Concert Program for October 7, 8, and 9, 2011

Nicholas McGegan, conductor Jeremy Denk, piano Roger Kaza, horn MOZART
(1756-1791)

Symphony No. 32 in G major, K. 318 (1779)

Allegro spiritoso Andante Tempo I Allegro Andante Allegro

MOZART

Piano Concerto No. 13 in C major, K. 415 (1782-83)

Jeremy Denk, piano Intermission MOZART

Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, K. 447 (1784-87)

Allegro Romanze: Larghetto Allegro Roger Kaza, horn

MOZART

Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504, Prague (1786) Adagio; Allegro Andante Presto

Nicholas McGegan is the Ann and Lee Liberman Guest Artist. Jeremy Denk is the Linda and Paul Lee Guest Artist. Roger Kaza is the Graybar Electric Company, Inc. Guest Artist. The concert of Sunday, October 9, is the Dr. and Mrs. Richard G. Sisson Concert. The concert of Saturday, October 8, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Jo Ann Taylor Kindle. The concert of Sunday, October 9, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Mrs. Laura R. Orthwein. Pre-Concert Conversations are sponsored by Washington University Physicians. These concerts are presented by the Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation. These concerts are part of the Wells Fargo Advisors Series.

Nicholas McGegan Ann and Lee Liberman Guest Artist Nicholas McGegan is loved by audiences and orchestras for performances that match authority with enthusiasm, scholarship with joy, and curatorial responsibility with evangelical exuberance. The London Independent calls him one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation and The New Yorker lauds him as an expert in 18th-century style. Through 25 years as its music director, McGegan has established the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Philharmonia Chorale as the leading period performance ensemble in Americaand at the forefront of the historical movement worldwide thanks to appearances at Carnegie Hall, the London Proms, and the International Handel Festival, Gttingen, where he was artistic director from 1991 to 2011. He has been a pioneer in the process of exporting historically informed practice beyond the small world of period instruments to the wider one of conventional symphonic forces, guest conducting orchestras that include the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, and Sydney Symphony, the New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong Philharmonics, the Northern Sinfonia and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as opera companies including Covent Garden, San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Washington. Born in England, McGegan was educated at Cambridge and Oxford and taught at the Royal College of Music, London. He was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music overseas. His awards also include the Hall Handel Prize; the Order of Merit of the State of Lower Saxony (Germany); the Medal of Honor of the City of Gttingen; and an official Nicholas McGegan Day, declared by the Mayor of San Francisco in recognition of his distinguished work with the Philharmonia Baroque. Nicholas McGegan most recently conducted the St. Louis Symphony in March 2011. Jeremy Denk Linda and Paul Lee Guest Artist American pianist Jeremy Denk has steadily built a reputation as one of todays most compelling and persuasive artists with an unusually broad repertoire. During the 2010-11 season Denk released his first solo recording, Jeremy Denk Plays Ives, on which he played Charles Ivess Piano Sonatas 1 & 2 (Concord). He also returned to Carnegie Hall for his second solo recital, in works by Ligeti and Bach, and a concerto appearance, featuring Liszts First with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Charles Dutoit, after performances together in Philadelphia. Denk maintains working relationships with a number of living composers and has participated in many premieres, including Jake Heggies concerto Cut Time, Libby Larsens Collage: Boogie, Kevin Putss Alternating Current, and Ned Rorems The Unquestioned Answer. In 2002, he recorded Tobias Pickers Second Piano Concerto with the Moscow

