The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale, April 10

THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE a p r i l 1 0 , 2 0 15 路 frid ay 7:30 pm 路 woolse y h all

Heejung Park, conductor

richard wagner Overture to Tannh盲user

Peter Oundjian, guest conductor

erich korngold Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 I. Moderato Nobile II. Romanze III. Allegro assai vivace Benjamin Hoffman, violin Winner of the 2014 Woolsey Concerto Competition

Intermission

johannes br ahms Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 I. II. III. IV.

Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso Allegro con spirito

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 Richard Wagner » 1813–1833 Overture to Tannhäuser At the start of the opera Tannhäuser, we encounter its namesake – alias Heinrich, a noble knight and member of the illustrious guild of German Minnesingers – having taken refuge for over a year with the goddess Venus, in a grotto atop her mountain. He has forsaken the pure and righteous love of his Elisabeth in pursuit of sensuous pleasure, yet grows weary. Like any philanderer with a conscience, he is wracked with guilt, and yearns to return home to beg forgiveness. He escapes, naturally, by praying to the Virgin Mary: the first step to exoneration, as any good Catholic will tell you. Magically, the den of debauchery dissolves away, and he finds himself on a road passed by a band of pilgrims en route to Rome, chanting a chorus on the subject of penance (Wagner eschews subtlety). Heinrich makes his way home to reunite with his abandoned wife and to participate in a singing contest: the Minnesinger’s equivalent of a jousting tournament. Our Heinrich’s mind wanders, and the subject of his contest song is, unfortunately, the carnal pleasure of the love goddess. This does not bode well with the crowd, which ridicules and shames him. In torment, the forsaken Heinrich joins the pilgrims in hopes of redemption. The opera ends tragically and with a touch of irony: the dedicated Elisabeth dies in grief, as does Heinrich after having seen the body of his love.

In the overture, Wagner synopsizes not the story but the theme of the work: the conquest of nobility over sensuality. Like the opera, the overture is a study in contrast between elements signifying noble love and sensuous pleasure, and these contrasts – expressed in shifts of mood, fluctuation between diatonicism and chromaticism, and temporal juxtapositions — embody Wagner’s point without the aid of text. It begins not in Venusburg, but with the Pilgrims’ chorus.

Wagner places us in Heinrich’s perspective, and their refrain emerges faintly as though from a distance, grows in volume as they pass, and recedes over the hillside. From this placid place, in Wagner’s words, “rosy mists swirl upwards” as sprightly winds and playful trills in the strings evoke the mysticism of Venus. Day has subsided to night, and the composer conjures a bacchanal through instrumental music. An unmistakably triumphant theme surfaces as the knight beholds the splendor of the goddess herself. The revelry gets out of hand, and the music turns to

frenzied chaos, as chromatic descents in the strings and winds swirl cyclonically downward.

The sensual world of the night gives way to dawn’s redemption, and the pilgrims’ chorus returns once more: the triumph of morality(!).

However, now even the swirling strings have joined the emancipating chorus. As Wagner describes, “Redeemed from the curse of ungodly shame, the Venusberg itself joins its exultant voice to the godly chant.”

— Patrick Campbell Jankowski Erich Korngold » 1897–1957 Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 Erich Korngold, boy genius turned cinematic icon, took Vienna by storm at the age of eleven, was praised by the likes of Gustav Mahler, and was tinseltown royalty by twenty-five. Not a bad start. His big break came in 1934, when Max Rheinhardt asked him to adapt Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for a Hollywood Bowl film version, starring Olivia de Havilland, James Cagney, and a young Mickey Rooney as Puck. Hollywood possibly saved Korngold’s life: this brilliant musician happened to be Jewish, and to have escaped Austria in 1934 is serendipitous.

Our conception of “Hollywood film music” was born with Korngold and his generation: Austro-German immigrants who imported the late Romantic, pseudo-Wagnerian style to the United States. Korngold’s musical language, particularly in his scores to Hollywood swashbucklers, became the model for future generations and thrives today. Somewhere along the line, Korngold found time to write a violin concerto, which remains his most beloved concert work. Though not programmatic, many of its themes are derived from his own film scores, so if anything sounds familiar, you may have been taken back to some nostalgic moment in the dark of a movie theater.

The poignant opening theme of the first movement comes from Another Dawn, a melodrama that may best be forgotten, but with exquisite music! The theme, beginning with unfolded open fifths, arrives poignantly on the dissonant non-harmonic tone of G-sharp. These subtle moments of dissonance – appoggiaturas, anticipations, and suspensions – add languid tension to the melodic surface.

Only near the end of the movement does Korngold substitute the G-sharp with the A-natural toward which it yearned, relieving

this tension. The composer’s careful and delicate orchestration, including the added voices of the celeste and vibraphone, paint the surface with glistening color. The soloist acts almost as the hero in a film, and we meet him immediately, with no introduction. The violinist guides the progression of the entire work, leading the way while the orchestra follows: interjecting characters encountered along the way. Though much of the movement meanders at a calm pace, a sudden jolt to the finish thrillingly concludes the movement.

