presents Hollow Victory: Jews in Soviet Russia after...
Transcript of presents Hollow Victory: Jews in Soviet Russia after...
Sunday Afternoon, January 28, 2018, at 2:00Isaac Stern Auditorium / Ronald O. Perelman StageConductor’s Notes Q&A with Leon Botstein at 1:00
presents
Hollow Victory: Jews in Soviet Russia after
the World WarLEON BOTSTEIN, Conductor
MIECZYSŁAW WEINBERG Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes
MIECZYSŁAW WEINBERG Symphony No. 5 in F minor, Op. 76 Allegro moderato Adagio sostenuto Allegro Andantino
Intermission
VENIAMIN FLEISHMAN Rothschild’s Violin Yakov (Bronze): MIKHAIL SVETLOV, Bass Rothschild: AARON BLAKE, Tenor Shahkes: MARC HELLER, Tenor Marfa: JENNIFER RODERER, Mezzo-soprano
members of the BARD FESTIVAL CHORALE JAMES BAGWELL, Director
This afternoon’s concert will run approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes including one 20-minute intermission.
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FROM THEMusic DirectorThe Courage of Friendship: The Composer as Jew in the Soviet Unionby Leon Botstein
The historical thread running throughthis concert program is the presenceand persecution of the Jews of Polandand Soviet Russia in the mid-20th cen-tury. The nearly total annihilation ofthe Jews that began in 1939 with theNazi invasion of Poland and proceededwith increased intensity after Hitler’sinvasion of the Soviet Union in 1941had an unexpected and grim epilogue.In 1948 Stalin launched his post-warcampaign against the surviving Jewishpopulation in the Soviet Union. Each ofthe three composers on this programstruggled to come to terms with thisextended period of unparalleled brutal-ity in the history of anti-Semitism.
Veniamin Fleishman, at age 23, beganto study with Dmitri Shostakovich.Fleishman was both Jewish and a Sovietpatriot. He volunteered to join in thedefense of Leningrad in 1941 and waskilled early on in the siege of the city.The protracted and savage Nazi attemptto eradicate Leningrad deeply affectedShostakovich. He was evacuated tosafety in the East but wrote whatquickly became internationally his mostfamous symphony, the Seventh. Its pop-ularity inspired Bartók to quote it sar-donically in the 1945 Concerto forOrchestra. Shostakovich’s Seventh waswritten in response to the siege, the suf-fering of its inhabitants and the heroismof the city’s defenders.
While in exile during the war,Shostakovich also went to greatlengths to get hold of Fleishman’sincomplete manuscript of a one-actopera based on Anton Chekhov’s short
story “Rothschild’s Violin.” He com-pleted and orchestrated the work in1944. It was a labor of love and admi-ration. But the persistence if notincrease in anti-Semitism after the warmade any performance of the workimpossible despite Shostakovich’s advo-cacy. Only four years after the 1956start of de-Stalinization and the “thaw”in communist Russia, a concert perfor-mance was arranged in 1960. The firststaged performance occurred in 1968 atthe Leningrad Conservatory, the placewhere Fleishman had been a studentand Shostakovich his teacher.
Shostakovich’s relationship to theSoviet regime, both under Stalin andafter, until his death, has remained asubject of intense scrutiny and debate.To what extent was he an “official”voice of the regime? Is there a subtextof dissent beneath the frequently affir-mative aesthetic surface of his works?Amidst the controversy, one salient factremains beyond dispute. Shostakovichwas free of anti-Semitism. And that wasapparent in his devotion to Fleishman’smemory, and in his steadfast friendshipwith Mieczysław Weinberg, the Warsaw-born Jewish composer who fled eastinto the Soviet Union after the Nazioccupation of Poland.
Shostakovich met Weinberg during thewar. He persuaded Weinberg to moveto Moscow and remain in the SovietUnion. Weinberg became Shostakovich’sclosest musical colleague and a dearfriend for the rest of his life. WhenWeinberg was arrested in 1953 duringthe height of Stalin’s anti-Jewish cam-paign, Shostakovich showed extraordi-nary courage. He intervened withLavrenti Beria, the head of the KGB, toseek Weinberg’s release, but to no avail.
He pledged to place Weinberg’s daugh-ter under his personal protection,thereby putting himself at risk. OnlyStalin’s death in March 1953 securedWeinberg’s release and restoration toprofessional life. From then on, through-out the subsequent two decades,Shostakovich encouraged and pro-moted Weinberg’s work as a composer.
It would be hard to imagine a biogra-phy that reveals the complexities andcontradictions associated with beingJewish and an artist in interwar Polandand in Soviet Russia before, during, andafter the Nazi defeat in 1945 morevividly and subtly than that of Weinberg.Weinberg’s parents were professionalsin the Yiddish theatre: his father was amusician and his mother an actress. Theyfled to Warsaw from Kishinev (in theprovince of Bessarabia) in response tothe massacre of Jews in 1903 and 1905.The Kishinev pogrom became notori-ous throughout the world. It was markedboth by its startling violence and thethinly veiled, tacit consent of the Czaristregime. It spurred mass emigration onthe part of Jews and was easily exploitedon behalf of the Zionist cause. Thepogrom helped justify the idea that aJewish state in Palestine was the onlysolution to the precarious position ofJews in Europe; it also lent credence tothose Zionists who argued that Jews inthe meantime should form paramilitaryorganizations to defend themselves.
But Weinberg’s parents were not Zion-ists. They mirrored the views of themajority of Russian Jews. They did notdream of a Jewish state in Palestine andtheir daily language was not a rapidlyevolving Hebrew. They were Yiddishspeakers and ardent defenders of Yid-dish as the national language of theJewish people. They were determinedto remain in Eastern Europe and weresympathetic to socialist organizationsthat saw a different path from that of
Zionism to overcome anti-Semitism inEurope. The solution lay not in the cre-ation of a Jewish state in Palestine, butin a socialist revolution at home afterwhich neither religion nor nationalidentity would remain a cause of dis-crimination and oppression.
