Chicago Philharmonic 2018-2019 Spring

THE CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY | SPRING 2019 9 2018 2019 SEASON: THE ROARING TWENTIES e Roaring Twenties Saturday, March 9 2019, 7:30pm Pick-Staiger Hall, Evanston Scott Speck conductor Aldo López-Gavilán piano John Harbison (b. 1938) Remembering Gatsby Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Piano Concerto in G Major I. Allegramente II. Adagio assai III. Presto Intermission Kurt Weill (1900-1950) Suite from e reepenny Opera I. Overture II. Die Morität von Mackie Messer ( e Moritat of Mack the Knife) III. Anstatt-dass Song ( e Instead-of Song) IV. Die Ballade vom Angenehmen Leben ( e Ballad of the Easy Life) V. Pollys Lied (Polly’s Song) VI. Tango-Ballade (Tango) VII. Kanonen-Song (Cannon Song) VIII. Dreigroschen-Finale ( reepenny Finale) George Gershwin (1898 – 1937) Rhapsody in Blue Performance time approximately 1 hour 45 minutes e Roaring Twenties is supported in part by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation. John Harbison (b. 1938) Remembering Gatsby (1985) Pulitzer Prize-winning, Boston-based composer John Harbison stands among the greatest and most proli c American composers living today. He just celebrated his 80th birthday inDecember of 2018, with many orchestras commemorating the occasion with performances of his works across the world. Remembering Gatsby was inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel e Great Gatsby . Harbison in fact repurposed the work many years later into the overture for his opera e Great Gatsby which was premiered by the Metropolitan Opera in 1999. Harbison’s notes on the piece follow: “ e piece, which runs about eight minutes, begins with a cantabile passage for full orchestra, a representation of Gatsby’s vision of the green light on Daisy’s dock. en the foxtrot begins, rst with a kind of call to order, then a 20’s tune I had written for one of the party scenes, played by a concertino led by a soprano saxophone. e tune is then varied and broken into its components, leading to an altered reprise of the call to order, and an intensi cation of the original cantabile. A brief coda combines some of the motives, and refers eetingly to the telephone bell and the automobile horns, instruments of Gatsby’s fate.” Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Piano Concerto in G Major (1932) Parisian composer, pianist, and conductor Maurice Ravel is o en categorized as an impressionist composer, a term which Ravel vehemently rejected. Perhaps, then, it is better to consider Ravel by how he t within the French music and cultural ecosystem in the early 20th century: mentee of composers Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré, contemporary of author Marcel Proust, and friend of American composer George Gershwin. Ravel was a slow and meticulous composer; he produced far fewer works than many of his contemporaries and was further hindered by his military duty in World War I. He wrote just two pieces for piano and orchestra: Piano Concerto in D Major for the Le Hand (written for pianist Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right arm in the war) and his Piano Concerto in G Major. Both of Ravel’s piano concertos were written a er his 1928 trip to America (he was lured by the promise of $10,000 and a constant supply of Gauloises Caporal cigarettes). In his travels to Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Cleveland, New York, New Orleans, and many other American cities, Ravel’s interest in jazz and the music of black American performers was piqued. is in uence can be clearly heard in the concerto’s jazzy episodes, particularly in the open piano ri s reminiscent of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue . e rst movement contrasts boisterous piccolo, trumpet, and horn lines with lush piano passages. e second movement, Adagio assai, begins with a relaxed, waltzing piano solo. e movement is one of Ravel’s most beautifully composed, with a continuously owing melody that seemingly melts from one phrase to the next. e concerto ends with a bang of a nale, racing past jazzy brass hits, screaming woodwind lines, and bustling piano solos throughout. NEXT! Music in the Foyer Students from the Jazz Studies Program University of Illinois at Chicago Salomon Flores, saxophone IanWalsh, guitar Kevyn Miller, bass The University of Illinois at Chicago is a major research university located in the heart of Chicago. The university is recognized as one of the most ethnically rich and culturally diverse universities in America. Education in Jazz at the UIC School of Theater & Music is designed for the student seeking a professional career in jazz and related fields of contemporary music, developing the special talents of the creative jazz artist as well as the flexible skills required of the successful musician through information, exposure and experience.