Yale Philharmonia

THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE o c t o b e r 2 2 , 2 0 1 0 · f rid ay, 8 pm · wools e y h all

Peter Oundjian principal guest conductor

mik h a il g li nka Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla

s e rg e ko uss evi t z ky Concerto for Double Bass in F-sharp minor, Op. 3 Allegro — Andante Allegro Nathaniel Chase, double bass

Intermission

p y o t r ily ic h tc h ai kovs ky Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 Andante – Allegro con anima Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza – Moderato con anima – Andante mosso – Allegro non troppo Valse: Allegro moderato Andante maestoso – Allegro vivace – Molto vivace – Moderato assai e molto maestoso – Presto

As a courtesy to others, please silence all cell phones and devices. Photography of any kind is strictly prohibited.

Please do not leave the hall during musical selections.

Thank you.

Robert Blocker, Dean

pro g ram no tes

Mikhail Glinka » 1804-1857 Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla

Serge Koussevitzky » 1874-1951

Considered by many to be the father of Russian classical music, Mikhail Glinka exerted a powerful influence on many important composers who emerged in Russia in the latter half of the nineteenth century. His works, while belonging to the western European tradition, are nonetheless characterized by inflections of his native land. Glinka was largely self-taught, but in 1830 he embarked on a trip to Italy, where he would live for three years. He studied at the conservatory in Milan, and met such notable composers as Berlioz and Mendelssohn, but ultimately decided that his true calling was to return to Russia and develop a uniquely Russian musical style.

Born into a musical family, Serge Koussevitzky was trained from an early age to play piano, violin, cello, and trumpet. Yet when he entered the Musico-Dramatic Institute of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, it was as a bassist. At twenty, Koussevitzky joined the bass section of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, eventually becoming its principal in 1901. The next year, with the help of composer Reinhold Glière, he completed his Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra, which he premiered in Moscow in 1905. Soon after, Koussevitzky resigned from the Bolshoi and moved to Berlin, where he began to study conducting.

Although his first opera, A Life for the Tsar, is distinctly Italianate in musical style, his second, Russlan and Ludmilla, incorporates material from folk songs and makes use of such novel harmonic devices as the whole-tone scale (listen for it descending in the trombones near the end of the overture) to create a distinctly Russian atmosphere. Many of Glinka’s innovations became stock musical symbols in Russian Romantic composition, such as his use of paired dominant seventh chords related by a common tone to signify fantastical subject matter (also used in Stravinsky’s Firebird).

While the music of Russlan and Ludmilla is widely praised for its distinctiveness and its many coloristic innovations, the plot of the opera is generally panned as a dramatic mess.

The work is based on a story by Pushkin, who had intended to fashion the libretto for Glinka until his life was cut short in a duel. The task fell to Konstantin Alexandrovich Bakhturin, who drew up a dramatic outline that had to be filled in by the composer himself, with poetic contributions made by Glinka’s friends. The shoddy quality of the libretto has been a major factor in the infrequency of performances of the opera, particularly outside of Russia.

However, the brilliance of Glinka’s orchestral writing has assured the Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla a place on concert programs across the globe.

– Jordan Kuspa

Concerto for Double Bass Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 3

Koussevitzky made his public conducting debut in 1908 with the Berlin Philharmonic, leading Rachmaninoff ’s Second Piano Concerto with the composer himself at the piano. In 1924, he became the conductor of the Boston Symphony, a post he would hold until 1949.

Yet his greatest legacy is perhaps as a commissioner and champion of new works for orchestra. He commissioned Ravel’s famous orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in 1922. Other notable commissions include Ravel’s Piano Concerto, Prokofiev’s Fourth Symphony, Hindemith’s Konzertmusik, and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. In 1942, he founded the Koussevitzky Music Foundations, which would commission such masterworks as Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, Britten’s Peter Grimes, Copland’s Third Symphony, and Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie.

Tonight’s concerto begins with a dramatic statement in the horns, countered by a sinuous melodic line in the solo bass part. While the music for the soloist is cast predominantly in a lyrical vein, there are several moments of explosive virtuosity. Koussevitsky deftly balances the soloist with the orchestra, often placing the bass line against a backdrop of woodwinds for contrast. The first movement segues directly into the second, which closes with an ethereal melody entirely in harmonics.

The final movement begins with the same bold gesture that opened the work, but as soloist and orchestra hurtle towards the conclusion, a harmonic shift occurs and the concerto ends on a blazing F-sharp major chord.