The sympathies of Weinberg’s parentsalso represented the view of most Jewsin interwar Poland in the years in whichthe young Weinberg grew up. In thePolish Census of 1931—completedwhen Weinberg was 14 years old—outof nearly 32 million Poles, roughly tenpercent were Jews. Out of these 3.1 mil-lion Jews, 2.5 million identified theirprimary language as Yiddish; only250,000 claimed Hebrew as their mainlanguage. The large Jewish communityin Warsaw, where Weinberg came ofage, represented 30 percent of the city’spopulation. Weinberg’s parents choseto settle in Warsaw (then part of theRussian Empire) because it was the sin-gle largest Jewish urban center in Europe,and second in size only to New York.On the eve of World War II, in 1939,the year Weinberg graduated from theWarsaw Conservatory (where he dis-played brilliance as both pianist andcomposer), there were 350,000 Jews inWarsaw. The Warsaw Jewish commu-nity was exceptionally diverse, and con-tained everything from fully assimilatedand well-to-do, Polish-speaking, Jewishinhabitants to a large Yiddish-speaking,poor, working-class population, a vocalgroup of Zionists and devout orthodoxadherents to religion.
The sheer size of the Warsaw commu-nity made it possible for it to support athriving Yiddish theater world, Yiddishnewspapers and journals, and publish-ing houses. Weinberg began to work asa musician in the Yiddish theater at ageten. But this vital Jewish communitymet its tragic end at the hands of theNazis. Weinberg’s parents and sister
perished. But Weinberg, as a vigorous20-year-old, understood that stayingbehind was not a promising option.Furthermore, like many non-Zionist,Yiddish-oriented Jews, he admiredsocialism and the Soviet Union.
Indeed for many Jews the Soviet Unionduring the 1920s and even the 1930sseemed a potential paradise, a place—whatever its faults—that was built onan ideology that promised a betterfuture, a world of equality, free ofsuperstitious religion prejudice. TheSoviet Union after 1921 offered a con-trast to a Catholic and conservative,authoritarian, independent Poland,where anti-Semitism flourished. FleeingPoland was not merely a concessionborn out of necessity. Weinberg sur-vived the war in Soviet Russia, and nomatter how poor the treatment hereceived in the post-war years was, orhow extreme the danger from anti-Semitism he lived under, he remainedloyal to the ideals of the regime and thepromise of socialism.
Early on the new Soviet regime definedJews as a nation equivalent to the manyother legally recognized national andethnic groups in the Soviet Union. Yid-dish was deemed the language of theJewish nation. The state supported Yid-dish publishing houses, theatres, andYiddish culture and even sponsored arevision in Yiddish orthography. Yid-dish culture flourished under Sovietrule until the mid-1930s, and onceagain during the war and briefly there-after. The creation of the State of Israelin 1948, which the Soviets legally rec-ognized, however, offered Stalin thechance to pursue a dream he had har-bored for years: to pick up where Hitlerhad left off. One of his first acts was tohave Weinberg’s father-in-law, the greatYiddish actor, Solomon Mikhoels, aprominent and popular figure, assassi-nated. Weinberg would later be arrested
as a subversive “bourgeois Jewishnationalist” who supposedly supportedthe creation of a Jewish state within theSoviet Union.
Nonetheless, after his release Weinbergremained optimistic, prolific, andcourageous. A large part of his compo-sitional output dealt directly with Jew-ish themes, particularly its folk her-itage, its Yiddish culture, and, of course,the suffering Jews endured. His lastsymphony, his No. 26, was a memorialto the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto.And he wrote an opera based on aSholom Aleichem story. Yet Weinberg’srange was astonishing. He wrote for themovies, the radio, the circus, the the-ater, and the concert stage. He set textsby the Polish poet Julian Tuwim (also aJew), Nikolai Gogol, G.B Shaw, andMikhail Lermontov. The ASO has per-formed several of his works, includingthe trumpet and cello concertos, andthe 1963 Sixth Symphony that calls fora children’s chorus singing Yiddishsongs. In the current Weinberg revival,long overdue and welcome, the 1968opera The Passenger, which deals withthe Holocaust, has become Weinberg’smost visible work. Weinberg’s 1985opera The Idiot, based on Dostoyevsky’snovel, deserves the same recognition.
Weinberg’s reputation has ironicallyalso suffered a bit by too close a con-nection to Shostakovich. He is quicklyset aside as an imitator who was tooenthralled by his patron’s aesthetic. Butthe influence went both ways. No doubtWeinberg was in awe of Shostakovichand deeply grateful for the role heplayed in his career. But in the immensecatalogue Weinberg produced are worksthat mark Weinberg’s individual style.These range from the film music forThe Cranes are Flying from 1957; the1949 Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes,a work made possible by Weinberg’schildhood memories of the music from
During the last decade or so, a trueMieczysław Weinberg renaissance hasbegun in the concert halls of the world.Weinberg, who fled the Nazis fromPoland to the Soviet Union and spent
most of his life in Moscow, composedseven operas, 22 symphonies, 17 stringquartets, and more than 100 otherworks, large and small, in just aboutevery possible genre of classical music.
THE Programby Peter Laki
Mieczysław WeinbergBorn December 8, 1919, in Warsaw, PolandDied February 26, 1996, in Moscow, Russia
Rhapsody on Moldavian ThemesComposed in 1949
Premiered on November 30, 1949, in Moscow by the All-Union Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Gauk
Performance Time: Approximately 12 minutes
Instruments for this performance: 3 flutes, 1 piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 5 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, percussion
(bass drum, snare drum, tambourine, triangle, crash cymbals, glockenspiel), 1 harp, 18 violins, 6 violas, 6 cellos, and 5 double basses
the region from which his parentscame; and the Fifth Symphony of1962, inspired by the 1961 revival ofShostakovich’s once suppressed mod-ernist and ambitious Fourth Symphony,composed in the mid-1930s.
The music on this concert is therefore atribute to friendship: Shostakovich’s ca -pacity for loyalty and his absence of prej-udice, and the rich legacy of Weinberg’smusic, which stands as a validation ofthat friendship. The concert also putsinto sharp relief the constraints andpossibilities surrounding the making ofart for all composers in a regime wheremusic was controlled through the monop-oly of the state. Through the prism oftwo pieces by Weinberg—one tied tothe Soviet preference for folk-based
affirmative music writing, and the othera novel exploration of symphonic form,a “formalist” work that risked condem-nation as heterodox and contrary tostate ideology—one encounters con-flicting strands in the life and work of acomposer under Soviet rule. The finalirony in the life of this remarkable com-poser, whose life was dominated byboth his Jewish heritage and his beliefin the potential of the Soviet Union,was that before his death, crippled byCrohn’s disease, Weinberg convertedfrom Judaism to the Russian Orthodoxfaith. Fleishman’s death and Weinberg’sconversion poign antly underscore thetension, terror, tragedy, and triumph thatrelentlessly accompanied survival as aJew in Poland and Russia during themid-20th century.
Mieczysław WeinbergSymphony No. 5 in F minor, Op. 76
Composed in 1962Premiered on October 18, 1962, in Moscow by the Moscow Symphony,
conducted by Kirill KondrashinPerformance Time: Approximately 42 minutes
Instruments for this performance: 4 flutes, 2 piccolos, 2 oboes, 1 English horn, 3 clarinets, 1 E-flat clarinet, 1 Bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon,
7 French horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum,snare drum, tambourine, tam-tam, triangle), 1 harp, celeste, 18 violins, 6 violas,
6 cellos, and 5 double basses
Weinberg’s Fifth Symphony may beseen as the composer’s response toShostakovich’s Fourth, which was firstperformed publicly in 1961, 25 yearsafter it was written. Weinberg had beenfamiliar with the work long before theofficial premiere, as he and Shostakovichhad played it through on two pianos,for an invited audience, as early as
1946. The Fourth is one of Shostakovich’sboldest creations, using modernisticmeans to convey a rather bleak artisticvision. That is where Weinberg took hiscue (the allusion is particularly clear atthe end of the symphony), although healso incorporated lessons learned fromShostakovich's more classically ori-ented Fifth Symphony.
He was a close friend and frequent duo-piano partner of Shostakovich, whothought the world of him. During hislifetime, Weinberg's music was per-formed by the greatest musicians in theSoviet Union and he received numerousawards, but he never travelled abroadand his work was, for many years, awell-kept secret outside the country.
Weinberg was born in Warsaw to parentswho were originally from Bessarabia, thepresent-day Republic of Moldova. Hisfather was a violin player and composerworking for Jewish theater troupes inBessarabia before migrating to Poland,where he and his wife raised theirtwo children. With the exception ofMieczysław, who escaped in time, hisparents and his sister were murdered bythe Nazis after the invasion of Poland.
The Soviet Communist Party alwaysurged composers to use melodies fromthe country’s various ethnic traditions.It was natural for Weinberg to turn toMoldavia, his parents’ birthplace, which
had been annexed by the Soviet Unionin 1940, the year after Weinberg’s flightfrom Poland.
Obeying political directives was morevital than ever in 1949, one year afteran infamous Party resolution had notonly harshly denounced but physicallythreatened the country’s most famouscomposers. In Weinberg’s case, the gen-eral calamity had been compounded byan even more disastrous event involvinghis immediate family: in January 1948his father-in-law, the famous Yiddishactor Solomon Michoels, was mur-dered in Minsk on direct orders fromStalin. It was under such historical cir-cumstances that the Rhapsody on Mol-davian Themes was written.
The Rhapsody strings together a numberof folk songs from Moldavia, a countrythat is culturally and linguistically veryclose to Romania. Most of the melodiesWeinberg used belong to the majoritypopulation, but the fiery final section is anunmistakable Jewish klezmer dance tune.
Veniamin FleishmanBorn July 20, 1913, in Bezhetsk, Russia
Died September 14, 1941, in Krasnoye Selo, near Leningrad
Dmitri ShostakovichBorn September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg
Died August 9, 1975, in Moscow
Rothschild’s ViolinComposed by Fleishman in 1939–41, completed by Shostakovich in 1944
Premiered on June 20, 1960, in MoscowPerformance Time: Approximately 40 minutes
Instruments for this performance: 3 flutes, 1 piccolo, 2 oboes, 1 English horn, 3 clarinets, 1 E-flat clarinet, 1 Bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon, 5 Frenchhorns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, snare drum,tambourine, crash cymbals, triangle, glockenspiel), 1 harp, 18 violins, 6 violas,
6 cellos, 5 double basses, chorus, and 4 vocal soloists
Shostakovich called Veniamin Fleishmanhis favorite student at the LeningradConservatory. At his teacher’s sugges-tion, Fleishman was working on a one-act opera based on Chekhov’s shortstory “Rothschild's Violin” (he himselfhad written the libretto) when, following
the Nazi invasion of Russia, he enlistedin the Red Army. A few weeks later hewas killed.
Shostakovich took it upon himself tocomplete his student’s unfinished pro-ject. Evacuated from Leningrad to
Weinberg’s Fifth is written in F minor, akey with traditional associations ofgloom. It is clearly not a “triumphant”work in the sense of Orthodox Com-munist doctrine; it is a product of the“thaw” under Nikita Khrushchev.Weinberg had learned from Shostakovichthe art of working with extremely shortmotifs such as the trumpet motif at thebeginning of the first movement, whichconsists of a single interval, the perfectfourth. Like Shostakovich, he was ableto present such pithy material withgreat dramatic force and build a com-plex sonata movement in which a dis-tant, idealized world clashes head-onwith brutal reality. The second move-ment is an extended lament in a veryslow Adagio tempo, featuring a numberof orchestral soloists (oboe, flute,cello), in which grief becomes a verypersonal matter. The third-movementscherzo brings some relief with its
cheeky melody first presented by thepiccolo to an accompaniment of softtimpani strokes (suggesting some latter-day pipe and tabor), but even here, theplayfulness cannot be maintained indef-initely as the tone of the music becomesmore strident and what seemed a jokeat first increasingly takes on the characterof an unsettling mystery. The finale stead-fastly clings to a relatively slow Andan-tino tempo; there is no question of a joy-ful conclusion. The gently undulatingrhythm of the music briefly changes tomore martial accents before settling intothe mysterious noises of the conclusion.According to the recollections of hisfriends, Weinberg was a very reservedperson who always kept his innermostthoughts to himself; something of thissecrecy (or shall we call it shyness?) shinesthrough in the strangely understatedmovement that ends the most ambitioussymphony Weinberg had written to date.
