev s score, which was made by Abram Stasevich, who had conducted the film s soundtrack, was premiered in Nearly each stage of this twenty-year saga met with controversy, or at the very least, complex reactions. Today, the film is infrequently shown, even though it is considered a cinematic landmark, and Prokofiev s score it is one of his last large-scale works and contains some of his most powerful music is rarely performed. Work on the film began against a backdrop of political upheaval. In June 1941, as Eisenstein was writing his script already at this stage, it was filled with musical cues Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. After Moscow was heavily bombed that fall, Mosfilm, the powerful studio that had made two of Eisenstein s previous films, relocated to Alma Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan. Once Eisenstein and Prokofiev were reunited in Alma Ata, they resumed the unusual Above: Prokofiev ca COMPOSED INSTRUMENTATION speakers, mezzo-soprano and bass soloists, chorus, children s chorus, two flutes and two piccolos, two oboes and english horn, three clarinets, E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, alto and tenor saxophones, three bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, five trumpets, three trombones and two tubas, timpani, percussion, two harps, piano, strings These are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra s first performances.

3 and extraordinarily close working relationship that they had discovered making Alexander Nevsky in But where Alexander Nevsky was composed in two brief periods of intensive work that year, Ivan came together in piecemeal fashion over the span of five years. (It is hard to gauge the chronology, since Prokofiev rarely dated the pages of his manuscript, which was written out of sequence on papers of different types and sizes, and includes music not used in the film.) They began, in Alma Ata, by reading through Eisenstein s script together, as the director described the kinds of music he imagined, page by page. The subsequent work was of two kinds: in some cases, Prokofiev wrote the music first, so that it could be used during shooting; at other times, he composed music designed to mesh perfectly with Eisenstein s completed footage. Their highly synchronized process proved remarkably exacting, if unconventional. As Prokofiev later wrote: I watched a segment of film together with Eisenstein in the studio while he expressed his wishes concerning the music.... Returning home, I write the music, using timings exact to the second. I play through the written material for a recording.... If the visuals match well with the music and there is no need for changes, I begin orchestrating the passage. For the choral passages, Prokofiev would sing the main line, which amuses Eisenstein because I sing very indifferently. (Archival tapes still exist of Prokofiev at the piano, playing passages of the score for the sound engineer to match to the corresponding sections of the film.) Later, in the final recording sessions, with full chorus and orchestra in place, the meticulous process of seamlessly fitting music to image was laborious. Sometime four hours were needed to record just two minutes of music. Producing a finished product that met their standards was something of a cliffhanger, as the project was undermined by frequent delays and setbacks. When the Committee on Cinema Affairs screened part 1 in the summer of 1944, the film was still largely without music. Prokofiev became seriously ill the following summer, when part 2 was being put together, and could no longer attend recording sessions. Nevertheless, he sent detailed instructions to the sound engineer and went to the studio to watch the final cut. Part 1 of Ivan the Terrible was shown in movie theaters in January It was awarded the Stalin Prize a year later, but only after prolonged deliberation. After Eisenstein showed part 2 to Stalin and members of the Politburo late in February 1946, and to the Central Committee a few days later, it was banned as anti-historical and anti-artistic. A year later, when Stalin met with Eisenstein face-to-face to itemize its failings, he said he was simply voicing the thoughts of the people even though, of course, the public had not yet seen the film. You can depict [Ivan] as a cruel man, Stalin said finally, but you have to show why he had to be cruel. Eisenstein drew up a plan for a revised version of part 2 to appease Stalin, although he never worked on it, and he even began to film episodes for part 3 (they have not survived). If Prokofiev began sketching music for the final part of the 3

4 triptych, none of it still exists. Once Eisenstein died, in 1948, Prokofiev said that with the great director s death he considered his work in film to have come to an end. The completed two-part Ivan the Terrible film was finally given its premiere a decade later, at the 1958 Brussels World s Fair. PROKOFIEV S IVAN THE TERRIBLE, OP. 116 Here is a breakdown of the musical numbers in Stasevich s oratorio arrangement of music from Prokofiev s film score. The numbers are interspersed with narration and with monologues for the holy fool and Ivan. The text, drawn from the screenplay, is by Sergei Eisenstein, with verses by Vladimir Lugovskoy. 1. Overture 2. March of Young Ivan Narrator, orchestra 3. Ocean-Sea Mezzo-soprano, chorus, orchestra 4. I will be Tsar! Orchestra 5. God is Glorified! B ecause of his failing 6. Long Live Our Tsar! Ocean-Sea Ivan, mezzo-soprano, chorus, orchestra health, it is doubtful Long Live Our Tsar! that Prokofiev ever 7. The Holy Fool Orchestra saw the finished project. He 8. The White Swan began making notes in his manuscript indicating how Glorification The White Swan 9. On the Bones of the Enemy he might turn the huge score 10. The Tartars Orchestra into a concert work, although 11. The Cannoneers his son later said he eventually 12. To Kazan! thought better of using material from a banned film. 13. Ivan Pleads with the Boyars The Tartar Plains Ivan, orchestra Chorus 14. Efrosiniya and Anastasia Orchestra In 1947, he gave permission to 15. Efrosiniya s Lullaby Mezzo-soprano, orchestra his friend Levon Atovmyan to 16. Ivan at the Coffin of Anastasia Ivan, chorus prepare a performing version, 17. Choir of the Oprichniki Ivan, chorus, orchestra but Prokofiev died before it was completed, in That The Oath of the Oprichniki 18. Song of Fyodor Basmanov and the Oprichniki Bass, chorus, orchestra same year, Stasevich, the music 19. Dance of the Oprichniki Orchestra director of the Moscow State 20. Finale Ivan, chorus, orchestra Philharmonic and the man who had led the recording sessions for the film released his own adaptation which, like Atovmyan s, is labeled an oratorio. Stasevich condensed the three-hour film score into a concert work, calling for a speaker to stitch the music together into a compelling narrative, and including the figure of Ivan himself, to anchor Prokofiev s sprawling composition. Since Atovmyan s score remained unperformed until 2012, it is through Stasevich s version that Prokofiev s music has become known. Without altering the essence of Prokofiev s music, Stasevich culled the most important 4

