New York Philharmonic
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2009 – 2010New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season
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From Beethoven & Mozart to Zemlinsky
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The 2009–10 season — Alan Gilbert’s first as Music Director of the Philharmonic — introduces his vision for the Orchestra, one that both builds on its rich legacy and looks to the future and reflects the diver sity of his interests. He sees the Orchestra as a place that both celebrates the greatest of the classical repertoire and nurtures today’s composers and tomorrow’s music. The season's programming reflects his belief in the importance of artistic collaboration, his commitment to raising audience awareness and understanding of music, and his interest in making the Philharmonic a destination for all.
“I’d like to develop a special kind of rapport and trust with our audience,” Mr. Gilbert says. “The kind of belief that would make them feel comfortable hearing anything we program simply because we programmed it. Looking ahead, I hope my performances with the Orchestra will consist of our tightly combined human chemistry, a clear persona that is both identifiable and enjoyable.”
About This SeriesIn Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, the New York Philharmonic breaks new ground by being the first orchestra to offer a season’s worth of recorded music for download. Offered exclusively through iTunes, this series brings the excitement of Alan Gilbert’s first season to an international audience.
The iTunes Pass will give subscribers access to more than 50 works, comprising new music (including New York Philharmonic commissions) and magnificent selections from the orchestral repertoire, performed by many of the world’s top artists and conductors. The subscription also features bonus content, such as Alan Gilbert’s onstage commentaries, and exclusive extras, including additional performances and lectures.
For more information about the series, visit nyphil.org/itunes.
Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season
Executive Producer: Vince Ford
Producers: Lawrence Rock and Mark Travis
Recording and Mastering Engineer: Lawrence Rock
Performance photos: Chris Lee
Alan Gilbert portrait: Hayley Sparks
Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony used by arrangement with Universal Edition A.G., Vienna
Major funding for this recording is provided to the New York Philharmonic by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser.
Thomas Hampson is The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence.
Hillevi Martinpelto’s appearance is made possible through the Hedwig van Ameringen Guest Artists Endowment Fund.
Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural
Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Instruments made possible, in part, by The Richard S. and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund.
Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall.
New York Philharmonic
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New York Philharmonic
Neeme Järvi, Conductor Hillevi Martinpelto, Soprano Thomas Hampson, Baritone
Recorded live November 5–7 & 10, 2009,Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
Overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus(The Creatures of Prometheus), Op. 43 (180001) 4:53
MOZART (1756–91)
Symphony No. 38 in D major, Prague,K.504 (1786) 24:44
Adagio — Allegro 10:18
Andante 8:17
Finale: Presto 6:09
ZEMLINSKY (1871–1942)
Lyric Symphony in Seven Songs, After Poems by Rabindranath Tagore, Op. 18 (1922–23) 48:44
I. Slowly (grave), with somberly passionate expression 11:34
II. Lively 7:01
III. Adagio 6:59
IV. Slowly 7:34
V. Fiery and forceful 2:03
VI. In violently changing tempo and expression,
yet severely rhythmical 4:46
VII. Molto adagio (extremely slow and soulful) 8:47
HILLEVI MARTINPELTOTHOMAS HAMPSON
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Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program Annotator
Overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus (The Creatures of Prometheus), Op. 43
Ludwig van Beethoven
Whether Prometheus was a good guy or a bad guy depends on your point of view, and on who’s telling his story. The basic facts — if “facts” apply when discussing Greek mythology — were enunciated by the poet Hesiod: Prometheus was a Titan trickster who stole the gift of fire from Zeus (king of the gods) and delivered it to man. Zeus retaliated by sending Pandora and her notorious box to Earth, unleashing evil, drudgery, and disease among mankind. Or (Hesiod notes, alternatively), Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock and arranged for an eagle to dine eternally on his liver. Either way, Prometheus’s prank was punished, and his reputation was sorely stained.
Aeschylus, on the other hand, viewed the event from the side of the mortals. Instead of decrying Prometheus for upsetting the cosmic order, he ennobled the fallen god as the bringer of fire to man — and, with it, the possibility of civilization, with all its incumbent arts and sciences. Aeschylus, one might argue, saw Prome theus as the fulcrum in human cultural history; if he was doomed to suffer, he did so to benefit the future accomplishments of humans. (His name, after all, means “forethinker.”)
Ludwig van Beethoven would have related to Prometheus’s burden. He was not without a substantial ego himself, and while still a fledgling composer he assumed that the musical world would revolve around his achievements — even if Vienna had so far failed to take note of the obvious. His 18thcentury output included such substantial pieces as a symphony and two piano concertos, plus a fair amount of chamber music; a work for the stage, however, would probably be needed to propel him to a higher plateau of fame. He turned that corner in 1800, when he was commissioned to compose a score for the new ballet Die Geschöpfe des Pro-metheus (The Creatures of Prometheus).
Ballet rode the crest of popularity in turnofthecentury Vienna. One of the city’s most applauded dancers was Salvatore Viganò, a Neapolitan by birth and a nephew of the composer Luigi Boccherini. He choreographed the new Prometheus ballet to spotlight his wife and himself, with the partners portraying statues brought to
life by the fallen god. When the work was premiered, the program described the title character in Aeschylean terms:
a lofty soul, who found the people of his
time in ignorance, refined them by means
of science and the arts, and gave them
manners, customs, and morals.
