UMS Concert Program, Sunday Mar. 11 To 20: University Musical Society: Winter 2007 - Sunday Mar. 11 To 20 --

Season: Winter 2007
Hill Auditorium

Winter 2007 Season 128th Annual Season
General Information
On-site ticket offices at performance venues open 90 minutes before each performance and remain open through intermission of most events.
Children of all ages are welcome at UMS Family and Youth Performances. Parents are encouraged not to bring children under the age of 3 to regular, full-length UMS performances. All chil?dren should be able to sit quietly in their own seats throughout any UMS performance. Children unable to do so, along with the adult accompanying them, will be asked by an usher to leave the auditorium. Please use discre?tion in choosing to bring a child.
Remember, everyone must have a ticket, regardless of age.
While in the Auditorium
Starting Time Every attempt is made to begin concerts on time. Latecomers are asked to wait in the lobby until seated by ushers at a predetermined time in the program.
Cameras and recording equipment
are prohibited in the auditorium.
If you have a question, ask your usher. They are here to help.
Please turn off your cellular phones and other digital devices so that every?one may enjoy this UMS event distur?bance-free. In case of emergency, advise your paging service of auditori?um and seat location in Ann Arbor venues, and ask them to call University Security at 734.763.1131.
In the interests of saving both dollars and the environment, please either retain this program book and return with it when you attend other UMS performances included in this edition or return it to your usher when leaving the venue.
Event Program Book
Friday, March 23 through Thursday, April 12, 2007
Rahim AlHaj and Souhail Kaspar
Friday, March 23, 8:00 pm Rackham Auditorium
Canadian Brass
Saturday, March 24, 8:00 pm Hill Auditorium
Pablo Ziegler Quintet for New Tango 13
Friday, March 30, 8:00 pm Rackham Auditorium
David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness! 17
Saturday, March 31, 8:00 pm Rackham Auditorium
Measha Brueggergosman 25
Thursday, April 12, 8:00 pm Hill Auditorium
UMS Educational Events
through Thursday, April 12, 2007
All UMS educational activities are free, open to the public, and in Ann Arbor unless otherwise noted. For complete details and updates, please visit www.ums.org or contact the UMS Education Department at 734.647.6712 or e-mail umsed@umich.edu.
Rahim AlHaj and Souhail Kaspar Diwan: A Forum for the Arts (S)
Thursday, March 29 Sunday, April 1 Arab American National Museum (AANM) 13624 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Ml 48126
DIWAN: A Forum for the Arts unites Arab-American artists, scholars, and performers from throughout the US, representing myriad academ?ic fields and artistic genres. Activities include pres?entation of new research into Arab-American arts, poetry and prose readings, film screenings, and musical performances. This three-day dia?logue reinforces AANM's commitment to provid?ing a place for community members and artists to meet, exchange ideas, and exhibit their work. It also encourages audiences to explore the bound?aries of art in addressing social and cultural issues related to Arab Americans and to the community at large.
Schedule, cost, and registration information is available at www.arabamericanmuseum.org or at 313.624.2266.
A collaboration with the Arab American National Museum and the Arab American Center for Economic and Social Services.
Pablo Ziegler Quintet for New Tango Milonga! Tango Dance Party (S)
Friday, March 30, post performance
(approx. 10:30 pm)
U-M Alumni Center, 200 Fletcher St.
Be a part of a traditional Tango Dance Party (Milonga) immediately following the performance of the Pablo Zeigler Quintet. Everyone is wel?come. Music provided by Ann Arbor local DJ Avik Basu.
Admission is free for Pablo Ziegler Quintet ticket holders. $5 for everyone else.
A collaboration with the Ann Arbor Tango Club and the Michigan Argentine Tango Club.
ums University Musical Society
presents
Rahim AlHaj
Oud and
Souhail Kaspar
Percussion
Program
Friday Evening, March 23, 2007 at 8:00 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor
Tonight's program will be announced by the artists from the stage and will contain an intermission.
60th Performance of the 128th Annual Season
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Rahim AlHaj was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and began playing the Oud (the grandfa?ther of all stringed instruments) at age nine. He studied under the renowned Munir Bashir (considered by many to be the greatest Oud play?er of all time) and Salim Abdul Kareem at the Institute of Music in Baghdad. Mr. AlHaj won var?ious awards at the Conservatory and graduated in 1990 with a diploma in composition. He also holds a degree in arabic literature from Mustunsaria University in Baghdad. In 1991, after the first gulf war, Mr. AlHaj was forced to leave Iraq due to his political activism against the Saddam Hussein regime and began his life anew in Jordan and Syria. He moved to the US in 2000 as a political refugee and has resided in Albuquerque, New Mexico ever since.
Mr. AlHaj has performed all over the world on tour with Munir Bashir, with his string quartet, and solo, including concerts throughout the Middle East, Europe, and hundreds of concerts in the US. His music delicately combines traditional Iraqi maqams (modes) with contemporary styling and influence. His compositions are about the experience of exile from his homeland and of new beginnings in his adopted country; his songs establish new concepts without altering the foun?dation of the traditional Iraqi School of Oud.
Mr. AlHaj has recorded four CDs since his arrival in the US. His newest CD, When the Soul is Settled: Music of Iraq, with Souhail Kasparon per-
cussion, was released on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, and recorded at a performance in June 2006 at the Kennedy Center. He plans to release two new CDs in 2007: Home Again, a compilation of touching musical compositions describing his personal odyssey from Baghdad to his newly adopted home, New Mexico; and an exciting new collaboration with master guitarist Ottmar Liebert.
Souhail Kaspar is a master percussionist, known worldwide for his brilliant technique, exciting performances, and teaching skills. A true virtuoso, his ability to improvise and embel?lish the rhythmic patterns of Arabic music, as well
Additionally, he has an impressive body of recorded work, including credits on the sound?tracks for the movies The Prince of Egypt and Sinbad, the documentary The Great Bazaars, and as a guest percussionist with the Kronos Quartet on the CD Caravan. Since the late 1970s, Mr. Kaspar has also appeared with AN Jihad Racy at a wide variety of cultural events and performed in major concert halls, masterclasses, and work?shops throughout the US. He has worked with legendary Egyptian composers Farid el-Atrash, Sayyed Makowi, and Hanni Mehanna. Mr. Kaspar received a Durfee Music Fellowship, given to mas?ter musicians and teachers.
Mr. Kaspar currently lives in Los Angeles and is performing, recording, and teaching both nation?ally and internationally. His most recent recording is the acclaimed Khaliji CD, a collection of popu?lar songs from the Saudi Arabian peninsula.
Tonight's concert marks the UMS debut of both Rahim AlHaj and Souhail Kaspar.
Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 111 (1918)
Paul Hindemith
Born November 76, 1895 in Hanau, Germany
Died December 28, 1963 in Frankfurt
Paul Hindemith was a versatile musician who also had a flair for music administration. Artistically, his most active years were between the two World Wars, when he made his mark as a performer on the viola, violin, and clarinet, as well as in con?ducting and composing. An important theorist, Hindemith was also active as a teacher and an arts administrator. In the latter role, he served the Donaueschingen Festspiele and the Turkish gov?ernment.
Hindemith's activities in his native Germany were prematurely curtailed by the rise of Nazism. He was forced to relocate to the US, where he eventually secured citizenship in 1946. He returned to Europe several years later and remained there until his death. His musical curios?ity was as diverse and eclectic as his talents, and he had a life-long dedication to the advocacy of medieval and Renaissance music and to early instruments.
Hindemith composed his Op. 11 set of sonatas between 1917 and 1919. The original Op. 111 of 1917 was destroyed. The Sonata in E-flat of 1918 was therefore re-numbered Op. 111. Moreover, the current Op. 111 seems to be incomplete, as Hindemith never wrote what should have been the last movement.
In this two-movement work, the dominating compositional style is one of "free atonality." The atonal factor seems only secondary and while the analysis clearly points out the elements deviating from the classic style, upon first hearing, the lis?tener notices the directness and the immediacy of the main themes. The general effect of atonality in this work, complemented by rhythmic jaunti-ness, is that of a pleasurable oddity which is strange, curious, and appetizing.
The form of the first movement "Frisch" is palindromic, formed of large sections that occur in the pattern A-B-C-B-A. The A section that opens and closes the movement enters with a heroic sweep. The base chord for this section is an augmented E-flat triad, a chord made up of E-flat, G, and B. In the tonal tradition, it would be, instead, E-flat, G, B-flat for a major chord or E-
flat, G-flat, B-flat for minor. However, the aug?mented one is a combination of two major-third intervals, and addition of one more major third to the triad divides the octave from E-flat to E-flat (or D-sharp) into three equal parts. Such even divi?sions of an octave were a compositional tech?nique that gained popularity in the late-19th and throughout the 20th century.
Whereas the opening section is full of wide jumps between notes, the more songlike quality of the second section is created by the uses of step-wise motion. The g-sharp minor mode which started the section eventually becomes A-flat Major (the G-sharp of course being the same pitch as A-flat).
Next comes a transitional section. It is rather difficult to determine how the harmonies are moving towards the eventual return of the sec?ond theme, except that they are indeed on their way to somewhere grand. When the second theme returns, the energy is full but quickly qui?ets down, sweetly and tenderly, making way for the final contrast back to the opening material. At the height of the excitement, the movement con?cludes with the E-flat Major chord.
The second movement, "Im Zeitmass eines langsamen, feierlichen Tanzes," which was origi?nally intended only as a middle movement, begins with two E-flats played as an octave on the piano. Osfnafo-like, it nonetheless sets up a rhythm sim?ilar to a dirge. The entire movement is played with the mute on the violin, which contributes to a pseudo-romantic impression.
With analysis, one realizes the extensive use of half-step motions in the outer sections and arppegiation in the middle sections. At the close of the movement, semi-chromaticism brings back the tonic E-flat. However, the atmosphere remains rather inconclusive, giving way to an eeriness of character that could be fully perfumed with incense.
Program note O2003 by Midori, Sym Co. Ltd.
Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 18(1887)
Richard Strauss
Born June 11, 1864 in Munich, Germany Died September 8, 1949 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria
Richard Strauss was actively engaged in music-making for most of his life. The son of a profes?sional horn player, he grew up surrounded by music. He started piano lessons at the age of four and his first compositions came two years later. Strauss continued to compose until 1948, a year before his death, when ill health forced him to stop. While we mostly remember him today as a composer, Strauss was also an influential conduc?tor. In fact, he was considered one of the two great German composer-conductors of his time, along with Gustav Mahler.
