UMS Concert Program, Sunday Jan. 29 To Mar. 17: Pure Michigan Renegade --

Season: Winter 2012
Hill Auditorium

PU
ICHIGAN'
Presented with major support from the Creative Ventures Leadership Fund. Winter 2012 Season 133rd Annual Season
General Information
On-site ticket offices at performance venues open 90 minutes before each performance.
Children of all ages are welcome at UMS Family and Youth Performances. Children under the age of three will not be admitted to regular, full-length UMS performances. All children must be able to sit quietly in their own seats without disturbing other patrons. Children unable to do so, along with the adult accompanying them, will be asked by an usher to leave the auditorium. Please use discretion 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 be?gin 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 everyone may enjoy this UMS event disturbance-free.
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
Sunday, January 29 through Saturday, March 17,2012
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra 5
Sunday, January 29,4:00 pm Hill Auditorium
The Tallis Scholars 13
Thursday, February 16,7:30 pm St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
Wayne McGregor Random Dance 19
Saturday, February 18,8:00 pm Power Center
Hagen Quartet 25
Thursday, February 23,730 pm Rackham Auditorium
Ex Machina 31
The Andersen Project
Thursday, March 15,7:30 pm Friday, March 16, 8:00 pm Saturday, March 17,8:00 pm Power Center
urns
ums University Musical Society
Fall 2011
September
17 i An Evening with Ahmad Jamal 18! Emerson String Quartet 23-24: Mark Morris Dance Group 25 I Dan Zanes & Friends
October
John Malkovich and Musica Angelica
Baroque Orchestra: The Infernal Comedy:
Confessions of a Serial Killer
Yuja Wang, piano
National Theatre Live: One Man, Two
Guvnors
State Symphony Capella of Russia
Goran Bregovic and His Wedding and
Funeral Orchestra
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan:
Water Stains on the Wall
Schola Cantorum de Venezuela
Gate Theatre Dublin: Beckett's
Endgame and Watt
National Theatre Live: The Kitchen
November
Apollo's Fire with Philippe Jaroussky,
countertenor
Audra McDonald
Diego El Cigala
AnDa Union
A Night in Treme: The Musical Majesty
of New Orleans
Beijing Guitar Duo with Manuel Barrueco
Canadian Brass
December
Handel's Messiah
London Philharmonic Orchestra with
Janine Jansen, violin
Stile Antico
Winter 2012
January
National Theatre Live: The Collaborators
Einstein on the Beach
Denis Matsuev, piano
Les Violons du Roy with Maurice Steger,
recorder
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra with
Francesco Tristano, piano: Messiaen's
From the Canyons to the Stars
February
Sabine Meyer and the Trio di Clarone Chamber Ensemble of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra Michigan Chamber Players The Tallis Scholars Sweet Honey In The Rock Wayne McGregor I Random Dance: FAR FELA! (at Music Hall, Detroit) National Theatre Live: Travelling Light Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Hagen Quartet
March
Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Pinchas Zukerman, violin Max Raabe & Palast Orchester Ex Machina: The Andersen Project National Theatre Live: The Comedy of Errors San Francisco Symphony with
i Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor:
! American Mavericks
April
5 St. Lawrence String Quartet (NEW DATE)
i National Theatre Live: She Stoops to Conquer
i Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion
Cheikh L6
; Charles Lloyd New Quartet 18 i Pavel Haas Quartet
19-21 i Ballet Preljocaj: Snow White 22 I Ford Honors Program: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Joshua Bell, violin
May
11 I Breakin' Curfew
Explore. Interact. Create...with UMS.
Workshops, screenings, conversations, and interactive experiences designed to draw you in and out of your comfort zone, connect you to interesting people and unexpected ideas, and bring you closer to the heart of the artistic experience. The following events are presented with major support from the Creative Ventures Leadership Fund, and are just a sampling of what's planned this winter:
UMS Pure Michigan Renegade on Film
A winter film series in conjunction with Pure Michi?gan Renegade, which focuses on artistic innovation and experimentation and explores artists who have created new frontiers.
The Legend of Leigh Bowery
(with director Q&A)
(2002, Charles Atlas, 60 min.)
Monday, February 13,7:00 pm
U-M Museum of Art, Helmut Stern Auditorium,
525 S,State Street
Renegade filmmaker Charles Atlas (who worked extensively with the late choreographer Merce Cunningham) introduces his 2002 documentary The Legend of Leigh Bowery. Artist, designer, per?former, and provocateur Leigh Bowery was one of the notorious figures of the 1980s club scene.
Co-presented with the U-M Institute for the Humanities.
Helicopter String Quartet
(1995, Frank Scheffer, 81 min.)
Wednesday, March 7,7:00 pm
Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty
Tickets: $io$7$5; purchase at www.aafllmfest.org
Pure Michigan Renegade on Film series culminates at the Michigan Theater in collaboration with the Ann Arbor Film Festival. In one of the most certifiably eccentric musical events of the late-20th century, German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen designed and executed the performance: four string quartet members playing an original piece by Stockhausen in four separate helicopters, all flying simultaneously.
Co-presented with the Ann Arbor Film Festival in partnership with the Michigan Theater and the U-M Museum of Art.
UMS Night School: Explore Pure Michigan Renegade
Mondays, January 9, February 6 and 20, March 12,
19, and 26, at 7:00 pm Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Branch
(343 S. Fifth Avenue), Multipurpose Room Hosted by Mark Clague, Professor, U-M School
of Music, Theatre & Dance
UMS learned that Professor Mark Clague was teaching a U-M course this winter about Pure Michigan Renegade and immediately began thinking about offering a similar experience for the community. The idea of UMS Night School emerged: 90-minute "classes" which include a 30-minute discussion of each Pure Michigan Renegade performance, plus a 60-minute intro session for the next performance on the series. Each intro session includes a presentation by a genre expert, an interactive exercise to draw you into the themes behind the performance, and a takeaway reading to enjoy on your own. Ses?sions are designed to engage you both with the performances and with other audience members. You can attend them all, or choose the ones that interest you the most--no registration necessary!
UMS Night School Schedule:
Jan 9 Intro: Einstein on the Beach I
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra Feb 6 Discuss: Einstein on the Beach
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra
Intro: Tallis Scholars Random Dance Feb 20 Discuss: Tallis Scholars
Random Dance
Intro: Hagen Quartet Mar 12 Discuss: Hagen Quartet
Intro: The Andersen Project Mar 19 Discuss: The Andersen Project
Intro: San Francisco Symphony Mar 26 Discuss: San Francisco Symphony
plus a "Graduation" celebration!
P U
C H IG A N1
UMS, with major support from the Creative Ventures Leadership Fund, presents
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra
Jeffrey Tate, Chief Conductor Francesco Tristano, Piano Daniel Landau, Video Artist
Tunca Dogu, French Horn Alexander Radziewski, Xylorimba Frank Tackmann, Glockenspiel
Program
Sunday Afternoon, January 29,2012 at 4:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Olivier Messioen From the Canyons to the Stars.
The desert
The orioles
What is written in the stars
The white-browed robin-chat
Cedar Breaks and the gift of awe
Interstellar call
Bryce Canyon and the red-orange rocks
The resurrected and the song of the star Aldebaran
The mockingbird
The wood thrush
Omao, leiothrix, elepaio, shama
Zion Park and the celestial city
34th Performance of the 133rd Annual Season 133rd Annual Choral Union Series
This afternoon's performance is part of Pure Michigan Renegade, a series of special performances and educational events presented by UMS throughout the Winter 2012 Season, sponsored by Michigan Economic Development Corporation. This afternoon's performance is sponsored by Jane and Edward Schulak.
Funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works. Media partnership is provided by WGTE 91.3 FM and WDET 101.9 FM.
The Steinway piano used in this afternoon's perfor?mance is made possible by William and Mary Palmer and by the Steinway Piano Gallery of Detroit.
Special thanks to Tom Thompson of Tom Thompson Flowers, Ann Arbor, for his generous contribution of lobby floral art for this afternoon's performance. Special thanks to Mark Clague of the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Ann Arbor District Library for their support of and participation in events surrounding this afternoon's concert. The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra tour is sponsored by Wempe Jewelers and the Hubertus Wald Stiftung. The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra appears by arrangement with Columbia Artists Management, LLC, New York, NY The photographing or sound and video recording of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Large print programs are available upon request.
From the Canyons to the Stars... (Des canyons aux etoiles...) (1971-74)
Olivier Messiaen
Born December 10,1908 in Avignon, France
Died April 27,1992 in Clichy-la-6arenne
In recent years, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra's opening concert of each season has been a particu?larly elaborate occasion, widely acknowledged in Germany as being of special significance in the cultural life of the city and broadening the traditional experience of classical music concerts. However, in terms of artistic consistency, intellectual complexity, and visionary impact, the opening concert of the 1011 season surpassed its predecessors. In cooperation with the Israeli visual artist Daniel Landau, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra presented a unique film and orchestra installation based on Olivier Messiaen's From the Canyons to the Stars..., transforming the orchestral piece into a multidimensional work of installation art commissioned especially for the season's opening.
