Program Notes - Mostly Mozart

The Program
Tuesday and Wednesday Evenings, August 18–19, 2015,
at 6:30
Pre-concert Recital
Tyler Duncan, Baritone
Erika Switzer, Piano
SCHUMANN Liederkreis, Op. 24 (1840)
Morgens steh’ ich auf und frage
Es treibt mich hin
Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen
Lieb Liebchen
Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden
Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann
Berg’ und Burgen schaun herunter
Anfangs wollt’ ich fast verzagen
Mit Myrten und Rosen
Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.
These performances are made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Steinway Piano
Avery Fisher Hall
15
Notes on the Program
Mostly Mozart Festival I Notes on the Program
By David Wright
Liederkreis, Op. 24 (1840)
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany
Died July 29, 1856, in Endenich, Germany
Approximate length: 23 minutes
The son of a bookseller and author, Schumann had literary aspirations that
eventually found expression through his music. In an effort to make
Schumann upwardly mobile, his parents sent him to law school, but on his
way there the 18-year-old student made sure to pay a call on the famous
poet Heinrich Heine, whose recently published Buch der Lieder had made a
powerful impression on him. Over a decade later, as his wedding to the
young pianist Clara Wieck drew near, Schumann went on a song-composing
spree, writing 138 lieder—over half his eventual output of songs—in 1840
alone, often to texts by Heine.
Both Robert and Clara Schumann were pianists and composers, and during
the periods when Clara’s father prevented the couple from seeing each
other, they communicated by writing piano music based on each other’s
themes and motives. It is unlikely that the love-besotted Schumann shared
the bitterness so often expressed in Heine’s love poetry, which may explain
why he usually avoided the obvious tactic of throwing in a musical change
wherever the words took an ironic twist. His settings let the poet’s words
speak for themselves; the irony, in fact, is often in the disconnect between
Schumann’s jaunty music and the poet’s dark text.
Although Schumann’s best-known settings of Heine’s poetry are collected in
Dichterliebe, Op. 48, attention should also be paid to the nine songs of
Op. 24, which the composer called simply Liederkreis, literally “song cycle.”
The term can also mean “song circle,” which is why Liederkreis is the name
of many choral societies in Germany and German-American communities.
Schumann apparently considered it a generic term; his collection of songs to
poems of Joseph von Eichendorff, Op. 39, is also titled Liederkreis.
Besides the piano’s prominent role, the Op. 24 songs are notable for their
extreme variety of expression, from frozen to frantic. The well-known song
that closes the set, “Mit Myrten und Rosen,” is so protean in mood and
shape that it sounds almost like four songs combined into one.
See song texts on page 25.
—Copyright © 2015 by David Wright
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The Program
Mostly Mozart Festival I
Tuesday and Wednesday Evenings, August 18–19, 2015,
at 7:30
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Andrew Manze, Conductor
Joshua Bell, Violin and Leader
MOZART Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K.546 (1788)
BACH Violin Concerto in E major (before 1730)
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro assai
BACH/MENDELSSOHN (arr. MILONE) Chaconne, from Partita No. 2
in D minor (1720)
Intermission
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 2 in C major (1845–46)
Sostenuto assai—Allegro, ma non troppo
Scherzo: Allegro vivace
Adagio espressivo
Allegro molto vivace
Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.
These performances are made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Avery Fisher Hall
17
Mostly Mozart Festival
The Mostly Mozart Festival is made possible by Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon,
Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, Chris and Bruce Crawford, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels
Foundation, Inc., Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, S.H. and Helen R. Scheuer Family Foundation,
and Friends of Mostly Mozart.
Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Artist Catering provided by Zabar’s and zabars.com
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center
United Airlines is a Supporter of Lincoln Center
WABC-TV is a Supporter of Lincoln Center
“Summer at Lincoln Center” is supported by Diet Pepsi
Time Out New York is a Media Partner of Summer at Lincoln Center
Mr. Duncan appears by kind permission of the Metropolitan Opera.
UPCOMING MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL EVENT:
Friday and Saturday Evenings, August 21–22, at 7:30 in Avery Fisher Hall
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Louis Langrée, Conductor
Sarah Tynan, Soprano M|M
Andrew Staples, Tenor M|M
Brindley Sherratt, Bass M|M
Concert Chorale of New York
James Bagwell, Director
HAYDN: The Creation
Pre-concert lecture by Elaine Sisman on Friday, August 21 at 6:15 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
M|M
Mostly Mozart debut
For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit MostlyMozart.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at
(212) 875-5766 to learn about program cancellations or request a Mostly Mozart brochure.
