Sponsored by Dr. Ken and Sandy Tokita & The Parnassus Society
Pacific Symphony plays Mozart with Stephen Kovacevich, Piano
Sunday, Oct. 29 | 3 PM Soka Performing Arts Center at Soka University of America
This concert is Sponsored by Dr. Ken and Sandy Tokita & The Parnassus Society
MOZART AT HIS MOST INTENSE This concert brings us Mozart’s darkest symphony and what may well be his darkest piano concerto. Many believe that the Symphony in G Minor is Mozart’s greatest, but it is taut and unrelenting music–Toscanini called it “great tragedy.” Likewise, the Piano Concerto in C Minor is full of dark drama. Both works end in minor keys, something unusual in an era when composers were expected to provide “happy” endings. Mozart’s music can be serene, beautiful, moving, funny, and brilliant, but this concert brings us two of his greatest works, and they are very dark indeed.
PROGRAM:
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 Allegro molto Andante Menuetto: Allegretto Finale: Allegro assai
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 Allegro Larghetto Allegretto
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Died December 5, 1791, Vienna
The dismal events that befell Mozart during the summer of 1788 are well-known: the death of an infant daughter, the poverty that drove the family into evershabbier dwellings, the demands of creditors, and Mozart’s own pathetic pleas to friends for financial assistance tell the tale. Mozart was too great an artist to let the events of his life seep into his art, and two of his three final symphonies, composed that summer, are miracles of beauty and strength and repose. But the Symphony in G Minor, completed on July 25, is unlike any other music Mozart wrote. It is full of troubled and tense moments that do seem to spring from those “dark thoughts” that Mozart confessed had afflicted him in these months, and some biographers have been quick to discover in this symphony a mirror of Mozart’s mental state during this period. But such speculation, however tantalizing, tells us nothing about the music itself, and we should not allow it to deflect our attention: two centuries after it was written, the Symphony No. 40 remains one of the most powerful works ever written. ....................................................................................... The most striking feature of this music is its intensity. The symphony is in G minor, the key Mozart chose for his darkest and most deeply-felt music, and he accentuates harmonic tension with unexpected key shifts and the striking chromatic grind of his themes. Further, he unifies the symphony with unusual rhythmic
patterns and intervals (the last three movements, for example, all begin with the upward leap of a fourth). Yet Mozart achieves this intensity with an utter economy of means, even to the point of eliminating the martial sound of trumpets and timpani from the orchestra in favor of a more subdued palette of instrumental color. ..................................................................................... The beginning of the Allegro molto instantly establishes the character and daring of this music: over throbbing divided violas, violins sing the dark, pulsing main idea. Note carefully the first three notes of their theme: this three-note figure will saturate the movement, knitting it together rhythmically and pushing the music constantly forward. The second idea–divided smoothly between strings and woodwinds– is lyric, but Mozart quickly springs another surprise, moving through the remote key of F-sharp minor into the development. The music will make its way back to G minor, but such harmonic surprises– always achieved effortlessly– produce the many changes of shade and temperament at the heart of this symphony. ..................................................................................... The Andante, in E-flat major and also in sonata-form, brings little peace. Mozart’s themes may be graceful, but his chromatic treatment of them and surprising accents give this music a sense of poised unease.
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Died December 5, 1791, Vienna
[cont.] The third movement is the expected minuet, but no one will ever dance to this music. Mozart goes back to G minor and drives the music forward, with dissonances stinging off the terraced string entrances; the delicate trio section, with its long lines and beautiful writing for winds, brings the symphony’s one interlude of peace. ................................................................................... Marked Allegro assai (“Very fast”), the finale opens with the violins’ graceful leap upward and the full orchestra’s explosive response. This will not be the conventional rondo-finale, built on dance rhythms and high spirits: it too is in sonata form, and it matches the mood and complexity of the first movement. The opening of the development, with its striking shift of gears, remains–two centuries later–a surprise; the development itself features complex contrapuntal interweaving of the voices. Rather than opting for the expected “happy” ending, Mozart stays in G minor throughout (something almost unknown in music of the classical period) and finally drives this movement to a close in which the symphony’s tensions–thematic, harmonic, and emotional–are never fully resolved. ...................................................................................
