CONCERT PROGRAM

Friday, April 21, 2017 at 10:30AM

Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 8:00PM
Sunday, April 23, 2017 at 3:00PM

John Storgårds, conductor

Nikolai Lugansky, piano

VALENTIN SILVESTROV Hymne – 2001 (2001)

(b. 1937)

RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, op. 30 (1909)

(1873–1943)
Allegro ma non tanto
Intermezzo: Adagio
Finale: Alla breve

Nikolai Lugansky, piano

INTERMISSION

BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra (1944)

(1881–1945)
Introduzione: Andante non troppo; Allegro vivace
Giuoco delle coppie: Allegretto scherzando
Elegia: Andante non troppo
Intermezzo interrotto: Allegretto
Finale: Presto

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

These concerts are part of the Wells Fargo Advisors Orchestral Series.

John Storgårds is the Paul and Linda Lee Guest Artist.

Nikolai Lugansky is the Ann and Paul Lux Guest Artist.

These concerts are presented by Mercy.

These concerts are sponsored by the Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family

Foundation.

The concert of Friday, April 21, is underwritten in part by a generous gift

from the William R. Orthwein, Jr. and Laura Rand Orthwein Foundation.

The concert of Saturday, April 22, is underwritten in part by a generous gift

from Gilbert and Yelena Standen.

Pre-Concert Conversations are sponsored by Washington University

Physicians.

Large print program notes are available through the generosity of The Delmar
Gardens Family, and are located at the Customer Service table in the foyer.

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CONCERT CALENDAR
For tickets call 314-534-1700, visit stlsymphony.org, or use the free STL Symphony mobile app available for
iOS and Android.

CAPRICCIO ITALIEN
Fri, Apr 28, 8:00pm
David Robertson, conductor; Julie Thayer, horn;
Gerard Pagano, bass trombone
WEBER Der Freischütz Overture
STEPHENSON The Arch (Trombone Concerto)
WALTON Crown Imperial (Coronation March)
Jay Fram

MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave)

David Robertson
DEBUSSY Clair de lune
F. STRAUSS Nocturno for Horn and Orchestra
TCHAIKOVSKY Capriccio italien
Part of The Whitaker Foundation Music You Know Series
BRAHMS VIOLIN CONCERTO
Sat, Apr 29, 8:00pm | Sun, Apr 30, 3:00pm
David Robertson, conductor; Augustin Hadelich, violin
ELGAR Serenade in E minor
LENTZ Jerusalem (after Blake)
BRAHMS Violin Concerto

Presented by The Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation

Augustin Hadelich

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

Thurs, May 4, 8:00pm | Sat, May 6, 8:00pm
David Robertson, conductor;
Alan Held, bass-baritone (The Dutchman);
Marjorie Owens, soprano (Senta); Raymond Aceto, bass (Daland);
Rodrick Dixon, tenor (Erik); Joy Boland, soprano (Mary);
Paul Appleby, tenor (A Steersman); St. Louis Symphony Chorus,
Amy Kaiser, director; S. Katy Tucker, visual design
WAGNER The Flying Dutchman
Presented by Mary Pillsbury

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN

Sat, May 13, 7:00pm | Sun, May 14, 3:00pm
Topping the American Film Institute’s list of 25 Greatest
Movie Musicals of all time, this masterpiece comes to life
on the big screen at Powell Hall. Join us as we celebrate its
65th Anniversary and enjoy the award-winning on-screen
performances by Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie
Reynolds with the STL Symphony performing the score live.
Photo used with permission of
The Gene Kelly Image Trust Sponsored by Missouri American Water
25
LIFE FORCES
BY RE NÉ S P E N C E R S AL L E R