The action depicts how the two statues, “through the power of harmony, are made receptive to all the passions of human existence.” Prometheus entrusts their education to the best of teachers — including Orpheus for music, Terpsichore for dance, and Melpomene for tragedy — and each episode is depicted through the course of 16 choreographed numbers. The muse Melpomene slays Prometheus in this version, to punish him for bringing mankind to life, but in the end he is redeified when Apollo sees that humanity is not such a bad thing after all.
The new ballet scored a hit, running for 14 performances and returning for 13 the next season. Beethoven provided a worthy score for what proved to be a light entertainment, though not without carping that Viganò had failed to depict Prometheus’s suffering adequately. The score offers momentary delights throughout, but one of its apogees is the highspirited Overture, which was published independently in 1804. Another highlight of Beethoven’s incidental music is the finale, where the composer unveils a theme to which he would return in three later works, most
December 16, 1770 (probably, since he was baptized on the 17th), in Bonn, GermanyMarch 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria
1800–01; dedicated to Princess Christiane von Lichnowsky (when the work was published in piano reduction)
March 28, 1801, at the Burgtheater in Vienna
January 23, 1913, Josef Stransky, conductor
famously in the last movement of his Symphony No. 3, Eroica.
The opening sonority of the Overture, an unstable seventh chord in the third inversion, serves as a harmonic red herring. Apart from demonstrating the sort of musical audacity to which Beethoven was disposed, it serves to remind many concertgoers of the very similar feint that opens the composer’s First Symphony, which had been premiered almost precisely a year earlier. These two works stand at the head of the path along which Beethoven would soon develop his own Promethean tendencies in orchestral music.
Instrumentation: pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, plus timpani and strings.
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Notes on the Program (continued)
Symphony No. 38 inD major, Prague, K.504
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart moved from his native, provincial Salzburg to the exciting Austrian capital of Vienna in 1781, he seems to have assumed that the world would be his oyster. This was not to be, however. He met with a good measure of success, to be sure, gaining a following as a virtuoso pianist and as a composer — the latter even in the highstakes world of musical theater. But Vienna was full of other talented composers, and many of them were more politically savvy than Mozart was, for his genius was often accompanied by an obstreperous streak. The ten years he spent in Vienna (where he would die in 1791) might be characterized as a lovehate relationship, in which Mozart derived important aesthetic sustenance from the city’s cultural life but often felt personally underappreciated.
Not so with Prague — which Mozart loved, and which loved him back. Germany, Austria, and Bohemia shared an active cultural exchange in the 18th century. In the balance of cultural trade, Bohemia seems to have been a net exporter: its gifts to the musical world included the flotilla of Czech musicians who elevated Mannheim (in southern Germany) to a midcentury musical center so prominent that its orchestra set the standard to which all others aspired. For all its openness to
outsiders, Prague seems not to have attracted immigrants quite so easily. Its welcome mat was out to Mozart, though, and its musicloving populace was quick to embrace such operas as Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni unconditionally, even when Vienna had put forth a respectful but more guarded reception. Franz Xaver Niemetschek, the composer’s early biographer, clarified the difference when recounting the first performances of Figaro:
In Vienna ... they slandered him and did
their best to belittle his art.... [In Prague]
the enthusiasm shown by the public was
without precedent; they could not hear
it enough.
In 1786 Mozart received an invitation to visit Prague — apparently extended by a coterie of culturally inclined citizens of the city’s Germanspeaking community, well known for its patriotic support of the AustroGermanic arts. At the beginning of 1787 Mozart, his wife, and a consider
In ShortBorn: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria
Died: December 5, 1791, in Vienna
Work composed: 1786, in Vienna; he entered it into his catalogue of compositions on December 6
World premiere: apparently January 19, 1787, in Prague, Bohemia, the composer conducting
New York Philharmonic premiere: January 27, 1866, Carl Bergmann, conductor
able entourage traveled by coach to the Bohemian capital for what would be the closest the composer ever came to a pleasure trip. His musical obligations were few, limited to an evening conducting Le nozze di Figaro and a couple of performances as a pianist, during which he particularly distinguished himself as an improviser.
Mozart also arrived bearing gifts, chief among them the Dmajor Symphony that he had completed late in 1786 and that would forever have the name of “Prague” attached to it. Mozart led a distinguished orchestra — albeit a small one of about 20 players — in the work’s premiere, which appears to have taken place on January 19, 1787. Years later, in 1808, Niemetschek reported:
the symphonies [Mozart] composed for
this occasion are real masterpieces ...
full of surprising modulations, and have
a quick, fiery gait, so that the very soul
is transported to sublime heights. This
applies particularly to the Symphony in D
major, which remains a favorite in Prague,
although it has doubtless been heard a
hundred times.
Indeed, this symphony is one of Mozart’s most impressive — in spite of the fact that it has only three movements, rather than the by then traditional four. What’s missing is the MinuetandTrio that normally occupies the third movement of a classical symphony. It’s anyone’s guess as to why Mozart decided not to include one, but he
more than compensates for its absence by attaching a slow introduction to the opening Allegro. Though such introductions are found in the later symphonies of Haydn and in those of Beethoven, they are not much associated with Mozart. In this opening, Mozart seems to be looking ahead to the perplexing chromatic ruminations of Don Giovanni, which (as it happens) Prague would giddily idolize within a year.
