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2014/15 GREAT PERFORMERS
The Program
Sponsored by BNY Mellon
Thursday Evening, May 7, 2015, at 7:30
Virtuoso Recitals
Emanuel Ax, Piano
(Program continued)
Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.
BNY Mellon is a Proud Supporter of Great Performers.
This evening’s performance is dedicated to the memory of Paul Milstein, philanthropist and builder.
This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Steinway Piano
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater
Adrienne Arsht Stage
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Great Performers
BNY Mellon is a Proud Supporter of Great Performers.
Support is provided by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, The Florence Gould Foundation,
Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and
Friends of Lincoln Center.
Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Endowment support for Symphonic Masters is provided by the Leon Levy Fund.
Endowment support is also provided by UBS.
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center.
Movado is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.
United Airlines is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.
WABC-TV is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.
William Hill Estate Winery is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.
UPCOMING GREAT PERFORMERS EVENT IN ALICE TULLY HALL:
Sunday Afternoon, May 10, 2015, at 5:00
Europa Galante
Fabio Biondi, Conductor and Violin
MOZART: Symphonies Nos. 10, 11, and 13
MONZA: Sinfonia “La Tempesta di Mare”
SAMMARTINI: Sinfonia for string orchestra in G major
SCACCIA: Violin Concerto in E-flat major
BRIOSCHI: Sinfonia in D major
Pre-concert lecture by Peter A. Hoyt at 3:45 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit LCGreatPerformers.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info
Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about program cancellations or to request a Great
Performers brochure.
Visit LCGreatPerformers.org for more information relating to this season’s programs and
the 2015–16 Virtuoso Recitals series.
Join the conversation: #LCGreatPerfs
We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might
distract the performers and your fellow audience members.
In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must
leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking
of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.
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Great Performers I The Program
BIZET Variations chromatiques (1868)
RAMEAU Excerpts from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin
(c. 1729)
Les tricotet: Rondeau
L’indifférente
Menuets I and II
La poule
L’enharmonique
L’egyptienne
DEBUSSY Estampes (1903)
Pagodes
La soirée dans Grenade
Jardins sous la pluie
DEBUSSY Hommage à Rameau, from Images, Series 1 (1901–05)
DEBUSSY L’isle joyeuse (1903–04)
Intermission
CHOPIN Four Scherzos (1835–43)
No. 1 in B minor
No. 2 in B-flat minor
No. 3 in C-sharp minor
No. 4 in E major
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Snapshot
Great Performers
By David Wright
This program celebrates the exquisite combination of sharp wit and passion that is France’s gift to music. Before creating his masterpiece Carmen,
Bizet composed intriguing music in many genres, including the Variations
chromatiques for piano—14 variations on a theme most directly inspired by
Beethoven, but with hints of Schumann’s fancy and Liszt’s fire as well.
Rameau’s pièces de clavecin (harpsichord pieces), with their amusing or
enigmatic titles, perfected and extended the ornate style of the French
clavecinistes of the Baroque era.
A musical intellectual and published critic, Debussy didn’t like his compositions to be lumped with Impressionist paintings, but it’s hard not to do so
when his Estampes (Prints) and L’isle joyeuse (The Isle of Joy) evoke such
strong visual associations with Asian or Spanish scenes, or with nature. On
the other hand, his Hommage à Rameau (Homage to Rameau) conveys a
certain Baroque dignity and order.
Though proud of his Polish birth, Chopin was of French parentage and lived
most of his adult life in Paris. On the witty-to-passionate scale, the first
three of his dazzling scherzos strongly emphasize the latter, while No. 4 in
E major bubbles over with humor and caprice.
—Copyright © 2015 by David Wright
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Notes on the Program
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
By David Wright
Variations chromatiques (1868)
GEORGES BIZET
Born October 25, 1838, in Paris
Died June 3, 1875, in Bougival, France
Approximate length: 10 minutes
Known today mainly for his evergreen opera Carmen, Georges Bizet was
an inquisitive, all-around musician who studied the works of earlier composers and wrote music in many genres. One piano piece that he admired
and performed in public was Beethoven’s dramatic 32 Variations in C minor,
with its distinctive harmonic structure on a descending chromatic bass line.
