Download Concerts of Thursday, May 29, and Friday, May 30, at 8:00p, and

Concerts of Thursday, May 29, and Friday, May 30, at 8:00p, and Saturday, May
31, 2014, at 7:30p.
Robert Spano, Conductor
Joshua Bell, Violin
Charles Zoll (b. 1991)
Asimov at Star’s End (2014)
World Premiere, Commissioned by the Rapido! Take Three!!! Composition
Contest, Charles Zoll, 2013 National Winner
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Symphony, Mathis der Maler (1934)
I. Engelkonzert (Concert of the Angels)
II. Grabelgung (Entombment)
III. Versuchung des heiligen Antonius (The Temptation of St. Anthony)
Intermission
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Concerto for Violin And Orchestra in D Major, Opus 77 (1878)
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Adagio
III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace
Joshua Bell, Violin
Notes on the Program by Ken Meltzer
Asimov at Star’s End (2014)
Charles Zoll was born in Tucson, Arizona, on June 6, 1991. These are the world
premiere performances of Asimov at Star’s End. Asimov at Star’s End is scored for
piccolo, flute, alto flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon,
contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba,
timpani, bass drum, tiger gong, crotales, kaiamba, water gongs, five tom-toms, snare
drum, triangle, marimba and strings. Approximate performance time is twelve
minutes.
These are the first ASO Classical Subscription Performances.
Charles Zoll, a graduate of the University of Arizona, and currently a graduate student at
McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, was the winner of the third annual Rapido!
Composition Contest. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Music Director Robert Spano and
Atlanta School Composers Jennifer Higdon and Michael Gandolfi judged the National
Finals. Rapido!, founded in 2008 by the Atlanta Chamber Players and the Antinori
Foundation, promotes the creation of new works for chamber ensembles and symphony
orchestras by composers of varying experience.
As the winner of the Rapido! Competition, Charles Zoll received a two-week residency at
the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts in Georgia. A chamber work by Mr. Zoll,
based upon his original Rapido! submission, was premiered in the fall of 2013 by five
chamber ensembles: the Atlanta Chamber Players, Boston Musica Viva, Fifth House
Ensemble of Chicago, Voices of Change of Dallas, and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble of
San Francisco. Charles Zoll also received a commission to write a new orchestral piece.
That work, Asimov at Star’s End, receives its world premiere at these performances.
Among the landmark works of science fiction, Isaac Asimov’s
Foundation, Empire, and Robot series span thousands of years of detailed
human activity. Depicted in music here are the five books of the
Foundation series: the development of The Plan, its downfall, and its
rebirth and redirection.
In an attempt to forecast and protect the direction of civilization after the
devastating Fall, a mathematician named Hari Seldon created a new
starting point for humanity. Verified through a strain of science he
founded called “psychohistory,” Seldon’s Plan moved forward for two
hundred uninterrupted years, characterized by oscillating “crises” built
into the Plan. At the peak of its progress, the Mule, a social and genetic
anomaly, derailed what grip the Seldon Plan had. The Mule could only be
silenced by those with the same abilities; abilities that were, before,
completely unknown to humans. As events unfold, we find that these
abilities are not so rare: an entire planet, Gaia, possesses them as well.
—Charles Zoll
Symphony, Mathis Der Maler (1934)
Paul Hindemith was born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany, on November 16,
1895, and died in Frankfurt on December 28, 1963. The premiere of Hindemith's
Symphony Mathis der Maler took place in Berlin, Germany, on March 12, 1934,
with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The
Symphony Mathis der Maler is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two
clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani,
orchestra bells, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, cymbals and strings. Approximate
performance time is twenty-eight minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performance: January 19, 1965, Robert Shaw,
Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: February 9, 10 and 11,
1989, Yoel Levi, Conductor.
ASO Recording Telarc CD-80195, Yoel Levi, Conductor.
In January of 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. German composer
Paul Hindemith, whose wife and several close associates were of Jewish ancestry,
became increasingly troubled by Nazi policies. Hindemith believed that the Nazis would
soon fall out of favor. Nevertheless, the composer felt an ever-increasing need to express
his anxiety over Germany’s political climate. And so, Hindemith began his opera Mathis
der Maler, a work that occupied Hindemith from June 1933 to July 1935.
Hindemith’s opera is based on the life of German Renaissance painter Matthias (or
Mathis) Grünewald (c. 1475-1528). Grünewald is best known for his magnificent
Altarpiece, created for the hospital chapel of Saint Anthony’s Monastery in Isenheim.
The work now resides at the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, France.
The opera takes place during the Protestant Reformation and the bloody Peasants’ Revolt,
c.1524-26. Mathis, in the employ of Cardinal Albrecht, the Archbishop of Mainz, begins
to question the justification for artistic expression during times of political turmoil.
