27
Season 2014-2015
Wednesday, December 31,
at 7:30 PM
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.
3 Story Title
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The Philadelphia Orchestra
Jessica Griffin
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 PopUp 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.
6
Music Director
Chris Lee
Music 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 fiveseason 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.
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Soloist
Dario Acosta
Dubbed “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.
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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)
“I No Longer Know”
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 diletto
mi si turba, mi s’altera il petto
e a parlare mi sforza d’amore
un desío ch’io non posso spiegar!
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 beloved
my heart leaps and pounds,
and to speak of it fills me
with a longing I can’t explain!
Non so più (etc.)
I no longer know (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 accenti
portano via con sè …
E se non ho chi m’oda
parlo d’amor con me.
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 them
the sound of my fond words …
And if I’ve non to hear me
I speak of love to myself.
“Voi che sapete”
(Lorenzo Da Ponte)
“You Ladies Who Know”
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 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
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Wolfgang Amadè Mozart: “Parto, ma tu ben mio,”
from La clemenza di Tito
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
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“Parto, ma tu ben mio”
(Pietro Metastasio)
“I Go, but You My Love”
Parto, parto, ma tu ben mio,
meco ritorna in pace;
sarò qual più ti piace,
quel che vorrai farò.
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.
Guardami, e tutto obblio,
e a vendicarti io volo;
a questo sguardo solo
da me si penserà.
Look at me, and I will forget everything;
I shall fly to avenge you.
Only of your look
shall I think.
Ah qual poter, oh Dei,
donaste alla beltà!
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)
“Forest Maid”
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!
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, Du Waldmägdelein,
fass’ mich und lass’ mich Dein Trautliebster
sein.
Vilja, o Vilja, was thust Du mir an?
Bang fleht ein liebkranker Mann!
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!
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:
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, Du Waldmägdelein,
fass’ mich und lass’ mich Dein Trautliebster
sein.
Vilja, o Vilja, was thust Du mir an?
Bang fleht ein liebkranker Mann.
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)
“Ah! How I Love Soldiers”
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!
You love danger,
peril attracts you
and you will do your duty!
You will depart tomorrow,
and I have come to say
not “goodbye” but “till we meet again.”
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! 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! que j’aime les militaires!
Ah! How I love soldiers!
Je sais ce que je voudrais,
je voudrais être cantinière,
près d’eux toujours je serais
et 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 …
I know what I’d like:
I’d like to be a canteen keeper.
I’d always be near them
and 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! que j’aime les militaires, etc.
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)
“I Have Two Lovers”
J’ai deux amants c’est beaucoup mieux,
car je fais croire à chacun d’eux
que l’autre est le monsieur sérieux.
Mon Dieu, que c’est bête les hommes!
Ils me donnent la même somme
exactement 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.
I have two lovers, it’s so much better,
for I make each one believe
the other is the serious one.
My God! How stupid men are!
They give me exactly the same amount
each month
and I make each one believe
the other gives me twice as much each
time,
and my word, they believe me, they both
believe me.
Je ne sais pas comment nous sommes,
mais, mon Dieu, que c’est bête un homme!
Alors, vous pensez … deux!
I don’t know what women are,
but, my God! Men, they’re stupid!
And then, just think … two!
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 tête
facilement, je crois,
si par malheur ils n’avaient pas
à cet endroit précis des ramures de bois
qui leur vont! Et leur font un beau front
ombrageux!
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 heads
easily, I think,
if they did not unfortunately have,
precisely there, antlers of wood
that suit them so, and create such
delightful shade!
Je ne sais pas comment nous sommes,
mais, mon Dieu, que c’est bête un homme!
Alors, vous pensez … deux!
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
40
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.”
—Kenneth LaFave
Program notes commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra Association; © 2014 Kenneth LaFave.
All rights reserved.
41
January
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Strauss Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1
Schumann Symphony No. 2
St. Petersburg Festival 1: Tchaikovsky
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Friday, January 16 2 PM
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Glazunov “Winter,” from The Seasons
Tchaikovsky Selections from The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
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42
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