Strauss's early musical instruction, under the supervision of his father, focused on the works oi Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. The senior Strauss detested Wagner, who was then considered avant-garde and on the cutting-edge It is a great irony that Richard Strauss later became a strong supporter and interpreter of Wagner's music. Moreover, by the late 1880s, Strauss was generally accepted as the most significant and progressive German composer since Wagner.
We do not think of Strauss as a prodigy yet it is clear that he was one. By the time he was 16, he was a published and a performed composer. Hans von Bulow, a great musical leader in Germany in Strauss's day, called him "by far the most striking personality since Brahms." Later, with his sym?phonic poems and operas, Strauss re-defined the concepts of symphonic sounds and form.
By the time Strauss wrote the Violin Sonata, he was no longer a novice in music or in writing for the violin although he was still in his early 20s. He had played the violin since he was eight, and in 1882 had already written a violin concerto. In addition, some of his chamber music had promi?nent and challenging violin parts. Needless to say, his thorough knowledge of the instrument was c great asset in composing such a virtuosic piece.
The Violin Sonata is considered Strauss's last "classical" piece. Still under the influence of his conservative father, his chamber output, of whicl he only left a handful of works dating fron before 1890, follows the generally acceptec classical patterns.
urns
and the University of Michigan Health System
present
Canadian Brass
Charles Daellenbach, Tuba Eugene Watts, Trombone Bernhard Scully, Horn Joe Burgstaller, Trumpet Brandon Ridenour, Trumpet
The five virtuosi of Canadian Brass have made the brass quintet an exciting vehicle for serious concert music. The quintet-now in its 36th season--consists of Josef Burgstaller, trumpet; Brandon Ridenour, trumpet; and Bernhard Scully, horn; alongside original members Gene Watts, trombone, and Chuck Daellenbach on tuba.
The group has a long history of recording clas?sical repertoire. They have a special affinity for Baroque music, which requires the brilliance and musical structure that has become the Canadian Brass' trademark.
Their more than 60 recordings to date include works by Purcell, Vivaldi, Gabrieli, Pachelbel, Beethoven, and Wagner--all in meticulously crafted transcriptions that are setting new musical traditions in brass performance. They are espe?cially drawn to the works of J.S. Bach.
The Canadian Brass sprang from modest and highly experimental roots in Toronto, Ontario, in 1970. The brass quintet was not established as a serious concert ensemble at that time, and it proved an irresistible challenge to Mr. Watts and Mr. Daellenbach. Their imagination and consum?mate musicianship eventually elevated the art of the brass quintet to what it is today.
Thanks to their pioneer status, the quintet developed a unique character and rapport with audiences that proved so successful that it has been emulated by many other ensembles. Canadian Brass master the gamut of concert pre?sentations--from formal classical concerts to music served up with lively dialogue and theatri?cal effects. No matter what the style, the music is central and performed with utmost dedication and excellence.
The "fabulous five" spend most of their time on tour, and have performed with many major symphony orchestras in the US, Canada, Europe, and Japan. They have gained a large internation?al following for their solo performances that offer a large variety of musical styles.
Having started with the very limited base of traditional works for brass, Canadian Brass set out to create their own musical world by transcribing, arranging, and commissioning more than 200 works; the most recent being the brilliant Quintet by Michael Kamen.
They are not only presenting works in the classical repertoire but continue to take daring
leaps into jazz, contemporary concert music, and popular songs. Most of this music, including the Quintet, is published by Hal Leonard. It is the inspiration and musical staple of students and brass ensembles in North America and Europe.
Millions of television viewers have seen the Canadian Brass in such shows as The Tonight Show, Today, and Entertainment Tonight. They have appeared as guest artists on Evening at Pops with John Williams and the Boston Pops, Beverly Sills' Music Around the World, and numerous PBS specials. The quintet has also created eight videos that have gained an international audience and has just released a DVD that captures the group in performance over three decades entitled Three Nights with Canadian Brass.
All members of the Canadian Brass are keen?ly interested in training the next generation of players. On their travels around the world, per?forming on gold-plated Yamaha instruments, they often pause for masterclasses. They are chamber quintet-in-residence at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California and have creat?ed an innovative brass summer course at the Eastman School of Music. They have been invited by the Canadian Government to play for visiting heads of state on numerous official occasions.
With over three decades under their belts, Canadian Brass continues to fill concert halls and thrill audiences around the world, and they don't look like they are letting up anytime soon!
UMS ARCHIVES
Dnight's concert marks the Canadian Brass' 12th appearance under UMS auspices. They received the UMS
Distinguished Artist Award at the 1999
Ford Honors Program.
Music Clubs Artist Award and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mr. McDonald graduated magna cum laude from Lawrence University in Wisconsin. He then completed his studies at the Curtis Institute, The Juilliard School, and the Manhattan
School of Music. His teachers include Theodore Rehl, Rudolf Serkin, Seymour Lipkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, and Gary Graffman.
UMS ARCHIVES
Midori made her UMS debut dur?ing the 98th Annual May Festival on May 1, 1991 as violin soloist with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Kurt Masur. She later participated in the gala re-open?ing concert of Hill Auditorium on January 17, 2004. Tonight's recital marks Midori's third appearance under UMS auspices. Tonight's recital also marks pianist Robert McDonald's fourth appearance under UMS auspices. Mr. McDonald made his UMS debut with violinist Elmar Oliveira in an October 1982 recital at Rackham Auditorium. He returned to Ann Arbor as piano accompanist to violinists Isaac Stern and to Midori in 1992 in Hill Auditorium recitals.
Robert McDonald
ums University Musical Society
presents
Bay Mo Dilo (Give Me Water)
A production of Tamango's Urban Tap
Choreography and Direction by Tamango
Video Design and Co-Direction by "Naj" Jean de Boysson
Performers
Jean-Claude Bardu
Belinda Becker
Eric Danquin
Vado Diomande
Daniel Doulos
"Bonga" Gaston Jean-Baptiste
Tamango
Burke J. Wilmore, Lighting Designer
Christy "Where" Huertas, Production Supervisor
Ken Travis, Production Associate
Tricia Pierson, Project Manager
Program
Wednesday Evening, March 14, 2007 at 8:00 Michigan Theater Ann Arbor
Tonight's performance runs approximately 75 minutes and will be performed without an intermission.
55th Performance of the 128th Annual Season
16th Annual Dance Series
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this performance or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art, and by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Ford Foundation.
Media partnership provided by Metro Times, Michigan ChronicleFront Page and WEMU89.1 FM.
Special thanks to the U-M Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, the U-M Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, the U-M Department of Dance, and the U-M Citizenship Theme Year for their participation in this residency.
Bay Mo Dilo is made possible in part through the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Ford Foundation; Altria Group, Inc.; and is supported by and a project of Creative Capital Foundation. This work was developed in residencies at The Conference & Residency Center at White Oak in Yulee, Florida; SUMMERDANCE Santa Barbara, California; and Empire Center for Performing Arts--The Egg in Albany, New York.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Tamango (Dancer, Percussion, Vocals) is a dancer, musician, and painter whose revolu?tionary approach to tap transforms his dance into music with a sharpened sense of style and awe-inspiring fluidity. Born in Cayenne, French Guiana, Tamango moved to Paris at age eight and began a formal education in art. He started tap dancing in his early 20s at the American Center in Paris and the Beaux Arts de Paris, which he left to join the "university of the streets" before moving to New York City.
Tamango created Urban Tap in 1993, form?ing a group of like-minded, free-style performers who share a unique vision and deep passion for improvisation and rhythm. From 1997-2000, Tamango and Urban Tap performed international?ly as part of Cool Heat Urban Beat, which Tamango choreographed and co-directed with Rennie Harris. In 1999 he received a prestigious "Bessie" (New York Dance and Performance Award) for performances at The Kitchen. In 2005 he was the sole tap dancer honored as part of The Kennedy Center's Masters of African American Choreography.
In addition to Urban Tap, Tamango has shared the stage with tap legends Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines, Chuck Green, Buster Brown, and Lon Chaney. He has collaborated with Japanese
performance artist Min Tanaka; French choreogra?pher Philippe Decoufle; renowned world artists Cheick Tidiane Seek and Amina; jazz artists Christian McBride, Roy Haynes, and Billy Higgins; and Bobby McFerrin. As a visual artist, Tamango has created a significant body of work and in May 1999, premiered his paintings at 17 Creations in New York City. Tamango is currently featured as a guest of Stomp in their Imax film release, Pulse.
"Naj" Jean de Boysson (Video Design, VI) trained as a dancer at the Folkwang School in Essen, Germany, and performed in France with choreographer Jean-Claude Gallota and theater director Jean-Louis Barrault. He came to New York City in 1983 with a grant from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study dance at the Merce Cunningham Studio. Since 1985, he has made a variety of film and video works as a director, cam?eraman, and editor: dance videos such as Teile dich Nacht, a collaboration with Korean choreog?rapher Hyon Ok Kim which received the Grand Prize Award at the 1992 International Film Festival of Teruel, Spain, and the Gold Award at the 1991 Dance on Camera Festival in New York City; and La Promenade, commissioned by the Dia Center for the Arts; documentaries such as New All The Time, a film about jazz legend Betty Carter, and
Tamango
ums University Musical Society
presents
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Latin Grammy-winning Pablo Ziegler (Piano) artfully blends classic tango rhythms with jazz improvisations, adding a new voice to the tango lexicon. Howard Reich of The Chicago Times writes, "There's no question that Ziegler takes the tango to levels of sophistication and refinement probably undreamed of by Piazzolla," and Eric Salzman of Sfereo Review, writing of Mr. Ziegler's CD, Tango Romance, affirmed that the CD "solidifies his (Ziegler's) claim to be the out?standing representative of the nusvo tango in his generation."
In 1978, Mr. Ziegler was invited to join Astor Piazzolla's New Tango Quintet, and for over the next 10 years, he performed with this group throughout Europe, Japan, and North America, at festivals including the Montreal Jazz Festival, Nice Jazz Festival, Sapporo Jazz Festival, Central Park SummerStage, and the Istanbul Festival.
Mr. Ziegler formed his own Quartet for New Tango in 1990 and has been touring extensively throughout the world with his trio, quartet, and quintet. Performances in recent seasons have
included Carnegie Hall (as part of the JVC Jazz Festival with guest artists Paquito D'Rivera, Joe Lovano, and Gary Burton), the Savannah Music Festival, Blue Note, UCLA, the University of Texas-Austin, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in Maryland, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas with pianist Christopher O'Riley in the duo Los Tangueros, the New World Symphony in Miami, and New York's Knitting Factory with Emanuel Ax. Mr. Ziegler's quintet has also been performing annually at the Jazz Standard in NYC since 2002, with guest artists including Paquito D'Rivera, Stefon Harris, David Sanchez, Randy Brecker, and Kenny Garret. Important international engagements have included the Umbria Jazz Festival (with guest artists Paquito D'Rivera, Joe Lovano, and Richard Galliano), The Lapataia Jazz Festival in Punta del Este (Uruguay), and the Verbier Festival (Switzerland), as well as performances through?out Europe. He also performed at the Piano 2003 Festival in Manchester, UK and has done 15 European tours to date.
