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MAHLER
(1860-1911)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
David Robertson is the Beofor Music Director and Conductor. Susan Graham is presented by the Whitaker Foundation. Amy Kaiser is the AT&T Foundation Chair. Women of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus are the Linda and Paul Lee Guest Artists. The concert of Friday, October 5, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Mrs. Sally S. Levy. The concert of Saturday, October 6, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Mrs. Ann Lux. Pre-Concert Conversations are presented by Washington University Physicians. These concerts are part of the Wells Fargo Advisors Series. Large print program notes are available through the generosity of Mosby Building Arts and are located at the Customer Service table in the foyer.
Mike Walk
A HYMN TO NATURE
BY PA U L SC H I AVO
TIMELINKS
1893-96 MAHLER Symphony No. 3 in D minor Lumire Brothers show first commercial motion pictures in Paris
My symphony will be something the like of which the world has never yet heard! Gustav Mahler wrote to a friend shortly before completing his monumental Symphony No. 3 in D minor. In it all of nature finds a voice. The composers words may seem immodest, but they hardly exaggerate the matter. In its tremendous scale, its unusual formal layout and its great range of expression, Mahlers Third Symphony is indeed a composition unlike any previously heard, and in these and other respects it has rarely been equaled, even by the composers own subsequent works. As a musical reflection of nature, it is hardly less unique. Composers have long been fascinated with the possibility of suggesting various aspects of the natural world through music. Beethovens Pastorale Symphony (No. 6 in F major), with its flowing stream of melody, its bird calls, dancing peasants, storm, and thankful shepherd, is the most famous evocation of nature in the concert repertory. The musical tempests of Mendelssohns Hebrides Overture and the storm interlude from Berliozs opera Les Troyens; the magnificent sunrise in Haydns oratorio The Creation; and the billowing waves of Debussys seascape La Mer offer tonal impressions of nature hardly less evocative than those in the Pastorale Symphony. Mahlers Third Symphony ranks among these compositions but also stands apart from them. For while the above-mentioned works, and many others, attempt to portray aspects of nature through the use of suggestive musical figuration furious scales and thunderous timpani strokes in the Pastorale Symphonys storm movement, for exampleMahlers music avoids such tone painting in favor of a more encompassing view of its subject. Instead of depicting nature through instrumental mimicry of wind, water, and birdsong, Mahler conveys what might best be described as the soul of natureor, perhaps more accurately, the response of his own soul to nature.
GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 3 in D minor MUSIC AND MEANING Mahlers most explicit discussion of his Third Symphony is found in a letter he wrote in February 1896. At this time the symphony was not yet complete, but the second movement had been played publicly several times. Mahler explained that in its finished form, the composition would
present me to the public as the sensuous and perfumed singer of nature. That this nature hides within itself everything that is frightful, great and also lovely (which is exactly what I wanted to express over the course of the entire work, in a sort of evolutionary development). ... There now! You have a sort of program that is, a glimpse of how I compose [this] music. Everywhere and always, it is only the voice of nature ... nature in its totality, which is, so to speak, awakened from fathomless silence that it may ring and resound.
Born Kalite, Bohemia, July 7, 1860 Died Vienna, May 18, 1911 First Performance Krefeld, Germany, June 9, 1902; Luise Geller-Wolter sang the alto solos, Mahler himself conducted STL Symphony Premiere May 25, 1973, with mezzosoprano Olivia Stapp; Mary Institute Choir, Robert Bell, director; Webster Groves Presbyterian Church Youth Choir, Mrs. William Symnes, director; Walter Susskind conducting Most Recent STL Symphony Performance October 28, 1999, with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby; Women of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, Amy Kaiser, director; The St. Louis Symphony Childrens Choir, Barbara Berner, artistic director; Hans Vonk conducting at New York Citys Carnegie Hall
The program, the implicit narrative, which Mahler mentions here is explicitly set forth in the titles the composer gave to the symphonys six movements. Mahler altered these explanatory headings slightly several times during 1895 and 1896, the years he composed the work; but a letter written in August 1896, at which time he had essentially completed the piece, gives what may be considered their definitive form:
1st Section. Introduction: Pan awakes. Movement I: Summer marches in (Bacchanalian cortege). 2nd Section. Movement II: What the meadow flowers tell me. Movement III: What the forest creatures tell me. Movement IV: What man tells me. [In earlier drafts, Mahler titled this movement What the night tells me.] Movement V: What the angels tell me. Movement VI:What love tells me.
