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CLASSICAL SERIES
C L ASS ICAL
Friday & Saturday, October 24 & 25, at 8 pm
S ERIES
Nashville Symphony
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Simone Porter, violin
TOBIAS PICKEROld and Lost Rivers NICCOLO PAGANINI
Concerto No. 1 in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 6
Allegro maestoso
Adagio
Rondo: Allegro spiritoso
Simone Porter, violin INTERMISSION
RICHARD STRAUSS
Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64 [An Alpine Symphony]
A grant from the Flora Family Foundation will support the Nashville Symphony’s efforts to preserve,
promote and expand American orchestral music during the 2014/15 season.
Weekend Concert Sponsor
Lawrence S. Levine
Memorial Concert
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Media Partner
Official Partner
TOBIAS PICKER
Composed: 1986
First performance: May 9, 1986, with
Sergiu Commisiona conducting the
Houston Symphony
First Nashville Symphony performance:
March 19-21, 2009, with Associate
Conductor Kelly Corcoran
Estimated length: 6 minutes
W
ith various productions and revivals of his
five operas and the launch of his brandnew company, OPERA San Antonio, Tobias Picker
knows how to make the most of a milestone
birthday. Just turning 60 this past summer, Picker
has become an especially prominent force in the
American opera scene, with commissions from
the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera
in the past decade.
Yet even though he began as a prodigy
composer, receiving commissions while still
in his late teens, Picker took his time before
undertaking his first opera. He initially came to
attention for his orchestral and chamber works,
earning one major distinction after another,
including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Charles
Ives Scholarship of the American Academy of Arts
and Letters, and a composer residency with the
Picker uses the orchestra with painterly
detail to evoke a sense of landscape and longing
through extreme contrasts of register — a
strategy clear from the gentle opening of the
piece. An actual Texan landscape inspired the
composer: “Driving east from Houston along
Interstate 10, you will come to a high bridge
which crosses many winding bayous,” Picker
writes. “These bayous were left behind by the
great wanderings over time of the Trinity River
across the land. When it rains, the bayous fill
with water and begin to flow. At other times —
when it is dry — they evaporate and turn green
in the sun. The two main bayous are called Old
River and Lost River. Where they converge, a
sign on the side of the highway reads: Old and
Lost Rivers.”
In his own way, Picker creates a sense of
open, timeless spaces that some might compare
to the most popular ballet scores of Aaron
Copland — another city boy reimagining
powerful natural landscapes in music. Yet Old
and Lost Rivers is marked by a serene, meditative
quality. Just as the music seems ready to gather
for a climax, it mysteriously dissipates.
Old and Lost Rivers is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes,
2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 6
horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones (optional, or may
be used as 2 of the horn players), tuba, timpani,
percussion, piano, harp and strings.
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S ERIES
Old and Lost Rivers
W H AT TO L I ST E N FO R
C L ASS ICAL
Born on July 18, 1954, in New York City;
currently resides in Rhinebeck, New York
Houston Symphony in 1985-90.
It was during those Houston years that
Picker composed Old and Lost Rivers. The impetus
was to contribute to a series of fanfares paying
tribute to the Texas Sesquicentennial. Picker’s
approach, however, turned into an intensely
evocative, miniature tone poem in which the
native New Yorker reflected on his new home.
Old and Lost Rivers has gone on to become one
of Picker’s most frequently programmed works,
performed by orchestras across the U.S. and
Europe. The composer subsequently made a
keyboard version for pianist Ursula Oppens, and
he also transformed this music into a highlight of
his debut opera, Emmeline, in 1995, using it as the
basis for an achingly poignant portrayal of the
heroine.
NICCOLÒ PAGANINI
C L ASS ICAL
S ERIES
Born on October 27, 1782, in Genoa, Italy;
died on May 27, 1840, in Nice, France
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 6
Composed: c. 1816-1818
First performance: March 31, 1819, in
Naples, Italy, with Paganini as the soloist
First Nashville Symphony performance:
October 4 & 5, 1976, with Music Director
Michael Charry and soloist Eugene Fodor
Estimated length: 30 minutes
A
prodigy in an era of rapid change, Niccolò
Paganini reinvented the image of the solo
performer for the spirit of emerging Romanticism.
