Yale Philharmonia: April 4, 2009

YALE PHILHARMONIA SHINIK HAHM Music Director

FARKHAD KHUDYEV Conducting Fellow

ASHLEY BATHGATE Cello

APRIL 4 2009

MUSIC OF Britten Saint-Saëns Mahler

Robert Blocker, Dean

YALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE Shinik Hahm, Music Director

BRITTEN

Four Sea-Interludes from the opera Peter Grimes Dawn Sunday Morning Moonlight Storm Farkhad Khudyev, conducting fellow

SAINT-SAËNS

Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 30 Allegro non troppo— Allegretto con moto— Allegro non troppo Ashley Bathgate, cello

INTERMISSION

MAHLER

Symphony No. 5 in C minor Trauermarsch Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz Scherzo Adagietto Rondo­—Finale

As a courtesy to the orchestra and to other audience members, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not leave the theater during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is not permitted.

PHIILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE

SHINIK HAHM Music Director

KRISTA JOHNSON Managing Director

RENATA STEVE Librarian

MERYN DALY Production Coordinator

Violin 1

Sun Hee Jeon Wonsun Keem Shannon Hayden Yoon Hee Ko Philo Lee Jee Eun Song

Katherine Hyun, concertmaster Igor Kalnin Qi Cao Dawn Wohn Jae-Won Bang I-Chun Yeh David Southorn Jennifer Hsiao Anastasia Metla Nicholas DiEugenio Jane Kim Youngsun Kim

Violin 2 Yoorhi Choi, principal Liesl Schoenberger Marjolaine Lambert Ju Hyung Shin Hanna Na Joshua Peckins Xi Chen Yu-Ting Huang Jae In Shin Sae-Rom Yoo Naria Kim Evan Shallcross

Viola Bo Li, principal Vesselin Todorov Min Jeong Cha Mathilde Geismar Roussel Hyung-Jun Lee Edwin Kaplan Christoper Williams Matt Hofstadt Raul Garcia

Cello Laura Usiskin, principal Mo Mo Kyung Mi Anna Lee Ying-Chi Tang

Bass

FARKHAD KHUDYEV JULIAN PELLICANO Assistant Conductors

Patrick Hines, B, M Scott Holben, S, M Christy LaBarca, B, M Leelanee Sterrett, B, M Ryan Stewart, M Tianxia Wu, M* Donna Yoo, B*

Patrick O’Connell, principal Brian Thacker Wen Yang Alexander Smith Eddie Hasspacher Brian Ellingsen Nathiel Chase

Trumpet

Flute & Piccolo

Trombone

Mindy Heinsohn, B (Piccolo), M* Itay Lantner, S*, M Christopher Matthews, B*, S, M (Piccolo) Mingzhu Wang, M (Piccolo)

Jennifer Griggs, M Achilleas Liarmakopoulos, M Ted Sonnier, B* Matthew Wright, B, M*

Oboe

Stephanie Fairbairn Ycaza, B* Bethany Wiese, M*

Merideth Hite, B*, M (English Horn) Carl Oswald, M Andrew Parker, B, S* Jennifer Shark, S, M*

Clarinet Jaehee Choi, M* Jenny Ferrar, B*, S, M (Eb and Bass Clarinet) Xiaoting Ma, B (Eb Clarinet), S*, M

Bassoon Nicholas Akdag, B*, S*, M Micahla Cohen, B, S, M* Scott Switzer, B (Contra), M (Contra)

Horn Yoo-Jin Choe, M Elizabeth Fleming, B, S*

Thomas Bergeron, M* John Brandon, S*, M Michael Brest, M John Heinen, B Douglas Lindsey, B*, S Kurt Schewe, B, M

Tuba

Harp Keturah Bixby, B* Ashley Jackson, M*

Percussion Michael Compitello, M (Timpani) John Corkill, B Lia DeRoin, B (Timpani), M Ji Hye Jung, M Denis Petrunin, M Ian Rosenbaum, B, S (Timpani)

B- Performer in Britten S- Performer in Saint-Saëns M- Performer in Mahler *- Denotes Principal Player

BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-1976)

Four Sea-Interludes from Peter Grimes

Notes by Jacob Adams

After spending three years in New York, Britten returned to Britain in 1942, settling in the town of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. Living in a dramatic, wind-swept locale in which the foreboding North Sea dominated everything else brought a distinctive shift in the tone and direction of Britten’s music. This transformation can be heard in many of his Aldeburgh works—the Hymn to St. Cecilia, the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, and Festival Te Deum—and reached its apex with the operatic masterpiece Peter Grimes, which premiered in 1945.

