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GUERRERO CONDUCTS

MENDELSSOHN NASHVILLE SYMPHONY

FRIDAY & SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17 & 18, AT 8 PM

C L A S S I C A L S E R I E S

NASHVILLE SYMPHONY GIANCARLO GUERRERO, conductorAUGUSTIN HADELICH, violin

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICHConcerto in A minor for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 99 [77] I. Nocturne II. Scherzo III. Passacaglia IV. Burlesca Augustin Hadelich, violin

INTERMISSION

FELIX MENDELSSOHNSymphony No. 3 in A minor, Opus 56, "Scottish" I. Andante con moto – Allegro agitato II. Scherzo: vivace non troppo III. Adagio cantabile IV. Allegro vivacissimo – Finale: Allegro maestoso assai

T H A N K YO U TO O U R PA RT N E R

SERIES PRESENTING PARTNER

TONIGHT’S CONCERTAT A GLANCE

• Like other artists in the U.S.S.R., Shostakovich was under the constant scrutiny of Soviet authorities and had to be extremely careful about expressing his individualism. After receiving backlash from the official state newspaper Pravda for his popular 1936 opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, the composer felt compelled to step back and decided to withhold his Symphony No. 4 from publication.

• Shostakovich rehabilitated his reputation with his Symphony No. 5 and his Leningrad Symphony. But by the time he wrote his First Violin Concerto in 1948, he was under scrutiny again. As a result, he kept the score locked in a drawer for several years, concerned that the work wouldn’t be approved by Soviet authorities. As a result, the concerto didn’t receive its premiere until 1957, several years after Stalin’s death.

• Like J.S. Bach before him, Shostakovich encrypted messages in his music. In the Violin Concerto, he inserted his “musical signature” of D, E-flat, C, B into the second movement. These notes, when read using the German notation, spell the letters DSCH. This signature is played by the woodwinds and by the soloist, who repeats it with intensity.

• The composer dedicated his concerto to Soviet violinist David Oistrakh, who premiered it and then toured with it in America. A highly demanding work, the score hardly allows the soloist to take a break.

• Shostakovich’s orchestration for the ensemble is notable because he chose to include no trumpets or trombones. Even so, the music maintains a broad scope, from deep bass sounds to delicate brushstrokes from the celeste and harps.

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICHViolin Concerto

• Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony No. 3 is one of two works inspired by a trip that the 20-year-old composer made to Scotland. This piece, in particular, was inspired by the ruins of Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh: “Everything round is broken and mouldering and the bright sky shines in,” he wrote. “I believe I have found today…the beginning of my Scottish Symphony.”

• The castle was notable as the residence of Mary Queen of Scots in the mid-16th century, and it was there that the monarch witnessed the murder of her private secretary, who was suspected of being her lover.

• It would take Mendelssohn another decade to complete his symphony. The music is vivid and expressive, but without making any specific references to Scottish scenery or lore. The Scherzo movement contains the most “Scottish”-sounding music, as Mendelssohn uses dotted rhythms to evoke Scottish folk and dance music.

• Robert Schumann, interestingly, thought that the symphony had a distinctly Italian flavor.

• Although numbered as the third of his five symphonies, the “Scottish” was Mendelssohn’s last completed symphony and was dedicated to Queen Victoria, who called him “the greatest musical genius since Mozart.” — Corinne Fombelle & Thomas May

FELIX MENDELSSOHNSymphony No. 3

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DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICHComposed: 1947-48First performance: October 29, 1957, with David Oistrakh as the soloist and Eugene Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic First Nashville Symphony performance: January 18-20, 2007, with guest conductor Keith Lockhart and soloist Leila Josefowicz Estimated length: 35 minutes

Born on September 25, 1906, in Saint Petersburg, Russia; died on August 9, 1975, in Moscow

Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 77

A lthough we’ve reached the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution, the debate

surrounding Dmitri Shostakovich and his legacy continues to generate passionate speculation. When the composer died in 1975, the prevailing view in the West was of a national cultural hero who, despite his clashes with authority in harsher times, remained a true believer and dedicated servant of the Soviet state.