According to Valentin Silvestrov, “the most

important lesson of the avant-garde was: to be
TIMELINKS free of all preconceived ideas, particularly those
of the avant-garde.” The Ukrainian polymath
1909 embraces—and embodies—this creative paradox.
RACHMANINOFF A prolific composer of symphonic, chamber,
Piano Concerto No. 3 in vocal, and sacred music, Silvestrov occupies a
D minor, op. 30 niche all his own. It’s somewhere between the
The Sixteenth holy minimalism of Arvo Pärt and the luscious
Amendment is passed by maximalism of Johannes Brahms. Melodically
Congress and submitted
to state legislatures, paving
speaking, Silvestrov’s 2001 composition for
the way for the modern string orchestra, Hymne – 2001, doesn’t shy away
federal income tax. from the sensuous and pretty. Its strangeness
either resides outside the harmonic realm or is
1944 so deeply immersed inside it that simple binaries
BARTÓK such as “strange” and “familiar” or “modern” and
Concerto for Orchestra “ancient” dissolve into irrelevance.
Casablanca wins three
Academy Awards Serge Rachmaninoff completed his Piano
including Outstanding Concerto No. 3 in Russia and premiered it in
Motion Picure, Best New York to kick off a concert tour of the United
Director, and Best States. Deprived of a piano during the long voy-
Screenplay. age by ship, the 36-year-old virtuoso practiced on
a special wooden keyboard, his long fingers danc-
2001
SILVESTROV ing in a silent blur. At home or at sea, it hardly
Hymn – 2001 mattered. “My music is the product of my temper-
The 9/11 attacks lead to ament, and so it is Russian music,” he declared.
President George W. Bush You’d never guess that Concerto for Orchestra,
declaring a “War on Terror.” which ranks among Béla Bartók’s most popu-
lar and accessible works, was the product of a
depressed, impoverished, terminally ill man. But
working on the commission gave the Hungarian
expat a much-needed boost, and his concerto
traced a similar per aspera ad astra trajectory.
He explained his intentions in his own program
notes: “The general mood of the work repre-
sents, apart from the jesting second movement,
a gradual transition from the sternness of the
first moment and the lugubrious death-song of
the third to the life-assertion of the last one.” His
theme isn’t about mere survival; it’s about the will
to live.

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VALENTIN SILVESTROV
Hymne – 2001
BORNE OF SILENCE “What I deal with might
be termed poetry in music,” wrote Valentin
Silvestrov. The composer’s surname sounds
almost suspiciously poetic, like a melding of
“silence” and “silver” dreamed up by some
Nabokov-mad publicist. Composed in the spring
of 2001, Hymne – 2001 reveals the ways in which
silence is part of Silvestrov’s strategy, the white
space surrounding the stanzas. “Music should Born
be born of silence,” he wrote. “That’s the most September 30, 1937, Kiev,
Ukraine
important thing: the dimension of silence.”
Silvestrov, who turns 80 later this year, is First Performance
one of the most compelling poets of post-post- April 15, 2001, Kiev,
Valerij Matjuchin conducting
everything contemporary music. Born in Kiev, the Kiev Camerata
he started out as a self-taught eccentric, and then
took evening classes in music while studying to STL Symphony Premiere
This week
become a civil engineer. Although he spent six
years studying composition and counterpoint at Scoring
the Kiev Conservatory, he honed his chops in the strings
insurgent Kiev avant-garde scene. Unfortunately, Performance Time
like so many of his intellectual compatriots, approximately 7 minutes
he soon ran afoul of the Soviet culture-cops.
Although he won prestigious prizes in 1967 and
1970, his music was seldom performed in the
USSR, and he wasn’t permitted to attend the
premieres of his works in the United States and
Europe. But as his international fame increased
(and the stringent dictates of Socialist Realism
relaxed), Silvestrov enjoyed a much higher pub-
lic profile and was even allowed to accept guest-
lecturer gigs abroad.
Silvestrov described Hymne – 2001 (which
also exists in a solo piano arrangement) as follows:
This work is a noble song of praise with a
fanned-out texture on a tonal and harmonic
basis. My hymn is enveloped in silence
although it appears like a customary string
setting on the outside. The paradox of [John]
Cage’s (4'33") is also present in latent form,
but this is the “silence of new music.” All
melodic content from my other composi-
tions can also be found here. A rest does not
only constitute a lack of sound, but is also
a state of retardation and paralysis or a sus-
pension of time. In early music, there was an
occasional need for silence, but here it is a
fundamental feature.