Composing his own variations in 1868, Bizet did Beethoven one better
with an original theme that ascended and descended a full octave in chromatic half steps. The 14 variations and coda show the influence of
Schumann in their fanciful moments and Liszt in their tempestuous ones.
Writing to his publisher, Bizet expressed pride in the novel harmonies he
was able to wring from the chromatic scale: “I am, I admit it, totally satisfied with this piece. It is treated audaciously, you will see.”
Excerpts from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin (c. 1729)
JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU
Baptized September 25, 1683, in Dijon, France
Died September 12, 1764, in Paris
Approximate length: 20 minutes
As late as Rameau’s 50th birthday, few could have imagined that his name
would echo down the centuries as one of the mightiest masters of
Western music. The latest bloomer of all great composers, this obscure
organist, theoretician, and occasional writer of keyboard pieces finally
soared to fame—in, of all places, the opera house—at an age that the likes
of Pergolesi, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Scriabin, and
Gershwin didn’t reach.
Lately, Rameau’s operas have returned to the stage after an absence of
more than two centuries. What sustained his reputation during that dry
spell were those “early” keyboard works—witty, original, ever fresh—
which were published in four collections between 1706 and 1741. This
evening’s Suite in G major comes from the third of these, published
around 1729. It abounds in fanciful titles: The interlocking hand motions of
Les tricotet evoke knitters at work (tricoter means to knit), while
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Great Performers I Notes on the Program
L’indifférente portrays a beautiful but haughty woman. After a pair of minuets,
La poule (The Hen) is amusingly self-explanatory, as is the fiery final piece
L’egyptienne (The Gypsy Girl). The title of the next-to-last piece,
L’enharmonique, refers to a particular harmonic sleight-of-hand with which the
celebrated music theorist creates strange, expressive modulations.
Estampes (1903)
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Born August 22, 1862, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Died March 25, 1918, in Paris
Approximate length: 13 minutes
With the completion of Estampes (Prints) in 1903, Debussy marked a radical
advance over his previous compositions for piano. Although still firmly
grounded in the pianistic tradition of the 19th century, Debussy was now
experimenting with his own pictorial imagery, sonority, and new composing
techniques. In Estampes, his style crystallized in terms of form, rhythm, and
especially imagination.
Although it tells no story and so could hardly be called “program music,”
Estampes does deal in extra-musical ideas: Oriental temples and a Javanese
gamelan orchestra (chimes, gongs, and bells) in Pagodes (Pagodas); a turbulent La soirée dans Grenade (Evening in Grenada) with strumming guitars,
Arabic chants, and flamenco dancing; and a stormy afternoon calmed by a lullaby in Jardin sous la pluie (Gardens in the rain). Thus Debussy points the way
for the use of sound imagery by many 20th-century composers, including
Bartók and Messiaen.
Hommage à Rameau, from Images, Series 1 (1901–05)
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Approximate length: 7 minutes
After one of the first performances of Images, Series I, the Guide Musical of
Paris reported that “it was highly entertaining to watch the expressions of the
audience, who were obviously overwhelmed by mingled feelings of bewilderment, delight, and ecstasy.” Over a century later, the effect on audiences of
these pieces has not changed much.
Although Debussy claimed the clavecinistes—the great French harpsichord
composers—as his musical forebears, any harmonic resemblance between
the works of Jean-Philippe Rameau and this “Homage to Rameau” is purely
coincidental. Rather, Debussy pays tribute here to the Classical spirit in music,
building the piece from symmetrical, well-proportioned phrases, emulating the
dignity of Greek architecture.
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Great Performers I Notes on the Program
L’isle joyeuse (1903–04)
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Approximate length: 6 minutes
In 1904, after the scandalous breakup of his first marriage, Debussy fled with
Emma Bardac to Dieppe, on the English Channel. There, inspired partly by
their summer idyll and partly by Watteau’s painting The Embarkation for
Cythera, which depicts revelers boarding a boat that goes to the Temple of
Venus, he composed L’isle joyeuse. “God, how difficult it is to perform!” he
wrote to his publisher. “The piece seems to bring together all the ways to
attack a piano, combining force and grace, if I do say so myself!”