This symphony exists in two versions. In its original form, the symphony had no part for clarinets, but there is a second version, made by Mozart himself, that adds two clarinets and revises the oboes parts, giving some of their music to the clarinets. This version was probably made for performances of the Symphony in G Minor on April 16-17, 1791, at concerts put on by the Tonkünstler-Societät in Vienna. This was nearly three years after the symphony had been composed (and only eight months before Mozart’s death), and it was probably the only time he ever heard one of his final three symphonies. At the present concert, the revised version–with clarinets–is performed.
Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Died December 5, 1791, Vienna
From the fall of 1785 through the spring of 1786, Mozart was hard at work on The Marriage of Figaro– in fact, he completed the opera on April 29, only two days before its premiere. But in March he paused briefly to compose two piano concertos for the Lenten concert season, and they are two of his greatest works. Yet they could hardly be more unlike. The Concerto No. 23 in A Major, completed on March 2, is all sunlight and gentle lyricism, but the Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, completed three weeks later on March 24, is one of Mozart’s darkest and most powerful works. The manuscript betrays unusual agitation: there are numerous passages scratched out and–remarkably for this composer–there are a number of mistakes: wrong notes, things left out, passages inserted in the wrong places. It is dangerous to attempt to make connections between the condition of a manuscript and its creator’s mental state, but everything about this concerto suggests trouble and turbulence. ................................................................................... C minor was the key Mozart reserved for his most emotionally charged music, and he employs the largest orchestra here he ever used in a concerto, requiring both oboes and clarinets. Everyone instinctively senses the symphonic character of this concerto: it exists not as
a showcase for the pianist but as the most serious symphonic argument in which piano and orchestra participate as equals. ..................................................................................... The orchestra’s quiet but ominous opening theme will form the backbone of the Allegro. There is no true “contrasting” second subject but instead a wealth of secondary material, some of it derived motivically from the rhythm of that fertile opening theme. Even the piano’s seemingly calm entrance can be traced to material already introduced, and it too is soon penetrated by bits of the opening theme. There are moments of extraordinary agitation, almost violence, in the development, and that mood settles over the entire movement. Mozart left no cadenza, but the ending of this movement is as remarkable as everything else in it: the orchestra’s entrance after the cadenza is not a gentle return but almost an explosion, and then– most unusually–the piano returns in the coda and helps propel the movement to a muttering close. ..................................................................................... Mozart needs some relief at this point, and it comes in the Larghetto, which moves to E-flat major. This movement is similar in character to the Romanze slow movement of the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, composed the year before.
Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Died December 5, 1791, Vienna
[cont.] As in that concerto, the solo piano introduces the singing main theme of what will be a slow rondo, but this one is ingenious: each of the three interludes is introduced by the woodwind band, and then piano and strings comment on their music. Mozart’s writing for woodwinds was always distinguished, and here it is astonishing: each of these interludes creates a small world of its own. ................................................................................... The dark mood of the opening movement returns at the first instant of the finale: we are back in C minor, and the strings’ opening theme breathes the same suppressed power of the concerto’s opening. The finale is not the expected rondo, but a variation-form movement, based on the opening theme. The variations are often double variations, with the second part a development of the first. Along the way, Mozart offers two intervening episodes, both introduced by the wind band; these seem at first to provide contrast, but closer familiarity reveals them to be subtle variations of the main theme. At the end, Mozart pauses for a cadenza, but when the orchestra returns, he re-bars the main theme in 6/8, and on that flowing meter the concerto dances to its close. Or at least tries to, for Mozart remains firmly in C minor, and the music closes in darkness and defiance.
..................................................................................... Mozart’s Concerto in C Minor has moved countless listeners, but none more than a young pianist named Beethoven who arrived in Vienna six years later. Listening to a performance of this concerto with his friend the pianist Jean-Baptiste Cramer, the young Beethoven nearly despaired, exclaiming: “Oh, Cramer! Cramer! We will never be able to do anything like this!” Yet the influence of this concerto can be felt in much of Beethoven’s music: in the choice of key, in the dark and dramatic argument, and even in the shape of themes–the opening of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, composed in 1800, is clearly “lifted” from the opening of this concerto. It is as if the extraordinary power of Mozart’s music, still trembling in the air of Vienna, took hold of the young composer in a way he could not escape.
