Yale Philharmonia with Giancarlo Guerrero, guest conductor, October 20, 2023

José García-León, Dean

Yale Philharmonia Giancarlo Guerrero, guest conductor

Friday, October 20, 2023 | 7:30 p.m.

Woolsey Hall

Program Richard Wagner 1813–1883 arr. Lorin Maazel

The Ring without Words (WWV 86, arr. 1987) I. The Rhine Gold Greenish twilight at the bottom of the Rhine Valhalla: Home of the Gods Nibelheim: Home of the Dwarves Donner’s thunderbolt II. The Valkyrie Siegmund and Sieglinde Wotan’s rage Ride of the Valkyries Wotan’s farewell III. Siegfried Mime’s terror Siegfried forges the magic sword Forest murmurs Siegfried slays the dragon IV. Twilight of the Gods Dawn Siegfried and Brünnhilde Siegfried’s Rhine journey Hagen summons the Vassals Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens Siegfried’s death and the funeral march Brünnhilde’s immolation There will be no intermission.

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

Artist Profiles Giancarlo Guerrero, guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero is a six-time Grammy Award–winning conductor and Music Director of the Nashville Symphony. He has been praised for his “charismatic conducting and attention to detail” (Seattle Times) in “viscerally powerful performances” (Boston Globe) that are “at once vigorous, passionate, and nuanced” (Bachtrack).

Through commissions, recordings, and world premieres, Guerrero has championed the works of prominent American composers. He has led the Nashville Symphony in eleven world premieres and fifteen recordings of American music, including works by Michael Daugherty, Terry Riley, and Jonathan Leshnoff, and most recently the Grammy-nominated recording of John Adams, My Father Knew Charles Ives & Harmonielehre.

As part of his commitment to fostering the work of contemporary composers, Guerrero, together with composer Aaron Jay Kernis, guided the creation of Nashville Symphony’s biannual Composer Lab & Workshop for young and emerging composers.

In the 2023–2024 season, Guerrero returns to conduct the Chicago Symphony in their joint concert with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He also returns to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, and Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Guerrero has appeared in recent seasons with prominent North American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and those of Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Montréal, Philadelphia, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Houston.

Internationally he has worked with the Deutches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Deutsches Radio Philharmonie, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, as well as the Sydney Symphony and Queensland Symphony in Australia. Guerrero was honored as the keynote speaker at the 2019 League of American Orchestras conference.

Guerrero recently completed a six-season tenure as Music Director of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic. With that orchestra, Guerrero made three recordings including the Billboard chart-topping Bomsori: Violin on Stage on Deutsche Grammophon and albums of repertoire by Brahms, Poulenc, and Jongen.

Guerrero previously held posts as the Principal Guest Conductor of both the Cleveland Orchestra Miami Residency and the Gulbenkian Symphony in Lisbon, Music Director of the Eugene Symphony, and Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.

Artist Profiles, cont.

Born in Nicaragua, Guerrero immigrated during his childhood to Costa Rica, where he joined the local youth symphony. He studied percussion and conducting at Baylor University in Texas and earned his master’s degree in conducting at Northwestern University. Given his beginnings in civic youth orchestras, Guerrero is particularly engaged with conducting training orchestras and has worked with the Curtis School of Music, Colburn School in Los Angeles, National Youth Orchestra (NYO2), and Yale Philharmonia, as well as with the Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando program, which provides an intensive music education to promising young students from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

Yale Philharmonia The Yale Philharmonia 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 Theatre.

The Yale Philharmonia has also performed on numerous occasions in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Program Note The Ring Without Words wagner, arr. maazel Patrick Campbell Jankowski When we describe works of art as having an “epic” quality, we might conjure a sense of vastness, awe, bewilderment, and grandeur. So large in scale and scope that to summarize it in a few words would be nearly impossible. Wagner’s Ring Cycle of four music dramas certainly qualifies. To take in all of its parts from beginning to end requires multiple visits to the opera house and around 15 hours in total. From Looney Tunes to the English comedian Anna Russell to YouTube, there have been numerous historic attempts (usually comedic) to distill the plot and even its many musical themes or leitmotifs down to a digestible, under an hour, experience.

The conductor Lorin Maazel, who encountered Wagner’s music many times during his career, decided to condense it down at least to the orchestral parts: hence, The Ring Without Words. Even in his arrangement, we still clock in at over an hour, although the symphonies of Mahler and others are comparable. Its length fits perfectly onto one CD, and even its creation was sparked by a record company, who asked Maazel to craft a recording with the Berlin Philharmonic in the late 1980s. Maazel’s composition followed a few rules that he set for himself, and which warrant consideration: “Rule 1: The synthesis had to be free-flowing (no stops) and chronological, beginning with the first note of Rheingold and finishing with the last chord of Götterdämmerung.