Visit MostlyMozart.org for full festival listings.
Join the conversation: #LCMozart
We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the
performers and your fellow audience members.
In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave
before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.
18
Mostly Mozart Festival
Welcome to Mostly Mozart
I am pleased to welcome you to the 49th Mostly Mozart Festival, our annual
celebration of the innovative and inspiring spirit of our namesake composer.
This summer, in addition to a stellar roster of guest conductors and soloists,
we are joined by composer-in-residence George Benjamin, a leading contemporary voice whose celebrated opera Written on Skin receives its U.S. stage
premiere. This landmark event is the first in a series of staged opera works to
be presented in a new partnership with the New York Philharmonic.
Written on Skin continues our tradition of hearing Mozart afresh in the context
of the great music of our time. Under the inspired baton of Renée and Robert
Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
delights this year with the Classical repertoire that is its specialty, in addition
to Beethoven’s joyous Seventh Symphony and Haydn’s triumphant Creation.
Guest appearances include maestro Cornelius Meister making his New York
debut; Edward Gardner, who also leads the Academy of Ancient Music in a
Mendelssohn program on period instruments; and Andrew Manze with violinist Joshua Bell in an evening of Bach, Mozart, and Schumann. Other preeminent soloists include Emanuel Ax, Matthias Goerne, and festival newcomers
Sol Gabetta and Alina Ibragimova, who also perform intimate recitals in our
expanded Little Night Music series. And don’t miss returning favorite Emerson
String Quartet and artists-in-residence the International Contemporary
Ensemble, as well as invigorating pre-concert recitals and lectures, a panel discussion, and a film on Haydn.
With so much to choose from, we invite you to make the most of this rich and
splendid season. I look forward to seeing you often.
Jane Moss
Ehrenkranz Artistic Director
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Mostly Mozart Festival I Words and Music
The Stillness of the World
Before Bach
By Lars Gustafsson
There must have been a world before
the Trio Sonata in D, a world before the A minor Partita,
but what kind of a world?
A Europe of vast empty spaces, unresounding,
everywhere unawakened instruments
where the Musical Offering, the Well-tempered Clavier
never passed across the keys.
Isolated churches
where the soprano line of the Passion
never in helpless love twined round
the gentler movements of the flute,
broad soft landscapes
where nothing breaks the stillness
but old woodcutters’ axes,
the healthy barking of strong dogs in winter
and, like a bell, skates biting into fresh ice;
the swallows whirring through summer air,
the shell resounding at the child’s ear
and nowhere Bach nowhere Bach
the world in a skater’s stillness before Bach.
—By Lars Gustafsson, translated by Philip Martin, from The Stillness of
the World Before Bach, copyright © 1977 by Lars Gustafsson, copyright © 1983 by Yvonne L. Sandstroem. Reprinted by permission of
New Directions Publishing Corp.
For poetry comments and suggestions,
please write to [email protected].
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Snapshot
Mostly Mozart Festival
By David Wright
This evening’s program showcases two composers with a deep
respect for the past, plus the master they both revered most.
Mozart discovered the works of Bach late in his short life, but he
made up for lost time with Bach-inspired works such as the
Adagio and Fugue in C minor.
Bach himself liked to stay up to date, and few genres were as au
courant in the 1720s as the exciting three-movement violin concertos of Vivaldi. In his own Concerto in E major, Bach mixes this
flighty Italian style with his personal brand of solid German counterpoint.
Bach’s famous D-minor Chaconne for solo violin—a set of richly
imaginative and expressive variations on a theme—attracted the
attention of Mendelssohn, who fitted it with a discreet piano
accompaniment. Julian Milone used this piece to fashion the
orchestral arrangement that will be performed this evening.
Schumann said of his Symphony No. 2 that it reminded him of
the “dark period” of his mental illness and depression. Today, its
shifting moods remind listeners of the great tradition of confessional symphonies that this piece founded, with Tchaikovsky and
Mahler waiting in the wings.
—Copyright © 2015 by David Wright
21
Notes on the Program
Mostly Mozart Festival I Notes on the Program
By David Wright
Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K.546 (1788)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Born January 27, 1756, in Salzburg
Died December 5, 1791, in Vienna
Approximate length: 9 minutes
Bach’s reputation was kept alive during the later 18th century by a network of musicians and music-loving laymen. Mozart himself discovered
Bach’s music at the home of a Viennese diplomat, Baron Gottfried van
Swieten. Mozart attempted Bachian fugues of his own, of which the one
in C minor, composed
for two pianos in
December 1783, is Did You Know?
among the last. In June
1788, in the midst of Mozart didn’t discover the music of Bach
work on his last three until he was 27 years old and already a
symphonies (including famous composer.
the “Jupiter,” with its
masterful fugal finale), he arranged this fugue for string quartet or orchestra and added an Adagio introduction.