27
SERGE RACHMANINOFF
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, op. 30
A PIANO-SUNG MELODY Serge Rachmaninoff
began his Third Piano Concerto in the summer of
1909, at his family’s country estate, Ivanovka. He
finished it that September, shortly before embark-
ing for the United States. “It is borrowed neither
from folk song forms nor from church services,”
he later explained. “It simply ‘wrote itself.’ If I had
any plan in composing this theme, I was thinking
Born only of sound. I wanted to ‘sing’ the melody on
April 1, 1873, Semyonovo, near
Novgorod, Russia
the piano, as a singer would sing it—and to find a
suitable orchestral accompaniment, or rather one
Died that would not muffle this singing.”
March 28, 1943,
Beverly Hills, CA
After arriving in New York, Rachmaninoff—
one of the most astounding virtuosos of his
First Performance age or any other—performed it twice, first with
November 28, 1909,
New York, Rachmaninoff
Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony,
as soloist with Walter and again, six weeks later, with Gustav Mahler
Damrosch conducting and the New York Philharmonic. Rachmaninoff
STL Symphony Premiere
approved of Mahler’s rigorous practice-until-
January 27, 1928, perfect approach. “According to Mahler,”
Vladimir Horowitz as soloist Rachmaninoff wrote, “every detail of the score
with Bernardino Molinari was important—an attitude which is unfortu-
conducting nately rare amongst conductors.” Despite several
Most Recent STL Symphony successful performances, Rachmaninoff hated
Performance his American sojourn. “Everyone is nice and
April 18, 2015, Simon Trpčeski kind to me, but I am horribly bored by the whole
as soloist with thing,” he confessed in a letter to his cousin. “I feel
Vasily Petrenko conducting that my character has been quite ruined here.”
Scoring Declining a job offer from the Boston Symphony,
solo piano the homesick composer returned to Russia.
2 flutes After the 1917 Revolution stripped
2 oboes
2 clarinets Rachmaninoff of his cherished ancestral estate,
2 bassoons he emigrated to the horribly boring, character-
4 horns ruining America after all. He settled first in New
2 trumpets York and eventually migrated to the West Coast.
3 trombones He died in Beverly Hills in 1943, just a few weeks
tuba after attaining US citizenship and just days before
timpani
percussion his 70th birthday.
strings ROCKIN’ RACH 3 The Third Piano Concerto was
Performance Time not an immediate hit. Long and relentlessly con-
approximately 39 minutes trapuntal, the “Rach 3” requires a rare combina-
tion of athleticism and delicacy, of precision and
passion. Crafted in a three-movement fast-slow-
fast form, the concerto begins urgently, with a
melancholy Russian tune. After some pianistic
pyrotechnics, a gentler interlude ensues. The
Adagio sets the stage with grave winds and brass
before the piano tumbles in with an ardent new
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subject. Pockets of transparent bliss are ruptured
by fierce block chords. The feverish, shape-shift-
ing finale builds to a breathless coda: a magnifi-
cent chromatic racket.
Despite its many technical challenges,
Rachmaninoff preferred his Third Concerto
over his Second, which he described, somewhat
enigmatically, as “uncomfortable to play.” Most
pianists find the Third more difficult, although
neither is a cinch. Vladimir Horowitz, one of its
earliest champions, called it “elephantine.” Josef Born
Hofmann, the pianist to whom Rachmaninoff March 25, 1881,
dedicated the concerto, never publicly performed Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary
it; explaining only that it “wasn’t for” him. In 1940 Died
Rachmaninoff recorded the work, after making September 26, 1945,
four substantial cuts so that it would work within New York
the 78-rpm format. These days “Rach 3” is usu- First Performance