Kuibyshev, he went to considerabletrouble to obtain Fleishman’s manu-script and finished the orchestration in1944. However, because of its Jewishsubject matter, the opera could not beperformed for many more years. It wasplayed in concert in Moscow in 1960,but the staged premiere had to waituntil 1968, when it was produced bythe Experimental Studio of ChamberOpera under the artistic direction ofSolomon Volkov.
The opera’s title character is a dirt-poorJewish musician in a small provincialtown in Russia who inherits the violinat the end of the story from an equallypenniless Christian coffin-maker namedYakov Ivanov (who, as it happens,plays in the town’s Jewish orchestra).Chekhov’s story shows how dire indi-gence almost kills all human feeling inYakov, who only undergoes a spiritualtransformation at death’s door. Yakov’slife philosophy may be summed up in thefamous line “Life is all loss, only death isgain.” Having quarreled endlessly withRothschild the flute player, Yakov endsup bequeathing his fiddle, his only prizedpossession, to the young Jew.
Fleishman showed an excellent theatri-cal sense in dramatizing Chekhov’s nar-rative. He eliminated all secondarycharacters and retained only the fouressential ones: Yakov; Rothschild;Shahkes, the leader of the Jewish band;and Yakov’s wife, Marfa. Right at thebeginning of the opera he created alively ensemble with the band rehears-ing, Yakov chastising Rothschild forplaying a merry tune sadly, Rothschildscreaming back, and bandleader Shahkesvainly trying to keep peace. As Yakovstorms out, we follow him back to theporch of his house, where he sings his firstmonologue about all the losses in life.
Marfa appears and, without any intro-duction, says to her husband: “Yakov,
I’m dying.” As soon as she has madethis tragic announcement, the Jewishband next door strikes up a merry tune.Then the band leaves and Rothschild,staying behind by himself, plays a sadsong on his flute.
Throughout the opera Fleishman super-imposes simultaneous events on oneanother, as when Marfa reminiscesabout the child she and Yakov lost 50years ago, while Yakov, who doesn’teven seem to remember, is thinking oflosses of a very different kind (mone-tary ones). Meanwhile the klezmerband resumes its practice. Dissatisfiedwith his musicians, Shahkes sendsRothschild to Yakov’s house to request(or, rather, to demand) that the coffin-maker come right away to help out thegroup. But when Rothschild appears,interrupting Yakov’s meditations abouthow he mistreated his wife for 50years, he receives an extremely un -friendly welcome and leaves in ahurry. The ensuing, extremely ani-mated orchestral interlude shows himpursued by nasty street urchins shout-ing “Jew! Jew!” as they pursue himwith their dogs.
Yakov’s transformation takes place inhis third and final solo scene. Revisitingthe willow tree by the river where he satwith Marfa when they were young, hesuddenly remembers everything and, inthe culminating scene of the opera, dis-covers where his life went wrong.When Rothschild reappears, begginghim to come play in the orchestra thatcan’t do without him, Yakov gifts himhis fiddle, and Rothschild immediatelybegins to play his sad tune on it. Thepowerful orchestral postlude driveshome the transcendent significance ofYakov’s act.
Peter Laki is visiting associate profes-sor of music at the Bard College Con-servatory of Music.
THE ArtistsLeon Botstein has been music directorand principal conductor of the Ameri-can Symphony Orchestra since 1992.He is also music director of TheOrchestra Now, an innovative trainingorchestra composed of top musiciansfrom around the world. He is co-artisticdirector of Bard SummerScape and theBard Music Festival, which take placeat the Richard B. Fisher Center for thePerforming Arts at Bard College. Hehas been president of Bard Collegesince 1975. He is also conductor laure-ate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orches-tra, where he served as music directorfrom 2003–11. This year he willassume artistic directorship of theGraffeneg Academy in Austria.
Mr. Botstein is also active as a guestconductor whose recent appearancesinclude the Mariinsky Orchestra in St.Petersburg, Russia, and the Los AngelesPhilharmonic. He has made numerousrecordings with the London Symphony(including a Grammy-nominated record-ing of Popov’s First Symphony), theLondon Philharmonic, NDR-Hamburg,and the Jerusalem Symphony Orches-tra. Many of his live performances withthe American Symphony Orchestra areavailable online. His recording with theASO of Paul Hindemith’s The LongChristmas Dinner was named one ofthe top recordings of 2015 by severalpublications, and his recent recordingof Gershwin piano music with theRoyal Philharmonic was hailed byThe Guardian and called “somethingspecial…in a crowded field” by Music -web International. Forthcoming from
Hyperion in fall of 2018 is a CD ofmusic by Ferdinand Ries with TheOrchestra Now.
Mr. Botstein is the author of numerousarticles and books, including The Com-pleat Brahms (Norton), Jefferson’sChildren (Doubleday), Judentum undModernität (Bölau), and VonBeethoven zu Berg (Zsolnay). He isalso the editor of The Musical Quar-terly. For his contributions to music hehas received the award of the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Letters and Har-vard University’s prestigious Centen-nial Award, as well as the Cross ofHonor, First Class from the govern-ment of Austria. Other recent awardsinclude the Bruckner Society’s JulioKilenyi Medal of Honor for his inter-pretations of that composer’s music,and the Leonard Bernstein Award forthe Elevation of Music in Society. In2011 he was inducted into the Ameri-can Philosophical Society.