LisA MArie MAzzucco

Josef Astor

Philharmonic. He also worked closely with composer Leon Kirchner on many of his recent compositions, recording his Sonata No. 2 in 2001. In 2004, Denk met and first performed with violinist Joshua Bell at the Spoleto Festival and was invited on a recital tour, sparking off a musical partnership that continues today. Theyve toured throughout the U.S. and have recorded John Coriglianos Violin Sonata for Sony Classical. The artists widely-read blog, Think Denk, is highly praised and frequently referenced by many in the music press and industry. There Denk writes about some of his touring, practicing, and otherwise unrelated experiences, as well as delving into fairly detailed musical analyses and essays. Denk lives in New York City. His web site and blog are at jeremydenk. net. He most recently performed with the St. Louis Symphony in November 2008. Roger Kaza Graybar Electric Company, Inc. Guest Artist Roger Kaza rejoined the St. Louis Symphony as Principal Horn in the fall of 2009, after 14 years with the Houston Symphony. He was previously a member of the St. Louis Symphony horn section from 198395, and prior to that held positions in the Vancouver Symphony, Boston Symphony, and the Boston Pops, where he was solo horn under John Williams. A native of Portland, Oregon, he attended Portland State University, studying with Christopher Leuba, and later transferred to the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he received a Bachelor of Music with Honors in 1977 under the tutelage of Thomas E. Newell, Jr. Kaza received his early training on piano, giving two solo recitals on that instrument before concentrating on horn. He has studied composition with the Czech-American composer Tomas Svoboda, and conducting with Leonard Slatkin, Gunther Schuller, and Murry Sidlin. As an educator, Kaza has served on the faculties of the University of Houston, Rice University, St. Louis Conservatory,University of MissouriSt. Louis, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and has given master classes at the Eastman School, Juilliard School, Indiana University, University of Michigan, and many others. Kaza has appeared as soloist with many orchestras, including the Vancouver and Houston symphonies, and the Carlos Chavez Chamber Orchestra in Mexico City. A frequent chamber musician as well, he has performed at numerous summer venues. He presently serves as instructor of horn at the Chautauqua Institutions Music School, where he is also Principal Horn of the Chautauqua Symphony. Kaza frequently collaborates with his wife, pianist Patti Wolf. They reside in Creve Coeur with their two daughters. Kaza most recently performed as a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony in October 2010.

DAn Dreyfus

Mozart as Revolutionary
BY JAY GOODWIN

Ideas at Play

It may seem strange to call Mozart a revolutionary. His music is many things, but revolutionary is not one of themat least not in the way that Beethovens or Schoenbergs was. He was a small man, not imposing by any means, and he never followed through on any threats he made. He did not inspire fear and often found it difficult even to inspire grudging respect. He did not clamor for change, musical or otherwise, and he did not involve himself with politics or intrigue. But in 1781, when he left his despised hometown of Salzburg for Vienna and established himself as an independent artist, relying solely on the incomes of his work rather than the steady support of a patron, he took a revolutionary step. It could be said that if it hadnt been Mozart, it would just have been someone else. Or that Mozart wasnt out to prove a point, it was simply that none of the employers he was willing to work for were willing to hire him. Both are true. But there is an element of chance to all revolutionaries, and Mozart deserves credit for having the bravery and confidence to strike out on his own. Sadly, he did not live to see the infinitely more exaltedif not more richstatus society granted to artists in the 19th century, which all began with him. In Context 1779-86 American Revolutionary War ends; German officially replaces Latin as language of instruction in Austria; Mozart composes six quartets dedicated to Haydn In the broadest terms, Mozarts brief life can be divided into two general periods. In his first 25 years, the young composer chafed under the influence of his conservative father and the unsympathetic and constrictive rule of his employer, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Feeling that his talents and originality were being wasted in an unsophisticated musical backwater, Mozart was filled with wanderlust and resentment. He made multiple tours of Europe hoping to find more fulfilling employment (and even resigned his Salzburg position briefly) but in every case returned to his hometown unsuccessful. In 1781, the frustrated composer finally left Salzburg for good (given a fond farewell by way of a literal kick in the ass as decreed by the Archbishop) and settled in Vienna, a cosmopolitan paradise by comparison. Mozart would soon learn that his newfound freedom was a double-edged sword. Though he did indeed receive significant acclaim and achieve many successes, the public was fickle, and Mozart often found himself scraping by, hoping that the next composition or the next concert would be enough to keep him out of debt. We remember him now as a master of virtually every significant musical genre of his time, but in Vienna his livelihood rested chiefly on his works for the theater and his renown as a composer of and soloist in keyboard concertos, of which he turned out masterpiece after masterpiece at unbelievable speed and at first made a healthy living.

