CONCERT PROGRAM WATER MUSIC

Transcription

1 CONCERT PROGRAM WATER MUSIC The Rhine river and Ehrenfels, anonymous artist, c Saturday, June 2, :30pm Sunday, June 3, :00pm Christoph Altstaedt conductor Leslie Ann Bradley soprano MEDIA PARTNER George Frideric Handel Alla Hornpipe from Water Music Suite No. 2 in D Major Johann Strauss II On the beautiful blue Danube, Op. 314 Franz Schubert/orch. Benjamin Britten Die Forelle (The Trout) for Soprano and Orchestra Antonín Dvořák Song to the Moon from Rusalka, Op. 114 Benjamin Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a I. Dawn: Lento e tranquillo II. Sunday Morning: Allegro spiritoso III. Moonlight: Andante comodo e rubato IV. Storm: Presto con fuoco Intermission Bedřich Smetana Vltava (Moldau), No. 2 from Má vlast Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Ah, lo previdi... Ah, t invola... Deh, non varcar, K.272 Robert Schumann Mvts. IV and V from Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 Rhenish IV. Feierlich V. Lebhaft 34

2 THE DETAILS During the 18th century, the London aristocracy often enjoyed sailing leisurely on the Thames River in an open barge. Another barge, full of musicians, would follow, performing appropriate outdoor music for their entertainment. A London newspaper described such an event in July 1717: On Wednesday evening about 8, the King (George I) took water at Whitehall in an open barge and went up river toward Chelsea. A city company s barge was employed for the music, where there were 50 instruments of all sorts, who played the finest symphonies composed expressly for this occasion by Mr. Handel: which His Majesty liked so well, that he caused it to be played over three times in going and returning. The symphonies mentioned came to be known as the Water Music, one of the most popular compositions by George Frideric Handel ( ). Suitably, a hornpipe was a lively English dance usually associated with sailors, and the Alla Hornpipe (2 min) from Suite No. 2 is one of the most familiar pieces of the three Water Music suites. The Viennese waltz craze culminated in the 1860s with the Strauss family of composers, the most popular member being Johann Strauss II ( ), also known as The Waltz King. The waltz combined brilliance, sentiment, sparkle, and nostalgia, becoming the symbol for a glorious, sophisticated society at its peak. Strauss II s On the beautiful Blue Danube (8 min), from 1866, is arguably the world s bestloved waltz, symbolizing this Golden Age of Vienna, when it was a political, scientific, and cultural hub of Europe. Waltzes were heard in the ballrooms, dance halls, cafés, theatres, and homes in Vienna, causing composer Richard Wagner to remark that the waltz was a stronger narcotic than alcohol. Johannes Brahms, a friend and admirer of the Waltz King s, once autographed a woman s fan with the opening bars of the Blue Danube, and signed it, Unfortunately, not by J. Brahms. It became a 20th-century icon after its use during the famous space station docking scene in the 1968 film classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. One of the most popular songs by Franz Schubert ( ) is Die Forelle or The Trout (4 min), composed in Set to words by the 18th-century German poet Christian F.D. Schubart, it tells of an onlooker observing a fisherman trying to catch a trout in a brook. In the first two verses, the fisherman is unsuccessful, but by the third verse, the fish is caught. As well as evoking the darting movement of the trout, Schubert uses the music to convey the onlooker s emotions first, pleasure in the trout s freedom, and then sadness and anger in its capture. Two years later, while on a summer holiday, Schubert was asked to compose a chamber 35

3 THE DETAILS music piece that would include a set of variations on the song. The result is the fourth movement of the popular Piano Quintet in A, D. 667, nicknamed The Trout. (For the text and translation to Die Forelle, please turn to page 38.) The story of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák s ( ) 1901 opera Rusalka revolves around clashes between the supernatural world and the human world. Rusalka is a water sprite who falls in love with a human prince. With the help of a witch, Rusalka is transformed into a beautiful girl. But after she and the prince are married, he commits an act of infidelity, causing Rusalka to be changed back to her water sprite form. When the prince finally finds her in a lake, he dies in her arms. By far, the most popular excerpt from the opera comes from Act I and the showcase aria, Song to the Moon (6 min). Rusalka tells her father about her love for a mortal and her wish to become human. She then sings to the moon, confiding her dreams, feelings, and aspirations. (For the text and translation to Song to the Moon, please turn to page 38.) The 1945 opera Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten ( ) captures the perpetual struggle of men and women whose livelihood depends on the sea, and Grimes s own personal struggle as an outsider in a community he despises, but to which he craves to belong. Throughout the opera, Britten employs the orchestra to evoke the sea and its constantly changing form, weather, and moods. The Four Sea Interludes (16 min) for orchestra introduce each act and link the scenes. Dawn depicts early morning on the seashore, with shrieking seagulls, perhaps a deserted beach, and the vast power of the sea itself. Sunday Morning is all bright sunshine with the clamour of church bells. In contrast, Moonlight is lonely, dark, and foreboding. The raging wind and sea in the last interlude, Storm, reflect Peter Grimes s state of mind and his hopeless longing for peace and love, but by the end, the fury of the storm wins out. During the 1870s, The Father of Czech Music, Bedřich Smetana ( ) composed a set of six tone poems called collectively Má vlast or My Homeland. Evoking musical portraits of landscapes, the history, or legends of his beloved Bohemia, the most popular of the six is the second the Moldau, or Vltava in Czech (11 min). It is a musical tribute to the iconic Czech river that begins its journey as a spring in the forest, broadening out to witness a hunt and the merry folk dances of peasants, cradling wood and water nymphs, passing by majestic castles and fortresses, before widening as it flows through Prague. Since 1952, Má vlast, including the Moldau, has been performed to open the annual Prague Spring Music Festival 36