Olivier Messiaen is one of the central figures in the story of 20th-century music. A composer, teacher, and brilliant visionary, Messiaen himself had a visual conception of his music, describing it as similar to "a cathedral window, in which complementary colors seem to be in swirling motion." He was also inspired by natural sounds--especially those of birds-as well as rhythms and melodic material from the Far East. His Roman Catholic faith was of particular importance for his life and work.
From the Canyons to the Stars..., written at the beginning of the 1970s in response to a commission from the New York arts patron Alice Tully to commemorate the 200th anniver?sary of American independence, is one of Messiaen's orchestral masterpieces. In 1972, Messiaen visited the great monuments of nature in Utah. He was especially impressed by the red-orange rock formations in Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks National Monument, and Zion National Park; these places inspired the fifth, seventh, and 12th sections of his orchestral composition. He contrasted these impressions with five other sections devoted to birdcalls. Other movements of the work have a religious significance.
The principal soloist in this 12-movement work is the pianist; however, all the other instruments are featured individually, the sixth movement being devoted exclusively to the French horn. The enormous variety of percussion instruments is also impressive; these include a wind machine, a thunder sheet, and the geophone, developed by the composer especially for this piece to imitate the sounds of shifting geological strata.
Several movements are assigned biblical quotations, and the construction of the com?position--beginning in the desert where people seek to be near God--climaxes with a joyous anticipation of paradise in the 12th and final movement, where the work ends in radiant triumph. It was Maestro Jeffrey Tate's idea that Messiaen's work, which celebrates the great natural beauty of North America, should be performed by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra on the eve of the year 2011, in which Hamburg was designated the "Green Capital of Europe."
Clearly, Messiaen's 100-minute composition is strong enough to be heard purely as a piece of music. However, the intellectual complexity of the work (a part of its beauty) is not fully apparent through listening alone. The religious, mystical, social, and philosophical layers of the work and their fascinating interaction are of significant contemporary relevance, which is revealed through a performance of the music in a new aesthetic context: the concert hall is turned into a space where an intellectually complex piece of modern music is juxtaposed with a profound visual commentary. This is what inspired the Hamburg Symphony Orches?tra to commission Landau's video installation.
Daniel Landau is one of the few visual artists specializing in the connection between classical music and the visual arts. Born in Jerusalem in 1973, directorcomposer Daniel Landau's multi-disciplinary works include music, film, and stage productions which have been performed in major theaters and festivals worldwide. Landau completed his studies of composition and new media at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Upon returning to Israel, he formed a performance group, which recently premiered his stage production One Dimensional Man. In 2006, he also assisted Sigalit Landau (Israel's pre-eminent visual . artist) in the preparation of most of the video installations for a solo exhibition dedicated to her work at the New York Museum of Modern Art.
Daniel Landau's visual installation for Messiaen's From the Canyons to the Stars... represents a challenging observation of man's relationship to nature by creating an epic film as a polyphonic counterpart to the orchestral piece. The work takes as its point of departure the cyclical processes of decay and regeneration, seen as the driving force for a society longing for redemption. The opening scenes were filmed at the Dead Sea, a perishing natural wonder, where the main characters embark on a journey of survival taking the audience from the breath-taking mountain landscapes of the Judean desert to heavily industrialized modern Europe.
The 12 movements of the music serve as a key to Landau's interpretation of Messiaen's work. The film is a visual narrative in which a metaphoric voyage of discovery unfolds through the geology, mythology, and ecology of man.
Program note by Daniel Kuhnel.
For more than five decades, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra has been one of the freshest and most original of the city's ensembles, with both a national and international reputation. As the orchestra in residence at the Laeiszhalle, one of Europe's most renowned concert halls, the Hamburg Symphony is firmly anchored in the city's musical life and plays a leading role in the development of Hamburg's plan to establish itself as a Musical Metropolis. The distinguished Principal Conductor, Jeffrey Tate, and Daniel Kuhnel, the General Manager and Artistic Director, have created a distinct profile for the orchestra with exciting performances of innovative repertoire since the beginning of their collaboration in 2009. Partly as a result of these programming policies, which have become an integral part of the orchestra's identity, Tate and Kuhnel have succeeded in the past three years in increasing the number of visitors to their concerts by 56 percent.
With a special intuition for extraordinary young artists, the orchestra established an Artist in Residence position in 2008, engaging such performers as clarinetist Martin Frost, harpist Xavier de Maistre, young pianist and crossover musician Francesco Tristano, and violinist Guy Braunstein, each of whom has worked with the orchestra for an entire season. In addition, through the engagement of celebrated international soloists and conductors, the Hamburg Symphony strives to give the city an unmistakable musical identity with an impact on all areas of life, something that can be heard and experienced by every citizen and which resonates beyond the city's borders. Daniel Kuhnel feels, "The attempt to live and embody this ambition for artistic excellence, so close to our own sense of ourselves and our audience, is an exciting, worthwhile, and necessary balancing act."
The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra joins with the other participants in the city's musical life to give it a unique voice. With new accents in Hamburg's musical landscape, the orchestra attempts to realize its hopes for excellence, originality, and audience contact. Building upon its traditional summer series of open-air concerts in the inner courtyard of Hamburg's City Hall, the orchestra presented the festival "Transformations" in the summer of 2011, in which the six movements of Gustav Mahler's Dos Lied von der Erde were performed individually in six different locations throughout the city along with thematically related works by other composers. The success of such programming concepts underscores Hamburg's potential as a modern and lively musical metropolis, supporting the orchestra's vision and Kuhnel when he says, "we cannot preach and talk about a musical metropolis without actively working for its development and trying to provide content for this still rather abstract idea."
In the discussion of sociopolitical issues, the Hamburg Symphony considers orchestras in general, and itself in particular, to be musical centers of expertise, which--through the continual encounter with a non-spatial art--acquire a particular knowledge informing their relationship to our perception of time. The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra believes in articulating sociopolitical themes through music and proposes the acceptance of a musical standard for social action.
The orchestra's season reflects this view of itself. The Hamburg Symphony can be heard in two subscription series, a broad selection of unusual special concerts produced by the orchestra itself, a distinguished subscription series of chamber music concerts, a popular sequence of vocal recitals, concerts devoted to famous silent films with live orchestral music, and a broad range of events for children and young people; the latter includes, in addition
to the series of children's concerts, a rapidly expanding educational outreach program in which members of the orchestra work closely with schools and other social programs. Of particular importance for the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra is a modern, long-term, and socially conscious approach to a broader understanding of musical culture.
The Hamburg Symphony's activities are attracting a growing international interest. As the "thinking orchestra" of an emerging musical metropolis, the Hamburg Symphony is on the way to establishing itself as one of the most interesting ensembles touring internationally, without compromising its identity or traditions.
Jeffrey Tate is one of today's most fascinating and inspiring conductors, whose artistic sensibility and ability to bring differentiated expressions and colors to his musical interpretations have made him one of Britain's outstanding artists. The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra is Jeffrey Tate's creative home base in Germany. Having worked there for several years now, he confesses that his en?gagement with this orchestra was a real stroke of fortune: "I enjoy working with this orchestra that is so deeply rooted in the city of Hamburg. It is very flexible and eager to work; we can afford to do unusual programs and have developed a very interested audience."
Having originally studied medicine at Cambridge University, Maestro Tate practiced three years as an eye surgeon in London before he started his professional artistic career by joining the music staff at the Royal Opera Covent Garden in 1970. He assisted Sir George Solti in London, Sir John Pritchard in Cologne, Pierre Boulez for the centenary Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festival, and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. After his conducting debut with Carmen at Gothenburg Opera in 1978, he rapidly rose to international fame. Maestro Tate has since worked with most of the major orchestras in the world. He has recorded a vast number of landmark recordings, and maintains lasting musical partnerships with some of the finest musicians of our time. He regularly conducts in the world's leading opera houses and festivals. He is without a doubt one of the world's preeminent conductors of the music of Wagner and Strauss, of core classical and romantic repertoire, of British music of the late 19th and 20th century, and of classical modern and contemporary music.
Maestro Tate gave his conducting debut at the Royal Opera House. His first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York was in 1979, and he made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in London in the 198283 season. He was appointed Principal Conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra in 1985 and established during the following years this or?chestra's international reputation as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. With the ECO, he produced critically acclaimed recordings of Haydn and Mozart Symphonies for EMI, as well as the complete Mozart piano concertos with Mitsuko Ushida as soloist. In 1985, he also conducted the world premiere of Henze's Ritomo d'Ulisse at the Salzburg Festival. Two years later he conducted the world premiere of Rolf Liebermann's Der Wald in Geneva.
