The Philadelphia Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor Susan Graham Mezzo-soprano J. Strauss, Jr. “Thunder and Lightning” Polka, Op. 324 Mozart “Non so più,” from The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492 Mozart “Voi che sapete,” from The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492 Mozart “Parto, ma tu ben mio,” from La clemenza di Tito, K. 621 Haydn Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor (“Farewell”) I. Allegro assai II. Adagio III. Menuet: Allegretto IV. Presto—Adagio Intermission Suppé Overture to Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna Lehár “Vilja,” from The Merry Widow Offenbach “Ah! que j’aime les militaires,” from The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein Messager “J’ai deux amants,” from L’Amour masqué First Philadelphia Orchestra performance J. Strauss, Jr. “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” Waltz, Op. 314 This program runs approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes. Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit www.wrti. org to listen live or for more details. 27 Wednesday, December 31, at 7:30 PM Season 2014-2015
Transcript
The Philadelphia Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin ConductorSusan Graham Mezzo-soprano
J. Strauss, Jr. “Thunder and Lightning” Polka, Op. 324
Mozart “Non so più,” from The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492
Mozart “Voi che sapete,” from The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492
Mozart “Parto, ma tu ben mio,” from La clemenza di Tito, K. 621
Haydn Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor (“Farewell”) I. Allegro assai II. Adagio III. Menuet: Allegretto IV. Presto—Adagio
Intermission
Suppé Overture to Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna
Lehár “Vilja,” from The Merry Widow
Offenbach “Ah! que j’aime les militaires,” from The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein
Messager “J’ai deux amants,” from L’Amour masqué First Philadelphia Orchestra performance
J. Strauss, Jr. “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” Waltz, Op. 314
This program runs approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes.
Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.
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Wednesday, December 31, at 7:30 PM
Season 2014-2015
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The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of imagination and innovation on and off the concert stage. The Orchestra is transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging—and exceeding—that level by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world.
Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s highly collaborative style, deeply-rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike since his inaugural season in 2012. Under his leadership the Orchestra returned to recording with a celebrated CD of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions on the Deutsche Grammophon label, continuing its history of recording success. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of listeners on the radio with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.
Philadelphia is home, and the Orchestra nurtures an important relationship with patrons who support the main season at the Kimmel Center, and also with those who enjoy the Orchestra’s other area performances at the Mann Center, Penn’s Landing, and other cultural, civic, and learning venues. The Orchestra maintains a strong commitment to collaborations with cultural and community organizations on a regional and national level.
Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, the Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the United States. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, today The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts a new partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. The ensemble annually performs at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vail, Colorado.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has a decades-long tradition of presenting learning and community engagement opportunities for listeners of all ages. The Orchestra’s recent initiative, the Fabulous Philadelphians Offstage, Philly Style!, has taken musicians off the traditional concert stage and into the community, including highly-successful Pop-Up concerts, PlayINs, SingINs, and ConductINs. The Orchestra’s musicians, in their own dedicated roles as teachers, coaches, and mentors, serve a key role in growing young musician talent and a love of classical music, nurturing and celebrating the wealth of musicianship in the Philadelphia region. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Jessica Griffin
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Music DirectorMusic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin continues his inspired leadership of The Philadelphia Orchestra, which began in the fall of 2012. His highly collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm, paired with a fresh approach to orchestral programming, have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called Nézet-Séguin “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.” He has taken the Orchestra to new musical heights. Highlights of his third season as music director include an Art of the Pipe Organ festival; the 40/40 Project, in which 40 great compositions that haven’t been heard on subscription concerts in at least 40 years will be performed; and Bernstein’s MASS, the pinnacle of the Orchestra’s five-season requiem cycle.
Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most exciting talents of his generation. He has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008 and artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. He also continues to enjoy a close relationship with the London Philharmonic, of which he was principal guest conductor. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles, and he has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with a CD on that label of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Leopold Stokowski transcriptions. He continues a fruitful recording relationship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic and Choir for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique.
A native of Montreal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied at that city’s Conservatory of Music and continued lessons with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors; a Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada’s National Arts Centre Award; the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec; and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor.