5 numbers from the full score and arranged them into a cohesive work consisting of some twodozen individual pieces, some of them linked in order to form large chapters within the drama. Knowing that Prokofiev s manuscript was prepared for a recording studio, not the acoustics of a concert hall, and that the composer himself had made many changes in the scoring of Alexander Nevsky when he produced his concert version of that music, Stasevich took the liberty of touching up and reinforcing the instrumentation in Ivan the Terrible. Although Stasevich does not slavishly follow the sequence of the film, his version conveys the sweep and drama of Eisenstein and Prokofiev s conception. S tasevich begins with the sequences with which the film opens the ascension of a young Ivan and the celebratory music leading to his coronation and his marriage to Anastasia. Prokofiev uses the full resources of orchestra and chorus, sometimes overlaid with the spoken voice, to match the impressive choreography of Eisenstein s crowd scenes. There is music of brilliant pomp and glory, but there is also music of lyrical beauty for the wedding scene itself. The music moves forward to the threat of war and the terror of battle, as Ivan launches his campaign to extend his rule and to seize Kazan, the capital of the Tartars. The scene depicting the storming of Kazan is the largest unbroken expanse of music in the score it is a marvel of extraordinary sound effects, with a majestic melody rising up in the chorus and a thunderous, propulsive depiction of the battle itself. Prokofiev then charts a downward spiral: Ivan s illness and his pleas for his son to be named as his successor (over a menacing march and a haunted, wordless chorus); the poisoning of Anastasia by Ivan s vindictive aunt, Efrosiniya (one of the few purely orchestral episodes in the score); Ivan s appearance at Anastasia s coffin (set, unexpectedly, to the sound of unaccompanied voices). And then, Ivan regains his determination to expand his power and the music drives to its clangorous conclusion. There is a murderous drinking song and a fierce dance. And then at last, as Ivan affirms his unbreakable will to conquer, the voices of the people urge him onward. A final word. Eisenstein telephoned Prokofiev on February 10, 1948, after they had set aside their work on Ivan the Terrible, but a full ten years before the film was released. We do not know what they discussed. They may have talked about Eisenstein s new plan to make A Poet s Love, a film about Pushkin that he wanted Prokofiev to score. Later that evening, Eduard Tisse, Eisenstein s cameraman, called Prokofiev to say that the director had died, apparently of a heart attack. The next morning, the newspaper Pravda launched its notorious attack on Prokofiev s music (and that of several others, including Shostakovich) as part of an anti-social, formalistic trend. When Prokofiev stood at Eisenstein s grave two days later, he knew that he had not only lost a dear friend and his greatest collaborator, but also that one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of music was over. Phillip Huscher has been the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since To read about Prokofiev s relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and his impressions of Chicago, the first American city he came to know, see page 6. IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS FROM PREVIOUS PAGES Page 28: Three scenes from part 1: (left to right) the coronation scene of the young Ivan (Nikolai Cherkasov), grand prince of Muscovy; Tsar Ivan and Tsarina Anastasia Romanova (Lyudmila Tselikovskaya); the court of King Sigismund of Poland (Pavel Massalsky, seated), a collaborator of Ivan s enemies Page 29: (left to right) Filipp Kolychev (Andrei Abrikosov), metropolitan of Moscow, and Pimen (Alexander Mgrebov), archbishop of Novgorod, from part 2; Ivan pleads with the boyars, from part 1; Ivan (left) coerces his dim-witted cousin Vladimir Staritsky (Pavel Kadochnikov), who Ivan s enemies want to place on the throne, to reveal the plot again him in part 2 IMAGES FROM SERGEI EISENSTEIN S IVAN THE TERRIBLE PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER 2017 Chicago Symphony Orchestra 5