Robert Blocker, Dean

penderecki conducts penderecki

Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)

Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra (1967)

Syoko Aki, violin

Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, “Winterreise” (2008)

William Purvis, horn

Intermission

Symphony No. 4, “Adagio” (1989)

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

T H E

P H I L H A R M O N I A

O R C H E S T R A O F

Y A L E

april 29, 2010 · thursday, 8 pm · woolsey hall

Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) guest conductor and composer

Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) has embodied the offbeat musical trends of our time as well as any living composer. Born in Dębica outside Crakow in 1933, he followed the European avant-garde before developing an eclectic mixture that involved re- explorations of tradition—and helped pave the way, perhaps, for the neo-Romantic movement in the ’70s and ’80s. Penderecki came of age in Poland at a time of relative artistic liberalization. But while composers like Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono, Berio, and others explored idioms of almost impenetrable density (both of musical texture and of idea), Penderecki and his colleagues Lutosławski and Górecki used simpler, more direct materials and means. Works like the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, the St. Luke Passion, the operas The Devils of Loudon and Paradise Lost, and the first two sym-phonies assured him a position among the most brilliant innovators of the twentieth century.

As early as the mid-’70s Penderecki had begun to feel a pull back toward traditional tonal procedures. Later he spoke of the orthodox “dictatorship” of the European avant-garde, and how the oppressive nature of their dogma led him to move toward what might be called “neoaccessibility”— a sort of reconciliation, perhaps, of his avant-garde persona with his Romantic, traditional side. Audiences found themselves ready to grasp works like the Violin Concerto written for Isaac Stern (1977) or the Cello Concerto No. 2 for Mstislav Rostropovich (1988). In addition to works that tackled big subjects with massive forces (Utrenja or the Entombment of Christ) and commemorated big events (the 1200th anniversary of the Salzburg Cathedral, the 3,000th anniversary of Jerusalem), throughout his career Penderecki also worked in conventional genres. At age 76, he continues to compose prolifically, often conducting his own works. His music has had a wide reach, not just in concert halls and on opera stages but in major motion pictures as well.

Penderecki has had a longstanding relationship with Yale, beginning with his years on the faculty of the School of Music. He has made a number of memorable appearances conducting his music with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale. His 1977 New York conducting debut featured the Yale Philharmonia in a Carnegie Hall program that included The Awakening of Jacob, the Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra (performed tonight), and the North American premiere of Magnificat.

program notes

Krzysztof Penderecki » b. 1933KrzysztofPenderecki

threnody for the victims of hiroshima

Does Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima open with a scream? Or a simply an abstract and sharp cluster in the strings? The original title of the work, 8’27”, indicates a work of abstract musical content, one that prizes the exploration of timbres for their own sake, as in the music of John Cage. But as the musicologist Richard Taruskin notes, the government-run Polish Composers’ Union was not interested in printing such an elaborate and detailed score—until, that is, the title was changed to Threnody. The Communist government was suddenly very interested in publishing this newly politicized piece, because Threnody could now be used as a piece of propaganda against the U.S. — the perpetuators of the Hiroshima bombings.

But politics and intentions aside, the opening of Threnody is unmistakably one of the most powerful, effective and original musical moments in the Western canon. So visceral and brutal is the opening that the association with the “solemn and catastro- phic,” as the composer notes, may be impossible to avoid.

Cast in roughly three large section, the opening part of Threnody works with the tone cluster—that is, a large and dissonant collections of notes (as if one simply pressed one’s arm down on a piano, playing all the white and black keys). The second section is quieter and gentler; sections of strings quietly glide up and down until finally, in a giant uproar, the work explodes into its third section, even harsher, louder, and more potent than the opening.

– Christopher Cerrone

capriccio for violin and orchestra

The title Capriccio usually refers to a spontaneous-sounding, capricious, even whimsical piece. Penderecki’s arresting Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra, written in 1967, capitalizes on the quality of compositional freedom but turns away from the implication of lightness. The massive orchestra, in addition to the usual forces, includes a musical saw, electric bass, four saxophones, contrabass clarinet, piano, and harmonium, as well as a large battery

of percussion. With this broad palette, Penderecki paints what has been described as a “highly emotional depiction of flight” with auditory allusions to war.