ally performed at its original length and feels sur- December 1, 1944, Boston,
prisingly lean for such a massive showpiece. Serge Koussevitzky
conducting the Boston
Symphony Orchestra
BÉLA BARTÓK STL Symphony Premiere
January 15, 1949, Vladimir
Concerto for Orchestra Golschmann conducting
HUNGARIAN HEART In 1940, after the death of Most Recent STL Symphony
his mother, Bartók fled Nazi-occupied Hungary Performance
for the United States, where he spent the last five January 19, 2014,
years of his life. Although he settled in New York, Andrés Orozco-Estrada
with his much-younger wife, he never truly left Scoring
his native country behind. His musical language 3 flutes
was steeped in the folk idioms of the Eastern piccolo
European countryside. 3 oboes
English horn
For years he and Zoltán Kodály had logged 3 clarinets
countless hours as musical documentarians, bass clarinet
using Western notation and early portable record- 3 bassoons
ing phonographs to capture Hungarian, Slovak, contrabassoon
and Romanian folk melodies from local singers. 4 horns
Those years of immersive field work meant that 3 trumpets
Bartók carried his homeland with him, no matter 3 trombones
tuba
where he happened to be living. timpani
When Boston Symphony Orchestra music percussion
director Serge Koussevitzky commissioned the 2 harps
concerto, Bartók was perilously poor, depressed, strings
and racked with high fevers caused by undiag- Performance Time
nosed leukemia. He weighed only 87 pounds. approximately 36 minutes
Aware of Bartók’s grim circumstances and his
stoic refusal of charity, Koussevitzky offered him
a $1,000 advance to compose a new orchestral
work in memory of Koussevitzky’s late wife.
Although the Russian-born entrepreneur really
wanted to cover Bartók’s medical expenses and
29
probably never expected him to fulfill the assignment, Bartók was buoyed
by the prospect. He set out for a sanatorium at Lake Saranac in upstate New
York, where he finished the Concerto for Orchestra in less than eight weeks.
He orchestrated it the following winter, while recuperating in North Carolina.
CONCERTANTE CONTRASTS In his own program notes, Bartók wrote, “The title
of this symphony-like orchestral work is explained by its tendency to treat the
single orchestral instruments in a concertante or soloistic manner. The ‘virtu-
oso’ treatment appears, for instance, in the fugato sections of the development
of the first movement (brass instruments), or in the perpetuum mobile-like pas-
sage of the principal theme in the last movement (strings), and especially in the
second movement, in which pairs of instruments consecutively appear with
brilliant passages.”
Cast in five movements, the concerto boasts brisk contrasts and strange
symmetries. It’s a storehouse of stylistic touchstones: Bach fugues, peasant folk
songs, angular tonal experiments, birdsong, night music. There’s even a jab
at Dmitry Shostakovich’s then-recent “Leningrad” Symphony, which Bartók
despised as a celebration of state violence.
The first movement, Introduzione, starts slowly and mysteriously, then
develops into a swifter fugato section. Presentando le coppie, or “Presentation
of the Couples,” contains five sections in which instrumental pairs (bassoons,
oboes, clarinets, flutes, and muted trumpets) are separated by specific intervals
(minor sixths, minor thirds, minor sevenths, fifths, and major seconds, respec-
tively). Elegia, the central Andante, is a poignant nocturne based on three
themes derived from the first movement. The fourth movement, Intermezzo
interotto (“interrupted intermezzo”), pits Eastern European folk tunes against
a parodic quotation from Shostakovich (itself a quotation from Franz Lehár’s
The Merry Widow, which Bartók probably didn’t realize at the time). The pro-
pulsive fifth movement brings it all back home with more fugal splendor and
folky exuberance.