Yet Shostakovich remains among the most enigmatic geniuses of 20th-century music in large part because his identity was — and remains — such a question mark. Even with the benefit of hindsight, it’s not easy to determine exactly how life in the Soviet Union caused his political and ideological values to become entangled with artistic ones. More than four decades after the composer’s death, and a generation after the collapse of the Soviet Union, questions remain about the relationship between Shostakovich’s identity and his musical expression — and they are of particular relevance to the First Violin Concerto, which he voluntarily suppressed for nearly a decade. The Concerto provides a vivid example of what was at stake for Soviet-era artists even when it came to producing the most “abstract” pieces of concert music.

In the years since Shostakovich’s death, many critics and historians have claimed that there are hidden meanings and nested enigmas lurking in his scores, which continue to move listeners in the 21st century. The composer’s story touches on fundamental questions about the kinds of meaning music can convey. The concerto format in particular, with its built-in dichotomy of the soloist and the collective ensemble, offered Shostakovich a powerfully ambiguous metaphor

for the fate of the individual. Whether we hear a heroic assertion of the self, harmonic convergence with the group, or even total subjugation to it: all of these choices could be interpreted in political and existential terms, as well as musical ones.

As with his symphonies, the concerto genre posed dangers for Shostakovich. Indeed, five of his six concertos (two each for piano, violin and cello) did not appear until after Stalin’s death in 1953.

The dictator had first targeted the composer by having an opinion piece published in the official Communist newspaper, Pravda, in 1936. Disguised as a review of Shostakovich’s wildly successful opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, it was a strong denunciation of “decadence” in his art — and a warning. In response, Shostakovich decided to withdraw his recently completed Fourth Symphony — one of his most audaciously experimental scores — before the premiere. He meanwhile rehabilitated his public image with the more populist Fifth Symphony and, during World War II, with his rousing Leningrad Symphony.

But in 1948 the pendulum swung back, and another denunciation followed when the Supreme Soviet declared war on composers who had allegedly fallen prey to the “corrupt” influences of Western Modernism. Shostakovich, among those named, was just then at work on his Violin Concerto No. 1 for the virtuoso David Oistrakh, its dedicatee. He proceeded to complete the score but withheld it (and several other projects) from the public.

Aspects of the Violin Concerto anticipate the sound world of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, composed not long thereafter. The latter score contains his scathing portrait of Stalin and was premiered soon after the tyrant’s death in 1953.

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The new political atmosphere encouraged the composer to unveil his earlier Violin Concerto, which Oistrakh also introduced to the West. Although the score was initially published as Op.

99 in 1956, Shostakovich later asked to have it catalogued as Op. 77 so as to reflect the moment in his career when it had originated.

Shostakovich’s decision to cast the First Violin Concerto in four movements is a clue that

his impetus went beyond writing a conventional virtuoso concerto, with its predictable fast-slow-fast arrangement. There is a symmetry to the plan, such that the first and third movements are expansive and contain music of gravitas, while the second and fourth are relatively brief and fast-paced. Oistrakh, who consulted with the composer about the solo part (as Shostakovich himself was not a string player but a pianist), observed that the Concerto overall “does not fall easily into one’s hands.” It betrays a “surprising seriousness and depth of artistic content, an absolute symphonic thinking” and poses challenges for the soloist, whose part Oistrakh compared to a Shakespearean role requiring “complete emotional and intellectual commitment.”

Also unusual is the soundscape Shostakovich builds. His orchestra is large, but it omits trumpets and trombones (standard participants in a canvas of this size), calling on deep, abysmal bass sounds as well as ethereally delicate ones, with brushstrokes from the celeste and harps.

The opening movement is a nocturne whose drenching pathos has also been perceived as a search for earnest release amid a backdrop of stifled expression. Early on, the violin emerges in a lengthy rumination, setting the pattern for its contemplative, at times almost withdrawn attitude.