Rule 2: The transitions had to be harmonically and formally justifiable, the pacing contrasts commensurate with the length of the work. Rule 3: Most all of the music originally written for orchestra without voice had to be used, adding those sections with a vocal line essential to a synthesis but only where the line was either doubled by an orchestral instrument or when it could be reproduced by an instrument.

Rule 4: Every note had to be Wagner’s own.”

Did he manage to follow his own rules?

Listen and find out.

Yale Philharmonia Roster Peter Oundjian, principal conductor

violin i Miranda Werner Miray Ito Minkyung Lee Josh Liu Evan Johanson Amy Oh Kenneth Naito Emma Carleton Andy OuYang Stella Lee Minji Lee Steven Song Sung-Chi Chang Inhae Cho violin ii Andrew Samarasekara Ria Honda Emma Meinrenken Chaofan Wang Albert Steinberger Chaewon Kim Caroline Durham Jimin Kim Oliver Leitner Jeein Kim Xingzhou Rong Matthew Cone viola Jack Kessler Andy Park Abigail Smith Julian Seney Mathew Lee Emily Rekrut-Pressey Wanxinyi Huang Katie Liu Wilhelm Magner Ayano Nakamura

cello William Suh Robin Park Charles Zandieh Ga Eun Lee Amanda Chi Jakyoung Huh Emily Mantone Kyeong Eun Kim double bass Min Kyung Cho Nicole Wiedenmann Julide San Esther Kwon Yuki Nagase Patrick Curtis flute Jillian Coscio Michael Huerta * Sophia Jean Jarrett May oboe Jini Baik Alec Chai * Mickenna Keller Maren Tonini clarinet Amer Hasan * Nicole Martin Nikki Pet Tianyi Shen bassoon Darius Farhoumand * Kennedy Plains Lucas Zeiter

horn Gretchen Berendt Annie Citron Torrin Hallett * Franco Augusto Ortiz Oved Rico Braydon Ross William Sands * Corey Schmidt Amber Wang

manager Jeffrey M. Mistri

trumpet Aislin Carpenter Jacob Rose Karlee Wood * Timothy Jay Maines II

office assistant Lucas Zeiter

trombone Yuki Mori * Jude Morris David Seder bass trombone Jackson Murphy tuba Alexander Friedman * Connor Higley timpani Mingyu Son * Makana Medeiros percussion Chad Beebe * Han Xia Michael Yeung

assistant manager Samuel Bobinski assistant conductors Samuel Hollister Stefano Boccacci

stage crew Makana Medeiros Amber Wang Lucas Zeiter Jackson Murphy Chad Beebe Evan Johanson Connor Higley Oved Rico Will Rich Nickolas Hamblin Jude Morris Eric Evans Josh Liu library Darius Farhoumand Nicole Wiedenmann Maren Tonini Abby Smith Eric Evans Josh Liu * principal

harp Subin Lee * Yun Chai Lee

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The Philharmonia offers essential orchestra training for our graduate students and performs an appealing variety of repertoire for the public.

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paul hindemith circle Serena & Robert Blocker Julia Reidhead horatio parker circle Paul & Cynthia Cummiskey Carolyn Gould R. Peter Hunt Francesco Iachello Mary-Jo Worthey Warren samuel simons sanford circle Linda & Roger Astmann Henry & Joan Binder Leo Cristofar & Bernadette DiGiulian Lawrence Handler Ann Marlowe Arthur Rosenfield & Wilma Ezekowitz Willi Stahura gustave j. stoeckel circle Richard Abbatiello & Theresa Cappetta Tanvi Banota Stephen A. Forrester Eduardo Groisman Richard Hayden Alan N. Katz Elizabeth Lowery Tracy MacMath Steven M. Perrett Elven IJQ Shum List as of October 18, 2023

Upcoming Events at YSM oct 21

Yale Schola Cantorum with Juilliard 415 Institute of Sacred Music 7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Free admission

oct 25

Lunchtime Chamber Music 12:30 p.m. | Joseph Slifka Center Free admission

oct 27 & 28

Fall Opera Scenes Yale Opera 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $13, Yale faculty/staff start at $10, Students start at $6

oct 31

Quartetto di Cremona Oneppo Chamber Music Series 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $31, Yale faculty/staff start at $23, Students $14

nov 2

Natacha Diels, guest composer New Music New Haven 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Free admission

nov 3

Fred Hersch, piano Ellington Jazz Series 7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall Tickets start at $26, Yale faculty/staff start at $19, Students start at $11

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