- Program notes by Eric Bromberger 2023
STEPHEN KOVACEVICH, piano Stephen Kovacevich is widely recognized as one of the most revered artists of his generation. With an international career spanning more than six decades, he has long been recognized as one of the most searching interpreters. Kovacevich is known for never being afraid to take both technical and musical risks in order to achieve maximum expressive impact. Through this, he has won unsurpassed admiration for his piano-playing, none more than from Leopold Stokowski, who famously wrote: “You do with your feet what I try to do with my Philadelphia Orchestra”. Born in Los Angeles, Kovacevich laid the foundation for his career as concert pianist at the age of eleven. After moving to England to study with Dame Myra Hess, he made his European debut at Wigmore Hall in 1961. Since then, he has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and conductors, including Hans Graf, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Sir Simon Rattle, and the late Sir Georg Solti. As concerto soloist, recent and forthcoming highlights include Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon, Los Angeles Philharmonic/Mirga GražinytėTyla, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal/David Zinman, Sydney Symphony/Vladimir Ashkenazy, and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony/Sylvain Cambreling. In recital, recent and forthcoming highlights include performances in Europe, Asia, and the United States – including the NCPA (Bejing), the Phillips Collection (Washington), the Bridgewater Hall (Manchester), and the Wigmore Hall (London). Kovacevich also performs regularly across the Far East, Australia, and New Zealand, and is a regular guest at prestigious festivals worldwide – including Lugano, Verbier, and the Mariinsky International Piano Festival (the latter by personal invitation of Valery Gergiev). Over the course of his extensive career, Kovacevich has forged many longstanding artistic partnerships, such as that with the late Sir Colin Davis with whom he made numerous outstanding recordings, including the legendary Bartok Piano Concerto No.2 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Another such long-term affiliation is his professional partnership with Martha Argerich, with whom he regularly performs in duo on the world’s leading concert stages. Recent and forthcoming highlights for the ArgerichKovacevich Duo include recitals at Het Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Philharmonie (Paris), Victoria Hall (Geneva), the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), and the Wigmore Hall (London).
STEPHEN KOVACEVICH, piano [cont.] Kovacevich is a committed chamber musician, with collaborations over the course of his long career including with such luminaries as the late Lynn Harrell, Jacqueline du Pré, and Joseph Suk. Kovacevich now enjoys regular artistic collaborations with such violinists as Nicola Benedetti, Renaud Capuçon, and Alina Ibragimova; cellists Gautier Capuçon, Steven Isserlis, and Truls Mørk; flautist Emmanuel Pahud; and the Amadeus, Belcea, and Cleveland quartets. Stephen Kovacevich has enjoyed an illustrious long-term relationship with recording companies Philips and EMI. To celebrate his 75th birthday, Decca released a Limited Edition 25-CD Box Set of his entire recorded legacy for Philips. In 2008, he re- recorded Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, exactly 40 years after his first recording of the work. This Onyx recording won him the Classic FM Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award (2009) and the Gramophone Magazine Top Choice Award (2015), to quote: “His seasoned yet fearless mastery reveals something new with each hearing…”.