Is the resulting work echt Mozart or an imitation of Bach? Certainly the
stately dotted rhythms of the Adagio have a Baroque character, but the
opposition of sharp exclamations and pathetic legato phrases is typical of
Mozart’s Classical style. The fugue’s subject continues the duality of
mood, angry one moment, pleading the next.
Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042 (before 1730)
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Born March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany
Died July 28, 1750, in Leipzig
Approximate length: 19 minutes
As early as 1708, Bach was studying the brilliant new solo concertos
from Italy while working in Weimar. The concertante style, which contrasts soloists or small instrumental groups with the full orchestra,
became as much a part of his cantatas and suites as of the actual concertos he composed around 1720 while employed at the court of AnhaltKöthen. In the Italian solo concerto, with its three contrasted movements
and a single soloist, the violin reigned supreme, and Bach’s three surviving solo concertos from the Köthen years are all for that instrument.
22
As with so many of the Brandenburg Concertos, the E-major Violin
Mostly Mozart Festival I Notes on the Program
Concerto steps out to a sturdy German beat rather than flickering and flashing in the manner of Vivaldi. The refrain then spins off into a happy flight of
fancy, and when the soloist enters, the simple motives begin to interact contrapuntally and charmingly.
The key of C-sharp minor was rarely used in 18th-century music, and when
it was—as in Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata and in this concerto’s second
movement—it produced an atmosphere of mystery tinged with tragedy.
Bach banishes this vision with the most straightforward of verse-and-refrain
dance movements: 16 bars of one and 16 bars of the other, alternating, to a
fast and resolute beat in triple meter.
Chaconne, from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (1720)
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
FELIX MENDELSSOHN (arr. 1847)
Born February 3, 1809, in Hamburg
Died November 4, 1847, in Leipzig
JULIAN MILONE (arr. 2013)
Born July 23, 1958, in London
Approximate length: 14 minutes
Bach’s sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin, composed in 1720,
have a hypnotic quality because they require of the audience an act of imagination. Able to play only fragments of actual polyphony, the lone violin must
work by suggestion to imply an entire contrapuntal texture.
Composers in the 19th century who understood the implicit grandeur of
these pieces—and none is grander than the mighty Chaconne that closes the
D-minor Partita—felt the need to spell out what Bach had left unspoken.
Busoni transcribed the Chaconne quite splendidly for piano solo, while
Mendelssohn created a kind of basso continuo for piano to accompany the
original violin piece for a concert given with his violinist friend Ferdinand
David in 1840. Like a good continuo player, the pianist here reinforces the
bass line and picks up ideas from the violin rather than adding extraneous
material while still managing to give the music a well-upholstered, 19thcentury character. The English violinist and arranger Julian Milone has interpreted that composer’s discreet piano counterpoints as an accompaniment
for orchestra.
The chaconne originated as a stately Spanish dance and evolved into a set of
variations over a repeating bass line, which is either played or left implicit. As
these variations unfold, Bach seems to probe the very soul of the violin, with
a variety of string tone and figurations unequaled in his time.
23
Mostly Mozart Festival I Notes on the Program
Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61 (1845–46)
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany
Died July 29, 1856, in Endenich, Germany
Approximate length: 40 minutes
Thanks to Tchaikovsky and Mahler, the symphony as confessional is now so
firmly established, we tend to forget that early symphonies did not follow this
style. When the genre was born in the Classical era, a symphony did not
describe the innermost psychology of the composer. Schumann’s four symphonies, however, document both his learning process as an orchestral composer and his fortunes in life. The Symphony No. 2, with its dark shadows and
mysterious obsessions, has always been the black sheep of Schumann’s symphonies, as Schumann himself acknowledged in a letter to a conductor: “I
wrote the symphony in 1845 at a time when I was rather unwell, and I have a
feeling that this may be evident…It reminds me of a dark period. It shows how
sympathetic you are that such sounds of distress can appeal to you.”
The symphony begins with a serene horn-call theme that a latter-day listener
might call Bruckner-esque—in this case, perhaps a suffering man’s vision of
an unattainable spiritual peace. Once the Allegro, ma non troppo begins,
Beethoven’s manner of handling tiny melodic motives seems to be
Schumann’s model, almost to the point of obsession.
The idea of a brilliant scherzo in dark surroundings foreshadows Tchaikovsky’s
Symphonie pathétique, but this movement’s structure is different—a bustling
tune for strings in duple time (not the scherzo’s usual three-to-a-bar) alternates
with two trios, one delicate and playful, the other suggesting the ancient truth
of a Bachian-Mendelssohnian chorale melody.
In its gripping, pathos-laden main theme, the Adagio espressivo refers again to
Bach, a composer who gazed into the depths of the human condition as well
as into the heights of heaven. There is even a tiptoeing staccato episode
whose fugal counterpoint comes from Bach, although its fateful tread is
Beethovenian.
One can hear health returning in the vigorous finale, although even here
Schumann’s love of snappy march rhythms takes on an obsessive quality. He
quotes earlier movements and alludes to Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte (To
the distant beloved) with a phrase to which the earlier composer had set the
words “Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder” (Accept these songs, then)—surely
the hope of every composer who bares his soul in music, whether to a distant
beloved or to a sympathetic listener in another century.
David Wright, a music critic for Boston Classical Review, has provided
program notes for Lincoln Center since 1982.
24
—Copyright © 2015 by David Wright
Mostly Mozart Festival I Texts and Translations
Pre-concert Recital Texts and Translations
Liederkreis
Text: Heinrich Heine
Song Cycle
Trans.: Richard Stokes
Copyright © 2003 by Richard Stokes
Morgens steh’ ich auf und frage
Morgens steh’ ich auf und frage:
Kommt feins Liebchen heut?
Abends sink’ ich hin und klage:
Ausblieb sie auch heut.
Every morning I awake and ask
Every morning I awake and ask:
Will my sweetheart come today?
Every evening I lie down,
complaining that she did not appear.
In der Nacht mit meinem Kummer
Lieg’ ich schlaflos, wach;
Träumend, wie im halben Schlummer,
Wandle ich bei Tag.
All night long with my grief
I lie sleepless, lie awake;
dreaming, as if half asleep,
I wander through the day.
Es treibt mich hin
Es treibt mich hin, es treibt mich her!
Noch wenige Stunden, dann soll ich
sie schauen,
Sie selber, die schönste der
schönen Jungfrauen;—
Du treues Herz, was pochst du so
schwer!
I’ve driven this way
I’m driven this way, driven that!
A few more hours, and I shall see
her,
she, the fairest of the fair—
faithful heart, why pound so hard?
Die Stunden sind aber ein faules Volk!
Schleppen sich behaglich träge,
Schleichen gähnend ihre Wege;—
Tummle dich, du faules Volk!
But the hours are a lazy breed!
They dawdle along and take their time,
crawl yawningly on their way—
get a move on, you lazy breed!
Tobende Eile mich treibend erfaßt!
Aber wohl niemals liebten die
Horen;—
Heimlich im grausamen Bunde
verschworen,
Spotten sie tückisch der Liebenden
Hast.
Raging haste drives me onward!
But the Horae can never have
loved—
cruelly and secretly in league,
Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen
Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen
Mit meinem Gram allein;
Da kam das alte Träumen,
I wandered among the trees
I wandered among the trees,
alone with my own grief,
but then old dreams returned once
more
and stole into my heart.
Und schlich mir ins Herz hinein.
they spitefully mock a lover’s haste.
(Please turn the page quietly.)
25
Mostly Mozart Festival I Texts and Translations
26
Who taught you this little word,
you birds up there in the breeze?
Be silent! If my heart hears it,
Wer hat euch dies Wörtlein gelehret,
Ihr Vöglein in luftiger Höh’?
Schweigt still! wenn mein Herz es
höret,
Dann tut es noch einmal so weh.
my pain will return once more.
“Es kam ein Jungfräulein gegangen,
Die sang es immerfort,
Da haben wir Vöglein gefangen
Das hübsche, goldne Wort.”
“A young woman once passed by,
who sang it again and again,
and so we birds snatched it up,
that lovely golden word.”
Das sollt ihr mir nicht erzählen,
Ihr Vöglein wunderschlau;
Ihr wollt meinen Kummer mir stehlen,
Ich aber niemanden trau’.
You should not tell me such things,
you little cunning birds,
you thought to steal my grief from me,
but I trust no one now.
Lieb Liebchen
Lieb Liebchen, leg’s Händchen aufs
Herze mein;—
Ach, hörst du, wie‘s pochet im
Kämmerlein?
Da hauset ein Zimmermann
schlimm und arg,
Der zimmert mir einen Totensarg.
