{ program notes and piano in collaboration with Joyce Yang. Previous recordings on the AVIE label include works by Mendelssohn, Bartók, Sibelius and Adès. His Concentric Paths with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra was nominated for a Gramophone Award and was one of NPR’ s Top 10 Classical CDs of 2014.
Gold Medalist of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Mr. Hadelich won the inaugural Warner Music Prize in 2015. Other distinctions include Lincoln Center’ s Martin E. Segal Award( 2012), a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in the UK( 2011) and an Avery Fisher Career Grant( 2009).
Born in Italy, the son of German parents, Mr. Hadelich is now an American citizen. He holds an artist diploma from The Juilliard School, and plays on the 1723“ Ex-Kiesewetter” Stradivari violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
Augustin Hadelich last appeared with the BSO in March 2015, performing Mozart ' s Violin Concerto No. 5, Maasaki Suzuki, conductor.
About the concert:
The Sorcerer’ s Apprentice
Paul Dukas
Born in Paris, France, October 1, 1865; died in Paris, May 17, 1935
Though The Sorcerer’ s Apprentice is a mainstay of children’ s concerts, you certainly don’ t have to be under 12 to love this little masterpiece of musical storytelling. Its composer, Paul Dukas, was a classmate of Debussy at the Paris Conservatoire and became a music critic of the highest ideals. Unfortunately, such refined critical faculties did not assist his work as a composer; he destroyed more of his pieces than he published, leaving at his death a very slender musical legacy of beautifully crafted music.
When Americans think of this story, many see Mickey Mouse in the Disney film Fantasia, but it actually comes from Der Zauberlehrling, a ballad by the great
German poet Goethe. While the sorcerer is away, his apprentice thinks he knows enough to command the broom to perform his household chores for him. But the broom does its job too well and brings so much water from the river that it soon floods the house. Too late, the apprentice realizes he doesn’ t remember how to undo the spell. In desperation, he chops the broom in two, but this produces two brooms working at an even faster pace. The floodwaters continue to rise. At the height of this catastrophe, the sorcerer returns and restores order.
All these events can be easily followed in Dukas’ brilliant score. The music begins in tranquility, with hazy harmonies from muted strings and woodwinds suggesting the magical aura of the sorcerer’ s house. Three times during the piece we hear the magic spell intoned by muted trumpets snarling two dissonant chords: for the apprentice’ s first casting of the spell, his unsuccessful attempt to stop the chaos and the sorcerer’ s successful intervention. The broom is wittily slow to come to life, but, once aroused, its quirkily hopping automaton of a theme is unstoppable.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, strings.
Poème
Ernest Chausson
Born in Paris, France, January 20, 1855; died in Limay, France, June 10, 1899
A pupil of César Franck, Ernest Chausson was a composer— in the exotic, perfumed style of late Romanticism— who might have developed into an Impressionist, like his friend Debussy, had he not died prematurely at age 44 in a freak bicycling accident. He was as fascinated by literature as by music, and adored the Russian novelists Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Turgenev. Chausson’ s most famous work, Poème( 1896), inspired by a Turgenev short story, was created for the Belgian virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe and has been a staple of major violinists ever since.
Turgenev’ s story,“ The Song of Triumphant Love,” set in 16 th-century Italy, tells of two friends, the blond painter Fabio and the swarthy musician Muzzio, who fall in love with Valeria. Rather than quarrel, they agree to accept her choice. When Valeria marries Fabio, Muzzio soothes his broken heart by traveling for years in the mysterious East. He returns to Europe, laden with jewels and Asian treasures and possessing strange magical powers. When he plays a haunting new melody he calls“ The Song of Triumphant Love” on his violin, Valeria is seized with terror and uncontrollable passion. Jealous and fearing Muzzio has become an evil sorcerer, Fabio fatally stabs the violinist, but later Muzzio is seen riding away from the house.
Chausson’ s music perfectly captures the story’ s eerie, fatalistic atmosphere. The piece is slow and mysterious at the beginning, with the orchestra creating a mood of oppressive darkness. The violin enters, singing in its lowest register a haunting, yearning melody in E-flat minor, Muzzio’ s magical song. This theme returns three more times, most strikingly in a soulful performance by the violin at the end of the work. The soloist’ s long closing sequence of trills marvelously evokes Muzzio’ s uncanny powers.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, strings.
Tzigane
Maurice Ravel
Born in Ciboure, France, March 7, 1875; died in Paris, December 28, 1937
In his evocation of Hungarian Gypsy violin playing Tzigane( the French word for“ gypsy”), Maurice Ravel pushed musical exoticism and virtuoso pyrotechnics to extraordinary heights. In July 1922, while Ravel was on a concert tour in England, he attended a private musicale where the brilliant Hungarian-born violinist Jelly d’ Arányi played his Sonata for Violin and Cello. Later in the evening, Ravel asked d’ Arányi to play some Gypsy melodies. The music continued until 5am Two years
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