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On the Edge of Silence
Monday, May 22, at 7:00
Harris Theater for Music and Dance
Elim Chan Conductor
Benjamin Beilman Violin
MusicNOW
Chicago
Symphony
Orchestra
Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek
Mead Composers-in-Residence
Djuro Živković
On the Guarding of the Heart
(2011)1
On the Guarding of the Heart is directly inspired by my two previous
pieces, I Shall Contemplate . . . and Le cimetière marin. All of them are
religious music, which I freely call cantatas, a name I borrow from Bach
and with which I refer to his masterpieces.
for chamber orchestra
Chicago premiere
On the Guarding of the Heart is an instrumental cantata, and it derives
many of the musical ideas from I Shall Contemplate. . . . They can be
performed attacca, in such a way that the latter ends the pieces.
The main theme of On the Guarding of the Heart is the need to return
into oneself—— to descend with the intellect into the depths of the heart,
to guard it, and to seek there the hidden treasure of the inner kingdom.
The music is inspired by a reading of the Philokalia (a collection of texts
written between the fourth and fifteenth centuries by spiritual leaders
of the Orthodox Christian tradition). It is about a hard-achieved detachment—— stillness and watchfulness; it is about solitude and exile.
Philokalia means ‘love of the beautiful, the good’ in Greek, and that is
exactly what that book is about. However, it is a very complex book.
Some meanings took me months to understand. The incarnate God,
Christ, teaches us that to love every person and everything in this world
is the only way we have to act. As is stated numerous times in the
Philokalia, we should pay attention to our inner kingdom, the heart.
The piece is a sound painting of the Philokalia and also of a selfexamination. It consists of numerous layers of emotions, thoughts, the
soul’s experiences, and other inexpressible feelings. Technically, I tried
to paint it by pushing the compositional setting of the music toward
improvisation. It is not improvisation in the traditional sense, but rather
a manipulation of time—— different time dimensions at the same time or
a complete frozen time.”
—— Djuro Živković
On the Guarding of the Heart, commissioned by and dedicated to Das
Klangforum Wien, received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for
Music Composition in 2014.
Elizabeth Ogonek
In Silence (2016–17)2
nocturne
variations on many themes
aria with suspensions
Benjamin Beilman
for solo violin and eight players
World premiere (MusicNOW commission)
In Silence is based on a weird and fascinating collection of pieces known
as the Mystery Sonatas by baroque composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von
Biber. Thought to have been written around 1676, these pieces, which
are scored for violin and continuo and which remained unpublished until
1905, represent some of the earliest and most extensive musical experiments involving the retuning of the violin’s strings. The Mystery Sonatas,
which were dedicated to Biber’s employer, Archbishop Maximillian
Gandolph of Salzburg, recall those events—— or mysteries—— in the lives
of Jesus and Mary that comprise the Rosary. These biblical mysteries
are traditionally divided into the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries
and the Glorious Mysteries, a structure by which Biber abides in the
sonatas. Interestingly, he calls for a tenser and tenser retuning of the
violin in each successive sonata leading up to the Crucifixion. The tuning
then relaxes as the listener approaches the Resurrection. What results
is a large-scale timbral and emotional shift that supports the underlying
narrative progression.
Echoes of Biber exist throughout the entirety of In Silence. The piece’s
three movements loosely correlate to the three categories of mysteries,
though not necessarily in the correct order. There are literal quotations
peppered throughout the piece, the most obvious of which appears at
the end of the second movement. The repeating bass line in Biber’s
passacaglia (the final piece in the collection and scored, unusually, for
solo violin) is transformed into a repeating chord progression in the third
movement. Most importantly, Biber inhabits the melodic content of In
Silence. In the most recent published edition of the Mystery Sonatas,
two lines of music are indicated for the violinist: one involving the transposition of musical material—— or the notes that the violinist fingers given
the specific tuning—— and the other involving the actual sounding pitches.
When the transposed music is played at pitch, the result is some of the
wackiest, most dissonant and un-baroque music one has ever heard.
Much of In Silence comes from tinkering with this material and daring
to follow where it leads.
—— Elizabeth Ogonek
composer profiles
products of his harmonic approach are compositions such as
Le cimètiere marin (Swedish Grammy Award winner 2010)
and The White Angel in which basic harmonic principles are
entirely released. Živković is also interested in the combination
of music and philosophy. For him, the work of art is viewed
not only as an aesthetic object but rather the ethic entity that
is central and essential to our world. The Art of Music has to
be considered as a fundamental philosophical thought with
the possibility to change humankind: this is a vital necessity
in order to transform our destiny for the better.
His interest in harmonic organization has resulted in a unique
approach to his composition process. Živković finds importance in the so called “harmonic field,” the way that chords
exist in coherence or in symbiosis with themselves, thus creating the genesis and harmonic path. His harmonic-field technique is now a topic of academic research at the University of
Music and Performing Arts in Graz in Austria and the derivative
Živković has been living and working in Stockholm, Sweden,
since 2000. His music is commissioned, performed, recorded,
and broadcast by the leading artists and ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra, Klangforum Wien, Malmö Symphony Orchestra,
The Netherlands Radio Choir, Alabama Symphony Orchestra,
and Asko|Schönberg (Netherlands) among others.
