CONCERT PROGRAM

November 8-9, 2013

Nicholas McGegan, conductor Stefan Jackiw, violin

WEBER Abu Hassan Overture (1810-11) (1786-1826) MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219 (1775) (1756-1791)
Allegro aperto Adagio Rondo: Tempo di Menuetto Stefan Jackiw, violin INTERMISSION

RAMEAU Les Indes galantes Suite (1735-36) (1683-1764)

Ouverture Air pour les Amours Tambourins Prlude pour ladoration du Soleil Air des Incas pour la devotion du Soleil Orage et Air pour Bore Airs pour Zphire Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix Chaconne: Les Sauvages

HAYDN Symphony No. 100 in G major, Military (1793-94) (1732-1809)

Adagio; Allegro Allegretto Menuet: Moderato Finale: Presto

Nicholas McGegan is the Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin Guest Conductor. Stefan Jackiw is presented by the Whitaker Foundation. The concert of Friday, November 8, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from the Robert W. Schaefer Trust. The concert of Saturday, November 9, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Sanford and Rosalind Neuman. Pre-Concert Conversations are sponsored by Washington University Physicians. Coffee and doughnuts are provided by Krispy Kreme for the Friday, November 8, concert. These concerts are presented by the Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation. These concerts are part of the Wells Fargo Advisors series. Large print program notes are available through the generosity of Delmar Gardens and are located at the Customer Service table in the foyer.
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FROM THE STAGE

Lorraine Glass-Harris, second violins, on French Baroque: What I like about this program is that were not only visiting the court of the French Baroque, with Rameau ballets and even King Louis dancing, but we also see how the people of that time were fascinated with other cultures and other places. Theyre imagining mythological places in Greece, theyre imagining the Turks, and the New World. Its an extraordinary time in which the world is coming together. People were becoming intrigued by travel, even though they werent traveling very quickly.

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THE REALM OF FANTASY

BY PA U L SC H I AVO

TIMELINKS
1735-36 RAMEAU Les Indes galantes Suite Handel composes operas Ariodante and Alcina 1775 MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219 United Colonies become United States 1793-94 HAYDN Symphony No. 100 in G major, Military Reign of Terror begins during French Revolution 1810-11 WEBER Abu Hassan Overture Ned Ludd leads groups of craftsmen to destroy textile machinery in England, become known as Luddites

Intimations of exotic locales and cultures, particularly those considered the orient, constitute a distinctive and especially colorful strand in Western music. Just what has been regarded as fashionably exotic, or even oriental, has changed over time. During the last century Debussy, Stravinsky, Ravel, Puccini, and Britten (to cite only a few of the more illustrious names) offered musical impressions of the Far East. But their counterparts in the 18th and 19th centuries found the orient closer at hand. For those earlier composers, it was the not too distant yet quite foreign cultures of Turkey, Arabia, and Persia that fueled fantasies of remote lands, and references to the Near and Middle East had become common or, at least, not uncommonin European music by the late 18th century. Our concert offers several examples of such early musical exotica. The overture to Carl Maria von Webers slight opera Abu Hassan typifies the way European composers evoked Arabia. Mozart uses similar devices in the surprising Turkish episode in the finale of his Violin Concerto in A major, K. 219. The French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau does them one better, setting the four scenes of his opera Les Indes galantes in a Turkish harem, in Persia, in Peru, and in the North American wilderness. Our final offering, Joseph Haydns Military Symphony, although undeniably European, also includes percussive qualities that allude to Turkish styles and elements.

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CARL MARIA VON WEBER Abu Hassan Overture WIT AND EXUBERANCE Carl Maria von Weber composed music for his opera Abu Hassan intermittently during the second half of 1810, with the work produced for the first time in June of the following year, in Munich. On this and subsequent occasions it proved extremely popular, but its brevity and slender plot have kept it from the active operatic repertory. Its overture, however, serves well as a concert-opener. Based on melodies from Abu Hassan, this prelude conveys both high spirits andby means of cymbals, triangle, and certain melodic figures a stylized Arabian atmosphere. Both of these qualities are apparent in the animated theme that opens the work, and the pace scarcely slackens with the arrival of a second subject, prepared by a brief horn call and presented by the oboe. Weber explores these thematic ideas with his customary inventiveness, but the musics wit and exuberance, rather than its skillful development, prove its most appealing qualities. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219 PRODIGAL INVENTION In his violin concertos, Mozarts musical invention takes on an aspect of caprice such as we rarely encounter in his other major instrumental works. Melodies pour so abundantly from his pen that they need not be thoroughly developed, and the flow of music is sometimes interrupted for fascinating but inexplicable digressions. The first movement of the A-major concerto begins with the usual orchestral exposition, one whose several brief themes convey an almost operatic lan. But the entrance of the solo violin changes the musics character completely. Indeed, the featured instrument seems to have stumbled into the wrong composition, rhapsodizing in slow tempo over a murmuring accompaniment. Having thoroughly perplexed us (though in a not unpleasant way), Mozart once again shifts gears and returns to
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Weber Born November 19, 1786, Eutin, northwest of Berlin Died June 5, 1826, London First Performance June 4, 1811, in Munich, under the composers direction STL Symphony Premiere April 4, 2002, with David Amado conducting the only previous performance, at a concert in Park Hills, Missouri Scoring ute piccolo 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets trombone timpani percussion strings Performance Time approximately 4 minutes