Chris Lee
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SoloistDubbed “America’s favorite mezzo” by Gramophone magazine, Susan Graham rose to the highest echelon of international artists within just a few years of her professional debut, mastering an astonishing range of repertoire and genres along the way. Her operatic roles span four centuries, from Monteverdi’s Poppea to Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, which was written especially for her. She won a Grammy Award for her collection of Ives songs, and her most recent album, Virgins, Vixens & Viragos, features 14 composers from Purcell to Sondheim, reflecting her broad recital repertoire. She made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1991 and last appeared with the Philadelphians in 2011.
Ms. Graham’s earliest operatic successes were in such “trouser” roles as Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. She has sung on all the world’s major opera stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Paris Opera, La Scala, and at the Salzburg Festival. She sang the leading ladies in the Met’s world premieres of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby and Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy, and made her Dallas Opera debut as Tina in a new production of The Aspern Papers by Dominick Argento. Recent performance highlights include Prince Orlofsky in Houston Grand Opera’s staging of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Sycorax in the Met’s Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island. In June Ms. Graham made her musical theater debut in a new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. In November she headlined a star-studded gala concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Upcoming performances include a return to the Met in the title role of Susan Stroman’s new production of Lehar’s The Merry Widow and a season-ending return to San Francisco Opera in her signature role as Didon in Berlioz’s Les Troyens. A Texas native, the distinctly American Ms. Graham has been recognized as one of the foremost exponents of French vocal music: She was awarded the French government’s prestigious Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur for her popularity as a performer in France and in honor of her commitment to French music.
Dario A
costa
Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825-99): “Thunder and Lightning” Polka
For more than two centuries, Vienna was surrounded by walls, fortifications against seemingly endless attacks from the neighboring Turks. But the 1800s brought a prospect of peace, and in 1857 the last of the fortress walls was brought down. Those vestiges of Vienna’s besieged past made way for a magnificent boulevard called the Ringstrasse, and as if on cue, everybody was dancing. Salons, coffee houses (the latter a gift of the invading Turks), and ballrooms were suddenly populated by musicians playing dance music for happy crowds. Two dance forms predominated: the waltz, a kind of sped-up version of a folk dance in three-four time called the Ländler, and the polka, a racing, palpitating piece in rollicking two-four. The leading musicians of this hedonistic renaissance were the Strauss family, headed by Johann Strauss Sr., and including three of his sons: Josef, Eduard, and the greatest of them all, Johann Strauss Jr., dubbed “The Waltz King.” Junior did pretty well with polkas, too, including this sparkling gem, composed for the 1868 Hesperus Ball.
—Kenneth LaFave
Wolfgang Amadè Mozart (1756-91): “Non so più” and “Voi che sapete,” from The Marriage of Figaro
The next two selections are arias from Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro (1786). They are both sung by the character of the lovesick Cherubino, a “trouser role,” or male role sung by a female. Other examples of such operatic cross-dressing include Oscar in Verdi’s A Masked Ball and Octavian, the young “Knight of the Rose” in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Musical comedy has its most famous such part in the title role of Peter Pan. Young Cherubino is in the flush of first love, the object of his ardor being a beautiful older woman, the Countess. “Non so più” is all rushing enthusiasm and the blissful disorientation of youthful discovery.
In “Voi che sapete” from the second-act, Cherubino presents a song he has written in honor of the Countess, lyrically pleading for some key to the mystery that is love. Mozart was expert at tone-painting—conveying a character, emotion, or situation in music. In the text for this aria, by Mozart’s famed librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, Cherubino is at first jubilant in his celebration of love, but line-by-line becomes confused and overwhelmed, even momentarily depressed. Mozart “paints” this by starting the music in clear, confident B-flat major, then clouding it with notes from other keys until the melody lands momentarily in A-flat, literally as well as psychologically down from the beginning. As Cherubino finds perspective and learns to embrace his confusion as part of the love experience, the notes reassemble within a stable B-flat major.
—Kenneth LaFave
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“Non so più”(Lorenzo Da Ponte)
Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio …
Or di foco, ora sono di ghiaccio …Ogni donna cangiar di colore,ogni donna mi fa palpitar.Solo ai nomi d’amor, di dilettomi si turba, mi s’altera il pettoe a parlare mi sforza d’amoreun desío ch’io non posso spiegar!
Non so più (etc.)
Parlo d’amor vegliando,parlo d’amor sognando,all’acqua, all’ombra, ai monti,ai fior, all’erbe, ai fonti,all’eco, all’aria, ai venti,che il suon dei vani accentiportano via con sè …E se non ho chi m’odaparlo d’amor con me.
