Details

Calgary's Katherine Chi tackles a titan - Beethoven's mighty "Emperor" Concerto. Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger is a titan of the opera repertoire, and this evening marks the first Canadian performance of this glorious orchestral tribute.

Stay after the show for Afterthoughts, our popular and casual post-concert reception, where you can meet Eri Klas and Katherine Chi, and gain insight into the performance.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor"
Wagner: Die Meistersinger: An Orchestral Tribute (Arranged by Vlieger)

$69 Dress Circle (A)
$59 Terrace (B)
$51 Orchestra (C)
$38 Upper Circle (D)
$28 Gallery (E)
$20 Orchestra Front (F)
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The next Friday Masters performance is January 22, 2010.

Program Information

Program

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" (38')*
 Katherine Chi, piano

Intermission

Wagner: Die Meistersinger: An Orchestral Tribute (Arranged by Vlieger) (50')*

*Indicates approximate performance duration

Program Notes

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op.73 “Emperor”
Ludwig van Beethoven
(b. Bonn, 1770 / d. Vienna, 1827)

First performance: November 28, 1811 in Vienna
Last ESO performance: Enbridge Symphony Under the Sky 2004

The occupation of Vienna by Napoleon’s army in 1809 took a spiritual as well as physical toll on Beethoven. He took refuge with his brother Kaspar, and on those occasions when cannon fire could be heard, he covered his head with a pillow, protecting his nearly-deaf but still highly sensitive ears. Following the Treaty of Vienna’s signing in October, when life began to return to normal, Beethoven’s pent-up artistic soul gave vent to an outpouring of music. He finished his Op.74 String Quartet, the “Les Adieux” Piano Sonata, and his Fifth Piano Concerto. It is no coincidence that all of these works are scored in E-flat Major, a key which, for Beethoven, had “heroic” or “triumphant” connotations (it is also the key of his “Heroic” Third Symphony).

According to a report, it was a French soldier in the audience at the work’s premiere who proclaimed the concerto to be “the Emperor of concertos,” and the name has stuck. It was likely an unexpected move for the audience to hear, after a declamatory E-flat Major chord in the orchestra, the piano make its entrance with an extended series of arpeggios. The orchestra then states the main first theme, answered boldly by piano. A second theme is also developed, and the vast movement nears its end with a cadenza written out note-for-note by Beethoven.

The second movement is divided between two themes. The first is a quiet one for the strings – as simple and as beautiful as any melody Beethoven ever wrote. The piano enters, also quietly, with its own theme. Variations of these melodies make up the movement until, with a subtle drop of a semi-tone, the principal theme of the third movement is at first tentatively presented, then banged out joyously on piano, answered with equal exuberance by the orchestra. Listen toward the end of this happy conclusion, when the piano shares a duet with the timpani, leading to the rousing finish.


Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – An Orchestral Tribute (arr. de Vlieger)
Richard Wagner
(b. Leipzig, 1813 / d. Venice, 1883)

Opera first performed: The Prelude and a concert version was first performed November 1, 1862 in Leipzig. The entire opera was first performed June 21, 1868 in Munich
Orchestral Tribute first performed: September 29, 2006 in Moscow
This is the ESO premiere of this arrangement

Program Note by Henk de Vlieger

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg holds a special place among Wagner’s works. Firstly, it is his only “comic” opera. For a change, the subject is not based on a myth or saga, and all characters are regular people. One of them, Hans Sachs, even actually existed. The story is set in the historical context of 16th century Nuremberg and is quite politically charged, as it depicts the relationship between artist, tradition and society. The text, like his other operas written by Wagner himself, also breathes this atmosphere. The lines are longer than in previous works, and rhyme in the usual manner. Some songs are involved, built from several stanzas.

Musically, Die Meistersinger also deviates from Wagner’s other operas. In previous works he developed a musical idiom that was defined by increasingly progressive chromaticism and short musical phrases. This culminated in his love drama Tristan und Isolde, where even tonality is called into question. In Die Meistersinger, Wagner returns to a mostly diatonic idiom. The most important themes, including Walther’s Prize song which is the opera’s culmination, appear in the key of C Major. Another striking musical aspect is the brilliant counterpoint (the simultaneous combination of two or more melodies), that Wagner handles here in a masterly way. Nearly the entire score is pervaded with this technique. The orchestra with which Wagner realized all this is quite small compared to his other operas. Typically romantic colours he usually employed, like the English horn and bass clarinet, are completely absent here. Nevertheless, the opera is filled with instrumental ingenuities and the orchestra is often allowed to shine in all its glory. Through the precise application of all these elements, Wagner moulded Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg into a beautiful and very original score, that can be considered as one of the most accessible works.