He fused his special brand of hyper-virtuosity
with a performance charisma that paved the
way for the likes of Franz Liszt — who in turn
transferred what Paganini had done for the violin
to his own instrument, the piano.
It later became commonplace to compare
Paganini’s ability to whip his audiences into
a frenzy with the power of rock superstars.
Contemporary accounts suggest the ritual-like
sensation generated by his performances, for
which the lanky, wiry Italian maestro would dress
in black, achieving feats with his instrument that,
it was suggested with a bit of savvy marketing,
might be possible only for someone who had
signed a pact with the devil himself.
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Some of the thrill had to do with unorthodox
or even unheard-of techniques Paganini
introduced into his playing: strange tuning
systems, trills across multiple notes, “ricochet”
bowing (which produces notes with a “bouncy”
sound), pizzicato notes with both hands, and
much more.
Paganini also liked to awe audiences by
playing his music from memory, thus giving the
illusion of spontaneous inspiration. But he was
a highly competent craftsman and composed
numerous pieces to spotlight his peculiar artistry,
from his fiendish 24 Caprices for solo violin to
chamber works and violin concertos. In fact,
Paganini for the most part savvily withheld his
scores from publication, treating his inventions
as jealously guarded secrets and making their
performance into an exclusive event.
The Violin Concerto No. 1, for example,
remained unpublished until after his death, but
it became one of his best-known calling cards
from the time it was introduced, most likely in
his native Naples in 1819. (The concerto now
known as No. 6 actually predates this one, but was
discovered only in modern times.) The orchestral
score was written in E-flat major, but since some
of the soloist’s material would be impossible
even for a Paganini to play in standard tuning in
this key, he introduced a little trick: having the
violinist play as if in D major, but with the strings
tuned a half-step higher, in E-flat, which was the
intended sonority. In any case, all the parts were
published later in D major, and this is the key in
which the concerto is usually heard nowadays.
W H AT TO L I ST E N FO R
The Classical design of the First Concerto is
familiar enough, with its fast-slow-fast movement
format. Yet as Michael Thomas Roeder observes
in his History of the Concerto, the innovative side of
Paganini found expression in giving “new musical
meaning” to virtuosity. The extremity of the
demands he made on his soloist — in other words,
himself — entailed a radically new concept of the
instrument, one already far outside the bounds of
Classical tradition.
But the orchestra has a rather lengthy say
of its own in the first section, which sets out the
main themes at leisure, as if teasingly delaying the
a peaceful release through death. Note how much
Paganini can make from a simply drawn-out
melodic line.
The finale returns to the call for exceptional
technical wizardry. The main theme of this rondo
— which recurs following a variety of episodes —
contains a catchy example of Paganini’s “ricochet”
bowing, while the writing throughout amounts
to a virtual compendium of the violin’s musical
possibilities.
S ERIES
In addition to the solo violin, the Concerto is
scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bassoon,
contrabassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones,
timpani, percussion and strings.
RICHARD STRAUSS
Born on June 11, 1864, in Munich, Germany;
died on September 8, 1949, in GarmischPartenkirchen, Germany
Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64
[An Alpine Symphony]
Composed: 1911-1915
First performance: October 28, 1915, with
Strauss conducting the orchestra of the
Dresden Hofkapelle in Berlin
First Nashville Symphony performance:
September 11 & 12, 1992, with Music Director
Kenneth Schermerhorn
Estimated length: 55 minutes
T
he death of Gustav Mahler in 1911
profoundly affected Richard Strauss, his
near contemporary. One result was to reawaken
Strauss’ interest in a project he had set aside
years earlier involving the death of a visual
artist. Equally inspired by his fascination for the
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, his original plan
was even more ambitious than the enormous,
symphonically expansive tone poem that
eventually crystallized as An Alpine Symphony.
This was the last in the great series of tone poems,
a genre Strauss had re-patented as his own when
he first gained notoriety as a composer.
