MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844)

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)

Mendelssohn wrote his E minor Violin Concerto for his friend Ferdinand David. They first met at about the age of fifteen while the young violinist was on a concert tour through Germany, and were delighted to discover that they had been born in the same neighborhood in Hamburg only eleven months apart. Mendelssohn, who admired both the man and his playing, saw to it that David was appointed concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra when he became that organization’s music director in 1835, and they remained close friends and musical allies.

The Concerto opens with a soaring violin melody whose lyricism exhibits a grand passion tinged with restless, Romantic melancholy; the second theme is a sunny strain shared by woodwinds and soloist. The succinct development is largely based on the opening theme. A cadenza is used as a bridge to the recapitulation and leads seamlessly into the restatement of the movement’s thematic material. The thread of a single note sustained by the bassoon carries the Concerto to the Andante, a song rich in elegance and warm sentiment; the center section is distinguished by its rustling accompaniment and bittersweet melody. A dozen measures of chordal writing for strings link to the finale, an effervescent sonata form.

DUKAS: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1897)

PAUL DUKAS (1865-1935)

Parisian composer Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is based on Goethe’s 1797 ballad Der Zauberlehrling, which in turn was derived from the dialogues of the 2nd-century Greek satirist Lucian. The tale tells of a naive apprentice to a wizard who overhears a magic incantation used by his master to animate the household broom into a water-carrier. In the sorcerer’s absence, the neophyte tries the spell on the broom, and — to his delight — it works. The broom marches smartly between well and water basin until the latter is full, then overflowing, then flooding — the apprentice never learned the magic words to stop his wooden servant! Not knowing what to do, he axes the broom in half, only making matters worse — now there are two water-carriers instead of one. More chopping produces more brooms. Just before the novice drowns in his own mischief, the sorcerer returns and, with a sweep of his hand and a muttered word, quiets the tumult.

In Dukas’ tone poem, the quiet, mysterious strains of the beginning depict the wizard and his incantations, while the apprentice scurries about to lively phrases in the woodwinds. When the door slams behind the departing sorcerer (a loud whack on the timpani), the tyro is left in silence. A rumble in the low instruments signals the stirring of the enchanted broom. The rumble becomes a galumphing accompaniment, over which the bassoons play the main theme of the work. This melody, combined with a quicker version of the incantation theme, suggests the aquatic havoc being wrought in the wizard’s absence. At the height of the confusion, the magician bursts through the door (the mysterious music of the opening returns to indicate his presence), and he orders the flood to subside. When peace is restored, the apprentice receives a swift boxing of the ears to end this delightful musical tale.

RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2

Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé (1909-1912)

MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)

Ravel’s ballet, set in a visionary ancient Greece, opens in a meadow bordering a sacred wood on the island of Lesbos. Greek youths and maidens enter with wreaths and flowers to place at the altar of the nymphs as the shepherd Daphnis descends from the hills. His lover, Chloé, crosses the meadow to meet him. The girls are attracted to the handsome Daphnis and dance seductively around him, inciting Chloé’s jealousy. Chloé, in turn, becomes the object of the men’s advances, most particularly a crude one from the clownish goatherd Dorcon. Daphnis’ jealousy is now aroused and he challenges Dorcon to a dancing contest, the prize to be a kiss from Chloé. Dorcon performs a grotesque dance and Daphnis easily wins Chloé’s kiss. The crowd leads Chloé away. Daphnis’ attention is suddenly drawn to shouts of alarm from the woods. Pirates have invaded. Daphnis rushes off to protect Chloé, but she returns and is captured. In Scene Two, set on a rugged seacoast, the brigands lead Chloé, hands bound, into their hideaway. She pleads for her release. When the chief refuses, the sky grows dark and the god Pan, arm extended threateningly, appears upon the nearby mountains. The frightened pirates flee, leaving Chloé alone. Scene Three is again set amid the hills and meadows of the ballet’s first scene. It is sunrise. Chloé has been rescued and she appears and throws herself into Daphnis’ arms. The old shepherd Lammon explains to them that Pan has saved Chloé in remembrance of his love for the nymph Syrinx. In gratitude, Daphnis and Chloé re-enact the ancient tale, in which Syrinx is transformed into a reed by her sisters to save her from the lustful pursuit of Pan, who then made a flute from that selfsame reed — the pipes of Pan — upon which to play away his longing. Daphnis and Chloé join in the joyous general dance that concludes the ballet. The Second Suite parallels the action of the ballet’s final Scene: Daybreak, Pantomime of the adventure of Pan and Syrinx, and the concluding General Dance.

Stéphane Denève, Conductor

Stéphane Denève is currently in his fifth season as principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, a position that runs through the 2019-20 season. He spends multiple weeks each year with the ensemble, conducting subscription, tour, and summer concerts. His 2018-19 subscription season appearances include three weeks of concerts, two of which are devoted to a Barnes/Stokowski Festival, a celebration of the artistic passion Albert Barnes and Leopold Stokowski shared. Mr. Denève has become very well known to audiences at Verizon Hall, the Mann Center, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail, having appeared as guest conductor numerous times since making his debut in 2007. He has led more programs than any other guest conductor during that time period, in repertoire that has spanned more than 100 works, ranging from Classical through the contemporary, including presentations with dance, theater, film, and cirque performers. 

Mr. Denève is also music director of the Brussels Philharmonic and director of its Centre for Future Orchestral Repertoire (CffOR), and with the 2019-20 season will become music director of the St. Louis Symphony. He was previously chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. 

Recent engagements in Europe and Asia include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Vienna Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NHK Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In North America he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony, with which he has appeared several times, both in Boston and at Tanglewood. He regularly conducts the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. He is also a popular guest at many of the U.S. summer music festivals, including Bravo! Vail, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the Blossom Music Festival, and Festival Napa Valley. Summer 2018 saw his debuts at the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West, and the 2018-19 season will see him lead a major U.S. tour with the Brussels Philharmonic. 

