YALE PHILHARMONIA

SHINIK HAHM Music Director

FARKHAD KHUDYEVConducting Fellow

ASHLEY BATHGATECello

APRIL 42009

MUSIC OFBritten Saint-SaënsMahler

Robert Blocker, Dean

YALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

As a courtesy to the orchestra and to other audience members, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not leave the theater during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is not permitted.

BRITTEN

SAINT-SAËNS

MAHLER

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALEShinik Hahm, Music Director

Four Sea-Interludes from the opera Peter GrimesDawn Sunday Morning MoonlightStorm

Farkhad Khudyev, conducting fellow

Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 30Allegro non troppo—Allegretto con moto—Allegro non troppo

Ashley Bathgate, cello

INTERMISSION

Symphony No. 5 in C minorTrauermarschStürmisch bewegt, mit größter VehemenzScherzoAdagiettoRondo —Finale

Violin 1Katherine Hyun, concertmasterIgor KalninQi CaoDawn WohnJae-Won BangI-Chun YehDavid SouthornJennifer HsiaoAnastasia MetlaNicholas DiEugenioJane KimYoungsun Kim

Violin 2Yoorhi Choi, principalLiesl SchoenbergerMarjolaine LambertJu Hyung ShinHanna NaJoshua PeckinsXi ChenYu-Ting HuangJae In ShinSae-Rom YooNaria KimEvan Shallcross

ViolaBo Li, principalVesselin TodorovMin Jeong ChaMathilde Geismar RousselHyung-Jun LeeEdwin KaplanChristoper WilliamsMatt HofstadtRaul Garcia

CelloLaura Usiskin, principalMo MoKyung Mi Anna LeeYing-Chi Tang

PHIILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA OF YALE

KRISTA JOHNSONManaging Director

MERYN DALY Production Coordinator

Sun Hee JeonWonsun KeemShannon HaydenYoon Hee KoPhilo LeeJee Eun Song

BassPatrick O’Connell, principalBrian ThackerWen YangAlexander SmithEddie HasspacherBrian EllingsenNathiel Chase

Flute & PiccoloMindy Heinsohn, B (Piccolo), M*Itay Lantner, S*, MChristopher Matthews, B*, S, M (Piccolo)Mingzhu Wang, M (Piccolo)

OboeMerideth Hite, B*, M (English Horn)Carl Oswald, MAndrew Parker, B, S*Jennifer Shark, S, M*

ClarinetJaehee Choi, M*Jenny Ferrar, B*, S, M (Eb and Bass Clarinet)Xiaoting Ma, B (Eb Clarinet), S*, M

BassoonNicholas Akdag, B*, S*, MMicahla Cohen, B, S, M*Scott Switzer, B (Contra), M (Contra)

HornYoo-Jin Choe, MElizabeth Fleming, B, S*

Patrick Hines, B, MScott Holben, S, MChristy LaBarca, B, MLeelanee Sterrett, B, MRyan Stewart, MTianxia Wu, M*Donna Yoo, B*

TrumpetThomas Bergeron, M*John Brandon, S*, MMichael Brest, MJohn Heinen, BDouglas Lindsey, B*, SKurt Schewe, B, M

TromboneJennifer Griggs, MAchilleas Liarmakopoulos, MTed Sonnier, B*Matthew Wright, B, M*

TubaStephanie Fairbairn Ycaza, B*Bethany Wiese, M*

HarpKeturah Bixby, B*Ashley Jackson, M*

PercussionMichael Compitello, M (Timpani)John Corkill, BLia DeRoin, B (Timpani), MJi Hye Jung, MDenis Petrunin, MIan Rosenbaum, B, S (Timpani)

B- Performer in BrittenS- Performer in Saint-SaënsM- Performer in Mahler*- Denotes Principal Player

FARKHAD KHUDYEVJULIAN PELLICANOAssistant Conductors

SHINIK HAHM Music Director

RENATA STEVELibrarian

After spending three years in New York, Britten returned to Britain in 1942, settling in the town of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. Living in a dramatic, wind-swept locale in which the foreboding North Sea dominated everything else brought a distinctive shift in the tone and direction of Britten’s music. This transformation can be heard in many of his Aldeburgh works—the Hymn to St. Cecilia, the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, and Festival Te Deum—and reached its apex with the operatic masterpiece Peter Grimes, which premiered in 1945.