Future projects include Billy Budd at the Bastille in Paris as well as Der Rosenkavalier and two complete cycles of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen at the Vienna State Opera in the 1314 season.
Since 2001, Maestro Tate has been Honorary Director of the National Italian Radio Orchestra. He was appointed Principal Conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in 2009.
Pholo by MaWoi at Mramor
A young musician and composer causing a stir, not only on the club scene, but also in classical concert venues, is probably a world-first. It may also be the first time that purists from the classical and techno camps actually agree on something--that they don't know quite what to make of this young musician who refuses to stick to the rules. For Francesco Tristano, this kind of reaction is nothing new. When he and his trio, Aufgang, began to play techno from sheets, his puzzled audience shuffled in their seats. Experienced concert audiences and classical music lovers may feel equally baffled when they hear a pianist blend and mix his own composition--just like a DJ--into a piece by Frescobaldi.
The intrepidness with which 29-year-old Francesco Tristano combines eras and styles, occasionally allowing them to collide, may initially create a baffled re?sponse. However, the Luxembourg-born pianist has no aspirations as an agitator. Almost everything he does is an expression of an open-minded attitude which refuses to accept borders and constrictions. Mr. Tristano knows all about the in-terpretational conventions that have shaped generations of classical pianists, but he has chosen to ignore them. He does not seek approval as an artist and when his dynamic performance emotively basks in the intrinsic severity of baroque music, that is when he is truly radical.
Mr. Tristanos talent cannot be doubted. His technique is outstanding, his playing is comparative to a virtuoso, and his interpretations are bold and unconventional. Yet he is far from being a sonic iconoclast. His wide repertoire spans baroque, classical music, new music, jazz, and club music and reflects his experience and playing ability. He refuses to accept the existence of stylistic borders yet his work
is always carefully considered and represents a respect for all music.
Mr. Tristano was one of the last students at New York's Juilliard School to complete Bach legend Rosalyn Tureck's master class. He also studied at the music academies in Brussels, Riga, Paris, and Luxembourg as well as the ESMuC in Barcelona. In 2004, he won the first prize at the international piano competition for contemporary music in Orleans, France. Mr. Tristano has released 12 albums, among them recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations and complete keyboard concertos, Luciano Berio's complete piano works, and Girolamo Fresco-baldi's toccatas. Not for Piano (2007) presented his own compositions as well as versions of techno classics at the piano. Idiosynkrasia, his third album on the label inFine, recorded at Carl Craig's Planet E-communications in Detroit, was released to critical acclaim in 2010. More recently, Mr. Tristano has signed with Universal Classics & Jazz. His first project, bachCage, produced by Moritz von Oswald, was released on Deutsche Grammophon in March 2011.
UMS Archives
This afternoon's performance marks the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra's UMS debut.
Maestro Jeffrey Tate makes his second UMS appearance this afternoon, following his UMS debut in March 1988 with the English Chamber Orchestra at Hill Auditorium.
Francesco Tristano also makes his second UMS appearance this afternoon, following his UMS debut in January 2000 as piano soloist with the Russian National Orchestra under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev at Hill Auditorium.
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra Jeffrey Tate, Principal Conductor
Violin I
Stefan Czermak Dr. Martin Wulfhorst Jee Hyae An Nina Huba Ekatarina Ivanova Pawel Kreszewski Ilka Mende Rumyana Neufeld Alia Rutter Isabel Teuchert Ani Chalikian Su Chian Kang Carlos Johnson Alvina Fenjuk
Violin II
Helen Cortis
SilkeHagemann
Arne Arvidsson
Makrouhi Hagel
Jadwiga Horbmpo
Peter Kollmann
Christiane Pritz
Dorotha Schaddach-Schinkel
Edda Wolf
Antje Pauls
Jenny Holewik
Irene Stroh
Viola
Bruno Merse Istvan Lukacs Michael Kobus Sebastian Marock Klaus Riedl Jordan Rodin Harald Schmidt Helmut Stuarnig Daniela Frank-Muntean Katarzyna Bugala
Cello
Valeri Krivoborodov
Tadao Kataoka
Gudrun Buchmann-Siegler
Winfried Gessler
Li Li
Tomohisa Teratani
Lynda Cortis
Rodin Moldovan
Double Bass
Gregor Hammans Lars Fischer Thomas Brands Roland Motsch Rafael Lopesdacunha Naoki Komoto
Flute
Susanne Barner Mareile Haberland Waldo Ceunen Hans-Udo Heinzmann
Oboe
Marc Renner Guillermo Sanchis Esteve Asayo Omori
Clarinet
Wolfgang Braun Elmar Hbnig Herbert Ronneburg Johannes Zurl
Bassoon
Christian Ganzhorn Matthias Seeker Christian Eisner
Horn
Donald Firkins Tunca Dogu Richard Rieves William Albright Ronald Toepfer
Trumpet
John Godbehere Christoph Gottwald Hie Muntean
Trombone
Michael Ranzenberger Norbert Gauland Danilo Koban
Percussion
Andreas Suworow Frank Petrak Thomas Ringleb Frank Tackmann
Timpani
Alexander Radziewski
Harp
Giselle Boeters
' Soloist
Film Credits
Daniel Landau, Director Ben Hertzog, Cinematography Jackie Shemesh, Lighting Design Alona Rodeh, Costumes and Art Kaina Eldar, Producer
PUREIICHIGAN
ums University Musical Society
UMS, with major support from the Creative Ventures Leadership Fund, presents
The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips, Director
Program
Thursday Evening, February 16,2012 at 730 St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church Ann Arbor
Carlo Gesualdo Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday
Sicut ovis ad occisionem Jerusalem, surge Plange quasi virgo Recessit pastor noster 0 vos omnes
Ecce quomodo moritur Justus Astiterunt reges terrae Aestimatus sum Sepulto Domino
Intermission
Orlonde de Lassus Timor et tremor Jocobus Gallus Mirabile mysterium Giaches de Wert 0 mors quam amara est Benedictus Appenzeller Musae Jovis Cipriano de Rore Calami sonum ferentes Hans Leo Hassler Ad Dominum cum tribularer Mikolaj Zielenski Vox in rama Claudio Monteverdi Adoramus te
38th Performance of the 133rd Annual Season Divine Voices Series
This evening's performance is par! of Pure Michigan Renegade, a series of special performances and educa?tional events presented by UMS throughout the Winter 2012 Season, sponsored by Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
This evening's performance is sponsored by Glenn Watkins.
Funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works.
Media partnership is provided by WRCJ 90.9 FM and WDET 101.9 FM.
Special thanks to Peter Phillips, Director of The Tallis Scholars, for speaking at this evening's Prelude Dinner.
Special thanks to Mark Clague of the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Ann Arbor District Library for their support of and participation in events surround?ing tonight's concert.
The Tallis Scholars appear by arrangement with Hazard Chase Ltd., Cambridge, UK.
The photographing or sound and video recording of this concert or possesson of any device [or such recording is prohibited.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Renaissance Mavericks
The sound-world of Renaissance polyphony has become synonymous with purity, with a spiritual clarity unmuddied by the complications and emotional specificities of the human experience. Yet for every prima prattica' Palestrina or Lassus mass-setting--gorgeous in their abstraction--there are works of more maverick creativity, works that seek an altogether broader musical vocabulary to express concepts neither comfortable nor abstract.
The thorny buds of Renaissance secondo prattica chromaticism would eventually bloom into the color and drama of the baroque; tonight's program traces these developments that would culminate so spectacularly in the work of Monteverdi.
Where better to begin a survey of Renaissance provocateurs than with Carlo Gesualdo-the infamous wife-murdering Prince, celebrated for his harmonic aberrations. Yet despite appearances, Gesualdo (1566-1613) was in many ways a conservative, a composer who ignored the advances of others and continued to work until the end of his life in the out?moded genre of polyphony.
In his Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday, we see the composer bringing the full gamut of his invention to bear on one of the liturgy's most charged sequence of texts. The pairing is a natural one, and the extremity of Gesualdo's gestures (concerns of vocal range, harmonic practice, ensemble texture, and tone count for little) bring a sense of violence, of rupture to these works that few composers could match. These are not expressive settings in any generally-accepted sense; there is little attempt at the minutiae of word-painting. Yet Gesualdo manages to reach beyond imagery, to grasp at the essence of the Holy Week mourning that underpins the works.
Arguably the most influential of tonight's mavericks, the harmonic rebellions of Orlando de Lassus (1532-1594) took a rather different form to those of Gesualdo or later Monteverdi. Rather than reject harmonic conventions outright, Lassus' skill lay in manipulating and expanding them to their logical limits, employing a daring harmonic approach that kept a foothold in the familiar, the recognizable. Timor et Tremor is a psychological study in fear, its musical mood swings mirroring the fragmented psalm text. Juxtaposition plays a crucial role, heightening harmonic contrasts and developments, yet it is rhythm that delivers the final dramatic blow in the syncopated impact of the closing "non confundar" section.
