CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
The Philadelphia Orchestra

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 8:00 PM

“Sir Simon Rattle is an absolute genius.”—Bristol Evening Post

This concert piece is so theatrical it’s been staged as an opera. Because Berlioz wrote such vivid music, you won’t need any staging to see—in your imagination—the ambitions Faust, the sardonic devil mocking him, and dramatic dreams and visions that take you all the way to heaven above.

Pre-concert talk starts at 7:00 PM in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage with Jeremy Geffen, Director of Artistic Planning, Carnegie Hall.

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor
Magdalena Kožená, Mezzo-Soprano (Marguerite)
Gregory Kunde, Tenor (Faust)
Eric Owens, Bass-Baritone (Brander)
Thomas Quasthoff, Bass-Baritone (Mephistopheles)
The Philadelphia Singers Chorale
David Hayes, Director

BERLIOZ La damnation de Faust

The Trustees of Carnegie Hall gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Jean Stein, whose contribution honors the memory of Edward W. Said and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

Program Notes:

HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803–1869)
La damnation de Faust, Op. 24
Berlioz’s literary passions emerged early and ran deep. To be sure, many of his greatest musical predecessors had also been mightily inspired by literature, but their principal aesthetic influences invariably came from other composers. Berlioz, on the other hand, awakened to the world of art through reading, and eventually became a distinguished writer himself. The study of Latin, particularly of Virgil’s Aeneid, profoundly touched the young boy: “It was Virgil who first found the way to my heart and fired my nascent imagination,” Berlioz wrote in his marvelously engaging memoirs. Shakespeare would emerge later as an even more powerful force, and Goethe as yet another. By age 24 Berlioz would proclaim: “Shakespeare and Goethe, the silent confidants of my torments, they hold the key to my life.”

At this same time he fell under the spell of an overpowering musical force. Beethoven’s symphonies were being unveiled in Paris and opened a new sonorous world to the young composer. It was later that year, 1828, that Berlioz started to compose music based on Goethe’s Faust, which he knew in a new translation by Gérald de Nerval. He became obsessed with it: “This translation made a strange and deep impression upon me. The marvelous book fascinated me from the first. I could not put it down. I read it incessantly, at meals, at the theater, in the street, wherever I happened to be.”

The result was Eight Scenes from Faust, an ambitious work scored for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. The eight vocal numbers set some of the best known parts of the play, the parts that even in Nerval’s prose translation were cast in verse, including Brander’s “Song of the Rat,” Mephistopheles’s “Song of the Flea,” and Marguerite’s ballad “The King of Thule.” Berlioz had the work published at his own expense as his Op. 1, but quickly regretted the decision. He tried to retrieve all the extant copies he could find in order to destroy them. To erase the memory even further he later designated his Waverley Overture as his Op. 1.

Fast forward more than 15 years, to 1845, when Berlioz, now in his early 40s, again took up the Faust thread. He in fact incorporated all eight of the disowned earlier scenes, revised now to various degrees, and integrated them into a seamless and miraculously innovative new work. One of the remarkable features of The Damnation of Faust is that Berlioz so successfully combined some of his very earliest music, music he had decisively rejected, with a fully mature style.

Berlioz composed most of the new music, which accounts for the bulk of the final score, while on an extended concert tour in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Czech lands. He continued to draw from Nerval’s translation, supplemented with some verses by the journalist Almire Gandonnière, but in the end he wrote much of the libretto himself. By the end of March 1846, he wrote to his sister: “I have worked a great deal on a concert opera in four acts, for which I have had to wrote nearly half the words (as the libretto was not finished when I left Paris) and which is called La damnation de Faust.” While touring he wrote another piece that he ultimately decided to incorporate: a March hongroise based on a national theme that was meant to ingratiate himself with audiences in Hungary.

Once begun, the piece came quickly. Berlioz relates in his memoirs that he “composed the score with an ease such as I have very rarely experienced with any of my other works. I wrote it when and where I could: in coaches, in trains, on steamboats, even in the towns that I visited.” There is every reason to believe that Berlioz identified with the title character. Many of his works are deeply autobiographical, beginning with the Symphonie fantastique, in which aspects of his obsessive love life were displayed for all to see and hear. The pain of loves desired and lost, the search for knowledge, the melancholy of a creative soul—all these themes come out in The Damnation of Faust.