Instrumentation: pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, plus timpani and strings.
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Lyric Symphony in Seven Songs, After Poems by Rabindranath Tagore, Op. 18
Alexander Zemlinsky
Among the array of powerful talents populating turnofthe20thcentury Vienna was Alexander von Zemlinsky. (He would drop the aristocratic “von” after World War I.) He instructed and championed a heady roster of composers, whose works would become better remembered than his own. He took a young Arnold Schoenberg under his wing, taught him personally, and employed him as a musical assistant. (Schoenberg’s Op. 1, a set of songs, is dedicated to his “teacher and friend Alexander von Zemlinsky”; in 1901 the two became brothersinlaw when Schoenberg married Zemlinsky’s sister Mathilde.) Alban Berg and Anton Webern were among his students in the art of orchestration, and in 1900 his friend Gustav Mahler conducted the premiere of Zemlinsky’s Es war einmal ... (Once Upon a Time ...), the second of his eight operas, at the Vienna Hofoper.
Zemlinsky also promoted his composer colleagues from the podium, and by all accounts was a refined conductor of not only the classics but also of music by the aforementioned Schoenberg (including the 1924 premiere of his Erwartung), Berg, and Webern, as well as Schulhoff, Korngold, Weill, Krenek, Hindemith, Janácek, and many other notables of
Central European modernism. He held a succession of prestigious conducting appointments, including those at the Vienna Volksoper (where he led the Viennese premiere of Richard Strauss’s Salome), the Hofoper (where he worked alongside Mahler), and, from 1911 to 1927, the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague (later renamed the Deutsches Landestheater).
Apart from his 16year tenure in Prague, Zemlinsky tended to move frequently from one post to another, and he sometimes became swept up in aesthetic disagreements and personal rivalries. Inevitably, he ran afoul of the Nazis, and during those dark years his oeuvre was consigned to the list of forbidden “degenerate music.” His mother was the issue of a mixed SephardicTurkish Muslim marriage and his father, born a Catholic, had converted to Judaism. If such a pedigree hadn’t done Zemlinsky in after the rise of the Nazis, his promoting of composers whose works
were more brashly modernist than his own would have proved insuperable. A few months after the Anschluss, Zemlinsky and his wife fled from Vienna, via Prague, to New York, where he found little success before he was disabled by a stroke, in 1939. His death three years later went largely unnoticed.
In September 1922 Zemlinsky advised his publisher, Emil Hertzka:
This summer I’ve written something along
the lines of the Lied v.d. Erde. I haven’t
yet found a title for it. There are seven
completely interrelated songs for baritone,
soprano, and orchestra, which run without
a break.
Some might view it as foolhardy, or even an act of hubris, to place before the public a work so obviously descended from Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, which had been unveiled in November 1911, six months after the death of its composer. The resemblance cannot be missed. Both are imposing examples of the symphonyassongcycle, Mahler’s cast in six discrete movements, Zemlinsky’s in seven connected ones. Both use a large orchestra with two alternating vocal soloists: contralto (or baritone) and tenor for Mahler, soprano and baritone for Zemlinsky. Both employ (at least ostensibly) Asian texts of a mystical bent, in German translation: presumed eighthcentury Chinese poems chosen by Mahler; poems by the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore chosen by Zemlinsky. Antony Beaumont, in his biography of
About the Poet
The polymathic Rabindranath Tagore (born in Kolkata, a.k.a. Calcutta, in 1861; died there in 1941) remains a towering figure of Indian cultural history even if his stock has fallen somewhat in the Western world. The son of a Maharashi (“great sage”), he began winning acclaim in his 20s for his poetry, some of which was radical in embracing verse forms not previously espoused by Bengali poetic traditions.
While managing his father’s estates, he lived in close contact with impoverished la-borers, an experience that fed his humani-tarian instincts and the political potency of his future writings. Prolific to a fault (his complete writings run to nearly 30 thick vol-umes), Tagore was also a noted painter and musician; he wrote more than 1,000 songs, one of which, “Amar Shonar Bangla” (“My Golden Bengal”), has served since 1972 as the national anthem of Bangladesh.
In 1913 Tagore became the first non-European honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature, in recognition “of his profoundly sensitive, fresh, and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.” In 1915 he was awarded a British knighthood, which he renounced four years later to protest British colonial abuses in India. From 1912 to 1933 he traveled widely throughout the world, hailed on five conti-nents as a celebrity.
The composer Alexander Zemlinsky may have first met Tagore during the poet’s visit to Prague in 1921. Certainly they met in 1926, during a follow-up visit there, when the festivities included Zemlinsky conduct-ing the last movement of his Lyric Sym-phony in Tagore’s presence.
In ShortBorn: October 4, 1871, in Vienna, Austria
Died: March 15, 1942, in Larchmont, New York
Work composed: April 2, 1922–August 29, 1923; the texts are from The Gardener, by Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), in Hans Effenberger’s German translations of 1914
World premiere: June 4, 1924, in Prague, the composer conducting the ISCM Festival orchestra
New York Philharmonic premiere: The Orchestra’s only previous performances of this work were December 13–15, 1979, James Levine, conductor, Johanna Meier, soprano, Dale Duesing, baritone
Notes on the Program (continued)
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Notes on the Program (continued)
Zemlinsky, insists:
the similarities are skin deep. The form
of Mahler’s work is linear, Zemlinsky’s is
circular; Mahler divides his work into six
clearly separated movements, Zemlinsky
prefers a throughcomposed, operatic
structure.