While penitential texts dominate tonight's program, grief and mourning do not have the monopoly on harmonic innovation, as Jacobus Gallus's (1550-1591) extraordinary Christmas motet Mirabile mysterium demonstrates. Exploring the complex duality of the incarnate Christ ("that which he was he remained, and that which he was not, he assumed"), Gallus creates a fluidly chromatic soundscape for his five voices. Echoing the transforma?tive properties of the Savior, his melodic lines stray and strain in all directions, rejecting Renaissance modality but offering no stable tonal alternative.
1 Prima pmttica (Italian for "first practice," also known as stile antico or "old style") refers to early Baroque music which looks more to the style of Palestrina, or the style codified by Gioseffo Zarlino, than to the more "modern" styles of Claudio Monteverdi. This more "modern" style is referred to as seconda pratica (Italian for "second practice," also known as stile moderno or "modem style") and indicates music which encouraged more freedom from the rigorous limitations of dissonances and counterpoint characteristic of the prima prattico.
The experimental influence of Cipriano de Rore is evident in the music of his younger Franco-Flemish associate Giaches de Wert (1535-1596), whose own musical heir can be found in Monteverdi. Based in Italy throughout his working life, it was in the secular mad?rigal that de Wert's expressive skills achieved their pinnacle, but he brought many of his techniques back to his sacred repertoire. 0 Mors, quam amara est is an early sacred work written for the Court Church of the Dukes of Mantua. The text (taken from Ecclesiasticus) broods on the bitterness of death, an idea echoed in the motet's persistent semitones and downward-tending phrases that droop with elegant ennui.
Best known in Nicolas Gombert's exquisite setting, MusaeJovis--a lament on the death of Josquin des Prez--follows in a tradition of musical homage between composers. Benedictus Appenzeller (C1480-1558) may himself have been a pupil of the elder composer, and his motet is in the typical Flemish style of the age, balancing elegant polyphonic imitation with more declamatory passages. Particularly striking is the bizarre rupture of a cadence at "et verstrum decus", coming so close after the tenderness of "Josquinus Me."
Hailed by Monteverdi as the father of the seconda prattka, Cipriano de Rore's short life (1515-1565) was latterly one of musical innovation and experiment. Dead before Gesualdo was even born, de Rore's chromatic colorings took the secular madrigal form to new expressive extremes, placing music and text in even closer relation. His lugubrious setting of Catullus's poem Calami sonum ferentes (a rejection of the joyful pleasures of music) is notable for its vocal timbre. Four bass voices wade in and amongst one another in intricate chromatic writhings. While the opening canon is striking, the central chordal sections are the most provocative harmonically, juxtaposing harmonies with brutal disregard for conventional musical grammar.
Together with the younger Schlitz, Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) studied with Gabrieli in Venice, cementing the relationship between Italian and German musical traditions. The extraordinary chromatic miniature Ad dominum cum tribularer is by no means a typical Hassler work. The immaculate structure of this five-part motet balances an opening theme (a chromatic rising scale first heard in the tenors) with the falling chromatic tetrachord with which the work closes, "ef la linqua dolorosa" The painful contortions of these figures respond to the motet's text--"In my distress I cried unto the Lord"--and play on the tradi?tional association between the falling chromatic fourth and ideas of death and lamentation. The effect is disturbing, and strangely contemporary.
The painful story of Rachel weeping over her lost sons has prompted some emotive musical settings (notably from Clemens non Papa and Bernadino de Ribera), but the stripped-back impact of Mikolaj Zielenski's version is a model of clarity. Part of one of just two surviving col?lections of works, Zielenski's motet employs the imitative late-Renaissance style that saw the composer at the vanguard of Polish music's transition to the baroque. We open with the single soprano voice (surely Rachel's own) calling out, before her refrain is taken up in imitation by the other voices. The anguish of the chromatic suspension sequence at "poratus et ululates" (weeping and lamenting) turns the emotional screw with understated but devastating effect.
Charged with counter-reformation intensity, Monteverdi's Adoramus te, Christe is a master?piece in miniature, offering a disarmingly intimate celebration of the risen Christ. There is a rapt intensity, almost a majesty, to the opening and closing passages of homophony that only grows through the insistent repetitions of "adoramus te" The middle section, with its
extraordinary rising chromatic scale ("tjuo persanctom crucem"), mirrors harmonically the transformative humanity of a god who redeemed man with his blood. The lasting impres?sion of this deceptively simple work is of the unearthly power of the divine.
Program note by Alexandra Coghlan, O 2011.
The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and
concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renais?sance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serve the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of musical lines to be heard. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which The Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.
The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, giving around 70 concerts each year across the globe. This season, the group will visit the US three times and appear at festivals and venues across the UK and Europe including in their own Choral Series at Cadogan Hall. In 2012 The Tallis Scholars team up with the National Centre for Early Music and the BBC for the biannual nationwide composition competition, designed to encourage young people to write for unaccompanied voices. The winning entries will be performed by The Tallis Scholars in a concert recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3. In 2013, the group will celebrate its 40th anniversary with commissions from Gabriel Jackson and Eric Whitacre and extensive touring.
Much of The Tallis Scholars reputation for their pioneering work has come from their as?sociation with Gimell Records, set up by Peter Phillips and Steve Smith in 1980 solely to record the group. In February 1994 Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars performed on the 400th anniversary of the death of Palestrina in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, where Palestrina had trained as a choirboy and later worked as Maestro di Cappella. The concerts were recorded by Gimell and are available on both CD and DVD.
Recordings by The Tallis Scholars have attracted many awards throughout the world. Released on the 30th anniversary of Gimell Records in March 2010, The Tallis Scholars' recording of Victoria's Lamentations of Jeremiah received critical acclaim, and to further celebrate the anniversary, the group released three four-disc box sets of The Best of The Taltis Scholars, one for each decade. The ongoing project to record Josquin's complete cycle of masses, when completed, will amount to nine discs. These accolades are continuing evidence of the exceptionally high standard maintained by The Tallis Scholars, and of their dedication to one of the great repertoires in Western classical music.
Peter Phillips has made an impressive if unusual reputation for himself in dedicating his life's work to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony. Having won a scholarship to Ox?ford in 1972, Mr. Phillips studied Renaissance music with David Wulstan and Denis Arnold, and gained experience in conducting small vocal ensembles, already experimenting with the rarer parts of the repertoire. He founded The Tallis Scholars in 1973, with whom he has now appeared in over 1750 concerts and made over 50 discs, encouraging interest in po?lyphony all over the world. As a result of his work, through concerts, recordings, magazine awards, and publishing editions of music and writing articles. Renaissance music has come to be accepted for the first time as part of the mainstream classical repertoire.
Apart from The TaMis Scholars, Mr. Phillips continues to work with other special?ist ensembles including the Collegium Vocale of Ghent and the Netherlands Chamber Choir, and he is currently working with the Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Intrada of Moscow, Musica Reservata of Barcelona, and the Tudor Choir of Seattle. Mr. Phillips also works extensively with the BBC Singers, with whom he gave a Promenade concert in collaboration with The Ta His Scholars at Royal Albert Hall in July 2007. He gives numerous master classes and choral workshops every year around the world and is also Artistic Director of The TaIIis Scholars Summer Schools: annual choral courses based in Uppingham (UK), Seattle (USA), and Sydney (Australia) dedicated to exploring the heritage of Renaissance choral music, and developing a performance style appropriate to it as pioneered by The Tallis Scholars.
Mr. Phillips has recently been appointed a Reed Rubin Director of Music and Bodley Fellow at Merton College, Oxford, where the new choral foundation he helped to establish began singing services in October 2008.
UMS Archives
This evening's performance marks The TaMis Scholars' and Peter Phillips' eighth UMS appearances. The ensemble and Mr. Phillips made their UMS debut in April 1996 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. The ensemble last appeared under UMS auspices in November 2010 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.
The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips, Director
Soprano
Janet Coxwell Amy Haworth Amy Wood Alice Gribbin
Alto
Patrick Craig Caroline Trevor
Tenor
Mark Dobell Chris Watson Simon Wall George Pooley
Bass
Rob Macdonald Stephen Charlesworth
Photo by Eric Richmond
Photo by Eric Richmond
ICHIGAN
ums University Musical Society
UMS, with major support from the Creative Ventures Leadership Fund, presents
FAR
A production of Wayne McGregor Random Dance Wayne McGregor Artistic Director
Dancers Catarina Carvalho, Benjamin Ord, Davide Di Pretoro, Michael-John Harper, Paolo Mangiola, Daniela Neugebauer, Anna Nowak, Fukiko Takase, Alexander Whitley, Jessica Wright
Wayne McGregor Concept and Direction
Wayne McGregor, in collaboration with the dancers Choreography
Ben Frost Original Music
Lucy Carter Lighting Design
rAndom International Set Design
Moritz Junge Costume Design
Christopher Charles Technical Director
Odette Hughes Rehearsal Director
Colin Everitt Technical Manager
Michael Smith Production Electrician
Program
Saturday Evening, February 18,2012 at 8:00 Power Center Ann Arbor
This evening's performance is approximately 60 minutes in duration and is performed without intermission.