Berlioz completed Faust in the fall of 1846 in Paris, where it premiered at the Opéra-Comique in December. He had hoped to unveil it at the more prestigious Paris Opéra, but when that did not pan out he had to use the smaller theater, which meant charging higher ticket prices. The premiere featured some 200 musicians, including the formidable tenor Gustave Roger singing the title role. The critics and public apparently received the work warmly enough, but the event was far from the great triumph Berlioz had hoped for, and he lost a great deal of money on the venture. A second performance two weeks later was poorly attended. In his memoirs he painted a grim picture: “Nothing in my career as an artist wounded me more deeply than this unexpected indifference.”

The principal reason for this relative failure was the hybrid nature of the work. Audiences most wanted to see and hear opera—with famous singers, alluring dancers, elaborate sets, and extravagant costumes—and Berlioz gave them something else. He specialized in mixing genres. His earlier symphonies had all challenged expectations—the Symphonie fantastique with its weird program, Harold in Italy by being just as much a concerto, and Romeo and Juliet through its use of soloists and chorus that verged on the oratorio. In the manuscript for The Damnation of Faust Berlioz originally designated the work an opéra de concert, which he later changed to “Dramatic Legend in Four Parts.” In correspondence and other writings, however, he repeatedly used the earlier opéra de concert label. The work has a clear narrative and has been rather frequently staged successfully—the Metropolitan Opera unveiled a new production earlier this season.

Berlioz considered turning Faust into an opera for London performances in 1848 and corresponded with the celebrated librettist Eugène Scribe about how to expand the piece, now to be called Méphistophélès, by about 45 minutes. The impresario involved, however, went bankrupt and the project got no further. In the end, the published score does include some detailed stage directions, but these are meant as an aid to the mind’s eye and not intended for actual realizations.

After the dispiriting Paris premiere Berlioz refused to have the work performed again in France, although it became a staple in his foreign travels. Only in the 1870s, some years after his death, did Faust emerge as a hit in the French capital. Despite the more welcoming reactions abroad, some German critics objected to Berlioz’s considerable departures from Goethe. He answered them in the preface to the score when it was finally published in 1854. (It carried a dedication to his great advocate Franz Liszt—who in turn dedicated his own Faust Symphony to Berlioz a few years later.) Berlioz confesses:

The title alone of this work shows that it is not based on the main idea of Goethe’s Faust, since in the celebrated poem Faust is saved. The author of La damnation de Faust has merely borrowed from Goethe a few scenes, which could be included in the plan he had sketched out and whose fascination for him proved irresistible.

He goes on to argue that if composers were barred from using great literature as the basis for their works, then some of the most magnificent operas by Gluck, Mozart, and Rossini would never have been written, not to mention the great flood of music that stems from Shakespeare. In conclusion, Berlioz offered a more personal testimony, saying that it is painful “to find himself accused of infidelity to the religion of his whole life, and of being lacking, even indirectly, in the respect due to genius.”

A defense Berlioz does not offer, since he came so early to Goethe’s Faust, was that he was in good company. The work inspired many of the greatest composers of the century, from brief excerpts set by Schubert (including his first masterpiece, the song “Gretchen am Spinnrade”), to an overture by Wagner, an oratorio by Schumann, symphonies by Liszt and Mahler, and successful operas by Spohr (the lone acknowledged precursor), Gounod, Boito, and others.

Like most musical adaptations (Mahler excepted), Berlioz draws from Part I of Goethe’s complex play. He fashioned a narrative that traces key moments in Faust’s story. Part I is set in the Plains of Hungary. As the composer well knew, there is no authority for this in Goethe and the setting particularly offended German critics. Berlioz offered an explanation in his preface: “It has been asked by many: why does the author send his hero to Hungary? The answer is simply because he wished to introduce a composition, the theme of which is Hungarian. This he does not hesitate to admit openly; and he would have sent him anywhere else, had any other musical motive induced him to do so. Did not Goethe himself, in the second part of Faust, take his hero to Sparta, into the palace of Menelaus?” The piece that he wished to include was, of course, the so-called “Rákóczy” March that had proved so successful on his recent tour of Hungary. But before that marvelous March, the piece opens, without an overture, as the solitary Faust welcomes the coming of spring. In the distance he hears a “Peasant’s Round-Dance” and then the advance of soldiers marching off to battle. Faust wants nothing to do with anyone.