Lisztian pyrotechnics are in evidence here, but so is Watteau’s classicism. In
Debussy’s disciplined scheme, no melodic material is wasted, and the bacchanal achieves suspense and sustained power. The opening cadenza is written in a whole-tone scale that persists throughout the piece, adding a touch
of the supernatural and the ineffable. Two dance melodies, one writhing and
sensuous, the other languid and sentimental, take their turns; the latter
returns with trumpets blaring before the whirling coda.
Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20 (c. 1835)
Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31 (1837)
Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39 (1839)
Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 (1842–43)
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN
Born March 1, 1810, in Zelazowa Wola, Poland
Died October 17, 1849, in Paris
Approximate length: 42 minutes
In the hands of Beethoven and Schubert, the scherzo (Italian for “joke”)
became a fast and capricious offspring of the classical minuet, a sort of musical sorbet between the richer courses of the symphonic meal. By
Mendelssohn’s time, the scherzo could stand alone as a piano piece; he and
Schumann imbued it with elfin high spirits and virtuosity, which it has
retained, for the most part, ever since.
Amidst all this, Chopin’s four scherzos are an anomaly. All but one of them
seem to have no joke about them at all; they are fiery dramas, close cousins
of the ballades. But where the ballades begin at the leisurely pace of an epic,
the scherzos are all urgency and action from the first bar.
Imagine a listener in 1832 settling back to enjoy an airy scherzo and hearing
instead the dire outbursts of the Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20. The raging figurations and impassioned rhetoric of this work gain force from the tight form
into which they are poured, which is none other than the old minuet-with-trio:
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Great Performers I Notes on the Program
a principal section containing themes and development, a contrasting middle
section, and a repeat of the first part. The outer sections of the Scherzo in
B-flat minor, Op. 31, are mostly in D-flat, the relative major, and thereby hangs
a tale of conflicting moods. Which will prevail, the dark mutterings of the opening measures or the radiant cantilena that follows? Much of the drama is
played out in the trio, and eventually the exuberant coda establishes the major
key once and for all.
The Scherzo in C-sharp minor, Op. 39, opens even more enigmatically than its
predecessor. The theme in double octaves, when it finally comes, adds clarity
but little comfort as it gallops through development and recapitulation. There
is balm in the chorale-like trio, with its ravishing shower-of-stars figurations
between the phrases. This time, however, the minor key triumphs in the coda.
If the nickname “Butterfly” were not already attached to one of Chopin’s
etudes, it would suit the Scherzo in E major, Op. 54, perfectly. The music
launches without introduction into a flurry of turns, pauses, spurts and dizzy
arabesques, as if the composer were silencing critics of his three previous
scherzos by composing the most scherzando music imaginable. The rather
taciturn melody of the trio provides a chance to catch one’s breath before this
carefree music takes wing again, concluding with more surprises and one last
flight up the keyboard.
David Wright, a music critic for Boston Classical Review, has provided program notes for Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series since 1982.
—Copyright © 2015 by David Wright
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LISA MARIE MAZZUCCO
Meet the Artists
Great Performers I Meet the Artists
Emanuel Ax
Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax captured public attention in 1974
when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano
Competition. He went on to win the Michaels Award of Young
Concert Artists and the Avery Fisher Prize.
In the 2014–15 season Mr. Ax participated in the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra’s festival celebrating the piano and will tour Europe with
the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He returned to
the orchestras of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston,
Cincinnati, Dallas, Washington, Nashville, Atlanta, St. Louis, Montreal,
and Ottawa. Recitals took him to Vancouver, San Francisco, and the
Midwest, ending in this evening’s performance at Alice Tully Hall, his
35th anniversary on the Great Performers series. In Europe Mr. Ax
returned to the Berlin Philharmonic, and also appeared with the
London Symphony and Zurich Tonhalle Orchestras, Czech Philharmonic, and the national orchestras of Toulouse and Lyon.