40th Performance of the 133rd Annual Season 21st Annual Dance Series
This evening's performance is part of Pure Michigan Renegade, a series of special performances and educational events presented by UMS throughout the Winter 2012 Season, sponsored by Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
Funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works.
Media partnership is provided by Metro Times, Between the Lines, and WOET 101.9 FM.
Special thanks to the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Chrisstina Hamilton and the U-M School of Art & Design Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series, and the Ann Arbor District Library for their support of and participation in events surrounding this evening's performance.
Wayne McGregor Random Dance appears by arrange?ment with Cathy Pruzan Artists.
The photographing or sound ond video recording of thi$ performance or possesson of any device for such record?ing is prohibited.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Unpeeling the Layers
In rehearsal for Wayne McGregor's latest work, FAR, dancers from his company perform extraordinary motions. They throw themselves into whiplash spins, let waves ebb through their necks, build counter-intuitive curves and angles into limb and spine. No other contem?porary choreographer has developed such an instantly recognizable range of movement-familiar yet dazzlingly novel, giving bodies new things to do while speculating about the minds that inspire them.
Inspiration for the new work came from Flesh and the Age of Reason (hence the abbrevi?ated title FAR), Roy Porter's prodigious history of 18th-century explorations into body and soul. An age of medical advance and anatomical rigor brought with it radical philosophical inquiries into the mechanisms of thought and emotion. This intellectual ferment connected with McGregor's own work, especially his collaborations with cognitive scientists. "What we've been doing is unpeeling the layers of the creative process: how do we understand better what happens in the creative process, and how do we arm dancers to build better imaginations And I thought that stripping away of layers was analogous to the very begin?ning of the Enlightenment." It was an era in which autopsies revealed the body's workings and allowed intricate anatomical drawings. Microscopes revealed minutiae while telescopes opened the skies to scrutiny, unseating the earth as focus of the universe. Where was the soul in all this Where was God If the human body is an intricate mechanism, is there a ghost in the machine
"We've still not solved that conundrum," McGregor admits. "There's still a lot that we don't know about the brain and its relationship to the body--it's unexplainable, so far. I thought this was a fascinating beginning to explore physically. It's helpful in exploring things that I am interested in anyway, in terms of what inspires us to do the things that we do."
Porter's book pursues the mystery of a self embodied in flesh and blood. In an apt phrase, he wrote that "the body was the inseparable dancing-partner of the mind or soul--now in step, now a tangle of limbs and intentions, mixed emotions." This is very much Wayne McGregor Random Dance territory--the mind can't exist without the body, while flesh is animated by thought and feeling. Porter quotes the narrator of Sterne's Tristram Shandy, who opines that soul and body are "joint-sharers in everything...A man cannot dress but his ideas get clothed at the same time."
McGregor has been helping ideas into their clothes for almost two decades now. For him, the Enlightenment represents an age of enquiry. Porter describes physical phenomena becoming subject to observation and experiment, rather than custom and conjecture. Ev?erything was up for grabs, and that's very much McGregor's own inquisitive approach to the world, wide-eyed and curious.
The approach has also attracted leading ballet companies, who now clamor for McGregor's attention. He is Resident Choreographer at The Royal Ballet, and ever since Chroma exploded onto the stage at Covent Garden with its whomping orchestrations of the White Stripes, prestigious international companies have been slavering for a piece of him. He is currently making new work for the Paris Opera Ballet and for the Bolshoi (which will
feature the company's diamond youngsters, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev). McGregor's recent pieces--especially Entity for Random and a thrilling trio of works for The Royal Ballet [Chroma, Infra, Limen)--have pushed his trademark movement into something beyond the cerebral: aching, horny, alive to questing minds trapped inside the body. It isn't only illustrious ballerinas who will have a chance to do a McGregor: he's also creating huge public dance work for the 2012 Olympics.
If everything can be questioned, possibilities unfold in every direction. How do bodies express or contradict intention What animates them to perform in certain ways Some spectators think McGregor pressures bodies to perform "unnaturally." It's true that, in the rehearsal studio, dancers perform extraordinary, rapid transitions: butts jut outwards while knees swivel inwards; a pulse skedaddles down a limb yet changes direction at the joint.
However uncanny, this is no weirder than the decorous deformation of classical ballet. We're not built to wrench our hips sideways in turnout, to load all our weight on the folded knuckles of a single foot. It's wrong, but dazzled by a ballerina's artistry we stop noticing. McGregor notices, and compels attention through his own sleek distortions. "I like bodies misbehaving, because I think it engages your eye in a way that clarity of line doesn't."
"Some people object, actually object to a distorted body," he marvels. "There's a sense that if the body looks like it's in some kind of physical trauma that it relates to some kind of emotional trauma." McGregor has used illustrations from Diderot's pioneering 18th-century Encyclopaedia while creating FAR, which reveal the "levers and pulleys" of human action. "You see how it works. At the end of the day, these aren't robots--it's always a human being doing it. We have such a normalizing, limited view of what the potential of the body is. I really respect and like the aesthetic of ballet, but it's only one part of the continuum of possibility."
Performing with Wayne McGregor Random Dance is much more than simply doing the steps. Dancers must also be eager to delve into problems of language, sound, kinaesthetics. "It's not just about physical propensity," says McGregor, "but about how you get people to think from a cognitive point of view in relation to choreography. If you've got those skills at your fingertips it extends the palette. What I need is an open person. If they're plugged into the world and have a wider view, not a mono-track view, they can come with you on that journey. That's the kind of dancer I like."
This investigative mentality suffuses the rehearsal studio: it feels like a lab. While McGregor works with pairs of dancers, everyone else beavers away on their own knotty dilemma. It's concentrated, but not solemn, especially as McGregor doesn't so much explain movement as give it a soundtrack. His vivid vocalizations could come from a Marvel comic: "Waah-oo!"; "Ba-bay-boom-yay!"
Just as Enlightenment scientists developed instruments to pursue their interests, so McGregor has helped develop a pioneering piece of software--the Choreographic Language Agent. It doesn't choreograph, but by holding detailed information will allow artists to explore movement and solve problems. "It's very beautiful," he enthuses. The program will be able to think for itself, and offer movement options consistent with previous choices, or perhaps intriguingly differently. "It's an interesting way of dialoguing with the technology to be able to expose some of your habits and either use them or break them."
McGregor is always keen to break his set habits, but he wants us to meet the same chal?lenge. "In the same way that we're trying to understand our habits of making, people also watch with a rigid mental schema. They don't often think, 'How else can I watch' I'm hoping over time that people can challenge themselves and have a richer experience of watching."
--David Jays
A version of this article was previously published in The Sunday Times.
Wayne McGregor Random Dance was founded in 1992 and became the instrument upon which McGregor evolved his drastically fast and articulate choreographic style. The company became a byword for its radical approach to new technology--incorporating animation, digital film, 3D architecture, electronic sound, and virtual dancers into the live choreography. In Nemesis (2002), dancers dueled with prosthetic steel arm extensions to a soundtrack incorporating mobile phone conversations; in AtaXia (2004), McGregor's fellowship with the Experimental Psychology department of Cambridge University fueled the choreography; in Entity (2008), choreographic agents were imagined to a soundscape created by Coldplay collaborator Jon Hopkins and Joby Talbot (Chroma); and in FAR (2010), cutting edge design (rAndom International) fused with choreography mined from a radical cognitive research process. Wayne McGregor Random Dance is Resident Company of Sadler's Wells, London.
Wayne McGregor CBE is a multi award-winning British choreographer, renowned for his physically
testing choreography and groundbreaking collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology, and science. He is Artistic Director of Wayne McGregor Random Dance, Resident Company at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London and Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet (appointed in 2006). In January 2011, Mr. McGregor was awarded a CBE (Com?mander of the Order of the British Empire) for his Services to Dance. From 2008-2010 Mr. McGregor was appointed the government's first Youth Dance Champion. In 2004, he was a Research Fellow at the Experimental Psychology department of Cambridge University.
Mr. McGregor is a frequent creator of new work for La Scala, Milan, Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, New York City Ballet, Aus?tralian Ballet, and English National Ballet; as well as move?ment director for theater and film (including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). In 2011, Mr. McGregor premiered new works for The Royal Ballet (Live Fire Exercise) and Paris Opera Ballet (L'Anatomie de la Sensation) and, in December, he premiered UNDANCE-an operadance collaboration with Mark-Antony Turnage and Mark Wallinger, for Wayne McGregor Random Dance at Sadler's Wells. Recently, he
choreographed the Grammy-nominated music video Lotus Flower for Radiohead. In 2012, Mr. McGregor will create a major public dance work in Trafalgar Square for the Olympics, and in 2013 he will create a new Rite of Spring for Bolshoi Ballet.