Mr. Denève enjoys close relationships with many of the world’s leading artists, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yo-Yo Ma, Nikolaj Znaider, James Ehnes, Leif Ove Andsnes, Leonidas Kavakos, Nicholas Angelich, Lang Lang, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Lars Vogt, Nikolai Lugansky, Paul Lewis, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, and Augustin Hadelich. 

In the field of opera Mr. Denève has led productions at the Royal Opera House, the Glyndebourne Festival, La Scala, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and the Opéra National de Paris. 

As a recording artist, Mr. Denève has won critical acclaim for his recordings of the works of Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Franck, and Connesson. He is a triple winner of the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, was shortlisted for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award, and won the prize for symphonic music at the International Classical Music Awards. His most recent releases are discs of Prokofiev suites and the works of Connesson with the Brussels Philharmonic (awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, the Caecilia Award, and Classica magazine’s CHOC of the Year) and a disc with the piano duo Lucas and Arthur Jussen and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, all for Deutsche Grammophon. 

A graduate of, and prizewinner at, the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Denève worked closely in his early career with Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa. He is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners and has worked regularly with young people in the programs of the Tanglewood Music Center, the New World Symphony, the Colburn School, and the Music Academy of the West, among others. 

Photo: Jessica Griffin

Hilary Hahn, Violin

Three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn is renowned for her clear and brilliant musicality, expansive interpretations of an incredibly varied repertoire, and organic connections with her audience. Her creative approach to music-making and her commitment to sharing her experiences with a global community have made her a fan favorite. She recently created the Instagram project #100DaysOfPractice for which she posted videos of herself practicing for a hundred days straight, openly sharing her behind-the-scenes work with her fans to break down perceived barriers around the creative process.

Hahn devotes much of the 2018-19 season to a thread that has bound her entire musical career together. In October she released Bach’s Partita No. 1 and Sonatas 1 and 2, after the two decades of anticipation from fans and critics alike that followed her first album, Hilary Hahn plays Bach, released when she was only 17. Throughout the fall and spring, she performs solo Bach recitals in Vienna, Paris, New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Toronto, Tokyo, Seoul, Berlin, London, and Munich. Also in 2018-19, she is Artist-in-Residence at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, with whom she will perform Sibelius in Austria, Germany, France, and Spain and premiere the final violin concerto of Einojuhani Rautavaara, written for Hahn and completed posthumously by Kalevi Aho. She takes Mozart’s fifth concerto to Japan and Korea with Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, performs Prokofiev’s first concerto with Järvi and the Philharmonia Orchestra in Germany, and returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Sibelius.

Bach has been a part of Hahn’s life from the beginning of her musical studies, including with her first teacher, Klara Berkovich. At ten she was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to study with Jascha Brodsky, a former pupil of Eugène Ysaÿe and Efrem Zimbalist, who dedicated part of nearly every lesson to solo Bach. She often incorporates movements of the partitas and sonatas into her free – and sometimes surprise – concerts for knitting circles, community dance workshops, yoga groups, art students, and parents with their babies. She developed these mini concerts as part of recent residencies in Vienna, Seattle, Lyon, and Philadelphia, and will continue to do so this year at Radio France, encouraging music lovers to combine live performance with their interests outside the concert hall and providing opportunities for parents to enjoy live music with their infants.

In addition to honoring the traditional violin literature, Hahn constantly delves into the unexpected. Her latest commission, her first for solo violin and her first of a set of works from a single composer, is six partitas by Antón García Abril, which she premiered in the United States, Europe, and Japan. García Abril was also one of the composers for In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores, Hahn’s multi-year commissioning project to revitalize the duo encore genre. Her album of those encores won a Grammy for Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble Performance in 2015, and the print edition of the complete sheet music will be released by Boosey & Hawkes. Complete with Hahn’s fingerings, bowings, and performance notes, the sheet music will ensure that the encores become part of the active violin repertoire.

Hahn’s curiosity extends beyond music. After having completed her university requirements at the Curtis Institute at sixteen and having already made her solo debuts with the Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Utah, and Bavarian Radio symphony orchestras; the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Budapest Festival orchestras, and the New York Philharmonic, among others, she chose to continue her studies for three more years, delving into languages, literature, and writing. She spent four summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and another four in the total-immersion German, French, and Japanese programs at Middlebury College. She holds honorary doctorates from Middlebury College and Ball State University, where there are also three scholarships in her name.

Hahn has released eighteen albums on the Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and Sony labels, in addition to three DVDs, an Oscar-nominated movie soundtrack, an award-winning recording for children, and various compilations. Hahn’s first Grammy came in 2003 for her Brahms and Stravinsky concerto album. A pairing of the Schoenberg and Sibelius concerti spent 23 weeks on the charts and earned Hahn her second Grammy. Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto, which was written for Hahn and which Hahn recorded along with the Tchaikovsky concerto, went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. In 2012 Hahn launched Silfra with experimental prepared-pianist Hauschka. The album was produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson and was entirely improvised by Hahn and Hauschka following an intensive period of development. In 2017 she released a retrospective collection that also contained new live material and art from her fans, in keeping with a decades-long tradition of collecting fan art at concerts.

In 2001, Hahn was named “America’s Best Young Classical Musician” by Time magazine, and in 2010, she appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Hahn was featured in the Oscar-nominated soundtrack to The Village and has participated in a number of non-classical productions, collaborating on two records by the alt-rock band ….And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, on the album Grand Forks by Tom Brosseau, and on tour with folk-rock singer-songwriter Josh Ritter.