Ravinia 2023 Issue 2

PAVILION 7:30 PM SATURDAY, JULY 15, 2023 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP, conductor MIRIAM FRIED, violin RAN Chicago Skyline * BRAHMS Violin Concerto Allegro non troppo Adagio Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace Miriam Fried –Intermission– TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 Andante—Allegro con anima Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza Valse: Allegro moderato Finale: Andante maestoso * First performance at Ravinia Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Season Sponsor Nancy Zadek . SHULAMIT RAN (b.1949) Chicago Skyline Scored for four trumpets in C, six horns in F, three tenor trombones and bass trombone, two tubas, timpani, and three percussionists (I. crash cymbals, five tom-toms, two bongos, and two suspended cymbals; II. three gongs played with hard timpani mallets, snare drum, sizzle cymbals, and tam-tam; III. bass drum, chimes, and suspended cymbal) Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Shulamit Ran has created finely crafted, dynamic musi- cal scores for six-and-a-half decades. A child- hood piano teacher in Tel Aviv encouraged her to begin composing at the age of 7, writ- ing songs to Hebrew poetry. Ran’s remark- able musical talent attracted the attention of Alexander Boskovich and Paul Ben-Haim, who became her composition mentors by age 9. She entered the Mannes College of Music at age 14, studying piano with Nadia Reisenberg and composition with Norman Dello Joio on scholarships from Mannes and the America Israel Cultural Foundation. The New York Philharmonic under Leonard Ber- nstein premiered her Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra in 1963 with Ran as soloist. She graduated from Mannes in 1967 at age 17. Six years later, Ran joined the University of Chicago music faculty on the recommenda- tion of Ralph Shapey—the longtime compo- sition faculty and director of the Contempo- rary Chamber Players—and remained at that institution until her retirement in 2015 as Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor Emerita. Her opera Anne Frank , composed on a libretto by Charles Kondek, was commissioned and premiered in March 2023 by the Indiana University Opera and Ballet Theater with conductor Arthur Fagen and stage director Crystal Manich. Ran’s three-movement Symphony , a work composed and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Riccardo Muti, won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Music (making her only the second woman to receive that honor, after El- len Taaffe Zwilich) and 1992 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. During her illustrious ca- reer, Ran also has received two Guggenheim Foundation fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, Fromm Music Foundation, and Koussevitzky Foundation, as well as five honorary degrees and election to both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She served as Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1990– 97), Brena and Lee Freeman Sr. Compos- er-in-Residence with Lyric Opera of Chicago (1994–97), where residency culminated in the premiere of her first opera, Between Two Worlds (the Dybbuk) ; and Paul Fromm Com- poser-in-Residence at the American Acade- my in Rome (2011). Her numerous residen- cies in festivals and summer programs across the US have included the Tanglewood Mu- sic Center, the Aspen Institute, Yellow Barn, the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Wellesley Composers Conference, Marlboro Festival, and the International String Quartet Compe- tition and Festival in Banff, Canada. Ran also served as music director for Tempus Fugit, the International Biennial for Contemporary Music in Israel (1996–2000). Relocating from New York City to Chicago in 1973 was a major adjustment for Ran, as she explained in an interview with the Chicago Tribune (October 24, 1993): “I knew noth- ing about Chicago except what I had heard Shulamit Ran about the Chicago Symphony. I had seen a documentary about the city with a brief view of Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina Towers. I thought it was magnificent, having never seen an architectural statement of that kind. Since I love architecture, I thought, ‘That’s a place I would love to visit sometime.’ ” That affinity for architecture proved a benefit when Chicago’s classical music radio station, WFMT, commissioned Ran’s Chicago Skyline in recognition of its 40th anniversary on De- cember 13, 1991. This “fanfare for brass and percussion” boldly celebrates the strength and imagination of the city’s distinctive hori- zon: “As the work evolved, I began feeling that its sense of space and the juggling and inter- play of acoustical depths were analogous, at least in my mind, to the handling of archi- tectural spaces. The kinship between music and architecture has, of course, been noted and discussed by many before me. Invoking Chicago’s magnificent architecture, which I dearly love and which never ceases to thrill me, seemed altogether appropriate when sa- luting as distinguished a Chicago institution as WFMT. “The work’s principal musical idea is extract- ed from a fanfare-like trumpet theme that appeared in the first movement of my Sym- phony , and that seemed to suggest further possibilities in this new context.” Dramatic chords and rhythmic flourishes prepare the contrasting “Majestic, grand” brass chorale, heard like a refrain throughout. The Chica- go Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez gave the world premiere of Chicago Skyline on December 12, 1991. JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77 Scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings, and solo violin The tiny village of Pörtschach on theWörther- see provided Brahms a secluded spot for a secret project, a violin concerto for his long- time friend Joseph Joachim. Portions of the opening movement and finale were sketched before he announced the new work to Joa- chim in a letter dated August 21, 1878. Com- poser and performer worked together closely on the concerto. Brahms solicited Joachim’s advice regarding all matters of technique and substance, wanting a “bold and severe” crit- ic in the violinist. In return, Joachim offered alternatives to the “difficult, awkward, impos- sible” passages. Such collaboration between composer and performer was rare during the 19th century. Numerous letters between Brahms and Joa- chim provide a revealing glimpse into the evolution of the Violin Concerto in D major. Four movements were planned, but Brahms “stumbled over the Adagio and Scherzo [the RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 3 – JULY 16, 2023 38