“I No Longer Know”
I no longer know what I am or what I’m doing …
Now I’m burning, now I’m made of ice …Every woman makes me change color,every woman makes me tremble.At the very word love or belovedmy heart leaps and pounds,and to speak of it fills mewith a longing I can’t explain!
I no longer know (etc.)
I speak of love when I’m awake,I speak of it in my dreams,to the stream, the shade, the mountains,to the flowers, the grass, the fountains,to the echo, the air, the breezes,which carry away with themthe sound of my fond words …And if I’ve non to hear meI speak of love to myself.
“Voi che sapete”(Lorenzo Da Ponte)
Voi che sapete che cosa è amor,donne, vedete s’io l’ho nel cor.Quello ch’io provo vi ridirò;è per me nuovo, capir nol so.Sento un affetto pien di desir,ch’ora è diletto, ch’ora è martir.Gelo, e poi sento l’alma avvampar,e in un momento torno a gelar.Ricerco un bene fuori di me,non so chi’l tiene, non so cos’è.Sospiro e gemo senza voler,palpito e tremo senza saper.Non trovo pace notte, nè dí,ma pur mi piace languir così.Voi che sapete che cosa è amor,donne, vedete s’io l’ho nel cor.
“You Ladies Who Know”
You ladies who know what love is,see if it is what I have in my heart.All that I feel I will explain;since it is new to me, I don’t understand it.I have a feeling full of desire,which now is pleasure, now is torment.I freeze, then I feel my spirit all ablaze,and the next moment turn again to ice.I seek for a treasure outside of myself;I know not who holds it nor what it is.I sigh and groan without wishing to,I flutter and tremble without knowing why.I find no peace by night or day,but yet to languish thus is sheer delight.You ladies who know what love is,see if it is what I have in my heart.
—English translations by Darrin T. Britting
This aria from La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus) features the voice in dialogue with solo clarinet. The clarinet (in its modern form) was new in Mozart’s time, and the composer showed an instant affinity for it, as if the color and range of the clarinet were a kind of instrumental doppelgänger for the human voice. In addition to using it here as the echoing conscience of the character, Mozart wrote a concerto and a quintet featuring the instrument. La clemenza di Tito, commissioned to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia, was composed in six weeks over the summer of 1791 (the composer’s last) in between chunks of time devoted to writing The Magic Flute. It is sometimes referred to as Mozart’s last opera, although parts of Flute were composed after the premiere of Clemenza on September 6.
The plot concerns a labyrinth of plotting against the Roman Emperor Titus, or Tito, who remains above the fray throughout and, in the end, forgives everybody. The story was well known, and in fact, Mozart used an edited version of a libretto by Metastasio that had been set to music dozens of times previously. “Parto, ma tu ben mio” is sung by Sesto, who is in love with the daughter of the emperor deposed by Tito. Thirsting for revenge, the daughter urges Sesto to assassinate Tito, and Sesto agrees, but the aria reveals him to be of two minds—one sung and the other “played” by the clarinet.
La clemenza di Tito seems to occupy a completely different universe from that of The Marriage of Figaro, and not without good reason. Mozart applied different harmonic and formal vocabularies to differing theatrical contexts. The style of music used for an opera about the craziness of love shouldn’t also be used for an opera praising a generous monarch. So, while Figaro is truly dramatic, revealing character and motive in every bar, Clemenza is more ceremonial, like ritual rather than drama. It’s written as a traditional opera seria, or “serious opera,” in the manner favored by the courts of the 18th century, something Mozart hadn’t touched since his early masterpiece, Idomeneo.
—Kenneth LaFave
Wolfgang Amadè Mozart: “Parto, ma tu ben mio,” from La clemenza di Tito
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“Parto, ma tu ben mio”(Pietro Metastasio)
Parto, parto, ma tu ben mio, meco ritorna in pace; sarò qual più ti piace, quel che vorrai farò.
Guardami, e tutto obblio, e a vendicarti io volo;a questo sguardo solo da me si penserà.
Ah qual poter, oh Dei,donaste alla beltà!
“I Go, but You My Love”
I go, I go, but you my love,make peace with me;I shall be what pleases you most,I will do as you like.
Look at me, and I will forget everything;I shall fly to avenge you.Only of your lookshall I think.