The second movement, a rhapsodic romance, imparts an air of magic as the soloist floats atop a plush cloud of strings, while its tonal centers wander through unexpected regions.

The tarantella finale bursts with energy and moments of comedy. Its theme comes from a 1939 adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper. The similar structural material – an unfolded open fifth – bears a striking resemblance to the very opening theme of the first movement: Korngold brings his hero home, and in celebratory fashion. Brief episodes in duple meter evoke the character of a country fiddler (our pauper). The concerto replaces flashy exhibitionism with lyrical expressivity.

For violinists, the work provides the best of both worlds: virtuosity and songfulness.

The composer first showed the concerto to his good friend, the Polish violinist Bronisłow Huberman, who leapt to play it after having begged Korngold for a concerto for years. Yet it was not Huberman who gave the premiere, but another violinist of some esteem, after Korngold admitted to his friend, guiltily, to having “flirted” the concerto with another. The subject of his flirtation, it turns out, was Jascha Heifetz, whose name is now intrinsically tied to the work. The story of the concerto’s premiere is, in many ways, straight from the movies.

— Patrick Campbell Jankowski Johannes Brahms » 1833–1897 Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 When he was 20 years old, Johannes Brahms played the piano for Robert Schumann. Schumann, a prescient critic, recognized in Brahms a rich imagination and powerful control of large masses of sound. He predicted, “If he should point his magic wand to where the masses of choir and orchestra will lend their powers, we anticipate wonderful views of the world of spirits.” In spite of these high expectations,

or perhaps because of them, Brahms was hesitant in composing a symphony. His first symphony was not finished until 23 years later in 1876, after a long period of labor and study.

Shortly after completing his first, Brahms began work on his Second Symphony, and completed it in just a few months in 1877 while vacationing in Carinthia. Perhaps after proving to himself his ability to speak his own voice in the symphonic medium, he felt free to compose without self-criticism. Brahms himself enthused about the work’s effusive and carefree spirit: “Here the melodies fly so thick that one must be careful not to step on one.”

The symphony was an immediate success with both the orchestra and audience upon its first performance, and it is considered one of Brahms’ most optimistic and accessible works.

The first movement is notable for its serene, pastoral tone. It opens with a lower-neighbor figure in the celli and basses and a responding melody in the winds. This figure, though unobtrusive, is the structural basis for many motives throughout the movement. After a brief and mysterious trombone chorale and an augmentation of the lower-neighbor figure, the violins introduce a gentle sweeping theme.

A transition leads to a second theme, a lullaby played by the cellos and violas. The flutes and oboes repeat the lullaby, and the orchestra plays a resolute dotted figure that heralds a series of closing themes. The development section strongly features the lower-neighbor figure and presents fragments from the introduction in imitative counterpoint. After a gentle return to D major, the cellos and violas restate the lullaby melody. The movement ends with a brief, gentle coda that resolves the bridge material from the exposition.

The second movement begins with a laborious, slightly melancholy melody in the cellos. A solitary horn call begins an imitative section that serves to modulate to the dominant key area. The closing motive melds into a turbulent minor-key middle section. After a mysterious retransition that develops the opening motive, the oboes and flutes restate the opening melody in its original key, and the orchestra makes a free restatement of the material from the first section. The movement concludes with a brief and yearning coda that repeats a fragment of the opening melody.

The third movement alternates a graceful Allegretto with two contrasting episodes.

The first episode is a presto in duple time that begins with a variation of the first melody.

arti st pro files The second episode is a lively scherzo in triple time that features a retrograde inversion (a backwards and upside down version) of the opening melody.

The strings open the final movement with a spirited tune that is a transformation of the first movement’s opening motive; the exposition generally maintains a breathless pace and spirit of good humor. The development leads to a brief retransition that is more tranquil and serene, and the orchestra makes a shortened recapitulation of its opening material. The movement ends with a long coda that provides a robust and optimistic conclusion.

— David Heetderks guest conductor

Peter Oundjian

Famed for his orchestra-building skills and audience engagement, Peter Oundjian is celebrating ten years as Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In summer 2014 he led the orchestra on a six-concert tour of Europe — its first European tour for over a decade. Oundjian has been an integral part of the rebirth of the orchestra, creating the annual Mozart Festival and the hugely successful New Creations Festival, which celebrates the best in contemporary orchestral music as well as showcasing and premiering commissioned works.

In 2008, Oundjian and the Toronto Symphony launched tsoLIVE — the orchestra’s own label of live concert recordings. Oundjian has since released six recordings on the label, including Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, Vaughan Williams’ Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 and Holst’s The Planets. Recent releases with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra include piano concertos by Gershwin and Adams with Xiayin Wang for Chandos Records.

Originally a violinist, Toronto-born Peter Oundjian was educated in England, attending the Royal College of Music in London before studying at the Juilliard School in New York.

