Yale Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra

THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE f eb r ua r y 2 6 & 2 7, 2 0 10 · 8 :0 0 p m · mor se r eci tal hall

igor stravinsky

carl nielsen

Tempo giusto Allegretto Con moto

Allegretto un poco— Poco adagio— Allegro non troppo—Adagio— Allegro vivace

Concerto in E-flat, “Dumbarton Oaks”

Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57

Farkhad Khudyev conductor Shinik Hahm conductor Paul Won Jin Cho clarinet

aaron copland

Appalachian Spring: Ballet for Martha

igor stravinsky Concerto in D

I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV.

Very slowly Allegro Moderato Fast Subito allegro Meno mosso; As at first (slowly) Doppio movimento Rather slow Very deliberate Poco piú mosso A trifle slower Molto allegro ed agitato Broadly Moderato (like a prayer)

Vivace Arioso: Andantino Rondo: Allegro Shinik Hahm conductor

Adrian Slywotzsky conductor

intermission

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 ra m no tes

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) initially made his name as the enfant terrible of fin de siècle Paris. His three orchestral scores for the Russian Ballets Russes both shocked and amazed Parisian audiences. The first two, The Firebird and Petrouchka, were controversial, but the third, The Rite of Spring, caused a riot at its premiere in 1913. Accounts vary was to why, but undoubtedly the primal rhythms, harsh dissonances, and wild timbres of The Rite all contributed to the audience’s vitriolic reaction.

Stravinsky’s ballets were indeed radical, but what was perhaps even more shocking for both audiences and musicians were the works that followed. Rather than continue in the vein of the Ballets Russes pieces, Stravinsky radically reinvented himself as a composer of neoclassical works and continued to write in that style for over thirty years. His earlier ballets were composed for huge forces (for example, The Rite of Spring calls for eight horns, while the average symphony orchestra has four) and featured the aforementioned dissonances and barbaric rhythms, while the neoclassical works were often scored for small chamber ensembles and were, at least on the surface, much lighter in character and texture than the wild and often ferocious ballets.

Tonight’s two Stravinsky works, the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto of 1938 and the Concerto in D of 1946 fall squarely in the middle of Stravinsky’s neoclassical period. Both are scored for small orchestra—the Dumbarton concerto for just 15 instruments, the Concerto in D for a lean complement of strings.

These two concerti also both feature rhythms, melodies and textures inspired by the Baroque and Classical Periods.

The dumbarton oaks concerto (official title: Concerto in E-flat) was written for the thirtieth wedding anniversary of Robert Woods Bliss, an American diplomat and his wife, and was named after the place of its premiere: the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, DC that the Bliss family called home. As the work opens, Stravinsky’s radical departure from his earlier period is apparent: the first movement, Tempo giusto, features the elegant counterpoint found in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti.

But Stravinsky, ever the skilled and sly composer, imprints his own voice onto the work. As the Baroque counterpoint is spun out, the orchestra keeps on accenting the “wrong” beats—where a classical work would accent the regular beats, Stravinsky keeps the audience on its toes by filtering the irregular rhythms of The Rite through the classical structure

of Bach. As the movement proceeds, Stravinsky once again places his modern finger on the music: a baroque fugue is colored with odd dissonances and strange harmonies. The second movement, affable and strangely lyrical, provides a calm to the first movement’s restlessness, but again odd things happen—a piercingly high flute is juxtaposed against dissonant harmonies—all within the frame of a Baroque concerto. The final movement returns to the opening movement’s sprightly counterpoint, and not without a few surprises (take note of a truly unique violin duet). With this, the concerto draws to a close.

The concerto in d is structured similarly to the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, also a concerto grosso, and also in three movements. The Concerto in D opens with a fast movement troping on Baroque rhythms. But while Dumbarton Oaks’ opening is continuous and flowing, the Concerto in D is disjointed and fragmentary from the beginning. Events start and stop almost without cause. Listening to the music can be likened to looking at a cubist painting: there are many recognizable elements, but not in the expected places. The second movement, marked Arioso, features a gorgeous melody in the violins and cellos. The melody, so seemingly classical, actually opens with a minor ninth – one of the most dissonant intervals. Stravinsky’s ability to couch dissonance into such a gentle texture is one of his many great sleight-of-hand tricks. And unlike so many other compositions of the twentieth century, the final movement Rondo closes the work with affable wit.

Like Stravinsky in his chamber concertos, the Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) scored his concerto for clarinet and orchestra for a lithe chamber ensemble. Also like Stravinsky, Nielsen plays on neoclassical tropes in his work.

The concerto, comprised of four relatively short and interconnected movements, was originally written for Nielsen’s good friend Aage Oxenvad, a member of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet for whom Nielsen also composed his Wind Quintet, Op. 43.

Under the concerto’s classical veneer, something more suspect is occurring. Throughout the concerto, the keys of F major and E major clash dissonantly.