The Scherzo’s demonic, savage energy poses a riveting contrast. Of special note here, this marks the first instance of Shostakovich inscribing his initials into his music (the D — E-flat —

C — B motto, which “translates” as “D. Sch” using German spelling). This is by no means unprecedented — J.S. Bach often used musical cryptograms — but it is a bold move in that it explicitly inserts the creator into his score. In this oppressive cultural context, the composer relied on using coded messages — above all to communicate defiance and dissent, if that is what is to be read into such gestures (though the debate continues, unresolved).

At the heart of the Concerto is its longest movement, a vast Passacaglia of tremendous emotional grandeur. This variation format, which unfolds over a constantly repeated bass line in triple meter, pays tribute to the Baroque era, during which it was used frequently. Shostakovich builds the Passacaglia over an immense bass of 17 measures, revolving through eight variations after the initial statement, each shifting to a different collection of orchestral colors.

After covering a spectrum of playing styles throughout these variations, the ensemble dies out and the violinist embarks on an extraordinary cadenza bridging the way into the rapid-fire finale, described by the composer as a “burlesque” and permeated by his characteristic irony. In addition to the solo violin, the Violin Concerto No. 1 is scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, tuba, timpani, tambourine, tam-tam, xylophone, celeste, 2 harps and strings.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

Shostakovich’s decision to cast the First Violin Concerto in four movements is a clue that his impetus went beyond writing a conventional virtuoso concerto, with its

predictable fast-slow-fast arrangement.

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FELIX MENDELSSOHNComposed: 1829-42First performance: March 3, 1842, with the composer conducting the Leizpzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. First Nashville Symphony performance: December 14, 1954, with music director Guy Taylor Estimated length: 42 minutes

Born on February 3, 1809, in Hamburg, Germany; died on November 4, 1847, in Leipzig, Germany

Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 (“Scottish”)

In 1829, long before Brexit, young Felix Mendelssohn heartily took up the promise

of the “European” spirit and embarked on an extensive grand tour of the continent. During its course, he stored up impressions for a number of future compositions that would become masterpieces of the orchestral repertoire. These include The Hebrides Overture and the Third Symphony, as well as another of his finest compositions, the Fourth Symphony (“Italian”), prompted by his travels in Southern Europe.

1829 was also the year when one of the most astounding prodigies in music history entered his 20s. Mendelssohn’s famous revival of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion that spring helped shore up his reputation as a leading and influential musical thinker. Several months afterward, he was a magnet among London’s glitterati but needed a refreshing break — and found it in the scenic beauty of Scotland. An excursion to one of the uninhabited islands in the Inner Hebrides give Mendelssohn the kernel idea for his Hebrides Overture, a pioneering work that helped pave the way toward the quintessential Romantic genre of the tone poem.

Another spontaneous musical inspiration occurred during the composer’s trip to Edinburgh — sparked by the palpable sense of history that imbues the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the British monarch’s official residence in Scotland. This melancholy musical idea remained dormant, though, for a dozen years before he began grappling with the “Scottish” Symphony. The Third is actually Mendelssohn’s last in chronological terms; both the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies were published after his death, thus acquiring their later numbers.

Mary, Queen of Scots, lived in Holyrood

Palace until she was forced to abdicate. Even today, a haunting gloom pervades the rooms, where she was forced to witness the notorious murder in 1566 of her private secretary (suspected of being her lover). In one of his dispatches home, Mendelssohn recounted a thrilling visit at twilight to Holyrood, “where Queen Mary lived and loved.” He was also fascinated by the poetic ruins of the early medieval abbey church next to the palace: “Everything there is ruined, decayed and open to the clear sky. I believe that I have found there today the beginning of my Scotch Symphony.”

As with The Hebrides Overture, Mendelssohn left no explicit program for the “Scottish” Symphony. Still, his allusion to Mary Tudor is often cited as a subtext for at least some aspects of the work. Other impressions from the Scottish tour — from Celtic legend and folklore to the Highland Games and the fiction of Sir Walter Scott — have been said to play a role as well. Yet for all its Romantic associations, the music refers to no specific literary source in the manner of, say, the Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Rather, the Third Symphony integrates the evocative power of early Romanticism with the composer’s mature admiration for classical balance and consistent musical design.