The Capriccio opens with a dramatic crescendo of percussion and brass, after which the solo violin enters in a skittering, manic rush. It veers across a vast range of contrasts: busy activity and slow, slithering counterpoint; overwhelming washes of sound that clear to transparent textures; lyrical me- lody punctuated by percussive outbursts. The music exploits the orchestra’s range from low groans to piercing heights. Sonic effects include microtonal slides in the strings, low bleats like belching machin- ery, and imitations of sirens and drones. A grotesque parody of a Viennese waltz lurches through. With a last virtuosic gasp from the solo violin, the Capriccio thumps to a close.

– Dana Astmann

concerto for horn and orchestra, “winterreise”

Among Penderecki’s instrumental works are nearly two dozen concertante pieces with one or more soloists, which have consistently been some of the most frequently performed concertos by a living composer. He has written several concertos for woodwind instruments, but the Horn Concerto was his first for a member of the brass family. The twenty-five-minute concerto received its premiere in Bremen on May 5, 2008, with Radovan Vlatkovic as soloist and the composer conducting the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra. The composer made light revisions to the work in 2009.

The subtitle “Winterreise,” though clearly an allu- sion to Schubert’s song-cycle of the same title, need not be read as suggesting some dark journey of the soul, writes musicologist Eva Pinter in a program note published at one of the early performances. “The title refers more to the work’s inception: Penderecki composed the concerto in the winter of 2007–08, during a period in which he was traveling a great deal.” Yet the title also suggests a sort of artistic journey, since the composer was indeed traversing new ground in writing a concerto for solo horn. The concerto is cast in two movements,

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artist profiles

Syoko Aki studied in Japan at the Toho Academy of Music and in the United States at Hartt College and the Yale School of Music. She has taught at the East- man School and the State University of New York at Purchase. She has appeared as soloist with leading conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Gerard Schwartz, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Kenneth Schermerhorn. Miss Aki has been concertmaster and soloist with the New York Chamber Symphony, the New Japan Philharmonic, Waterloo Festival Orchestra and the New Haven and Syracuse Symphonies and has ap- peared in concerto and chamber music performances with Syzmon Goldberg, Henryck Szeryng, Broadus Erle, Leon Fleisher, Jaime Laredo, Joan Panetti and many others. A member of the Yale faculty since 1968, Miss Aki appears regularly in New Haven and at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

A native of Western Pennylvania, William Purvis pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has participated in numerous premieres as hornist and conductor, including horn concerti by Peter Lieberson and Bayan Northcott, trios for violin, horn, and piano by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky, and Steven Stuckey’s Sonate en Forme de Préludes with Emanuel Ax. Mr. Purvis is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Yale Brass Trio, and Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of Orpheus. A frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has also collaborated with the Tokyo, Juilliard, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Fine Arts string quartets. His extensive list of recordings spans an unusually broad range from original instrument performance to standard repertoire to contemporary works. Since 1999, Mr. Purvis has been a faculty member at the Yale School of Music, where he is coordinator of winds and brass and Interim Director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments. He is also on the faculties of the Juilliard School and SUNY Stony Brook.

William Purvishorn

Syoko Akiviolin

one slow and one fast. The Lento assai: Passacaglia opens with gentle string textures, and the soloist engages in musical conversation with three offstage horns. A solo cadenza (Allegro moderato) leads into the second movement (Vivace), which the composer has said is a rondo da caccia, calling to mind a hunt. Interspersed are two Adagio passages with sustained, cantabile solos, as well as cadenza-like passages. The soloist is then permitted one final, cheerful display of virtuosity before the concerto comes to a close.