Although Wagner’s music was meant for the theatre, it was conceived and executed from a symphonic concept. As in a classical symphony, Wagner introduced themes and motifs which he then developed and organised in ordered structures. This makes his music, with some adaptation, very suitable for symphonic concerts. With this in mind, Dutch percussionist and arranger Henk de Vlieger has made three symphonic compilations of Wagner’s work in the 1990’s: The Ring - an orchestral adventure, Parsifal - an orchestral quest, and Tristan & Isolde - an orchestral passion. In order to do this, he selected the most important fragments and placed them in a new symphonic context.  Vocal parts were left out or (when needed) replaced by instruments, and in order to give the works a continuous musical argument he created new connections between these fragments, naturally preserving Wagner’s stylistic features. In 2005 he added a fourth arrangement to the three: Meistersinger – an orchestral tribute. This arrangement is made up of eleven fragments that form an orchestral suite from the opera and flow into each other without interruption. Through thematic coherence, the development of motifs and recurrence of melodies, this arrangement could very well be regarded as a large symphonic poem or even as a symphony. 

Program Note Beethoven © 2009 D.T. Baker; Program Note Wagner © 2009 Henk de Vlieger

Program notes © 2009 by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and its respective annotators. All Rights Reserved. Program notes may not be printed in their entirety without the written consent of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra; excerpts may be quoted if due acknowledgment is given to the author and to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. For reprint permission, contact D.T. Baker, Music Resource, by email, dave.baker@winspearcentre.com.
 
These notes appear in galley files prepared for Signature magazine, official publication of the ESO, and may contain typographical or other errors, or may differ from the final print version. Programs and artists subject to change without notice.

Artist Information

Eri Klas, conductor

 

Eri Klas, a native of Estonia whose musical godfather was the legendary violinist and conductor David Oistrakh, made his US debut in 1991 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Since then he has appeared with most of the major North American orchestras including the Boston, Cleveland, San Francisco, St. Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati, Vancouver and National symphonies, and the Minnesota Orchestra. Mr. Klas was named the Chief Conductor of the Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow in March 2006. In addition, he is the Artistic Director of the Tallinn Philharmonic in Estonia; Principal Guest Conductor of the Finnish National Opera and the Holland Kammerphilharmonie; and Conductor Laureate of the Tampere Philharmonic and the Estonian National Opera. He has guest conducted the Berlin, Munich and Rotterdam Philharmonics and appears regularly with the Tonhalle Orchestra, Swedish and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras, BBC Philharmonic, and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra among others.

Eri Klas’ most recent release is Meistersinger – An Orchestral Tribute, a work he presents at this ESO performance. He began his conducting studies at the Tallinn Conservatory, then went on to St. Petersburg to work with Nikolai Rabinovich. In 1969, he was appointed assistant conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and for the next 12 years regularly conducted the Bolshoi orchestra. He was named Music Director in 1975 of the Estonian National Opera, where he served for 20 years. Between 1985 and 1990, he was Music Director of the Royal Opera in Stockholm and was Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1996-2003. Mr. Klas has been awarded the Order of “Nordstjernen” from His Majesty King Carl Gustav of Sweden, the Order of Finnish Lion and an honorary doctorate from the Estonian Music Academy. A former Estonian lightweight junior boxing champion, he is a member of the Estonian Olympic Committee, Chairman of the Estonian Cultural Foundation and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

This is Mr. Klas’ debut with the ESO.

 

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Katherine Chi, piano

 

Pianist Katherine Chi has performed throughout Europe and North America to great acclaim. “Ms Chi displayed a keen musical intelligence and a powerful arsenal of technique” wrote the New York Times about her New York debut. She has established herself as one of Canada’s fastest rising classical music stars. Recent and upcoming performances include her recital debut at Lincoln Center, a return to Britain for recital and chamber music programs in Newcastle, and appearances with the Vancouver Symphony, Victoria Symphony, and National Arts Centre Orchestra. Other concerts include stops in Beijing, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, Dresden, Leipzig, Montréal, and Ottawa. In addition, Ms. Chi is the artistic director and pianist in a series of concerts featuring Stockhausen’s Mantra, and she has just toured the Western US and Canada with the Debussy Quartet.

Ms. Chi gave her debut recital at the age of nine. A year later she was accepted to The Curtis Institute of Music. She continued studies with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she received her Master's degree and Graduate and Artist Diplomas. She later studied for two years at the International Piano Foundation in Como, Italy, and at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Other teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Galina Eguirazarova, and Wassily Lobanov. Ms. Chi was a prizewinner at the 1998 Busoni International Piano Competition and was the first Canadian and first woman to win Canada’s Honens International Piano Competition. Her debut recording, of works by Beethoven and Rachmaninov, was released in 2003 on Canada’s Arktos label. At the present time she is a resident in Boston where she teaches and pursues her Doctorate at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Ms. Chi last appeared with the ESO in October 2008.

Media

Glenn Gould performs the "Emperor Concerto" with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra: