Program Notes

Concert Program for September 22, 23, 24, and 25, 2005

David Robertson, conductor
Dawn Upshaw, soprano
Saint Louis Symphony Chorus
Amy Kaiser, director

David Robertson is the Beofor Music Director and Conductor.
Dawn Upshaw is the Linda and Paul Lee Guest Artist.
The concert of Friday, September 23, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. Barry H. Beracha.
The concert of Saturday, September 24, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Dr. and Mrs. W. R. Konneker.
The Opening Weekend concerts are permanently endowed by Emerson.

A master of communication and an inspirational force both on and off the podium, American conductor David Robertson has been praised by the press as “that rare combination of passion and intellect that draws musicians and audiences.” This fall 2005, Mr. Robertson begins his tenure as the 12th Music Director of the 126-year-old Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and also assumes the title of Principal Guest Conductor of London’s BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Of special note this season are six appearances at Carnegie Hall where David Robertson is a Perspectives artist. The Perspectives Series includes four performances with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra: a November 18 Sound Insights concert “Seeing Debussy, Hearing Monet,” and a November 19 program featuring works by Mozart, Feldman, and Mahler, both of which take place in Stern Auditorium; a concert version of Jarrell’s Cassandre on March 31 in Zankel Hall, and an April 1 performance in Stern Auditorium with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus featuring John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls and Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem.

A recognized expert in 20th- and 21st-century music with extensive international conducting credits, Mr. Robertson has held several posts abroad. Prior to his Saint Louis Symphony appointment, Mr. Robertson was Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon and Artistic Director of that city’s auditorium, posts he held from 2000-04. His tenure there marked the first time that one artist held both musical posts in Lyon. From 1992-2000, he was Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, of which Pierre Boulez is Honorary President, and from 1985-1987, he was resident conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Santa Monica, California, Mr. Robertson was educated at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where he studied French horn and composition before turning to orchestral conducting. Musical America named him Conductor of the Year for 2000. In 1997, Mr. Robertson was named a recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, the premier prize of its kind, given to exceptionally gifted American conductors. He has two teenage sons and is married to pianist Orli Shaham.

Dawn Upshaw
Linda and Paul Lee Guest Artist

Dawn Upshaw’s ability to reach to the heart of music and text has earned her both the devotion of an exceptionally diverse audience, and the awards and distinctions accorded to only the most distinguished of artists.

Her acclaimed performances on the opera stage comprise the great Mozart roles (Pamina, Ilia, Susanna, Despina) as well as modern works by Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Messiaen. From Salzburg and Paris to the Metropolitan Opera, where she began her career in 1984 and has since made nearly 300 appearances, Dawn Upshaw has also championed numerous new works created for her including The Great Gatsby by John Harbison; L’Amour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho; John Adams’s nativity oratorio El Nino; and Osvaldo Golijov’s chamber opera Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre.

Ms. Upshaw opened the 2005-06 season at the Santa Fe Opera in a new Peter Sellars production of Ainadamar, which will be revived in January as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers festival “The Passion of Osvaldo Golijov.” The festival also features Ms. Upshaw in Ayre, which she tours in October with the instrumental ensemble Eighth Blackbird. She continues to Boston and Carnegie Hall with James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in performances of Lukas Foss’s Time Cycle. Other season highlights include guest appearances with Richard Goode at Carnegie Hall as part of the Perspectives Series; the world premiere of John Harbison’s Milosz Songs with the New York Philharmonic and Robert Spano; performances of John Adams’s El Nino at Walt Disney Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen; a first-time collaboration with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra; a European tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Richard Tognetti, and a US recital tour with pianist Gilbert Kalish.

Ms. Upshaw is a member of the faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center, and in 2006 begins an association with the Bard College Conservatory of Music for which she has designed a master’s degree program in the vocal arts. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, and raised in Park Forest, Illinois, she now lives near New York City with her husband and their two children.