Part II takes place in North Germany, opening with Faust alone in his study contemplating suicide. As he is about to drink a cup of poison he hears the pealing bells of a nearby church and a chorus singing an Easter hymn—“Christ is Risen!”—that brings back fond memories of childhood and gives him peace. Suddenly (Berlioz captures the surprise orchestrally), Mephistopheles appears to mock Faust’s newly found faith. The devil offers him everything, the fulfillment of all his dreams: “Come, we’ll get to know life, and leave behind your useless philosophy.” The two are instantly transported to Auerbach’s Cellar in Leipzig. One of the merry drinkers, Brander, sings a song about a poisoned rat, which elicits a wonderfully parodic fugal “Amen” from the pub crawlers. Mephistopheles counters with his song about a flea. The scene next shifts to the Woods and Meadows on the Banks of the Elbe, where Faust dreams of gnomes and sylphs, who serenade him with a chorus. The sylphs dance around the sleeping Faust. He dreams for the first time of Marguerite and, when he awakens, pleads with his devilish guide to take him to her. In the Finale to this part the two join with students and soldiers who are heading off to the city in search of love. The former sing a student song based in part on “Gaudeamus igitur” in Latin (2/4 meter), as the latter sing their own song in French (6/8 meter). Berlioz magnificently caps off the scene with the two songs coming together in a contrapuntal tour-de-force.

Part III opens In Marguerite’s Room, where Faust hides himself to observe his beloved and sings an aria about the happiness of being in her presence. Marguerite enters, and she, too, has been dreaming, in her case of a future love. This leads her to sing a “Gothic song” about the King of Thule, who forever remained true to his lost love. Mephistopheles now calls upon the Will-o’-the-Wisps to assist him in bewitching the young girl. They dance bizarrely around Marguerite’s house as the devil sings a serenade to lure her into Faust’s “open arms.” Faust reveals himself—the couple meet all too briefly for a love duet before Mephistopheles enters to spirit Faust away.

Part IV also begins in Marguerite’s room as she sings a romance about Faust. Soldiers are heard in the distance, but Faust does not return. He is alone, off once again in the plains, invoking nature. Mephistopheles arrives to say that Marguerite is in prison charged with killing her mother. The distraught Faust agrees to sign a pact to serve the devil if Marguerite is saved. Mounting two black horses they gallop through a nightmarish landscape that leads Faust to the abyss—we hear the chorus sing the infernal language of Pandemonium. Mephistopheles is victorious as the celestial spirits welcome the saved Marguerite into heaven.

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Christopher H. Gibbs is James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Music at Bard College, Co-Artistic Director of the Bard Music Festival, and Associate Editor of the Musical Quarterly. He is the author of The Life of Schubert and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Schubert and Franz Liszt and his World.

Program notes © 2009. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor
Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Currently Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he is also a principal artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and founding patron of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Between 1980 and 1998, he was principal conductor and artistic adviser and, later, music director, of the City of Birmingham Symphony. Mr. Rattle has conducted leading orchestras in London, Europe, and the US, and he has led opera productions at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Netherlands Opera, English National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, among others. He is currently conducting Wagner’s complete Ring cycle with the Berliner Philharmoniker for the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Salzburg Easter Festival, of which he is Artistic Director. His forthcoming opera appearances include productions in Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, and North America.

Highlights of Mr. Rattle’s recent seasons have included Carnegie Hall’s Berlin in Lights Festival with the Berliner Philharmoniker; appearances with the Vienna Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; and concerts in Liverpool with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, as part of the city’s celebrations as the 2008 European Capital of Culture.

An exclusive EMI artist, Mr. Rattle has made over 70 recordings for the label. His most recent releases are Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. Mr. Rattle’s other recordings include a Mahler symphonies cycle with the City of Birmingham Symphony and the complete Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Mr. Rattle was knighted in 1994 by the Queen of England, and has received many other distinctions, including the Shakespeare Prize by the Toepfer Foundation in Hamburg, the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, the 2004 Comenius Prize, the Schiller Special Prize from the City of Mannheim, the Golden Camera, and the Urania Medal in Spring 2007. He and the Berliner Philharmoniker were also appointed International UNICEF Ambassadors, the first time this honor has been conferred on an artistic ensemble.