Ah, what power, oh gods,you have given to beauty!
—English translation by Darrin T. Britting
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Symphony No. 45 (“Farewell”)
The nicknames attached to Haydn symphonies are legion, and none of them, to the best of our knowledge, originated with the composer. No. 22 is “The Philosopher,” while No. 31 is the “Horn Signal.” “The Bear” (No. 82) has a bearishly lumbering folk dance in the last movement, and “The Hen” features a clucking tune in the first movement. There’s an “Oxford” and a “Drum Roll” and a “Surprise.” No. 45 got its name, the “Farewell,” because Haydn concocted to get his musicians to leave the stage, a few at a time, at the Symphony’s end—a literal farewell.
Why? Haydn and his orchestra musicians served Prince Esterhazy, whose usual abode was either in Vienna or Eisenstadt. But when the Hungarian Prince built a summer castle on the Austro-Hungarian border, it became his favorite dwelling. Summers stretched into the fall, and in the year 1772 November found the Prince and his entourage still in their summer home. This was too much for the musicians, who longed to leave the isolated castle and to see their wives. The story has it that they imposed upon Haydn to get this message across to the loitering prince. Rather than use words, the composer used music. In the final movement of a symphony he was preparing to premiere that month, he inserted a sudden stop. The closing movement of a symphony is typically a fast-tempo piece that tends to rush headlong toward a loud finale. The last movement of the “Farewell” Symphony begins as a Presto all right. It’s a brisk, clever whirligig of notes in the Symphony’s main key of F-sharp minor. The melody is almost impish, and one anticipates a smash-up last few measures. They don’t arrive. Instead, the Presto stops cold and an Adagio takes its place. Haydn wrote into the score instructions to the musicians to leave, in small groups, after each iteration of the Adagio theme, until only
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a pair of violins were left behind, bringing the movement to a lonely, pathetic end. The Prince took the hint. The next day, everybody packed up to leave.
It would not do the score justice to focus only on the trick ending, however. This is a substantive symphony in what is called the Sturm und Drang, or “storm and stress,” manner of the mid-18th century. The first movement, Allegro assai, races out of the gate in a ferocious three-four meter featuring relentless eighth notes in the lower strings. The first violins have the theme, which is a sort of reverse “rocket.” (The Mannheim rocket is a melodic gesture that consisted of outlining a chord with an upward arpeggio.) This theme outlines the dark key of F-sharp minor, but with a subject that plunges down instead of ascends. The exposition proceeds in the usual manner, with a lovely second subject to contrast with the aggressive first one, but what’s really interesting is the development, in which the first subject is played in A major, revealing a whole new, optimistic horizon that has emerged from the darkness. Of course, this makes the return of the theme in its original minor dress all the more threatening and “stormy,” in keeping with the style.
The luxuriously long second movement is also in triple meter, somewhat unusual for an Adagio following an Allegro that was also in three. The gracious melody is in A major, the parallel major of F-sharp minor and the key that dominated the development of the first movement. Musicologist James Webster has found in this tender orchestral song a “yearning for home,” as clear a message to the Prince as the upcoming shocker of an ending. The Minuet (Allegretto) in three, as are all minuets, is in F-sharp major and evinces a robust sensibility akin to a drinking song. The finale, marked Presto, at first promises the expected bustling conclusion, this time at last in a two-count meter, but it is interrupted after a while by the famous turn to an Adagio, once more in three. It’s a sorrowful little tune, and as it is played, the musicians exit, in this prescribed order: first oboe and second horn; bassoon; second oboe and first horn; double bass; cellos; violins except for first chairs; violas. At the end, only a pair of reluctant, melancholy violinists remain.
—Kenneth LaFave
Franz von Suppé (1819-95): Overture to Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna
Suppé was a 19th-century operetta composer known today principally for two overtures: those to Poet and Peasant and Light Cavalry. But the present piece has currency as well, especially as the main musical subject of the cartoon Baton Bunny, featuring Bugs Bunny.
—Kenneth LaFave
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Franz Lehár (1870-1948): “Vilja,” from The Merry Widow
Lehár was the leading master of the “silver” period in Viennese operetta, that following the “golden” period of Johann Strauss the younger. His most enduring hit was The Merry Widow (1905), a charmer about a community’s efforts to keep a wealthy widow (and her inheritance) from leaving their country by finding her a lover. This aria and the operetta’s title waltz are its best-known excerpts. “Vilja” does not really relate directly to the plot. It’s sung at the top of Act II by Hanna (the widow in question) as an “old song of Pontevedro,” the mythical country of the libretto.