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WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

Mendelssohn weaves his score into a seamless whole, with no interruption between the

four movements. The opening movement begins with a slow introduction suffused with a mood of gloomy obsession: this is the musical idea that occurred to him at Holyrood Palace, and its dotted rhythm recurs in various guises later in the work. The movement proper launches in a spirit of restless agitation; after another variant of the opening motif comes a second, singing theme. Mendelssohn adds a remarkably eventful and stormy coda to shed new light on what has gone before.

A compact Scherzo contains the most “Scottish”-sounding music. Here Mendelssohn uses dotted rhythms to evoke Scottish folk and dance music, along with tunes of diatonic simplicity. Curiously, when his friend Schumann first heard this music, he raved about the Symphony’s marvelous Italian local color: a reminder, perhaps, of the subjective basis of musical perception.

At the emotional center of the work, the Adagio develops two distinctive ideas: a poignant, long-spanning melody in the strings and a ceremonial march of dirge-like gravity. Regardless of whether Mendelssohn intended to depict a

tonal portrait of Mary Stuart’s secret love and her tragic fate, his dexterity as an orchestrator is clear in the serenade-like pizzicato accompaniment and the afterthoughts spun by the woodwinds.

In the wake of such intimate music, the finale opens up a more epic perspective. Mendelssohn even asks for the Allegro to be played with “warlike” intensity. Biographer R. Larry Todd remarks that the energy of this music, “with its jagged dissonances and contrapuntal strife, generalizes the topic of conflict in Scottish history.” But then, in an extended epilogue to be played in a “majestic” manner, Mendelssohn turns from the minor to a confident, hymn-like melody in A major to bring the work to a stately and dignified close.

The Symphony No. 3 is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.

— Thomas May, the Nashville Symphony’s program annotator, is a writer and translator who covers classical and contemporary music. He blogs at memeteria.com.

ABOUT THE SOLOIST

AUGUSTIN HADELICHVIOLIN

Augustin Hadelich has performed with every

major orchestra in the U.S., many on numerous occasions, as well as an ever-growing number of

major orchestras in the U.K., Europe and the Far East. He is consistently cited for his phenomenal technique, poetic sensitivity and gorgeous tone.

One highlight of Hadelich’s 2017/18 season will be a return to the Boston Symphony, playing the Ligeti Concerto with Thomas Adès on the podium. For this performance, he will play the U.S. premiere of Adès’ new cadenza for the concerto. Additional highlights include performances with the San Francisco Symphony,

as well as the orchestras of Atlanta, Detroit, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Louis and Utah. Abroad, Hadelich will play with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish National Radio Orchestra, Lahti Symphony in Finland, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in Spain.

An active recitalist, Hadelich has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, The Frick Collection in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Kioi Hall in Tokyo, the Louvre and Wigmore Hall in London. His chamber music partners have included Inon Barnatan, Jeremy Denk, James Ehnes, Alban Gerhardt, Richard Goode, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Robert Kulek, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Charles Owen, Vadim Repin, Mitsuko Uchida, Joyce Yang and members of the Guarneri

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and Juilliard quartets. Hadelich is the winner of a 2016 GRAMMY®

Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, for his recording of Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto, L’arbre des songes, with the Seattle Symphony under Ludovic Morlot (Seattle Symphony MEDIA). His new disc of the complete Paganini Caprices for Warner Classics will be released in early 2018. Other recent discs include live recordings of the violin concertos by Tchaikovsky and Lalo with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on the LPO label (2017), and an album of duo works for violin and piano on AVIE in collaboration with Joyce Yang (2016).

Hadelich’s career took off when he was named Gold Medalist of the 2006 International Violin

Competition of Indianapolis. Since then, he has garnered an impressive list of honors, including an Avery Fisher Career Grant (2009); a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in the U.K. (2011); Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award (2012); and the inaugural Warner Music Prize (2015). In December, he will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter in the U.K.

Born in Italy, the son of German parents, Hadelich is now an American citizen. He holds an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Joel Smirnoff. He plays the 1723 “Ex-Kiesewetter” Stradivari violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Hadelich’s career took off when he was named Gold Medalist of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Since then, he has garnered an

impressive list of honors, including an Avery Fisher Career Grant