Magdalena Kožená, Mezzo-Soprano (Marguerite)
Magdalena Kožená has appeared with orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.

Ms. Kožená’s recital appearances have taken her to London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Hamburg, Lisbon, Prague, Copenhagen, Tokyo, San Francisco, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall. She has also appeared at the Munich, Salzburg, Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Aldeburgh, and Edinburgh festivals. Ms. Kožená’s operatic engagements have included Gluck’s Orphée in Paris, Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in Vienna, Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande in Paris and at the Deutsche Staatsoper, Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in Aix-en-Provence and Munich, and Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Amsterdam. She has also appeared at the Metropolitan Opera and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Ms. Kožená is an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist. Her first solo recital disc of Dvořák, Janáček, and Martinů won the 2001 Gramophone Solo Vocal Award. Her recent recordings include Mozart, Gluck, and Mysliveček arias with the Prague Philharmonia and Michel Swierczewski; French arias with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Mr. Minkowski; Gluck’s Paride ed Elena with the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh; a recital with pianist Malcom Martineau; Lamento, a disc of cantatas by members of the Bach family with Musica Antiqua Köln and Reinhard Goebel; a Mozart album with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Simon Rattle; and a Handel disc with the Venice Baroque and Andrea Marcon. She was the 2004 Gramophone Awards Artist of the Year.

Ms. Kožená was born in Brno and studied at the Brno Conservatory and the College of Performing Arts in Bratislava. She was awarded several major prizes in both the Czech Republic and internationally, including the Sixth International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995. In 2003 she was awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.

Gregory Kunde, Tenor (Faust)
Gregory Kunde has earned acclaim for his performances of the tenor roles of the French and Italian bel canto operas. His recent engagements include appearances in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust in Sydney and with the Dallas and San Francisco symphonies; Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia in Cagliari; concert performances of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory at Amsterdam’s Concertgebow; Elvino in Bellini’s La sonnambula for Baltimore Opera; Idreno in Rossini’s Semiramide at the Théâtre du Champs-Elysées; Arturo in Bellini’s I Puritani at the Metropolitan Opera; and the title role in Rossini’s Otello at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.

Mr. Kunde has performed with Orchestra Radio France, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Opera Orchestra of New York. He has also appeared at opera venues including Paris’s Opéra Comique and Bastille, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Santa Fe Opera, and in Rome, Madrid, Toulouse, Vienna, Athens, Montreal, Zurich, Tokyo, and Verona, among others. Mr. Kunde has collaborated with conductors and directors including Richard Bonynge, Giancarlo del Monaco, Riccardo Muti, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Claudio Scimone, John Eliot Gardiner, Charles Dutoit, and Alberto Zedda.

Mr. Kunde’s discography includes Bellini’s Bianca e Fernando on the Nuova Era label; Semiramide for the BMG Ricordi label; Rossini’s Armida for Sony; Thomas’s Hamlet on EMI; Di tanti palpiti, a live concert recording, for BMG Ricordi; Delibes’s Lakmé for EMI; Strauss’s Capriccio for Forlane; a DVD of Berlioz’s Les Troyens from Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet, named as Gramophone’s DVD of the Year 2005; and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini on Virgin Classics, winner of Gramophone’s Opera Recording of the Year in 2005.

Eric Owens, Bass-Baritone (Brander)
Equally at home in concert, recital, and opera performances, American bass-baritone Eric Owens has carved a unique place in the contemporary opera world as an interpreter of both new and classic works. Engagements in the 2008–2009 season include his Metropolitan Opera debut as General Leslie Groves in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, a role he created in the work’s world premiere at the San Francisco Opera, and a Carnegie Hall solo recital in April 2009. He also performs Adams’s A Flowering Tree with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and scenes from Strauss’s Elektra and Die Frau ohne Schatten with the Atlanta Symphony in performances to be recorded by Telarc.