Mr. Ziegler's discography
formance recorded at The Bimhuis in Amsterdam during his recent European tour in April 2006, as well as a Live from the Jazz Standard recording with guest artist Stefon Harris. Mr. Ziegler's com?positions are performed and recorded by many musicians throughout the world.
From Chile, Claudia Acuna (Vocalist) knew early on that she wanted to be a singer but had no idea that she would find her way to jazz, as there were few opportunities for jazz encounters in her home country. She began by singing Chilean folk and pop music and later tried rock, fusion, and opera before coming upon her first musical career model--Frank Sinatra--at age 15. After years of improvising, Ms. Acuna finally felt at home when she heard Sinatra, Erroll Garner, and then Sara Vaughan.
After finishing high school, Ms. Acuna moved to Santiago and headed for the one jazz club in town. She quickly made a name for herself in the small Santiago scene and was featured on the club's live radio broadcast. Musicians told her she was a born jazz singer and she began sitting in with them, including such foreign jazz stars as Wynton Marsalis, Michel Petrucciani, Joe Lovano, and Danilo Perez.
After a few years, Ms. Acuna moved to New York City to fully explore jazz. Not knowing much English, her goals were to learn the language, visit the legendary Village Vanguard, and join in on jam sessions. She did all three and soon became a fixture at Small's, the influential jazz club in the Village. There, she jammed regularly and befriended many musicians including Jason Lindner, now her pianist, collaborator, and friend. But it was her job as a coat check girl at the Blue Note that provided Ms. Acuna with her highest-profile jam opportunity--a chance to sing in front of Betty Carter, one of her idols. Afterward, Ms. Carter came up to her and proclaimed, "Surprise, surprise, the coat check girl can sing."
And after five years in New York, Verve Records signed "the coat check girl" and issued two well-received recordings: Wind from the South and Rhythm of Life. Critics praised the newcomer: "... the voice of an angel." (Newsday). The Los Angeles Times said of Ms. Acuna, "...Although Acuna did not come to the US until she was in her early twenties, she has mastered the essential elements of jazz with star?tling effectiveness... Acuna's voice is an instru-
Claudia Acufia
ment of wonder..."
The jazz community was quick to embrace the naturally gifted singer, and Ms. Acufia received invitations to sing at clubs and festivals around the world. She immediately stood out due to her pure, compelling alto voice and her ability to reinvent jazz standards by changing the phras?ing, updating the arrangements, and fusing Latin rhythms with her instinctive jazz sensibility. In addition, she introduced Spanish language songs to new audiences, making it clear that music crosses all barriers, particularly when performed with her distinctive brand of authentic emotion and passion.
Argentine born producer Pablo Asian (Bass) directs Avantango, a tango-jazz ensemble featur?ing New York-based Argentine musicians and dancers that perform throughout the US. His CD Avantango (Zoho Music) was selected as one of the "Best Albums of the Year, Critics Choice 2004" by JAZZIZ magazine. He recently spent sev?eral months performing and recording in Buenos Aires. His forthcoming CD on Zoho Music, Buenos Aires Tango Standards, is a result of this experi?ence and features a unique blend of tango and jazz in performances of tango standards. In April 2007, Mr. Asian will be a special guest with Lincoln Center's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by Arturo O'Farrill.
In the 1990s, Mr. Asian was the founder and co-director of New York Buenos Aires Connection and New York Tango Trio with bandoneonist Raul Jaurena, with whom he produced several CDs and toured throughout the world. He has been a fea?tured artist of the Lincoln Center Institute since 1998, bringing tango performances to hundreds of children and educators in the New York area.
ums University Musical Society
presents
David Krakauer s Klezmer Madness!
David Krakauer, Clarinet Sheryl Bailey, Guitar Trevor Dunn, Bass Will Holshouser, Accordion Michael Sarin, Drums
featuring
Socalled, Samples and Keyboard
Program
Saturday Evening, March 31, 2007 at 8:00 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor
Traditional, An. D. Krakauer Der Gasn Nign
Traditional, An. D. Krakauer and Stewart The Russian Shers
Jacob Weinberg, An. D. Krakauer and J. Dolgin Bubbemeises
Will Holshouser, An. W. Holshouser and D. Krakauer The Dusky Bulgar
An. D. Krakauer Ms. N.C.
An. D. Krakauer and J. Dolgin Moskowitz and Loops of it
M. Sarin Waiting for Julian
Traditional Chusen Kale Mazel Tov

Thursday Evening, March 15, 2007 at 8:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Tonight's selections will be announced by the artists from the stage and will be performed with one intermission.
56th Performance of the 128th Annual Season
13th Annual Jazz Series
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
This performance is supported by Larry and Beverly Price.
Additional support provided by Borders, Comerica Bank, and Whole Foods Market.
Tonight's Leadership Donor event was sponsored by Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP.
Media partnership provided by WEMU 89.1 FM, WDET 101.9 FM, and Michigan ChronicleFront Page.
The Steinway piano used in this evening's performance is made possible by William and Mary Palmer and by Hammell Music, Inc., Livonia, Michigan.
Brooks Brothers is the official clothier of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis appears by arrangement with Ted Kurland Associates.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Krakauer Love Song for LembergLvov
Traditional, Arr. D. Krakauer and J. Dolgin Turntable Pounding
A. Lebedeff, Arr. D. Krakauer and J. Dolgin Rumania, Rumania
Krakauer Synagogue Wail
Traditional Sirba
J. Dolgin, Krakauer B flat a la Socalled
Please note there will be no intermission in tonight's program.
63rd Performance of the 128th Annual Season
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Media partnership provided by Detroit Jewish News.
David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness! is exclusively represented by Bernstein Artists, Inc., www.bernsarts.com
Large print programs are available upon request.
Reflections on Being a 21st-century Klezmer Musician
For those of you who are among the uniniti?ated, klezmer music is the traditional cele?bration music of Eastern European Jewry. This is the music that was played at weddings (and other festive events) for the Jewish commu?nities of Russia, Poland, Byelorussia, Moldavia, Rumania, the Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Hungary, among other countries. Klezmer (which means music in Yiddish) was brought to the US during the great wave of Jewish immigration between 1880 and 1920, and is primarily known to us today through recordings made by these immigrants in New York beginning in the early 1920s. Because the Holocaust was to eradicate most of Eastern European Jewish culture, klezmer music in America exists as a precious and impor?tant vestige of a vanished world.
It is an incredibly interesting time to be play?ing klezmer music--with a rise in Jewish con?sciousness, with Europeans examining an aspect of the soul of their continent that was destroyed during World War II, with the tremendous excite?ment of the "world beat" phenomenon, and sim?ply with the joyous "danceability" of this music. In fact, klezmer music has gone through two revivals since the mid-1970s, and I believe we are now in a tremendously creative post-revival peri?od. While those of us playing klezmer today are still constantly studying old recordings and other source material to retrieve what was almost lost to us, there is, at the same time, a new sense of freedom and playfulness with the music that has given rise to a diverse repertoire, tremendous international participation and a wide variety of approaches. In my own work, as a 21st-century American, I freely incorporate influences of funk, jazz, and most recently through my collaboration with sampling wizard Socalled, hip-hop.
For me personally it is important to do two things in playing klezmer. One is to preserve the Jewishness--the inflection of the Yiddish lan?guage in the music (that I recognized in the speech inflections of my grandmother), the melodic shapes, the ornaments, the phrasing, the traditional repertoire, and the flavor of the cantor. But the second is to keep klezmer out of the museum--to write new klezmer pieces and to improvise on older forms in a way that is informed
by the world around me today. My colleague Alicia Svigals, former violinist of the group The Klezmatics, talks about tradition always being in flux--that there is no such thing as static "tradi?tion." For example, when I write a more extend?ed composition, I try to keep the feeling of a klezmer melody or ornament--but at the same time abstract that into a single gesture. Or, when I write a new tune, it has to be danceable, yet full of quirky and weird aspects--in short, Klezmer Madness!
In both brand new pieces and re-interpreta?tions of older standard repertoire, everything I play adheres to (or refers to) the basic forms of klezmer music: the Doina--rhapsodic, cantorial improvisation; the Chosidl--a kind of walking slower dance; the Terkish--a dotted-rhythm dance form from Rumania via Turkey ("oriental" in flavor); the old Rumanian Hora--a slow dance in a limping 38; and the Bulgar or Freylekh--an up-tempo dance tune for circle dancing and lift?ing honored guests up in chairs. This is a music that has been played from a time way before the earliest memories of my great-great grandparents in Eastern Europe; and I'm honored to continue this great tradition. So all I can say now is...enjoy! --David Krakauer
Internationally acclaimed David Krakauer {Clarinet) redefines the notion of a concert artist. Known for his mastery of myriad styles including classical chamber music, Eastern European Jewish klezmer music, and avant-garde improvisation, Mr. Krakauer lies way beyond "cross-over." His best-selling classical and klezmer recordings further define his brilliant tone, virtu?osity, and imagination.
As one of the foremost musicians of the vital new wave of klezmer, Mr. Krakauer tours the globe with his celebrated Klezmer Madness! ensemble. While firmly rooted in traditional klezmer folk tunes, the band "hurls the tradition of klezmer music into the rock era" (Jon Pareles, The New York Times). With Klezmer Madness!, Mr. Krakauer has forged alliances among the gen?res of world music and jazz, rock, funk, and hip-hop. It simultaneously shouts out to those who remember "yesterday's" klezmer and to the hard dance clubbers and world music enthusiasts of today.
In addition to annual European tours to major international festivals and jazz clubs, Mr. Krakauer and his band have performed at the Library of Congress, Stanford Lively Arts, San Francisco Performances, Hancher Auditorium, and Symphony Space in New York. European venues have included the Venice Biennale, Krakow Jewish Culture Festival, BBC Proms, Saalfelden Jazz Festival, La Cigale, WOMEX, and New Morning in Paris.
Mr. Krakauer is also in demand worldwide as a guest soloist with the finest ensembles. Recent collaborations have included work with the Tokyo String Quartet, the Kronos Quartet (including
David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness!
their renowned collaboration on Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind), the Lark Quartet, Eiko and Koma, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Barcelona, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. He was a guest artist on tour in 2006 with the Emerson String Quartet and will tour in 2007-08 with the Orion String Quartet.