One of the cornerstones of both the British and twentiethcentury operatic repertoire, Peter Grimes concerns the harsh conflict amongst the people of Borough, the fishing village where the story is set. Britten stated that, “In writing Peter Grimes I wanted to express my awareness of the perpetual struggle of men and women whose livelihood depends on the sea.” Even before completing the opera, Britten had fashioned the Four Sea-Interludes—which function as musical interludes between the acts and scene changes of the opera—as stand-alone concert works. To listen to the Interludes in concert setting, one need not know the plot of Peter Grimes to sense the grim undercurrents of the opera’s tone through its keenly realized orchestration and heaving motivic contours.

The four interludes each depict the sea at different times, paralleling moments in the opera. The first, named “Dawn,” evokes the seascape in early morning freezing desolation, alternating this stillness with an ominous swell from the ocean’s depths. The second interlude, “Sunday Morning,” is in extended ternary form. It presents an ostinato of church bells as the backdrop for a jaunty melody highlighted by piccolo and violin pizzicato spikes. There is a contrasting melody in lower strings and woodwinds, before the scene builds and ultimately blurs, washed away by wind and sea. The stunning orchestration of “Moonlight”, a chorale, depicts shivers of moonlight streaking across the sea surface. The final interlude, “Storm,” opens with spectacular timpani and brass surges. The character of the music belies its simple rondo structure, which is essentially A-B-A-C-AD-A. Upon the first return of the A material, music historian Paul Serotsky suggests, Britten seems to be quoting the Sturmisch bewegt of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Tonight’s program gives the listener an opportunity to compare directly.

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921) Camille Saint-Saëns’ musical success spanned his long, colorful life. At age 5, he could play the piano part to a Beethoven violin sonata, and at age 10, could execute on command any of Beethoven’s piano sonatas from memory. During his teen years, he won many prizes in organ and composition at the Paris Conservatory and was already recognized as one of the greatest living musicians. He continued to achieve fame throughout his long life both as a performer and composer. Saint-Saëns is best known today for such works as Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, the Symphony No. 3, “Organ,” and the Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor.

While his compositional achievements and virtuosic performance skills gave him many admirers, including Berlioz and Liszt, his strong opinions and sharp tongue gave him many enemies— including Debussy, Franck, and Massenet, to name a few. As he grew older, he also became more and more nationalistic. When France lost to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Saint-Saëns responded by co-founding the Société Nationale de Musique, a group dedicated to promoting new French music unburdened by Germanic influence. His Cello Concerto No. 1 was one of the first of these new works. Written in 1872, it was premiered the following year by its dedicatee Auguste Tolbecque to great acclaim. Today it remains one of the most beloved concertos for the instrument.

Many aspects of the work eschew classical tradition and Germanic influence. Instead of being divided into the traditional threemovement pattern of the classical concerto, it is in one continuous movement organized in a fast-slow-fast progression. Further, rather than building each movement on entirely new ideas, SaintSaëns instead derives much of his thematic material from the cello’s opening statement, a compositional technique taken from Liszt. In addition, Saint-Saëns gives the orchestra a transparent texture, contrasting with the heavy sound of the large nineteenthcentury German orchestra. As a result, the cello line is easily heard over the orchestra instead of being overpowered by it.

The concerto opens in an atypical manner Instead of presenting a theme, the orchestra plays only one note, to which the cello responds with a fiery, descending run. The first section abounds in energy and virtuosity, which contrasts with the delicate texture and intimate atmosphere of the charming second section.

The third section brings back much of the thematic material of the first section, with impressive passagework in the cello. Despite its pervasive somber mood, the piece ends with a jubilant coda.

Cello Concerto

Notes by Laura Usiskin

GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911)

Symphony No. 5

Nobody understood it.

I wish I could conduct the first performance fifty years after my death.

—Gustav Mahler, following the premiere of the Fifth Symphony The Fifth Symphony represents a new departure in Mahler’s work. The first four symphonies feature prominent texts and clear inspirations from extra-musical sources, creating a song/ symphony relationship in which the explicit imagery of sung texts could not be ignored. The Symphony No. 5 is Mahler’s first purely absolute symphony, structured by its strict adherence to formal—though still innovative—design.