A Grammy-winning artist exclusive to Sony Classical since 1987, Mr.
Ax’s most recent release is a recital disc exploring variations by composers including Haydn, Schumann, and Copland. Mr. Ax is a fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary
doctorates from Yale and Columbia Universities.
Lincoln Center’s Great Performers
Initiated in 1965, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series offers
classical and contemporary music performances from the world’s
outstanding symphony orchestras, vocalists, chamber ensembles,
and recitalists. One of the most significant music presentation series
in the world, Great Performers runs from October through June with
offerings in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Walter
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Great Performers
Reade Theater, and other performance spaces around New York City. From
symphonic masterworks, lieder recitals, and Sunday morning coffee concerts
to films and groundbreaking productions specially commissioned by Lincoln
Center, Great Performers offers a rich spectrum of programming throughout
the season.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of
more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals including American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln
Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival,
and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award–winning Live From
Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln
Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center
complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion
campus renovation, completed in October 2012.
Lincoln Center Programming Department
Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director
Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming
Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming
Jill Sternheimer, Acting Director, Public Programming
Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager
Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming
Claudia Norman, Producer, Public Programming
Mauricio Lomelin, Associate Producer, Contemporary Programming
Julia Lin, Associate Producer
Nicole Cotton, Production Coordinator
Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director
Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor
Olivia Fortunato, House Seat Coordinator
Mr. Ax’s representation:
Opus 3 Artists
www.opus3artists.com
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Spring Fling
A free fun-filled day of performances,
crafts, and activities for kids
oin Lincoln Center on May 9 for
also relax on the Laurie M. Tisch
“Spring Fling,” a free fun-filled day
Illumination Lawn.
designed for families. From 11:00–2:00, “Spring Fling” will launch the new
on Josie Robertson Plaza, at Damrosch Lincoln Center Kids (LC Kids), an
Park, and in the David Rubenstein
exciting program that invites families
Atrium, enjoy free performances, a
to make Lincoln Center their own by
dance lesson for kids, a scavenger
offering access to a wide range of
hunt, an interactive Dance-Along Story
events and enhancing the experience
Time event with Angelina Ballerina™
of a visit. LC Kids will offer new
and author Katharine Holabird from
memberships (including a free level),
WNET, craft activities, a sing-along at
additional events and performances
the Revson Fountain featuring singer/
year round for children of all ages,
songwriter Dan Zanes, and more
and a new and improved website
with the New York Philharmonic,
(Kids.LincolnCenter.org) with features
the Film Society of Lincoln Center,
such as, tips for parents, detailed
Children’s Museum of Manhattan,
show descriptions, and more to make
The Little Orchestra Society, and
a visit to Lincoln Center an enjoyable,
Big Apple Circus. Families can
unforgettable experience.
J
Learn more about LC Kids and enjoy “Spring Fling,” on Saturday, May 9. Visit Kids.LincolnCenter.org
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The Table is Set
A
merican Table Café and Bar by
Marcus Samuelsson in Alice Tully Hall
is a great dining option available to Lincoln
Center patrons, along with Lincoln
Ristorante on Hearst Plaza, indie food &
wine in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film
Center, ‘wichcraft in the David
Rubenstein Atrium, The Grand Tier in the
Metropolitan Opera house, the new
Lincoln Center Kitchen in Avery Fisher
Hall, and the Espresso Bar, also in Avery
Fisher.
Marcus Samuelsson, the youngest chef
ever to be awarded a three-star review
by The New York Times and the winner
of the James Beard Award for both
“Rising Star Chef” (1999) and “Best
Chef: New York City” (2003), crafted
the menu along with long-time associate
Nils Noren, MSG’s Vice President of
Restaurant Operations. American Table
Cafe and Bar by Marcus Samuelsson
serves food that celebrates the diversity
of American cuisine, drawing on influences and regions from across the
country. Dishes on the menu, which is
offered for both lunch and dinner,
include Smoked Caesar Salad, Shrimp
Roll, and Chocolate Cardamom Panna
Cotta. The bar features a cocktail menu
designed by consulting master mixologist, Eben Klemm, as well as a selection
of reasonably-priced wines.