Mr. Krakauer has enjoyed enduring relation?ships with summer festivals including the Marlboro Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival. Other career highlights include an eight-year tenure with the Naumburg Award-winning Aspen
Wind Quintet, a performance in spring 2004 for the inaugural season of Carnegie's Zankel Hall in collaboration with renowned jazz pianist Uri Caine, and performing music written for him by Osvaldo Golijov for the BBC documentary Holocaust, A Music Memorial from Auschwitz, which won the 2005 International Emmy in the performance category.
Mr. Krakauer's discography contains some of the most important klezmer recordings of the past decade. His first release on the prestigious French jazz label Label Bleu (harmonia mundi usa), A New Hot One! was hailed a masterwork. His CD The Twelve Tribes, released in the fall of
2002, was designated "Album of the Year" in the jazz category for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the most important and estab?lished music award in Germany. Klezmer, NY (1988) on John Zorn's Tzadik label, features his visionary suite, "A Klezmer Tribute to Sidney Bechet," written in honor of the 100th birthday of the legendary jazz clarinetist. Also on Tzadik is Klezmer Madness--one of the label's bestseiling discs. Other CDs include the groundbreaking Rhythm and Jews (PiranhaFlying Fish) and Jews with Horns (PiranhaGreen Linnet) with the Klezmatics, In the Fiddler's House with violinist Itzhak Perlman and the Klezmatics, and chamber
moving to New York he has performed, toured, and recorded with musicians Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Thomas Chapin, Anthony Coleman, Dave Douglas, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Helias, Lee Konitz, Andy Laster, Myra Melford, Mario Pavone, Bobby Previte, Ned Rothenberg, Brad Shepik, and John Zorn. He is currently tour?ing and recording with Ben Allison's Medicine Wheel and BANQ, Erik Friedlander's Broken Arm Trio, David Krakauer, Tony Malaby's Apparitions Quartet, and the Simon NabatovErnst ReijsegerMichael Sarin Trio.
Socalled (Samples, Keyboard) is a musician, pho?tographer, magician, and writer based in Montreal. He was born Josh Dolgin in Ottawa, Ontario and raised just north in Chelsea, Quebec. As a kid he was always in musicals and drew car?toons for the Ottawa Citizen. He hated soccer. He was bribed by his mother to continue piano les?sons until high school, where he then he picked up the accordion. He wrote for the newspaper and played in any kind of band--salsa, gospel, rock, funk--then discovered MIDI and hip-hop. He worked with rappers, he made "madd" beats, and he got into studios. He graduated from McGill and made a 50-minute animated film for the Canada Council, meanwhile writing for Hour Magazine and performing. He has now appeared on a dozen recordings as pianist, singer, arranger, rapper, writer, and producer. He rocks the machine with David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness!, sings with Toronto-based Beyond the Pale, and performs with home-base band Shtreiml in Montreal and the LA-based Aleph Project. He conducts the Addath Israel choir for High Holidays. Socalled performs and records widely with a crew of mixed-up freaks and geniuses from around the world, including Killah Priest, Susan Hoffman-Watts, Frank London, and Irving Fields. He has produced tracks for many rap acts, as well as the Greekbeat soundtrack for the award-win?ning documentary Man of Greece. His own docu?mentaries and animations have won many awards at the McGill Film Festival. Socalled's self-released EP The Socalled Seder was hailed in the Yiddish Forward as "one of the greatest works of Jewish music in years."
Tonight's performance marks the UMS debut of David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness!, featuring Socalled.
and
Pfizer Global Research
and Development
present
Gilberto Gil
Vocals and Guitar
Program
Friday Evening, March 16, 2007 at 8:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Luminoso
Tonight's selections will be announced by the artist from the stage and will be performed without intermission.
57th Performance of the 128th Annual Season
Global Series:
Mexico & the Americas
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Tonight's performance is sponsored by Pfizer Global Research and Development: Ann Arbor Laboratories.
Special thanks to David Canter, Senior Vice President of Pfizer for his continued and generous support of the University Musical Society.
Funded in part by the U-M Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.
Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
Educational programs funded in part by the Whitney Fund at the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan.
Media partnership provided by Metro Times, WDET 101.9 FM, WEMU 89.1 FM, and Michigan Radio.
Mr. Gil appears by arrangement with International Music Network.
Large print programs are available upon request.
In his four-decade journey as a leading voice of a generation and the father of a historic move?ment, Gilberto Gil has never performed in North America stripped down to the music's most basic human essence--melodies steeped in emo?tion, accompanying rhythms quietly undulating and percolating, timeless narratives delivered with bravura by an unmistakable voice--all culminat?ing into a clear, spiritual and luminescent pres?ence.
Gilberto Gil has developed one of the most relevant and renowned careers as a singer, composer, and guitarist in both world and pop music. In a career that has spanned four decades, with over 30 albums released, Mr. Gil has six gold records, four platinum singles, and 5 million records sold. The Tropicalist genre he intro?duced, alongside Caetano Veloso, has secured his fame internationally as well as at home in Brazil. His extensive and prolific catalogue of work has been covered and recorded by Joao Gilberto, Elis Regina, Gal Costa, Sergio Mendes, Ernie Watts, and Toots Thielmans. Over the years, his political and environmental activism gained prominence alongside his musical career and reached a new height in 2002 when he was appointed minister of culture for Brazil. As a musician and as a diplo?mat, Mr. Gil possesses a key role in the constant modernization of Brazilian popular music and cul?ture throughout the world.
He began playing the accordion at age eight, and listened to street singers in the mar?ketplace around Salvador. By the end of the 1950s, Gilberto Gil was studying business admin?istration at Savlador's Federal University and play?ing with a group called Os Desafinados. At this time he heard singer and guitarist Joao Gilberto on the radio and was so impressed that he imme?diately bought a guitar and learned to play and sing the bossa nova. He spent the early '60s com?posing songs for TV ads, and in 1964, was fea?tured in Nos Por Exemplo, a show of bossa nova and traditional Brazilian songs directed by Caetano Veloso. In 1965, he moved to Sao Paulo; after singing and playing in various shows, he had his first hit when singer Elis Regina recorded his song "Louvacao." He began to establish himself as a singer of protest songs and became popular amongst Brazilians involved in the Tropicalia
Gilberto Gil
movement, which opened up native Brazilian folk music to other kinds of influences and included the usage of rock and folk instruments. The suc?cess of the single "Louvacao" inspired Mr. Gil to record an album of his own material with the same title.
Gilberto Gil made his first self-titled record?ing in 1966. His musical fusion of bossa nova, samba, and other peripheral styles was so revolu?tionary that it frightened Brazil's military dictator?ship into arresting him. (He and Caetano Veloso were placed in solitary confinement while author?ities figured out what they wanted to do with the pair.) At this point, Mr. Gil was forced to leave for
ums University Musical Society
What Is Cabaret Song
First, what it is not. It is not For Musicians Only. No piano tinkling unmerrily away out for an evening of no fun, especially for the words whose un-accented syllables are deftly fudged by accented accompaniment. As Lester Young said, "Play the words."
But what is cabaret song Is it the long letter to the Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands sung by sad Dylan, or his commercial for psychedelics, Tambourine Man, or the John Wesley Harding dirge Unh unh, them's western ballads sung in saloons of the Pecos, not in cabarets, through Jacques Levy's lyrics to Dylan's hymn Durango saunter easily into the cabaret spot.
Dylan's partners, the Beats, don't sit too well either in the cabaret's dopeless smoke. Ginsberg's blues remain cantorial, stoned. Maybe Kerouac's hip haiku joined Stan Getz in a successful debut of improvisational lieder that could be listened to in a kind of club. Jazz and poetry spent a lot of time hanging out in bars, but jazz and poems do not generally a cabaret song make. Fran Landesman is the huge exception, supernally tal?ented writer of Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most, to be hoarsely incanted in the dark to all the Sad Young Men at the bar.
Cabaret stuff cannot be electrified to an audi?ence of teary old timers at the Palace or the kids at the Palladium nor yet to Felt Forum throngs. Maybe in a small concert hall but not really; that's more an experience brought about by the heart?breaking wear and tear of cabaret life on its ill-paid performers who need the occasional lucra?tive airing.
Despite Virgil Thomson's accusation that British ballads are ungainly, the snippy maestro and master critic might agree that certain poets certainly qualify as makers of the soft-sung poem that lends itself to cabaret rendering: Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, Campion, Sydney, Blake. And Dryden gave Purcell plenty to sing about in the key of cabaret.
But it is in Germany the rhinestone mantle of cabaret is worn most comfortably. Out of the Viennese cafe tradition that gave birth to Schubert's pop tunes, lieder in English, came the line from Oscar Straus to Brecht-Weill. Along the way, around the turn of our century, Schoenberg took time out from copying operetta scores to
write a few dozen items called Brettl-Lieder-cabaret songs.
Brecht and Weill, vowing to "write for today, to hell with posterity," produced their immortal numbers under national conditions of stress, adumbrated in the stridency of their sound and image. The Brecht-Weill lyric rasping was played in all the Berlin clubs and has been played in all the theaters of the western world ever since; played and played since those fearful times because they wrote for that "today" that comes around again and again.
Cabaret likes such ideas. It was ears-on educa?tion for a Germany with an education limited to the few, and (even to those educated few) cabaret songs told much of what journalism left out. But the facts and notions taught in the saw?dust classrooms of cabaret nite-life were collaged of poetry and flagrancy--not unlike the expres?sionist cinema of the day. And the lessons preached by Brecht of the preacher's family and the cantorial Weill were the doctrines of Einstein, Freud, and Marx decked out in the lipstick and mascara of cabaret.
The idea of Ideas as kissing cousins of popular song might make some sense if you remember that Bacon, Harvey and Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus were contemporaries of the same Elizabethan songmakers who gave us the innova?tions of sound and seriousness that characterize the lyrics output of Dowland, Morley, Blow, Byrd. And though there were no cabarets at the time, there were taverns and street-corners and the?aters where the small sound prevailed; folk and gentility met in the ballads that sang the news of the day.
The courtly and the popular were blended as early as the 15th century and wandered together with the chansonniers through the Renaissance. In Marriage a la Mode Dryden talks of notions "sung in cabarets," and Pepys in his diary (also of the 17th century) records walls that read "Dieu te garde" [God keep you] in the French cabarets. So it seems that cabarets favored political salt and amatory suit back then too.