4 on May 12 the anniversary of the death of Smetana in The Greek myth of Perseus and Andromeda had been a popular topic in the early days of opera. Condemned to be sacrificed to a sea monster, Andromeda is saved by Perseus, and the two fall in love. But when a rival later tells Andromeda that Perseus has died, she bitterly reproaches him for not preventing her lover s demise, and vows to join Perseus in death. W. A. Mozart ( ) wrote the concert aria Ah, lo previdi... Ah, t invola... Deh, non varcar, K. 272 (12 min) in 1777 for the noted Czech soprano Josepha Duschek, borrowing the text from an earlier opera. In several different sections, including recitative and cavatina, Andromeda is heard as furious and vengeful, reflective, grief-stricken and yearning. By the end, she implores her beloved Perseus not to cross the river Lethe (the river that flows through Hades, the home of the dead) until she can be with him again. (For the text and translation to Ah, lo previdi... Ah, t invola... Deh, non varcar, please turn to page 39.) one of the happiest periods of his life. Schumann dreamed of composing a symphony that would capture, in music, some of the landscape, life, and beauty of the Rhineland or Rhenish region. In the autumn of 1850, the Symphony No. 3 was composed and has always carried the nickname, Rhenish. Schumann loved the huge, Gothic Cologne Cathedral in the region s cultural centre, once witnessing the solemn ceremony for the induction of a Roman Catholic cardinal. This was the inspiration for the fourth movement, while the finale is often viewed as the subsequent joyful peasant festival, ending with the triumphant return of the cathedral scene music (10 min). Program notes by Rick Phillips, a Toronto writer, teacher, broadcaster, and music tour host. soundadvice1.com Early in 1850, Robert Schumann ( ) accepted the position of Municipal Music Director in Düsseldorf, a mediumsized city in the west of Germany, along the Rhine River the opposite side of the country from his native Saxony. Moving there with his family was the start of 37

5 THE ARTISTS Christoph Altstaedt conductor These performances mark Christoph Altstaedt s TSO début. Christoph Altstaedt s 2017/18 season features débuts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. After widely acclaimed Mozart productions at Theater Basel, Glyndebourne on Tour, and Savonlinna Opera Festival, Christoph Altstaedt makes his début with Così fan tutte at the Finnish National Opera and returns to Opera North with Don Giovanni. Committed to developing contemporary approaches to classical concerts, he will perform a new version of La sacre du printemps combined with electronic music with the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Recent concert highlights included returns to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken as well as débuts with the hr-sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Philharmonie Zuidnederlands at Amsterdam s Concertgebouw, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. In 2003, he founded a multi-award-winning youth orchestra involving German, Polish, and Czech nationals, with the aim of bringing together young people from former wartorn territories. Their concert tours included acclaimed Mahler performances in venues ranging from the Berlin Konzerthaus to Tokyo s Suntory hall. Leslie Ann Bradley soprano Leslie Ann Bradley made her TSO début in January Canadian soprano Leslie Ann Bradley is in demand in both Canada and the USA. She looks forward to performances with the Louisiana Philharmonic (Carmina Burana), Symphony Nova Scotia (Beethoven s Symphony No. 9), Victoria Symphony (Mahler s Symphony No. 4), and Pacific Opera Victoria (the title role in Countess Maritza). Recent highlights include Countess in Le nozze di Figaro for Vancouver Opera, Desdemona in Otello for Pacific Opera Victoria, and the title role in Lehar s The Merry Widow for Opéra de Montréal. Further highlights include appearances with the orchestras of Rochester, Sacramento, and Naples in the US as well as with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México. Winner of the Norcop Song Prize and a winner in the New England Metropolitan Opera competition, Ms. Bradley holds a master s degree from the University of Toronto and a diploma from the University of Toronto s Opera Division. She attended Tanglewood and the Académie International de musique Maurice Ravel in France, where she received the Prix du chant Pierre Bernac as winner of the Academy s voice competition. 41