Notes by Jacob Adams

Many cite the reason for this change in compositional approach to be the extraordinarily happy time in Mahler’s personal life in 1901-02, while working on the Fifth Symphony. This is, after all, when he met and married Alma Schindler, whose beauty, intellect, and musical sensibility offered a substantial source of new inspiration for Mahler’s creative work. While he had already more or less completed the first two movements when they married, her influence on the Symphony is undeniable: The beloved Adagietto movement (famously conducted by Bernstein at a memorial to President Kennedy) is known to be a love song to Alma, and she reportedly made known her opinions on passages of orchestration as he was completing the score.

Structurally, the Fifth stands arguably as Mahler’s most formally integrated work. He divides the five movements into three parts – the first two movements, the third standing alone, and the final two movements. Both the first and fourth movements function as preludes to the second and fifth movements, respectively. Part I is full of turmoil and anguish, Part II celebrates the evolution of the bucolic Austrian Ländler into the elegant Viennese waltz, and Part III emerges into light, celebrating life.

What follows is a brief synopsis of each movement.

PART I First movement—Funeral March: In measured step. Strict.

Like a procession.

Bernstein famously said that Mahler’s marches are like heart attacks. From the piercing trumpet call that opens the Fifth

GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911) Symphony and the intensity of the funeral march that follows, one can see what Bernstein meant. The March juxtaposes trumpet fanfares with an elegiac melody in the strings. There is a contrasting section (the first Trio) in B-flat minor, which heightens the passion and despair. This subsides into a return of the fanfare March. A second trio, in A minor, anticipates the second movement through key area and other thematic connections. The March returns once more, now subdued, functioning as a coda.

Second movement—In turbulent motion. With greatest vehemence.

That the awe-inspiring funeral march opening the Symphony could function as a prelude seems absurd until one hears the massive and complex second movement. In A minor, the movement is in a large-scale sonata form. Its overall mood is one of angst and anger, save for the remarkable D Major brass chorale that emerges out of the inferno.

PART II Third movement—Scherzo A double scherzo and trio in D Major, Mahler develops the music in an irregularly proportioned ABABA pattern. While there are moments of eeriness and uncertainty, the overall tone is one of bright grace and rustic cheer.

PART III Fourth movement—Adagietto This short movement in simple ternary form reduces the orchestra to strings and harp. In his wordless love song for Alma, Mahler unfolds a melody in one extended line of sublime beauty and serenity. A contrasting middle section supplies mild tension through modulation, before the melody returns, even more restrained. The movement closes breathlessly: suspensions stretched to their utmost before resolving.

Fifth movement—Rondo finale. Allegro giocoso Connected without pause from the preceding movement, the Rondo-finale completes the transformation into unbridled happiness as wind motifs combine to form a boisterous, fugal rondo theme. Material from previous movements returns, notably from the Adagietto. In the coda, the brass chorale of the second movement erupts in triumph. The inexorable march of the Symphony’s opening has reached its goal, progressing through despair, anger, nostalgia, love, and finally pure uninhibited joy.

Symphony No. 5

SHINIK HAHM

Music Director

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 a sought-after musician among top North American, South American, European, and Far Eastern orchestras.

Hahm will conduct the 2009 European tour of Germany’s prominent Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, including a concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Hahm’s active 2006-2007 season featured splendid debuts in Geneva, Switzerland and Besancon, France.

Maestro Hahm also made his Chinese debut with the country’s most prestigious orchestras, China Philharmonic and the 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 reengaged for coming seasons. In June 2005, he made a triumphant debut at the Bolshoi Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. His re-appearance with Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Disney Hall, after his 1993 debut at the Chandler Pavilion, was likewise successful. His enthusiastic and highly creative music-making has distinguished Hahm as one of the most versatile conductors of his generation.

In 2006 Maestro Hahm successfully completed his tenure as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra in Korea, with which he toured the United States in 2004 and Japan in 2005. The DPO and Hahm performed in leading concert halls including Carnegie Hall (New York), Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Benaroya Hall (Seattle), Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore), Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall and Osaka Symphony Hall. The orchestra thoroughly benefited from his artistic leadership and sold out all concerts.

Hahm served as Music Director of the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra for a decade (1993-2003). During his tenure he successfully converted 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.

ASHLEY BATHGATE Still in her early twenties, American cellist Ashley Bathgate has already stirred critics and audiences alike with the “poise,” “passion,” and “supreme musicianship” of her performances.

As a recitalist, she has appeared at the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, BargeMusic, the Pleshakov Music Center and Moulin d’Ande in Normandy, France, to name a few. This season she made her official New York debut in Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall with noted pianist Todd Crow. Ashley was also a featured artist on WMHT FM and WQXR FM’s “Young Artists Showcase,” hosted by Robert Sherman. She has been invited to perform as a guest soloist with orchestra, including appearances with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, and in performances of the d’Albert and Barber cello concertos with the American Symphony Orchestra directed by Leon Botstein.