—Kenneth LaFave
“Vilja”(Victor Léon and Leo Stein)
Es lebt’ eine Vilja, ein Waldmägdelein,ein Jäger erschaut’ sie im Felsengestein!Dem Burschen, dem wurde so eigen zu Sinn,er schaute und schaut auf das
Waldmägdelein hin.Und ein nie gekannter Schauer fasst den
jungen Jägersmann,sehnsuchtsvoll fing er still zu seufzen an!
Vilja, o Vilja, Du Waldmägdelein,fass’ mich und lass’ mich Dein Trautliebster
sein.Vilja, o Vilja, was thust Du mir an?Bang fleht ein liebkranker Mann!
Das Waldmägdelein streckte die Hand nach ihm aus
und zog ihn hinein in ihr felsiges Haus;dem Burschen die Sinne vergangen fast sind,so liebt und so küsst gar kein irdisches
Kind.Als sie sich dann satt geküsst verschwand
sie zu derselben Frist!Einmal noch hat der Arme sie gegrüsst:
Vilja, o Vilja, Du Waldmägdelein,fass’ mich und lass’ mich Dein Trautliebster
sein.Vilja, o Vilja, was thust Du mir an?Bang fleht ein liebkranker Mann.
“Forest Maid”
Once there was a vilja, a forest-maiden,and a hunter who watched her on the rocks!It struck the young man as so odd,that he kept looking and looking
at the forest-maiden. And suddenly o’er the young huntsman
came a thrill he had never known before,and with longing he began to sigh!
Vilja, O vilja, you young forest-maid,hold me and let me be your most
true love. Vilja, O vilja, what is it you are doing to me?A fearful, lovesick man beseeches you!
The forest-maid stretched out her hand to the youth,
and drew him into her craggy house;the lad’s senses were nearly gone by now,no maid of the earth loves and kisses like
that. And when she had her fill of kisses,
she disappeared immediately!Once more the poor fellow called out to her:
Vilja, O vilja, you young forest-maid,hold me and let me be your most
true love. Vilja, O vilja, what is it you are doing to me?A fearful, lovesick man beseeches you!
—English translation by Paul J. Horsley
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Jacques Offenbach (1819-80): “Ah! que j’aime les militaires,” from The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein
Offenbach was a spectacularly successful German-born French composer of operettas. He penned nearly 100, and many of them continue in the repertoire to this day, including The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein. First produced in 1867, it was a hit with Parisians, beginning with Napoleon III, who attended the premiere. But satiric elements made fun of the military, and when the French were defeated in a war with Prussia in 1871, the work was banned for many years.
—Kenneth LaFave
“Ah! que j’aime les militaires!”(Henri Meilhac)
Vous aimez le danger,le péril vous attire,et vous ferez votre devoir!Vous partirez demain,et moi je viens vous dire,non pas adieu, mais au revoir!
Ah! que j’aime les militaires,leur uniforme coquet,leur moustache et leur plumet.Ah! que j’aime les militaires,leur air vainqueur, leurs manières,en eux tout me plait.Quand je vois là mes soldats,prèts à partir pour la guerre,fixes droits l’oeil à quinze pas,vrai Dieu je suis toute fière.Seront-ils vainqueurs ou défaits?Je n’en sais rien, ce que je sais …
Ah! que j’aime les militaires!
Je sais ce que je voudrais,je voudrais être cantinière,près d’eux toujours je seraiset je les griserais,avec eux, vaillante et légère,au combat je m’élanceraise.Cela me plairait-il la guerer?Je n’en sais rien, ce que je sais …
Ah! que j’aime les militaires, etc.
“Ah! How I Love Soldiers”
You love danger,peril attracts youand you will do your duty!You will depart tomorrow,and I have come to saynot “goodbye” but “till we meet again.”
Ah! How I love soldiers,their cute uniforms,their mustaches and their plumes.Ah! How I love soldiers!their air of conquest, their ways—I love everything about them.When I see my soldiers here, ready to go off to war,standing at attention, eyes front,my goodness, how proud I am!Will they win or lose?I can’t tell. What I do know is …
Ah! How I love soldiers!
