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PLEASE NOTE
These program pages are posted as proof galley files, which may contain typographical
or other errors, and may differ in some respects from the final printed program book.
T h e C l e v e l a n d O r c h e s T r a
f r a n z w e l s e r - m Ö sT m u s i c d i r e c t o r
. 11
10on
20aS
Severance Hall
Thursday evening, January 6, 2011, at 8:00 p.m.
Friday morning, January 7, 2011, at 11:00 a.m. * eS
Saturday evening, January 8, 2011, at 8:00 p.m.
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
jörg widmann Con brio
(b. 1973)
Concert Overture for Orchestra
wolfgang a . mozart Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, K417
(1756-1791)
1. Allegro maestoso
2. Andante
3. Rondo
riCHarD kiNg, horn
I N T E R M I S S I O N *
piotr ilyich tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”)
(1840-1893)
in B minor, Opus 74
1. Adagio — Allegro non troppo
2. Allegro con grazia
3. Allegro molto vivace
4. Finale: Adagio lamentoso
These concerts are sponsored by Jones Day,
a Cleveland Orchestra Partner in Excellence.
The Thursday evening concert is dedicated to Barbara S. Robinson
in recognition of her extraordinary generosity in support
of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2009-10 Annual Fund.
The concert will end on Thursday at about 9:45 p.m. and on Saturday at 9:55 p.m.
The Cleveland Orchestra’s Friday Morning Concert Series
is endowed by the Mary E. and F. Joseph Callahan Foundation.
* The Friday morning concert is performed without intermission, features
the works by Widmann and Tchaikovsky only, and will end at about 12:10 p.m.
Severance Hall 2010-11 Concert Program — Week 9 35
Con brio: Concert Overture
composed 2008
jÖrg wiDmaNN likes to morph himself with each new
composition, choosing a fresh direction each time he be-
gins. The Cleveland Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Young
Composer Fellow for 2009-10 and 2010-11, Widmann
says that his concert overture Con brio stands apart from
Chor, an expressively hued, absorbing work that The
Cleveland Orchestra performed at Severance Hall in Oc-
tober 2009.
“The pieces could not be more different,” says Widmann. “In
by
Chor, it was vocal writing for orchestra. The first third of the piece
jörg was like one long melody — an endless melody. Con brio is fast
wiDmaNN music, as fast as possible, with great rhythmic drive. I try not to re-
peat myself. When I finish a piece, I have to try something else!”
born The overture’s title comes from a common tempo mark-
June 19, 1973
ing — meaning “with brilliance / dash / vivacity” — used in
Munich
Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth symphonies. Widmann ex-
now living in plains that he hatched the idea for the piece when Mariss Jan-
Freiburg sons asked him to write a concert opener to a program of these
two Beethoven symphonies. Beethoven uses that marking in
both pieces. “Whenever I would hear ‘con brio’ I would always
think of Beethoven,” the composer says.
He used an orchestra similar in size and instrumentation to
Beethoven’s, but stresses that he does not quote from Beethoven.
Rather, he was inspired by Beethoven’s rhythmic drive. Widmann
says he loves the “wild and big sound’’ that Beethoven got in the
last movement of the Seventh and first movement of the Eighth
— and was impressed that Beethoven could achieve such excite-
ment with a relatively small number of winds.
“In Con Brio, there are parts that are tricky to play, but
they are possible,” Widmann says with a knowing laugh. “The
Cleveland Orchestra is so virtuosic it can play anything; I know,
because I heard it play Chor in Cleveland. I never heard this piece
played that great. In my life I will never forget how they did it.”
Beethoven was capable of imagining exceedingly forward-
thinking ideas, the composer observes. “The way he uses ac-
cents and sforzando [a sudden, strong attack] makes the point
that the bar line is not important for him: he tries to eliminate
the barline,” says Widmann. Similarly, Widmann thwarts ex-
pectations in Con brio. Overtures often end fortissimo — loud,
Severance Hall 2010-11 About the Music 39
all out. Not in Con brio, where the rhythmic drive “just disap-
pears into nothing. The last chords are like a skeleton,” says the
composer. “It’s like the negative of a photograph; you have the
negative images in the air after the music ends.’’
As is his habit, Widmann fine-tuned a few details after the
Bavarian Radio Symphony and Mariss Jansons premiered this
work in September 2008. In Con brio, he occasionally asks the
players to do things they’re not accustomed to doing — for ex-
ample, the bassoons take off their reeds and blow directly into
the curved metal tube (the bocal) that leads into the wooden
instrument. He also has the flutes play with a whooshing, tone-
less sound. After the premiere, he added directions to the play-
ers in the score regarding these special effects.