But by the end of the 1780s, Mozarts star had waned, and the economic conditions of the city had declined with the outbreak of the Austro-Turkish War. He began borrowing heavily from friends, and though he continued to compose works of geniusalbeit at a slower pacehe was unable to make ends meet. By the time his financial woes finally began to lessen in 1791, bringing renewed creative energy and productivity, he had just months left to live. Mozart fell ill in September, and his illness grew steadily worse until his death in the early-morning hours on December 5, at age 35. The four works on this program cover a span of seven years, from 1779 to 1786a short period of time, but one that represents more than half of Mozarts best years as a composer. The Symphony No. 32 dates from 1779 during the height of Mozarts disgust with his hometown, as can be seen in a letter he wrote some six months before its composition: Salzburg is no place for my talent For the last five or six years the Salzburg orchestra has always been rich in what is useless and superfluous, but very poor in what is necessary, and absolutely destitute of what is indispensible; and such is the case at the present moment. Though keyboard concertos soon became his bread and butter after settling in Vienna in 1781, Mozart wrote none of them in his first year in the city, occupying himself mainly with the opera Die Entfhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio). In 1782, however, he began appearing as a concert soloist, performing his earlier concertos to great public acclaim. Having found a reliable way to garner notice and make money, Mozart began rapidly composing new concertos; the Piano Concerto No. 13 was the third of these new works. The composition date of the Horn Concerto No. 3 is a bit more difficult to pin down, but it was certainly written in Vienna sometime in the mid 1780s. By late 1786, Vienna seemed to have largely grown bored with Mozart, and even his greatest masterpieces (The Marriage of Figaro, for example) were only moderately successful. But Mozart at this time was on the verge of the greatest public adoration he was ever to know; the Symphony No. 38, Prague, was written in preparation for the composers trip to that city, where Figaro became a sensation and Mozart a hero. Both opera and symphony endured as favorites in Prague, and the following year, the composer rewarded the city for its love with the premiere of Don Giovanni, which met with an even more rapturous response.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 32, in G major, K. 318

Born: Salzburg, January 27, 1756 Died: Vienna, December 5, 1791 First performance: Unknown, although probably conducted the week of its composition, in April, 1779, and conducted by the composer in Salzburg STL Symphony premiere: November 17, 1977, Kazuyoshi Akiyama conducting Most recent STL Symphony performance: October 3, 1987, Leonard Slatkin conducting Scoring: Two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings Performance time: Approximately nine minutes

Mozart

The Music The Symphony No. 32 was the first symphony Mozart wrote after returning from his ill-fated 17771778 trip to Paris, where he failed to find suitable employment and lost his mother to sudden illness. But it is the musical rather than personal memories from the journey that Mozart seems to have had in mind when writing this piece. It comprises three short movements to be performed without pause, which together form a kind of elaboration Mozart, posthumous on the Italian overtures so popular in the Parisian opra portrait, 1819 comique. Many scholars have searched unsuccessfully for a theatrical work to which Mozart may have intended this symphony as a prelude; it seems most likely that it was always intended to stand on its own. The Allegro spiritoso admittedly does sound theatrical, starting with a dramatic, curtain-raising flourish before embarking on a series of rapidly rising and falling passages for racing strings. Mozart creates a series of interesting textural variations through unusual combinations of instruments, and the momentum builds steadily. Suddenly, after a grand pause, where we would perhaps expect a repetition of the opening section, we are instead given the brief, reserved Andante, full of longbreathed phrases and elegant passages for the winds. After just a few minutes, we find ourselves thrust into the Primo tempo, which returns to the music from the second half of the first movement. Finally, in the very last passage, we briefly hear the dramatic opening music once again before the symphony comes to a close.

Piano Concerto No. 13 in C major, K. 415

First performance: March 11, 1783, in Vienna, with the composer conducting from the keyboard STL Symphony premiere: October 29, 1983, Lee Luvisi was soloist, with Alexander Schneider conducting the only previous performance Scoring: Solo piano and two oboes, two bassoons, two horn, two trumpets, timpani, and strings Performance time: Approximately 26 minutes

The Music The Piano Concerto No. 13 is a bit of an odd bird, and it has consequently suffered some abuse from critics and musicologists over the years. Chief among the complaints is that in this piece, Mozart can be said to abandon his musical ideas too quickly in his haste to get to the ones that come next. It is true that in the context of his complete works, the truly astonishing masterpieces that have made generations of listeners (and fellow composers) look upon Mozart with complete awe mostly Mozart, unauthenticated begin to emerge staring in 1784, after which point he portrait, mid-1780s seems to have been incapable of writing anything less than sublime. But his earlier works are great in their own way and only lose a bit of their luster when compared to Mozarts fully mature genius. In this concerto, for example, rather than trying to listen for themes prematurely cast aside, it is far more rewarding to marvel at the sheer

Mozart

wealth of ideas that spring from Mozarts pen, one after the otheras if the composer (still just 26-years-old, remember) cant wait to show the listener what hes going to do next. He juxtaposes sections of intricate polyphony with passages of delicate, songlike simplicity, and the soloist and orchestra sometimes seem to be having two different conversations at the same time. The final movement, in particular, is a whirlwind ride through Mozarts labyrinthine brain. A fascinating rondo, it establishes a standard refrain at the outset as the form demands, but that refrain is itself in three distinct sections, and when it returns over the course of the movement after each new theme is introduced, it is never quite the samemelodies are changed subtly or overtly, the duration of each section expands or contracts, and the impression it makes on the listener shifts accordingly.

Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, K. 447

First performance: Unknown STL Symphony premiere: December 10, 1944, Edward Murphy was soloist, with Vladimir Golschmann conducting Most recent STL Symphony performance: October 24, 1987, Hermann Baumann was soloist, with Raymond Leppard conducting Scoring: Solo horn and two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings Performance time: Approximately 16 minutes

The Music Mozart wrote all four of his horn concertos for his friend Joseph Leutgeb, whom he had known since Leutgeb became the principal horn player in Salzburgs orchestra in 1770. The hornist inherited a cheese shop in Vienna in 1777, and so moved to the larger city; when Mozart arrived a few years later, they were able to resume their friendship. The exact composition date of the Horn Concerto No. 3 is not known. The manuscript is marked Mozart, Della Croce 1783, but the inscription is not in Mozarts hand; some portrait, 1780-81 scholars suspect that it was written at least a few years later based on the scoring for wind instruments. But Mozart began keeping a catalog of his compositions in 1784, and this concerto does not appear in it, suggesting that it was completed before the catalog was begun. In any case, the work dates from the first five or so years Mozart spent in Vienna, and it shares much with the composers other concertos written during that time. It does not match the complexity and intricacy of the keyboard concertos, but after all, the horn is a much more limited partner to an orchestra than a piano. What it does have is a surpassing richness and, if played well, a beguiling purity of melody and timbre. Mozart emphasizes the wonderfully golden tone of the solo instrument and supports it with understated accompaniment from the orchestra. Counterintuitively, Mozart uses the limitations of the horn as a solo instrument to make it more dominant compared to the orchestrathe soloist seems to be a noble, dignified leader making profound declarations while his orchestral followers clamor for his attention.

Mozart

Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504, Prague

First performance: January 19, 1787, in Prague, Mozart conducting STL Symphony premiere: November 29, 1935, Vladimir Golschmann conducting Most recent STL Symphony performance: October 14, 2001, Hans Vonk conducting Scoring: Two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings Performance time: Approximately 26 minutes

The Music Mozart had experienced how much the Bohemians appreciated his music and how well they executed it. This he often mentioned to his acquaintances in Prague, where a hero-worshipping, responsive public and real friends carried him, so to speak, on their shoulders. So wrote one of Mozarts friends after the composers death, and how Mozart must have loved finally getting the recognition he so badly wanted and felt he so deserved. Judging from the Symphony No. 38, which he Mozart, drawing by Doris Stock, 1789 composed in the citys honor, Mozart must also have had faith in the sophistication and open-mindedness of the Prague public, as the work is more difficult to perform and more complicated conceptually than any of Mozarts previous symphonies. It also aspires to a higher level of artistic achievement than his earlier works in the genre, which also reflects the more exalted status the symphony was beginning to enjoy toward the end of Mozarts life. The work is in three movementsunusual to us now, but common during most of the Classical periodand shows the influence of Mozarts exposure to the symphonies of Haydn. The slow introduction to the first movement, with its pomp and dotted rhythms, has something of the French overture about it, and establishes the chromaticism that flavors the entire piece. The Andante second movement is a smoky, ephemeral thing, never seeming to settle down or speak directly. Themes float about and are developed and transformed, then disappear just as quickly. The Finale is jovial and straightforwarda striking contrast to the previous two movementsand it has more of the rambunctious spirit familiar from music by Haydn and Beethoven than Mozart generally indulged in. Perhaps he was already enjoying the enthusiastic response he knew the work would receive in his beloved Prague.
Program notes 2011 by Jay Goodwin

The St. Louis Symphony has invited four writers to produce program notes this season. New York City-based annotator Jay Goodwin writes for several ensembles across the United States and is on the editorial staff at Carnegie Hall.