This evening's performance marks Wayne McGregor j Random Dance's UMS debut.
Photo by Nick Mead
Wayne McGregor Random Dance
Board of Directors
Dr. Joanne Butterworth, Chair
Delia Barker
Sean Egan
Uzma Hameed
Sarah Seddon Jenner
Caroline Miller
Tobias Round
Waync McGregor Random Dance Wayne McGregor, Artistic Director Rebecca Marshall, Executive Producer Odette Hughes, Associate Director Jasmine Wilson, Creative Learning Director Hazel Singleton, Administrative Director Jen McLachlan, Head of Development Scott deLahunta, R-Research Director Dr. Philip Barnard, R-Research Advisor Christopher Charles, Technical Director Nicola Christie, Communications Manager Jess Sayers, Company Manager
FAR is co-produced by Sadler's Wells, London, UK and by Peak Performances @ Montclair State University, Montclair, USA and is made possible in part by a grant from the Association of Perform?ing Arts Presenters Creative Campus Innovations Grant Program, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. FAR is co-commissioned by Maison de la Danse, Lyon, FR; Fondazione I Teatri, Reggio Emilia, IT; Belgrade Dance Festival, Belgrade, SE; Belfast Festival, Belfast, UK; Brighton Dome and Festival Ltd, Brighton, UK; Laban Theatre, London, UK; and DanceEast, Ipswich, UK.
Wayne McGregor Random Dance is supported by Arts Council England, and is Resident Company of Sadler's Wells, London and Associate Company of DanceEast, Suffolk. Wayne McGregor CBE is the Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden.
The development of the FAR set--by rAndom International--and the Choreographic Thinking Tools used in the process of making, were developed during a residency at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Troy, NY, USA. The Choreographic Language Agent was developed with support from Portland Green Cultural Projects. All R-Research activity is supported by Coventry University.
Thanks to The Quercus Trust for their ongoing support.
For more information, please visit www.randomdance.org or contact random@randomdance.org.
Twitter: @WayneMcGregor
Facebook: Wayne McGregor Random Dance
Vimeo: Wayne McGregor Random Dance
PUREIICHIGAN
ums University Musical Society
UMS, with major support from the Creative Ventures Leadership Fund, presents
Hagen Quartet
Lukas Hagen, Violin Veronika Hagen, Viola
Rainer Schmidt, Violin Clemens Hagen, Cello
Program
Thursday Evening, February 23,2012 at 7:30 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor
Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1
Allegro con brio
Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Allegro
Beethoven String Quartet in f minor, Op. 95
Allegro con brio
Allegretto ma non troppo
Allegro assai vivace ma serioso
Larghetto espressivo--Allegretto agitato--Allegro
Intermission
Beethoven String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74
Poco adagio--Allegro
Adagio, ma non troppo
Presto
Allegretto con variazioni
42nd Performance of the 133rd Annual Season 49th Annual Chamber Arts Series
This evening's performance is part of Pure Michigan Renegade, a series of special performances and educational events presented by UMS throughout the Winter 2012 Season, sponsored by Michigan Economic Development Corporation. This evening's performance is sponsored by Edward Surovell Realtors. Funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works.
Media partnership is provided by WGTE 91.3 FM and
WDET 101.9 FM.
Special thanks to Mark Clague of the U-M School of
Music, Theatre & Dance and the Ann Arbor District
Library for their support of and participation in events
surrounding tonight's concert.
The Hagen Quartet appears by arrangement with
Opus 3 Artists. New York. NY.
The photographing or sound and video recording of this
concert or possession 0 any device for such recording
is prohibited.
Large print programs are available upon request.
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1 (1801) Ludwig van Beethoven
Born December 15 or 16,1770 in Bonn, Germany Died March 26,1827 in Vienna
Although the earlier string trios (Op. 9) show Beethoven's remarkable facility for chamber writing, his first attempts at the string quartet genre apparently did not flow so easily from his pen. Two years after he completed the F-Major Quartet in 1799 (published as Op. 18, No. 1, though thought to be the second quartet he composed), Beethoven wrote to his friend and the quartet's dedicatee, Karl Amenda, "Don't let anyone see your quartet as I have greatly changed it. I have just learned how to write quartets properly." The voluminous sketches, and this major revision of the F-Major Quartet, testify to the composer's initial doubts about Op. 18. But it was not the weight of 18th-century tradition or the shadows of Mozart or Haydn that caused this hesitation. More likely, it was a question of Beethoven learning to trust his own technique. In these quartets, for instance, he gives each instrument greater independence than Mozart or Haydn ever did, liberating the viola and cello in particular from their traditional roles of accompaniment, and opening new realms of passion for the traditionally-staid genre.
The F-Major Quartet is the biggest, most impressive, and consequently the best-known of the six quartets in Op. 18. Because of its later revision in 1801 it is also more varied in expression and masterly in design than the others. Louis Spohr even considered it the ideal model of the string quartet genre.
In early sketches for the first movement, Beethoven appears to have conceived it in 44 instead of 34, but eventually decided that the extra beat was superfluous. Sixteen pages of sketches were required to produce a single rhythmic kernel that contained within it the material for a whole movement. This brisk, fragmentary theme, stated at the outset in octaves, entirely overpowers the charming second subject. The rhythmic motto recurs over 100 times throughout the movement, but despite this pervasive motif, the movement as a whole based on contrasts of modulation, dynamics, attack, and texture.
For the second movement, in the relative minor key, Beethoven had in mind the final burial-vault scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (over one of the sketches for this movement he even wrote es derniers soupin--"the last sighs"). The movement takes the form of a dramatic scena, but without following the narrative too explicitly. As Joseph Ker-man suggests, perhaps it is emotionality rather than raw emotion being expressed in this movement. Sometimes the gestures are little too melodramatic to be genuinely tragic, but the mastery of form and medium is formidable, and certainly an indication that Beethoven had broken with 18th-century models of expressive restraint in the string quartet.
After such a dramatic "Adagio," the "Scherzo" that follows could hardly be of the light and inconsequential variety. The strongly chromatic element, rapid figuration in the violins, and shifting accents give a feeling of unrest to the movement. The trio, though nominally in the major mode, spends much of the time exploring minor-key areas.
The fourth-movement finale, a broad sonata-rondo, is designed to match the breadth of expression in the opening movements, retaining the sobriety but alleviating some of the
outward passion. A lengthy developmental section delves into double counterpoint, but in this movement the composer seems content to relax the intensity of the preceding movements.
Program note by Luke Howard.
String Quartet in f minor, Op. 95 "Serioso" (1810) Beethoven
The String Quartet inminor, Op. 95 (or "Quartetto serioso," as Beethoven himself called it) was written at the end of Beethoven's extremely prolific "second period." It was his last string quartet before the magnificent set of late quartets written in the last years of his life. It sums up, in extremely concise form, most of the qualities of the "heroic" second period: robust force, melodic poignancy, formal concentration, abrupt interruptions, bold key changes, and an irresistible rhythmic drive.
All four movements of the Quartet in f minor are built of melodic gestures of an astonishing simplicity--one might almost call it bluntness. The unison figure that opens the piece--re-.peated, in typical Beethovenian fashion, a half-step higher--is only one of many examples. That dramatic gesture sets the stage for a first movement of uncommon emotional intensity. The second movement is in D Major, a key very distant from the original f minor--Beethoven never chose a more remote key relationship between movements than he did here. Starting with a mysterious, unaccompanied scale, the movement continues with a lyrical melody followed by a fugue, and has an open ending leading directly into the scherzo. The latter is based on a single motif consisting of a scale, heard both in descending and ascending form. The slow movement's D Major is revisited in the quiet and expressive Trio, which moves in equal long notes with accompanying flourishes in the first violin. The finale proceeds from an introductory "Larghetto espressivo" through a passionate "Allegretto agitato" to the extremely fast coda, in which the tonality suddenly changes from f minor to F Major and the "serioso" character gives way to cheerfulness, even humor, for the few remaining moments. (The sequence of events in this last movement runs remarkably parallel to Beethoven's Egmont Overture, written in the same year 1810, and also consisting of a slow introduction and passionate allegro in f minor, followed by an exultant coda in F Major.)
Program note by Peter Laki.
String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74 "Harp" (1809) Beethoven
The year 1809 was not an especially productive one for Beethoven. After completing the "Emperor" piano concerto, he wrote some piano sonatas (including Op. 81a, Das Lebewohl) but little else of import. The composer was concerned at the time about the political situation in Vienna, which was under attack from Napoleon's French forces. It was only when he escaped to the countryside away from Vienna, soon after finishing the concerto, that he regained some physical and psychological comfort, and composed the String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74. But composition slowed again after he returned to the city. The following year was even less productive, with the Op. 95 string quartet standing out. He would not compose another string quartet until 1824.