I know what I’d like:I’d like to be a canteen keeper.I’d always be near themand I’d get them drunk.Alongside them, courageously and lightly,I’d plunge into battle.Would I like war?I can’t tell. What I do know is …
Ah! How I love soldiers! etc.
—English translation by Darrin T. Britting
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André Messager (1853-1929): “J’ai deux amants,” from L’Amour masqué
A French composer of comic operas, Messager studied under such heavy hitters as Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Fauré. Though his stage works have left the repertoire, this charming (and “naughty”) little aria from his 1923 operetta L’Amour masqué remains a concert favorite.
—Kenneth LaFave
“J’ai deux amants”(Sacha Guitry)
J’ai deux amants c’est beaucoup mieux,car je fais croire à chacun d’euxque l’autre est le monsieur sérieux.Mon Dieu, que c’est bête les hommes!Ils me donnent la même sommeexactement par mois,et je fais croire à chacun d’eux,que l’autre m’a donné la double chaque
fois,et me foi, ils me croient, ils me croient tous
les deux.
Je ne sais pas comment nous sommes,mais, mon Dieu, que c’est bête un homme!Alors, vous pensez … deux!
Un seul amant, c’est ennuyeux,c’est monotone et soupçonneux,tandis que deux c’est vraiment mieux.Mon Dieu! Que les hommes sont bêtes!On les f’rait marcher sur la têtefacilement, je crois,si par malheur ils n’avaient pasà cet endroit précis des ramures de boisqui leur vont! Et leur font un beau front
ombrageux!
Je ne sais pas comment nous sommes,mais, mon Dieu, que c’est bête un homme!Alors, vous pensez … deux!
“I Have Two Lovers”
I have two lovers, it’s so much better,for I make each one believethe other is the serious one.My God! How stupid men are!They give me exactly the same amounteach monthand I make each one believethe other gives me twice as much each
time, and my word, they believe me, they both
believe me.
I don’t know what women are,but, my God! Men, they’re stupid!And then, just think … two!
To have just one lover is boring,monotonous, and suspicious,while two is truly better.My God! How stupid men are!One could get them to walk on their headseasily, I think,if they did not unfortunately have,precisely there, antlers of woodthat suit them so, and create such
delightful shade!
I don’t know what women are,But, my God! Men, they’re stupid!And then, just think … two!
—English translation by Darrin T. Britting
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Johann Strauss, Jr.: “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” Waltz
The world’s most famous waltz began as a commission from a Viennese men’s choral organization. The text was a simple verse in praise of the Danube River. Strauss composed it in 1867. The premiere, in the version with men’s chorus, was greeted indifferently, but when Strauss introduced an all-orchestral version in concert later that year at the Wiener Volksgarten, the lilting strains of this irresistible waltz shot to immediate popularity. The “Blue Danube” Waltz is now the unofficial national anthem of Austria, and is inescapable when talking of, or thinking about, Vienna.
After a slow, dramatic introduction in A major, the piece settles down to a waltz tempo in gracious D major. The now-familiar melody swells from the chords of the key as naturally as waves might from the Danube itself. The famous opening notes are nothing more than a D-major chord arpeggiated, and this gesture continues throughout the waltz’s first strain. The rest of the waltz grows naturally out of the opening. Even the reflective slow section in F major starts by outlining an ascending F-major chord, while the brilliant coda piles arpeggiated triad upon arpeggiated triad until the end comes in an irresistible frenzy.
The distinguished music critic Eduard Hanslick called this waltz “the definition of all that is Vienna: beautiful, pleasant, and merry.” It has been arranged for every possible combination of musicians, the most ubiquitous being that for symphony orchestra without voices. Strauss’s friend, the great symphonic composer Johannes Brahms, once signed an autograph by writing out the opening of the “Blue Danube” and signing it, “Unfortunately, not by Johannes Brahms.”
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January The Philadelphia Orchestra
Eschenbach Visits with Strauss and SchumannThursday, January 8 8 PM Friday, January 9 2 PM Saturday, January 10 8 PMChristoph Eschenbach Conductor Jennifer Montone Horn
St. Petersburg Festival 1: TchaikovskyThursday, January 15 8 PM Friday, January 16 2 PM Saturday, January 17 8 PMYannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor
Glazunov “Winter,” from The Seasons Tchaikovsky Selections from The Nutcracker Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
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