– Jordan Kuspa

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky » 1840-1893 Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 If Tchaikovsky’s first three symphonies were about experimentation with the genre, his last three were about individual expression through it. Tchaikovsky believed that absolute musical forms could be used to convey specific and personal emotion as well as compositional skill, and the fifth and sixth symphonies are evidence of this emphasis on subjective emotion.

Tchaikovsky found it difficult to begin work on this symphony, and his slow pace at this time led him to worry that his skills as a composer were waning. The work was premiered by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in 1888. While it was a huge success with both audience and orchestra, it was a relative failure with the critics. When he conducted it again in Prague that year, the composer himself became convinced of the symphony’s failure.

However, on a 1889 concert tour in the West, Brahms heard Tchaikovsky rehearsing it with the orchestra and expressed his approval; once again, Tchaikovsky became convinced of the symphony’s merits.

soaring horn melody, and varied countermelodies. The motto theme appears twice in the movement, both times heard as violent outbursts compared with the surrounding music.

Tchaikovsky uses a waltz form for the third movement, though the middle section has a more scherzo-like character. The motto theme appears at the end of the movement, as a sort of suffix to the final cadence. Here it has lost much of its previously dark character and is unassuming and innocuous. The motto opens the finale and is developed throughout the introduction. Now it appears at its most hopeful, a triumphal march to finish this monumental work.

– Adapted from notes by Kevin Zakresky and Adam Silverman

In the fifth symphony, Tchaikovsky’s range of expression reached new heights. The orchestra, though not large, is used with extraordinary power and subtlety of color.

His melodies are sharply etched yet refined, and he borrows from a Polish love-song for the symphony’s first subject.

The work is what is known as a motto symphony: a recurring theme appears as a melodic element, a rhythmic ostinato, and as horn and trumpet calls. Unifying all the movements, it is announced in the prelude and reinterpreted throughout the symphony.

In a cryptic message to his patron and confidant Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky wrote that the introduction represented “complete resignation before Fate... before the inscrutable predestination of Providence.”

But in a letter to Konstantin Romanov, Tchaikovsky denied having a specific program in mind.

The first movement begins with a statement of the dark, funereal motto theme. The Allegro section features a marchlike theme as well as extensive use of woodwinds. The second movement (used in the film score of the 1986 Winona Ryder and Charlie Sheen film Lucas) is classic Tchaikovsky: colorful orchestration,

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arti st pro files de Radio France, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra as well as visiting the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. In the US, recent and future guest conducting includes the Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Francisco symphony orchestras; the Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Aspen Festival orchestras; as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. He will also visit the Sydney Symphony in February 2011.

Peter Oundjian principal guest conductor A dynamic presence in the orchestral world, Peter Oundjian continues to make his mark as one of today’s most exciting faces on the conducing scene. A tribute to his many years as a world-class chamber musician, Oundjian is renowned for his probing musicality, spirit of collaboration, and engaging personality, which has earned him accolades from musicians and critics alike.

Peter Oundjian’s strong bond with the musicians and community of Toronto continues through his fifth season as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Through his communicative gifts on and off the podium, Oundjian’s concerts draw strong audiences as he explores, in each season, the breadth and depth of orchestral repertoire and teams with world-renowned soloists. At the beginning of his tenure in Toronto, Oundjian created the annual and hugely successful Mozart Festival, as well as the New Creations Festival. He was also at the centre of a documentary with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra entitled Five Days in September: The Rebirth of an Orchestra, which has won numerous awards at international film festivals and was released on DVD. His most recent release with the orchestra is a recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7.

Born in Toronto, Peter Oundjian was educated in England, where he studied the violin with Manoug Parikian. Subsequently, he attended the Royal College of Music in London, where he was awarded the Gold Medal for most distinguished student and the Stoutzker Prize for excellence in violin playing. He completed his violin training at the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied with Ivan Galamian, Itzhak Perlman, and Dorothy DeLay. He was the first violinist of the renowned Tokyo String Quartet for fourteen years. Mr. Oundjian is in now in his twentysixth year as a visiting professor at the Yale School of Music.

Nathaniel Chase double bass

In addition to his post in Toronto, Peter Oundjian continues to serve as principal guest conductor and artistic advisor to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, helping create and launch an innovative multi-disciplinary festival in June 2007. He has also played a major role at the Caramoor International Music Festival in New York for over a decade, currently serving as artistic advisor and principal conductor.

Bassist Nathaniel Chase, a native of Denver, Colorado, is a graduate of the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Donald Palma.

His performances range from early music with the Harvard Baroque, to the standard orchestral repetoire at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, to contemporary music with Mimesis Ensemble of New York City. He is also a graduate of the New England Conservatory and currently resides in New York.