Mathis abandons his art to assist the peasants in their struggle, but finally becomes
disenchanted with the hypocrisy of both opposing factions. In a vision based on one of
the Isenheim panels, Mathis becomes the tormented St. Anthony. After undergoing
horrific temptation by demons, St. Anthony visits St. Paul (in the vision played by
Cardinal Albrecht), who comforts him with a reaffirmation of Art as a holy service to
God and Man. Mathis resumes his painting with renewed fervor of purpose.
While dealing with the central issue of the artist’s responsibility during times of political
crisis, Hindemith, who created his own libretto for Mathis der Maler, also used the opera
as a forum to criticize one of the Nazis’ infamous practices. In Mathis, an order from the
Papal Legate mandates the burning of Lutheran texts. Riedinger, a wealthy burgher of
Mainz, angrily questions: “Should a city that has always been distinguished for its
freedom of thought start burning books?”
In July 1933, conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler commissioned Hindemith to compose a
new orchestral work. Hindemith responded with the Symphony Mathis der Maler, based
upon music from the opera. Hindemith completed his Symphony before the opera, and
the work received its triumphant premiere on March 12, 1934, with Furtwängler
conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
The opera was scheduled for production by the Berlin Staatsoper during the 1934-35
season. But Nazi authorities, angered both by Hindemith’s association with Jews, and
music they viewed as “degenerate and decadent,” banned performances of his works,
including Mathis der Maler. Furtwängler wrote an impassioned article in defense of
Hindemith, published in the press on November 25, 1934. That evening, when
Furtwängler entered the orchestra pit to conduct Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, the
audience greeted him with a 20-minute ovation. This display intensified the Nazis’ stand
against Hindemith’s music. In protest, Furtwängler temporarily resigned his official
posts.
That December at a Nazi rally, Joseph Goebbels leveled a personal attack on Hindemith.
In January, Hindemith was given a six-month “leave of absence” from his teaching
position at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. Hindemith was ultimately allowed to
return to the Hochschule, and occasional performances of his music took place in
Germany. The premiere of the opera Mathis der Maler took place in Switzerland, at the
Zürich Stadttheater, on May 28, 1938. Four months later the composer and his wife left
Germany, first for Switzerland and ultimately, the United States.
Musical Analysis
I. Engelkonzert (Concert of the Angels)—The opening movement serves as the Prelude to
the opera, and features music that will return in a scene in which Mathis receives the
inspiration for his painting depicting three angels serenading the baby Jesus. The slow
introduction is based on the German folk melody, “Es sungen drei Engel,” (“Three angels
sang a sweet song”). In the opera, the melody is sung by Regina, daughter of the
murdered leader of the Peasants’ Revolt. The main themes of the faster principal section
are derived from Mathis’s ecstatic description of the angelic concert.
II. Grabelgung (Entombment)—The title of this slow movement is derived from the
Isenheim Altarpiece portraying the entombment of Jesus. The somber music functions in
the opera as the Interlude between Regina’s death and the finale. At the opera’s close,
Mathis, having finally attained his fulfillment as an artist, bids farewell to the tools of his
craft.
III. Versuchung des heiligen Antonius (The Temptation of St. Anthony)—The
Symphony’s finale is an arrangement of portions of the opera. After an ominous slow
introduction, the orchestra launches into music employed in the terrifying scene where
Mathis, in the guise of St. Anthony, is haunted by demons (In the score, Hindemith
includes the words found on the Grünewald painting that Mathis cries out during the
scene: “Where are you, good Jesus? Why have you not come to heal my wounds?”). A
slow interlude incorporates music from a vision in which Ursula, Mathis’s beloved,
appears as a temptress. A reprise of earlier material leads to the coda. Over agitated
string accompaniment, the winds intone the chorale Lauda Sion Salvatorem (“Praise thy
Savior, O Zion”). The Symphony ends with a glorious Alleluia.
Concerto for Violin And Orchestra in D Major, Opus 77 (1878)
Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, on May 7, 1833, and died in
Vienna, Austria, on April 3, 1897. The first performance of the Violin Concerto
took place at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, on January 1, 1879, with
Joseph Joachim as soloist and the composer conducting. In addition to the solo
violin, the Concerto is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons,
four horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. Approximate performance time is
forty minutes.
First ASO Classical Subscription Performance: March 10, 1952, Robert Harrison,
Violin, Henry Sopkin, Conductor.
Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: January 8, 9 and 10, 2009,
Gil Shaham, Violin, Roberto Abbado, Conductor.
“Melodies flying so fast”
During the years 1877 to 1879, Johannes Brahms enjoyed summer vacations in
Pörtschach, a tiny Austrian village on Lake Wörth. Brahms found the tranquil and
picturesque locale a source of musical inspiration. In the summer of 1877, Brahms wrote
to the eminent Viennese music critic, Eduard Hanslick: “The Wörthersee is untrodden
ground, with melodies flying so fast that you need to watch that you don’t step on any of
them.” It was in Pörtschach that Brahms created such works as his Second Symphony
(1877), the G-Major Violin Sonata (1878-9), and the Two Piano Rhapsodies (1879).
During his second Pörtschach summer, Brahms also composed his magnificent Violin
Concerto.