Mr. Owens’s operatic highlights include appearances with Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Paris Opera (Bastille), the Washington Opera, the Bordeaux Opera, English National Opera, the Pittsburgh Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Oper der Stadt Köln, the Minnesota Opera, Opera Pacific, and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. He is a former member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. Mr. Owens is a regular guest of major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras, and the San Francisco, Seattle, National, Baltimore, Toronto, Pittsburgh, and Detroit symphonies. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1994.

Mr. Owens has been recognized with multiple awards including the Kennedy Center’s 2003 Marian Anderson Award, a 1999 ARIA award, and first prizes in the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition. His other awards include first prizes in the MacAllister Awards Voice Competition, New York’s Opera Index Career Grant Auditions, the Palm Beach Opera National Voice Competition, and the Mario Lanza Voice Competition, among others. His recordings include the Nonesuch Records release of A Flowering Tree and Mozart’s Requiem with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony.

A Philadelphia native, Mr. Owens began his music training as a pianist and oboist. He later studied voice at Temple University and the Curtis Institute of Music. Mr. Owens serves on the Board of Trustees of both the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and Astral Artists.

Thomas Quasthoff, Bass-Baritone (Mephistopheles)
German bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff regularly appears with leading orchestras such as the New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Vienna, and London philharmonics; the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and London symphonies; and the Cleveland Orchestra. As a recitalist, he frequently sings throughout Europe and North America, and he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. He has also made appearances at the Ravinia, Tanglewood, and Mostly Mozart festivals, and the Hollywood Bowl. In April 2003 Mr. Quasthoff made his first staged opera appearance as Don Fernando in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Salzburg. Since then he has sung the role of Amfortas in Wagner’s Parsifal at the Vienna State Opera.

Mr. Quasthoff’s discography includes recordings for the BMG, Hänssler, EMI-Electrola, Philips, and Bayer labels. An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist since 1999, three of his CDs have received Grammy awards: Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, orchestrated Schubert songs, and Bach cantatas. His other recordings on Deutsche Grammophon include Schubert’s song cycles, Brahms’s Four Serious Songs, Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and a Grammy-nominated CD of sacred arias. Mr. Quasthoff’s most recent releases are a disc of Bach cantatas with Dorothea Röschmann and Watch What Happens, The Jazz Album, which was awarded the Echo prize. A German television documentary about Mr. Quasthoff was awarded the Golden Camera Award. His autobiography was recently published in Europe and the US by Pantheon Books.

Mr. Quasthoff began his studies in Hannover, and his international career was launched when he was awarded First Prize in the 1988 ARD International Music Competition in Munich. He received the Order of Merit from the President of the German Republic in October 2005, and in 2006 he was awarded the European Culture Prize for Music. Mr. Quasthoff was a professor at the Music Academy in Detmold, Germany, from 1996 to 2004. He was appointed Professor of Music at the Hanns Eisler School for Music in Berlin in 2004.

The Philadelphia Singers Chorale
David Hayes, Director
Founded in 1972, and now under the leadership of David Hayes, the Philadelphia Singers is a professional chorus that engages and inspires a broad range of audiences in the Philadelphia region with compelling concert experiences featuring performances of choral masterpieces and contemporary works.

For 36 years, the Philadelphia Singers has upheld its mission to enrich the broader community through embodying the highest standards of classical musicianship and providing a platform for its musicians to serve the community in a variety of formats. The Philadelphia Singers performs regularly with leading national and local performing arts organizations including The Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Kimmel Center Presents, and the Mannes Orchestra.

The Philadelphia Singers’ 2008–2009 season includes a four-concert subscription series featuring collaborations with Tempesta di Mare and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. In June 2009, the Philadelphia Singers will perform Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and choruses from John Adams’s opera The Death of Klinghoffer on the keynote concert of the 32nd Annual Chorus America Conference.

The Philadelphia Singers Chorale was founded in 1991 as the symphonic chorus of the Philadelphia Singers. The Chorale is composed of professional singers and talented volunteers. In its role as resident chorus of The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chorale appears with the Orchestra in all its choral subscription concerts, as well as annual performances of Handel’s Messiah.

David Hayes was appointed music director of the Philadelphia Singers in 1992. A staff conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music, he is also director of orchestral and conducting studies at New York’s Mannes School of Music. Mr. Hayes is also a cover conductor for The Philadelphia Orchestra.