“A musician completely absorbed in his craft, Stephen Kovacevich’s interpretations are like no one else’s and always emanate directly from the heart: musical messages of wisdom, peace, resignation, and hope” - The Washington Post
CARL ST. CLAIR, conductor The 2023-24 season marks Music Director Carl St.Clair’s 34th year leading Pacific Symphony. St.Clair is one of the longest-tenured conductors of the major American orchestras. St.Clair’s lengthy history solidifies the strong relationship he has forged with the musicians and community. His continuing role also lends stability to the organization and continuity to his vision for the Symphony’s future. Few orchestras can claim such rapid artistic development as Pacific Symphony—the largest-budgeted orchestra formed in the United States in the last 50 years, due in large part to St.Clair’s leadership. During his tenure, St.Clair has become widely recognized for his musically distinguished performances, his commitment to building outstanding educational programs, and his innovative approaches to programming. In April 2018, St.Clair led Pacific Symphony in its sold-out Carnegie Hall debut, as the finale to the Carnegie’s yearlong celebration of preeminent composer Philip Glass’ 80th birthday, ending in a standing ovation with The New York Times calling the Symphony “a major ensemble!” He led Pacific Symphony on its first tour to China in May 2018, the orchestra’s first international tour since touring Europe in 2006. The orchestra made its national PBS debut in June 2018 on Great Performances with Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America, conducted by St.Clair. Among St.Clair’s many creative endeavors are the highly acclaimed American Composers Festival, which began in 2000, and the opera initiative, “Symphonic Voices,” which has included concert-opera productions of Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute, Aida, Turandot, Carmen, La Traviata, Tosca, and Rigoletto in previous seasons. St.Clair’s commitment to the development and performance of new works by composers is evident in the wealth of commissions and recordings by the Symphony. The 2016-17 season featured commissions by pianist/ composer Conrad Tao and composer-in-residence Narong Prangcharoen, a follow-up to the slate of recordings of works commissioned and performed by the Symphony in recent years. Other commissions include John Wineglass’ Alone Together (2021), William Bolcom’s Songs of Lorca and Prometheus (2015-16), Elliot Goldenthal’s Symphony in G-sharp Minor (2014-15), Richard Danielpour’s Toward a Season of Peace (2013-14), Philip Glass’ The Passion of Ramakrishna (2012-13), and Michael Daugherty’s Mount Rushmore, and The Gospel According to Sister Aimee (2012-13). St.Clair has led the orchestra in other critically acclaimed albums including two piano concertos of Lukas Foss, Danielpour’s An American Requiem, and Goldenthal’s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Other commissioned composers include James Newton Howard, Zhou Long, Tobias Picker, Frank Ticheli, Sir James MacMillan, Chen Yi, Curt Cacioppo, Stephen Scott, Jim Self (Pacific Symphony’s Principal Tubist), and Christopher Theofanidis.
CARL ST. CLAIR, conductor [cont.] In 2006-07, St.Clair led the orchestra’s historic move into its home at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The move came on the heels of the landmark 2005-06 season that included St.Clair leading the Symphony on its first European tour— nine cities in three countries playing before capacity houses and receiving extraordinary responses and reviews. From 2008-10, St.Clair was general music director for the Komische Oper in Berlin. He also served as general music director and chief conductor of the German National Theater and Staatskapelle (GNTS) in Weimar, Germany, where he led Wagner’s Ring Cycle to critical acclaim. He was the first non-European to hold his position at the GNTS; the role also gave him the distinction of simultaneously leading one of the newest orchestras in America and one of the oldest in Europe. In 2014, St.Clair became the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Costa Rica. His international career also has him conducting abroad several months a year, and he has appeared with orchestras throughout the world. St.Clair has led the Boston Symphony Orchestra (where he served as assistant conductor for several years), New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver symphonies, among many. Carl St.Clair is a strong advocate of music education for all ages and is internationally recognized for his distinguished career as a master teacher. He has been essential to the creation and implementation of the Symphony’s education and community engagement programs including Pacific Symphony Youth Ensembles, Heartstrings, Sunday Matinees, OC Can You Play With Us?, arts-X-press, and Class Act. In addition to his professional conducting career, St.Clair has worked with most major music schools across the country. In 2018, Chapman University President Danielle Struppa appointed St.Clair as a Presidential Fellow, working closely with the students of the College of the Performing Arts at Chapman University. St.Clair has been named “Distinguished Alumni in Residence” at the University of Texas Butler School of Music beginning 2019. And, for over 25 years, he has had a continuing relationship with the USC Thornton School of Music where he is artistic leader and principal conductor of the orchestral program.