My love
Just lay your hand on my heart, my
love;
ah, can you not hear it throbbing in
there?
a carpenter, wicked and evil, lives
there,
fashioning me my coffin.
Es hämmert und klopfet bei Tag und
bei Nacht;
Es hat mich schon längst um den
Schlaf gebracht.
Ach! sputet Euch, Meister
Zimmermann,
Damit ich balde schlafen kann.
He bangs and hammers by day and
night,
and has long since banished all
sleep.
Ah, master carpenter, make haste,
Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden
Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden,
Schönes Grabmal meiner Ruh’,
Schöne Stadt, wir müssen
scheiden,—
Lebe wohl! ruf’ ich dir zu.
Lovely cradle of my sorrows
Lovely cradle of my sorrows,
lovely tombstone of my peace,
lovely city, we must part—
Lebe wohl, du heil’ge Schwelle,
Wo da wandelt Liebchen traut;
Lebe wohl! du heil’ge Stelle,
Wo ich sie zuerst geschaut.
Farewell, O sacred threshold,
where my dear beloved treads,
farewell! O sacred spot,
where I first beheld her.
that I might soon find rest.
Farewell! I call to you.
Mostly Mozart Festival I Texts and Translations
Daß ich jetzt so elend bin.
Had I never seen you though,
fair queen of my heart!
It would never then have come to
pass
that I am now so wretched.
Nie wollt’ ich dein Herze rühren,
Liebe hab’ ich nie erfleht;
Nur ein stilles Leben führen
Wollt’ ich, wo dein Odem weht.
I never wished to touch your heart,
I never begged for love,
to live in peace was all I wished,
and to breathe the air you breathed.
Doch du drängst mich selbst von
hinnen,
Bittre Worte spricht dein Mund;
Wahnsinn wühlt in meinen Sinnen,
Und mein Herz ist krank und wund.
But you yourself, you drive me
hence,
your lips speak bitter words;
madness rages in my mind,
and my heart is sick and sore.
Und die Glieder matt und träge
Schlepp’ ich fort am Wanderstab,
Bis mein müdes Haupt ich lege
Ferne in ein kühles Grab.
And my limbs, weary and feeble,
I drag away, my staff in hand,
until I lay my tired head down
in a cool and distant grave.
Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann
Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann,
Gleich folg’ ich zum Hafen dir;
Von zwei Jungfraun nehm’ ich
Abschied,
Von Europa und von Ihr.
Wait, O wait, wild seaman
Wait, O wait, wild seaman,
soon I’ll follow to the harbor;
I’m taking leave of two maidens:
of Europe and of her.
Blutquell, rinn’ aus meinen Augen,
Blutquell, brich aus meinem Leib,
Daß ich mit dem heißen Blute
Meine Schmerzen niederschreib’.
Stream from my eyes, O blood,
gush from my body, O blood,
that with my hot blood
I may write down my agonies.
Ei, mein Lieb, warum just heute
Schauderst du, mein Blut zu sehn?
Sahst mich bleich und herzeblutend
Lange Jahre vor dir stehn!
Why today of all days, my love,
do you shudder to see my blood?
You’ve seen me pale and with
bleeding heart
stand before you for years on end!
Kennst du noch das alte Liedchen
Von der Schlang’ im Paradies,
Die durch schlimme Apfelgabe
Unsern Ahn ins Elend stieß?
Remember the old story
of the serpent in Paradise,
who, through the evil gift of an apple,
plunged our forebears into woe?
Hätt’ ich dich doch nie gesehen,
Schöne Herzenskönigin!
Nimmer wär es dann geschehen,
(Please turn the page quietly.)
27
Mostly Mozart Festival I Texts and Translations
Alles Unheil brachten Äpfel!
Eva bracht’ damit den Tod,
Eris brachte Trojas Flammen,
Du bracht’st beides, Flamm’ und Tod.
The apple has caused all our ills!
Eve brought death with it,
Eris brought flames to Troy,
and you—both flames and death.
Berg’ und Burgen schaun herunter
Berg’ und Burgen schaun herunter
In den spiegelhellen Rhein,
Und mein Schiffchen segelt munter,
Rings umglänzt von Sonnenschein.
Mountains and castles gaze down
Mountains and castles gaze down
into the mirror-bright Rhine,
and my little boat sails merrily,
the sunshine glistening around it.
Ruhig seh’ ich zu dem Spiele
Goldner Wellen, kraus bewegt;
Still erwachen die Gefühle,
Die ich tief im Busen hegt’.
Calmly I watch the play
of golden, ruffled waves surging;
silently feelings awaken in me
that I had kept deep in my heart.