The work, composed just after the end of World War I, reflects the anxieties of the world during a period of great instability just after a great war. In the opening movement, a snare drum remains present against the jovial orchestral rhythms, as if

a rt ist p ro f i le s the idea of war is never far away. The first movement segues into the second movement, Poco adagio, which exploits the lyrical upper range of the clarinet, but not without anxious interruptions. The third movement, Allegro non troppo, is an off-kilter dance that gives way to the finale, an Allegro that requires great agility from the clarinetist. The solo part features the whole range of the clarinet playing both staccato and legato, pianissimo and fortissimo, slow and fast. After all the wildness, the concerto closes with almost eerie calm in F major.

Shinik Hahm, conductor

Shinik Hahm was appointed music director of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale and professor of conducting at the Yale School of Music in 2004. One of the most dynamic and innovative conductors of our time, Hahm is sought after among top orchestras in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Aaron Copland’s appalachian spring also falls into the composer’s neoclassical period. Highly influenced by Stravinsky, the Brooklyn-born Copland (1900-1990) descended upon New York in the 1920s as a composer of dissonant and jazz-inspired works.

Famously, the conductor Walter Damrosch said of Copland’s 1925 Symphony for Organ and Orchestra: “If a young man can write a symphony like that, in five years he will be ready to commit murder.”

But as Copland grew older, as the medium of radio grew, and as Copland became more and more interested in left-wing politics, he developed a greater interest in communicating with the general public.

He decided to simplify his style, embracing clear, open textures over the brash dissonances of his earlier works. When he received a commission for a ballet from the Martha Graham Dance Company (commissioned with funds from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge—the same patron responsible for the construction of the Yale School of Music’s Sprague Memorial Hall), he chose to base his score on a Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts.” This melody pervades Appalachian Spring, tonight performed in its original version for 13 instruments. Each of the ballet’s fourteen sections correspond to different parts of Graham’s ballet about 1800s American pioneers building a new farmhouse. The melody is explored in many subtle ways until it is finally presented in full form at the close of the work, radiant and exuberant.

Hahm conducted the 2009 European tour of Germany’s Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, including a concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

He made his Chinese debut with the prestigious China Philharmonic and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a remarkable collaboration with Mexican orchestras. After a successful debut with the Mexico National Symphony and Xalapa Symphony Orchestras, the maestro was immediately re-engaged for coming seasons. His re-appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Disney Hall was likewise successful.

In 2006 Maestro Hahm completed his tenure as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Daejeon (Korea) Philharmonic Orchestra. The DPO and Hahm performed in leading concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Benaroya Hall (Seattle), Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, and Osaka Symphony Hall. The orchestra benefited from his artistic leadership and sold out all concerts.

For a decade, Hahm served as music director of the Abilene (Texas) Philharmonic Orchestra, successfully converting the community ensemble into a professional regional orchestra. He was profiled on ABC’s World News Tonight for his central role in rejuvenating and revitalizing the Abilene community.

—Christopher Cerrone

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assista nt co n d ucto r s Farkhad Khudyev, conductor

Shinik Hahm conductor

Paul Won Jin Cho, clarinet

Farkhad Khudyev is originally from Turkmenistan, where he studied violin and composition with Zinaida Ahmedzhanova and Vera Abaeva at the Special Music School. At age ten, he became the youngest performer to play with the National Violin Ensemble of Turkmenistan, and at 12 he won a scholarship to the New Names Festival (Suzdal, Russia), where he earned the top award and was named the most promising musician. Mr. Khudyev has performed in Ashgabad, Suzdal, Moscow, and Odessa as both a soloist and a member of the Violin Ensemble. He came to the U.S. in 2001 to study with Paul Sonner and Michael Albaugh at Interlochen, and then completed his BM at Oberlin with Milan Vitek. Currently a second-year MM student at Yale, he studies with Shinik Hahm. Mr. Khudyev won the Grand Prize and the Gold Medal at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in 2007 as a member of the Prima Trio.

He received an honorable mention in the 2004 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer awards for his symphonic work Turkmenistan. Other awards include a prize at the 30th Annual Glenn Miller Competition and the Neil Rabaut Composition Prize from the Interlochen Arts Academy. He has served as assistant conductor of NOYO orchestra and has conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Ashgabad.

Hailed as a “stylish clarinetist” by the New York Times, Won Jin Cho has already earned impressive accolades. In his final year as a master’s degree student at the Yale School of Music, he won the 52nd Olga Koussevitzky Young Artists Award, the Woolsey Hall Competition, and the T.D. Nyfenger Memorial Award for outstanding woodwind playing. As a result of the Young Artists Award, he was invited to play at Steinway Hall in New York. As a college junior, he won first place in the 1998 Busan Competition and joined the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra as a soloist. Two years later, he was invited to perform his first solo recital in the Kumho Young Artist Concert Series. A first-place winner of the prestigious Korean Donga Competition, he was awarded an E-flat clarinet, on which he performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra. He was a soloist with the Adrian Slywotzsky, conductor Torrance Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and received the Leni Fe Bland Music Scholarship Award in 2006.