Con brio: Concert Overture
in homage to Beethoven
“. . . Widmann’s use of [a small orchestra] is anything but Clas-
sical, however; and it is clear he feels no undue awe or em-
barrassment in the way he chooses to interact with his great
predecessor [Beethoven]. On the contrary, Con brio is exuber-
ant and affectionate, bringing hints of the Classical style into
continual juxtaposition with a very contemporary sense of
sonority, and Widmann’s trademark technique of composing
in blocks of texture that are laid abruptly cheek by jowl with
no transitions. As in other works, he appears to be testing a
range of musical gestures to destruction — something that
Beethoven himself was rather good at in his own way. Despite
the very high level of dissonance, the score occasionally allows
us to glimpse islands of tonal harmony, and the keys of A ma-
jor and F major (the tonics of Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth
Symphonies, respectively) are often, if ambiguously, evoked.”
—Calum MacDonald
40 The Cleveland Orchestra
New flute CoNCerto iN tHe workS
Widmann is currently completing a flute concerto com-
missioned by The Cleveland Orchestra for principal flute Joshua
Smith, who will premiere the piece May 27-29.
“In modern music sometimes the melody is not the main At a Glance
thing but when I hear someone like Joshua Smith play, of course, Widmann composed Con
I will write melody,” says Widmann, who despite his ear for in- brio in 2008 on commission
novation also prefers the old-fashioned method of scoring with from the Bavarian Radio
pen and paper to working at a computer. “What’s so special Symphony and conduc-
tor Mariss Jansons. It was
about his sound is his low register: he has this absolutely incred-
premiered as part of the
ible timbre. I just fell in love with his sound. When The Cleve- orchestra’s season open-
land Orchestra was in Salzburg, Joshua Smith and I talked; he’s ing concert in Munich on
so open-minded.” Setpember 25, 2008.
“I tried to avoid the orchestra being too loud for the flute. This concert overture
runs about 10 minutes in per-
That’s the reason some composers put the flute in the high register, formance. Widmann scored
so it can be heard. I try to avoid a certain kind of writing that it for a classical orchestra of
uses a flute very loud and in a high register. That’s only interest- 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets,
ing for about 20 seconds,” Widmann says. 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trum-
pets, timpani, and strings.
“In the new concerto there are many muted sections in the
The Cleveland Orchestra
strings and some in the brass, to make a special shadow-like color is playing this work for the
through it. There is a Mendelssohnian way of writing and the first time at this weekend’s
flute is always shimmering through the dark timbres.’’ concerts. Jörg Widmann is
serving as the Orchestra’s
—Elaine Guregian sixth Daniel R. Lewis Young
Composer Fellow during
Elaine Guregian has worked as a program annotator and the 2009-10 and 2010-11
music critic. She currently serves as communications seasons.
manager for The Cleveland Orchestra.
AD
AD
Severance Hall 2010-11 41
tHur SDay a ND Satur Day
Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, K417
composed 1783
t H e H o r N P l ay e r Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb (1732-1811) was
an old friend of the Mozart family. Mozart was a child when he
first met Leutgeb in Salzburg, and their paths crossed often over
the years. And it was thanks to Leutgeb that Mozart became
interested in writing solo music for the horn. Over the course
of time, Mozart wrote three complete concertos, an incomplete
one, and two chamber works especially for Leutgeb.
That Mozart was on very familiar terms with the horn
player (who was old enough to be his father) is revealed by the
by
humorous inscriptions contained in some of the scores. On the
Wolfgang manuscript of Concerto No. 2, for instance, one reads: “Wolf-
Amadè gang Amadè Mozart has taken pity on that ass, ox, and fool of
MOzArT a Leutgeb, in Vienna, May 27, 1783.” Leutgeb is not known to
have taken offense.
born Later in life, Leutgeb started a second career as a cheese-
January 27, 1756
Salzburg shop owner, although he continued to play the horn on the
side. He remained a loyal friend to Mozart to the end of the
died composer’s short life. Little is known about his last decades fol-
December 5, 1791 lowing his retirement from horn playing in 1792, at age sixty.
Vienna
The instrument Leutgeb played was very different from
the one heard at this weekend’s concerts. The valves that revo-
lutionized the technique of both the horn and the trumpet had
yet to be invented. In principle, 18th-century horns and trum-
pets could play only the notes of the natural overtone system.
In practice, however, players were able to compensate for this
limitation by inserting crooks of different sizes into the instru-
ment to change the fundamental pitch. In addition, by insert-
ing their hands into the bell, horn players could produce notes
outside the overtone series. This required considerable skill as
the placement of the hand had to be extremely precise to ensure
good intonation.
The fast sixteenth-note scales in the first movement, and
the large number of notes outside the overtone series are a clear
indication that Leutgeb was indeed a master of his instrument.
Mozart knew he could trust the “ass, ox, and fool” with long
legato lines and elaborate modulations. His treatment of the
horn as an eminently lyrical instrument is particularly appar-
ent in the second-movement Andante, whose singing melody,
moreover, contains a challenging ascent in half-steps.
Severance Hall 2010-11 About the Music 45
The third-movement finale, like the last movement of all
Mozart’s horn concertos, is in a quick 6/8 time: one-two-three
four-five-six, one-two-three four-five-six. This meter was as-
sociated with hunting music, as, of course, was the horn. The
lively rondo theme of this movement alternates with two epi-
sodes — the first fanfare-like and the second more gentle.
