Ravinia 2021 - Issue 1

8:00 PM FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2021 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP, conductor ANTHONY MCGILL, clarinet HAYDN Symphony No. 60 (“Il distratto”) Adagio—Allegro di molto Andante Menuetto Presto Adagio di Lamentatione Finale: Prestissimo COPLAND Clarinet Concerto Slowly and expressively—Cadenza (freely) [ attacca ] Rather fast Anthony McGill BRAHMS Variations on a Theme by Haydn There will be no intermission in this program. Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Program Sponsor The Hunter Family Foundation . PAVILION JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) Symphony No. 60 in C major, H. I:60 (“Il distratto”) Scored for two oboes, bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, and strings The musical tastes of Prince Nikolaus Ester- házy I, Haydn’s patron from 1762 until 1790, are well-documented. He maintained a resident ensemble of professional musicians (increas- ing its size over time), commanded almost daily musical performances, and developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for novelty and experimentation. Nikolaus I possessed an equally voracious appetite for theater—staged dramas, marionettes, and fully produced op- eras. The 1770s proved an especially concen- trated period, as the prince enjoyed produc- tions every day, spring through autumn. To accommodate the relentless production schedule, Nikolaus I regularly hired the- atrical companies to stage both comedies and tragedies. Between 1772 and 1777, he se- cured the services of actor and impresario Carl Wahr (1745–98) and his company from Pressburg, which had recently taken Vienna by storm with their productions of Shake- speare tragedies in German. Wahr revived these productions at the Esterháza palace. Christian Hieronymus Moll reported in the Historisch-kritische Theaterchronic von Wien (1774) that “Haydn has also composed music especially for Hamlet as given by the Wahr troupe,” though any evidence of that score is now lost. Haydn’s only surviving theater music dates from 1774, when he contributed incidental music to Wahr’s production of Le Distrait ( Il distratto in Italian; Der Zerstreute in Ger- man), a five-act comedy by French poet and playwright Jean-François Regnard (1655– 1709). The original 1697 production in Paris attracted little attention and closed after four performances, one of the greatest failures of Regnard’s career. The Comédie-Française re- vived the play in Paris more than two decades after the playwright’s death (1731), and it be- came an instant and long-lasting hit. Thirty years later, Christopher Martin Wieland’s translation of Le Distrait took hold in Ger- man-speaking lands—the version presented at Esterháza. The Pressburger Zeiting reported on Haydn’s incidental music on June 30, 1774: “This out- standing musician recently composed, for Herr Wahr’s company, original music to the comedy Der Zerstreute ; connoisseurs con- sider it a masterpiece. One notices, this time in music intended for a comedy, the same spirit that elevates all of Hayden’s [ sic ] work. His masterful variety excites the admiration of experts and is nothing short of delightful for the listener; he falls from the most af- fected pomposity directly into vulgarity, and H[aydn] and Regnard vie with each other for the most comic absentmindedness.” The story revolves around the scatter-brained Léandre, the “distracted” title character. His beloved, Clarice, is the niece of Valere and the sister of the womanizing soldier Le Che- valier. Isabelle, in love with Le Chevalier, is the sophisticated daughter of Madame Gro- gnac, who seeks a prosperous husband for her daughter. Lisette is the servant of Isabelle who defies Madame Grognac, and Carlin dispatches his duties as Léandre’s valet by keeping his master in line. Despite innumer- able obstructions, interventions, and distrac- tions, the two couples eventually marry, even though Léandre forgets his wedding. Haydn’s incidental music encompasses an overture (not directly related to the comic ac- tion) and five programmatic movements. The overture employs a standard form with slow Joseph Haydn by Ludwig Guttenbrunn (c.1770) introduction and fast main portion. Four en- tr’actes serve as instrumental fillers between the five acts, each anticipating the coming drama. The incidental music concludes with a comic epilogue. Along the way, Haydn in- troduces several comedic musical effects, such as mistuned instruments (a result of “distraction”), dissonance, and, sometimes, sheer cacophony. Following Wahr’s production, Haydn ar- ranged the incidental music into an unusual six-movement “Sinfonia per la Commedia in- titolata il Distratto,” now known as Symphony No. 60 in C major, H. I:60. Scholars theorize that other symphonies of this period, stylisti- cally described as Sturm und Drang (“storm and stress”), also originated as incidental mu- sic for theatrical productions at Esterháza. AARON COPLAND (1900–90) Clarinet Concerto Scored for string orchestra, harp, piano, and solo clarinet Benny Goodman (1909–86)—the Chica- go-born clarinetist and bandleader whose impeccable technique, virtuoso improvisa- tions, and high-energy jazz rhythms earned him the title “King of Swing”—cultivated a parallel career in the “legit” arena of classi- cal music. As a boy, Goodman took private clarinet lessons from Franz Schoepp, a facul- ty member at Chicago Musical College, who might have substituted occasionally with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The weekly lessons at Schoepp’s home near Wrigley Field emphasized technical precision and tone quality. Goodman later credited his aged Ger- man-American mentor with doing “more for me musically than anybody I ever knew.” This formal instruction came to an end after two years, when the young clarinetist’s interest in jazz took precedence over classical music. In the mid-1930s, after Goodman had devel- oped a national following with his big band and combo performances and recordings, the famous clarinetist turned his attention again to classical music. John Hammond, an emerging hot young jazz record producer, coaxed Benny into a private performance of Mozart’s clarinet quintet (Hammond played viola) in the spring of 1935. One year later, Goodman made an unsuccessful attempt to record that work with the Pro Arte Quartet. His public classical debut came on The Camel Caravan radio show aired on January 18, 1938, just two days after the Benny Goodman Or- chestra’s unprecedented jazz performance in Carnegie Hall. The Coolidge String Quartet joined the clarinetist on the radio broadcast. Buoyed by the success of that performance, Goodman immediately scheduled a record- ing session with the Budapest String Quartet and spent the next three months studying Mozart’s score, practicing obsessively, and seeking advice from respected colleagues. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 1 – JULY 23, 2021 60