Devoted to chamber music, Ashley performs regularly in benefit concerts and chamber recitals in the US, Canada, and Europe.

She has been privileged to work with many distinguished artists including pianist Pascal Rogé and violinist Chantal Juillet. In addition, she has relished the opportunity to perform new and recent works, most notably with renowned composers John Adams, Ezra Laderman and Martin Bresnick. Ashley is a member of Aldo Parisot’s Yale Cellos and the Yale Philharmonia and performs frequently at the Windham Chamber Music Festival, directed by Robert Manno and Magdalena Golczewski.

Ashley was a full scholarship student at Bard College, where she studied cello with Luis Garcia-Rènart and composition with Joan Tower. Having received her Masters degree from the Yale University School of Music in 2007, she was selected for the prestigious Artist Diploma program by her teacher Aldo Parisot, and in that same year received the prize in his name for the gifted cellist most showing promise for a concert career. While at the School of Music, she studied composition with Ezra Laderman and chamber music with Claude Frank, Boris Berman, Peter Frankl, Ani Kavafian, and the Tokyo String Quartet. Ashley has participated in master-classes with Jian Wang, Irene Sharp, Ralph Kirschbaum, and Jesús Castro-Balbi. Among her many awards are a grant from the New York Philharmonic Players Fund sponsored by Stephen and Elaine Stamas, top prizes in the Lois Lyman Concerto Competition (1999 & 2001, an unprecedented achievement), the Hugo Kauder Memorial Strings competition in 2006, and the 2008 Woolsey Concerto Competition at the Yale School of Music.

Cello

FARKHAD KHUDYEV

Conducting Fellow

Farkhad Khudyev is originally from Ashgabad, Turkmenistan, where he studied violin and composition with Zinaida Ahmedzhanova and Vera Abaeva at the Special Music School. He distinguished himself at the age of 10 as the youngest performer ever selected to play with the National Violin Ensemble of Turkmenistan, and at the age of 12 he won a scholarship to attend the New Names Festival in Suzdal, Russia, which was sponsored by the Moscow Conservatory. He was named the most promising young musician at the festival and earned the top award, the Golden Apple. Mr. Khudyev has performed in Ashgabad, Suzdal, Moscow, and Odessa (Ukraine) as both a soloist and as a member of the Violin Ensemble of Turkmenistan.

He came to the United States in 2001 under a full scholarship to the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he studied with Paul Sonner and Michael Albaugh, and then completed his Bachelor of Music degree at the Oberlin Conservatory with Milan Vitek.

Currently a first year Master of Music student at Yale, he is studying 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 touring in United States and Europe. He also received an honorable mention in the 2004 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer awards, held in May 2004 at Lincoln Center in New York, for his symphonic work Turkmenistan. In June 2006, he won a prize at the 30th Annual Glenn Miller Competition, held in Clarinda, Iowa, the legendary musician's birthplace. His other awards include the Neil Rabaut Composition Prize from the Interlochen Arts Academy and the debut performances of his trio "Fleeting Miniatures" in New York.

He has served as the assistant conductor of NOYO orchestra and has conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Ashgabad.

PHILHARMONIA STUDENT STAFF

Student Assistants

Christopher Matthews, Andrew Parker, Donna Yoo

Music Librarians

Michelle Abraham, Samuel Blair, Michael Compitello, James Hasspacher, Scott Holben, Julian Pellicano, Liesl Schoenberger

Stage Crew *Head

Nicholas Akdag, Kenturah Bixby, Nathaniel Chase, Brian Ellingsen*, Jennifer Griggs, Jessica Hsieh, Patrick O’Connell, Kurt Schewe*, Alexander Smith, Kate Swisher, Brian Thacker

Charles Ives Circle $600 and above Richard H. Dumas James M. Perlotto, M.D. in Memory of Mrs. Dorothy Hayes Bill Tower

Paul Hindemith Circle $250 to $599 Serena & Robert Blocker Chris & Toddie Getman Carleton & Barbara Loucks Mrs. Jane Roche Susan E. Thompson

Horatio Parker Circle $125 to $249 America Film Studios, Inc. Brenda & Sheldon Baker Ann Bliss Joan K. Dreyfus Winifred & Shinik Hahm Ruth Hochmann-Sohn Francesco Iachello Robert & Mary Keane Christine M. Lin Dr. David Lobdell Helen Redmond & Doug MacRae