Marcus Samuelsson’s recently published memoir, Yes, Chef, chronicles his
remarkable journey from being orphaned
at age three in his native Ethiopia to his
adoption by a family in Göteborg,
Sweden, where he first learned to cook
by helping his grandmother prepare
roast chicken. He went on to train in
top kitchens in Europe before arriving in
New York, first taking the reins at
Aquavit. He has won the television
competition Top Chef Masters on Bravo
Marcus Samuelsson
as well as top honors on Chopped All
Stars: Judges Remix. His current New
York restaurant, the wildly successful
Red Rooster, is located in his home
base of Harlem.
American Table Cafe and Bar seats 73
inside, plus more space outside on the
Alice Tully Hall Plaza. Diller Scofidio +
Renfro, the designers of the critically
acclaimed Alice Tully Hall, have transformed the glass-walled space with
lounge-like furniture in warm, rich colors,
a long communal couch, tree-trunk
tables, and lighting that can be dimmed
to adjust the mood. The design—an
eclectic reinterpretation of Americana—
draws its inspiration from the cafe’s
culinary focus. Call 212.671.4200 for
hours of operation.
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Learn More, Take the Tour
B R I A N S TA N T O N
LINCOLN CENTER, THE WORLD’S
LEADING PERFORMING ARTS
CENTER, is a premiere New York
destination for visitors from around
the globe. Did you know that tours of
its iconic campus have made the Top
Ten Tour list of NYC&CO, the official
guide to New York City, for two
year’s running? All tour options offer
an inside look at what happens on
and off its stages, led by guides with
an encyclopedic knowledge of
Visitors get a concert preview at rehearsal
Lincoln Center, great anecdotes, and
a passion for the arts. The daily one-hour Spotlight Tour covers the Center’s history along
with current activities, and visits at least three of its famous theaters. Visitors can now also
explore broadcast operations inside the Tisch WNET-TV satellite studio on Broadway, and
see Lincoln Center’s newest venue, the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, home to the
largest Plasma screen in the nation on public display.
Want more? A number of specialty tours are available:
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL & LINCOLN CENTER COMBO TOUR Experience two of
New York City’s “must-see” attractions with one ticket. This package combines the Music
Hall’s Stage Door tour of its Art Deco interior—which might include meeting a world-famous
Radio City Rockette—with Lincoln Center’s Spotlight Tour, where a sneak peak at a rehearsal
happens whenever possible.
ART & ARCHITECTURE TOUR Lincoln Center’s 16-acre campus has one of New York
City’s greatest modern art collections, with paintings and sculpture by such internationally
acclaimed artists as Marc Chagall, Henry Moore, and Jasper Johns. The tour not only
examines these fine art masterworks, it also explores the buildings and public spaces of
visionary architects like Philip Johnson, as well as the innovative concepts of architects
Diller Scofidio+ Renfro with FXFOWLE, Beyer Blinder Belle, and Tod Williams Bille Tsien,
designers of the campus’ $1.2 billion renovation.
Inside the David H. Koch
For more information, click on LincolnCenter.org/Tours.To book a
tour, call (212) 875.5350, email [email protected], or
visit the Tour and Information Desk in the David Rubenstein
Atrium at Lincoln Center, located on Broadway between 62nd and
63rd Streets. –Joy Chutz
Theater
B R I A N S TA N T O N
EVEN MORE TOUR OPTIONS Lincoln Center offers Foreign
Language Tours in five languages: French, German, Italian,
Japanese, and Spanish, in addition to American Sign
Language tours. Visitors with a special interest in jazz can take
the Jazz at Lincoln Center Tour of the organization’s gorgeous
venues at the Times Warner Center, the only facilities created
specifically for the performance of jazz music. And Group Tours
of more than 15 people get a discount.