30
FROM THE STAGE
Shannon Wood on Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra:
“The Bartók is really exciting to play because I love his writing style for
orchestra and the way he incorporates timpani in the score. He stretches the
boundaries, calling on the timpanist in the Intermezzo to pedal 16 notes in
nine bars. There are other tricky passages too. His writing is very soloistic
yet musical.”

Shannon Wood, principal timpani

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NIKOLAI LUGANSKY
ANN AND PAUL LUX GUEST ARTIST
Concerto highlights for Nikolai Lugansky’s
2016–2017 season include his debut with the
Berlin Philharmonic and return engagements
with the Vienna Symphony, St. Petersburg
Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France,
and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. Lugansky
continues his cycle of all of Prokofiev’s piano
concertos with the Royal Scottish National
Orchestra to celebrate the 125th anniversary of
the orchestra and birth of the composer.
Upcoming recital performances include
the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Wigmore Hall, Théâtre
des Champs-Elysées, the Great Hall of the
Moscow Conservatoire, and the Great Hall of the
St. Petersburg Philharmonia. Lugansky regu-
larly appears at some of the world’s most distin-
Marco Borggreve

guished festivals, including in the coming sea-

Nikolai Lugansky
son, La Roque d’Anthéron, Verbier, Tanglewood,
and Ravinia.
An award-winning recording artist, Lugansky
records exclusively for the Naïve-Ambroisie label.
His recital CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s Piano
Sonatas won the Diapason d’Or and an ECHO
Klassik Award while his recording of concer-
tos by Grieg and Prokofiev with Kent Nagano
and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. His earlier
recordings also won a Diapason d’Or, BBC Music
Magazine Award, and ECHO Klassik prize.
Lugansky’s most recent disc of Schubert C-minor
Sonata and Impromptus was released in 2016. He
was given the honor “People’s Artist of Russia” in
April 2013.

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JOHN STORGÅRDS
PAUL AND LINDA LEE GUEST ARTIST
John Storgårds is principal guest conductor of the
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra as well as Canada’s
National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and
has a dual career as a conductor and violin vir-
tuoso. He also holds the titles of artistic director
of the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland and artistic
partner of the Munich Chamber Orchestra and
served as the chief conductor of the Helsinki
Philharmonic from 2008 through 2015.
Highlights of Storgårds’ 2016–2017 season
include a return to the BBC Proms and debuts
with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the
Orchestre National de France, and the Radio
Symphony Orchestra of Berlin. He also appears
regularly with the WDR Symphony Orchestra
in Cologne, Bamberg Symphony, Orchestre
Marco Borggreve
Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands
Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, John Storgårds
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, as
well as all the major Scandinavian orchestras,
and the Sydney, Melbourne, and New Zealand
symphonies.
Storgårds’ vast discography includes record-
ings of works by Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven,
and Haydn. With the BBC Philharmonic, his
much-anticipated cycle of Sibelius symphonies
was released on Chandos Records in spring 2014
and most recently a cycle of Nielsen symphonies
was released to critical acclaim. Other successes
have included discs of works by Korngold and
Rautavaara, the latter receiving a Grammy nomi-
nation and a Gramophone Award. His 2013 disc
of Holmboe symphonies with Lapland Chamber
Orchestra was shortlisted for a Gramophone
Award and his recording of Pēteris Vasks’
Second Symphony and Violin Concerto won the
Cannes Classical Disc of the Year Award in 2004.
Storgårds is a native of Finland and regularly
conducts world premieres of works by contem-
porary composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Brett
Dean, Per Nørgård, and Pēteris Vasks.

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IF YOU LIKED THIS…
If you love the music you hear in this concert, come back for this concert later in
the season.

