Yale Philharmonia

THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE o c t o b er 2 3 , 2 0 0 9 · f rid ay, 8 pm · wools e y h all

johannes brahms Adrian Slywotzky conductor

Academic Festival Overture

Farkhad Khudyev conductor

Variations on a Theme by Haydn Thema. Chorale St. Antoni. Andante Variation I. Poco più animato (Andante con moto) Variation II. Più vivace (Vivace) Variation III. Con moto Variation IV. Andante con moto (Andante) Variation V. Vivace (Poco presto) Variation VI. Vivace Variation VII. Grazioso Variation VIII. Presto non troppo (Poco presto) Finale. Andante Intermission

gustav mahler Shinik Hahm conductor Ji Hee Kim soprano

Symphony No. 4 in G major I. Bedächtig, nicht eilen II. In gemächlicher Bewegung III. Ruhevoll (Poco adagio) IV. Sehr behaglich

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

p ro g ra m no tes Johannes Brahms » 1833-1897 academic festival overture

Gustav Mahler » 1860-1911 symphony no. 4 in g major

The German composer Johannes Brahms is known as one of the great composers of the Western canon.

Born in Hamburg but residing in Vienna for most of his life, he is known in particular for his symphonies, chamber music, and piano works, as well as an astonishing compositional technique, especially in his command of counterpoint, orchestration, and form.

Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, composed in the summers of 1899, 1900, and 1901, was written soon after Mahler was appointed music director of the Vienna State Opera (an imperial post that Mahler, a Bohemian Jew, had to convert to Christianity to accept). It is the shortest, and in many ways the most classical, of Mahler’s symphonies, and comprises four relatively short movements.

He was not, however, known for writing light music —especially fanfares. Therefore, the Akademische Festouvertüre (Academic Festival Overture) seems on first listen to be an anomaly—a joyous and nimble work filled with what the composer called a “very boisterous potpourri of student drinking songs à la Suppé.” (Franz von Suppé was an Austrian composer of light operettas, very different from Brahms’s own austere music.) Brahms composed the work in honor of his nomination for an honorary doctorate at the University of Breslau. As his wry quote above indicates, Brahms was initially reluctant to write such a work, opting instead to send a simple thank you letter. But at the urging of the university conductor, Bernard Scholz, he composed a work that both fulfilled his obligations to compose an occasional work —which features traditional German graduation songs including “Wir hatten gebauet ein stattliches Haus” (We built a stately house), “Fuchslied,” (Fox Song,) and “De Brevitate Vitae” (How Short Life Is)—and also contained the strict compositional control and precision that makes his work endlessly fascinating. Brahms weaves these graduation songs throughout the orchestra in most ingenious ways, as subjects for contrapuntal imitation, and by passing them from instrument to instrument throughout the orchestra. “De Brevitate Vitae,” featured as a gentle chorale in the brass early on, also forms the glorious finale, an ending that features all of the pomp and circumstance that one would come to expect from such a work, with the careful orchestrational and contrapuntal detail of a master.

variations on a theme by haydn Unlike fanfares, it is not surprising that variation form was appealing to Brahms. Writing a series of variations, especially on a simple tune, appealed to both his temperament and his greatest abilities— to make a complex and elaborate work out of the simplest of materials. In the Variations on a Theme

By Haydn, Op. 56a (written in 1873 for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) he exploits his great ability by exploring a simple theme that is stated clearly at the outset of the work, a dignified tenmeasure phrase played in common time by the winds. Throughout the eight variations, Brahms maintains this phrase structure, each time the theme clearly demarcated and each with a contrasting character. The work closes with a luminous finale that restates the opening theme in a grand chorale featuring (rare for Brahms) a solo triangle part that signals the triumphant close of the work.

