Penderecki conducts Penderecki

THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE a pr i l 2 9, 2 0 1 0 · thursd ay, 8 pm · wools e y h all

Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) guest conductor and composer

penderecki conducts penderecki Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)

Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra (1967) Syoko Aki, violin

Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, “Winterreise” (2008) William Purvis, horn

Intermission

Symphony No. 4, “Adagio” (1989)

As a courtesy to others, please silence all cell phones and devices. Photography or recording of any kind is strictly prohibited. Please do not leave the hall during musical selections.

Thank you.

Robert Blocker, Dean

pro g ra m no tes Krzysztof Penderecki »Krzysztof b. 1933

Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) has embodied the offbeat musical trends of our time as well as any living composer. Born in Dębica outside Crakow in 1933, he followed the European avant-garde before developing an eclectic mixture that involved reexplorations of tradition—and helped pave the way, perhaps, for the neo-Romantic movement in the ’70s and ’80s. Penderecki came of age in Poland at a time of relative artistic liberalization. But while composers like Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono, Berio, and others explored idioms of almost impenetrable density (both of musical texture and of idea), Penderecki and his colleagues Lutosławski and Górecki used simpler, more direct materials and means. Works like the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, the St. Luke Passion, the operas The Devils of Loudon and Paradise Lost, and the first two symphonies assured him a position among the most brilliant innovators of the twentieth century.

As early as the mid-’70s Penderecki had begun to feel a pull back toward traditional tonal procedures.

Later he spoke of the orthodox “dictatorship” of the European avant-garde, and how the oppressive nature of their dogma led him to move toward what might be called “neoaccessibility”— a sort of reconciliation, perhaps, of his avant-garde persona with his Romantic, traditional side. Audiences found themselves ready to grasp works like the Violin Concerto written for Isaac Stern (1977) or the Cello Concerto No. 2 for Mstislav Rostropovich (1988). In addition to works that tackled big subjects with massive forces (Utrenja or the Entombment of Christ) and commemorated big events (the 1200th anniversary of the Salzburg Cathedral, the 3,000th anniversary of Jerusalem), throughout his career Penderecki also worked in conventional genres. At age 76, he continues to compose prolifically, often conducting his own works. His music has had a wide reach, not just in concert halls and on opera stages but in major motion pictures as well.

Penderecki has had a longstanding relationship with Yale, beginning with his years on the faculty of the School of Music. He has made a number of memorable appearances conducting his music with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale. His 1977 New York conducting debut featured the Yale Philharmonia in a Carnegie Hall program that included The Awakening of Jacob, the Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra (performed tonight), and the North American premiere of Magnificat.

threnody for the victims of hiroshima Does Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima open with a scream? Or a simply an abstract and sharp cluster in the strings? The original title of the work, 8’27”, indicates a work of abstract musical content, one that prizes the exploration of timbres for their own sake, as in the music of John Cage. But as the musicologist Richard Taruskin notes, the governmentrun Polish Composers’ Union was not interested in printing such an elaborate and detailed score— until, that is, the title was changed to Threnody.

The Communist government was suddenly very interested in publishing this newly politicized piece, because Threnody could now be used as a piece of propaganda against the U.S. — the perpetuators of the Hiroshima bombings.

of percussion. With this broad palette, Penderecki paints what has been described as a “highly emotional depiction of flight” with auditory allusions to war.

The Capriccio opens with a dramatic crescendo of percussion and brass, after which the solo violin enters in a skittering, manic rush. It veers across a vast range of contrasts: busy activity and slow, slithering counterpoint; overwhelming washes of sound that clear to transparent textures; lyrical melody punctuated by percussive outbursts. The music exploits the orchestra’s range from low groans to piercing heights. Sonic effects include microtonal slides in the strings, low bleats like belching machinery, and imitations of sirens and drones. A grotesque parody of a Viennese waltz lurches through. With a last virtuosic gasp from the solo violin, the Capriccio thumps to a close.

But politics and intentions aside, the opening of Threnody is unmistakably one of the most powerful, effective and original musical moments in the Western canon. So visceral and brutal is the opening that the association with the “solemn and catastrophic,” as the composer notes, may be impossible to avoid.

– Dana Astmann

Cast in roughly three large section, the opening part of Threnody works with the tone cluster—that is, a large and dissonant collections of notes (as if one simply pressed one’s arm down on a piano, playing all the white and black keys). The second section is quieter and gentler; sections of strings quietly glide up and down until finally, in a giant uproar, the work explodes into its third section, even harsher, louder, and more potent than the opening.