Elizabeth Ogonek is an American
composer living and working in
the Midwest. Her orchestral
music has been commissioned
by the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra and the London
Symphony Orchestra. Her new
work for the CSO, All These
Lighted Things, will receive its
premiere under Riccardo Muti
in September 2017, after which it will be featured on the
Orchestra’s West Coast tour. Other recent and upcoming
projects include Lightenings, which was commissioned
by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival for Julianne Lee
(violin), Romie de Guise-Langlois (clarinet), Alexis Corbin
(percussion), and Juho Pohjonen (piano); In Silence, a CSO
MusicNOW commission heard on this evening’s program for
violinist Benjamin Beilman, conductor Elim Chan, and mem-
bers of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and a new piano
concerto for Xak Bjerken. Ogonek’s work has been recognized by the ASCAP Foundation, the American Academy of
Arts and Letters, and the Royal Philharmonic Society.
PHOTO BY TODD ROSENBERG
PHOTO BY KATARINA WIDELL
Djuro Živković is a SerbianSwedish composer and violinist. His interest in folklore and
Byzantine music has led him
to develop a variety of compositional techniques such as
polyrhythmics, improvisation,
special harmony-based scales,
microtones, layer-polyphony,
and heterophony.
Born in 1989 in Anoka, Minnesota, Elizabeth Ogonek grew
up in New York City. Her primary teachers included Don
Freund, Claude Baker, Michael Gandolfi, Donald Crockett,
Stephen Hartke and Julian Anderson. She holds degrees
from Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music (BM,
2009), the University of Southern California, Thornton
School of Music (MM, 2012), and the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama (PhD, 2017). Her graduate education was supported by the Beinecke Foundation and the
Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission. Currently, she is
a Mead Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra and Assistant Professor of Composition at
Oberlin Conservatory.
MusicNOW Ensemble
Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and guests
Susan Kang Flute 1
Andrew Nogal Oboe 1
Daniel Won Bass Clarinet/Piccolo Eflat 1
Francisco Delgado Bassoon 1
Parker Nelson Horn 1
Christian Anderson Trumpet 1
Charles Vernon Trombone 1
Cynthia Yeh Percussion 1, 2
Daniel Schlosberg Piano 1, 2
Baird Dodge Violin 1 Viola 2
Hermine Gagné Violin 1
Carol Cook Viola 1, 2
Calum Cook Cello 1, 2
Sonia Mantell Cello 2
Bradley Opland Bass 1, 2
Jeremy Attanaseo Bass 2
conductor profile
PHOTO BY LAU KWOK KEI
Born in Hong Kong, Elim Chan
became the first female winner of
the Donatella Flick Conducting
Competition in December 2014.
As a result, she was made the
assistant conductor of the
London Symphony Orchestra
in 2015–16. For the 2016–17
season, she was appointed to
the Dudamel fellowship program
with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and assumed the title of
chief conductor of NorrlandsOperan in 2017–18.
Recent notable highlights include her debut with the Mariinsky
Orchestra in spring 2016, at the personal invitation from Valery
Gergiev, both in St. Petersburg and on tour in Mexico as well
as her debut at the Lucerne Festival with the Lucerne Festival
Academy Orchestra. This season sees her debut with Luzerner
Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg,
Orchestre National de Belgique, Australian Youth Orchestra,
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Norrköping Symphony,
and Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria as well as her
North American debuts with the Berkeley, Detroit, and
Chicago symphony orchestras. Chan returns to the Hong
Kong Philharmonic in 2017 and will conduct a variety of New
Year concerts with Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento.
Elim Chan holds degrees from Smith College and the
University of Michigan where she served as music director of the Campus Symphony Orchestra and the Michigan
Pops Orchestra. She received the Bruno Walter Conducting
Scholarship in 2013.
special guest profile
at the Dvořák Festival in Prague; he also returns to London’s
Wigmore Hall and appears in recital on a ten-city tour of
Australia. In 2016, Warner Classics released his debut
recital CD of works by Schubert, Janáček, and Stravinsky.
Highlights from last season include his debut with the Dallas
Symphony and Jaap van Zweden and the world premiere of
a new concerto written for him by Edmund Finnis with the
London Contemporary Orchestra.
In the 2016–17 season, Beilman
returns to the Philadelphia Orchestra performing Prokofiev’s
Violin Concerto no. 1 with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in subscription concerts, and on tour with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
He also appears with the symphony orchestras of Detroit,
San Diego, Atlanta, and Grand Rapids, and makes recital
debuts in San Francisco and Vancouver. Abroad, Beilman
makes debuts with the City of Birmingham Symphony and
Beilman is the recipient of the prestigious 2014 Borletti–
Buitoni Trust Fellowship, a 2012 Avery Fisher Career Grant,
and a 2012 London Music Masters Award. In 2010, he
won first prize in the Young Concert Artists International
Auditions, and first prize in the 2010 Montréal International
Musical Competition. In 2009, he was a winner of Astral
Artists’ National Auditions. Beilman recorded Prokofiev’s
complete sonatas for violin on the Analekta label in 2011.
PHOTO BY GIORGIA BERTAZZI
Twenty-seven-year-old American
violinist Benjamin Beilman is
recognized as one of the fastest
rising stars of his generation,
winning praise in both North
America and Europe for his passionate performances and deep
rich tone.
about the MusicNOW artwork
Inspired by the texture of copperplate engraving and the vibrations of strings, this abstract
illustration of a geometric construction comes
together in the shape of a violin.
—— John Pobojewski
of Thirst Communication Design Practice
Special thanks to Artistry Engraving, Graphic Arts
Studio, and Mohawk Paper for their contributions to
the limited-edition MusicNOW posters.
Major support for MusicNOW is generously provided by the Irving
Harris Foundation, the Sally Mead Hands Foundation, the Julian Family
Foundation, Cindy Sargent, and the Zell Family Foundation.
Theater rental and services have been graciously underwritten through the support
of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.
Special thanks to Helen Meyer and Meyer Sound for graciously donating sound
equipment for this MusicNOW performance.
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