Scoring solo mezzo-soprano womens chorus childrens choir 4 flutes 4 piccolos 4 oboes English horn 4 clarinets bass clarinet 2 E-flat clarinets 4 bassoons contrabassoon 8 horns 4 trumpets offstage posthorn 4 trombones tuba 2 timpani percussion 2 harps strings Performance Time approximately 99 minutes
As he did with each of his two previous symphonies, Mahler subsequently abandoned the movement titles, evidently out of concern that his listeners might try to read too much into them. Yet he did not explicitly renounce them or the programmatic meaning they implied. His reluctance to do so seems understandable. If taken as general guidelines, these titles serve to clarify not only the poetic foundation of the symphony but also its overall design. Moreover, Mahler could not eradicate the extra-musical messages of the fourth and fifth movements, with their allusions to man and angels, since these are made explicit by the texts sung during those portions of the symphony. NATURE, MAN, GOD, LOVE The importance of the two vocal movements goes beyond the addition of human voice to the orchestra. Rather, these movements bring mankind into the symphonys contemplation of nature, enlarging the compositions consideration of the living universe to include humanity (the first words sung are, in fact, O Man!) and human spirituality. Mahler was not, Bruno Walter noted, a nature lover in the usual sense of the expression, a kind of garden friend, a friend to animals. Ever concerned with religious questions, the composer evidently saw nature above all as the handiwork of God. And during the course of the Third Symphony he presents three perspectives on the divine in nature. The first, expressed in the powerful opening movement, is pagan, a hymn to the woodland god Pan, whom Mahler clearly considered emblematic of the untamed life force. By the fifth movement, the reverence for nature has been transformed to a Christian viewpoint. (A Jew by birth, Mahler converted to Catholicism, though he never achieved security in his faith.) Finally, Mahler distills his spiritual feelings to their essence. Of the last movement, originally titled What love tells me, he told a friend: I could almost call the movement What God tells me. And truly in the sense that God can only be understood as love. He went on to assert that the entire symphony
describes all stages of evolution in a step-wise ascent. It begins with inanimate nature and ascends to the love of God. DIONYSIUS, THE GREAT PAN If nature seems inanimate in the quieter moments of the opening movement, the overall impression made by this initial portion of the symphony is anything but still or insensate. This long movement (about forty minutes in length) comprises almost half the symphonys duration and the first of what Mahler conceived as the two major sections of the composition. It begins with an introduction that the composer originally imagined in connection with Pan rousing from his slumber. The main part of the movement is essentially a marchone fit, as Mahler noted, for the Dionysian procession of summer. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this generally remarkable music is the great number and variety of thematic ideas Mahler employs. Horn calls, shrill woodwind fanfares, march tunes, and a good deal more crowd each other in an almost unruly manner. Frequently Mahler sets two or more distinct figures against each other in counterpoint. The result is music of tremendous surging energy, suggesting the earths primordial power and fertility. It always strikes me as odd, Mahler wrote while at work on the symphony, that most people, when they speak of nature, think only of flowers, little birds, and woodsy smells. No one knows the god Dionysius, the great Pan. Mahler reveals him here through music of extraordinary energy and invention. SONG OF MIDNIGHT, SONG OF HEAVEN The ensuing two movements are pastoral interludes: a minuet inspired by the sight of meadow flowers, followed by a robust scherzo that conjures up visions of the unspoiled forest. A setting for alto soloistoften sung by mezzo-soprano, as it is in these concerts by Susan Grahamof Friedrich Nietzsches Midnight Song, from his philosophical allegory Also sprach Zarathustra, comprises the deep and quiet fourth movement. The text for the fifth movement comes from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youths Magic Horn), the collection of German folk poetry that furnished the verses for so many of Mahlers songs. A childrens choir imitates the sound of bells while a chorus of women, later joined by the soloist, relates how St. Peter repented his sins and found forgiveness and heavenly bliss. Mahler initially planned to end the symphony with another song movement but opted for an instrumental finale instead. (He eventually used the original closing movement as part of his Fourth Symphony). Beginning quietly with a hymn-like theme intoned by the strings, this final portion of the symphony rises through a series of soaring climaxes to an ecstatic conclusion.
DAVID ROBERTSON
Robertson begins his eighth season as Music Director of the 133-year-old St. Louis Symphony.
A consummate musician, masterful programmer and dynamic presence, David Robertson has established himself as one of todays most soughtafter American conductors. A passionate and compelling communicator with an extensive orchestral and operatic repertoire, he has forged close relationships with major orchestras around the world through his exhilarating music-making and stimulating ideas. In fall 2012, Robertson launches his eighth season as Music Director of the 133-year-old St. Louis Symphony. In January 2014, Robertson will assume the post of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony in Australia. In September 2012, the St. Louis Symphony and Robertson embarked on a European tour, which included appearances at Londons BBC Proms, at the Berlin and Lucerne festivals, and culminated at Pariss Salle Pleyel. In March 2013 Robertson and his orchestra return to California for their second tour of the season, which includes an intensive three-day residency at the University of California-Davis and performance at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, with violinist James Ehnes as soloist. The orchestra will also perform at venues in Costa Mesa, Palm Desert, and Santa Barbara, with St. Louis Symphony Principal Flute, Mark Sparks, as soloist. In addition to his current position with the St. Louis Symphony, Robertson is a frequent guest conductor with major orchestras and opera houses around the world. During the 2012-13 season he appears with prestigious U.S. orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony, as well as internationally with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Born in Santa Monica, California, David Robertson was educated at Londons Royal Academy of Music, where he studied horn and composition before turning to orchestral conducting.
