Program Notes: Beethoven's Sixth "Pastorale"

CLASSICS 2024/25 BEETHOVEN’S SIXTH SYMPHONY “PASTORALE” PERFORMED BY YOUR COLORADO SYMPHONY KRISTIINA POSKA, conductor KAREN GOMYO, violin Friday, February 21, 2025 at 7:30pm Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 7:30pm Sunday, February 23, 2025 at 1:00pm Boettcher Concert Hall

JULIA ADOLPHE Underneath the Sheen

SIBELIUS Concerto for Violin in D minor, Op. 47 I. Allegro moderato II. Adagio di molto III. Allegro, ma non tanto — INTERMISSION —

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 “Pastorale” I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Andante molto mosso III. Allegro IV. Allegro V. Allegretto

CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 34 MINUTES INCLUDING A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION.

Saturday’s concert is sponsored by Drs. Vesna Jevtovic-Todorovic and Slobodan Todorovic.

Sunday’s concert is sponsored by UCHealth’s Ready. Set. CO challenge.

PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

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PHOTO: KAUPO KIKKAS-MIN

KRISTIINA POSKA, conductor The award-winning conductor Kristiina Poska is in high demand on the international music scene. She has held the post of Chief Conductor of Flanders Symphony Orchestra since 2019/20 season, Principal Guest Conductor of Latvian National Symphony Orchestra since 2021/22 and will start her tenure as Music Director of Orchestre Français des Jeunes in Summer 2025. She studied choral conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater in Tallinn and orchestral conducting at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin. Poska was a finalist at the renowned Donatella Flick LSO Competition in 2010 and at the Malko Competition in May 2012, where she also won the audience prize. She then went on to win the prestigious German Conductors’ Prize in April 2013.

This season’s highlights include several debuts – with Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Colorado Symphony in North America, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi and Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao in Spain, Swedish Radio and Norwegian Radio Symphony orchestras in Scandinavia as well as Orchestre National de Montpellier, Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Grazer Philharmoniker.

During the concert season, she returns to Orchestre National de France, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and tours with Flanders Symphony Orchestra several times performing in Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany and Estonia. As the new Music Director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, she embarks on two European tours at the end of the summer.

Recent highlights include debuts with Minnesota Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Nacionales de España, as well as NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. She has appeared with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, Poska has worked with orchestras such as hr-Sinfonieorchester, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Gothenburg Symphony, The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich to name a few.

Equally prolific in the operatic repertoire, Poska debuts at the Opéra de Dijon this season, conducting a double bill production featuring Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Strauss’ Metamorphosen directed by Dominique Pitoiset. Recent opera productions include a return to Staatsoper Berlin with a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte at Norwegian National Opera and Royal Danish Theatre, Puccini’s La bohème by Robert Carsen at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Carmen with Staatsoper Stuttgart, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Semperoper). She has appeared with Komische Oper Berlin, Royal Swedish Opera, English National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Volksoper Vienna among others.

Poska’s previous roles included Principal Conductor of Cappella Academica from 2006 to 2011, Kapellmeister at Komische Oper Berlin from 2012 to 2016, and Music Director for Theater Basel for the 2019/20 season. Together with Flanders Symphony Orchestra Poska currently records the complete Beethoven cycle for the label Fuga Libera.

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PHOTO: IRÈNE ZANDEL

KAREN GOMYO, violin Karen Gomyo, “a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity.” (The Chicago Tribune), possesses a rare ability to captivate and connect intimately with audiences through her deeply emotional and heartfelt performances. With a flawless command of the instrument and an elegance of expression, she is one of today’s leading violinists.

Following a highly successful 23/24 season which saw Karen debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, and KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, in addition to returns to Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl, Dallas Symphony and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, she continues on tour to Australasia in concerts with the Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmanian and West Australian symphony orchestras. Karen’s 24/25 season will bring more highly anticipated debuts with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orchestra RAI Torino, Helsinki, Oslo, and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras. Karen will also return to Indianapolis, Baltimore, Colorado, Kansas City symphony orchestras, and in Canada to Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, NAC Orchestra in Ottawa, and Calgary Philharmonic.

Other recent highlights include debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orquesta Nacional de España, Czech Philharmonic and Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, as well as returns to Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln.

