strauss conducted by andrew litton | program notes

SOUNDINGS 2015-2016 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 1

MASTERWORKS • 2015-2016STRAUSS CONDUCTED BY ANDREW LITTON

COLORADO SYMPHONY ANDREW LITTON, conductor

SILVER AINOMÄE, cello BASIL VENDRYES, viola

Friday, October 23, 2015 at 7:30 pmSaturday, October 24, 2015 at 7:30 pmBoettcher Concert Hall

STRAUSS Don Quixote, Op. 35 Introduction Theme: Don Quixote, Knight of the Rueful Countenance; Sancho Panza Variation I: The Knight and the Squire

Start on their Journey Variation II: The Victorious Battle Against the Host of the Great Emperor Alifanfaron Variation III: Colloquies of Knight and Squire Variation IV: The Adventure with the Penitents Variation V: The Knight’s Vigil Variation VI: The Meeting with Dulcinea Variation VII: The Ride Through the Air Variation VIII: The Journey to the Enchanted Park Variation IX: The Combat with Two Magicians Variation X: The Duel with the Knight of the White Moon Finale: The Death of Don Quixote

— INTERMISSION —

STRAUSS Don Juan, Op. 20

STRAUSS Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59

This weekend of concerTs is graTefully dedicaTed To helen k. and arThur e. Johnson foundaTion

friday’s concerT is graTefully dedicaTed To communiTy firsT foundaTion saTurday’s concerT is graTefully dedicaTed To drs. sarah and harold nelson, dave and sue seiTz

PROGRAM 2 SOUNDINGS 2015-2016 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG

ANDREW LITTON, conductor

Colorado Symphony Music Director Andrew Litton is the newly appointed Music Director of the New York City Ballet. Mr. Litton also serves as Bergen Philharmonic Music Director Laureate, Artistic Director of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest, and Conductor Laureate of Britain’s Bournemouth. He guest conducts the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies, and has a discography of over 120 recordings with awards including America’s Grammy, France’s Diapason d’Or, and many other honors. Besides his Grammy®-winning Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with Bryn Terfel

and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, he also recorded the complete symphonies by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, a Dallas Mahler cycle, and many Gershwin recordings as both conductor and pianist. Mr. Litton is a graduate of the Fieldston School, New York, and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard in piano and conducting. The youngest-ever winner of the BBC International Conductors Competition, he served as Assistant Conductor at Teatro alla Scala and Exxon/Arts Endowment Assistant Conductor for the National Symphony under Rostropovich. His many honors in addition to Norway’s Order of Merit include an honorary Doctorate from the University of Bournemouth, Yale University’s Sanford Medal, and the Elgar Society Medal. An accomplished pianist, Litton often conducts from the keyboard and enjoys performing chamber music with his orchestra colleagues. For further information, visit www.andrewlitton.com.

SILVER AINOMÄE, cello

Silver Ainomae was born in Tallinn, Estonia. At the age of six he began to play the cello and piano. In 1990 Ainomae’s family migrated from Estonia to Finland. Shortly after that, at the age of twelve, he was accepted to the Sibelius-Academy in Helsinki, where his teachers were Hannu Kiiski and Arto Noras. Studies at the Sibelius-Academy concluded with Master’s Degree in 2005 after which he continued developing his skills in London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Razumovsky Academy under the guidance of Professor Oleg Kogan. Ainomae participated in his first

international competition when he was eight years old. Two years later he won second prize in a competition held in former Czechoslovakia. Since then he has been competing regularly, winning multiple prizes and awards in major national and international competitions worldwide. Among others at Isang Yun competition (South-Korea 2003), Lutoslawski competition (Poland 2005) and Paulo competition (Finland 2007). Ainomae has performed in more than 30 countries – hundreds of concerts with various chamber music ensembles and world class orchestras. His soloist debut was in 2000 with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and since then he has performed concertos with Finnish Radio Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Polish Radio Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta and Colorado Symphony, conducted by Paavo Jarvi, Marin Alsop, Claus-Peter Flor, Janos Furst, Eri Klas and others. In 2009, Ainomae was appointed Principal Cellist of the Colorado Symphony. He has appeared as guest principal with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and St Paul Chamber Orchestra.