One of the country’s leading choral directors, Amy Kaiser has conducted the Saint Louis Symphony in Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah, Schubert’s Mass in E flat, sacred works by Haydn and Mozart and Young People’s Concerts. She has made eight guest appearances with the Berkshire Choral Festival, most recently conducting Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Rossini’s Stabat Mater at Canterbury Cathedral. Other conducting engagements include concerts at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival and more than fifty performances with the Metropolitan Opera Guild. Principal Conductor of the New York Chamber Symphony’s School Concert Series for seven seasons, Ms. Kaiser also led many programs for the 92nd Street Y’s acclaimed Schubertiade and appeared as guest conductor with New York area orchestras. She has conducted over twenty-five operas, including eight contemporary premieres. Ms. Kaiser was also guest conductor for the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, Santa Fe Symphony, St. Louis Philharmonic and Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. In May she will serve as faculty for a choral/orchestral conducting workshop with Chorus America and the Philadelphia Singers.

Ms. Kaiser has prepared choruses for the New York Philharmonic, the Ravinia Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Opera Orchestra of New York. Former Music Director of the Dessoff Choirs and the Mannes Chamber Singers in New York, she also served on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music. An alumna of Smith College, she was awarded the Smith College Medal for outstanding professional achievement.

Saint Louis Symphony Chorus
Amy Kaiser Director Leon Burke III Assistant Director Gail Hintz Accompanist Richard Ashburner Manager Justin Abate Richard Ashburner Elizabeth M. Belle Rudi J. Bertrand Paula N. Bittle Amy Y. Bonn Michael Bouman Richard F. Boyd Katrina Bradley Pamela A. Branson Bonnie Brayshaw Daniel Brodsky Buron F. Buffkin, Jr. Radford Bunting Leon Burke III Irina Burrows Cherstin Byers Margaret Schelin Campbell Renee Carey Mark P. Cereghino Holly Lynn Chase Mary Clark Rhonda E. Collins Linda J. Cornell Tom Cosgrove Deborah Dawson Alycia Kathleann Davis Stephanie DeChambeau Diane Dietz Sue Ellen Drewer Krista Elliott Stanley Estrin Kathleen Favazza Jasmine Fazzari Ladd Faszold Robin Fish Steve Garcia	Lee Garner Fred Gaskin Tracey L. Gines Susan Goris Karen Sikora Gottschalk Susan Greene Jill Guyton Susan H. Hagen James Harkey Amanda Harr James O. Harr William Hart Nancy Helmich Brendan Hemmerle Christine Hemphill Ellen Henschen Gretchen Hewitt Jay Thomas Hewitt Jeffrey E. Heyl Kristi Hickey Brad Hofeditz Matthew S. Holt Mary Huebner Catherine Huggins Gregory Inman Grace E. Jackson Stephanie Jones Molly A. Kastory Warren Keller Robb Kennedy Lanette Kotthoff Norbert Krausz Leanne Magnuson Latuda Lauren Lee Sharon Lentz Sharon Lightfoot Christine Mahoney Jan Marra Laura Medendorp Amanda Meinen Carolyn Munch Shula Neuman Elsa Toby Newburger Rich Nolte Dylan Oakley Duane L. Olson Malachi Owens, Jr. Susan D. Patterson	Tafra Perryman Talya Renee’ Perry Katherine A. Phillips Daniel A. Pickett Paul Provencio, III Shelly Ragan Yvonne Raptis Shari Trekell Renken Robert Reed Kate Reimann Laura K. Reinert Dave Ressler Greg J. Riddle Patti Ruff Riggle Terree Rowbottom Marushka Royce Omid E. Safavi Susan Sampson Patricia Scanlon Mark V. Scharff Paula K. Schweitzer Kelly S. Shoop Lisa Sienkiewicz Derek M. Silkebaken John William Simon Glenn Slates Steven Slusher Roger Smalley Charles G. Smith Shirley Bynum Smith Charles Stapinski David Stephens Joel Stevenor Benna D. Stokes Denise Stookesberry John Paul Tate III Byron E. Thornton Pamela M. Triplett David R. Truman Nancy Maxwell Walther Jim West Jeni K. West Paul A. Williams Phillip Wolff Young Ok Woo Young Ran Woo Colonel Jeffrey S. Woolston Carlyn Zimmermann