One of the cornerstones of both the British and twentieth-century operatic repertoire, Peter Grimes concerns the harsh conflict amongst the people of Borough, the fishing village where the story is set. Britten stated that, “In writing Peter Grimes I wanted to express my awareness of the perpetual struggle of men and women whose livelihood depends on the sea.” Even before completing the opera, Britten had fashioned the Four Sea-Interludes—which function as musical interludes between the acts and scene changes of the opera—as stand-alone concert works. To listen to the Interludes in concert setting, one need not know the plot of Peter Grimes to sense the grim undercurrents of the opera’s tone through its keenly realized orchestration and heaving motivic contours.

The four interludes each depict the sea at different times, paralleling moments in the opera. The first, named “Dawn,” evokes the seascape in early morning freezing desolation, alternating this stillness with an ominous swell from the ocean’s depths. The second interlude, “Sunday Morning,” is in extended ternary form. It presents an ostinato of church bells as the backdrop for a jaunty melody highlighted by piccolo and violin pizzicato spikes. There is a contrasting melody in lower strings and woodwinds, before the scene builds and ultimately blurs, washed away by wind and sea. The stunning orchestration of “Moonlight”, a chorale, depicts shivers of moonlight streaking across the sea surface. The final interlude, “Storm,” opens with spectacular timpani and brass surges. The character of the music belies its simple rondo structure, which is essentially A-B-A-C-A-D-A. Upon the first return of the A material, music historian Paul Serotsky suggests, Britten seems to be quoting the Sturmisch bewegt of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Tonight’s program gives the listener an opportunity to compare directly.

BENJAMIN BRITTEN(1913-1976)

Four Sea-Interludes fromPeter Grimes

Notes by Jacob Adams

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

(1835-1921)

Cello Concerto

Camille Saint-Saëns’ musical success spanned his long, colorful life. At age 5, he could play the piano part to a Beethoven violin sonata, and at age 10, could execute on command any of Beethoven’s piano sonatas from memory. During his teen years, he won many prizes in organ and composition at the Paris Conservatory and was already recognized as one of the greatest living musicians. He continued to achieve fame throughout his long life both as a performer and composer. Saint-Saëns is best known today for such works as Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, the Symphony No. 3, “Organ,” and the Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor.

While his compositional achievements and virtuosic performance skills gave him many admirers, including Berlioz and Liszt, his strong opinions and sharp tongue gave him many enemies— including Debussy, Franck, and Massenet, to name a few. As he grew older, he also became more and more nationalistic. When France lost to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Saint-Saëns responded by co-founding the Société Nationale de Musique, a group dedicated to promoting new French music unburdened by Germanic influence. His Cello Concerto No. 1 was one of the first of these new works. Written in 1872, it was premiered the following year by its dedicatee Auguste Tolbecque to great acclaim. Today it remains one of the most beloved concertos for the instrument.

Many aspects of the work eschew classical tradition and Germanic influence. Instead of being divided into the traditional three- movement pattern of the classical concerto, it is in one continuous movement organized in a fast-slow-fast progression. Further, ra- ther than building each movement on entirely new ideas, Saint- Saëns instead derives much of his thematic material from the cello’s opening statement, a compositional technique taken from Liszt. In addition, Saint-Saëns gives the orchestra a transparent texture, contrasting with the heavy sound of the large nineteenth- century German orchestra. As a result, the cello line is easily heard over the orchestra instead of being overpowered by it.