Freundlich grüßend und verheißend
Lockt hinab des Stromes Pracht;
Doch ich kenn’ ihn, oben gleißend,
Birgt sein Innres Tod und Nacht.
With friendly greetings and promises,
the river’s splendor beckons;
but I know it—gleaming above
it conceals within itself Death and
Night.
Oben Lust, im Busen Tücken,
Strom, du bist der Liebsten Bild!
Above, pleasure; at heart, malice;
river, you are the image of my
beloved!
She can nod with just as much
friendliness,
and smile so devotedly and gently.
Die kann auch so freundlich nicken,
Lächelt auch so fromm und mild.
Und ich hab’ es doch getragen—
Aber fragt mich nur nicht, wie?
At first I almost despaired
At first I almost despaired,
and I thought I could never be able
to bear it;
yet even so, I have borne it—
but do not ask me how.
Mit Myrten und Rosen
Mit Myrten und Rosen, lieblich und
hold,
Mit duft’gen Zypressen und
Flittergold,
Möcht’ ich zieren dies Buch wie
‘nen Totenschrein,
Und sargen meine Lieder hinein.
With myrtles and roses
With myrtles and roses, sweet and
fair,
with fragrant cypress and golden
tinsel,
I should like to adorn this book like a
coffin
and bury my songs inside.
Anfangs wollt’ ich fast verzagen
Anfangs wollt’ ich fast verzagen,
Und ich glaubt’, ich trüg’ es nie;
28
Mostly Mozart Festival I Texts and Translations
Could I but bury my love here too!
On Love’s grave grows the flower of
peace,
there it blossoms, there is plucked,
O könnt’ ich die Liebe sargen hinzu!
Auf dem Grabe der Liebe wächst
Blümlein der Ruh’,
Da blüht es hervor, da pflückt man
es ab,—
Doch mir blüht’s nur, wenn ich
selber im Grab.
Hier sind nun die Lieder, die einst so
wild,
Wie ein Lavastrom, der dem Ätna
entquillt,
Hervorgestürzt aus dem tiefsten
Gemüt,
Und rings viel blitzende Funken
versprüht!
but only when I’m buried will it
bloom for me.
Here now are the songs which once
cascaded,
like a stream of lava pouring from
Etna,
so wildly from the depths of my
soul,
and scattered glittering sparks all
around!
Nun liegen sie stumm und
toten-gleich,
Nun starren sie kalt und nebelbleich,
Doch aufs neu’ die alte Glut sie
belebt,
Wenn der Liebe Geist einst über sie
schwebt.
Now they lie mute, as though they
were dead,
now they stare coldly, as pale as mist,
but the old glow shall kindle them
once more,
when the spirit of Love floats over
them.
Und es wird mir im Herzen viel
Ahnung laut:
Der Liebe Geist einst über sie taut;
Einst kommt dies Buch in deine
Hand,
Du süßes Lieb im fernen Land.
And a thought speaks loud within
my heart,
that the spirit of Love will one day
thaw them;
one day this book will fall into your
hands,
my dearest love, in a distant land.
Dann löst sich des Liedes
Zauberbann,
Die blassen Buchstaben schaun
dich an,
Sie schauen dir flehend ins schöne
Aug’,
Und flüstern mit Wehmut und
Liebeshauch.
Then shall song’s magic spell break
free,
and the pallid letters shall gaze at
you,
gaze imploringly into your beautiful
eyes,
and whisper with sadness and the
breath of love.
29
BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
Meet the Artists
Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists
Andrew Manze
Andrew Manze has rapidly emerged as one of the most stimulating and
inspirational conductors of his generation. In September 2014 he became
the principal conductor of the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. As a guest
conductor, Mr. Manze has regular relationships with a number of leading
orchestras, including the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, Deutsches
Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra,
Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Finnish Radio and City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestras, and the Royal Liverpool and Munich Philharmonics.
From 2006 to 2014, Mr. Manze was the principal conductor and artistic director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. He made a number of recordings
with the ensemble, including Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony (Harmonia
Mundi) and a cycle of Brahms’s symphonies. From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Manze
served as associate guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra and as principal guest conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra
from 2008 to 2011.
Orchestral appearances in the 2014–15 season and beyond include debuts
with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt
Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo.
Mr. Manze also returns to the Gewandhaus Orchestera of Leipzig, WDR
Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Tonkünstler Orchestra, and the Danish
National Symphony Orchestra.