– Courtesy of Schott Music

symphony no. 4, “adagio”

The French Ministry of Culture and Radio France commissioned a work from Penderecki for the bicentennial of the French Revolution of 1789. Penderecki first wanted to compose a secular ora-torio, and he began working with texts by Racine and André Chénier. He then had the idea for a multi-movement symphony centered around an adagio that would be a meditation “on the question of destiny and the dignity of the individual.” The work begins and ends with a trumpet fanfare set against heavy footsteps in the bass. Penderecki’s original conception of a vocal work shows in the recitative-like texture that follows. A mournful, conflicted mood takes over, with a bassoon solo leading to an ethereal string cadence in G major. The darkness of the opening returns at the begin- ning of the development section, but dissipates into comedy as an attempted fugue is stalled and interruped. The fugue bursts through to build toward cataclysm. Fanfares and echoes swirl as the music fades to a close.

Lorin Maazel conducted the premiere in November, 1989 in Paris with the Orchestre National de France. After the premiere, Penderecki published the Adagio as a one-movement work, his Fourth Symphony. In this form, the piece earned him the 1992 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

– adapted by Dana Astmann from notes provided by Schott Music

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The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale is one of America’s fore- most 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 Theater. The Yale Philharmonia has also performed on numerous occasions in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Kennedy Center. In its last appearance at Carnegie Hall, it earned rave reviews for its “sensational” (New York Times) performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie under guest conductor Reinbert de Leeuw. The orchestra undertook its first tour of Asia in 2008, with acclaimed performances in Seoul, Beijing, and Shanghai.

violin 1Marc Daniel van Biemen, concertmasterDavid SouthornSun Min HwangKensho WatanabeYoungsun KimAlissa CheungIgor KalninAlexander ReadSae Rom YooEvan ShallcrossEdson Scheide de AndradeHyewon Kim

violin 2Soo Ryun Baek, principalMarjolaine LambertYu-Ting HuangIgor PikayzenJae-Won BangNaria KimRuby ChenJae-In ShinPiotr FilochowskiXi ChenQi CaoYeseul AnnHolly PiccoliKa Chun Gary Ngan

violaVesselin Todorov, principalEve TangChristopher WilliamsJanice LaMarreColin MeineckeAmina Myriam TébiniRaul GarciaMinjung ChunMathilde Geismar RousselEren Tuncer

celloArnold Choi, principalPhilo LeeShannon HaydenSoo Jin ChungMo MoJung Min HanAlvin Yan Ming WongNeena Deb-SenSunhee JeonYing Zhang

bassNathaniel Chase, principalEric FischerSamuel AdamsAleksey KlyushnikAlexander SmithMichael LevinJoseph Magar

fluteMindy Heinsohn 2*, piccolo 3*Itay Lantner 1*Christopher Matthews 3*Thiago Sousa, piccolo 2*

oboeAlexandra Detyniecki 2*, English horn 1*Emily Holum 3*Steven Kramer 1*Carl OswaldAndrew Parker, English horn 2*, 3*

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saxophoneJoseph AbadVincent OneppoKindall NeSmithMallory Kokus

bassoonThomas FlemingJeremy Friedland 1*, 2*, contrabassoon 3*Jennifer HostlerScott Switzer 3*, contrabassoon 1*, 2*

hornKatherine HermanScott Holben 3*Christopher Jackson 2*Portia SirinekLeelanee SterrettTianxia WuElizabeth Upton 1*

trumpetPaul Florek 1*Douglas Lindsey 3*Ryan Olsen 2*Kyle ShermanAndreas StoltzfusDavid Wharton

tromboneBrian ReeseRuben Rodriguez 1*, 2*Ted Sonnier 3*

bass tromboneJay RobertsCraig Watson

tubaJerome Stover 1*Bethany Wiese 2*, 3*

The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale

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percussionYun-Chu ChiuJohn CorkillLeonardo GorositoDenis PetruninIan RosenbaumMichael Zell

harpMaura Valenti

pianoLindsay Garritson

celesteElizaveta Miller

electric bassJoseph Magar

harmoniumRobert Honstein

1*- Principal player in Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra2*- Principal player in Concerto for Horn and Orchestra3*- Principal player in Symphony No. 4

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Penderecki Conducts Penderecki, featuring Syoko Aki, violin, and William Purvis, horn.8 pm | Apr 30 | Carnegie Hall | $15-$25www.carnegiehall.org | 212 247-7800

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