LEON BOTSTEIN, Conductor
RIC KALLAHER
The recipient of a 2017 George LondonFoundation Award, Aaron Blake hasearned international recognition for hiscreation of the role of Timothy Laughlinin Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers.Recently Mr. Blake made a criticallyacclaimed debut with the New YorkCity Opera in Péter Eötvös’ operaticadaptation of Tony Kushner’s Angels inAmerica. He has performed leadingroles with Cincinnati Opera as DonOttavio in Don Giovanni, Pan in LaCalisto, and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte;
Komische Oper Berlin and MinnesotaOpera as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte;Utah Opera where he will return thisseason as Rinuccio in Puccini’s GianniSchicchi; Tulsa Opera as Nadir inBizet’s Les Pecheurs de Perles; DallasOpera as Romeo in Gounod’s Romeoet Juliette; Opera Orchestra of New Yorkin Donizetti’s Parisina d’Este; Washing-ton National Opera in Donizetti’s AnnaBolena opposite Sondra Radvanovsky;and the Metropolitan Opera where hedebuted opposite Plácido Domingo inVerdi’s La traviata.
Mr. Blake has appeared with The Ora-torio Society of New York in CarnegieHall. In the current season he returns tothe Metropolitan Opera for Les Contesd’Hoffmann and The Merry Widow.He will recreate his portrayal of TimothyLaughlin in Fellow Travelers with thePrototype Festival for the piece’s NewYork premiere. Debuts are scheduled asAlfredo in La Traviata with WichitaGrand Opera and a role debut as Can-didewith the Atlanta Symphony-AllianceTheater in a production celebrating theLeonard Bernstein centennial.
AARON BLAKE, Tenor
MATT M
ADISO
N CLARK
Recently Marc Heller made a wildlysuccessful New York City Opera debutas Enrico in Respighi’s La CampanaSommersa. Last season he also performedas Turiddu and Canio in CavalleriaRusticana/Pagliacci at Opéra-Théâtrede Metz Métropole, and as Don José inCarmen at the Bolshoi Theatre. He hasalso added Otello to his repertoire andhas sung it at the Gran Teatre del Liceu,Barcelona; Hungarian State Opera; andTheater Erfurt, Germany. Upcomingengagements include Aida with OperaColumbus and Theater Magdeburg,Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the
MARC HELLER, Tenor
STEPH
EN SH
ADRACH
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg,and King Roger with Dallas Opera.
Mr. Heller reprised the roles of Radamesin Aida with Theater Magdeburg, at thePyramids at Giza, at Utah Opera, and inRoyal Albert Hall, and made debuts inseveral new productions internationallyin such roles as Max in Der Freischütz forTheater Erfurt and Jean de Leyden in LeProphète in Karlsruhe, Germany. Havingperformed the role of Calaf in Turandotin the past few seasons in Minsk, Oviedo,the DomStufen Festival in Erfurt, andwith the Pacific Symphony, Mr. Heller
then followed with all Verdi rolessinging Ernani at the LithuanianNational Opera in Vilnius (Lithuanianpremiere), Gustavo in Un Ballo inMaschera in Brazil, and Don Alvaro inLa Forza del Destino at the HessischesStaatstheater in Wiesbaden.
Mr. Heller made his MetropolitanOpera debut opposite Plácido Domingoin the world premiere of Tan Dun’s TheFirst Emperor and returned to singTybalt in Roméo et Juliette oppositeAnna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna inthe HD simulcast.
In 2017 Jennifer Roderer made her housedebut at the Metropolitan Opera inAlfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac. In 2015she created the role of Shifrah Puah inBen Moore and Nahma Sandrow’s newopera Enemies, A Love Story for PalmBeach Opera and joined the roster ofthe Metropolitan Opera where she cov-ered in Lulu and later in Jenůfa.
Ms. Roderer recently made debuts withSpoleto Festival USA as Kabanicha inKát’a Kabanová; with ChautauquaOpera as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, arole she has also performed with OperaRoanoke and Crested Butte Music Fes-tival; with Syracuse Opera as Marcellinain Le nozze di Figaro and Mrs. Lovettin Sweeney Todd; and reprised Amnerisin Aida with the New Jersey FestivalOrchestra. Other performances includeAzucena in Il trovatore with OperaRoanoke and the Witch in Hansel &Gretel with Utah Opera, a signature roleshe has also performed with Opera Com-pany of Philadelphia, New York CityOpera, Phoenix Symphony, Tulsa Opera,and Opera Roanoke, among others.
With New York City Opera, Ms. Rodererhas performed in a diverse array of
operas, including Patience, Plateé, DeadMan Walking, Lysistrata, and LittleWomen. In 2005 she made a criticallyacclaimed debut at the Teatro Colón inBuenos Aires as Fricka in Die Walküre.Other Wagnerian credits include DieWalküre with Lyric Opera of Chicago,Opera Pacific, and Seattle Opera; aFlower maiden in Parsifal with the LosAngeles Philharmonic; and severalorchestral concerts with the Wagner Soci-ety of Washington, D.C. in excerpts fromLohengrin (Ortrud), Götterdämmerung(Waltraute), and Siegfried (Erda). Oft-repeated roles include Mrs. Grose in
JENNIFER RODERER, Mezzo-soprano
Now in its 56th season, the AmericanSymphony Orchestra was founded in1962 by Leopold Stokowski, with amission of making orchestral musicaccessible and affordable for everyone.Music Director Leon Botstein expandedthat mission when he joined the ASO
in 1992, creating thematic concertsthat explore music from the perspec-tive of the visual arts, literature, reli-gion, and history, and reviving rarelyperformed works that audiences wouldotherwise never have a chance to hearperformed live.
AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Turn of the Screw (Toledo Opera,Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and LorinMaazel’s Chateauville Foundation) and
Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance (LyricOpera of Kansas City, IndianapolisOpera, and Opera a la Carte).
Mikhail Svetlov has performed atTeatro Carlo Felice, Arena di Verona,Royal Albert Hall, Teatro Colón inBuenos Aires, and Teatro alla Scalawith the Bolshoi Theatre. He has per-formed with the Metropolitan, NewYork City, San Diego, Houston Grand,Florida Grand, Baltimore, Atlanta,Santa Fe, New Zealand, and HamburgState operas; and with Deutsche OperBerlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, L’Opérade Montréal, and Ópera de BellasArtes. Festival performances includethe Wexford, Salzburg, Bregenz, Gas-taad, Holland Park Opera, Edinburgh,
Britten, and Chaliapin Festivals, and hehas appeared with the London, Detroit,and Houston Symphony Orchestras;Berlin Philharmonic; Royal ScottishOrchestra; State Symphony Orchestraof Russia; RAI Orchestra; and RoyalPhilharmonic Orchestra.
