CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 8:00 PM

Pre-concert talk starts at 7:00 PM in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage with Steven Mackey and Walter Frisch, Professor of Music, Columbia University.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop, Music Director and Conductor
Colin Currie, Percussion

R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
STEVEN MACKEY Time Release (NY Premiere)

DEBUSSY Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
STRAVINSKY Firebird Suite (1919 version)

Encore:
HINDEMITH Ragtime

Program Notes:

By Janet E. Bedell

RICHARD STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Op. 28
Born June 11, 1964, in Munich; died September 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Composed in 1894–95, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks was first performed in Cologne on November 5 of that year with the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne conducted by Franz Wüllner; it received its Carnegie Hall premiere on December 14, 1899, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Wilhelm Gericke.

Scoring: 4 flutes, piccolo, 4 oboes, English horn, 4 clarinets, bass clarinet, D clarinet, 4 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani and other percussion, and strings.

In 1894–95, a legendary anti-hero seized Richard Strauss’s imagination: the peasant rogue Till Eulenspiegel. The real Till lived in 14th-century Brunswick, Germany, and died in his bed, some say of the Black Fever. Many stories sprang up about him in the following centuries; Strauss had read the Belgian Charles de Coster’s 1865 version and had seen a recent opera on the subject. Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, After the Old Rogue’s Tale, Set in Rondo Form for Large Orchestra—to give the composer’s unwieldy full title—premiered in Cologne on November 5, 1895 and has been celebrated ever since for its exuberant character delineation and orchestral wizardry.

Till is a true folk hero: a crafty, quick-witted peasant who delights in making fools of the rich, learned, and powerful. Strauss gave his career a new ending: death on the gallows. But that was not because he loved the character less; he simply loved a dramatic ending more.

After a “once-upon-a-time” string opening, Till’s major theme is introduced: a mocking horn theme, repeated by other woodwind instruments. Till’s own instrument, the small, squeaky-toned clarinet in D, soon enters with the shorthand version of his theme: a quick down-and-up flip. Till rides pell-mell through the marketplace on a (presumably stolen) horse, masquerades as a priest with an unctuously pious viola tune, has a little love scene (solo violin), and other adventures; the music graphically portrays his narrow escapes and cackling laughter. But at the height of his deviltry, with his themes running riot in the orchestra, the law closes in. With an ominous drum roll and heavy blasts of horns and trombones, his judges pronounce the death sentence, while the Till clarinet squeaks his defense. Till’s body soars upward on the gallows. But Strauss provides a happy epilogue: a reprise of the once-upon-a-time opening music and a last laugh from Till’s irrepressible spirit.


STEVEN MACKEY Time Release
Born February 14, 1956, in Frankfurt, Germany.

Composed in 2005, Time Release was first performed in The Hague on September 17 of that year with Colin Currie, percussion, and the Residentie Orkest conducted by Clark Rundell; the work receives its New York premiere tonight.

Scoring: 2 flutes (first doubling alto flute, second doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (second doubling English horn), 2 clarinets (second doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, percussion (timpani, marimba, glockenspiel, cowbells, Peking opera gong, cymbals, kick drum, samba whistle, flexatone, ride cymbal, vibraslap, crotales), and strings.

Set in three movements, Time Release is not a concerto in the traditional manner. There is no sense of strife or competition between soloist and orchestra, nor is the orchestra merely a discreet accompanist. Instead, soloist and orchestra are true collaborators, with the orchestral instruments enhancing, elaborating and amplifying the melodic figures, rhythms and, especially, the colors created by the marimba.

In his commentary, Steven Mackey describes the marimba’s unique characteristics and why he chose the title “Time Release”:

“When struck, a marimba note pretty much has its life mapped out for it. Call it destiny: the note will bloom, decay, and die relatively quickly in a predetermined timeline. Notes played by the rest of the instruments in the orchestra have much more self-determination about how and when the sound is released. This puts the marimba at a disadvantage as a melodic voice, which is a shame because its tone, although short-lived, is distinctive and soulful.