Among Penderecki’s instrumental works are nearly two dozen concertante pieces with one or more soloists, which have consistently been some of the most frequently performed concertos by a living composer. He has written several concertos for woodwind instruments, but the Horn Concerto was his first for a member of the brass family. The twenty-five-minute concerto received its premiere in Bremen on May 5, 2008, with Radovan Vlatkovic as soloist and the composer conducting the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra. The composer made light revisions to the work in 2009.

– Christopher Cerrone

capriccio for violin and orchestra The title Capriccio usually refers to a spontaneoussounding, capricious, even whimsical piece.

Penderecki’s arresting Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra, written in 1967, capitalizes on the quality of compositional freedom but turns away from the implication of lightness. The massive orchestra, in addition to the usual forces, includes a musical saw, electric bass, four saxophones, contrabass clarinet, piano, and harmonium, as well as a large battery

concerto for horn and orchestra, “winterreise”

The subtitle “Winterreise,” though clearly an allusion to Schubert’s song-cycle of the same title, need not be read as suggesting some dark journey of the soul, writes musicologist Eva Pinter in a program note published at one of the early performances.

“The title refers more to the work’s inception: Penderecki composed the concerto in the winter of 2007–08, during a period in which he was traveling a great deal.” Yet the title also suggests a sort of artistic journey, since the composer was indeed traversing new ground in writing a concerto for solo horn. The concerto is cast in two movements,

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art ist p ro f i le s one slow and one fast. The Lento assai: Passacaglia opens with gentle string textures, and the soloist engages in musical conversation with three offstage horns. A solo cadenza (Allegro moderato) leads into the second movement (Vivace), which the composer has said is a rondo da caccia, calling to mind a hunt. Interspersed are two Adagio passages with sustained, cantabile solos, as well as cadenzalike passages. The soloist is then permitted one final, cheerful display of virtuosity before the concerto comes to a close.

– Courtesy of Schott Music

symphony no. 4, “adagio” The French Ministry of Culture and Radio France commissioned a work from Penderecki for the bicentennial of the French Revolution of 1789.

Penderecki first wanted to compose a secular oratorio, and he began working with texts by Racine and André Chénier. He then had the idea for a multi-movement symphony centered around an adagio that would be a meditation “on the question of destiny and the dignity of the individual.” The work begins and ends with a trumpet fanfare set against heavy footsteps in the bass. Penderecki’s original conception of a vocal work shows in the recitative-like texture that follows. A mournful, conflicted mood takes over, with a bassoon solo leading to an ethereal string cadence in G major.

The darkness of the opening returns at the beginning of the development section, but dissipates into comedy as an attempted fugue is stalled and interruped. The fugue bursts through to build toward cataclysm. Fanfares and echoes swirl as the music fades to a close.

Lorin Maazel conducted the premiere in November, 1989 in Paris with the Orchestre National de France.

After the premiere, Penderecki published the Adagio as a one-movement work, his Fourth Symphony. In this form, the piece earned him the 1992 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

– adapted by Dana Astmann from notes provided by Schott Music

Syoko Aki violin

Syoko Aki studied in Japan at the Toho Academy of Music and in the United States at Hartt College and the Yale School of Music. She has taught at the Eastman School and the State University of New York at Purchase. She has appeared as soloist with leading conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Gerard Schwartz, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Kenneth Schermerhorn.

Miss Aki has been concertmaster and soloist with the New York Chamber Symphony, the New Japan Philharmonic, Waterloo Festival Orchestra and the New Haven and Syracuse Symphonies and has appeared in concerto and chamber music performances with Syzmon Goldberg, Henryck Szeryng, Broadus Erle, Leon Fleisher, Jaime Laredo, Joan Panetti and many others. A member of the Yale faculty since 1968, Miss Aki appears regularly in New Haven and at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

William Purvis horn

A native of Western Pennylvania, William Purvis pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has participated in numerous premieres as hornist and conductor, including horn concerti

by Peter Lieberson and Bayan Northcott, trios for violin, horn, and piano by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky, and Steven Stuckey’s Sonate en Forme de Préludes with Emanuel Ax. Mr. Purvis is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Yale Brass Trio, and Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of Orpheus. A frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has also collaborated with the Tokyo, Juilliard, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Fine Arts string quartets. His extensive list of recordings spans an unusually broad range from original instrument performance to standard repertoire to contemporary works. Since 1999, Mr. Purvis has been a faculty member at the Yale School of Music, where he is coordinator of winds and brass and Interim Director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments. He is also on the faculties of the Juilliard School and SUNY Stony Brook.