The first movement, cast in sonata form and marked Bedächtig, nicht eilen (Moderately, not rushed), opens genially, with sleighbells introducing a most Viennese theme in the strings, full of trills and turns. A second theme in the low strings is equally genial and flowing. But the central development section turns the simple and classical structure of the symphony upside down. Themes are transformed, fragmented, superimposed, and brought to great climaxes. The movement ends gently, and the storm seems over for the moment.

The second movement, In gemächlicher Bewegung.

Ohne Hast (At a leisurely pace, unhurriedly), is a quick and lively ländler (an Austrian folk song in ¾ time), which for the most part proceeds as gently as the opening of the first movement. However, the first violin, which has been instructed to tune its strings a full step higher, making it sound almost like a country fiddle, casts a dark and macabre pallor on the whole movement. It certainly explains Mahler’s original title for the movement: “‘Death strikes up the dance for us; she scrapes her fiddle bizarrely and leads us up to heaven.”

The third movement, Ruhevoll (Calm), is among Mahler’s most beautiful and serene creations. Gentle and passionate, the movement’s lyrical and tender first theme is alternated with a second theme, more tempestuous and agitated. The two themes alternate throughout the movement until a thunderous climax announces a theme from the fourth movement. But soon we are brought back to the gentle and naïve simplicity of the movement’s opening, and the movement closes gently.

The finale, Sehr behaglich (Very contentedly), features a setting for solo soprano of a poem entitled Das himmlische Leben (Heaven’s Life) from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn), a collection of German folk poems that Mahler often turned to as text for his vocal works. The poem describes the culinary bounties of heaven, and Mahler gently accompanies this list of bounties with the jovial music and flowing music. The outbursts of anxiety, where Mahler quotes a wild and insane version of the first movement, are not enough to disturb the serenity that ends the work.

—Christopher Cerrone

Das himmlische Leben

The Heavenly Life

Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden, Drum tun wir das Irdische meiden, Kein weltlich Getümmel Hört man nicht im Himmel!

Lebt alles in sanftester Ruh’!

Wir führen ein englisches Leben!

Sind dennoch ganz lustig daneben!

Wir tanzen und springen, Wir hüpfen und singen!

Sankt Peter im Himmel sieht zu!

We enjoy the heavenly pleasures and avoid the earthly things.

No worldly tumult does one hear in Heaven!

Everything lives in the gentlest peace!

We lead an angelic life!

Nevertheless we are very merry: we dance and leap, hop and sing!

Meanwhile, Saint Peter in the sky looks on.

Johannes das Lämmlein auslasset, Der Metzger Herodes drauf passet!

Wir führen ein geduldig’s, Unschuldig’s, geduldig’s, Ein liebliches Lämmlein zu Tod! Sankt Lucas den Ochsen tät schlachten Ohn’ einig’s Bedenken und Achten, Der Wein kost’ kein Heller Im himmlischen Keller, Die Englein, die backen das Brot.

Saint John has let his little lamb go to the butcher Herod.

We lead a patient, innocent, patient, a dear little lamb to death!

Saint Luke slaughters oxen without giving it thought or attention.

Wine costs not a penny in Heaven’s cellar; and angels bake the bread.

Gut’ Kräuter von allerhand Arten, Die wachsen im himmlischen Garten!

Gut’ Spargel, Fisolen Und was wir nur wollen!

Ganze Schüsseln voll sind uns bereit!

Gut Äpfel, gut’ Birn’ und gut’ Trauben!

Die Gärtner, die alles erlauben!

Willst Rehbock, willst Hasen, Auf offener Strassen Sie laufen herbei!

Good vegetables of all sorts grow in Heaven’s garden!

Good asparagus, beans and whatever we wish!

Full bowls are ready for us!

Good apples, good pears and good grapes!

The gardener permits us everything!

Would you like roebuck, would you like hare?

In the very streets they run by!

Sollt’ ein Fasttag etwa kommen, Alle Fische gleich mit Freuden angeschwommen!

Dort läuft schon Sankt Peter Mit Netz und mit Köder Zum himmlischen Weiher hinein.