Mr. Svetlov has been featured in all themain bass roles in operas includingBoris Godunov, Luisa Miller, Mac-beth, I Puritani, Faust, Tosca, La Forzadel Destino, Nabucco, L’Amore dei treRe, Bluebeard’s Castle, and Verdi’sRequiem, among dozens of others. Hisdiscography includes the world pre-miere of Rachmaninoff’s The MiserlyKnight and Serov’s Judith on Le Chantdu Monde, for which he received a Tel-erama Award; Shostakovich’s TheGamblers on Delta Music; Prokofiev’sBetrothal in a Monastery on BMGClassics; Shostakovich’s 14th Sym-phony on Virgin Classics; Stravinsky’sHistoire du Soldat on Koch Interna-tional Classics, for which he received aGrammy nomination; Boris Godunovon Deutsche Gramophone; Tchaikovsky’sThe Maid of Orleans for BBC Video;and Boris Godunov for the Met Livein HD.
MIKHAIL SVETLOV, Bass
BARD FESTIVAL CHORALE
The Bard Festival Chorale was formedin 2003 as the resident choir of theBard Music Festival. It consists of thefinest ensemble singers from New YorkCity and surrounding areas. Many of
its members have distinguished careersas soloists and as performers in a vari-ety of choral groups; all possess ashared enthusiasm for the explorationof new and unfamiliar music.
James Bagwell maintains an activeinternational schedule as a conductor ofchoral, operatic, and orchestral music.He was most recently named associateconductor of The Orchestra Now andin 2009 was appointed principal guestconductor of the American SymphonyOrchestra, leading them in concerts atboth Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.From 2009–15 he served as music direc-tor of The Collegiate Chorale, withwhom he conducted a number of rarelyperformed operas-in-concert at CarnegieHall, including Bellini’s Beatrice diTenda, Rossini’s Möise et Pharaon, andBoito’s Mefistofele. He conducted theNew York premiere of Philip Glass’Toltec Symphony and Golijov’s Oceana,both at Carnegie Hall. His perfor-mance of Kurt Weill’s KnickerbockerHoliday at Alice Tully Hall was recordedlive for Gaslight Records and is theonly complete recording of this musi-cal. Since 2011 he has collaborated withsinger and composer Natalie Merchant,
conducting a number of major orches-tras across the country, including theSan Francisco and Seattle Symphonies.
Mr. Bagwell has trained choruses for anumber of major American and inter-national orchestras, including the NewYork Philharmonic; Los Angeles Phil-harmonic; San Francisco, NHK (Japan),and St. Petersburg symphonies; and theBudapest Festival, Mostly Mozart Fes-tival, American Symphony, CincinnatiSymphony, Cincinnati Pops, and Indi-anapolis symphony orchestras. Since2003 he has been director of chorusesfor the Bard Music Festival, conductingand preparing choral works during thesummer festival at The Richard B.Fisher Center for the Performing Artsat Bard College.
Mr. Bagwell conducted some 25 pro-ductions as music director of LightOpera Oklahoma. At Bard SummerScapehe has led various theatrical works,
JAMES BAGWELL, Director, Bard Festival Chorale
The orchestra’s Vanguard Series con-sists of multiple concerts annually atCarnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. ASOhas also performed at the Richard B.Fisher Center for the Performing Arts atBard College in Bard’s SummerScapeFestival and the Bard Music Festival.The orchestra has made several tours ofAsia and Europe, and has performed incountless benefits for organizationsincluding the Jerusalem Foundationand PBS.
Many of the world’s most accom-plished soloists have performed withthe ASO, including Yo-Yo Ma, DeborahVoigt, and Sarah Chang. The orchestrahas released several recordings on theTelarc, New World, Bridge, Koch, andVanguard labels, and many live perfor-mances are also available for digitaldownload. In many cases these are theonly existing recordings of some of therare works that have been rediscoveredin ASO performances.
VIOLIN I Gabrielle Fink,
ConcertmasterRagga PetursdottirYukie HandaAshley HorneDiane BrucePatricia DavisWende NamkungKatherine Livolsi-
LandouMara MilkisNazig Tchakarian
VIOLIN II Suzanne Gilman,
PrincipalRobert ZubryckiYana GoichmanLucy MorgansternDorothy StrahlAlexander VselenskyPhilip PaytonMing Yang
VIOLAMark Holloway,
PrincipalShelley Holland-
MoritzSally ShumwayAdria BenjaminJennifer HermanElise Frawley
CELLO Eugene Moye,
PrincipalAnnabelle HoffmanSarah CarterMaureen HynesAlberto Parrini Diane Barere
BASS John Beal, PrincipalJordan FrazierJack WengerLouis BrunoRichard Ostrovsky
FLUTE Yevgeny Faniuk,
PrincipalKarla MoeDiva Goodfriend,
PiccoloKeith Bonner
OBOEAlexandra Knoll,
PrincipalErin GustafsonMelanie Feld,
English Horn
CLARINET Todd Palmer, PrincipalShari Hoffman,
E-flat Clarinet
Liam BurkeBenjamin Baron,
Bass Clarinet
BASSOONMarc Goldberg,
PrincipalMaureen StrengeGilbert Dejean,
Contrabassoon
HORN Zohar Schondorf,
PrincipalDavid SmithKyle HoytChad YarbroughSara CyrusShelagh AbateSteven Sherts,
Assistant
TRUMPET Carl Albach,
PrincipalJohn DentJohn SheppardCarolyn Schoch
TROMBONE Richard Clark,
PrincipalBradley WardJeffrey Caswell, Bass
Trombone
TUBA Kyle Turner,
Principal
TIMPANI Benjamin Herman,
Principal
PERCUSSION Jonathan Haas,
PrincipalKory GrossmanCharles DescarfinoJavier DiazMatthew Beaumont
HARPVictoria Drake,
Principal
CELESTE Elizabeth Wright,
Principal
PERSONNEL MANAGER Matthew Dine
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR Zachary Schwartzman
ORCHESTRA LIBRARIAN Marc Cerri
AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRALeon Botstein, Conductor
most notably The Tender Land, whichreceived glowing praise from The NewYork Times, The New Yorker, andOpera News. From 2005–10 he was
music director of The Dessoff Choirs inNew York, who under his leadershipmade numerous appearances at CarnegieHall in addition to their regular season.