the original tempo, allowing the movement to develop more or less as we might expect. The ensuing Adagio is more conventional, being concerned chiefly with the theme given out by the orchestra in the opening measures. But the finale, built on a minuet type of melody, has as its third episode a humorous interlude in Turkish style. Musical evocation of the land of the Pashas constituted a popular strain of composition among Austrian musicians of the late 18th century. For the quasi-exotic episode in the A-major concertos finale, it is sometimes referred to as Mozarts Turkish Concerto. The conclusion of this surprising passage returns us once more to the minuet theme, as though the strange oriental excursion had been only a dream. JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU Les Indes galantes Suite LOVE IN DISTANT LANDS Composed in 1735, Les Indes galantes was Jean-Philippe Rameaus second work for the stage and, by modern standards, a most curious one. Each of its four acts is set in a different Indian landTurkey, Peru, Persia, and the North American forestand presents a brief love story such as regularly provided the subjects for operas at that time. Thus, the first act tells of a Turkish sultan in love with a captive European; despite his feelings for her, he magnanimously yields to her affection for her French lover when the latter washes up on shore, and he sets them both free. (Shades of the plot for Mozarts opera The Abduction from the Seraglio.) The Peruvian portion of the work finds a Spanish conquistador and an Inca priest vying for the hand of an Indian princess. And so forth. The entire work begins with a prologue in which the mythical figures of Bellone, goddess of war, and Amour, the god of love, argue the conflicting claims of glory and affection on the hearts of young men. EXOTICISM, DIGNITY AND SPLENDOR Rameau composed several dozen dance pieces and instrumental interludes for Les Indes galantes. We hear now a suite comprised of eight of these, preceded by the operas overture. This prelude follows the
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Mozart Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg Died December 5, 1791, Vienna First performance Unknown, but probably 1776 in Mozarts native Salzburg, with Antonio Brunetti executing the solo part STL Symphony Premiere February 4, 1972, Wanda Wikomirska was soloist, with Walter Susskind conducting Most Recent STL Symphony Performance March 3, 2007, Alison Harney was soloist, with Nicholas McGegan conducting Scoring solo violin 2 oboes 2 horns strings Performance Time Approximately 31 minutes

Rameau Born September 25, 1683, date of baptism, in Dijon Died September 12, 1764, Paris First Performance August 23, 1735, the opera Les Indes galantes received its rst performance at the Paris Opra STL Symphony Premiere This week Scoring 2 utes piccolo 2 oboes 2 bassoons trumpet timpani percussion harpsichord strings Performance Time approximately 20 minutes

usual format for such works during the Baroque period: an initial paragraph in slow tempo and ceremonious rhythms, followed by a livelier main body of music featuring contrapuntal textures. In the series of dances and instrumental airs that follows, Rameau uses particular instrumental sonorities and rhythms to intimate a certain exoticism. We also hear some charming tone painting of a storm and gentler breezes. The operas final scene presents Indians and Europeans joining amicably to smoke a peace pipe and praise the pleasures of love. This happy event is depicted in the Dance of the Great Peace Pipe, which leads to the grandest moment in Les Indes galantes. It comes as Indian and French warriors, Amazons and shepherds and shepherdesses join in a grand Chaconne, the dance traditionally used to close an opera-ballet in the Baroque era. Here Rameaus music moves between strains of solemn dignity and bright splendor, reflected in a fluid alternation of bright major- and more solemn minor-mode harmonies. JOSEPH HAYDN Symphony No. 100 in G major, Military THE SYMPHONIST IN LONDON Joseph Haydn developed as a symphonistand at the same time did much to develop the symphony itself from an uncertain, fledgling form into a welldefined musical genreduring his 30-year tenure as music director at the court of two Hungarian princes, Paul Anton and Nikolaus Esterhzy. During this time, the composer wrote more than 80 symphonies for the Esterhzy court orchestra, endowing these works with distinctive thematic ideas and imaginative development of those ideas. But Haydns crowning achievements in the field of the symphony were written not for the Esterhzy court, nor even for Vienna, where his compositions eventually became widely known and admired. In 1791-92 and again in 1794-95 Haydn obtained leave from his duties to the Esterhzy family in order to visit London, where he presented numerous concerts of his music.For these events Haydn created his last 12
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symphonies, works that represent the Classicalperiod symphony at the height of its development. The Symphony in G major, No. 100, bears the title Military, a reference to the unusual prominence given to brass and percussion instruments.Unlike many of the titles that have become attached to Haydns instrumental works, this designation was used while the composer was still in the English capital and therefore almost certainly had his approval. NEW WINE IN A FAMILIAR BOTTLE This work assumes the four-movement format that had by this time become Haydns standard symphonic plan: an opening Allegro preceded by an introduction in slow tempo; a more moderately paced second movement; a minuet; and a finale. But as always, Haydn fills this conventional mold ingeniously.The unusual but highly effective use of the woodwinds and percussion (especially the triangle) in the Allegretto second movement, the startling exclamations of the timpani in the outer movements, and the unexpected turns of melody and harmony throughout the work are not formulaic devices but products of a lively and original musical intelligence. Haydns originality is especially evident in the finale, which is full of surprises: sudden shifts between loud and soft dynamics, suspenseful pauses, harmonies we could not have anticipated, and more.Together with the movements merry principal theme, these developments exemplify Haydns characteristic high spirits and keen musical wit.