One of Mahler’s best-known pronouncements
was about the meaning of the term symphony:
for him, it meant “creating a world with all
the technical means available.” In An Alpine
Symphony, Strauss sharpens his technique to a
new level. His score requires a vast ensemble (the
largest of all his orchestral works) with hugely
expanded woodwind and brass sections and
a gigantic array of percussion, including wind
InConcert
C L ASS ICAL
entrance of the violin. After a full stop, the soloist
dominates through the rest of the movement,
offering dazzling new angles on the thematic
ideas. Not surprisingly, Paganini’s score doesn’t
include the lengthy cadenza he would have
improvised, and several violinists have taken up
the challenge of writing down one commensurate
with his style.
In the affecting, melancholy Adagio, set in
B minor, Paganini reveals his abiding love of
contemporary bel canto opera as practiced by
his friend and compatriot, Gioacchino Rossini.
Among the dramatic scenarios that have become
associated with this music is one of a repentant
criminal in prison who appeals to the divinity for
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C L ASS ICAL
There is far more to An Alpine Symphony than a thrillingly cinematic depiction
of an imaginary climbing party. The challenge posted by nature was linked in
Strauss’ imagination with the fundamental existential challenge of life itself.
S ERIES
and thunder machines. Yet Strauss uses these
forces judiciously to create an enormously varied
palette for his canvas, with room for plenty of
exquisitely shaded, even chamber-like sonorities.
While rehearsing for the premiere in 1915,
this acknowledged master of instrumentation
remarked, “I have finally learned to orchestrate!”
Yet precisely because of Strauss’ gift for
vivid musical evocation of the natural world,
the work has been underestimated as little more
than a virtuoso display of pictorialism, a kind of
symphonic Baedeker’s guide up and down the
Alps. Strauss did in fact draw on his memories of
an actual climbing expedition he had undertaken
as a teenager, and the villa in Garmisch where he
eventually settled commanded spectacular views
of his beloved Bavarian Alps. Certainly, the piece
can be enjoyed on a more literal level, and the
score is undeniably a virtuoso showcase for the
orchestra.
But if its technical demands and scope make
this work the Mount Everest of Strauss’ tone
poems, there is far more to An Alpine Symphony
than a thrillingly cinematic depiction of an
imaginary climbing party. Strauss conceived An
Alpine Symphony in part as a sequel to his 1896
tone poem inspired by Nietzsche’s Also Sprach
Zarathustra. (There are clear musical crossreferences, whether in the passages depicting
the majesty of sunrise or the scintillating
orchestrations from Zarathustra’s “Dance Song.”)
The challenge posed by nature in An Alpine
Symphony was linked in Strauss’ imagination with
the fundamental existential and creative challenge
of life itself — and, above all, of the artist who
rejects the structures of traditional faith to create
his own meaning. Biographer Michael Kennedy
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even calls An Alpine Symphony “Strauss’ most
Nietzschean composition,” while critic Tim
Ashley aptly identifies the climbers as Mahler and
the composer “clambering up the whole Romantic
edifice, at the center of which Wagner is seen as
an immovable mass.” A network of allusions to
the works of Wagner and Mahler (along with
hints of Beethoven and of Strauss’ own earlier
works) adds a musical-historical layer.
W H AT TO L I ST E N FO R
While Strauss originally envisioned a fourmovement plan, the work evolved into one
monumental span lasting about 50 minutes and
comprising 22 sections. These are all linked
together seamlessly, with brief, evocative headings
in the score that outline the various stages of the
expedition. Expectant night gives way to sunrise,
and the ascent begins, followed by a lengthy
interlude in the forest, passages around a stream
and waterfall, and a calm, pastoral scene of
flowering meadows and roaming cows. Straying
through thick undergrowth, the climbers reach
a glacier and experience “dangerous moments”
before they at last attain the summit. There ensues
a “vision,” and with the first hints of oncoming
darkness, an elegiac mood settles in. Moments
of eerie calm precede the arrival of a violent
thunderstorm during the descent. Sunset brackets
the day’s adventure and prepares the tone for final
reflections on what was accomplished.