Fair enough, and Beaumont notes differ ences of ethos, too, with Mahler bidding a nostalgic adieu to the natural world while Zemlinsky traces a sensual encounter between a man and a woman. Still, most of us are likely to remark on the works’ similarities rather than their disparities, and we may well agree that Zemlinsky’s achievement in this remarkable work is not lessened by its obvious genealogy.
Instrumentation: four flutes (two doubling piccolo), three oboes (one doubling English horn), three clarinets (one doubling Eflat clarinet) and bass clarinet, three bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, xylophone, triangle, cymbals, tamtam, tambourine, snare drum, bass drum, harp, celesta, harmonium, and strings, in addition to the soprano and baritone soloists.
From the Premiere
Shortly after the premiere of the Lyric Symphony, during the ISCM (Interna-tional Society for Contemporary Music) Festival in Prague in 1924, Zemlinsky received an enthusiastic letter from his former pupil Alban Berg. Berg had known Zemlinsky since 1905, and in 1926 he would quote his teacher’s Lyric Sym-phony in his own Lyric Suite for String Quartet. The letter itself is now missing, but Berg’s preliminary draft of the letter survives:
[Even if] now at last I believe that I re-ally know your Lyric Symphony, in ten years’ time [I will] be forced to admit that today I have only an inkling of the score’s boundless beauties. But this can do nothing whatsoever to diminish my love, which — as it affects me in a particularly personal way — is that true love which overcomes me only in the case of a small, select body of music.
[...] Freed from all the secondary considerations, limitations, and ob-stacles that have to be surmounted in works of other genres [...], with the Lyric Symphony (never before was a title so ambiguous & at once so mean-ingful) a musical [child] is born — one that contains not one note too many, nor indeed one too few.
I
Ich bin friedlos,ich bin durstig nach fernen Dingen.Meine Seele schweift in Sehnsucht,den Saum der dunklen Weite zu berühren.O grosses Jenseits,o ungestümes Rufen deiner Flöte.Ich vergesse, ich vergesse immer,dass ich keine Schwingen zum Fliegen habe,dass ich an dieses Stück Erdegefesselt bin für alle Zeit.
Ich bin voll Verlangen und wachsam,ich bin ein Fremder im fremden Land —dein Odem kommt zu mirund raunt mir unmögliche Hoffnungen zu. Deine Sprache klingt meinem Herzenvertraut wie seine eig’ne.O Ziel in Fernen,o ungestümes Rufen deiner Flöte.Ich vergesse immer, ich vergessedass ich nicht den Weg weiss,dass ich das beschwingte Ross nicht habe.
Ich bin ruh’los,ich bin ein Wanderer in meinem Herzen.Im sonnigen Nebel der zögernden Stunden,welch gewaltiges Gesicht von dirwird Gestalt in der Bläue des Himmels.O fernstes Ende,o ungestümes Rufen deiner Flöte.Ich vergesse, ich vergesse immer,dass die Türen überall verschlossen sindin dem Hause, wo ich einsam wohne,o fernstes Ende,o ungestümes Rufen deiner Flöte.
I have no peace, I thirst after faroff things. My soul roams in longing to touch the hem of dark distance. O vast beyond, o untamed call of your flute.I forget, I always forget, that I have no wings to fly, that I am chained to this piece of earth for all time.
I am full of longing and vigilant, I am a stranger in a strange land — your breath descends upon me and whispers impossible hopes. Your language is as familiar to my heart as is its very own. O faroff goal, o untamed call of your flute. I always forget, I forget that I do not know the way, that I do not have the winged horse.
I am restless, I am a wanderer in my heart. In the sunny haze of the languid hours, how powerfully your visage takes shape in the blue of the sky. O furthest end, o untamed call of your flute. I forget, I always forget, that the doors are shut everywhere in the house, where I dwell alone, o furthest end, o untamed call of your flute.
Texts and Translations
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II
Mutter, der junge Prinz muss an uns’rer Türe vorbeikommen:
wie kann ich diesen Morgen auf meine Arbeit acht geben?
Zeig mir, wie soll mein Haar ich flechten;zeig mir, was soll ich für Kleider anziehen?Warum schaust du mich so verwundert an,
Mutter?Ich weiss wohl, er wird nicht ein einz’ges Malzu meinem Fenster aufblicken.Ich weiss im Nu wird er mir aus den Augen
sein;nur das verhallende Flötenspielwird seufzend zu mir dringen von weitem.Aber der junge Prinz wird bei uns
vorüberkommen,und ich will mein Bestes anziehen für diesen
Augenblick.
Mutter, der junge Prinz ist an uns’rer Türe vorbeigekommen,
und die Morgensonne blitzte an seinem Wagen.Ich strich den Schleier aus meinem Gesicht,riss die Rubinenkette von meinem Halsund warf sie ihm in den Weg.Warum schaust du mich so verwundert an,
Mutter?Ich weiss wohl, dass er meiner Kette nicht
aufhob.Ich weiss, sie ward unter den Rädern
zermalmtund liess eine rote Spur im Staube zuruck.Und niemand weiss, was mein Geschenk
war und wer es gab.Aber der junge Prinz kam an unsrer Tür
vorüber und ich hab’ den Schmuck von meiner Brust
ihm in den Weg geworfen.