Sound Events
BY PAUL SCHIAVO

Today’s orchestral repertory spans some three centuries of creativity and several major historical periods, each with its own distinctive style. Music from the classical period -- the era of Mozart and Haydn -- is notable for its refined eloquence, that of the romantic 19th century for its emotional intensity, that of the modern era for its originality and inventiveness.

We tend to think of music, like science or technology, as developing in a linear fashion, each generation of composers adding to the achievements of its predecessors, the palette of harmonies, instrumental colors, and other resources available to it growing ever more complex. But the reality is not so simple. Throughout music’s history, composers have reached back in time, appropriating ideas from the past and paying homage to earlier composers, even while creating work that is very much of their own era. As a result, we often find old and new, traditional and modern, mingling in individual compositions, much as these traits often do on concert programs as a whole.

Our concert presents music from the 18th and 20th centuries. But this description, although true enough, does not fully convey the wealth of temporal allusions and echoes embodied in this music. For each of the modern -- or perhaps, in some cases, post-modern -- works we hear contain strong echoes of earlier compositional idioms or even specific pieces. On this program, time -- at least as it is reckoned by music’s historical styles -- moves not so much in a linear as in a fluid, serpentine fashion.

A mingling of old and new musical thought is especially conspicuous in the composition that opens our program. Chorale Variations on “Vom Himmel hoch” is really the work of two composers living two centuries apart. It has its genesis in a set of five organ chorale‑preludes written by J. S. Bach in 1747. Each piece in the set is based on Martin Luther’s Christmas hymn “Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ich her.” Around this melody Bach spun ornate countermelodies in imitative counterpoint to create his five chorale-preludes, which together constitute a kind of elaborate set of variations on Luther’s hymn. In February 1956, Igor Stravinsky arranged Bach’s organ music for chorus and orchestra, in which form we hear it now.

Stravinsky prefaces the five variations with a presentation by the brass instruments of the chorale melody itself. This initial statement is as faithful a transcription of Bach as Stravinsky will offer throughout the work. Each of the ensuing five variations preserves the outline of the older composer’s music but varies the harmonies, subtly alters rhythms, and adds inner melodies. Moreover, Stravinsky’s instrumentation changes the entire character of the work, providing a variety of colors, textures, and registrations beyond the reach of Bach’s organ. Particularly characteristic is Stravinsky’s staccato articulation for many of the melodic lines. But the most conspicuous feature of this arrangement is the addition of the chorus, which is assigned the chorale theme beginning with the second variation. The voices add a human element to what might otherwise seem a somewhat abstract exercise, reminding us that the learned contrapuntal discourse arises from the singing of a humble carol.

Leaving 18th-century music refracted through a modernist prism, as it were, we move to unaltered work from one of the great musicians of that century, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. From his Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339, we hear the aria “Laudate dominum.” Mozart composed the Vesperae solennes de confessore in 1780. Despite its title, this work is more majestic than solemn in character, and the vocal writing frequently is operatic in character. But Mozart creates intimate moments also, nowhere more so than in the celestial soprano aria we hear now, a song of praise intoned over the gentlest orchestral accompaniment.