But the most daring moment in the history of cabaret occurred in Zurich in February 1916. On that day Dada was born; in the chintzy sleazy unartistic unintellectual atmosphere of the Cabaret Voltaire, the movement that was to transform modern art and lay the groundwork for post-modernism was announced by a reading by
Murray Perahia
Piano
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven
J. S. Bach
Beethoven
Saturday Evening, March 17, 2007 at 8:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Piano Sonata No. 9 in E Major, Op. 14, No. 1
Allegro
Allegretto
Rondo: Allegro comodo
Partita No. 3 in a minor, BWV 827
Fantasia
Allemande
Corrente
Sarabande-Burlesca
Scherzo
Gigue
Piano Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 14, No. 2
Allegro
Andante
Scherzo
INTERMISSION
Tristan Tzara, followed by "performance art" by Arp and Kandinsky; lyrics by Wedekind, Morgenstern, Apollinaire, Marinette, Cendrars; designs by Modigliani, Picasso. Simultaneous reading of three poems "showing the struggle of the fox humana with...a universe of destruction whose noise is inescapable." (Hugo Ball's Diary).
An intellectually starved America, coming out of its long Puritanical fast, welcomed the new imports. Cabaret quality writing moved off the floor and onto the stage, where the '20s saw Rice's Adding Machine and Sophie Treadwell's Machinal, a kind of living newspaper that hap?pened to star Clark Gable; in the '30s Rome's Pins and Needles, Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, Weill's Johnny Johnson all had the episodic, col-lagistic approach characteristic of cabaret. Even Our Town has the spare, loose quality of revue, with the cohesiveness of real theme that makes it cabaret-like in form.
In England Auden had begun his campaign against the uncouth refinement of political rhetoric:
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone...
Let airplanes circle, mourning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message HE IS DEAD.
Put crepe bows round the necks of the pub?lic doves.
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
Clear and simple, but demanding that imagis-tic attention characteristic of the cabaret experi?ence. In some political bunker of their own archi-tecting, a couple of writers met and wrote the songs you'll hear [this evening].
Norse-American William Bolcom the composer studied with Roethke the poet, and before that, his feet barely hitting the pedals, Bill had played for the vaudeville shows passing through Seattle with such songs in the repertory as Best Damn Thing Am Lamb Lamb Lamb. Milhaud found Bill and brought him back alive to highbrow music, though he never lost his lowbrow soul (neither did Milhaud). Operas later, we wrote these songs as a cabaret in themselves, no production "val?ues" to worry about. The scene is the piano, the cast is the singer, in [our original] case Joan Morris, who inspired us with her subtle intima?tions of Exactly What She Wanted. We hope she
got it. Nobody defines better than she this elusive form of theater-poetry-lieder-pop-tavernacular prayer called cabaret song. --Arnold Weinstein Lyricist for Bolcom's Cabaret Songs.
Noted by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a singer of rare gifts and artistic intensity" and by the Washington Post for singing with "an all-encompassing warmth and joy, meld?ing honed artistry with youthful enthusiasm," Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman has emerged as one of the most magnificent per?formers and vibrant personalities of the day. She is critically acclaimed by the international press as much for her innate musicianship and radiant voice as for a sovereign stage presence far beyond her years. Her extraordinary versatility, intuitive musicality, and radiant star quality have yielded an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon.
A dynamic scope of repertoire coupled with a profound depth of artistic commitment bring Ms. Brueggergosman together with many of the finest international orchestras and most esteemed conductors of our day. During the 0607 season, symphonic performances include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony, with Daniel Barenboim and the Orchestra Teatro della Scala, and with Franz Welser-Most and the Cleveland Orchestra (in Cleveland and on tour); opera arias with Sir Andrew Davis and the New York Philharmonic; Schonberg's Brettl-Lieder and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; Gershwin songs with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Glasgow's Proms in the Park concert; and, with Gustavo Dudamel, performances of Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and of Strauss' Vier Letze Lieder with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra on tour in Sweden and France.
Deeply committed to the art of recital where her programs are likely to include less frequently-heard songs by Bolcom, Satie, and Montsalvatge alongside more familiar works by Mahler, Ravel, and Strauss, Ms. Brueggergosman's busy sched?ule includes solo recitals at London's Wigmore
58th Performance of the 128th Annual Season
128th Annual Choral Union Series
T7ie photographing or sound and video record?ing of this recital or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
This performance is supported by Donald Morelock and Ann and Clayton Wilhite.
Special thanks to ProQuest Company for its support of the UMS Classical Kids Club.
Tonight's Prelude Dinner was sponsored by TIAA-CREF.
Special thanks to Louis Nagel, Professor of Music (Piano), U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, for his participation in tonight's Prelude Dinner.
Media partnership provided by WGTE 91.3 FM and Observer & Eccentric newspapers.
The Steinway piano used in this evening's recital is made possible by William and Mary Palmer and by Hammell Music, Inc., Livonia, Michigan.
Special thanks to Tom Thompson of Tom Thompson Flowers, Ann Arbor, for his generous contribution of floral art for tonight's recital.
Special thanks to Steven Ball for coordinating the pre-concert music on the Charles Baird Carillon.
Mr. Perahia records exclusively for Sony Classical.
Mr. Perahia appears by arrangement with IMG Artists, New York, NY.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Measha Brueggergosman
Hall and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels with Roger Vignoles, in Gstaad with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and at Hertz Hall in Berkeley and Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor with J.J. Penna. Notable performances of the recent past have included William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience with Leonard Slatkin and the orchestra and chorus of the University of Michigan, record?ed and released commercially by the Naxos label and winner of multiple Grammy Awards.
Ms. Brueggergosman has been honored to participate in a number of very special events including the gala re-openings of Roy Thomson Hall and of the University of Michigan's Hill Auditorium, Canada Day celebrations from Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and the opening cere?monies of the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto--her performance presented under the auspices of MAC Cosmetics--sharing the stage with Bill Gates and President Bill Clinton. She has performed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland during two consecutive years, and has given a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II. She also has sung for the Prince of Wales, President Tarja
Halonen of Finland, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, and Nelson Mandela.
So Much to Tell, Ms. Brueggergosman's first solo commercial recording on the CBC Records label, with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and conductor Roy Goodman, features music by Barber, Copland, and Gershwin. Her second release for CBC Records, Extase, presents a sump?tuous program of Berlioz's Les nuits d'ete and Massenet opera arias with Yoav Talmi and the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec.
Ms. Brueggergosman has been the subject of a full-length feature documentary, Spirit in her Voice, aired by the CBC network and she has starred in numerous independent short music-films including Go Diva! and Infinite Dream. She joined an illustrious panel of celebrity judges on the Idol Underground competition, an artist driv?en alter-ego of the American Idol and Canadian Idol brand, and appeared as a special celebrity guest on television episodes of The Surreal Gourmet, Opening Night, Bathroom Divas, and Bravo Arts & Minds. Comprehensive performance and career information is found at www. measha. com.
Ms. Brueggergosman was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2002 Jeunesses Musicales Montreal International Competition and has been a prizewinner at The Dutch International Vocal Competition's-Hertogenbosch, the Wigmore Hall in London, George London Foundation in New York, The Queen Sonja International Music Competition in Oslo, and the ARD Music Competition in Munich. She also is a recipient of the prestigious Canada Council and Chalmers Performing Arts Grants. She studied at the University of Toronto with Mary Morrison and pursued postgraduate studies in Germany with Edith Wiens.
Composerpianist William Bolcom was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. Exhibiting musical talent while still very young, he began private composition studies at age 11 with John Verrall and piano lessons with Berthe Poncy Jacobson at the University of Washington. In 1958 Bolcom earned his B.A. from the University of Washington, then went on to study with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in California and at the Paris Conservatoire de
Musique, and earned a doctorate in composition in 1964 from Stanford University, working with Leland Smith. Returning to the Paris Conservatoire, he won the 2e Prix in Composition in 1965. While in Europe he began writing stage scores for theaters in West Germany, continuing at Stanford University, in Memphis, Tennessee, at Lincoln Center in New York, and the Yale Repertory Theater.
Mr. Bolcom's compositions include four violin sonatas; eight symphonies; three operas (McTeague, A View from the Bridge, and A Wedding), plus several musical theater operas; 11 string quartets; two film scores (Hester Street and Illuminata); incidental music for stage plays (including Arthur Miller's Broken Glass); fanfares and occasional pieces; and numerous chamber, keyboard, choral and vocal works.
Mr. Bolcom's setting of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, a full-evening work for soloists, choruses, and orchestra, culmi?nated 25 years of work on the piece. Premiered at the Stuttgart Opera in 1984, subsequent per?formances followed in Ann Arbor, Chicago's Grant Park, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Powell Hall in St. Louis, Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall in London (broadcast live on BBC
Radio 3 throughout the United Kingdom), and La Jolla, California. The April 8, 2004, performance in Ann Arbor, Michigan, commemorated the reopening of recently-renovated Hill Auditorium and occurred, almost to the day, 20 years after the US premiere in the same hall. Utilizing the University of Michigan School of Music orchestra, various choirs and professional soloists, it was recorded by Naxos and won four Grammys in February 2006.
Mr. Bolcom's Grammy nominations from previ?ous years were for recordings of his Fourth Symphony (featuring Joan Morris as soloist) with Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Orphee-Serenade, recorded by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with Mr. Bolcom as pianist.
Other highlights of the last two decades include various symphonic premieres and operas. James Levine and the Vienna Philharmonic pre?miered the Fantasia Concertante for viola, cello, and orchestra in 1986 at the Mozarteum in Salzburg; the Fifth Symphony was premiered in 1990 by The Philadelphia Orchestra and Maestro Davies. Also under Davies' baton, Bolcom's first opera, McTeague starring Ben Heppner in the title role and Catherine Malfitano as his wife
Trina, was premiered by the Lyric Opera in Chicago on October 31, 1992, and subsequently played to nine sold-out houses. The University of Indiana at Bloomington presented four perform?ances in February and March 1996. Maestro Davies also presided at nine sold-out performanc?es of A View from the Bridge in October and November 1999 in Chicago, as well as at The Metropolitan Opera in December 2002. The University of Indiana at Bloomington, Pittsburgh Opera Theater and Portland Opera have also pro?duced View.
Mr. Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein's 1990 cabaret opera, Casino Paradise, was revived by the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia in May 2004 and was presented as part of the American Songbook Series in the Allen Room of Jazz at Lincoln Center in February 2005.
Future commissions include a fourth opera for Lyric Opera of Chicago; an adaptation of Idiot's Delight, featuring Joan Morris, for Milwaukee's Florentine Opera; a string octet; and a work for the University of Michigan Bands.
Mr. Bolcom has taught composition at the University of Michigan since 1973; he has been a full professor since 1983 and was Chairman of the Composition Department from 1998 to 2003. In the fall of 1994 the University of Michigan named him the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Music in Composition. During the fall 2003 semester he was in residence
at the American Academy in Rome and was the Ernest Bloch Composer in Residence at UC Berkeley during the winter of 2005.