The Viennese audience's cool response to the Razumovsky (Op. 59) quartets in 1806 had troubled Beethoven, and he privately decided that his next quartet would be more accessible, more immediately pleasing to the listener. Joseph Kerman describes the Op. 74 quartet as an "open, unproblematic, lucid work of consolidation," written in response to the reception of Op. 59But while there may be some conservative elements in it, the E-flat Quartet can also be regarded as the first step toward the composer's later style, not least in its contrapuntal complexity and the tendency to eschew dramatic passion in favor of a calm quietude.
The first movement's opening "Poco Adagio" is questioning and hesitant, in a manner that would come to characterize the later quartets. But the following "Allegro" bears the classical hallmarks of balance and untroubled lightness; in Kerman's words, it is "ostentatiously at peace with itself." While in formal terms the movement is fairly straightforward, there are specific instrumental and textural touches that enliven the music. Extended pizzicato passages, especially in the development section, have earned the quartet its nickname, the "Harp," while periodic unison writing endows the "Allegro" with another kind of textural variety.
The relaxed theme of the slow movement gives lie to those who think that Beethoven's gift for lyrical melody was limited. The key of A-flat Major had already inspired some of the composer's most ravishing slow movements; as in the "Pathetique" sonata, he ornaments differently each return of the melody, interspersing it with rondo-like episodes. While the movement's gentleness may indicate either grief or serenity, the final marking in the score--"morendo" (dying away)--seems to represent more than just a performance indication. Again, the profundity anticipates the later quartets.
Though not marked as a scherzo, the third movement is certainly intense, and fast. It bears some affinity with the "Scherzo" of Symphony No. 5, in key (c minor, again) and in the ag?gressive counterpoint of the trio section. There is even an echo of the infamous "fate" motif in the rhythmic patterns. The form is the same as the scherzo movements in Op. 59, No. 2, and Symphonies No. 4 and No. 7, with the presto and trio repeating twice before the presto is heard a third time, pianissimo.
A long transition (which later inspired Schubert) leads without pause to the finale, and suggests that the final movement might be something of great import. Instead, Beethoven writes as innocuous a set of variations as one is likely to find in his oeuvre. But this is not so much an anticlimax as energy dissipating into tranquility, recreating the pastoral repose and charming elegance of the first movement.
Program note by Luke Howard.
The Hagen Quartet came into being in 1981, soon achieving success in a number of competitions and signing an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, which over the course of a 20-year relationship, produced 45 CDs. Through its long engagement with the inex?haustibly rich quartet repertoire, the Hagen Quartet has developed and retained a distinc?tive character, not least in its collaboration with such musicians as Nikolaus Harnononcourt, Gyorgy Kurtag, Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Krystian Zimerman, Heinrich Schiff, and Jbrg Widmann.
In concert and on disc, the Hagen Quartet presents stimulating and sensitively conceived programs, embracing the history of the quartet from Haydn to Kurtag and regularly featuring works of composers of the younger generation, including a number of world premieres.
The players of the Hagen Quartet have also acquired a reputation as teachers and mentors through their work at the Salzburg Mozarteum and Basel Conservatory, and through mas?ter classes around the world. Many rising ensembles view the Hagen Quartet as a model, admiring its collaborative spirit, quality of sound, stylistic range, and the unerring integrity of its approach to chamber music.
In 2011, the Hagen Quartet celebrated its 30th anniversary with a release of a new CD series on the Myrios Classics label.
UMS Archives
This evening's performance marks the Hagen Quartet's third appearance under UMS auspices, following its UMS debut in March 1995 at Rackham Auditorium. The Quartet most recently appeared under UMS auspices in April 1998 at Rackham Auditorium.
Photo by Harold Hoffmonn
Explore. Interact. Create...with UAIS and the San Francisco Symphony: American Mavericks.
Presented with major support from the Creative Ventures Leadership Fund.
Pre-Concert Presentation: Inside Mavericks
Friday, March 23,6:30 pm
Hill Auditorium, Mezzanine Lobby
Composer and music educator Eliza Brown presents ar tive pre-concert experience for the audience based on u from the Walden School. In addition to learning about the music through lecture and demonstration, participants will engage in singing tone clusters and contemplating their own approach to performing John Cage's Song Books. Must have a ticket to the performance to attend.
Pre-Concert Program: Meet the Maverick: Charles Ives in Words and Music
turday, March 24,6:30 pm
...odern Languages Building, Auditorium 4,
812 E. Washington Street
Highlighting Charles Ives as a composer, a writer, and a true American eccentric, performer David Prather weaves together
iical passages from Ives' "Concord" Sonata with literary pas?sages from Ives' book Essays Before a Sonata to illuminate both the musical material and the expressive intention behind this radical -
rican Mave.
ursday-Sunday, Mant concert on stage
Mowing each America i invited to stay in the
-Concert Artist Q&As
22-25, immediately following each
icks concert, audience mem
invited to stay in the auditorium for an informal Q&A session with performers from that evening's performance. Special guests will be announced from the stage after each concert.
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UMS, with major support from the Creative Ventures Leadership Fund, presents
The Andersen Project
A production of Ex Machina
Written and directed by Robert Lepage
Performed by Yves Jacques
Program
Thursday Evening, March 15, 2012 at 730 Friday Evening, March 16,2012 at 8:00 Saturday Evening, March 17,2012 at 8:00 Power Center Ann Arbor
This evening's performance is approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes in duration and is performed without intermission.
45th, 46th, and 47th Performances of the 133rd Annual Season International Theater Series
This evening's performance is part of Pure Michigan Renegade, a series of special performances and educational events presented by UMS throughout the Winter 2012 Season, sponsored by Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
Funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works.
Media partnership is provided by Michigan Radio 91.7 FM, Between the Lines. WDET 101.9 FM, and Ann Arbor's iO7one.
Special thanks to the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Ann Arbor District Library for their support of and participation in events surrounding these performances.
The Andersen Project appears by arrangement with Menno Plukker Theatre Agent, Inc.
The photographing or sound and video recording of this performance or possession of ony device for such recording is prohibited.
Large print programs are available upon request.
The Andersen Project: A Modern Fairy-Tale
Having come to Paris at the behest of the Opera Gamier, which has commissioned him to write the
libretto for a children's opera based on a fairy-tale by Hans Christian Andersen, a Quebecois songwriter settles down in a friend's apartment on Rue Saint-Denis. During his stay, he necessarily meets people: one of the Opera's senior managers (a man with some odd and unusual likings), a young janitor and graffiti artist of North African descent, as well as a dog who could well be guiding the tale along its way.
Freely inspired from two stories by Andersen ("The Dryad" and "The Shadow") and from anecdotes drawn from the famed Danish author's Parisian travels, The Andersen Project calls on some of Lepage's recurring themes: the confrontation between romanticism and modernism, between recognized and underground art forms, between past and present. However, in this new solo work, he also explores more troubling territories: questions about sexual identity, unfulfilled fantasies, and a thirst for recognition and fame that are drawn from Andersen's life and writings, only to serve as a filigree to the modern tale.
Once again, Lepage tells the story of a Quebecois whose travels abroad and meetings with others allow him to find out what defines, motivates, and inspires him.
Director's Note
The process that led to this solo show began with a commission from the Kingdom of Denmark, as part of the year's celebrations, with pomp and circumstance, of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen in 2005. Artists from all over the world were invited to create works inspired from his novels and fairy tales.
I was to take a more personal interest in Andersen. The point was not so much biographical, but rather a way to find out how this Scandinavian writer's life and works could find an echo in a modern world that has lost its innocence and romantic ideals. Experience from my previ?ous solos told me I couldn't just be interested in Andersen: I had to identify with him.
At first, this was quite difficult, as I knew next to nothing about him or his time. Reading long, arid, and often contradictory biographies did nothing to simplify the matter. Finally, it was through some candid revelations found in his diary that I began to understand that we were much more alike than I would have wished. In some cases, it was quite obvious. Other comparisons were more...oblique. Mostly, there was a feeling, born in early childhood, of being different from others, a feeling that can lead to suffering and isolation, yet capable of making us realize that everyone is indeed unique. It is clear that as Andersen was writ?ing The Ugly Duckling, he had understood that the capacity to turn the difficulties that life throws at us into opportunities for self-realization is to be found within ourselves.
Moreover, a solo, by its very nature, evokes solitude and even turns it into one of its main themes: the protagonist's solitude, that of the actor playing him and, in this case, that of Hans Christian Andersen. After having worked alongside him over the course of this show's creation, I will at least have understood that my desire to tell stories is not only a way to wring out my imagination's overflow, but also an opportunity, for me as for him, to come out of isolation and to try to gain acceptance from the rest of the world.