a b o ut yal e p h ilharmonia

w 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 Theater. The Yale Philharmonia has also performed on numerous occasions in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Kennedy Center. In its last appearance at Carnegie Hall, it earned rave reviews for its “sensational” (New York Times) performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie under guest conductor Reinbert de Leeuw. The orchestra undertook its first tour of Asia in 2008, with acclaimed performances in Seoul, Beijing, and Shanghai.

renata steve Librarian

The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale violin 1 Marc Daniel van Biemen, concertmaster David Southorn Sun Min Hwang Kensho Watanabe Youngsun Kim Alissa Cheung Igor Kalnin Alexander Read Sae Rom Yoo Evan Shallcross Edson Scheide de Andrade Hyewon Kim violin 2 Soo Ryun Baek, principal Marjolaine Lambert Yu-Ting Huang Igor Pikayzen Jae-Won Bang Naria Kim Ruby Chen Jae-In Shin Piotr Filochowski Xi Chen Qi Cao Yeseul Ann Holly Piccoli Ka Chun Gary Ngan viola Vesselin Todorov, principal Eve Tang Christopher Williams Janice LaMarre Colin Meinecke Amina Myriam Tébini Raul Garcia Minjung Chun Mathilde Geismar Roussel Eren Tuncer

cello Arnold Choi, principal Philo Lee Shannon Hayden Soo Jin Chung Mo Mo Jung Min Han Alvin Yan Ming Wong Neena Deb-Sen Sunhee Jeon Ying Zhang bass Nathaniel Chase, principal Eric Fischer Samuel Adams Aleksey Klyushnik Alexander Smith Michael Levin Joseph Magar

saxophone Joseph Abad Vincent Oneppo Kindall NeSmith Mallory Kokus bassoon Thomas Fleming Jeremy Friedland 1*, 2*, contrabassoon 3* Jennifer Hostler Scott Switzer 3*, contrabassoon 1*, 2* horn Katherine Herman Scott Holben 3* Christopher Jackson 2* Portia Sirinek Leelanee Sterrett Tianxia Wu Elizabeth Upton 1*

flute Mindy Heinsohn 2*, piccolo 3* Itay Lantner 1* trumpet Christopher Matthews 3* Paul Florek 1* Thiago Sousa, piccolo 2* Douglas Lindsey 3* Ryan Olsen 2* oboe Kyle Sherman Alexandra Detyniecki 2*, Andreas Stoltzfus English horn 1* David Wharton Emily Holum 3* Steven Kramer 1* trombone Carl Oswald Brian Reese Andrew Parker, English Ruben Rodriguez 1*, 2* horn 2*, 3* Ted Sonnier 3* clarinet Paul Won Jin Cho 3*, E-flat clarinet 1* Soo Jin Huh 2*, E-flat clarinet 3* In Hyung Hwang 1* Emil Khudyev, bass clarinet 2 Sara Wollmacher, bass clarinet 1*, 3*

bass trombone Jay Roberts Craig Watson tuba Jerome Stover 1* Bethany Wiese 2*, 3*

krista johnson Managing Director

roberta senatore Production Assistant farkhad khudyev Assistant Conductor adrian slywotzky Assistant Conductor

percussion Yun-Chu Chiu John Corkill Leonardo Gorosito Denis Petrunin Ian Rosenbaum Michael Zell harp Maura Valenti piano Lindsay Garritson celeste Elizaveta Miller electric bass Joseph Magar harmonium Robert Honstein 1*- Principal player in Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra 2*- Principal player in Concerto for Horn and Orchestra 3*- Principal player in Symphony No. 4 assistants Andrew Parker Christopher Matthews music librarians Scott Holben, Holly Piccoli, Kathryn Salfelder, Elizabeth Upton, Christopher Williams, Sara Wollmacher stage crew Nathaniel Chase, Joseph Peters, Mark Wallace, Craig Watson

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http://music.yale.edu APR 30

Penderecki Conducts Penderecki, featuring Syoko Aki, violin, and William Purvis, horn.

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Robert Mealy, director.

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