The concerto opens in an atypical manner Instead of presenting a theme, the orchestra plays only one note, to which the cello responds with a fiery, descending run. The first section abounds in energy and virtuosity, which contrasts with the delicate tex- ture and intimate atmosphere of the charming second section. The third section brings back much of the thematic material of the first section, with impressive passagework in the cello. Despite its pervasive somber mood, the piece ends with a jubilant coda.

Notes by Laura Usiskin

Nobody understood it. I wish I could conduct the first performance fifty years after my death.

—Gustav Mahler, following the premiere of the Fifth Symphony

The Fifth Symphony represents a new departure in Mahler’s work. The first four symphonies feature prominent texts and clear inspirations from extra-musical sources, creating a song/symphony relationship in which the explicit imagery of sung texts could not be ignored. The Symphony No. 5 is Mahler’s first purely absolute symphony, structured by its strict adher- ence to formal—though still innovative—design.

Many cite the reason for this change in compositional approach to be the extraordinarily happy time in Mahler’s personal life in 1901-02, while working on the Fifth Symphony. This is, after all, when he met and married Alma Schindler, whose beauty, intellect, and musical sensibility offered a substantial source of new inspiration for Mahler’s creative work. While he had already more or less completed the first two movements when they married, her influence on the Symphony is undeniable: The beloved Adagietto movement (famously conducted by Bernstein at a memorial to President Kennedy) is known to be a love song to Alma, and she reportedly made known her opinions on passages of orchestration as he was completing the score.

Structurally, the Fifth stands arguably as Mahler’s most formally integrated work. He divides the five movements into three parts – the first two movements, the third standing alone, and the final two movements. Both the first and fourth movements function as preludes to the second and fifth movements, res- pectively. Part I is full of turmoil and anguish, Part II celebrates the evolution of the bucolic Austrian Ländler into the elegant Viennese waltz, and Part III emerges into light, celebrating life. What follows is a brief synopsis of each movement.

PART IFirst movement—Funeral March: In measured step. Strict. Like a procession.

Bernstein famously said that Mahler’s marches are like heart attacks. From the piercing trumpet call that opens the Fifth

GUSTAV MAHLER(1860-1911)

Symphony No. 5

Notes by Jacob Adams

GUSTAV MAHLER

(1860-1911)

Symphony No. 5

Symphony and the intensity of the funeral march that follows, one can see what Bernstein meant. The March juxtaposes trumpet fanfares with an elegiac melody in the strings. There is a con- trasting section (the first Trio) in B-flat minor, which heightens the passion and despair. This subsides into a return of the fan- fare March. A second trio, in A minor, anticipates the second movement through key area and other thematic connections. The March returns once more, now subdued, functioning as a coda.

Second movement—In turbulent motion. With greatest vehemence.That the awe-inspiring funeral march opening the Symphony could function as a prelude seems absurd until one hears the massive and complex second movement. In A minor, the move- ment is in a large-scale sonata form. Its overall mood is one of angst and anger, save for the remarkable D Major brass chorale that emerges out of the inferno.

PART IIThird movement—ScherzoA double scherzo and trio in D Major, Mahler develops the music in an irregularly proportioned ABABA pattern. While there are moments of eeriness and uncertainty, the overall tone is one of bright grace and rustic cheer.

PART IIIFourth movement—AdagiettoThis short movement in simple ternary form reduces the orches- tra to strings and harp. In his wordless love song for Alma, Mahler unfolds a melody in one extended line of sublime beauty and serenity. A contrasting middle section supplies mild tension through modulation, before the melody returns, even more restrained. The movement closes breathlessly: suspensions stretched to their utmost before resolving.

Fifth movement—Rondo finale. Allegro giocosoConnected without pause from the preceding movement, the Rondo-finale completes the transformation into unbridled hap- piness as wind motifs combine to form a boisterous, fugal rondo theme. Material from previous movements returns, notably from the Adagietto. In the coda, the brass chorale of the second movement erupts in triumph. The inexorable march of the Symphony’s opening has reached its goal, progressing through despair, anger, nostalgia, love, and finally pure uninhibited joy.