By contrast, the concert aria “Bella mia fiamma… Resta, o cara,” is a scena, a dramatic recitative-and-aria typical of a certain style of opera in Mozart’s day. The text is from a drama entitled Cyrere placata, which indeed served as an opera libretto for at least one other composer. In the drama the hero Titano has angered the goddess Ceres (the Roman equivalent of the better-known Greek deity Demeter) by eloping with her daughter, Prosperina. For this affront, Ceres punishes Titano with distant exile -- prompting, of course, a song of anguished farewell, in which the protagonist equates separation from his lover with death. Removed from its original context, the verses express sentiments that might be voiced by a woman as well as a man, and Mozart wrote this aria for an accomplished soprano who was also a good friend. His prefatory recitative establishes a plaintive tone and prepares the aria that follows. The latter is in two parts: an Andante marked by intense chromatic inflections of melody and harmony, and an animated Allegro.

With the Canadian composer Claude Vivier, we return to more recent time, but also to a musical syntax redolent of ancient practice. Born in Montreal in 1948, Vivier studied at the Montreal Conservatory and subsequently in Europe. After returning to Canada and teaching for several years, he undertook a long trip to Asia and the Middle East. Afterward he observed: “I realize that this journey was, above all, one of self-discovery.” Specifically, Vivier’s sojourns in Japan, Bali, and Iran confirmed his growing dissatisfaction with the highly cerebral nature of much recent Western composition, and he increasingly began to write in a manner influenced by the Asian music he encountered during his travels.

That influence was, however, filtered through a remarkable sonic imagination. Although Vivier wrote melodies hinting at exotic chant and modal harmonies that recall those of Eastern or medieval composers, his music could never be mistaken for any traditional kind -- nor, indeed, for that of any other recent composer. Its instrumental colors are quite unique, and Vivier often expanded his harmonic palette with additional tones derived from the natural overtone series, thereby creating sounds that seem at once modern and primeval. He also took to setting vocal texts written in a language of his own invention. The result now appears to be one of the more original bodies of composition created during the late 20th century. Although its concern with chant-like melody and its intimations of an otherworldly spirituality resonate with the music of recently fashionable composers such as Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Olivier Messiaen, Vivier’s work is distinctive. Often it seems to be music of some strange and previously unknown culture.

Vivier’s Lonely Child, written in 1980, is essentially a cantata for soprano and orchestra. Because its text is indecipherable, we cannot say with certainty what, specifically, the piece is about or to what its title refers. We can note, however, that Vivier was given up for adoption at age three and grew up in a series of orphanages. Although the composer may well be the lonely child of the work’s title, this doesn’t sound anything like an autobiographical composition. Still less is there any trace of self-pity or sentimentality about the music. Instead, Vivier gives us sounds that seem ritualistic in nature. The simultaneous stroke of bass drum and bell produces a gong-like sonority that opens the piece and punctuates it repeatedly as it unfolds. The vocal line intimates chanting, whereas the harmonies, particularly at the start, use drones and the most elemental note combinations (the intervals of the fifth and octave). All this imparts a timeless or perhaps ancient character to the music, a character that cannot be dispelled by the eventual complications that arise. The piece moves in a long, seamless arc from simplicity to more complex sound events and back again.

Like Vivier, but with very different results, the American composer John Adams broke, early in his career, from the arcane procedures for writing atonal music that characterized academic modernism in the 1950s and 60s. Initially drawn to the techniques of a group of American outsiders whose style became known, by analogy, with trends in painting and sculpture, as “minimalism,” Adams evolved steadily during the 1980s and 90s, developing an idiom that combined repeating motifs, rhythmic pulsation, and static or slow-moving harmonies -- all signature minimalist devices -- with colorful orchestration, a wide range of expressive nuance, and a rich harmonic vocabulary. He thereby created what some commentators have described as a “post-minimalist” style, one that has proven complex, flexible, and fertile. Its rhythmic vitality marks it as contemporary American; its harmonic language entails echoes of the romantic era.