Sankt Martha die Köchin muss sein.

Should a fast-day arrive, all the fish swim up to us with joy!

Over there, Saint Peter is running already with his net and bait to the heavenly pond.

Saint Martha must be the cook.

Kein’ Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden, Die uns’rer verglichen kann werden.

Elftausend Jungfrauen Zu tanzen sich trauen!

Sankt Ursula selbst dazu lacht!

Cäcilia mit ihren Verwandten Sind treffliche Hofmusikanten!

Die englischen Stimmen Ermuntern die Sinnen, Das alles für Freuden erwacht.

No music on earth can be compared to ours.

Eleven thousand maidens dare to dance!

Even Saint Ursula herself is laughing!

Cecilia and all her relatives are splendid court musicians!

The angelic voices rouse the senses so that everything awakens with joy.

text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn

translated by emily ezust

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art i st p ro files

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 a sought-after musician among top orchestras in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

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

He 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 re-engaged for coming seasons. His re-appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Disney Hall was likewise successful. His enthusiastic and creative music-making has distinguished Hahm as one of the most versatile conductors of his generation.

Die Zauberflöte and Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata.

After earning both a Master of Music degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma at Peabody, she entered the Artist Diploma program in 2009 at the Yale School of Music as a student of Doris Yarick-Cross.

Adrian Slywotzky conducting fellow Conductor Adrian Slywotzky has been active as a musician in the New Haven area since 1998. For the last three years he has been the director of the New Haven Chamber Orchestra, and he is the founding conductor of the Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra.

Following his passion for teaching, Adrian has worked as an educator throughout New England.

Since 2005 he has been on the conducting staff of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, and he is serving as interim conductor of the Greater New Haven Youth Orchestra for the 2008-2010 seasons.

For five years he was Director of Instrumental Music at Hopkins School in New Haven, and he has taught at Neighborhood Music School, Elm City ChamberFest, and the Southern Maine String Camp. As a violinist, Adrian has participated in festivals including Tanglewood Music Center, California Summer Music, and the Norfolk Contemporary Music Festival. Adrian holds a BA in architecture from Yale College, where he studied violin with Kyung Hak Yu, and an MM in violin performance from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Wendy Sharp. He is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting at the Yale School of Music, where he studies with Shinik Hahm.

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 Farkhad Khudyev conducting fellow benefited from his artistic leadership and sold out all concerts.

Farkhad Khudyev is originally from Ashgabad, Turkmenistan, where he studied violin and composition For a decade, Hahm served as music director of the at the Special Music School. At the age of ten, he Abilene (Texas) Philharmonic Orchestra, successfully became the youngest performer ever selected to play converting the community ensemble into a profess- with the National Violin Ensemble of Turkmenistan, ional regional orchestra. He was profiled on ABC’s and at 12 he won a scholarship to the New Names World News Tonight for his central role in rejuvenat- Festival (Suzdal, Russia), where he was named the ing and revitalizing the Abilene community. most promising young musician and earned the top award. Mr. Khudyev has performed in Ashgabad, Suzdal, Moscow, and Odessa as both a soloist and a member of the Violin Ensemble of Turkmenistan. He Jihee Kim came to the U.S. in 2001 on a full scholarship to the soprano Interlochen Arts Academy and then completed his BM at the Oberlin Conservatory with Milan Vitek.