This scenario sounds deceptively episodic,
much as the “literal” reading of mountain
climbing has obscured the metaphorical
dimensions suggested by the music itself. It
is significant that Strauss labels the work a
symphony rather than a tone poem — as if to
— Thomas May, the Nashville Symphony’s program
annotator, is a writer and translator who covers
classical and contemporary music. He blogs at
memeteria.com.
SIMONE PORTER,
violin
Violinist Simone
Porter is an emerging
artist of impassioned
energy, musical
integrity and vibrant
sound. Still in her
teens, she has appeared with the New York
Philharmonic, the American Youth Symphony,
Utah Symphony and as soloist at the Aspen Music
Festival. She made her professional solo debut
at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony, and her
international debut with the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra at age 13.
The 2013/14 season marked Porter’s
debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and
conductor Ludovic Morlot at the Hollywood
Bowl, Pasadena Symphony and Pacific Symphony.
She traveled to Central America to perform with
the Costa Rica Youth Symphony and gave recitals
in Los Angeles on the South Bay Chamber Music
Series. Last summer, she performed at the Aspen
Music Festival and the Grand Teton Festival.
Porter is also an avid chamber music
performer. Past performances of note include
a solo appearance in Singapore at the 2010
Great Eastern International Kids Performing
Festival, and the honor of performing for the
Dalai Lama in 2008 at the opening ceremony
of a five-day symposium on compassion in
Seattle, Washington. Porter is a 2011 Davidson
Fellow Laureate, an award given by the Davidson
Institute for Talent Development, which carries
with it a $50,000 scholarship to further her
musical education. In 2009, she was presented as
an Emerging Young Artist by the Seattle Chamber
Music Society.
Raised in Seattle, Washington, Porter studied
with Margaret Pressley as a recipient of the
Dorothy Richard Starling Scholarship, and was
then admitted into the studio of the renowned
pedagogue Robert Lipsett, with whom she
presently studies at The Colburn Conservatory
of Music in Los Angeles. She plays on a 1745 J.B.
Guadagnini violin on generous loan from The
Mandell Collection of Southern California.
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S ERIES
An Alpine Symphony is scored for a very large
orchestra of 4 flutes (flutes 3 and 4 double piccolos),
3 oboes (oboe 3 doubles English horn), heckelphone,
clarinet in E-flat, 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet
(doubles clarinet in C), 4 bassoons (bassoon
4 doubles contrabassoon), 8 horns (horns 5-8
double Wagner tubas), 4 trumpets, 4 trombones,
2 tubas, 12 offstage horns, 2 offstage trumpets, 2
offstage trombones, timpani (2 players), percussion
(including a thunder machine), celesta, organ, 2
harps and strings.
ABOUT THE
SOLOIST
C L ASS ICAL
underline the parallels with Mahler’s own artistic
ambitions. Elements characteristic of symphonic
architecture — epic exposition, scherzo-like
interludes, meditative slow music, rousing
climaxes — are embedded in the design. Even
more, An Alpine Symphony is unified through
Strauss’ careful construction of a network of
readily recognizable leitmotifs, including a brassy,
Wagnerian one for the mountain itself, heard in
the opening minutes.
Likewise, the tour de force storm scene is not
only splendidly “realistic,” but also breaks up and
reconfigures earlier motifs. This passage belongs
to the considerable amount of music devoted to
what happens after the attainment of the summit.
The lilting motif initially associated with the
meadows acquires a heroic new character, hinting
at the new perspectives (inner and outer) that
have been attained. The remarkable “vision”
that follows is a central moment of the work, a
secular epiphany replacing traditional faith. Most
intriguing of all is the mysterious framework of
slow music, shrouded in mists of B-flat minor
and descending scales, with which Strauss begins
and ends An Alpine Symphony. Strains of a funereal
dirge announce the descent of night after the
descent from the mountain, as if to remind us
that the creative struggle for liberation can never
end, but awaits us anew at every stage in our life’s
journey.
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