“The evolution of the marimba as a mature melodic voice is a thread through Time Release. The marimba ornaments and embellishes the material of the orchestra in the first movement. It takes a more thematic role in the first part of the second movement with agile riffs and runs that are more rhetorical than melodic. Midway into the second movement, the marimba introduces a jaunty tune, and the third movement is all about melody. It is a melody with wide leaps and angular contours, yet with an ambling, folk-music character suited to the marimba’s cultural heritage.

“In order to connect the sound of the marimba to the orchestra, the orchestra imitates the marimba’s ‘poing’ by consistently combining a short note with a long note. The two notes together give the attack a particular character, but one note is released immediately, leaving the other plenty of unfettered time to attend to its linear and harmonic responsibilities. This is most explicit in the first movement and finds other more abstracted resonances in subsequent movements. For example, the trumpet fanfare at the beginning of the second movement leaves a lingering, high, soft string sonority in its wake.

“My preoccupations with the molecular level of the marimba sound led me to compose a piece that is not really about the marimba but rather about musical lines, shapes, activities, and the expressive potential they have for a listener. Colin and I both wanted our collaboration to result in a music that cast the soloist in a leading role, but also kept the musical story front and center. As old-fashioned as it might sound, I kept thinking of my favorite Mozart piano concertos and how the music is not a vehicle for the instrument but rather the two are merged so that my primary awareness is how the music sings.”


CLAUDE DEBUSSY Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Born August 22, 1862, in St. Germain-en-Laye, France; died March 25, 1918, in Paris.

Composed between 1892 and 1894, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, was first performed on December 22 of that year by the Société Nationale de la Musique conducted by Gustave Doret; it received its Carnegie Hall premiere on November 12, 1905, with the New York Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Damrosch.

Scoring: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 harps, antique cymbals, and strings.

Published until 1876, Mallarmé’s poem The Afternoon of a Faun follows the amorous adventures of a faun—the cloven-hoofed demigod of Greek mythology also known as a satyr—on a sultry summer afternoon. However, the poem leaves purposefully vague whether the faun’s pursuit and capture of two nymphs is real or only a languid dream.

Both the sensual imagery and the vagueness meshed with Debussy’s own ideals, and his musical paraphrase of the poem, became his first orchestral masterpiece. He described it as “a series of scenes against which the desires and dreams of the faun are seen to stir in the afternoon heat.”

To appreciate how novel Debussy’s soundscape was, compare this work with two almost contemporary pieces, Dvoøák’s “New World” Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony. In both, strings dominate the orchestra, brass peal out, and the timpani crashes in fortissimo climaxes. But in his Afternoon of a Faun, Debussy banished both brass and timpani and de-emphasized the strings. Instead, the plangent tones of woodwinds dominate his moderate-sized orchestra, led by the solo flute as the faun’s own instrument. His most luxurious addition is two harps, providing a shimmering accompaniment to the wind solos, and his most exotic, the delicate, bell-like antique cymbals that ring softly at the end. The sounds of these instruments are deployed with the utmost subtlety, and no big climaxes are permitted.

To his new sound palette Debussy added other radical features: free harmonic movement not dictated by the Classical rules of tonality and the supplest use of rhythm in which time flows rather than beats. All the work’s thematic material is derived from the flute’s opening melody: a lazy chromatic slither that captures both the heat of the afternoon and the faun’s desire.


IGOR STRAVINSKY The Firebird Suite (1919)
Born June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), Russia; died April 6, 1971, in New York.

Originally composed in 1910, The Firebird was revised twice, in 1919 and again in 1945. The first performance of the 1919 version took place on April 12 of that year in Geneva, conducted by Ernest Ansermet; this version received its US premiere at Carnegie Hall on February 10, 1921, with the New York Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Damrosch.

Scoring: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, piano, celeste (optional), bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, triangle, xylophone, and strings.