Shinik Hahm was appointed Music Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale and professor of conducting at the Yale School of Music in 2004. One of the most dynamic and innovative conductors of our time, Hahm is a sought-after musician among top North American, South American, European, and Far Eastern orchestras.

Hahm will conduct the 2009 European tour of Germany’s pro- minent Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, including a concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Hahm’s active 2006-2007 season featured splendid debuts in Geneva, Switzerland and Besancon, France.

Maestro Hahm also made his Chinese debut with the country’s most prestigious orchestras, China Philharmonic and the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a remarkable collaboration with Mexican orchestras. After a successful debut with the Mexico National Symphony and Xalapa Symphony Orchestras, the maestro was immediately re- engaged for coming seasons. In June 2005, he made a triumphant debut at the Bolshoi Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. His re-appearance with Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Disney Hall, after his 1993 debut at the Chandler Pavilion, was likewise successful. His en- thusiastic and highly creative music-making has distinguished Hahm as one of the most versatile conductors of his generation.

In 2006 Maestro Hahm successfully completed his tenure as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra in Korea, with which he toured the United States in 2004 and Japan in 2005. The DPO and Hahm performed in leading concert halls including Carnegie Hall (New York), Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Benaroya Hall (Seattle), Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore), Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall and Osaka Symphony Hall. The orchestra thoroughly benefited from his artistic leadership and sold out all concerts.

Hahm served as Music Director of the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra for a decade (1993-2003). During his tenure he suc- cessfully converted the community ensemble into a professional regional orchestra. He was profiled on ABC’s World News Tonight for his central role in rejuvenating and revitalizing the Abilene community.

SHINIKHAHM

Music Director

Still in her early twenties, American cellist Ashley Bathgate has already stirred critics and audiences alike with the “poise,” “passion,” and “supreme musicianship” of her performances. As a recitalist, she has appeared at the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, BargeMusic, the Pleshakov Music Center and Moulin d’Ande in Normandy, France, to name a few. This season she made her official New York debut in Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall with noted pianist Todd Crow. Ashley was also a featured artist on WMHT FM and WQXR FM’s “Young Artists Showcase,” hosted by Robert Sherman. She has been invited to perform as a guest soloist with orchestra, including appearances with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, and in performances of the d’Albert and Barber cello concertos with the American Symphony Orchestra directed by Leon Botstein.

Devoted to chamber music, Ashley performs regularly in benefit concerts and chamber recitals in the US, Canada, and Europe. She has been privileged to work with many distinguished artists including pianist Pascal Rogé and violinist Chantal Juillet. In addition, she has relished the opportunity to perform new and recent works, most notably with renowned composers John Adams, Ezra Laderman and Martin Bresnick. Ashley is a mem- ber of Aldo Parisot’s Yale Cellos and the Yale Philharmonia and performs frequently at the Windham Chamber Music Festival, directed by Robert Manno and Magdalena Golczewski.

Ashley was a full scholarship student at Bard College, where she studied cello with Luis Garcia-Rènart and composition with Joan Tower. Having received her Masters degree from the Yale University School of Music in 2007, she was selected for the prestigious Artist Diploma program by her teacher Aldo Parisot, and in that same year received the prize in his name for the gifted cellist most showing promise for a concert career. While at the School of Music, she studied composition with Ezra Laderman and chamber music with Claude Frank, Boris Berman, Peter Frankl, Ani Kavafian, and the Tokyo String Quartet. Ashley has participated in master-classes with Jian Wang, Irene Sharp, Ralph Kirschbaum, and Jesús Castro-Balbi. Among her many awards are a grant from the New York Philharmonic Players Fund sponsored by Stephen and Elaine Stamas, top prizes in the Lois Lyman Concerto Competition (1999 & 2001, an unpre- cedented achievement), the Hugo Kauder Memorial Strings competition in 2006, and the 2008 Woolsey Concerto Competition at the Yale School of Music.