--Robert Lepage
Versatile in every form of theater craft, Robert Lepage is equally talented as a director, playwright, actor, and film director. His creative and original approach to theater has won him international acclaim and shaken the dogma of classical stage direction to its foundations, especially through his use of new technologies. Contemporary history is his source of inspiration, and his modern and unusual work transcends all boundaries.
Robert Lepage was born in Quebec in 1957. He took an early interest in geography, and when he later discovered all art forms, theater caught his particular attention. He entered the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Quebec in 1975 at the age of 17. After a study period in Paris in 1978 he returned to Quebec and became involved in many creative projects, gaining experience as actor, author, and director. Two years later he joined the Theatre Repere.
From 1989-1993 he was Artistic Director of the Theatre franqais at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. While pursuing his own creative projects, he directed Needles and Opium (1991), Coriolanus, Macbeth, and The Tempest (1992). With A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1992 he became the first North American to direct a Shakespeare play at the Royal National Theatre in London.
A turning point in his career came with the founding of his multidisciplinary production company, Ex Machina, in 1994. Under his artistic direction, this new team produced a steady output of plays, beginning with The Seven Streams of the River Ota (1994), A Mid?summer Night's Dream (1995), and a solo production, Elsinore (1995). In 1994, he made his debut in the world of cinema. He wrote and directed his first feature film, Le Confessional, which appeared the following year at the Cannes Festival Directors' Fortnight. He went on to direct Polygraph in 1996, No in 1997, Possible Worlds in 2000 (his first feature film writ?ten in English), and finally, in 2003, a film adaptation of his play The Far Side of the Moon. Since its opening in 1997, Mr. Lepage and his team have created several original works at La Caserne, a multidisciplinary production center in Quebec City.
Robert Lepage made a grand entrance in the opera world when he staged the successful double bill of Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung (1993). His presence on the operatic stage continued with La Damnation de Faust presented for the first time in the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, Japan (1999), then at the Opera National de Paris and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Among his achievements in opera: 1984 based on the novel by George Orwell, with Maestro Lorin Maazel providing the musical direction (2005); The Rake's Prog?ress (2007); and The Nightingale and other short Fables which premiered in Toronto at the Canadian Opera Company (2009), and was presented at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Opera de Lyon in 2010. Dos Rheingold, Wagner's Ring prelude, premiered in September 2010 at The Metropolitan Opera with the cycle presented during the 1011 and 1112 seasons.
Yves Jacques' professional journey led him from his native Quebec City to Montreal, and then drove him to Paris, where he has been performing on stage and in movies ever since. Born in Quebec City, Mr. Jacques was the drummer of his own band from age eight, and, as a teenager, studied theater and mime at the Orford Art Center and percussion at the Conservatoire de musique de Quebec. Soon after graduating from theater school in 1977, he first gained
notoriety with his musical parody Slick and the Outlags, created with his musician friends. The show was an instant hit and was shown in Quebec City and Montreal, before touring Quebec again in a 1984 revival.
After the show's first run, Mr. Jacques began to be offered parts in stage plays and television shows. For five years, in Quebec City, he played only leading roles in the city's top theaters. In 1984, his part in Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire confirmed his stand?ing as an actor, and was followed by a succession of hits on the silver screen, television, and the stage. Since September 1993, he has been living in Paris, which has allowed him to play in films shot in France, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Hungary (with Charles Aznavour), Belgium, and Sweden (in the studios of Ingmar Bergman).
His first stage appearance in Paris took place in January 1996 at the Theatre National de Chaillot (Trocadero), where he played alongside Rupert Everett in Jerome Savary's produc?tion of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. He appeared in another Paris hit production with Savary, Moliere's Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, which had a run of over 125 performances.
His most rewarding filmmaking association in France has been with director Claude Miller, with whom he has worked on many successive films. His latest project with the director was during the summer of 2010 on Voyez comme Us dansent, following Un secret (2006), Betty Fisher et autres histoires (International Critics' Award, 2001), La chambre des magici-ennes, (International Critics' Award, Berlin, 2000) and La classe de neige (Prix du Jury, Cannes, 1998). In 2003, he was at the Cannes Film Festival with two movies: Claude Miller's La Petite Lilly and Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions (which won many awards including the Academy Award for "Best Foreign Film" in 2004).
In February 2001, he was bestowed the title of Chevalier de I'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, awarded by France's Ministere de la Culture and was conferred with the title of Officier de I'Ordre du Canada in 2009.
From 2001--2005, Mr. Jacques orbited the Earth aboard Robert Lepage's The Far Side of the Moon, and his performance won him Montreal's Theatre du Nouveau Monde's "Best Actor" Award (Prix Gascon-Roux) in 2003. His collaboration with Robert Lepage continues with The Andersen Project, which has toured the world since 2006.
UMS Archives
This week's performances mark the fifth, sixth, and seventh performances by Yves Jacques under UMS auspices. He first appeared at UMS in March 2005 in performances of Robert Lepage's The Far Side of the Moon at the Power Center.
The Andersen Project marks the second theater presentation directed by Robert Lepage presented under UMS auspices.
The Andersen Project
Written and directed by Robert Lepage Performed by Yves Jacques
Peder Bjurman and Marie Gignac Script Collaborators
Felix Dagenais Assistant Director and Stage Manager
Jean Le Bourdais Associate Set Designer
Nicolas Marois Associate Lighting Designer
Jean-Sebastien Cote Sound Designer
Catherine Higgins Costume Designer
Marie-France Lariviere Properties
Jean-Nicolas Marquis Puppeteer
Jacques Collin, Veronique Couturier, David Leclerc Image production
Richard Hansen Wig Master
Lynda Beaulieu Robert Lepage's Agent
Louise Roussel Production Manager
Marie-Pierre Gagne Touring Production Manager
Isabelle Lapointe Tour Manager
Serge Cote Technical Director
Eric Gautron Touring Technical Director
Felix Bernier Guimond Lighting Manager
Caroline Turcot Sound Manoger
Nicolas Dostie Video Manoger
Isabel Poulin Wardrobe and Prop Manager
Olivier Bourque Head Stagehand
Tobie Horswill Technical Consultant
Normand Poirier Collaboration to the improvisational and creative process
Nathalie Gagne Make-up
Jennifer Tremblay Assistant to the Costume Designer
Nicole Fortin Costumes Cutter
Helene Ruel Seamstress
Les Conceptions visuelles Jean-Marc Cyr Set building
Martin Beausoleil Horse's cart Maker
Patrick Binette Sculpture Maker: "Femme piquee par un serpent"
Jennifer Jimenez, Theatre Ontario's Professional Theater Training Program
Lighting Designer's Trainee (creation) Ulla Henningsen Audio guide voice
Music
Production
Una Furliva Lagrima by Gaetano Donizetti, performed by Vincenzo La Scola, used by arrangement with Naxos of America
Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in F Major by Edward Grieg, performed by Olivier Charlier and Brigitte Engerer, used by arrangement with Harmonia Mundi
Sweef Surrender (Di Tiesto Remix) by Sarah McLachlan, used by arrangement with Tyde Music and Nettwerk Productions
"Pas de deux" from Le Papillon by Jacques Offenbach, performed by John Georgiadis, used by arrangement with Universal Music Canada for Decca London
Ex Machina
Michel Bernatchez, Producer
Co-producing portners
Auckland Festival; Bite:06, Barbican, London; Bonlieu Scene Nationale, Annecy; Festival de Otono de la Comunidad de Madrid; Cal Performances, Berkeley; Canadian Stage, Toronto; Carolina Performing Arts; Celestins, Theatre de Lyon; Change Performing Arts, Milan; Emerson College, Boston; La Comete (Scene Nationale de Chalons-en-Champagne); La Coursive, La Rochelle; Le Festival d'Automne a Paris; Le Grand Theatre de Quebec; Le Theatre du Nouveau Monde, Montreal; Le Theatre du Trident, Quebec; Le Theatre francais du Centre national des Arts d'Ottawa; Le Theatre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine; Le Theatre National de Chaillot; Le Theatre National de Toulouse Midi-Pyrenees; Le Volcan--Scene natio?nale du Havre; LG Arts Center, Seoul; Maison des Arts, Creteil; MC2: Maison de la Culture de Grenoble; National Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Centre, Taipei; Pilar de Yzaguirre--Ysarca Art Promotions, Madrid; Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo; spielzeiteuropa Berliner Festspiele; Teatre Lliure, Barcelona; The Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation; The Sydney Festival; Theatre de Caen; Wiener Festwochen, Vienna.
Richard Castelli, Associate Producer, Europe, lapan
Michael Morris, Associate Producer, United Kingdom
Menno Plukker, Associate Producer, The Americas, Asia (except lapan), Australia, New Zealand
Acknowledgements: Le-Maillon, Theatre de Strasbourg; Odense City Museums.
Ex Machina is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Quebec's Arts and Literature Council, and the City of Quebec.