Ravinia 2023 Issue 4

PAVILION 7:30 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 2023 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP, conductor YUNCHAN LIM, piano † THOMAS Sun Dance (In memoriam Oliver Knussen) ** BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) Allegro con brio Marcia funebre: Adagio assai Scherzo: Allegro vivace Finale: Allegro molto—Poco andante –Intermission– RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 3 Allegro ma non tanto Intermezzo: Adagio [ attacca ] Finale: Alla breve Yunchan Lim † Ravinia debut ** First performance in Chicago and at Ravinia Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Featured Sponsor The Negaunee Foundation . Yunchan Lim’s appearance is made possible in part by the Maxine M. Hunter Guest Artist Fund . “[Britten] treated me seriously,” he recollect- ed. Years later, Knussen extended the same respect and attentiveness to his own students. Private composition lessons with John Lam- bert began at age 11. The London Symphony Orchestra scheduled the premiere of Knus- sen’s First Symphony on April 7, 1968. When conductor István Kertész fell ill, the 15-year- old composer stepped in to direct his own score. Thus began an acclaimed twofold ca- reer. Knussen insisted on clarity, detail, and precision in all his original creations and in- terpretations from the podium. Though his list of compositions is not voluminous, each work displays a consistently high level of craft and imagination. The twin one-act operas based on children’s books by Maurice Sen- dak— Where the Wild Things Are (1979–83) and Higglety Pigglety Pop! (1984–rev. 1999)— are perhaps most familiar. Knussen also pro- duced 14 symphonic scores, eight works for solo voice (almost always soprano) with in- struments, and 14 works for solo instrument or chamber ensemble. His meticulous tech- nique and uncompromising artistic standards often resulted in highly compressed composi- tions and, unfortunately, missed deadlines: “A piece wants to be what it wants to be, and the few times I’ve forced it to be something else to meet a deadline, I’ve regretted it.” Knussen refined his musicality under the tu- telage of another composer-conductor, Gun- ther Schuller, at the Tanglewood Music Cen- ter (1970–73), where he met Sue Freedman, a horn player and his future wife. More than a decade later, he was appointed head of con- temporary music at Tanglewood (1986–93). A third and perhaps even more influential career ensued: mentor of contemporary com- posers and advocate for their music. His Tan- glewood students included an undergraduate trumpet player and composition major from Northwestern University—Augusta Read Thomas—who spent three summers (1986, 1987, 1989) working with Knussen. Musical Augusta Read Thomas with Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood in 2001, when he conducted her Orbital Beacons ideas and artistic values gleaned from their exchanges lingered with Thomas for years: “I learned to sculpt every sound and polish it carefully like a lapidary. I like my music to be clear, luminous, intentional, and evoc- ative. This is just how Oliver Knussen’s mu- sic is, although our musics are very different from one another.” The two remained in con- tact over the years; Knussen conducted and recorded several of Thomas’s compositions, andThomas arranged the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s commission of Requiem: Songs for Sue for CSO MusicNow. After learning of Knussen’s death on July 8, 2018, Thomas determined to write a musical memorial: “I wanted to make a piece full of positive energy, light, radiance for him.” At about this time, the Indianapolis Sympho- ny Orchestra commissioned an orchestral work—Thomas decided to fulfill that request with Sun Dance (In memoriam Oliver Knus- sen) . Though completed in 2020, the orches- tral score did not receive its first performance for three years due to the COVID-19 pan- demic. In the meantime, Thomas created two other, musically unrelated tributes: Dance Mobile (In memoriam Oliver Knussen) for a chamber orchestra of 13 players (2021) and Riddle (In memoriam Oliver Knussen) for solo cello (2022). The Indianapolis Symphony Or- chestra and conductor Christian Reif gave the world premiere on February 17, 2023. Augusta Read Thomas offered these reflec- tions on Sun Dance (In memoriam Oliver Knussen) : “Music for me is an embrace of the world—a way to open myself up to being alive in the world in my body, in my sounds, and in my mind. I care deeply about musicality, imagination, craft, clarity, dimensionality, an elegant balance between material and form, and empathy with the performing musicians. “My works always spark and catch fire from spontaneous improvisations. It is music al- ways in the act of becoming. I have a vivid sense that the process of the creative journey (rather than a predictable fixed point of ar- rival) is the essence. Poetry and dance can give language to the ineffable. Music is, in an analogous way, akin to an infinite alphabet. Sounds can become like butterflies, hum- mingbirds, lights, rocks, trees, webs, gardens, and landscapes. “I dance when I compose and like my music to feel organic, self-propelled—as if we listen- ers are overhearing (capturing) an un-notat- ed, spontaneously embodied improvisation. Music and dance must be alive; they have to jump off the page and out of the instrument and body as if something big is at stake. I work hard to ensure that my music dances. “Organic and, at every level, concerned with transformations and connections, the careful- ly sculpted and fashioned musical materials of Sun Dance are agile and spirited, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, AUGUSTA READ THOMAS (b.1964) Sun Dance (In memoriam Oliver Knussen) Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, tenor trombone and bass trombone, four percussionists (I. vibraphone, triangle, claves, and two bongo drums; II. crotales, tubular chimes, three suspended finger cymbals, and small suspended cymbal; III. Glockenspiel, xylophone, and two triangles; IV. marimba, two conga drums, three triangles, and medium suspended cymbal), harp, piano, and strings Oliver Knussen (1952–2018) occupied an im- mensely influential position in contemporary classical music of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, to the principal double bassist of the London Sym- phony Orchestra, Stuart Knussen, and his wife, Ethelyn Jane Alexander, young Oliver (“Olly”) displayed wondrous musical talent and inquisitiveness as a boy, although he ad- amantly rejected any suggestion of “prodigy.” “I just started early,” he asserted many times over. At age 6 or 7, Oliver first visited the Al- deburgh Festival—his father was a member of the orchestra—and met the revered Brit- ish composer Benjamin Britten. Over tea, the elder musician asked substantive questions about the boy’s music and creative process. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 31 – AUGUST 14, 2023 32