As a passionate chamber musician, Karen has had the pleasure of performing with artists such as Olli Mustonen, Leif Ove Andsnes, Enrico Pace, James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Daishin Kashimoto, Emmanuel Pahud, Julian Steckel, the late Heinrich Schiff, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, and guitarist Ismo Eskelinen with whom she has recorded the duo album Carnival on BIS Records.

She is also a champion of the Nuevo Tango music of Astor Piazzolla. She has collaborated with Piazzolla’s long-time pianist and tango legend, Pablo Ziegler, as well as with bandoneon players, Hector del Curto, JP Jofre, and Marcelo Nisinman. In 2021 Karen released A Piazzolla Triology (BIS Records), recorded with the Strings of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and guitarist Stephanie Jones.

Renowned for her commitment to commissioning new repertoire, Karen gave the US premieres of Samy Moussa’s Violin Concerto Adrano with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No.2 Mar’eh with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington under the composer’s baton, and Xi Wang’s YEAR 2020: Concerto for Violin, Trumpet and Orchestra with Dallas Symphony Orchestra and trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, conducted by Fabio Luisi. In 2018, she performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ Chamber Concerto with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, written for her and commissioned for the CSO’s ‘Music Now’ 20th anniversary series.

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CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES Born in Tokyo, Karen began her musical career in Montréal and New York; she studied under the legendary pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School before continuing her studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and New England Conservatory with Mauricio Fuks and Donald Weilerstein respectively. She also studied privately for a formative period in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff. Karen participated as violinist, host, and narrator in a documentary film produced by NHK Japan about Antonio Stradivarius called The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, which was broadcast worldwide on NHK WORLD.

The Four Seasons with Avi Avital MAR 15-16 SAT 7:30 | SUN 1:00 COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES JULIA ADOLPHE (B. 1988) Underneath the Sheen Julia Adolphe was born on May 16, 1988 in New York City. Underneath the Sheen was composed in 2014, and premiered on September 27, 2018 at Walt Disney Concert Hall by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. The score calls for two flutes, alto flute, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, harp and strings. Duration is about 8 minutes.

This is the Colorado Symphony premiere performance of this piece.

Among the greatest distinctions for a composer is the performance of a major work by one of the world’s leading orchestras. Julia Adolphe registered that honor at age 25, when her Dark Sand, Sifting Light was one of three pieces by young composers chosen for the New York Philharmonic’s 2014 “NY Phil Biennial.” In addition to glowing reviews of the work, Adolphe also took from that experience a 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artists Award and a commission for a concerto titled Unearth, Release for the Philharmonic’s Principal Violist, Cynthia Phelps, which was premiered at a subscription concert in November 2016; White Stone, Adolphe’s third work for the NYP, was introduced by the orchestra and Alan Gilbert at the Bravo! Vail Festival in Colorado in July 2017. She has since fulfilled commissions for works from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Cincinnati May Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and three from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition to the NYP’s Emerging Artist Award, Adolphe has received an ASCAP Young Composer Award, Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters, Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Theodore Front Prize from the International Alliance for Women in Music, Jimmy McHugh Composition Prize, John James Blackmore Prize, John S. Knight Prize, and grants from Opera America, New Music USA, American Composers Forum and League of American Orchestras.

The performances in New York in 2014 were a homecoming for Adolphe, who was born there in 1988. She received her baccalaureate from Cornell and took her master’s degree at the Thornton School of Music at USC; her teachers include Stephen Hartke, Steven Stucky and Donald Crockett. Julia Adolphe is also an active writer, teacher and producer: in 2014, the on-line web site NewMusicBox published her articles on teaching music in an all-male maximum security prison; in 2013, she was co-producer of The Prodigal Son, conducted by James Conlon, for the LA Opera Britten Centennial; and she served as the Primary Research Assistant for Conlon’s Orel Foundation, which is dedicated to reviving music suppressed during the Third Reich. Julia Adolphe is also passionate about de-stigmatizing mental illness and dispelling the myth of the tortured artist, and has created and hosts the podcast LooseLeaf NoteBook, which uncovers the connection between creativity and mental health with a focus on nurturing artistry, emotional intelligence, and self-care.