Mother, the young prince must surely pass byour door:
how am I to concentrate on my work thismorning?
Show me, how shall I braid my hair;show me, how shall I clothe myself?Why do you look at me so amazed,
mother?I know well that not even oncewill he glance up at my window.I know he will disappear in an instant from
my view;only the vanishing sound of the flutewill reach me, sighing from a distance.Yet the young prince will
pass by,and I wish to be arrayed in my finest for this
moment.
Mother, the young prince has passed by ourdoor,
and the morning sun flashed from his chariot.I swept aside the veil from my face,tore off the chain of rubies from my neckand flung it into his path.Why do you look at me so amazed,
mother?I know well that he did not pick up
my chain.I know it was crushed under the
wheels,leaving behind a red streak in the dust.And no one knows what my gift was and
who gave it.Yet the young prince did pass by
our doorand I did fling the jewels from my breast
into his path.
Text and Translation (continued)
III
Du bist die Abendwolke,die am Himmel meiner Träume hinzieht.Ich schmücke dich und kleide dich immer mit
den Wünschen meiner Seele.Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen,Du, die in meinen endlosen Träumen wohnt.
Deine Füsse sind rosigrotvon der Glut meines sehnsüchtigen Herzens.Du, die meine Abendlieder erntet.Deine Lippen sind bittersüssvom Geschmack des Weins aus meinem
Leiden.Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen.Du, die in meinen einsamen Träumen wohnt.
Mit dem Schatten meiner Leidenschaft hab’ ich deine Augen geschwärzt,gewohnter Gast in meines Blickes Tiefe.
Ich hab’ dich gefangen und dich eingesponnen, Geliebte,
in das Netz meiner Musik.Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen.Du, die in meinen unsterblichen Träumen
wohnt.
You are the evening cloud,floating in the sky of my dreams.I bejewel and clothe you ever with the
longings of my soul.You are my own, my own,you, who dwell in my infinite dreams.
Your feet are rosyredwith the glow of my yearning heart.You, who gather my songs in the evening.Your lips are bittersweetwith the taste of the wine of my
sufferings.You are my own, my own.You, who dwell in my solitary dreams.
With the shadow of my passionI have darkened your eyes,intimate guest of my gaze’s depth.
I have captured and woven you,my love,
in the net of my music.You are my own, my own.You, who dwell in my undying
dreams.
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IV
Sprich zu mir, Geliebter,sag’ mir mit Worten, was du sangest.Die Nacht ist dunkel, die Sterne sind in
Wolken verloren.Der Wind seufzt durch die Blätter.Ich will mein Haar lösen,mein blauer Mantel wird dich umschmiegen
wie Nacht.Ich will deinen Kopf an meine Brust
schliessenund hier in der süssen Einsamkeit lass dein
Herz reden.Ich will meine Augen zumachen und lauschen,ich will nicht in dein Antlitz schauen.Wenn dein Worte zu Ende sindwollen wir still und schweigend sitzen.Nur die Bäume werden im Dunkel flüstern,die Nacht wird bleichen, der Tag wird dämmern.Wir werden einander in die Augen schauenund jeder seines Weges ziehn.Sprich zu mir, Geliebter.
Speak to me, my love,tell me in words what you told me in song.The night is dark, the stars are lost in the
clouds.The wind sighs through the leaves.I want to untie my hair,my blue cloak will enfold you
like night.I want to clasp your head to
my breastand have your heart speak in the sweet
loneliness.I want to shut my eyes and listen,I do not want to glance at your face.When your words are at an endwe want to sit still and silent.Only the trees will whisper in the dark,the night will pale, the day will dawn.We will look into each other’s eyesand each will go his way.Speak to me, my love.
Text and Translation (continued)
VI
Vollende denn das letzte Liedund lass uns auseinander gehn;vergiss diese Nacht, wenn die Nacht um ist.Wen müh’ ich mich mit meinen Armen zu
umfassen?Träume lassen sich nicht einfangen,meine gierigen Hände drücken Leere an
mein Herzund es zermürbt meine Brust.
Complete the final song nowand let us part from one another;forget this night, when the night is no more.Who do I uneasily clasp in
my arms?Dreams cannot be made captive,my anxious hands press emptiness to my
heartand it bruises my breast.
V
Befrei’ mich von den Banden deiner Süsse,Lieb! Nichts mehr von diesem Wein der Küsse,dieser Nebel von schwerem Weihrauch
erstickt mein Herz.Öffne die Türe, mach Platz für das
Morgenlicht.Ich bin in dich verloren, eingefangenin die Umarmungen deiner Zärtlichkeit.Befrei’ mich von deinem Zauberund gib mir den Mut zurück,dir mein befreites Herz darzubieten.
Free me from the bonds of your sweetness,my love! No more of this wine of kisses,'this mist of heavy incense stifles
my heart.Open the doors, make place for the morning
light.I am lost in you, capturedby the embraces of your tenderness.Free me from your spelland give me back the courage,to offer you my freed heart.
VII
Friede, mein Herz,lass die Zeit, für das Scheiden süss sein,lass es nicht einen Tod sein, sondern
Vollendung.Lass Liebe in Erinn’rung schmelzenund Schmerz in Lieder.Lass die letzte Berührung deiner Hände
sanft sein,wie die Blume der Nacht.Steh’ still, steh’ still, o wundervolles Ende,für einen Augenblickund sage deine letzten Worte in Schweigen.Ich neige mich vor dir,ich halte meine Lampe in die Höhe,um dir auf deinen Weg zu leuchten.