MICHAEL TAMMARO
SUSAN GRAHAM
Susan Graham, one of the worlds foremost stars of opera and recital, is a compelling and versatile singing actress. Celebrated as an expert in French music, Graham has been honored by the French government with the title Chevalier de la Lgion dhonneur. Highlights of Grahams 2011-12 season included the Grammy Award winners muchanticipated Canadian Opera Company debut as Iphigenia in Glucks Iphignie en Tauride. Graham also returned to the San Francisco Opera in the title role of Handels Xerxes, and the Paris Opera for performances of Franz Lehrs popular operetta The Merry Widow. In January 2012 she embarked on an American recital tour with her frequent collaborator, pianist Malcolm Martineau, which culminated in her return to Carnegie Hall. At home and abroad, Graham has sung leading roles from the 17th to 20th centuries in the great opera houses of the world, including Milans La Scala; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Vienna State Opera; Opra national de Paris; Dresdens Semperoper; and the Salzburg Festival. Graham has also appeared with many of the worlds leading conductors and orchestras. Dubbed Americas favorite mezzo by Gramophone magazine, Graham captivates audiences with her expressive voice, tall and graceful stature, and engaging acting ability in both comedy and tragedy. Born in New Mexico and raised in Texas, Graham studied at Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music, which awarded her an honorary Doctor of Music in 2008. She won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Schwabacher Award from San Francisco Operas Merola Opera Program, as well as a Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. Graham was Musical Americas 2004 Vocalist of the Year, and in 2006 her hometown of Midland, Texas declared September 5 Susan Graham Day in perpetuity. Susan Graham most recently performed with the St. Louis Symphony in January 2009.
DARIO ACOSTA
AMY KAISER
Kaiser prepared the Chorus for the Symphonys most recent performance of Mahler 3, in October 1999.
One of the countrys leading choral directors, Amy Kaiser has conducted the St. Louis Symphony in Handels Messiah, Schuberts Mass in E flat, Vivaldis Gloria, and sacred works by Haydn and Mozart as well as Young Peoples Concerts. She has made eight appearances as guest conductor for the Berkshire Choral Festival in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Santa Fe, and at Canterbury Cathedral. As Music Director of the Dessoff Choirs in New York for 12 seasons, she conducted many performances of major works at Lincoln Center. Other conducting engagements include concerts at Chicagos Grant Park Music Festival and more than fifty performances with the Metropolitan Opera Guild. Principal Conductor of the New York Chamber Symphonys School Concert Series for seven seasons, Kaiser also led many programs for the 92nd Street Ys acclaimed Schubertiade. She has conducted over twenty-five operas, including eight contemporary premieres. A frequent collaborator with Professor Peter Schickele on his annual PDQ Bach concerts at Carnegie Hall, Kaiser made her Carnegie Hall debut conducting PDQs Consort of Choral Christmas Carols. She also led the Professor in PDQ Bachs Canine Cantata Wachet Arf with the New Jersey Symphony. Kaiser has led master classes in choral conducting at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, served as faculty for a Chorus America conducting workshop, and as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. An active guest speaker, Kaiser teaches monthly classes for adults in symphonic and operatic repertoire and presents Pre-Concert Conversations at Powell Hall. Amy Kaiser has prepared choruses for the New York Philharmonic, the Ravinia Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Opera Orchestra of New York. She also served as faculty conductor and vocal coach at Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music. An alumna of Smith College, she was awarded the Smith College Medal for outstanding professional achievement.
BARBARA BERNER
Barbara Berner conducts the advanced touring ensemble, Concert Choir, and oversees all aspects of the childrens choirs program as Artistic Director. Under Berners direction Concert Choir has performed at Carnegie Hall, the national American Choral Directors Association convention in Los Angeles, and at the White House. Berner has prepared Concert Choir for numerous performances with the St. Louis Symphony. Berner has conducted the young singers in performances with the Bach Society of St. Louis, the St. Louis Holiday Brass Ensemble, and the St. Louis Chamber Chorus, and on international tours to Australia, England and Wales, Austria and the Czech Republic, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. In June 2013, members of Concert Choir and Choristers are invited to appear at Lincoln Center in the National Childrens Festival Chorus. Concert Choir will appear as a featured ensemble. Berner joined the artistic staff of The St. Louis Childrens Choirs in 1996 and was appointed Artistic Director in 1999. She serves as a clinician for Kodly workshops and has conducted state honor choirs in Kentucky and New Mexico. As an accompanist, music teacher, and choral conductor, Berner has had the opportunity to work with young singers from kindergarten through high school in the inner-city schools of Detroit and Boston; on military bases in Osterholz-Scharmbeck, Germany and West Point, New York; and in the culturally diverse schools of the Washington D.C. area. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Principia College and a Master of Music degree from Ithaca College. Barbara Berner was awarded an Artist/Teacher and Master Teacher Diploma from the Institute for Choral Teacher Education, where she studied conducting with Dr. Doreen Rao, and holds an Advanced Certificate from the Kodly Pedagogical Institute in Kecskmet, Hungary.
Berner and The St. Louis Childrens Choirs toured with the Symphony and David Robertson to New York Citys Carnegie Hall in 2006.
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