The Firebird is a beloved creature in Russian folklore, and she corresponds to the Phoenix in classical mythology as a symbol of rebirth. The Russian folklorist Afasyev describes her thus: “The feathers of the Firebird are effulgent with silver and gold . . . her eyes shine like crystal, and she sits in a golden cage. At darkest midnight, she flies into the garden and lights it as brightly as if with a thousand burning bonfires.” Just one of her tail feathers holds such magical power that “it is worth more than a kingdom.” The scenario of Diaghilev’s ballet combines the Firebird with the legends of the evil ogre Kashchei the Deathless One, and the captive princesses (familiar to us as the Grimm Brothers’ tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses).

In tonight’s concert, we will hear the 20-minute suite Stravinsky drew from his 45-minute complete ballet score.

In the murky and mysterious Introduction, Stravinsky conjures the dangerous realm of Kashchei’s castle with ominous scales in muted low strings and menacing trombone snarls. Soon we hear the eerie sound of the Firebird’s wings—an effect created by the strings playing natural harmonics. Prince Ivan climbs over the castle wall to try to capture her. He briefly succeeds in The Firebird’s Dance and Variations, glinting with darting rhythms and prismatic, lighter-than-air colors from high woodwinds. The Firebird escapes, but leaves the Prince with one of her magical feathers.

More earthbound is the Round Dance of the Princesses, who are ordinary mortals and captives of Kashchei. They dance a traditional Russian khorovode or female round dance, and the Prince falls in love with the most beautiful of them.

Next comes the stunning Infernal Dance of King Kashchei; Stravinsky’s rhythmic vitality is on display in this brutal dance built from syncopations.

In the nick of time, Prince Ivan remembers the magic tail feather and summons the Firebird. She forces Kashchei and his minions to dance until they drop in exhaustion. Lulling them to sleep with the rocking Berceuse or lullaby, led by solo bassoon, the Firebird tells the Prince that Kashchei’s soul lives in a buried egg; if he can crush that, he will kill the ogre and break the spell that binds the princesses. The Prince accomplishes this and in the majestic Finale weds his Princess. Its melody, introduced by solo horn, is another authentic Russian folk song. The melody spreads through the orchestra, and the ballet ends in a blaze of bell-tolling Russian splendor.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop, Music Director and Conductor
Marin Alsop recently made history with her appointment as 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony, beginning with the 2007–2008 season. She is the first woman to head a major American orchestra, which mirrors her ongoing success in the United Kingdom as principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony since 2002. In summer 2005, she was named a MacArthur Fellow, the first conductor ever to receive this most prestigious American award. The first artist to win Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Conductor’s Award in the same season (2003), Ms. Alsop also won the Classical Brit Award for Best Female Artist of 2005. In July 2007, she was honored with a European Women of Achievement Award.

Ms. Alsop is a regular guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She also appears frequently as a guest conductor with many distinguished orchestras worldwide. After a highly successful 12-year tenure as music director of the Colorado Symphony, Ms. Alsop continues her association as conductor laureate; she also continues as music director of the acclaimed Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California.

Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. In 1989, her conducting career was launched when she became a prizewinner at the Leopold Stokowski International Conducting Competition in New York. In the same year, she was awarded the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and Gustav Meier.

For more information, go to marinalsop.com and BSOmusic.org.

Colin Currie, Percussion
Percussionist Colin Currie has established a unique reputation for his charismatic and virtuosic performances of works by today’s leading composers, and has already appeared with many of the world’s most famous orchestras. Regularly commissioning and recording new works, he has made an inspirational and innovative contribution to the percussion repertoire. He is currently Visiting Professor of Solo Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

At the age of 15 Colin Currie won the Shell/LSO prize, and subsequently was the first percussion finalist in the BBC Young Musician competition. He was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in 2002 and was a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award winner in 2005. Mr. Currie was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist from 2003 to 2005, and as part of the scheme performed a variety of concerto and recital engagements with the BBC orchestras.

An active chamber musician, Mr. Currie has collaborated with artists such as the Labèque sisters, Petersen Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, Viktoria Mullova, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Josh Bell, Steven Isserlis, Barnabás Kelemen, Peter Erskine, Kenny Wheeler, and John Taylor.