Peace, my heart, let the time for parting be sweet,
let it be not a death, but, rather, completion.Let love melt into memoryand pain into song.Let the last touch of your hands
be gentle,like the nocturnal flower.Stand still, stand still, oh wondrous end,for a momentand say your last words in silence.I bow to you,I hold up my lamp,to light you on your way.
English translation by Steven R. Cerf
Translator’s note: This English version is, by and large, a literal rendering of Hans Effenberger’s German translation of Tagore. The attempt has been made to capture Effenberger’s own neo Romantic idiom, to which Zemlinsky obviously attuned his music with considerable care. — S.R.C.
Translation © 1979 by The PhilharmonicSymphony Society of New York, Inc.
New York Philharmonic
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ViolinsGlenn Dicterow
Concertmaster The Charles E. Culpeper Chair
Sheryl Staples Principal Associate
Concertmaster The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair
Michelle Kim Assistant Concertmaster The William Petschek Family Chair
Enrico Di CeccoCarol WebbYoko Takebe
Minyoung ChangHaeYoung Ham
The Mr. and Mrs. Timothy M. George Chair
Lisa GiHae KimKuanCheng LuNewton MansfieldKerry McDermottAnna RabinovaCharles Rex
The Shirley Bacot Shamel Chair
Fiona SimonSharon YamadaElizabeth ZeltserYulia Ziskel
Marc Ginsberg Principal
Lisa Kim* In Memory of Laura Mitchell
Soohyun Kwon The Joan and Joel I. Picket Chair
Duoming Ba
Marilyn Dubow The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Chair
Martin EshelmanQuan GeJudith GinsbergMyungHi Kim+Hanna LachertHyunju LeeDaniel ReedMark SchmoocklerNa SunVladimir Tsypin
ViolasCynthia Phelps
Principal The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair
Rebecca Young*Irene Breslaw**
The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Chair
Dorian Rence
Katherine GreeneThe Mr. and Mrs. William J. McDonough Chair
Dawn HannayVivek KamathPeter KenoteBarry LehrKenneth MirkinJudith NelsonRobert Rinehart
The Mr. and Mrs. G. Chris Andersen Chair
CellosCarter Brey
Principal The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair
Eileen Moon*The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair
Qiang TuThe Shirley and Jon Brodsky Foundation Chair
Evangeline Benedetti
Eric BartlettThe Mr. and Mrs. James E. Buckman Chair
Elizabeth DysonMaria KitsopoulosSumire KudoRuPei YehWei Yu
BassesEugene Levinson
Principal The Redfield D. Beckwith Chair
Orin O’BrienActing Associate Principal The Herbert M. Citrin Chair
William BlossomThe Ludmila S. and Carl B. Hess Chair
Randall ButlerDavid J. GrossmanSatoshi OkamotoJon Deak++Leonid
Finkelshteyn++
FlutesRobert Langevin
Principal The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair
Sandra Church*Renée SiebertMindy Kaufman
PiccoloMindy Kaufman
OboesLiang Wang
Principal The Alice Tully Chair
Sherry Sylar*Robert Botti
English HornThomas Stacy
The Joan and Joel Smilow Chair
ClarinetsMark NuccioActing Principal
The Edna and W. Van Alan Clark Chair
Pascual MartinezForteza
Acting Associate Principal The Honey M. Kurtz Family Chair
Alucia Scalzo++Amy Zoloto++
E-Flat ClarinetPascual Martinez
Forteza
Bass ClarinetAmy Zoloto++
2009–2010 SeasonALAN GILBERT Music DirectorDaniel Boico, Assistant ConductorLeonard Bernstein, Laureate Conductor, 1943–1990Kurt Masur, Music Director Emeritus
BassoonsJudith LeClair
Principal The Pels Family Chair
Kim Laskowski*Roger NyeArlen Fast
ContrabassoonArlen Fast
HornsPhilip Myers
Principal The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair
Erik Ralske Acting Associate Principal
R. Allen SpanjerHoward Wall
TrumpetsPhilip Smith
Principal The Paula Levin Chair
Matthew Muckey*Ethan BensdorfThomas V. Smith
TrombonesJoseph Alessi Principal The Gurnee F. and Marjorie
L. Hart Chair
Amanda Stewart*David Finlayson The Donna and Benjamin
M. Rosen Chair
Bass TromboneJames Markey
TubaAlan Baer Principal
TimpaniMarkus Rhoten
Principal The Carlos Moseley Chair
PercussionChristopher S. Lamb
Principal The Constance R. Hoguet Friends of the Philharmonic Chair
Daniel Druckman* The Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Ulrich Chair
HarpNancy Allen Principal
The Mr. and Mrs. William T. Knight III Chair
Keyboard In Memory of Paul Jacobs
HarpsichordLionel Party
PianoThe Karen and Richard S. LeFrak Chair
Harriet WingreenJonathan Feldman
OrganKent Tritle
LibrariansLawrence Tarlow Principal
Sandra Pearson**Sara Griffin**
Orchestra PersonnelManagerCarl R. Schiebler
Stage RepresentativeLouis J. Patalano
Audio DirectorLawrence Rock
* Associate Principal** Assistant Principal+ On Leave++ Replacement/Extra
The New York Philharmonic uses the revolving seating method for section string players who are listed alphabetically in the roster.