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BASIL VENDRYES, viola

Basil Vendryes has been Principal Violist of the Colorado Symphony since 1993. He is a former member of the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Rochester Philharmonic orchestras. As violist with the Aurora String Quartet (1986-95) Vendryes performed extensively, and recorded the complete Mendelssohn Quartets for Naxos. He currently serves on the faculties of the Lamont School of Music (University of Denver), the Castleman Quartet Program, the Lamont Summer Academy and the Green Mountain Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. Vendryes

has served on the faculties of Biola University (CA), California Summer Music, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Montecito International Music Festival. He is also the founder/director of the Colorado Young Sinfonia, a chamber orchestra comprised of some of the best young talent in the Denver region, now in its 15th year. Working with young talent is one of his passions, and Vendryes has given classes in viola and chamber music throughout the United States. The 2015-16 season includes appearances in California, Iowa, New York, Texas and Vermont in addition to numerous performances in the Denver area. Vendryes studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Eastman School of Music, and has recorded for Columbia, Phillips, Decca, RCA and Nonesuch, as well as chamber music for the Albany, Ariel, Cadenza Music, Centaur, CRI and Naxos labels. Vendryes plays on a rare Italian viola made in 1887 by Carlo Cerruti.

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All Gershwin featuring New York City BalletJAN 10 SUN 1:00Andrew Litton, conductor/piano Members of New York City Ballet: Sterling Hyltin Megan LeCrone Ashly Isaacs Amar Ramasar

coloradosymphony.org 303.623.7876 BOX OFFICE MON-FRI 10 AM - 6 PM T SAT 12 PM - 6 PM


MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTESRICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949): Don Quixote, Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character for Cello, Viola and Orchestra, Op. 35Richard Strauss was born on June 11, 1864 in Munich, and died September 8, 1949 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He composed Don Quixote in 1897 in Munich; Franz Wuellner conducted the work’s premiere on March 8, 1898 in Cologne. The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two B-flat clarinets (second doubling E-flat clarinet), bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, six horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tenor and bass tubas, timpani, percussion, harp, strings, and obbligato solo cello and viola. Duration is about 42 minutes. Last performed by the orchestra on February 28 - March 2, 2003, with En Shao conducting. Jurgen de Lemos was the solo cellist and Basil Vendryes the solo violist.

Don Quixote by Cervantes is not only among the earliest examples of the novel in world literature (1605), but also one of the most admired and widely enjoyed. Cervantes sketched his hero thus: “Through little sleep and much reading, he dried up his brains in such sort as he wholly lost his judgment.” Thereupon, “He fell into one of the strangest conceits that a madman ever stumbled on in this world ... that he should become a knight-errant, and go throughout the world with his horse and armor to seek adventures and practice in person all he had read was used by knights of yore....”

Knights in shining armor were as much out of fashion in Cervantes’ day as covered wagons and the pony express are in ours, but the nostalgic, historical romance that they represent is the source of much of the poignancy that Don Quixote elicits and that served as the emotional engine for Richard Strauss’ superb tone poem of 1897, as well as for works by some sixty other composers, including Telemann and Purcell. In his setting, Strauss chose to emphasize the dramatic elements of the tale by assigning a theme representing Quixote to the solo cello, and then varying the melody to depict several episodes from the novel. Along for the adventure, as well as much abuse from his master, is the faithful squire, Sancho Panza, usually played by solo viola, but also given to the tenor tuba and bass clarinet.