Haydn Born March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria Died May 31, 1809, Vienna First Performance March 31, 1794, in London, under the composers direction STL Symphony Premiere March 6, 1914, Max Zach conducting Most Recent STL Symphony Performance April 8, 1990, Erich Leinsdorf conducting Scoring 2 utes 2 oboes 2 clarinets 2 bassoons 2 horns 2 trumpets timpani percussion strings Performance Time approximately 24 minutes

Program notes 2013 by Paul Schiavo

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NICHOLAS MCGEGAN
BLACKWELL SANDERS PEPER MARTIN GUEST CONDUCTOR

As he embarks on his fourth decade on the podium, Nicholas McGegan, hailed as one of the finest Baroque conductors of his generation by the London Independent, is increasingly recognized for his probing and revelatory explorations of music of all periods. He has been music director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for 27 years, and was Artistic Director of the International Handel Festival Gttingen for 20 years (19912011). Beginning in the 2013-14 season he becomes Principal Guest Conductor of the Pasadena Symphony, and in 2014 becomes Artist in Association with Australias Adelaide Symphony.
STEVE SHERMAN

Nicholas McGegan most recently conducted the St. Louis Symphony in October 2012.

STEFAN JACKIW
WHITAKER GUEST ARTIST

LIsA-MARIE MAZZUCCO

Violinist Stefan Jackiw is recognized as one of his generations most significant artists, captivating audiences with playing that combines poetry and purity with an impeccable technique. Jackiw has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic and Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and San Francisco orchestras, among others, and he has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Yannick Nzet-Sguin, Charles Dutoit, David Robertson, Ludovic Morlot, Hannu Lintu, Marin Alsop, and Sir Andrew Davis. His solo performance of Mendelssohns Violin Concerto with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at Australias Sydney Opera House in March was seen live on YouTube by more than 30 million people worldwide.

Stefan Jackiw makes his St. Louis Symphony debut with these concerts.
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A BRIEF EXPLANATION
You dont need to know what andante means or what a glockenspiel is to enjoy a St. Louis Symphony concert, but its always fun to know stuff. For example, what is a chaconne? Chaconne: Program notes author Paul Schiavo writes that Rameaus Les Indes galantes Suite includes a grand Chaconne. Like many wonderful things, the 16th-century Spanish dance-song was condemned as being improper, which probably made the chaconne all that more popular with its suggestive movements and scandalous lyrics. By the time the French get ahold of the chaconne, it loses some of its wildness and turns into a more controlled, stately dance. New Yorker music critic Alex Ross has written extensively on the chaconne as a kind of DNA that runs throughout music history. You can watch him talk about it, with the accompaniment of some excellent musicians, including Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus, on YouTube. Google search Chaconne Lamento Walking Blues. Youll find it.

INNER VOICES:

LORRAINE GLASS-HARRIS, SECOND VIOLINS

The second violins are always listening like crazy, because we dont play an independent instrument. Are we supporting the soloist? Are we underlining what the oboe is doing, or are we going with the timpani? The seconds offer an inner voice to the orchestra, adding excitement, texture, and instrumental color. Mozart was an excellent violinist and understood the instrument very well. For the seconds in the Fifth Violin Concerto, in addition to the tune and the supporting of the tune, he gives the second violins the bass line. Its wonderful to put on the bass hat.