In the 2010-11 season and beyond Peter Oundjian continues his ongoing relationships with European orchestras such as the TonhalleOrchester Zürich, Orchestre Philarmonique

Chase appears as a winner of the 2010 Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition at Yale.

ab o u t yal e p h ilh armonia

The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale is one of America’s foremost music school ensembles. The largest performing group at the Yale School of Music, the Philharmonia offers superb training in orchestral playing and repertoire.

shinik hahm Conductor

Performances include an annual series of concerts in Woolsey Hall, as well as Yale Opera productions in the Shubert Performing Arts Center. The Yale Philharmonia has also performed on numerous occasions in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The orchestra undertook its first tour of Asia in 2008, with acclaimed performances in the Seoul Arts Center, the Forbidden City Concert Hall and National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing), and the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

renata steve Librarian

krista johnson Managing Director

roberta senatore Production Assistant adrian slywotzky Assistant Conductor yang jiao Assistant Conductor

The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale violin 1 Domenic Salerni, concertmaster Sun Min Hwang Liesl Schoenberger Joo Hye Lim Xi Chen Hyun Sun Sul Igor Pikayzen Tao Zhang Sae Rom Yoo Jiin Yang Ka Chun Gary Ngan Tammy Wang Naria Kim Soo Ryun Baek violin 2 Yeseul Ann, principal Sun Kyung Ban Hyewon Kim Won Young Jung Holly Piccoli David Radzynski Edson Scheid Jiwon Kwark Edward Tan Laura Keller Youngsun Kim Seok Jung Lee Nayeon Kim viola On You Kim, principal Eleanor James Edwin Kaplan Eve Tang Janice Lamarre Amina Tebini Hyun Jung Lee Kristin Chai Colin Meinecke Eren Tuncer Timothy Lacrosse cello Sung Chan Chang, principal Philo Lee

Arnold Choi Neena Deb-Sen Mo Mo Yoon Hee Ko Jung min Han Shannon Hayden Shinae Kim Jinhee Park Soo Jin Chung Alvin Yan Ming Wong

Ian Petruzzi, 2*, 3 Elizabeth Upton, 1, 3 Mimi Zhang, 1*, 2

bass Mark Wallace, principal Gregory Robbins NaHee Song Paul Nemeth Michael Levin Aleksey Klyushnik Eric Fischer

trombone Brittany Lasch, 3* Brian Reese, 1* Benjamin Firer

flute Rosa Jang, 1, 3* Anouvong Liensavanh, 1*, 2, 3 Peng Zhou, 2*, 3 (piccolo) oboe Alexandra Detyniecki, 1* Emily Holum, 2 Rebecca Kim, 2* Joseph Peters, 3 Jeffrey Reinhardt, 3* Kaitlin Taylor, 1 clarinet Emil Khudyev, 1, 2, 3* Wai Lau, 1*, 2*, 3

trumpet Paul Futer, 3 Ryan Olsen, 3 Kyle Sherman, 3* Andreas Stoltzfus, 1* David Wharton, 1

tuba Landres Bryant, 3 timpani Michael Compitello, 1, 3 Leonardo Gorosito, 2 harp Kristan Toczko, 2 1- Performer in Glinka 2- Performer in Koussevitzky 3- Performer in Tchaikovsky *- Principal Player

assistant Joseph Peters

bassoon SaMona Bryant, 1*, 2*, 3 Thomas Fleming, 1, 2, 3* Jennifer Hostler, 1 (contrabassoon)

music librarians Holly Piccoli Liesl Schoenberger Elizabeth Upton Sara Wollmacher

horn Christopher Jackson, 3 Jessica Lascoe, 1, 2 Andrew Mee, 3* Jamin Morden, 1, 2

stage crew Landres Bryant / Paul Futer Brian Reese / Ruben Rodriguez Andreas Stoltzfus / Craig Watson David Wharton

u p co m ing ev ents

http://music.yale.edu OCT 29 OCT 30

Fall Opera Scenes yale opera 7:30 pm | Sprague Hall | $8-15 • Students $5

NOV 2

Schubert Piano Trios chamber music society 8 pm | Sprague Hall | $20–30 • Students $10 Peter Frankl, piano, with Martin Beaver, violin, and Clive Greensmith, cello, of the Tokyo Quartet.

NOV 10

Wei-Yi Yang, piano horowitz piano series 8 pm | Sprague Hall | $12-22 • Students $6 Music by Schubert, Schubert/Liszt, and Chopin.

NOV 18

Yale Philharmonia 8 pm | Woolsey Hall | Free Shinik Hahm conducts Strauss and Brahms.

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