Strauss’ tone poem portrays ten of Quixote’s exploits. Introduction: The elderly hero’s fancy teems with the “impossible follies” of the romantic works he has been reading and in his madness he vows that he will become a knight-errant. Theme: Don Quixote, the Knight of the Rueful Countenance; Sancho Panza. The theme of the hero is announced by the solo cello. Sancho Panza’s theme emerges first in the bass clarinet, then in the tenor tuba, and later in the solo viola. Variation I. The Knight and his Squire Start on Their Journey. Inspired by the beautiful Dulcinea of Toboso, the Knight attacks some “monstrous giants,” who are nothing more than windmills revolving in the breeze. Variation II. The Victorious Battle Against the Host of the Great Emperor Alifanfaron. Quixote thinks he spies a huge army but it is only a great herd of sheep. The Knight is stoned by the shepherds. Variation III. Colloquies of Knight and Squire. Quixote speaks of honor, glory, the Ideal Woman. Sancho, the realist, holds forth for a more comfortable life. Variation IV. The Adventure with the Penitents. Mistaking a band of pilgrims for robbers and villains, Don Quixote attacks, only to receive a sound drubbing from them. Variation V. The Knight’s Vigil. Don Quixote spurns sleep. Dulcinea, in answer to his prayers, comes to him in a vision. Variation VI. The Meeting with Dulcinea. Jestingly, Sancho points to a country wench as Dulcinea. Don Quixote vows vengeance against the wicked magician who has wrought this transformation. Variation VII. The Ride Through the Air. Blindfolded, Knight and squire sit astride


MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTESa wooden horse, which — they have been informed — will carry them aloft. The wooden horse never leaves the ground. Variation VIII. The Journey to the Enchanted Park. Quixote and Sancho embark in an oarless boat. The boat capsizes, but the two reach shore and give thanks for their safety. Variation IX. The Combat with Two Magicians. Quixote violently charges a peaceable pair of monks going by on their mules. In his maddened brain, the monks are mighty magicians, and Quixote is elated beyond measure at their utter rout. Variation X. The Duel with the Knight of the White Moon. The greatest setback of his knightly career is suffered by Quixote at the hands of the Knight of the White Moon, who is, after all, a true friend. He explains that he hoped to cure Don Quixote of his madness, and, having won the duel, orders him to retire peacefully to his home. Finale. The Death of Don Quixote. The worn and harried Knight is no longer bemused. It was all

vanity, he reflects, and he is prepared, now, for the peace that is death.

oDon Juan, Tone Poem (after Nicolaus Lenau), Op. 20Strauss composed Don Juan in 1888 and conducted the Weimar Hoftheater Orchestra in the work’s premiere on November 11, 1889 in Weimar. The score calls for piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp and strings. Duration is about 17 minutes. Last performance by the orchestra was on December 4 &5, 2009, with Julian Kuerti on the podium.

It was in the 1630 drama El Burlador de Sevilla (“The Seducer of Seville”) by the Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina that the fantastic character of Don Juan first strutted upon the world’s stages. Tirso based his play on folk legends that were at least a century old in his day, and whose roots undoubtedly extend deeply into some Jungian archetype of masculine virility shared, from complementary viewpoints, by men and women alike. Don Juan found frequent literary representations thereafter, notably in works by Molière, Dumas, Byron, Espronceda, de Musset, Zorrilla and Shaw. A story of such intense passion was bound to inspire composers as well as men of letters, and Gluck, Delibes, Alfano, Dargomyzhsky and half a dozen others wrote pieces based on the character and his exploits. The most famous treatment of the tale is, of course, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and it was through that opera that Richard Strauss first became acquainted with the Spanish Lothario. In June 1885, Strauss attended a production of Paul Heyse’s play Don Juans Ende with his mentor, Hans von Bulow, and the drama and its subject, building on the influence of Mozart’s masterpiece, made a powerful impression on the young composer.

Strauss started sketching his own Don Juan late in 1887, soon after he had met Pauline de Ahna in August. Pauline, a singer of considerable talent, got on splendidly with Strauss, and they were soon in love and married. The impassioned love themes of Don Juan were written under the spell of this romance. (The couple remained apparently happily married for the rest of their lives, though Pauline was a renowned nag. Gustav and Alma Mahler would cross the street to avoid meeting her. In 1904, his torch still glowing, Richard wrote his Domestic Symphony — that grandiloquent ode to life among the pots and pans — as a tribute to his familial bliss with


MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTESPauline.) For the program of his tone poem, Strauss went not to da Ponte or the Spanish authors, but to the 19th-century Hungarian poet Nicolaus Lenau. Lenau, born in 1802, was possessed by a blazing romantic spirit fueled in part by a hopeless love for the wife of a friend. In a fit of idealism in 1832, he came to America and settled on a homestead in Ohio for a few months. Disappointed with the New World, he returned to Europe, where he produced an epic on the Faust legend in 1836, and then undertook a poetic drama based on Don Juan. Lenau left this latter work unfinished in 1844 when he lost his mind and was admitted to an asylum, where he died six years later. Lenau’s Don Juan was not a rakish extrovert but rather a vain, sensual idealist. In the author’s words, “My Don Juan is no hot-blooded man, eternally pursuing women. It is the longing in him to find a woman who is to him womanhood incarnate, and to enjoy in the one all the women on earth whom he cannot as individuals possess. Because he does not find her, although he reels from one to another, at last Disgust seizes hold of him, and this Disgust is the Devil that fetches him.” In Lenau’s version, Don Juan meets his death in a sword duel with the father of one of the women he has seduced. Disillusioned and empty, ready for death, he drops his guard and welcomes his fate.

Strauss’ tone poem captures the feverish emotion and charged sensuality of Lenau’s drama, but other than three abstruse excerpts from Lenau’s poem that appear in the score, the composer never gave a specific program for Don Juan. (He learned early that he could get far more publicity by letting critics and commentators contend over such details.) The body of the work comprises themes associated with the lover and his conquests. The vigorous opening strain and a stentorian melody majestically proclaimed by the horns near the mid-point of the work belong to Don Juan. The music depicting the women in his life is variously coquettish, passionate and ravishing. (Norman Del Mar called the beautiful oboe melody “one of the greatest lovesongs in all music”). In the closing pages, an enormous crescendo is suddenly broken off by a long silence. A quivering chill comes over the music. A dissonant note on the trumpets marks the fatal thrust. Quietly, without hope of redemption, the libertine dies.

oSuite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59Strauss composed the “comedy for music” Der Rosenkavalier to a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal in 1909-1910; Ernst von Schuch conducted the premiere, in Dresden on January 26, 1911. The score calls for three flutes (third doubling piccolo), three oboes (third doubling English horn), three clarinets (3rd doubling E-flat clarinet), bass clarinet, three bassoons (third doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, celesta and strings. Duration is about 22 minutes. Last performed by the orchestra on April 25 & 26, 2008, with JoAnn Falletta conducting.

The libretto for Der Rosenkavalier, by the gifted Austrian man of letters Hugo von Hofmannsthal, is one of the masterworks of its type for the lyric stage. It gently probes the budding, young love of Octavian and Sophie, poignantly examines the fading youth of the Marschallin, and humorously exposes the blustering Baron Ochs. It is a superb evocation of


sentiment, wit and vigor wedded to one of the most opulently glorious musical scores ever composed. Former New York Times critic Harold Schonberg wrote of the emotional milieu of the opera, “In Der Rosenkavalier, there are no Jungian archetypes, only the human condition. Instead of long narratives, there are Viennese waltzes. Instead of a monumental Liebestod, there is a sad, elegant lament from a beautiful, aristocratic woman who begins to see old age. Instead of death, we get a bittersweet and hauntingly beautiful trio that in effect tells us that life will go on as it has always gone on. People do not die for love in Hofmannsthal’s world. They face the inevitable, surrender with what grace they can summon up, and then look around for life’s next episode. As Strauss himself later said, ‘The Marschallin had lovers before Octavian, and she will have lovers after him.’” Der Rosenkavalier is an opera wise and worldly, sophisticated and touching, sentimental and funny that contains some of the most memorable music to emerge from the opera house in the 20th century.

The Suite that Strauss extracted from Der Rosenkavalier includes the Prelude to Act I, the luminous Presentation of the Rose from Act II, the blustering Baron Ochs’ Arrival and Waltz from Act II, the glorious trio and duet in the opera’s closing scene, and a rousing selection of waltzes from the score.

©2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES

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strauss conducted by andrew litton | program notes

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