Pianist J.J. Penna has performed in recital with such eminent singers as Kathleen Battle, Harolyn Blackwell, William Burden, Amy Burton, David Daniels, Denyce Graves, Kevin McMillan, Florence Quivar, Andreas Scholl, Sharon Sweet, Christopher Trakas, Indra Thomas, and Ying Huang. He has been heard at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC; Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, and Merkin Recital Hall in New York; the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City; Seizi Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood; Wigmore Hall in London; as well as on concert tours throughout the US, Europe, Asia, the Far East, South America, and the former Soviet Union. Devoted to the per?formance and study of new music, he has pre?miered song cycles by William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Hundley, and Lowell Liebermann.
The 0607 season includes recitals with Measha Brueggergosman, Harolyn Blackwell, William Burden, and Joshua Hopkins throughout the US and Canada.
Mr. Penna has performed and held fellowships at prestigious festivals such as Tanglewood Music Center, Chautauqua Institution, Banff Center for the Arts, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, and San Francisco Opera Center's Merola Program, where he
received the Otto Guth Award.
Mr. Penna devotes much of his time to the teaching of art song literature, having taught at Westminster Choir College of Rider University since 1996. He was formerly on the faculties of the Yale University School of Music, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Bowdoin Chamber Music Festival, where he coordinated the Vocal Arts Program for three summers. He has been a staff member of the Steans Institute for Young Artists since 2000 and joined the coaching faculty of the Juilliard School in September of 2006.
J.J. Penna
Murray Perahia
endary pianist Alfred Cortot, which resulted in the highly acclaimed Sony CD release, Alfred Cortot: The Master Classes.
Mr. Perahia's current season includes recitals in Amsterdam and London, as well as throughout North America including Vancouver; Ottawa; San Francisco; Santa Barbara; Portland, Oregon; Costa Mesa; Kansas City; and North Carolina; culminat?ing at Lincoln Center in New York. He will also appear as soloist and conductor with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in European cities including Paris, Prague, Zurich, London, and Berlin.
Mr. Perahia has a wide and varied discogra-phy. His most recent solo recording features Franz Schubert's Late Piano Sonatas (D. 958, 959, and 960). His recording of Frederic Chopin's complete Etudes, Op. 10 and Op. 25, garnered him both the 2003 Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Soloist Performance" and Gramophone's 2003 award for "Best Instrumental Recording." His spe?cial association with the music of Bach is evident in his recent recordings of Bach Keyboard Concertos and the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. His recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations received two Grammy nominations and won the 2001 Gramophone Award for "Best Instrumental Recording." It was on the Top 10 Billboard Classical Chart for 15 weeks. In 1999, he won a Grammy for his recording of Bach's English Suites (Nos. 1, 3, and 6), and in 1995 and 1997, he won Gramophone magazine awards for albums of Chopin ballades and music by Handel and Scarlatti. In 1998 Sony Classical released a four-disc set commemorating 25 years of his record?ings issued under this label.
Born in New York, Mr. Perahia started play?ing piano at the age of four, and later attended Mannes College where he majored in conducting and composition. His summers were spent in Marlboro, where he collaborated with such musi?cians as Rudolf Serkin, Pablo Casals, and the members of the Budapest String Quartet. He also studied at the time with Mieczyslaw Horszowski. In subsequent years, he developed a close friend?ship with Vladimir Horowitz whose perspective and personality were an abiding inspiration.
In 1972 Mr. Perahia won the Leeds International Piano Competition. In 1973 he gave his first concert at the Aldeburgh Festival, where he worked closely with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, accompanying the latter in many lieder recitals. Mr. Perahia was co-artistic director of the Festival from 1981 to 1989.
Mr. Perahia is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, and he holds an honorary doctorate from Leeds University.
UMS ARCHIVES
This evening's recital marks Murray Perahia's 11th appearance under UMS auspices. Mr. Perahia made his UMS debut in October 1977 in recital at Rackham Auditorium in a program of Beethoven, Chopin, and Schubert. Mr. Perahia last visited Ann Arbor in March 2001 as leader and pianist with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in a concert performance at Hill Auditorium.
ums University Musical Society
presents
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Myung-Whun Chung, Conductor
Program
Maurice Ravel
Hector Berlioz
Tuesday Evening, March 20, 2007 at 8:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Ma mere I'oye (Mother Goose Suite)
Prelude
Danse du Rouet (Dance of the Spinning-Wheel)
Pavane de la Belle au Bois dormant (Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty)
Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bete
(Conversations of Beauty and the Beast) Petit Poucet (Tom Thumb) Laideronnette, lmpeatrice des Pagodes
(Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas) Le jardin feerique (The Fairy Garden)
INTERMISSION
Symphonie fantastique. Op. 14
Reveries, Passions
Un Bal (A Ball)
Scene aux champs (Scene in the Country)
Marche au supplice (March to the Scaffold)
Songe d'une nuit du sabbat (Dream of a Witches' Sabbath)
59th Performance of the 128th Annual Season
128th Annual Choral Union Series
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Tonight's performance is supported by the Estate of Melanie McCray.
Special thanks to ProQuest Company for its support of the UMS Classical Kids Club.
Media partnership provided by WGTE 91.3 FM and Observer & Eccentric newspapers.
Special thanks to Tom Thompson of Tom Thompson Flowers, Ann Arbor, for his generous contribution of lobby floral art for tonight's concert.
Special thanks to Steven Ball for coordinating the pre-concert music on the Charles Baird Carillon.
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France's 2007 US Tour has been gener?ously sponsored by Domaine Faiveley, CBS Outdoor, and CULTURESFRANCE.
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France appears by arrangement with Columbia Artists Managmement, LLC.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Ma mere I'oye (Mother Goose Suite) (1908-1911)
Maurice Ravel
Born March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, France
Died December 28, 1937 in Paris
Maurice Ravel's Mother Goose has nothing to do with "Humpty-Dumpty" or "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater." His Mother Goose (or Ma mere I'oye) is a French story-teller, famous since 1697, the year Charles Perrault (1628-1703) published his collection of old and new tales in a book that became known popularly as "Mother Goose." The collection contained, among others, the sto?ries of Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood.
Ravel was inspired by Perrault's collection as well as some other fairy-tale classics when, in 1908, he decided to write a short suite for piano duet, intended as a gift for Mimi and Jean Godebski, the children of his friends Cipa and Ida Godebski. He orchestrated the suite in 1911, and the same year, he expanded it into a ballet score by adding two new movements and a few inter?ludes. The two new movements, "Prelude" and "Spinning-Wheel Dance and Scene," precede the five taken from the piano suite.
Ravel's original idea in Ma mere I'oye had been to write a children's piece that could be per?formed by children. He initially intended the work to be played by Jean and Mimi. In the end, the suite proved too difficult for the young Godebskis, and Ravel recruited two extremely gifted young pianists, Jeanne Leleu and Genevieve Durony (six and seven years old, respectively), for the premiere. His intention to write music that children would appreciate is reflected by the simplicity of the melodic writing, apparent even in the lush colors of the orchestral writing.
Prelude
In order to transform his suite of self-contained scenes into a coherent ballet, Ravel chose the tale of Sleeping Beauty as his central storyline, with the other stories appearing as dreams seen by the princess during her 100-year slumber. The fairy?tale atmosphere is established in the "Prelude" with haunting horn calls, mystical string tremolos, and some woodwind figures imitating the birds of the forest. Some of the melodies of the subse-
quent movements are also anticipated, such as the theme of the Sleeping Beauty's Pavane and the sigh of the Beast (solo contrabass).
Dance of the Spinning-Wheel (Danse du Rouet)
The dance follows without a break. The young princess, playing with the spinning-wheel, is wounded by the distaff and loses consciousness. The lively 68 rhythms and rolling 16th-note fig?ures that have been associated with the spinning-wheel, at least since Schubert's song "Gretchen am Spinnrade," are suddenly interrupted by a menacing woodwind motif. As the Princess falls asleep, the opening figure of the prelude returns to set the stage for the "five children's pieces" (cinq pieces enfantines) that are about to begin. (Ravel slightly changed their order from the origi?nal, moving up the scene of Beauty and the Beast to follow directly after the Pavane.)
Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty (Pavane de la Belle au Bois dormant)
The Pavane is a slow dance of Spanish origin to which Ravel had first turned in his early Pavane for a Dead Princess. In the original version, this new Pavane was rather brief, consisting of a sin?gle motif, soft and delicate, repeated by various instruments of the orchestra. Ravel expanded it in the ballet considerably, introducing a Good Fairy who gives a signal with her whistle (piccolo), whereupon two blackamoors appear on the stage. According to the scenario printed in the score:
The Fairy entrusts them with the task of guarding the Princess's sleep and disap?pears. The blackamoors come forward, towards the Princess and take ceremonial bows. They unfold a banner on which is written the name of the first tale to be told: 'The Conversations of Beauty and the Beast.'
Conversations of Beauty and the Beast (Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bete)
This story is very well known, but few actually remember the name of its author, Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1757). The conversation that inspired the music was reprinted in the score:
"When I think of your good heart, you
don't seem so ugly." "Oh, I should say so! I have a good heart,
but I am a monster." "There are many men who are more
monstrous than you." "If I were witty I would pay you a great
compliment to thank you, but I am
only a beast."
"Beauty, would you like to be my wife" "No, Beast!"
"I die happy because I have the pleasure of seeing you once again."
"No, my dear Beast, you shall not die. You shall live to become my husband."
...The Beast had disappeared, and she beheld at her feet a prince more handsome than Amor, who was thanking her for having lifted his spell.
The movement is in the tempo of a slow waltz. The Beauty is represented by the clarinet, the Beast by the contrabassoon. The two instru?ments take turns at first, and then join in a duet that becomes more and more impassioned. After a fortissimo climax and a measure of silence, an expressive violin solo (with harmonics) brings the movement back to its original tempo as the Beast is transformed into a handsome prince. For the ballet version, Ravel added a short interlude in which the blackamoors greet the Princess and unroll a new banner with the name of the next story.
Tom Thumb (Petit Poucet)
The score is preceded by a short excerpt from Perrault's story:
He thought he would be able to find the path easily by means of the bread he had strewn wherever he had walked. But he was quite surprised when he couldn't find a single crumb; the birds had come and eaten them all.
Tom Thumb's wanderings are depicted here by a steady motion in eighth-notes in the strings, over which the woodwinds play a quiet "walk?ing" melody. The birds referred to in the story are indicated by a solo violin playing harmonic glis-
sandos against a twittering flute and piccolo.