That last trait is particularly evident in Harmonielehre, composed in 1984-85. Its title means “treatise on harmony” and derives from a famous book of the same name by the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. In his late work, Schoenberg became an apostle of the sort of atonal modernity that once alienated many listeners from new music. But his early compositions belong to the twilight of Romanticism, with its lush, expressive, and sometimes tantalizingly ambiguous harmonic palette. It is that harmonic language, current around the start of the 20th century, which Adams set out to reclaim in Harmonielehre. “It is a large, three-movement work for orchestra that marries the developmental techniques of minimalism with the harmonic and expressive world of fin de siècle Romanticism,” the composer observes of this piece. “The shades of Mahler, Sibelius, Debussy, and the young Schoenberg are everywhere….”

The opening movement begins with pounding chords and pulsating figures in the classic minimalist manner before turning to more lyrical expression in a long central episode. A brief reprise of the opening material rounds off this initial portion of the work. Adams explains that he was intently studying the writings of C. G. Jung at the time he composed Harmonielehre and was particularly impressed by the psychologist’s discussion of the legend of King Anfortas and his wound that will not heal. The second movement captures the melancholy spirit of the Anfortas story. As for the finale, its title derives, Adams explains, from a dream in which he imagined his infant daughter, then called “Quackie,” floating in the heavens while perched on the shoulders of the medieval mystic Meister Eckhardt. This movement opens, appropriately, with a cradle song but gathers energy and momentum as it builds to a climactic conclusion.

Texts:

Chorale Variations, “Vom Himmel hoch”

Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her,
Ich bring euch gute neue Mär;
Der guten Mär bring ich so viel,
Davon ich singn und sagen will.

From heaven above to earth I come
To bear good news to every home;
Glad tidings of great joy I bring,
Whereof I now will speak and sing.

“Laudate dominum”

Laudate Dominum omnes gentes: laudate eum omnes populi.
Quoniam confirmata est super nos misericordia ejus:
et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise Him, all ye people.
For His mercy is confirmed upon us: and the truth of the Lord remaineth for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“Bella mia fiamma . . . Resta, o cara”

Recitative
Bella mia fiamma, addio!
Non piacque al cielo di renderci felici.
Ecco reciso, prima d’esser compito,
quel purissimo nodo, che strinsero
fra lor gli animi nostril con il solo voler.
Vivi: cedi al destin, cedi al dovere.
Dalla giurata fede la mia morte t’assolve.
A più degno consorte -- O pene! --
unita vivi più lieta e più felice vita.
Ricordati di me; ma non mai turbi
d’un felice sposola rara rimembranza
il tuo riposo.
Regina, io vado ad ubbidirti --
ah, tutto finisca il mio furor
col morir mio.
Cerere, Alfeo, diletta sposa, addio!

Recitative
Light of my life, farewell!
Heaven did not intend our happiness.
Snapped before the knot was tied
were those pure strands that bound
our spirits in a single will.
Live: Yield to fate and to your duty.
My death absolves you from your promise.
United to a more worthy consort – O grief! –
you will have a happier, a more joyous life.
Remember me; but never let stray thoughts of an unhappy lover
disturb your rest.
My queen, I go in obedience to your -- will
ah, let death put an end
to my raving.
Ceres, Alpheus, beloved heart, farewell!

Aria
Resta, o cara,
acerba morte mi separa,
oh Dio! da te.
Prendi cura di sua sorte,
consolarla almen procura.
Vado . . . ahi lasso! addio,
addio per sempre.
Quest’affanno, questo passo
è terribile per me.
Ah! Dov’è il tempio, dov’è l’ara?
Vieni, affretta la vendetta!
Questa vita così amara
più soffribile non è.

Aria
Stay, dear heart,
cruel death wrests me –
O God! -- from you.
Look after her,
Comfort her at last.
I go… alas! Farewell,
Farewell for evermore.
This pain, this step
is hard for me to bear.
Ah! Where is the temple, where is the altar?
Come, let revenge be swift!
Dear heart, farewell forever!
A life as bitter as this
can be borne no longer.