PACIFIC SYMPHONY Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair for the last 34 years, has been the resident orchestra of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall since 2006. Currently in its 45th season, the Symphony is the largest orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last 50 years and is recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scene, as well as in its own community of Orange County. In April 2018, Pacific Symphony made its debut at Carnegie Hall as one of two orchestras invited to perform during a yearlong celebration of composer Philip Glass’ 80th birthday, and the following month the orchestra toured China. The orchestra made its national PBS debut in June 2018 on Great Performances with Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America, conducted by St.Clair. Presenting more than 100 concerts and events each year and a rich array of education and community engagement programs, the Symphony reaches more than 300,000 residents—from school children to senior citizens. The Symphony offers repertoire ranging from the great orchestral masterworks to music from today’s most prominent composers. Just over a decade ago, the Symphony launched the highly successful opera initiative, “Symphonic Voices,” which continues in April 2024 with Puccini’s La Bohème. It also offers an in-demand Pops season, enhanced by state-ofthe-art video and sound, led by celebrated pops conductors. Each season also includes Café Ludwig, a chamber music series; an educational Family Musical Mornings series; and Sunday Matinees, an orchestral matinée series offering rich explorations of selected works led by St.Clair. Founded in 1978 as a collaboration between California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) and North Orange County community leaders led by Marcy Mulville, the Symphony performed its first concerts at Fullerton’s Plummer Auditorium as the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of then-CSUF orchestra conductor Keith Clark. Two seasons later, the Symphony expanded its size and changed its name to Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Then, in 1981-82, the orchestra moved to Knott’s Berry Farm for one year. The subsequent four seasons, led by Clark, took place at Santa Ana High School auditorium where the Symphony also made its first six acclaimed recordings. In September 1986, the Symphony moved to the new Orange County Performing Arts Center, and from 1987-2016, the orchestra additionally presented a Summer Festival at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. In 2006, the Symphony moved into the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, with striking architecture by Cesar Pelli and acoustics by Russell Johnson. In 2008, the Symphony inaugurated the hall’s critically acclaimed 4,322-pipe William J. Gillespie Concert Organ. The orchestra embarked on its first European tour in 2006, performing in nine cities in three countries.
PACIFIC SYMPHONY [cont.] Recordings commissioned and performed by the Symphony include the release of William Bolcom’s Songs of Lorca and Prometheus (2015-16), Richard Danielpour’s Toward a Season of Peace, Philip Glass’ The Passion of Ramakrishna (2013-14), as well as Michael Daugherty’s Mount Rushmore and The Gospel According to Sister Aimee (2012-13). In 2014-15, Elliot Goldenthal released a recording of his Symphony in G-sharp Minor, written for and performed by the Symphony. The Symphony has also commissioned and recorded An American Requiem by Danielpour and Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio by Goldenthal featuring Yo-Yo Ma. Other recordings have included collaborations with such composers as Lukas Foss and Toru Takemitsu. Other leading composers commissioned by the Symphony include Paul Chihara, Daniel Catán, James Newton Howard, William Kraft, Ana Lara, Tobias Picker, Christopher Theofanidis, Frank Ticheli, John Wineglass, Sir James Macmillan, and Chen Yi. In both 2005 and 2010, the Symphony received the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. Also in 2010, a study by the League of American Orchestras, Fearless Journeys, included the Symphony as one of the country’s five most innovative orchestras. The Symphony’s awardwinning education and community engagement programs benefit from the vision of St.Clair and are designed to integrate the orchestra and its music into the community in ways that stimulate all ages. The Symphony’s Class Act program has been honored as one of nine exemplary orchestra education programs by the National Endowment for the Arts and the League of American Orchestras. The list of instrumental training initiatives includes Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble, Pacific Symphony Santiago Strings, and new this season, Pacific Symphony Youth Concert Band. The Symphony also spreads the joy of music through arts-X-press, Class Act, Heartstrings, OC Can You Play With Us?, Santa Ana Strings, Strings for Generations, Symphony on the Go!, and Symphony in the Cities. Website www.pacificsymphony.org/
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SPRING 2024
Pacific Symphony plays Gounod & Vivaldi with Benjamin Beilman, Violin SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2024, 3PM SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER PROGRAM: GOUNOD Petite Symphonie in B-flat major VIVALDI The Four Seasons
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