Adrian Slywotzky has been active as a musician in the New Haven area since 1998. For the last three An active orchestral musician, Mr. Cho has peryears he has been the director of the New Haven formed with conductors such as Stefan Asbury, Chamber Orchestra, and he is the founding conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and James Levine at of the Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra. Following Tanglewood. In 2006, he performed with the Youth his passion for teaching, Adrian has worked as an Orchestra of the Americas under conductors such educator throughout New England. Since 2005 he as Placido Domingo, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and has been on the conducting staff of the Boston Youth Benjamin Zander. In 2000 and 2002, he was prinSymphony Orchestras, and he is interim conductor cipal clarinetist of the Asian Youth Orchestra under of the Greater New Haven Youth Orchestra for the Sergiu Commissiona and Richard Pontzious, and 2008-2010 seasons. For five years he was Director for two years he was co-principal clarinet of the of Instrumental Music at Hopkins School in New American Youth Symphony under Alexander Treger.

Haven, and he has taught at Neighborhood Music He has also performed in the Korean Symphony School, Elm City ChamberFest, and the Southern Orchestra and the Buchoen Philharmonic Orchestra.

Maine String Camp. As a violinist, Adrian has participated in festivals including Tanglewood Music Born and raised in Seoul, Korea, Mr. Cho began Center, California Summer Music, and the Norfolk studying at the age of 12, working with acclaimed Contemporary Music Festival. Adrian holds a BA in instructor Dong Jin Kim at Yewon Middle School architecture from Yale College, where he studied and Seoul Arts High School. He received his violin with Kyung Yu, and an MM in violin perforbachelor’s degree from Korean National University mance from the Yale School of Music, where he of Arts and a master’s degree at Seoul National studied with Wendy Sharp. He is currently pursuing University. He then earned a graduate certificate at a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting the University of Southern California under Yehuda at the Yale School of Music, where he studies with Gilad. Mr. Cho completed a master’s degree at the Shinik Hahm.

Yale School of Music, where he currently studies with David Shifrin in the Artist Diploma program.

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.

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 farkhad khudyev adrian slywotzky Assistant Conductors

The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale STRAVINSKY Dumbarton Oaks

NIELSEN Clarinet Concerto

Soo Ryun Baek violin * Ruby Chen violin Evan Shallcross violin Eren Tuncer viola* Colin Meinecke viola Hyun-Jung Lee viola Jacques Wood cello* Yoon Hee Ko cello Alexander Smith bass* Michael Levin bass Mindy Heinsohn flute Jaehee Choi clarinet Micahla Cohen bassoon Christopher Jackson horn Leelanee Sterrett horn

STRAVINSKY Concerto in D

COPLAND Appalachian Spring Soo Ryun Baek violin 1* Jae-In Shin violin 1 Ruby Chen violin 2* Evan Shallcross violin 2 Janice LaMarre viola* Eren Tuncer viola Jacques Lee Wood cello* Yoon Hee Ko cello Michael Levin bass Christopher Matthews flute Thomas Fleming bassoon Michael Namirovsky piano

VIOLIN I Domenic Salerni * Anastasia Metla Edson Scheide De Andrade Xi Chen Youngsun Kim VIOLIN II Marc Daniel van Biemen * Igor Pikayzen Jiyun Han Ju Hyung Shin Qi Cao

BASSOON Thomas Fleming * Scott Switzer HORN Scott Holben * Katherine Herman PERCUSSION Michael Zell *

*—Principal Player

assistants VIOLA Vesselin Todorov * Minjung Chun Raul Garcia Mathilde Geismar Roussel CELLO Kyung Mi Preuss * Philo Lee Sunhee Jeon

Andrew Parker Christopher Matthews

music librarians Scott Holben Holly Piccoli Kathryn Salfelder Elizabeth Upton Christopher Williams Sara Wollmacher

stage crew BASS Aleksey Klyushnik * Nathaniel Chase *

Nathaniel Chase Joseph Peters Mark Wallace Craig Watson

up co ming ev ents

http://music.yale.edu FEB 28

Linda Skernick, harpsichord Music of J.S. Bach. Sun, 3 pm | Collection of Musical Instruments | Tickets $20, Students $10

MAR 02

Ettore Causa, viola Music of Brahms, Penderecki, Rachmaninov, and Britten. With Ryo Yanagitani, piano.

Tue, 8 pm | Morse Recital Hall | Free

MAR 04

New Music New Haven Featuring Aaron Jay Kernis’s Still Movement with Hymn, and music of Jack Vees and graduate composers. Thu, 8 pm | Morse Recital Hall | Free Upcoming Yale Philharmonia Performances

APR 29 APR 30

Penderecki conducts Penderecki. Featuring Syoko Aki, violin, and William Purvis, horn.

8 pm | Apr 29 | Woolsey Hall | Free 8 pm | Apr 30 | Carnegie Hall | $15-$25

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