Towards the end, Mozart makes a little joke worthy of his
friend Joseph Haydn. He inserts a playful rest between the two
phrases of his main theme. Then he instructs his performers
to speed up the tempo and finish the concerto at an accelerated
pace.
—Peter Laki
At a Glance
Mozart completed the second of This concerto runs about 15
his four horn concertos on May 27, minutes in performance. Mozart
1783. It was most likely given its scored it for an orchestra of 2
first performance shortly thereafter oboes, 2 horns, and strings, plus
with hornist Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb the solo horn.
as the soloist.
46 About the Music The Cleveland Orchestra
Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”)
in B minor, Opus 74
composed 1893
o N t H e t w e N t y - e i g H t H of October, in 1893, Tchaikovsky
conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony in St. Peters-
burg. Nine days later, he was dead. His death was sudden and
unexpected, and in all probability due to the cholera epidemic
that had broken out in St. Petersburg — the suicide story that
used to enjoy a certain currency in the music world is now
widely discounted.
Yet there is no mistaking the funereal character of this
work, which bears witness to what Tchaikovsky biographer
David Brown describes as the “deepening inner gloom” of the
by composer’s last years. Still, this was also the time when Tchai-
Piotr ilyich kovsky arrived at the zenith of his international fame — two
tCHaikovSky years earlier, he had been feted throughout his trip to America,
born had participated in the opening concerts for New York’s new
May 7, 1840 Carnegie Hall, and had been hailed in the press in the New
near Votkinsk, Russia World as well as in the Old. At 53, he was at the height of his
died powers.
November 6, 1893 The “Pathétique” is not only the most intensely emotional
St. Petersburg of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies. It is also the one in which Tchai-
kovsky reached the pinnacle of his art in terms of compositional
technique and sophistication. The combination of these two
aspects — exceptional emotional richness and supreme crafts-
manship — makes the “Pathétique” Tchaikovsky’s crowning
masterpiece.
Technical devices, such as the re-use of the bassoon theme
from the opening movement’s introductory Adagio as the first
theme of the Allegro non troppo main section, produce an im-
mediate dramatic effect, enhanced by the brilliant orchestration
with divided violas and cellos answered by a quartet of wood-
winds. The gulf between this “active” first theme and the expan-
sive, warmly melodic second idea is widened by the fact that the
two themes are separated by a lengthy transition section, and
a significantly slower tempo (Andante) for the second theme.
The movement’s development section carries the tension to a
high point through intense contrapuntal activity punctuated by
violent syncopated figures in the woodwinds; then we hear an
almost Mahlerian tragic march, whose rumbling bass accom-
Severance Hall 2010-11 About the Music 51
paniment is derived from the main theme. The full orchestral
sonorities of the movement’s recapitulation change the char-
acter of the first theme from painful and languid to desperate
and dramatic, with the return of the expansive second melody At a Glance
bringing much-needed solace. The subdued, morendo (“dying Tchaikovsky began writing
away”) ending of the movement foreshadows the feeling of the his Sixth Symphony in Febru-
ary 1893 and conducted the
fourth movement.
work’s first performance on
In between, however, there are two lighter movements: a October 28 of that year in
graceful waltz with a limp (written in 5/4 time, with every other St. Petersburg. The subtitle
3/4 measure shortened by a beat), and a lively march whose “Pathétique” was suggested
theme unfolds only gradually and that seems, at least momen- by Tchaikovsky’s brother
Modest a few days after the
tarily, to suggest triumph and happiness. (Many audiences premiere; the composer liked
have applauded at the ending of the third movement, reacting the suggestion and wrote the
to the movement’s high ending, only to be surprised that the subtitle on the score, which
finale is yet to come. Some are embarrassed at the “mistake” of was dedicated to Tchai-
kovsky’s nephew Vladimir
applauding too soon; others instead try harder to understand
“Bob” Davydov. Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky’s intent.) died just nine days after the
The respite brought by the two middle movements proves premiere.
to be only temporary. The fourth-movement finale is one of This symphony runs
about 45 minutes in perfor-
the most heart-rending Adagios in the history of music. Its
mance. Tchaikovsky scored
doleful B-minor theme (whose notes are played alternately by it for 3 flutes (third doubling
first and second violins) is followed by a second idea that is no piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets,
less sad in tone despite being in the major mode. Tchaikovsky 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2
marked this D-major theme con lenezza e devozione (“softly and trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba,
timpani, percussion (bass
with devotion”). Twice, the music rises to triple fortissimo in a drum, cymbals, tam-tam),
state of utter despair, only to fall back each time into the quiet and strings.
pianissimo in which the symphony finally dies away. The United States
premiere of Tchaikovsky’s
—Peter Laki Sixth Symphony was given
on March 16, 1894, by the
New York Symphony Society.
The Cleveland Orchestra
first presented it during
the 1919-20 season, under
Nikolai Sokoloff’s direc-
tion. The Orchestra’s most
recent performances of the
“Pathétique” were during the
2007-08 season, at Sever-
ance Hall and on tour under
the direction of Franz Welser-
Möst.
Severance Hall 2010-11 About the Music 53