After studying classics at the University of Cambridge, Mr. Manze studied the
violin and rapidly became a leading specialist in the world of historical performance practice. He became associate director of the Academy of Ancient
Music in 1996 and then artistic director of the English Concert from 2003 to
2007. Mr. Manze is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, and he has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concertos by Mozart and Bach published by Bärenreiter and Breitkopf and Härtel. In 2011 he received the prestigious Rolf Schock Prize in Stockholm.
30
Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists
LISA MARIE MAZZUCO
Joshua Bell
Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era, and his
restless curiosity, passion, and multifaceted musical interests are almost
unparalleled in the world of classical
music. Named the music director of
the Academy of St. Martin in the
Fields in 2011, Mr. Bell is the first
person to hold this post since Neville
Marriner formed the orchestra in
1958. An exclusive Sony Classical
artist, Mr. Bell has recorded more
than 40 CDs, garnering Grammy,
Mercury, Gramophone, and Echo Klassik awards since his first LP recording at
age 18 on the Decca label.
Mr. Bell kicks off the fall season performing with the Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra and the Houston and St. Louis Symphonies. A U.S. recital tour
with pianist Sam Haywood, a European tour with the Academy of St. Martin
in the Fields, and three concerts as guest soloist with the New York
Philharmonic led by Alan Gilbert conclude his 2015 performances.
Appearances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin
Alsop, the Paris Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi, and the London
Symphony Orchestra are scheduled for 2016. Mr. Bell will then travel to Asia
for a recital tour with Alessio Bax. He will also travel to Europe for a recital
tour with Mr. Haywood before returning to the U.S. to perform as a guest
soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he will tour with the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra led by Michael Stern.
Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Mr. Bell received his first violin at the age of four
and at 12 began studying with the legendary Josef Gingold at Indiana
University. At age 14 he performed with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia
Orchestra, and at 17 he made his Carnegie Hall debut. He performs on a 1713
Huberman Stradivarius violin and uses a late 18th-century French bow by
François Tourte.
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Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists
Tyler Duncan
Canadian baritone Tyler Duncan’s gifts in the realm of art song have earned
prizes from the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song
Competition, the ARD International Music Competition Munich, and the
Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Competition, among others. He is a founding
member on the faculty of the Vancouver International Song Institute.
Frequently accompanied by pianist Erika Switzer, he has given recitals in New
York, Boston, Paris, and Montreal, as well as throughout Canada, Germany,
Sweden, France, and South Africa.
As an orchestral soloist, Mr. Duncan’s engagements include performances of
Orff’s Carmina Burana with the San Diego Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic
Orchestra; Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Toronto and American
Symphony Orchestras; Mendelssohn’s Christus and Bach’s Magnificat with the
New York Philharmonic; Haydn’s Creation with the Montreal and Quebec
Symphony Orchestras; and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra and Seattle Symphony. He has also performed Handel’s
Messiah with a number of ensembles, sung Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with
the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the
Puerto Rico and Montreal Symphony Orchestras.
Mr. Duncan has collaborated with such conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Peter
Oundjian, Masaaki Suzuki, Leon Botstein, Christopher Seaman, Kent Tritle,
Matthew Halls, Nicholas McGegan, and Roberto Minczuk. His roles at the
Metropolitan Opera in the upcoming season include Yamadori in Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly.
Erika Switzer
Pianist Erika Switzer made her U.S. debut at the Kennedy Center in 2003.
Since then, she has established herself as the frequent partner of several
notable vocalists, including Tyler Duncan, Colin Balzer, Hai-Ting Chinn, and
Martha Guth. Ms. Switzer has performed recitals at New York’s Frick
Collection, Rockefeller University, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Five
Boroughs Music Festival. In Europe she has performed as a guest of
ProMusicis at Paris’s Salle Cortot and for the Académie Francis Poulenc at the
L’Hôtel de ville de Tours. Other European performances include appearances
at Festspielehaus Baden-Baden and the Winners & Masters series in Munich.
In her native Canada, she has performed at the Ottawa International and
Montreal Chamber Music Festivals and for presenters including Music on
Main, Debut Atlantic, Prairie Debut, Roy Thomson Hall Presents: Canadian
Voices, and the André-Turp Musical Society. Ms. Switzer has been recorded
by the CBC, Dutch Radio (Radio 4), WQXR New York, and WGBH Boston,
among others. Together with Martha Guth, Ms. Switzer is co-creator of Sparks &
32
Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists
Wiry Cries, a website that promotes art song. She has recorded Brahms’s
Liebeslieder Waltzes on the Sparks & Wiry Cries label.