The interlude following this scene, in which the blackamoors bring out yet another banner, contains a virtuoso cadenza for harp and celesta.
Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas (Laideronnette, Imperatrice des Pagodes)
The story on which this movement was based was written by the Countess d'Aulnoy, a contempo?rary of Perrault. The heroine is a beautiful princess who was made ugly by a wicked witch. She trav?els to a distant country inhabited by tiny, munchkin-like people called "pagodes." (Eventually, as one might expect, she is restored to her original beauty and finds her Prince Charming.)
As in the previous movements, Ravel con?centrated on a single image from the story, and he wrote it down at the head of the score:
She undressed and got into the bath. Immediately the pagodes and pagodesses began to sing and to play instruments. Some had theorbos [large lutes] made from walnut shells; some had viols made from almond shells; for the instruments had to be of a size appropriate to their own.
The music is a study in turn-of-the-century Orientalism, with a lively pentatonic melody (playable on the black keys of the piano), color?fully orchestrated. In a more serious middle sec?tion, Little Homely dances with the Green Serpent (who will turn out to be Prince Charming, also disguised by an evil spell). The dance of the "pagodes" then returns, followed by an interlude that begins with a horn fanfare evoking a hunt. "Everyone withdraws in haste; the blackamoors hurry to lift up the canvas in the back," revealing the fairyworld of the prelude, whose musical material briefly returns as a transition to "The Fairy Garden."
The Fairy Garden (Le jardin feerique)
This movement does not seem to be based on any particular fairy tale. It is a celebration of the splen?dor of this miraculous garden, where the sun never goes down and everyone lives a blessed and happy life. The music is a single crescendo from a soft and low string sonority to a veritable feast of sound, resplendent with harp, celesta, and glock-
enspiel. In the ballet, this is obviously the moment where Prince Charming arrives and awakens the Princess, the two of them living happily ever after.
Symphonie fantastique. Op. 14 (1830)
Hector Berlioz
Born December 71, 1803 in
La Cote-Saint-Andre, France Died March 8, 1869 in Paris
Berlioz claimed to "take up music where Beethoven had left it off." The Fantastique is cer?tainly indebted to Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 ("Pastorale"), in which a fifth movement had been added to the usual four and each movement had a programmatic title. But Berlioz took the idea of program music much further than Beethoven had done. In addition to providing titles for the symphony as a whole ("Episode from the Life of an Artist") and its individual move?ments, Berlioz wrote an extensive literary program that he insisted should be distributed to the audi?ence in the concert hall.1
Over the years, Berlioz revised the program several times just as he kept revising the music. The main difference between the original pro?gram and its revision is that in the first version, only the last two movements represent the artist's dreams under the influence of opium, while in the revision the entire symphony is a dream.
In the first edition of 1845, the program reads as follows:
The composer's intention has been to treat of various states in the life of an artist, inso?far as they have musical quality. Since this instrumental drama lacks the assistance of words, an advance explication of its plan is necessary. The following program, there?fore, should be thought of as if it were the spoken text of an opera, serving to intro?duce the musical movements and to explain their character and expression.
Episode in the Life of an Artist First Movement Daydreams--Passions
The composer imagines that a young musician, troubled by that spiritual sick?ness which a famous writer2 has called "le vague des passions," sees for the first time a woman who possesses all the
charms of the ideal being he has dreamed of, and falls desperately in love with her. By some strange trick of fancy, the beloved vision never appears to the artist's mind except in association with a musical idea, in which he perceives the same char?acter--impassioned, yet refined and diffi?dent--that he attributes to the object of his love.
This melodic image and its model pursue him unceasingly like a double idee fixe. That is why the tune at the begin?ning of the first allegro constantly recurs in every movement of the symphony. The transition from a state of dreamy melan?choly, interrupted by several fits of aimless joy, to one of delirious passion, with its impulses of rage and jealousy, its return?ing moments of tenderness, its tears, and its religious solace, is the subject of the first movement.
Second Movement A Ball
The artist is placed in the most varied cir?cumstances: amid the hubbub of a carni?val, in peaceful contemplation of the beauty of nature--but everywhere, in town, in the meadows, the beloved vision appears before him, bringing trouble to his soul.
Third Movement Scene in the Country
One evening in the country, he hears in the distance two shepherds playing the ranz des vaches3; this pastoral duet, the effect of his surroundings, the slight rus?tle of the trees gently stirred by the wind, certain feelings of hope which he has been recently entertaining--all combine to bring an unfamiliar peace to his heart, and a more cheerful color to his thoughts. He thinks of his loneliness; he hopes soon to be alone no longer... But suppose she deceives him!... This mixture of hope and fear, these thoughts of happiness dis?turbed by dark forebodings, form the subject of the Adagio. At the end, one of the shepherds again takes up the ranz des vaches; the other no longer answers... Sounds of distant thunder...solitude... silence...
Fourth Movement March to the Scaffold
The artist, now knowing beyond doubt that his love is not returned, poisons him?self with opium. The dose of the narcotic, too weak to take his life, plunges him into a sleep accompanied by the most terrible visions. He dreams that he has killed the woman he loved, and that he is con?demned to death, brought to the scaf?fold, and witnesses his own execution. The procession is accompanied by a march that is sometimes fierce and somber, sometimes stately and brilliant; loud crashes are followed abruptly by the dull thud of heavy footfalls. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idee fixe recur like a last thought of love inter?rupted by the fatal stroke.
Fifth Movement
Dream of a Witches' Sabbath
He sees himself at the witches' sabbath, in the midst of a ghastly crowd of spirits, sor?cerers, and monsters of every kind, assem?bled for his funeral. Strange noises, groans, bursts of laughter, far-off shouts to which other shouts seem to reply. The beloved tune appears once more, but it has lost its character of refinement and diffidence; it has become nothing but a common dance tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who has come to the sabbath... A roar of joy greets her arrival... She mingles with the devilish orgy... Funeral knell, ludicrous parody of the Dies irae, sabbath dance. The sabbath dance and the Dies irae in combination.
Anyone having read this program is likely to remember the witches, the execution, and the ball, but it is easy to forget the very first sentence, according to which these figures and events are represented "insofar as they have musical quality" (dans ce qu'elles ont de musical). In other words, the program isn't really an "extra-musical" one, since it builds upon musical types such as dance, march, or plainchant, endowing them with some more concrete meanings. Music and program are strongly interdependent: the musical style of the symphony, with its many unusual features, would
hardly make sense without the program, but the program itself is full of musical references.
Some of the dreams described in the pro?gram were undoubtedly Berlioz's own (and we know that he had tried opium shortly before writ?ing the symphony). There was a woman in real life who seemed to him to "possess all the charms of the ideal being"; this idee fixe was named Harriet Smithson, an Irish-born actress playing Shakespearean roles in an English company in Paris. Berlioz fell madly in love with Smithson after seeing her on stage just once, and his passion was burning for several years even though he had never met her in person. (They did eventually meet; they got married, had a son, were unhappy ever after, and, finally, separated--but that's quite another story.)
The Symphonie Fantastique reflects Berlioz's intense feelings at the time of his infatuation with Harriet Smithson; yet some of the work's themes came from earlier compositions. The tune of the opening Largo was taken from a song of Berlioz's adolescence, and parts of the idee fixe may be found in an early cantata. Most importantly, the fourth-movement March seems to have come from Berlioz's unfinished opera Les Francs-Juges (The Self-Appointed Judges, 1826), a tale about a band of vigilantes in medieval Germany (we have only indirect knowledge of this connection since the march does not survive in its original form). Some critics have argued that the presence of these self-borrowings diminishes the relevance of the program (after all, some of the music was originally composed with other ideas in mind), but in reality, the program and the new context effectively change the meaning of these bor?rowed themes which fit in perfectly with the newly composed materials.
To start at the beginning--the slow intro?duction to the first movement--there is so much more to it than that tune taken from a childhood essay. It contains some highly agitated passages where the conventional melody is suddenly swept away by utterly new sounds. The Allegro agitato has been said to be a fairly regular sonata move?ment; yet the exposition is extremely brief and consists merely of the first appearance of the id?e fixe, followed by what could be described as tran?sition material (containing some truly hair-raising modulations). The development section is inter?rupted by a passage in which all thematic rela?tionships are suspended: all we hear is ascending
and descending chromatic scales in the strings, with frightening interjections from woodwinds and horns. Then, a three-measure general rest fol?lows, after which all the rules of the sonata form are thrown overboard. It is at this point that we hear the only complete recapitulation of the idee fixe (but not in the home key), followed by more development, including a wonderful counterpoint to the idee fixe played by the solo oboe (we are told that it was a compositional afterthought). The idee fixe, in varied form, is soon taken up by the whole orchestra, but by this time we are clear?ly in the coda of the movement. The first segment of the idee fixe and a series of C-Major and F-Major chords end the movement, to be played, according to Berlioz's instructions, "as soft as pos?sible."
The second movement ("A Ball") had origi?nally stood in third place, but Berlioz soon reversed the two movements, so that a central slow movement is now flanked by a dance and a march. The ball scene starts with a transition from the first movement's C Major to A Major, the key of the waltz that follows. The dance is twice inter?rupted by the idee fixe that appears in foreign keys to "disturb the artist's peace of mind."
The ranz des vaches that opens the third movement ("Scene in the Country") is a dialogue between the English horn and the oboe (the lat?ter positioned, according to the instructions, behind the scene). It is not an actual quote from an alpine folksong; yet Robert Schumann found it so convincing that he wrote in his famous review of the symphony: "Just wander about the Alps and other shepherds' haunts and listen to the shawms and alphorns; that's exactly the way they sound." The movement's main theme is intro?duced by the flute and the first violins (the same combination that played the idee fixe for the first time!) and brought to a climax by the full orches?tra. The idee fixe is then heard again in the flute and the oboe. The meadow scene has a symmet?rical structure; after the idee fixe, the main theme
returns, followed by a coda in which we hear the ranz des vaches again.
The fourth movement, "March to the Scaffold," is one of the wonders of orchestration, with effects such as the pizzicatos (plucked strings) of the divided double basses and the innovative tremolos of the timpani. The move?ment's first idea is a seven-note descending scale figure superimposed on a six-note rhythmic pat?tern--because of this discrepancy, the music never repeats itself exactly. The second idea is a regular march theme dominated by the distinctive sonority of the brass, especially the trombones and ophicleides (tubas). At the end of this move?ment, the solo clarinet intones the idee fixe, as the artist's last thought before the guillotine comes down on him with a fatal blow.