Currently a second-year MM student at Yale, he is studying with Shinik Hahm. Mr. Khudyev won the Soprano Jihee Kim’s passion for both the art song Grand Prize and the Gold Medal at the Fischoff and opera brought her to the United States to study Chamber Music Competition in 2007 as a member at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she of the Prima Trio. He also received an honorable studied voice with John Shirley-Quirk and Ah mention in the 2004 ASCAP Foundation Morton Young Hong and coached with Ernest Ligon. In Gould Young Composer awards for his symphonic 2006, she made her debut solo performance at the work Turkmenistan. Other awards include a prize at Peabody Conservatory of Music singing Poulenc’s the 30th Annual Glenn Miller Competition and the Gloria with the Peabody Concert Orchestra, The Neil Rabaut Composition Prize from the Interlochen Peabody Singers, and The Peabody-Hopkins Chorus Arts Academy. He has served as the assistant conunder the baton of Maestro Edward Polochick. ductor of NOYO orchestra and has conducted the Opera roles at Peabody included Pamina in Mozart’s Chamber Orchestra of Ashgabad.

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

farkhad khudyev Assistant Conductor adrian slywotzky Assistant Conductor

The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale VIOLIN 1 David Southorn, concertmaster Holly Piccoli Liesl Schoenberger Igor Pikayzen Youngsun Kim Kensho Watanabe Igor Kalnin Edson Scheid de Andrade Xi Chen Sun Min Hwang Evan Shallcross Ruby Chen Yu-Ting Huang Ju Hyung Shin VIOLIN 2 Soo Ryun Baek, principal Alexander Read Jae-Won Bang Yeseul Ann Jiyun Han Hyerin Kim Yoorhi Choi Hana Hlozkova Marc Daniel van Biemen Hyewon Kim Anastasia Metla Qi Cao Naria Kim VIOLA Edwin Kaplan, principal Amina Myriam Tebini Eren Tuncer Kristin Chai Raul Garcia Janice Lamarre Colin Meinecke Vesselin Todorov Christopher Williams Minjung Chun Hyun-Jung Lee

CELLO Wonsun Keem, principal Jacques Wood Jee Eun Song Alvin Yan Ming Wong Kyung Mi Anna Preuss Philo Lee Soo Jin Chung Mo Mo Shannon Hayden Ying Zhang Jung Min Han Yoon Hee Ko BASS Nathaniel Chase, principal Michael Levin Eric Fischer Mark Wallace Alexander Smith FLUTE Mindy Heinsohn, 3 (Piccolo) Itay Lantner, 1 (Piccolo), 2, 3* Christopher Matthews, 1*, 2 (Piccolo), 3 Dariya Nikolenko, 1, 2*, 3 (Piccolo) OBOE Emily Holum, 2* Steven Kramer, 3* Carl Oswald, 3 Andrew Parker, 1, 2 Joseph Peters, 1*, 3 (English Horn) CLARINET Soo Jin Huh, 1, 2 In Hyung Hwang, 3* Emil Khudyev, 2*, 3 (Eb Clarinet) Sara Wollmacher, 1*, 3 (Bass Clarinet) BASSOON SaMona Bryant, 1*, 2*, 3 (Contrabassoon) Jennifer Hostler, 1, 2, 3* Scott Switzer, 1 and 2 (Contrabassoon), 3

HORN Katherine Herman, 1, 2 Scott Holben, 2*, 3 Christopher Jackson, 3 Timothy Riley, 1, 3 Leelanee Sterrett, 3* Ryan Stewart, 1*, 2 Elizabeth Upton, 2 Tianxia Wu, 1 TRUMPET Paul Florek, 3 Douglas Lindsey, 3* Ryan Olsen, 2*, 3 Kyle Sherman, 1* Andreas Stoltzfus, 1 David Wharton, 1, 2 TROMBONE Ruben Rodriguez, 1* Ted Sonnier BASS TROMBONE Craig Watson, 1 TUBA Bethany Wiese, 1 HARP Maura Valenti, 3 PERCUSSION Yun-Chu Chui, 1, 3 John Corkill, 1 (Timpani), 3 Leonardo Gorosito, 1, 3 Dennis Petrunin, 1, 3 Ian Rosenbaum, 2, 3 (Timpani) 1- Performer in Brahms Overture 2- Performer in Brahms Variations 3- Performer in Mahler *- Denotes Principal Player

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