Honorary Membersof the SocietyPierre BoulezStanley DruckerLorin MaazelZubin MehtaCarlos Moseley
New York PhilharmonicGary W. Parr Chairman
Zarin Mehta President and Executive
Director
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The Music Director
In September 2009 Alan Gilbert began his tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, the first native New Yorker to hold the post. For his inaugural season he has introduced a number of new initiatives: the positions of The MarieJosée Kravis Composerin Residence, held by Magnus Lindberg, and The Mary and James G. Wallach ArtistinResidence, held by Thomas Hampson; an annual threeweek festival; and CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s newmusic series. He leads the Orchestra on a major tour of Asia in October 2009, with debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi; on a European tour in January–February 2010; and in performances of world, U.S., and New York premieres. Also in the 2009–10 season, Mr. Gilbert becomes the first person to
hold the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School, a position that will include coaching, conducting, and hosting performance master classes.
Highlights of Mr. Gilbert’s 2008–09 season with the New York Philharmonic in cluded the Bernstein anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall, and a performance with the Juilliard Orchestra, presented by the Philharmonic, featuring Bernstein’s Kad-dish Symphony. In May 2009 he con ducted the World Premiere of Peter Lieberson’s The World in Flower, a New York Philharmonic Commission, and in July 2009 he led the New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks and Free Indoor Concerts, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, and four performances at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.
In June 2008 Mr. Gilbert was named conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, following his final concert as its chief conductor and artistic advisor. He has been principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Mr. Gilbert regularly conducts other leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, including the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphony orchestras; The Cleveland Orchestra; Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and Orchestre National de Lyon. In 2003 he was named the first music director of the Santa Fe Opera, where he served for three seasons.
Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and
The Juilliard School. He was a substitute violinist with The Philadelphia Orchestra for two seasons and assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra from 1995 to 1997. In November 2008 he made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Dr. Atomic. His recording of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.
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The Artists
Conductor
Neeme Järvi appears
with many of the world’s most prominent
orchestras and soloists. Recent and future engage
ments include the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the major orchestras of Scandinavia. In the United States, he is regularly invited to conduct The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chicago, Detroit, and National symphony orchestras. Past operatic engagements have included The Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris (Bastille), San Francisco Opera, and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. He has collaborated with such soloists as violinist Janine Jansen, cellist Truls Mørk, and pianists Hélène Grimaud, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, and Radu Lupu. Highlights of his 2009–10 season include opening the Bergen Philharmonic’s season; returns to the Gothenburg Symphony (National Orchestra of Sweden), Royal Scottish National, and London Philharmonic orchestras; and two trips to China: first for a tour with The Hague Philharmonic, and again to conduct the Shanghai Symphony and China Philharmonic Orchestras.
Mr. Järvi is chief conductor of The Hague Philharmonic and is conductor laureate and artistic advisor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He is music director emeritus of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, principal conductor emeritus of the Gothenburg Symphony, first principal guest conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and conductor laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Highlights of Mr. Järvi’s discography, which comprises more than 440 recordings, include complete symphony cycles of Prokofiev, Sibelius, Nielsen, and Brahms, as well as works by composers from his native Estonia. He has recorded for Chandos, Deutsche Grammophon, BIS, and EMI, among other labels. He recently released Wagner: The Ring — An Orches-tral Adventure on Chandos.
Neeme Järvi’s honors include an honorary doctorate from the Music Academy of Estonia, the Order of the National Coat of Arms from the President of the Republic of Estonia, the City of Tallinn’s firstever ceremonial sash and coat of arms insignia, and being named one of the Estonians of the Century. He also holds honorary doctorates from Wayne State University, University of Michigan, University of Aberdeen, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He has received the Commander of the North Star Order from His Majesty, King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden.
In the 2009–10 sea
son, Hillevi Mar-tinpelto, who lives in
Stockholm, sings regularly at the Royal Swedish Opera.
Recent operatic engagements have included Elisabeth in Wagner’s
Tannhäuser, Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello, the Countess in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore, Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff, and the Marschallin in R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier in Stockholm; Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin in Leipzig; Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera in Gothenburg; CioCioSan in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in Berlin; Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Dresden, Menorca, and Hong Kong; and Vitellia in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito in Munich and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. She has sung Lieder recitals and concert perform ances of La clemenza di Tito, Weber’s Der Freischütz, and Wagner’s Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger von Nürn-berg at the Edinburgh International Festival, as well as concert performances of La clemenza di Tito with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London and New York. Her international symphonic concerts have featured Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony in Amsterdam; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in Birmingham; Mendelssohn’s Elijah in
Paris; Handel’s Messiah at the BBC Proms in London; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Berlin and at the Tanglewood Music Festival; Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri in Turin; and Sibelius’s Luonnotar with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. Ms. Martinpelto’s principal recordings are on the Deutsche Grammophon and EMI labels.
She has long been associated with conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner — on stage, in concert, and on recordings — collaborating on works by Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Schumann, and others. Additional recordings include Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Vitellia in his La clemenza di Tito, and Verdi’s Don Carlo and Gustavo III. She performs regularly in Great Britain, Italy, and Germany, and she often presents solo recital programs and duo recital programs (with Anne Sofie von Otter).