It is perhaps in the last movement that Berlioz went the farthest in his innovations of both sound and musical form. The slow introduc?tion to this movement with its special uses of per?cussion and novel wind effects creates an eerie suspense, into which bursts a cruel parody of the idee fixe, first scored for C-clarinet, and then for the shrill-sounding small E-flat clarinet. It is the image of the artist's beloved turned into a witch and showing up at the sabbath! The "devilish orgy" begins with the Gregorian melody of the "Dies irae," the sequence from the Mass of the Dead, presented in slow notes by the bassoons and tubas, repeated in a faster tempo by the horns, and finally transformed into a dance tune by the woodwind. The witches begin a round dance which is eventually combined with the "Dies irae" and brings the symphony to a truly blood-curdling close.
Many listeners in the 1830s were complete?ly taken aback by the novelties of Berlioz's sym?phony. The musicologist Francois-Joseph F6tis wrote a scathing review, but even as great a musi?cian as Mendelssohn found it "utterly loathsome" and depressing, even though he had met Berlioz and found him a thoroughly likable person. It is all
1 Later, when Berlioz thought of the Symphonie fantastique and its sequel Lilio as a single work, he made a concession by allowing the distribution of the program to be dispensed with if the symphony was played by itself; however, he clear?ly preferred making the program known to the audience.
The "famous writer" is Francois-Rene Chateaubriand (1768-1848), whose Rene was widely read at the time. In this book, Chateaubriand defined "the vagueness of passion" as an
emotional state that "precedes the development of great passions, when all the faculties, young, lively, and whole, but closed, have only acted on themselves, without aim and with?out object."
3The ranz des vaches is "a type of Swiss mountain melody played on the alphorn by herdsmen to summon their cows" (Harvard Dictionary of Music).
the more surprising that Schumann devoted one of the longest and most analytical of his critical essays to the Fantastique. Schumann had not heard the piece and knew it only from Liszt's pub?lished piano transcription. His review, written in response to Fetis's attack, was full of admiration. Although he did see some flaws in the work, he was one of the first to recognize Berlioz's genius. As a direct result of his article, the French com?poser's name became widely known in German musical circles, and his international career was under way.
Program notes by Peter Laki.
Myung-Whun Chung began his musical career as a pianist, making his debut at the age of seven. In 1974 he won the second prize at the Tchaikovsky piano competi?tion in Moscow. After his musical studies at the Mannes School and The Juilliard School in New York, he became Carlo Maria Giulini's assistant in 1979 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and two years later he was named Associate Conductor.
Maestro Chung was Music Director of the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1990, Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale of Florence from 1987 to 1992, Music Director of the Opera de Paris-Bastille from 1989 to 1994, and Principal Conductor at the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome from 1997 to 2005. He has been Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France since 2000.
Maestro Chung has conducted virtually all the world's leading orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw, all the major London and Parisian Orchestras, Filharmonica della Scala, Bayerisch Rundfunk, Dresden Staatskapelle, Boston and Chicago Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras.
As a recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon, many of his numerous recordings have won international prizes and awards. He has been the recipient of honors and prizes for his artistic work, including the Premio Abbiati and the Arturo Toscanini prize in Italy and the Legion d'Honneur (1992) in France; in 1991, the Association of French Theatres and Music Critics named him "Artist of the Year" and in 1995 and 2002 he won the prize Victoire de la Musique.
Deeply sensitive to humanitarian and eco?logical problems of our age, Maestro Chung has devoted an important part of his life to these causes. He served as Ambassador for the Drug Control Program at the United Nations (UNDCP); in 1995, he was named "Man of the Year" by UNESCO; and in 1996, he received the "Kumkuan," the highest cultural award of the Korean government for his contribution to Korean musical life. Maestro Chung now serves as Honorary Cultural Ambassador for Korea, the first in the Korean government's history.
The current season marks a double anniver?sary for the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. 2007 is the 70th anniversary of the original Philharmonic Orchestra of the French National Radio Broadcasting Company, founded in the 1930s, along with the National Orchestra, Lyric Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of the French Radio. Perhaps more importantly, 2007 also marks the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the current Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (known as the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique until 1989), which was re-instituted in 1976, inspired by Pierre Boulez's critiques of traditional symphony orches?tras at a time when he was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic and the London BBC Orchestra.
Myung-Whun Chung
What makes the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France so unique is its ability to adapt to all possible configurations in the repertoire, from classicism to our time. Its 141 musicians can be simultaneously divided into several groups to per?form as an instrumental ensemble, a chamber orchestra, or a full symphonic orchestra. Thanks to this adaptability, the Orchestre Philharmonique makes it possible for Radio France to provide its concert and radio audiences with a wide range of original programs. These are performed at the Pleyel concert hall, the Olivier Messiaen concert hall, the Cite de la Musique, and the Chatelet Theatre.
Since the renovated Pleyel concert hall opened in September 2006, the majority of works for full orchestra are now presented there and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France will be in residence for at least 20 original programs. The Orchestre Philharmonique will also perform rare works and contemporary music in Radio France's Olivier Messiaen hall for one final season before the building closes for renovation. The construc?tion of a new 1500-seat auditorium will be com?pleted between 2010 and 2012.
At the Cite de la Musique, the orchestra is pleased to participate in its original thematic pro?gramming. This season, the concerts given there will focus on the great composers of the 20th century. During the construction of Radio France's new auditorium, this collaboration will be rein?forced and diversified. The Orchestre Philharmonique also takes part in the Chatelet Theatre's lyric season, from staged opera produc?tions to oratorio concerts.
Lastly, the Orchestre Philharmonique enjoys giving young audiences and families the tools to understand the symphonic repertoire, which they do with humor and with the participation of com?poser, pianist, and improviser Jean-Francois Zygel.
The Orchestre Philharmonique musicians and their Music Director Myung-Whun Chung have been working together since May 2000. Their partnership has been marked by several tours to Asia, the US, and throughout Europe. This season, the orchestra is invited to Vienna's Musikverein for a four-concert residency; to Germany; to the US for a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, and, for the first time, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. They will also give a series of concerts throughout Asia, Japan, Korea, and China.
Last season, the musicians of the Orchestre Philharmonique took great pleasure in performing with exceptional artists such as Pierre Boulez and Valery Gergiev. Over the years they have also developed privileged relationships with some of the finest conductors of the new generation including Gustavo Dudamel, Mikko Franck, Alan Gilbert, PaavoJarvi, Philippe Jordan, Kazuchi Ono, Pascal Rophe, and Tugan Sokhiev. They have also fostered close ties with Vladimir Fedoseyev, Eliahu Inbal, Armin Jordan, and Leonard Slatkin. In addi?tion, Paul McCreesh and Ton Koopman are work?ing with the Orchestre Philharmonique to develop their approach to the classical repertoire revisited on period instruments.
As the privileged partner of Radio France's Presences festival and a contributor to Ircam's Agora festival, the Orchestre Philharmonique has welcomed numerous composer-conductors including Luciano Berio, Witold Lutoslawski, Thomas Ades, George Benjamin, Marc-Andre Dalbavie, Magnus Lindberg, and Krzystof Penderecki. Today, the orchestra works in close collaboration with Peter Eotvos.
The Orchestre Philharmonique is also direct?ly involved in recording activities. This season the orchestra will make recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Emi, Virgin Classics, Naive, Decca, and BMG-Sony.
UMS ARCHIVES
This evening's concert marks both Maestro Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France's second appearances under UMS auspices. Maestro Chung made his UMS debut leading the Orchestre Philharmonique in November 2002 in a program including Messiaen's TurangalJa-symphonie at Orchestra Hall in Detroit dur?ing the 18-month renovation of Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor.
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
US Tour 2007
Myung-Whun Chung, Conductor
Violins Svetlin Roussev,
Concertmaster Virginie Buscail Mihai" Ritter Catherine Lorrain Juan-Firmin Ciriaco Emmanuel Andre Martin Blondeau Floriane Bonanni Florent Brannens Therese Desbeaux Aurore Doise Beatrice Gaugue-Natorp Edmond Israelievitch Mireille Jardon Jean-Philippe Kuzma Jean-Christophe Lamacque Arno Madoni Virginie Michel Simona Moise Pascal Oddon Franchise Perrin Cede Peyrol Celine Planes Sophie Pradel
Marie-Josee Romain-Ritchot Isabelle Souvignet Sylvie Tallec Thomas Tercieux Veronique Tercieux-Engelhard Anne Villette
Violas
Christophe Gaugue Fanny Coupe Daniel Vagner Marie-Emeline Charpentier Sophie Groseil Elodie Guillot Anne-Michele Lienard Jacques Maillard Frederic Maindive Benoit Marin Martine Schouman Marie-France Vigneron
Cellos
Eric Levionnois Catherine de Vencay Jerdme Pinget Marion Gailland Renaud Guieu Yves Bellec Morgan Gabin Elisabeth Maindive Stephane Manent Lionel Wantelez
Basses
Christophe Dinaut Jean Thevenet Jean-Marc Loisel Daniel Bonne Jean-Pierre Constant Dominique Serri Dominique Tournier Henri Wojtkowiak
Flutes
Magali Mosnier Thomas Prevost Michel Rousseau Emmanuel Burlet Nels Lindeblad
Oboes
Jean-Louis Capezzali Helene Devilleneuve Jean-Christophe Gayot Stephane Part Stephane Suchanek
Clarinets
Jer6me Voisin Jean-Pascal Post Didier Pernoit Bruno Martinez Gaelle Burgelin
Bassoons
Jean-Franc.ois Duquesnoy Stephane Coutaz Cecile Hardouin Francis Pottiez Denis Schricke
Horns
Jean-Jacques Justafre Antoine Dreyfuss Sylvain Delcroix Paul Minck Xavier Agogue Jean-Claude Barro Isabelle Bigare Matthieu Siegrist
Trumpets
Bruno Nouvion Gerard Boulanger Jean-Pierre Odasso Gilles Mercier Jean-Luc Ramecourt
Trombones
Patrice Buecher Antoine Ganaye Alain Manfrin
Bass Trombone
Franz Masson
Tuba
Victor Letter Francois Thuillier
Timpani
Jean-Claude Gengembre Benoit Gaudelette
Percussion
Renaud Muzzolini Francis Petit Gilles Durot Didier Lamarre
Harps
Nabila Chajai Teresa Zimmermann
Piano and Celesta
Catherine Cournot Claude Collet
Artistic Director
Eric Montalbetti
Administrative Director
Benoit Braescu
Principal Manager Patrice Jean-Noel
Public Relations
Annick Nogues
Press Officer
Pascale Pommat
Orchestra Controllers
Olivier Larde Philippe Le Bour
Stage Managers
Gilles Banvoy Christophe Doiteau