TENORMark DonatoSean FallenJohn Kawa
BASSBlake BurroughsSteven MooreBrian Mummert
CHORAL CONTRACTORNancy Wertsch
BARD FESTIVAL CHORALEJames Bagwell, Director
Lynne Meloccaro, Executive DirectorOliver Inteeworn, General ManagerBrian J. Heck, Director of MarketingNicole M. de Jesús, Director of DevelopmentSebastian Danila, Library ManagerAlice Terrett, Marketing AssociateCarissa Shockley, Operations Assistant
James Bagwell, Principal Guest ConductorZachary Schwartzman, Assistant ConductorRichard Wilson, Composer-In-ResidenceJames Bagwell, Artistic Consultant
ASO ADMINISTRATION
AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PATRONS
Ticket sales cover less than a quarter of the expenses for our full-size orchestral concerts.
The American Symphony Orchestra Board of Trustees, staff, and artists gratefully acknowledgethe following individuals, foundations, corporations, and government agencies who help usto fulfill Leopold Stokowski’s avowed intention of making orchestral music accessible andaffordable for everyone. While space permits us only to list gifts made at the Friends leveland above, we value the generosity and vital support of all donors.
MAESTRO’S CIRCLE Jeanne Donovan FisherThe Frank & Lydia Bergen
FoundationNew York City Department
of Cultural Affairs (DCA)New York State Council on
the Arts (NYSCA)Open Society Foundations
STOKOWSKI CIRCLE AnonymousThe Faith Golding
Foundation, Inc. Rachel and Shalom KalnickiDimitri B. and Rania
PapadimitriouMr. and Mrs. Richard E.
Wilson
BENEFACTORS AnonymousThe David & Sylvia
Teitelbaum Fund, Inc.
PATRONS Anonymous (3)The Amphion FoundationJoel I. and Ann BersonConnie S. P. ChenThe Elgar Society Karen FinkbeinerGary M. GiardinaArthur S. LeonardDr. Pamela F. Mazur and
Dr. Michael J. MillerShirley A. MuellerPatricia E. Saigo
SUSTAINERS Anonymous (4)Veronica and John
FrankensteinStephen M. GrahamIBM CorporationDoug B. JonesErica Kiesewetter Patricia Kiley and Edward
FaberJeanne Malter
Joanne and Richard MrstikJames and Andrea NelkinAnthony RichterDavid E. Schwab II and Ruth
Schwartz SchwabDr. and Mrs. Thomas P.
SculcoJanet Zimmerman SegalJoseph and Jean SullivanSiri von Reis
CONTRIBUTORS Anonymous (3)Gary ArthurJeffrey CaswellRoger ChatfieldElliott ForrestMax and Eliane HahnAshley HorneAdnah G. and Grace W.
KostenbauderDr. Coco LazaroffNancy Leonard and
Lawrence KramerSteve Leventis
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, ChairThurmond Smithgall, Vice Chair
Miriam R. BergerMichael DorfRachel KalnickiJack Kliger
Shirley A. Mueller, Esq.Debra R. PemsteinEileen Rhulen
HONORARY MEMBERSJoel I. Berson, Esq.L. Stan Stokowski
ASO BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Peter A. Q. LockerStephen J. Mc AteerChristine MunsonKurt Rausch and Lorenzo
MartoneRoland Riopelle and Leslie
KanterHarriet SchonMartha and David SchwartzAlan StenzlerMichael and Judith ThoyerMr. and Mrs. Jon P. Tilley Patricia Ross Weis
SUPPORTERS Anonymous (13)American Express Gift
Matching ProgramBernard AptekarMarian D. BachJohn and Joanne BaerThe Bank of America
Charitable FoundationReina BarcanCarol Kitzes BaronRuth BaronMary Ellin BarrettDr. Robert BasnerDavid C. Beek and Gayle
Christian Simone BeldaYvette BendahanAdria BenjaminDaniel and Gisela BerksonMona Yuter BrokawStephen M. BrownMarjorie BurnsMoshe BursteinCA TechnologiesRichard C. CellerBarbara and Peter ClapmanBette Collom and Anthony
MenningerLaura ConwesserMichael and Frances CurranWilliam DiggsHerbert and Mary DonovanPaul EhrlichRichard FarrisLynda FergusonMartha FerryJeffrey F. FriedmanHelen GarciaAnn and Lawrence GilmanJune O. GoldbergDiva Goodfriend-KovenGordon GouldGreenwich House, Inc.John L. Haggerty
Laura HarrisLinda HerskowitzPenelope HortHudson Guild, Inc. Sara HunsickerGeorge H. HutzlerJewish Communal FundJosé JiménezRonald S. KahnRobert and Susan KalishDr. Roses E. KatzRobert and Charlotte KellyRobert KeohaneDavid KernahanIrving and Rhoda KleimanCaral G. and Robert A. KleinPeter KrollDr. Carol LachmanShirley LeongLinda LopezWilliam LublinerJoyce F. LuchtenbergAlan MallachElizabeth MateoCarolyn McColleyAlan B. McDougallSally and Bruce McMillenClifford S. MillerMyra MillerPhyllis and Stanley MishkinLucy M. and Martin L.