Lorraine Glass-Harris

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DAN DREYFUs

YOU TAKE IT FROM HERE

If these concerts have inspired you to learn more, here are suggested source materials with which to continue your explorations. John Warrack, Carl Maria von Weber Cambridge University Press The standard English-language biography Cuthbert Girdlestone, Jean-Philippe Rameau: His Life and Work Dover The definitive life-and-works study. Robert W. Gutman, Mozart: A Cultural Biography Mariner Books A valuable exposition of the composer and his times. youtube.com/artist/franz-joseph-haydn A portal to a wealth of performances of Haydns music

Read the program notes online at stlsymphony.org/planyourvisit/programnotes Keep up with the backstage life of the St. Louis Symphony, as chronicled by Symphony staffer Eddie Silva, via stlsymphony.org/blog The St. Louis Symphony is on

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DONOR SPOTLIGHT
THE WHITAKER FOUNDATION
The Whitaker Foundation was established in 1975 by Mae Whitaker in memory of her husband, Lyndon C. Whitaker. The Foundations priorities are enriching lives through the arts and preserving and encouraging the use of urban parks in metropolitan St. Louis. How does the Foundations support of the Symphony t into your communitywide funding strategy? The St. Louis Symphony is a source of pride and a responsibility for St. Louisans to maintain and grow. Its artistic quality is superior. Not only do we enjoy the Symphony locally, but it is recognized nationally and internationally. The St. Louis Symphony is in our safe keeping. We need to keep it healthy and challenging. The Foundation has supported the STL Symphony for over 35 years, why? The Symphony is an organization that grows in its quality, outreach, and repertoire. It employs a large number of artists who become our neighbors. Although it could rest on its artistic reputation, it pushes itself to grow larger audiences and perform at outstanding venues beyond Powell Hall. The Foundation is currently in a three-year commitment supporting Live at Powell Hall programs as well as supporting guest artists. Why did the Foundation choose to support these areas? Great artists deserve to be challenged. The St. Louis Symphony is so willing to push itself artistically that one wants to lend a hand.

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CONCERT PROGRAM
November 10, 2013 Live at Powell Hall
Steven Jarvi, conductor Scott Coulter, vocalist Lee Lessack, vocalist Johnny Rodgers, vocalist Brian Wilson, vocalist

The King: A Tribute to the Music of Elvis

The program will be announced from the stage.

There will be one 20-minute intermission.

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STEVEN JARVI Steven Jarvi is the newly appointed Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony, Music Director of Winter Opera Saint Louis, and the Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. Formerly the Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony (KCS), he won the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award in 2009. He came to the KCS after several years as the Conducting Fellow with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, as an Associate Conductor for the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, and as the Apprentice Conductor with the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. SCOTT COULTER Scott Coulter is one of New Yorks most honored vocalists. For his work in cabaret, Coulter has received five MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs), five Bistro Awards, and two Nightlife Awards for Outstanding Vocalist and has performed at most of NYCs top rooms including Birdland, the Oak Room at the Algonquin, and Feinsteins at the Regency where he spent eight months in 2011 performing the revue 11 OClock Numbers at 11 OClock, which he also created and musically arranged. Coulter is co-founder/owner of Spot-On Entertainment (Spot-OnEntertainment. com) and is a graduate of the Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music. LEE LESSACK Touring extensively in the United States and Europe to sold-out performances and releasing five albums, Lee Lessack has proven himself both as performer and recording artist. Lessacks newest concert is titled Chanteur and is an homage to the Great French Songbook, celebrating music by Michel Legrand, Jacques Brel, Gilbert Bcaud, and Charles Aznavour to name just a few. Chanteur also marks Lessacks seventh recording and fourth solo album. A native of Philadelphia, Lessack makes his home in Los Angeles, where in 1996 he founded LML Music
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(LMLmusic.com), whose catalog of CDs includes over 100 of the countrys top live recording artists and performers. JOHNNY RODGERS Johnny Rodgers is an internationally-celebrated singer-songwriter, pianist, music ambassador, Broadway star, and recording artist. Rodgers dazzles audiences with his Americana mlange of original songs and classic favorites. He tours as music ambassador for the State Department to places such as the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. This past summer, Rodgers toured throughout Russia performing with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Learn more about Rodgers at JohnnyRodgers.com BRIAN WILSON Brian Wilson is excited to celebrate the music of Elvis Presley. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Wilson currently lives in New York City with his wife Kathi and son James. Wilson toured the U.S. and Canada with the Broadway Musical Cats, playing the roles of Old Deuteronomy and Gus, the Theater Cat. In addition to Cats, he has performed regionally, in South Florida, Texas, and at Dollywood. Wilson would like to thank his family for their support and his fellow singers for including him in this musical celebration.

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