ASHLEY BATHGATE

Cello

Farkhad Khudyev is originally from Ashgabad, Turkmenistan, where he studied violin and composition with Zinaida Ahmed- zhanova and Vera Abaeva at the Special Music School. He distinguished himself at the age of 10 as the youngest performer ever selected to play with the National Violin Ensemble of Turkmenistan, and at the age of 12 he won a scholarship to attend the New Names Festival in Suzdal, Russia, which was sponsored by the Moscow Conservatory. He was named the most promising young musician at the festival and earned the top award, the Golden Apple. Mr. Khudyev has performed in Ashgabad, Suzdal, Moscow, and Odessa (Ukraine) as both a soloist and as a member of the Violin Ensemble of Turkmenistan. He came to the United States in 2001 under a full scholarship to the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he studied with Paul Sonner and Michael Albaugh, and then completed his Bachelor of Music degree at the Oberlin Conservatory with Milan Vitek. Currently a first year Master of Music student at Yale, he is studying with Shinik Hahm.

Mr. Khudyev won the Grand Prize and the Gold Medal at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in 2007 as a member of the Prima Trio touring in United States and Europe. He also received an honorable mention in the 2004 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer awards, held in May 2004 at Lincoln Center in New York, for his symphonic work Turkmeni- stan. In June 2006, he won a prize at the 30th Annual Glenn Miller Competition, held in Clarinda, Iowa, the legendary musician's birthplace. His other awards include the Neil Rabaut Composition Prize from the Interlochen Arts Academy and the debut performances of his trio "Fleeting Miniatures" in New York. He has served as the assistant conductor of NOYO orchestra and has conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Ashgabad.

FARKHADKHUDYEV

Conducting Fellow

PHILHARMONIASTUDENT STAFF

Student Assistants

Music Librarians

Stage Crew*Head

Christopher Matthews, Andrew Parker, Donna Yoo Michelle Abraham, Samuel Blair, Michael Compitello,James Hasspacher, Scott Holben, Julian Pellicano,Liesl Schoenberger

Nicholas Akdag, Kenturah Bixby, Nathaniel Chase, Brian Ellingsen*, Jennifer Griggs, Jessica Hsieh, Patrick O’Connell, Kurt Schewe*, Alexander Smith, Kate Swisher, Brian Thacker

PHILHARMONIAORCHESTRA OF YALE

2008-09 Patrons

Charles Ives Circle$600 and above

Richard H. DumasJames M. Perlotto, M.D. in Memory of Mrs. Dorothy HayesBill Tower

Paul Hindemith Circle$250 to $599

Serena & Robert BlockerChris & Toddie GetmanCarleton & Barbara LoucksMrs. Jane RocheSusan E. Thompson

Horatio Parker Circle$125 to $249

America Film Studios, Inc.Brenda & Sheldon BakerAnn BlissJoan K. DreyfusWinifred & Shinik HahmRuth Hochmann-SohnFrancesco IachelloRobert & Mary KeaneChristine M. LinDr. David LobdellHelen Redmond & Doug MacRae

Samuel Simons Sanford Circle$50 to $124

Max & Annette BaileyDr. & Mrs. Dwight & Lois BakerMyrna F. BaskinBlake & Helen BidwellMuriel & Ernest BodenweberMs. Jennifer BonitoRose & Frank BonitoHarold & Maureen BornsteinWilliam F. BurnsJoel Cogen & Beth GilsonMimi & John ColeEarl & Joyce ColterWayne & Dorothy CookJohn & Jennifer CopelinLeo Cristofar & Bernadette DiGiulianBarbara & Frank DahmBernardine & Richard DiVecchioElizabeth M. DockEdwin M. & Karen C. DuvalElizabeth EganMs. Jennifer L. Embriano