In addition to her orchestral compositions, Julia Adolphe has written choral music, chamber works, songs and a one-act opera titled Sylvia, which was developed in 2012 at the Lost Studio Theatre in Los Angeles, excerpted for performance at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust as part of the Yom HaShoah Commemoration, and heard complete at New York City’s Bargemusic in March 2013; she has also written a one-act opera with a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann based on Jules Feiffer’s novel A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears, which was workshopped at National Sawdust in Brooklyn in 2019.

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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES Adolphe wrote of Underneath the Sheen, composed for the Centennial Season Opening Night Gala Concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on September 27, 2018, “Underneath the Sheen envisions the movement of light edging and shining through a canopy of leaves and branches as observed from the forest floor. The endurance and quiet omnipotence of California’s Redwood trees served as the source of inspiration. Standing beneath these trees is a humbling and exhilarating experience, a stunning reminder of the simultaneous power and fragility of nature. The immense roots, twisting and turning, the mist hanging in the air, and the beams of light entering the forest ceiling create a striking enclosure, encasing the observer in an otherworldly realm. The music explores this oddly foreign yet deeply intimate atmosphere, a sense of a lost home, a state of vulnerability.”

@ JEAN SIBELIUS (1865-1957) Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 Jean Sibelius was born on December 8, 1865 in Hämeenlinna, Finland, and died on September 20, 1957 in Järvenpää, Finland. Sibelius composed his Violin Concerto in 1903, conducted the premiere in Helsinki on February 8, 1904 with Viktor Nováček as soloist. The score calls for woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings. Duration is about 25 minutes. The last performance of this piece by the orchestra was November 3-5, 2017 with conductor Marcus Stenz and Yumi Hwang-Williams on violin.

By 1903, when he was engaged on his Violin Concerto, Sibelius had already composed Finlandia, Kullervo, En Saga, Karelia Suite, Four Lemminkäinen Legends (including The Swan of Tuonela) and the first two symphonies, the works that established his international reputation.

He was composing so easily at that time that his wife, Aïno, wrote to a friend that he would stay up far into the night to record the flood of excellent ideas that had come upon him during the day. There were, however, some disturbing personal worries threatening his musical fecundity.

Just after the premiere of the Second Symphony in March 1902, Sibelius developed a painful ear infection that did not respond easily to treatment. Thoughts of the deafness of Beethoven and Smetana plagued him, and he feared that he might be losing his hearing. (He was 37 at the time.) In June, he began having trouble with his throat, and he jumped to the conclusion that his health was about to give way, even wondering how much time he might have left to work.

Though filled with fatalistic thoughts at that time, he put much energy into the Violin Concerto.

The ear and throat ailments continued to plague him until 1908, when a benign tumor was discovered. It took a dozen operations until it was successfully removed, but the anxiety about its return stayed with him for years. (Sibelius, incidentally, enjoyed sterling health for the rest of his days and lived to the ripe age of 91, a testament to the efficacy of his treatment.)

The Violin Concerto’s opening movement employs sonata form, modified in that a succinct cadenza for the soloist replaces the usual development section. The exposition consists of three theme groups — a doleful melody announced by the soloist over murmuring strings, a yearning theme initiated by bassoons and cellos with rich accompaniment, and a bold, propulsive PROGRAM VI

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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES strophe in march rhythm. The development-cadenza is built on the opening motive and leads directly into the recapitulation of the exposition themes.

The second movement could well be called a “Romanza,” a descendant of the long-limbed lyricism of the Andantes of Mozart’s violin concertos. It is among the most avowedly Romantic music in any of Sibelius’ works for orchestra. The finale launches into a robust dance whose theme the eminent English musicologist Sir Donald Tovey thought could be “a polonaise for polar bears.” A bumptious energy fills the movement, giving it an air reminiscent of the Gypsy finales of many 19th-century violin concertos. The form is sonatina, a sonata without development, here employing two large theme groups.

@ LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 -1827) Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, “Pastoral” Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, and died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna. He began his Sixth Symphony during the summer of 1807 and completed it in June 1808.