MurrayKenneth NassauMichael NasserKaren OlahClarence W. Olmstead, Jr.
and Kathleen F. HeenanMather PfeiffenbergerRoger and Lorelle PhillipsDavid R. Pozorski and Anna
M. RomanskiAnita RandolfiWayne H. ReaganLeonard Rosen and Phyllis
RosenJack Rosenthal and Holly
RussellRochelle RubinsteinMichael T. RyanHenry SaltzmanPeter Lars Sandberg Nina C. and Emil SchellerJoe Ruddick and Mary Lou
SchempSharon SchweidelGerald and Gloria ScorseMargret SellGeorgi Shimanovsky
Bruce Smith and PaulCastellano
Gertrude SteinbergSuzanne SteinbergSusan StempleskiHazel C. and Bernard StraussRobert SweeneyMargot K. TalentiTheodore and Alice Ginott
Cohn Philanthropic Fund Catherine TraykovskiSusan and Charles TribbittMr. and Mrs. Jack UllmanJanet WhalenVictor WheelerDonald W. WhippleLarry A. WehrLeonard and Ellen ZablowAlfred Zoller
FRIENDS Anonymous (4)Madelyn P. AshmanRudolph BakerStephen BlumMrs. A. Peter BrownDiane Bruce and John
SinclairJoan BrunskillStephen J. and Elena ChopekNancy L. ClipperRobert CohenConcerts MacMusicsonPatricia ContinoLois ConwayJudy Davis Thomas J. De StefanoSusanne DiamondRuth Dodziuk-Justitz and
Jozef DodziukBarton DominusJonathan F. DzikLee EvansAnne Stewart FitzroyExxonMobil FoundationDonald W. Fowle Christopher H. GibbsGoldman, Sachs & Co. Robert GottliebMichael and Ilene GottsMr. and Mrs. Sidney
GreenbergJohn HallDonald HargreavesAndrée HayumJohn HelzerRobert HerbertDiana F. HobsonChristopher Hollinger
New York State Council on the Arts withthe support of Governor Andrew Cuomoand the New York State Legislature
The City of New YorkThe Honorable Bill De Blasio, MayorNYC Department of Cultural Affairs inpartnership with the New York CityCouncil
Music plays a special part in the lives of many New York residents. The AmericanSymphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the support of the following governmentagencies that have made a difference in the culture of New York:
Cyma HorowitzDrs. Russell and Barbara
HolsteinTheresa JohnsonGinger KarrenRobin KatzPeter KeilKaori KitaoPete KlostermanFrederick R. KochSeymour and Harriet KoenigMr. and Mrs. Robert LaPorteDavid LaurensonWalter LeviJudd LevyJosé A. LopezPatricia LucaSarah Luhby
Nancy LuptonDr. Karen ManchesterRichard and Maryanne
MendelsohnJohn D. Metcalfe Mark G. MiksicAlex MitchellDavid MortonMichael NassarLeonie NewmanSandra NovickJane and Charles PrussackBruce RaynorMartin RichmanCatherine RoachJohn RoaneDr. and Mrs. Arnold RosenLeslie Salzman
Dr. and Mrs. Herbert C.Schulberg
The Honorable Michael D.Stallman
Paul StumpfMadeline V. TaylorRenata and Burt WeinsteinDavid A. WilkinsonAnn and Doug WilliamKurt WissbrunDagmar and Wayne YaddowLawrence YagodaMark and Gail Zarick
List current as of January 17, 2017
Since 1962 the American Symphony Orchestra has done something incredible: present thewidest array of orchestral works, performed at exceptional levels of artistry—and offered atthe most accessible prices in New York City. Be they rare works or beloved masterpieces, noother orchestra dares to present the same depth of repertoire every single season.
But the ASO has urgent need of your support. Production costs for full-scale, orchestral con-certs are ever increasing, while public philanthropy for the arts has decreased at an alarmingrate. As always, we keep to our mission to maintain reasonable ticket prices, which meansASO depends even more than most other orchestras on philanthropic contributions.
That’s why we must call on you—our audiences, artists, and community partners who can-not imagine a world without opportunities to hear live Schubert, Strauss, Elgar, or Bernstein.
Every dollar counts. Please donate at any level to safeguard the ASO’s distinctive program-ming now and ensure another season!
ANNUAL FUNDAnnual gifts support the Orchestra’s creative concert series and educational programs. Inappreciation, you will receive exclusive benefits that enhance your concert-going experienceand bring you closer to the Orchestra.
SUSTAINING GIFTSMake your annual gift last longer with monthly or quarterly installments. Sustaining giftsprovide the ASO with a dependable base of support and enable you to budget your giving.
MATCHING GIFTSMore than 15,000 companies match employees’ contributions to non-profit organizations.Contact your human resources department to see if your gift can be matched. Matching giftscan double or triple the impact of your contribution while you enjoy additional benefits.
CORPORATE SUPPORTHave your corporation underwrite an American Symphony Orchestra concert and enjoy themany benefits of the collaboration, including corporate visibility and brand recognition,employee discounts, and opportunities for client entertainment. We will be able to provideyou with individually tailored packages that will help you enhance your marketing efforts.For more information, please call 646.237.5022.
HOW TO DONATEMake your gift online: americansymphony.org/support
Please make checks payable to: American Symphony Orchestra
Mail to:American Symphony Orchestra263 West 38th Street, 10th FloorNew York, NY 10018
For questions or additional information: Nicole M. de Jesús, Director of Development,646.237.5022 or [email protected].
KEEP US ON POINT! SUPPORT THE ASO
Thursday, March 1, 2018Intolerance
Leon Botstein, ConductorDaniel Weeks, TenorSerena Benedetti, SopranoHai-Ting Chinn, Mezzo-sopranoMatthew Worth, BaritoneCarsten Wittmoser, Bass-baritoneBard Festival Chorale
In post-Fascist Italy, Luigi Nono attempted to reverse the darkness of Mussolini and rescueart from being the handmaiden of the state. His one-act opera Intolleranza speaks outagainst dictatorship. It follows a migrant worker travelling home as he gets caught up in apolitical protest, is tortured in prison, and escapes to fight for a world without war.
Luigi Nono – Intolleranza
ASO’S 2017–18 VANGUARD SERIES AT CARNEGIE HALL