He was the longest-serving first violinist of the renowned Tokyo String Quartet, a position he held for fourteen years. In May 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Conservatory.

Peter Oundjian is now in his 33rd year as a visiting professor at the Yale School of Music.

In 2013 he was awarded the Samuel Simons Sanford Medal for distinguished service to music, the highest honour that the School can bestow. violin

Benjamin Hoffman American-Italian violinist Benjamin Hoffman is currently concertmaster of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and recently served as concertmaster of the Yale Philharmonia under John Adams at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. Equally at home as a chamber musician, Benjamin performed Aaron Jay Kernis’ Mozart en Route and Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 1 at Carnegie Hall.

Oundjian is also in his third season as Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He has already led the orchestra on a tour of China, in performances in Europe and at the Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms. His previous positions include Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor Benjamin is part of Quartet Orange, based in of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

New Haven, CT, and also gives concerts with his mother, father, and sister as part of the A regular guest conductor, recent and future piano quartet Onibatan. He has particularly engagements include concerts with the Royal enjoyed performing alongside mentors Ani Stockholm and Israel Philharmonic orchestras, Kavafian, Peter Frankl, Wolfram Christ, and as well as the Orchestre de Paris, Finnish Jorja Fleezanis in works that span the Baroque, Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Rundfunk- Romantic, and twentieth-century periods. As Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Previous and up- a soloist, Benjamin enjoys performing music coming U.S. highlights include concerts with ranging from Vivaldi to Bach, Mozart and the Detroit, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Houston Korngold, as well as contemporary premieres and Baltimore Symphony orchestras. Further with orchestra. afield, he has conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Hoffman began studying the violin in Japan. at age four under the tutelage of his mother.

He continued his studies with Latica HondaRosenberg, Alexander Kerr, and Ani Kavafian.

a b o ut yale p h ilha rm onia

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.

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. In 2008, the orchestra undertook its first tour of Asia 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.

shinik hahm Conductor philharmonia staff andrew w. parker Manager roberta senatore Assistant Manager louis lohraseb Assistant Conductor heejung park Assistant Conductor

The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale violin i Dae Hee Ahn Shuali Du Marina Aikawa Xi Liao Elly Toyoda Jing Yang Sungmi Park Jiazhi Wang Ethan Hoppe Nathan Lesser Jinyou Lee Michael Duffett Do Hyung Kim Yena Lee violin ii Jacob Joyce Ye Hyung Chung Adelya Nartadjieva Ludomil Wojtkowski Barbora Kolářová Yurie Mitsuhashi Bora Kim Yite Xu Inyoung Hwang Sarah Arnold Celia Zhang Jessica Oddie viola Danielle Wiebe Batmyagmar Erdenebat Daniel Stone Yuan Qi David Mason Hee-Sun Yang Xinyi Xu Hyeree Yu Yejin Han

cello Yoonha Yi Jiwon Kang Alan Ohkubo Ji Eun Lee Zhilin Wang Kimberly Miyoung Jeong Chang Pan Pall Kalmansson Bora Kim Sohyang Yu bass Samuel Suggs Andrea Beyer Levi Jones Ha Young Jung Will Robbins Samuel Bobinski Christopher Lettie Luke Stence flute Christina Hughes Jacob Mende-Fridkis 2 Victor Wang 1, 3 oboe Ross Garton Timothy Gocklin 1 Kemp Jernigan Fiona Last 3 Sol Jee Park 2 clarinet William Kennedy 1, 2 Kevin Schaffter 3 Kenta Akaogi

bassoon Barbara Bentley 3 Cornelia Sommer Yen-Chen Wu 1, 2 horn Sarah Boxmeyer Chuta Chulavalaivong 3 Reese Farnell Sarah Ford 1 Cody Halquist 2 Patrick Jankowski Thomas Park trumpet Aaron Krumsieg 2 Carl Stanley 1 Daniel Venora Timothy Will 3 trombone Curtis Biggs Omar Dejesus 1 Daniel Fears 2 Richard Liverano Elisabeth Shafer 3 tuba John Leibensperger timpani Matthew Keown 1 Terrence Sweeney 2 Georgi Videnov 3 percussion Yifei Fu Milan Kramer Terrence Sweeney Georgi Videnov

harp Haley Rhodeside 2 celeste Xiaopei Xu 1 Principal on Wagner 2 Principal on Korngold 3 Principal on Brahms student assistants Timothy Gocklin Heejung Park music librarians Nicholas DeBerardino Allan Hon Matthew Keown Fiona Last Michael Laurello Richard Liverano David Mason Marie Oka Yefim Romanov stage crew Samuel Bobinski John Caughman Patrick Durbin Batmyagmar Erdenebat Yifei Fu Julia Ghica Matthew Keown John Kossler Fiona Last Christopher Lettie Thomas Park Elisabeth Shafer Terrence Sweeney Georgi Videnov Johnathan Weisgerber

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