Overture Magazine - 2018-19 Season BSO_Overture_MAR_APR | Page 28

BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1
Northern Sinfonia. Under his leadership,
the orchestra has performed concerts in
Amsterdam, Vienna, Budapest, Istanbul
and Tokyo and recorded the Beethoven
piano concerto cycle with Ondine.
Vogt’s solo engagements this season
include the Netherlands Radio
Philharmonic in the prestigious
ZaterdagMatinee series at the
Concertgebouw and concerts with
the San Francisco, St. Louis and
Baltimore symphony orchestras. He
returns to North America for a tour
with Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff,
which includes performances in New
York at Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles,
San Francisco, Denver, Vancouver and
Washington, D.C.
During his prestigious career, Vogt
has performed with many of the great
European orchestras including the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra;
Orchestre de Paris; London Symphony
Orchestra; and the Berlin, Vienna
and London philharmonics. Recent
performances include appearances
with the New York and Los Angeles
philharmonics; the Chicago, Boston,
Pittsburgh, National and Atlanta
symphony orchestras; and recitals at
New York’s 92 nd Street Y and Lincoln
Center. He regularly collaborates with
the Berlin Philarhamonic and, in
2003, became their first-ever pianist-
in-residence. Vogt also enjoys a high
profile as a chamber musician and,
in June 1998, founded Spannungen,
his own chamber music festival in the
village of Heimbach near Cologne.
A prolific recording artist, Vogt works
closely with the Ondine label, with
recent solo releases of Schubert and
Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which had
unprecedented success on download.
Recent releases include Brahms,
Mozart and Schumann sonatas with
Christian Tetzlaff and their Grammy-
nominated Brahms’ piano trios with
Tanja Tetzlaff. As an EMI recording
artist, Vogt recorded more than
ten discs, including the Hindemith
Kammermusik No. 2 with the Berlin
Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado, as
well as the Schumann, Grieg and first
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two Beethoven concertos with the City
of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
and Sir Simon Rattle.
In 2005, Vogt established the
educational program Rhapsody in
School, which brings his colleagues to
schools across Germany and Austria,
connecting children with world-class
musicians. He is also an accomplished
teacher and, in 2013, was appointed
Professor of Piano at the Hannover
Conservatory of Music, succeeding
Karl-Heinz Kämmerling.
Vogt resides in Berlin with his wife,
violinist Anna Reszniak, and his family.
Lars Vogt last appeared with the BSO in
March 2016, performing Beethoven’s Piano
Concerto No. 1, Markus Stenz, conductor.
About the Concert
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE
Arnold Schoenberg
Born in Vienna, Austria, September 13, 1874;
died in Los Angeles, CA, July 13, 1951
Before Arnold Schoenberg left the tonal
system of harmony behind and invented
his 12-tone system in which all pitches
were considered of equal importance, he
excelled in the late-Romantic style of lush
harmonies and narrative structures. Best
known of these works is his beautiful
Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night)
of 1899 written for both string sextet
and full string orchestra. Less often
heard is the sumptuous work he called a
“symphonic poem,” Pelléas et Mélisande.
In 1902 – 03 when he was writing
Pelléas, Schoenberg was struggling to
earn a living, for even Verklärte Nacht
had failed to open doors for his music.
Already rich and famous, Richard
Strauss tried to help him and used
his influence to win him a teaching
post in Berlin. Strauss also suggested
that Schoenberg compose an opera on
Maurice Maeterlinck’s recent drama
Pelléas et Mélisande, which premiered
in Paris in 1893. Though Schoenberg
loved the play’s inscrutable, evocative
story, he decided instead to use it for
a purely orchestral work, and this was
a fortunate decision. For what neither
Strauss nor Schoenberg knew was that
simultaneously Claude Debussy was
writing an opera on the same subject,
which premiered at Paris’ Opéra-
Comique on April 30, 1902 and
became the most significant creation
of the Frenchman’s career.
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) was
a Belgian playwright and poet who wrote
in the symbolist style in which characters
and incidents represent larger truths.
His Pelléas is a fairy tale poised around
a fatal love triangle involving the sternly
passionate Golaud, the ruler-in-waiting
of a small kingdom; his more easy-going
younger brother, Pelléas; and a beautiful
young woman, Mélisande, who is found
in a nearby forest. Weeping and nearly
silent, Mélisande will not reveal anything
about herself — where she comes from or
what has brought her here. Golaud falls
in love with her and marries her. But as
time passes, she and Pelléas are attracted
to each other. During a game they are
playing by the castle fountain, she loses
the ring Golaud gave her. The suspicious
Golaud spies on the two, and during a
scene in which Mélisande, Rapunzel-like,
lets down her long hair from a window
to Pelléas, Golaud confronts the two
and slays Pelléas. At the close, Mélisande
dies after giving birth to a daughter, and
Golaud is left alone with his tormenting
grief and guilt.
Despite the beauty and passion of its
music, Schoenberg’s symphonic poem
on this story did not achieve the success
of Debussy’s iconic opera. Premiered in
Vienna under the composer’s baton on
January 25, 1905, it failed to please the
very conservative Viennese audience.
However, as it subsequently moved on
to other European cities, it won more
and more admirers. Because Pelléas calls
for an immense orchestra — including
eight horns for the expanded wind and
brass, two harps, two sets of timpani
and a considerable percussion battery
—it is still a connoisseur’s piece.
Listening to Pelléas et Mélisande
At the turn of the 20 th century,
musicians in Austria-Germany sorted