PROGRAM ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIXTH SEASON Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Zell Music Director Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Sunday, March 12, 2017, at 2:00 Fullerton Hall, The Art Institute of Chicago Chamber Music Series at The Art Institute of Chicago BURNHAM CHAMBER ENSEMBLE Susan Synnestvedt Violin Kozue Funakoshi Violin Diane Mues Viola Loren Brown Cello Andrea Swan Piano CONTEMPORARY CORE Introduction and Slide Commentary Giovanni Aloi, Lecturer, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Haydn String Quartet No. 53 in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5 (The Lark) Allegro moderato Adagio cantabile Menuetto: Allegretto Finale: Vivace J. Adams Four Pieces from John s Book of Alleged Dances Toot Nipple Pavane: She s So Fine Stubble Crotchet Alligator Escalator INTERMISSION
Dvořák Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81 Allegro, ma non tanto Dumka: Andante con moto Scherzo (Furiant): Molto vivace Finale: Allegro ANDREA SWAN At the Art Institute The gallery talk following the concert will feature works from The New Contemporary: The Edlis/Neeson Collection. This afternoon s concert is a collaborative production of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The Art Institute of Chicago. The Steinway designed Boston piano is provided by Steinway, Chicago. 2
Joseph Haydn Born March 31, 1732; Rohrau, Austria Died May 31, 1809; Vienna, Austria COMMENTS by Eric Bromberger String Quartet No. 53 in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5 (The Lark) Haydn s thirty years as kapellmeister to the Esterházy family at their palaces to the east of Vienna was one of the most distinguished relationships in the history of music. Prince Nikolaus was a passionate amateur musician who maintained an opera house, a marionette theater, and a symphony orchestra. Haydn directed all these activities, and in the process, he turned the Esterházy establishment into one of the musical centers of Europe. By the late 1780s, however, there were signs that this situation would not last forever, and in fact it came to a sudden end when Nikolaus died on September 28, 1790. His successor, his son Prince Anton, was uninterested in music. Anton disbanded the orchestra and virtually the entire musical establishment, and put Haydn on a handsome pension. The Esterházy musicians were alert enough to see this coming, and several of them had already made alternate plans. The principal second violinist of Haydn s orchestra during the 1780s was Johann Tost, but in 1788, Tost resigned from the orchestra, married a wealthy wife, and went into business as a cloth merchant in Vienna. But Tost maintained his interest in music (and in commercial possibilities), and he commissioned twelve string quartets from his former music director. It was for Tost that Haydn composed the six quartets of his op. 64, completing the last two in the fall of 1790. The Quartet in D major, the fifth in the set, has become one of Haydn s most famous. It takes its nickname from the first violin s extended melody at the very beginning of the first movement. Listeners should be wary of that nickname. It makes a convenient handle by which to identify this quartet, but that violin melody bears no relationship to the song of the lark. The nickname did not originate with Haydn, who would have been as surprised to learn that he had written a Lark Quartet as Mozart would have been to learn that he had written a Jupiter Symphony. But nickname aside, that opening passage is a good introduction to the entire work, for the first violin is the star of this quartet, introducing themes, dominating their development, and generally soaring high above the other three instruments. If one of the clichés about Haydn is that he liberated all four voices in the string quartet, making it a democracy of equals, this quartet seem a reversion to an aristocratic hierarchy. But the first violin s unusual prominence is easy to forgive when dealing with music as captivating as this. The opening Allegro moderato is built largely on the soaring lark theme, although Haydn offers two other ideas, and all three are treated in the development. The Adagio cantabile is, as its name suggests, an essentially lyrical movement. Again the first violin soars and sings as the other instruments accompany. In the central episode, however, Haydn moves from the shining A major of the opening into a more subdued A minor; when the opening material returns, he decorates the first violin line with ornate embellishments. The third movement is the expected minuet and trio, built on a main theme full of grace notes. The trio section, though, brings a surprise: Haydn modulates into D minor, and the individual entrances descend gracefully through chromatic modulations. Haydn concludes with a finale marked Vivace. This movement is virtually a perpetual-motion showpiece for the first violin, which races along a steady rush of sixteenth notes. The center section features a series of fugal entrances and some energetic syncopations as the two violins ascend ever higher as the perpetual-motion rush continues below them. Even with its repeat, this sparkling movement races home in a blistering two minutes. 3
John Adams Born February 15, 1947; Worcester, Massachusetts Four Pieces from John s Book of Alleged Dances It is hard to believe that John Adams, seeming always the quintessential young American composer, turned seventy last month. But he did, and several musical organizations, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, are celebrating that milestone this season. Adams has composed in many forms: opera, oratorio, orchestral and chamber music, as well as keyboard and vocal works. His Violin Concerto, composed in 1993, has become one of his most successful large-scale works; it has been frequently performed and has been recorded several times. But Adams does not play the violin, so to write that concerto, he had to become familiar with the instrument s technique and possibilities. Once that concerto was complete, Adams found that he still had many ideas for stringed instruments left over. When the California Center for the Arts commissioned from him a new work for the ever-adventurous Kronos Quartet, Adams was able to bring those ideas to life. John s Book of Alleged Dances a set of ten dances for string quartet, with six of them accompanied by a prerecorded rhythm loop made up of sounds produced