Samuel Simons Sanford Circle $50 to $124 Max & Annette Bailey Dr. & Mrs. Dwight & Lois Baker Myrna F. Baskin Blake & Helen Bidwell Muriel & Ernest Bodenweber Ms. Jennifer Bonito Rose & Frank Bonito Harold & Maureen Bornstein William F. Burns Joel Cogen & Beth Gilson Mimi & John Cole Earl & Joyce Colter Wayne & Dorothy Cook John & Jennifer Copelin Leo Cristofar & Bernadette DiGiulian Barbara & Frank Dahm Bernardine & Richard DiVecchio Elizabeth M. Dock Edwin M. & Karen C. Duval Elizabeth Egan Ms. Jennifer L. Embriano

Jeannine Estrada Lucy Brady Farrar Henry & Fe Friedman Martin & Katherine Gehner Cyrus & Rosamond Hamlin Henry Harrison & Ruth Lambert June & George Higgins Drs. James Hsiao & Brooke Ballard Mark & Marsha Kiley Nancy C. & William R. Liedlich Rev. Hugh MacDonald James Mansfield Kitty & Lew Matzkin Betty Mettler Elizabeth S. Miller James V. Pocock Patty & Tom Pollard Rocco & Velma Pugliese Anne Schenck Suzanne Solensky & Jay Rozgonyi Betty & Martin Sumner Mr. Henry Sykes Mr. & Mrs. Gregory Tumminio Richard & Mary-Jo Warren Emily Aber & Robert Wechsler Bob & Wendy Wheeler Werner & Elizabeth Wolf Seymour Yudkin

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE

2008-09 Patrons

In memory of Helen H. Yaggi by the Methot family Ron & Sue Miller Mr. & Mrs. Seif Mozayeni Jane & Jack I. Novick Fred & Helen Robinson Kay Ross Joseph & Patricia Rutlin Lisa L. Schlenk Allan R. Silverstein Joy Snyder Beatriz Cordova Staber James N. Trimble Karl K. & Roxanne Turekian Gordon & Marlene Turnbull Edward Weis Wei-Yi Yang

Gustave Jacob Stoeckel Circle $25 to $49 Anonymous (2) Edward & Joanne Blair Mrs. Morris Blaustein Peter & Nancy Blomstrom Mindy & Stan Brownstein Antonio Cavaliere James & Joyce Chase Rosemarie S. Chaves Louis & Beatrice Dalsass R. R. D’Ambruoso Liz & Paul Egan Thomas & Judith Foley Mr. & Mrs. Charles Forman Dolores Gall Saul & Sonya Goldberg Mrs. Jerome Greene Mrs. Ken L. Grubbs Ms. Mary Ann Harback Joyce & Addy Hirschhorn Dr. Victoria Hoffer C. Hornish Lynette Jordan Tom & Fran King John & Carol Lang Peter Lengyel Joel Marks

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Concert Office · 203 432-4158

UPCOMING

For a complete listing of all our concerts: music.yale.edu

NASH ENSEMBLE

Chamber Music Society Sprague Hall / Tickets $27-34 / Students $14 Vaughan Williams: Quintet in D major (1898) Dukas: Villanelle for horn and piano / Schumann: Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales) for clarinet, viola, and piano, Op. 132 / Dvorák: Piano Quartet in E-flat major.

Apr 7 / Tue / 8 pm

YALE OPERA Apr 17 / Fri / 7:30 pm Apr 18 / Sat / 7:30 pm

YALE PHILHARMONIA May 1 / Fri / 8 pm

Two One-Act Operas Sprague Hall / Tickets $8-12 / Students $5 A double bill of Jules Massenet's La Navarraise and William Walton's The Bear. Doris Yarick-Cross, artistic director; Douglas Dickson and Timothy Shaindlin, musical direction and accompaniment.

Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel, conducted by Julian Pellicano Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, with pianist Reinis Zarins Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 Woolsey Hall / Free admission Shinik Hahm, Music Director

CONCERTS & MEDIA Vincent Oneppo Director

Kelly Yamaguchi-Scanlon Accomodations & Travel

Dana Astmann Assistant Director

Brian Daley Piano Curator

Monica Ong Design Manager

William Harold Piano Curator

203 432 4158 Box Office

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RECORDING STUDIO

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Christopher Melillo Operations Coordinator

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Danielle Heller Box Office Coordinator

Jason Robins Assistant Recording Engineer

YALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC Robert Blocker, Dean