Jeannine EstradaLucy Brady FarrarHenry & Fe FriedmanMartin & Katherine GehnerCyrus & Rosamond HamlinHenry Harrison & Ruth LambertJune & George HigginsDrs. James Hsiao & Brooke BallardMark & Marsha KileyNancy C. & William R. LiedlichRev. Hugh MacDonaldJames MansfieldKitty & Lew MatzkinBetty MettlerElizabeth S. MillerJames V. PocockPatty & Tom PollardRocco & Velma PuglieseAnne SchenckSuzanne Solensky & Jay RozgonyiBetty & Martin SumnerMr. Henry SykesMr. & Mrs. Gregory TumminioRichard & Mary-Jo WarrenEmily Aber & Robert WechslerBob & Wendy WheelerWerner & Elizabeth WolfSeymour Yudkin

Gustave Jacob Stoeckel Circle$25 to $49

Anonymous (2)Edward & Joanne BlairMrs. Morris BlausteinPeter & Nancy BlomstromMindy & Stan BrownsteinAntonio CavaliereJames & Joyce ChaseRosemarie S. ChavesLouis & Beatrice DalsassR. R. D’AmbruosoLiz & Paul EganThomas & Judith FoleyMr. & Mrs. Charles FormanDolores GallSaul & Sonya GoldbergMrs. Jerome GreeneMrs. Ken L. GrubbsMs. Mary Ann HarbackJoyce & Addy HirschhornDr. Victoria HofferC. HornishLynette JordanTom & Fran KingJohn & Carol LangPeter LengyelJoel Marks

In memory of Helen H. Yaggi by the Methot familyRon & Sue MillerMr. & Mrs. Seif MozayeniJane & Jack I. NovickFred & Helen RobinsonKay RossJoseph & Patricia RutlinLisa L. SchlenkAllan R. SilversteinJoy SnyderBeatriz Cordova StaberJames N. TrimbleKarl K. & Roxanne TurekianGordon & Marlene TurnbullEdward WeisWei-Yi Yang

Becoming a Yale School of Music Patron is a wonderful way to support our performance programs. We offer benefits to our patrons that range from preferred seating to invitations for the School’s academic convocation.

To find out more about becoming a Yale School of Music Patron, visit http://music.yale.edu. You can also add a contribution to your ticket purchase to any of the Yale School of Music concerts. Concert Office · 203 432-4158

YALE SCHOOL OF MUSICRobert Blocker, Dean

203 432 4158 Box Office

concerts@yale.eduE-mail Us

CONCERTS & MEDIA

Vincent Oneppo Director

Dana AstmannAssistant Director

Monica OngDesign Manager

Tara DemingOperations Manager

Christopher MelilloOperations Coordinator

Danielle HellerBox Office Coordinator

UPCOMING

NASH ENSEMBLEApr 7 / Tue / 8 pm

YALE OPERAApr 17 / Fri / 7:30 pm Apr 18 / Sat / 7:30 pm

YALE PHILHARMONIAMay 1 / Fri / 8 pm

Chamber Music SocietySprague Hall / Tickets $27-34 / Students $14 Vaughan Williams: Quintet in D major (1898) Dukas: Villanelle for horn and piano / Schumann: Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales) for clarinet, viola, and piano, Op. 132 / Dvorák: Piano Quartet in E-flat major.

Two One-Act OperasSprague Hall / Tickets $8-12 / Students $5 A double bill of Jules Massenet's La Navarraise and William Walton's The Bear. Doris Yarick-Cross, artistic director; Douglas Dickson and Timothy Shaindlin, musical direction and accompaniment.

Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel, conducted by Julian Pellicano Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, with pianist Reinis Zarins Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2Woolsey Hall / Free admission Shinik Hahm, Music Director

Kelly Yamaguchi-ScanlonAccomodations & Travel

Brian DaleyPiano Curator

William HaroldPiano Curator

RECORDING STUDIO

Eugene KimballDirector / Recording Engineer

Jason RobinsAssistant Recording Engineer

For a complete listing of all our concerts: music.yale.edu