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

THURS, MAY 4, 8:00PM | SAT, MAY 6, 8:00PM

David Robertson, conductor

Alan Held, bass-baritone (The Dutchman);
Marjorie Owens, soprano (Senta);
Raymond Aceto, bass (Daland);
Rodrick Dixon, tenor (Erik);
Joy Boland, soprano (Mary);
Paul Appleby, tenor (A Steersman)
St. Louis Symphony Chorus, Amy Kaiser, director
S. Katy Tucker, visual design

WAGNER The Flying Dutchman

Wagner’s stormy tale of obsession, passion and drama awaits! Be transfixed by

the musical journey of a shipwrecked captain banished to the seas for eternity
unless he can find a faithful love. Don’t miss this extraordinary season finale
with an outstanding vocal cast joining the STL Symphony and an innovative
lighting projection by renowned visual artist S. Katy Tucker.

Presented by Mary Pillsbury

34
YOU TAKE IT FROM HERE
If these concerts have inspired you to learn more, here are suggested
source materials with which to continue your explorations.

Geoffrey Norris, Rachmaninoff

Schirmer, 1994
One of the commendable Master
Musicians biographies.

en.schott-music.com/shop/autoren/
valentin-silvestrov
Valentin Silvestrov’s composer homepage
at his publisher.

Read the program notes online, listen to podcasts, and watch the St. Louis
Symphony musicians talk about the music. Go to stlsymphony.org. Click
“Connect.”

The St. Louis Symphony is on

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COMMUNITY CONCERT:
JOINING FORCES ON STAGE AT POWELL

Wed, May 17, 7:00pm

Musicians from the US Air Force Band of Mid-America at Scott Air Force
Base, the 399th Army Band at Fort Leonard Wood, and winds, brass, and
percussion from the STL Symphony team up for a patriotic celebration at
Powell Hall.

Progran includes Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture,

America the Beautiful, Stars and Stripes Forever, and more!

This concert is free, open to the public, and will last about an hour. Active
duty, retired, and veteran service members are especially encouraged to
attend so we can celebrate your service.

To RSVP, visit stlsymphony.org/freeconcerts

Presented by Commerce Bank

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LIVE AT POWELL HALL:
TRIBUTE TO ELLA FITZGERALD
& LADIES OF SWING

Sun, Jun 11, 3:00pm

Dee Daniels, vocals

Join the STL Symphony and dazzling vocalist Dee Daniels as we celebrate
Ella Fitzgerald’s 100th Birthday and also pay homage to the other great
ladies of swing: Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, and Sarah Vaughan. You’ll hear
legendary classics including, “A Tisket, A Tasket,” “Fever,” “Can’t Help
Lovin’ Dat Man,” “Makin’ Whoopee,” “Mack The Knife,” and many more!

37
DONOR SPOTLIGHT

MISSOURI AMERICAN WATER

Missouri American Water, a subsidiary of American

Water, is the largest investor-owned water utility in the
state, providing high-quality and reliable water and
wastewater services to approximately 1.5 million people,
including more than 1 million in the St. Louis region.

Missouri American Water is sponsoring our May 13–14 Cheryl Norton, president of
performances of Singin’ in the Rain. Why do you believe in Missouri American Water
supporting the orchestra?
Missouri American Water’s sponsorship of Singin’ in the Rain aligns well with
our efforts to draw attention to the importance of clean water. Most people
take for granted that with a flick of their tap, clean, safe water will flow. We
want people to understand all the work and infrastructure investment that
goes into making that possible. The Symphony’s performance of Singin’ in
the Rain gives us the opportunity to reach a new audience with this message.

What kind of work goes into making clean water available and affordable?
Missouri American Water spends more than $60 million annually in St. Louis
County to maintain a system that pulls water from nearby rivers, cleans it,
pumps it through a network of more than 4,200 miles of pipe, into your home
or office where you can consume it with confidence that it’s clean and safe.
We take pride in delivering the only utility that is ingested, and we hope our
partnership with the St. Louis Symphony helps more people understand the
importance of clean water and the work required to deliver it.

For more information about Missouri American Water, please visit

missouriamwater.com, see facebook.com/missouriaw, and follow @moamwater
on Twitter.

To learn more about the many ways you can support the STL Symphony, please
visit stlsymphony.org/support or call 314-286-4184.

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