by a prepared piano was premiered by the Kronos Quartet at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido in 1994. The term alleged in the title is slightly tongue-in-cheek. Adams claimed that he used that adjective for these dances because the steps for them have yet to be invented. Ironically, though, John s Book of Alleged Dances has now been performed by several troupes, since the work s brisk energy and funky tunes have proven irresistible to dancers. In describing the dances, Adams has said that the general tone is dry, droll, sardonic ; it also should be noted that the works were inspired by people, places, memories, and moments around Adams. The dances range from rough and high-energy at one extreme to gentle and 4 PHOTO BY VERN EVANS nostalgic at the other; they demand a string quartet of first-class players. Though Adams wrote ten Alleged Dances, he stipulated that musicians are free to choose whichever dances they want to perform and are free to perform them in any order they would like (ideally, no two performances of John s Book of Alleged Dances should ever be the same). This concert offers the four dances that do not use the rhythm loop. On his website, Adams has provided descriptions of each of the dances, and his concise introductions are worth quoting: Toot Nipple: Mrs. Nipple you probably don t remember her husband, Toot. When he was young, he was a big fellow, quick and clever, a terror on the dance floor. (From Postcards by E. Annie Proulx.) Furious chainsaw triads on the cello, who rides them like a rodeo bull just long enough to hand them over to the viola Pavane: She s So Fine: A quiet, graceful song for a budding teenager. She s in her room, playing her favorite song on the boom box. Back and forth over those special moments, those favorite progressions. She knows all the words. On her bed are books and friendly animals. High, sweet cello melodies for Joan Jeanrenaud, who s so fine [Joan Jeanrenaud was the cellist of the Kronos Quartet.] Stubble Crotchet: A sawed-off stump of a piece. Dry bones and hardscrapple attacks ( at the frog, as stringers like to say). An early morning shave with an old razor Alligator Escalator: The long, sluggish beast is ascending from the basement level of the local Macy s, all the way to the top of the store and then back down again. Slow slithering scales, played flautando and sul tasto, leave invisible tracks on the escalator, splitting the octave in strange reptilian ways. Mothers are terrified, children fascinated.
Antonín Dvořák Born September 8, 1841; Muhlhausen, Bohemia (now Nelahozeves, Czech Republic) Died May 1, 1904; Prague, Bohemia Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81 In the summer of 1887 Antonín Dvořák took his large family to their summer home at Vysoka, in the forests and fields of his Czech homeland. It was a very good time for the composer. After years of struggle and poverty, he suddenly found himself famous: his Slavonic Dances were being played around the world, and his Seventh Symphony had been triumphantly premiered in London two years earlier. Dvořák found time to relax at Vysoka that summer, and he also found time to compose. He was usually one of the fastest of composers, able to complete a work quickly once he had sketched it. That August he began a new work, a piano quintet, but this one took him some time; he did not complete it until well into October, and it was premiered in Prague the following January Dvořák was at the height of his powers, and the quintet shows the hand of a master at every instant. This is tremendously vital music, full of fire, sweep, and soaring melodies. As a composer, Dvořák always was torn between the classical forms of the Viennese masters like his friend Brahms and his own passionate Czech nationalism. Perhaps some of the secret of the success of his Piano Quintet in A major is that it manages to combine those two kinds of music so successfully. Dvořák writes in classical forms like scherzo, rondo, and sonata, but he also employs characteristic Czech musical forms like the dumka and furiant. That makes for an intoxicating mix; perhaps another secret of this music s success is its heavy reliance on the sound of the viola. Dvořák was a violist, and in this quintet, the viola presents several of the work s main ideas. Its dusky sound is central to the music s rich sonority. It is the cello, though, that has the lyrical opening idea of the Allegro, ma non tanto. This long melody Dvořák marks it espressivo 2017 Chicago Symphony Orchestra undergoes some surprising transformations before the viola introduces the pulsing second theme. This movement is full of beautifully shaded moments: passages that flicker effortlessly between different keys in the manner of Schubert, a composer Dvořák very much admired. In sonata form, this movement ranges from delicate effects to thunderous climaxes before closing on a triumphant restatement of the second theme. The second movement is a dumka, a form derived from an old Slavonic song of lament. Dvořák makes a striking contrast of sonorities in the first few moments: in its high register, the piano sounds glassy and delicate while far below, the viola s C-string resonates darkly against it. The powerful opening gives way to varied episodes: a sparkling duet for violins that returns several times and a blistering vivace tune introduced by the viola. The movement closes quietly on a return of its somber opening music. Dvořák notes that the brief Molto vivace is a furiant, an old Bohemian dance based on shifting meters, but as countless commentators have pointed out, the 3/4 meter remains unchanged throughout this movement, which is a sort of fast waltz in A B A form. The dancing opening gives way to a wistful center section which is in fact a variant of the opening theme. The Allegro finale shows characteristics of both rondo- and sonata-form movement. Its amiable opening idea introduced by the first violin after a muttering, epigrammatic beginning dominates the movement. Dvořák even offers a deft fugato on this tune, introduced by the second violin, as part of the development. The powerful coda, which drives to a conclusion of almost symphonic proportions, is among the many pleasures of one of this composer s finest scores. 2017 Eric Bromberger Eric Bromberger writes program notes for the Minnesota Orchestra and San Diego Symphony, and has been a preconcert lecturer for the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1999. 5