The premiere took place on December 22, 1808 at the Theater-an-der-Wien in Vienna under the composer’s direction. The score calls for woodwinds in pairs plus piccolo, two each of horns, trumpets and trombones, timpani and strings. Duration is about 39 minutes. The orchestra last performed this piece February 24-27, 2022, conducted by Marcus Stenz.

There is a fine and often fluid line that separates program and absolute music. Usually composers intend their work to be heard either with some extra-musical reference or as a universe unto itself, but Beethoven tried to bridge both worlds in his “Pastoral” Symphony.

This work, with its birdcalls and its horncalls, its thunder, wind and rain, its peasant dances and babbling brooks, is decidedly and lovably programmatic. Yet the composer insisted that the Symphony is “more an expression of feeling than painting” — that it is more pure, abstract emotion than mere imitations of various familiar country noises. It is, in truth, both.

The extra-musical associations of the “Pastoral” Symphony run deeper than its simulations of nightingales and thunder storms. Actually, there are at least three simultaneous levels of “meaning” here. The first and most obvious of these three is the evocation of natural noises, but this was only a point of departure for Beethoven into the second degree of reference in this work, since these woodland sounds were simply the external manifestations of what was, for him, a much deeper reality: that God was to be found in every tree, in every brook; indeed, that God and Nature are, if not the same, certainly indivisible. The third plane on which the “Pastoral” Symphony exists is heavily influenced by the other two. This third level, the purely musical, reflects the stability, the calm and the sense of the infinite that Beethoven perceived in Nature. “Oh, the sweet stillness of the woods!” he wrote. The “Pastoral” Symphony, one of the most gentle works Beethoven ever composed, grants not only a deeper understanding of the great composer, but also, through his vision, a heightened awareness of ourselves and the world around us.

Beethoven gave each of the five movements of his “Pastoral” Symphony a title describing its general character. The first movement, filled with verdant sweetness and effusive good S O U N D I N G S 2 0 2 4 / 2 5 PROGRAM VII

CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES humor, is headed The Awakening of Cheerful Feelings at the Arrival in the Country. The violins present a simple theme that pauses briefly after only four measures, as though the composer were alighting from a coach and taking a deep breath of the fragrant air before beginning his walk along a shaded path. The melody grows more vigorous before it quiets to lead almost imperceptibly to the second theme, a descending motive played by violins above a rustling string accompaniment. Again, the spirits swell and then relax before the main theme returns to occupy most of the development. To conclude the first movement, the recapitulation returns the themes of the exposition in more richly orchestrated settings.

The second movement, Scene at the Brook, continues the mood and undulant figuration of the preceding movement. The music of this movement is almost entirely without chromatic harmony, and exudes an air of tranquility amid pleasing activity. The form is a sonata-allegro whose opening theme starts with a fragmentary idea in the first violins sounded above a rich accompaniment. The second theme begins with a descending motion, like that of the first movement, but then turns back upward to form an inverted arch. A full development section utilizing the main theme follows. The recapitulation recalls the earlier themes with enriched orchestration and leads to a most remarkable coda. In the closing pages of the movement, the rustling accompaniment ceases while all Nature seems to hold its breath to listen to the songs of three birds — the nightingale, the dove and the cuckoo. Twice this tiny avian concert is performed before the movement comes quietly to its close. When later Romantic composers sought stylistic and formal models for their works, it was to Beethoven that they turned, and when program music was the subject, this coda was their object.

Beethoven titled the scherzo Merry Gathering of the Peasants, and filled the music with a rustic bumptiousness and simple humor that recall a hearty if somewhat ungainly country dance. The central trio shifts to duple meter for a stomping dance before the scherzo returns.

The festivity is halted in mid-step by the sound of distant thunder portrayed by the rumblings of the low strings. Beethoven built a convincing storm scene here through the tempestuous use of the tonal and timbral resources of the orchestra that stands in bold contrast to the surrounding movements of this Symphony. As the storm passes away over the horizon, the silvery voice of the flute leads directly into the finale, Shepherd’s Song: Joyful, Thankful Feelings after the Storm.

The clarinet and then the horn sing the unpretentious melody of the shepherd, which returns, rondo-fashion, to support the form of the movement. The mood of well-being and contented satisfaction continues to the end of this wonderful work. ©2024 Dr. Richard E. Rodda