Hillevi Martinpelto trained in Stockholm. In May 2006 she received the title of Hovsångare (Singer of the Royal Court) from His Majesty, King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden.
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The Artists
American baritone Thomas
Hampson has performed in the world’s
preeminent concert halls and opera houses, and with
many of today’s most renowned musicians and orchestras; he also
maintains an active interest in teaching, music research, and technology. An important interpreter of German romantic song, he is known as a leading proponent of the study of American song through his Hampsong Foundation, which he founded in 2003 to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding. Much of Mr. Hampson’s 2009–10 season is devoted to his “Song of America” project. In collaboration with the Library of Congress, Mr. Hampson is performing recitals and presenting master classes, educational activities, exhibitions, and broadcasts across the country and through a new interactive online resource, www.songofamerica.net. As part of the project, he has released a new album, Wondrous Free — Song of America II, on his own label, Thomas Hampson Media. Other engagements include Mendels sohn’s Elijah, led by Kurt Masur, in Leipzig; Verdi’s Ernani and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with Zurich Opera; Verdi’s La traviata at The Metropolitan Opera; solo
recitals throughout the United States and in many European capitals; and the galas of the Vienna Staatsoper and the new Winspear Opera House in Dallas.
This season Mr. Hampson became the first Mary and James G. Wallach ArtistinResidence at the New York Philharmonic, as well as the Orchestra’s Leonard Bernstein ScholarinResidence. In these roles he will perform three programs with the Orchestra, appear on its European tour, give a recital at Alice Tully Hall, and present three lectures entitled “Listening to Thought” as part of the Philharmonic’s Insights Series.
Thomas Hampson has released more than 150 albums, which have received honors including a Grammy Award, two Edison Prizes, and the Grand Prix du Disque. He has been named Kammersänger of the Vienna Staatsoper; Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France; and Special Advisor to the Study and Performance of Music in America by Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress. Other honors include the Austrian Medal of Honor in Arts and Sciences (in 2004) and the Edison Life Achievement Award (2005).
New York Philharmonic
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The New York Philharmonic, founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians led by Americanborn Ureli Corelli Hill, is by far the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. It currently plays some 180 concerts a year, and on December 18, 2004, gave its 14,000th concert — a milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world.
Alan Gilbert began his tenure as Music Director in September 2009, the latest in a distinguished line of 20thcentury musical giants that has included Lorin Maazel (2002–09); Kurt Masur (Music Director from 1991 to the summer of 2002; named Music Director Emeritus in 2002); Zubin Mehta (1978–91); Pierre Boulez (1971–77); and Leonard Bernstein, who was appointed Music Director in 1958 and given the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor in 1969.
Since its inception the Orchestra has championed the new music of its time, commissioning or premiering many important works, such as Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3; Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F; and Copland’s Connotations. The Philharmonic has also given the U.S. premieres of works such as Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. This pioneering tradition has continued to the present day, with works of major contemporary composers regularly scheduled each season, including John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy
Award–winning On the Transmigration of Souls; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; Augusta Read Thomas’s Gathering Paradise, Emily Dickinson Settings for Soprano and Orchestra; and EsaPekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto.
The roster of composers and conductors who have led the Philharmonic includes such historic figures as Theodore Thomas, Antonín Dvorák, Gustav Mahler (Music Director, 1909–11), Otto Klemperer, Richard Strauss, Willem Mengelberg (Music Director, 1922–30), Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini (Music Director, 1928–36), Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Bruno Walter (Music Advisor, 1947–49), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Music Director, 1949–58), Klaus Tennstedt, George Szell (Music Advisor, 1969–70), and Erich Leinsdorf.
Long a leader in American musical life, the Philharmonic has over the last century become renowned around the globe, appearing in 428 cities in 61 countries on 5 continents. In February 2008 the Orchestra, led by thenMusic Director Lorin Maazel, gave a historic performance in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — the first visit there by an American orchestra, and an event watched around the world and for which the Philharmonic received the 2008 Common Ground Award for Cultural Diplomacy. Other historic tours have included the 1930 Tour to Europe, with Toscanini; the first Tour to the USSR, in 1959; the 1998 Asia Tour with Kurt Masur, featuring the first performances in
mainland China; and the 75th Anniversary European Tour, in 2005, with Lorin Maazel.
A longtime media pioneer, the Philharmonic began radio broadcasts in 1922 and is currently represented by The New York Philharmonic This Week — syndicated nationally 52 weeks per year, and available on nyphil.org and Sirius XM Radio. On television, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Philharmonic inspired a generation through Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts on CBS. Its television presence has continued with annual appearances on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS, and in 2003 it made history as the first Orchestra ever to perform live on the Grammy Awards, one of the mostwatched television events worldwide. In 2004, the New York Philharmonic was the first major American Orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live. Following on this innovation, in 2009 the Orchestra announced the firstever subscription download series, Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, available exclusively on iTunes, produced and distributed by the New York Philharmonic, and comprising more than 50 works performed during the 2009–10 season. Since 1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings, with more than 500 currently available.
On June 4, 2007, the New York Philharmonic proudly announced a new partnership with Credit Suisse, its firstever and exclusive Global Sponsor.
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Performed, produced, and distributed by the New York Philharmonic© 2009 New York Philharmonic
NYP 20100107