Ms. Switzer is on the music faculty at Bard College and the Bard College
Conservatory of Music. She is also a founding faculty member of the
Vancouver International Song Institute. She won first prize for best pianist at
the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition and the
special prize for Best Lied Accompanist at the International Robert Schumann
Contest for Pianists and Singers. Ms. Switzer recently completed her doctorate at The Juilliard School.
Mostly Mozart Festival
Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival—America’s first indoor summer
music festival—was launched as an experiment in 1966. Called Midsummer
Serenades: A Mozart Festival, its first two seasons were devoted exclusively
to the music of Mozart. Now a New York institution, Mostly Mozart continues
to broaden its focus to include works by Mozart’s predecessors, contemporaries, and related successors. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart
Festival Orchestra, Mostly Mozart now includes concerts by the world’s
outstanding period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras and ensembles, and acclaimed soloists, as well as opera productions, dance, film, latenight performances, and visual art installations. Contemporary music has
become an essential part of the festival, embodied in annual artists-inresidence, including Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, PierreLaurent Aimard, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Among the
many artists and ensembles who have had long associations with the festival
are Joshua Bell, Christian Tetzlaff, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Garrick
Ohlsson, Stephen Hough, Osmo Vänskä, the Emerson String Quartet,
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the
Mark Morris Dance Group.
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Mostly
Mozart Festival, and the only U.S. chamber orchestra dedicated to the music
of the Classical period. Louis Langrée has been the Orchestra’s music director
since 2002, and each summer the ensemble’s Avery Fisher Hall home is transformed into an appropriately intimate venue for its performances. Over the
years, the Orchestra has toured to such notable festivals and venues as
Ravinia, Great Woods, Tanglewood, Bunkamura in Tokyo, and the Kennedy
Center. Conductors who made their New York debuts leading the Mostly
Mozart Festival Orchestra include Jérémie Rhorer, Edward Gardner, Lionel
Bringuier, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, David
Zinman, and Edo de Waart. Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, flutist James
33
Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists
Galway, soprano Elly Ameling, and pianist Mitsuko Uchida all made their U.S.
debuts with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles:
presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and
community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter
of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational
activities annually, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals, including
American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln
Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival,
and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award–winning Live From
Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln
Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center
complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion
campus renovation, completed in October 2012.
Lincoln Center Programming Department
Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director
Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming
Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming
Jill Sternheimer, Director, Public Programming
Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager
Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming
Claudia Norman, Producer, Public Programming
Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Julia Lin, Associate Producer
Nicole Cotton, Production Coordinator
Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director
Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor
Claire Raphaelson, House Seat Coordinator
Stepan Atamian, Theatrical Productions Intern; Annie Guo, Production Intern;
Grace Hertz, House Program Intern
Program Annotators:
Don Anderson, Peter A. Hoyt, Kathryn L. Libin, Paul Schiavo, David Wright
34
©JENNIFER TAYLOR 2014
Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Louis Langrée, Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director
Violin I
Ruggero Allifranchini,
Concertmaster
Robert Chausow
Katsuko Esaki
Amy Kauffman
Sophia Kessinger
Katherine LivolsiLandau
Lisa Matricardi
Michael Roth
Dorothy Strahl
Deborah Wong
Violin II
Laura Frautschi,
Principal
Martin Agee
Eva Burmeister
Michael Gillette
Nelly Kim
Kristina Musser
Ronald Oakland
Mineko Yajima
Viola
Shmuel Katz, Principal
Meena Bhasin
Danielle Farina
Chihiro Fukuda
Jack Rosenberg
Jessica Troy
Cello
Ilya Finkelshteyn,
Principal
Ted Ackerman
Ann Kim
Alvin McCall
Bass
Zachary Cohen,
Principal
Lou Kosma
Judith Sugarman
Flute
Jasmine Choi,
Principal
Tanya Dusevic Witek
Oboe
Randall Ellis, Principal
Nick Masterson
Clarinet
Jon Manasse,
Principal
Steve Hartman
Trumpet
Neil Balm, Principal
Lee Soper
Trombone
Richard Clark,
Principal
Demian Austin
Don Hayward,
Bass Trombone
Timpani
David Punto, Principal
Bassoon
Daniel Shelly, Principal
Tom Sefčovič
Harpsichord
Renee Louprette,
Principal
Horn
Lawrence DiBello,
Principal
Richard Hagen
Patrick Pridemore
Librarian
Michael McCoy
Personnel Managers
Neil Balm
Jonathan Haas
Gemini Music
Productions Ltd.
Get to know the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra musicians at MostlyMozart.org/MeetTheOrchestra
35

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