Brahms and Joachim
Brahms created the Violin Concerto for his dear friend, the Austro-Hungarian virtuoso
violinist, composer and conductor, Joseph Joachim (1831-1907). Brahms, who
frequently sought Joachim’s counsel and advice, forwarded the solo violin part of the
Concerto’s first movement on August 22, 1878, along with the following comments:
After having written it out I really don’t know what you will make of the
solo part alone. It was my intention of course, that you should correct it,
not sparing the quality of the composition and that if you thought it not
worth scoring, that you should say so. I shall be satisfied if you will mark
those parts that are difficult, awkward or impossible to play. The whole
affair is in four movements.
Joachim, then in Salzburg, replied:
It gives me great pleasure to know that you are composing a Violin
Concerto—in four movements too! I have had a good look at what you
sent me and have made a few notes and alterations, but without the full
score one can’t say much. I can however make out most of it and there is
a lot of really good violin music in it, but whether it can be played with
comfort in a hot concert-room remains to be seen.
On October 23, Brahms apologized to Joachim: “I am slow at writing and for first
performances! If you think anything of my work, arrange for (a premiere in) January. I
cannot write anything definite at the moment especially after having blundered through
the (second-movement) Adagio and (third-movement) Scherzo.”
In November, Brahms informed Joachim that he had revised the Concerto from a fourmovement work to one in the standard three:
I have had a fair copy made of the solo part, and would like to send you
the score soon, in the hope that you can tell me frankly whether this
amounts to real hospitality! The middle movements have been cut out—
naturally they were the best! But I am adding a wretched Adagio.
Brahms’s reference to the Concerto’s glorious slow movement as “a wretched Adagio” is
bound to raise a few eyebrows. Actually, this self-deprecating humor is typical of a man
who also characterized his Second Symphony as “a little Sinfonia” and the monumental
Piano Concerto No. 2 as “a tiny, tiny, pianoforte concerto with a tiny, tiny, wisp of a
scherzo.”
On December 12, just a few weeks before the anticipated New Year's Day premiere,
Brahms wrote to Joachim: “I send you the part herewith and agree to your alterations.
The orchestral parts will be ready for Jan. 1st in case you play it in Leipzig. If so, I will
meet you in Berlin a few days before...” Despite the minimal amount of remaining
preparation time, Joachim agreed to give the premiere as scheduled. He also composed
the first-movement cadenza that, to this day, remains the preferred version among
soloists.
“The violin wins!”
The world premiere of the D-Major Violin Concerto took place at the Gewandhaus in
Leipzig on New Year’s Day, 1879. Joachim, to whom Brahms dedicated the work, was
the soloist. The premiere, conducted by Brahms, was far from an unqualified triumph.
Perhaps the audience was confused by the unusual prominence of the orchestra, which
traditionally played a decidedly supporting role in violin concertos. Brahms’s
unconventional approach prompted conductor Joseph Hellmesberger to dub the work, a
concerto, “not for, but against the violin.” Violinist Bronislaw Huberman took a
somewhat different view, stating that the Brahms Concerto was “for violin against
orchestra—and the violin wins!”
Brahms and Joachim continued to work on revisions to the score, finally published in
October of 1879. And in time (thanks in great part to Joachim's sterling advocacy), the
Brahms D-Major secured its place as one of the greatest violin concertos, a Mt. Everest
of technical and interpretive challenges. As with many of Brahms’s finest works, it is
also a brilliant and immensely satisfying synthesis of Classical structure and Romantic
passion.
Musical Analysis
I. Allegro non troppo—Brahms launches his Violin Concerto in traditional fashion, with
a purely orchestral exposition of the movement’s principal themes. The bassoons, violas
and cellos, with support from the horns, state the noble first theme. A more flowing
theme will reach its full development with the appearance of the soloist. The strings play
an agitated and forceful closing motif. The soloist makes a fiery entrance and then, after
the mood calms, proceeds to offer embellished statements of the principal themes. The
extended development features a wide range of moods and technical challenges for the
soloist. A triumphant orchestral statement heralds the varied recapitulation. The soloist's
cadenza leads to the final coda, which begins with the utmost serenity. However, the
coda soon builds to a powerful climax, with the soloist offering a grand concluding
flourish.
II. Adagio—The Adagio’s sublime opening, scored for winds, features the oboe’s
presentation of the unforgettable central melody. The soloist follows with a delicate and
wide-ranging version of the theme. After a dramatic central episode, the oboe and violin
reprise the melody. A final ethereal passage for the soloist completes the Adagio.
III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace—The soloist immediately launches into the
rondo finale’s vigorous principal theme (many commentators have viewed the music as a
tribute by Brahms to Joachim’s Hungarian origins). High spirits abound, with the soloist
prominently featured throughout the finale. The concluding section opens with a robust
march variant of the rondo theme. There is a tremendous surge of momentum, followed
by a gradual diminuendo. However, after a brief pause, three jubilant chords mark the
Concerto’s triumphant conclusion.