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Concertmaster, and Max Levine Chair, Yoonshin Song is sponsored in part by Gary and Marian Beauchamp and the Beauchamp Foundation The Classical Season is endowed by The Wortham Foundation, Inc., in memory of Gus S. and Lyndall F. Wortham
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On Today’s Program BACH/KLEMPERER Bist du bei mir BACH/WEBERN Ricercata a 6 voci from Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offering) BACH/BERIO Contrapunctus XIX from Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of the Fugue), BWV 1080 BACH Partita for Solo Violin No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 I. Preludio E.-P. SALONEN Fog BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1 in C major, Opus 21 I. Adagio molto—Allegro con brio II. Andante cantabile con moto III. Menuetto and Trio: Allegro molto e vivace IV. Adagio—Allegro molto e vivace
ABOUT THE MUSIC
BACH/KLEMPERER BIST DU BEI MIR
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
COMPOSER (1685–1750) • In 1718, German composer Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel’s opera Diomedes premiered featuring an aria titled “Bist du bei mir, geh ich mit Freuden.” • The best known version of “Bist du bei mir” today was found in the notebooks of singer Anna Magdalena Bach (1701–1760), Johann Sebastian Bach’s second wife. Stölzel’s original melody is used in this version. • Bach also used a few of Stölzel’s compositions for church services later in his career. There is no evidence that the two contemporaries ever met. • German conductor and composer Otto Klemperer (1885–1973) took the original transcription of “Bist du bei mir” and reimagined it for string orchestra.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
BACH/WEBERN R I C E R C ATA A 6 V O C I
• During a visit to the court of Frederick II of Prussia in 1747, the king presented Bach with a theme and requested that he improvise a six-part fugue based on it. Bach improvised a three-part fugue during his visit, but returned a few months later to present Frederick II with The Musical Offering which included “Ricercata a 6 voci”, a six-part fugue for keyboard. • Austrian composer and conductor Anton Webern (1883–1945) took Bach’s keyboard fugue and arranged it for chamber orchestra. • In Italian, ricercar means “to seek,” a term wellsuited to this piece that represents the exploration of 18th century composition through a 20th century lens.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
BACH/BERIO CONTRAPUNCTUS XIX
• Bach, well-known for his fugue compositions, set out to develop various fugues in the early 1740s that would later become The Art of the Fugue. • The Art of the Fugue culminates in a quadruple fugue, Contrapunctus XIX, that was left unfinished. • Italian composer Luciano Berio (1925–2003) is a distinct voice in post-war modernist music. His musical research blends an awareness of tradition with an interest in exploring new forms. He’s known for his adaptations of Western music, including Bach’s Contrapunctus XIX.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
BACH P R E L U D E F R O M V I O L I N PA R T I TA NO. 3 IN E MAJOR
• The Violin Partita No. 3 is the last work in Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas by Bach. • The sonatas and partitas reflect Bach’s mastery as both a musician and composer. • The Prelude is one of Bach’s most popular instrumental pieces, consisting almost entirely of exuberant sixteenth notes, and was used in two of his later cantatas Herr Gott, Beherrscher aller Dinge and Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir.
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E.-P. SALONEN FOG
ESA-PEKKA SALONEN
COMPOSER (b. 1958) • Salonen served as the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1992 to 2009. During his tenure, he was instrumental in helping the orchestra open the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Fog was written as a tribute to the 90th birthday of Frank Gehry, the architect of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. • Salonen described the piece as “a fantasy around the Bach E major Prelude from Partita in E, which was the first piece of music Frank and I heard in the Walt Disney Concert Hall while it was still under construction. Much of the harmony is based on Frank’s name: F A G E H (B natural in English).” • Fog premiered in September 2020 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
B E E T H OV E N SYMPHONY NO. 1
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
COMPOSER (1770–1827) • Beethoven began work on his First Symphony in late 1799 and completed it by early 1800. The composition premiered on April 2, 1800 at Vienna’s Burgtheater. Beethoven held the concert for his own benefit, including a symphony by Mozart and excerpts from Haydn’s oratorio The Creation on the program. • Around the same time, just as Beethoven reached success with his compositions, he was given news that his hearing problem was incurable. • The Symphony No. 1 is inspired by the works of Mozart and Haydn, Beethoven’s teacher. It is written in the conventional four-movement form that he would later transform.
ARTIST BIOS ESA-PEKKA SALONEN CONDUCTOR Esa-Pekka Salonen’s restless innovation drives him constantly to reposition classical music in the 21st century. He is known as both a composer and conductor and is currently the Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor for London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony; 2020–21 being his first season. He is Artist in Association at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. He is part of the faculty of LA’s Colburn School, where he develops, leads, and directs the preprofessional Negaunee Conducting Program. He is the Conductor Laureate for both the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director from 1992 until 2009. Salonen co-founded—and from 2003 until 2018 served as the Artistic Director for—the annual Baltic Sea Festival, which invites celebrated artists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea. Esa-Pekka Salonen is the recipient of many major awards. Most recently, in 2020, he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by the Queen of England.
ARTIST BIOS
YOONSHIN SONG CONCERTMASTER Acclaimed as “a wonderfully talented violinist…whose sound and technique go well beyond her years,” violinist Yoonshin Song was born in South Korea, where she began her musical studies at age 5. Making her solo debut with the Seoul Philharmonic at age 11, she has since built a successful performing career internationally. Yoonshin was appointed as Concertmaster of the Houston Symphony in August 2019. Prior to that she has held the same position with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. Yoonshin has also served as guest concertmaster of the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer. Beyond her first chair duties, Yoonshin has performed as a soloist with many orchestras around the world, including the Houston Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, the Paul Constantinescu Philharmonic Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the KBS Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. The highlights of her 2020–2021 season as a soloist include concertos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, and the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also participated as a soloist and chamber musician in numerous leading music festivals, including the Marlboro, Deer Valley, Great Lakes, and Aspen Music Festivals in the United States; the Miyazaki Chamber Music Festival in Japan; and the Verbier, Lucerne, and Bayreuth Festivals in Europe. Yoonshin has earned many prestigious prizes throughout her career, including top prize awards in the Lipizer International Violin Competition in Italy; the Lipinski & Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poland; the Henry Marteau International Violin Competition in Germany; and first prize at the Stradivarius International Competition in the United States. She studied under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory and continued her studies with Robert Mann and Glenn Dicterow at the Manhattan School of Music.
