CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 8:00 PM

Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Peter Oundjian, Music Director and Conductor
Ute Lemper
Hudson Shad

WEILL The Seven Deadly Sins

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 11 in G Minor, Op. 103, "The Year 1905"

Encore:
ELGAR "Nimrod" from Enigma Variations

Program Notes:

KURT WEILL The Seven Deadly Sins
Born Dessau, Germany on March 2, 1900; died New York on April 3, 1950

Composed in 1933, The Seven Deadly Sins was premiered on June 7 of that year at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris with conductor Maurice Abravanel and choreographer George Balanchine. It receives its Carnegie Hall concert premiere in its entirety this evening.

The partnership between Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht has long enjoyed a quasi-mythic status: so much so that it is easy to forget just how volatile it was in practice. Their work together defined an era, yet the actual collaboration lasted only a few years, ending with the venture they undertook in 1933, The Seven Deadly Sins, after both had fled the Nazi government that had just come into power.

Weill recalled meeting Brecht at a wine bar in 1927, and the two instantly found their imaginations firing at the prospect of applying the playwright’s radical ideas of “epic theatre” to the tradition-bound genre of opera. That project would result two years later in their joint masterwork, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. In the meantime, they created a sensation with The Threepenny Opera, which actually began as a side venture—with no one expecting it to turn into the signature hit of Weimar-era Berlin that it has become known for.

It is perhaps surprising that this particular team lasted as long as it did, considering how ill-suited each was to the other. Brecht’s unrelenting alpha-male poses and bullying inevitably rubbed the shy, diminutive, intellectual composer the wrong way. Matters reached a boiling point during rehearsals for Mahagonny, with Brecht lashing out at his younger partner in front of reporters and threatening, “I’m going to kick that phony Richard Strauss down the stairs!”

In Paris, though, it was Weill who had the upper hand when he was asked, shortly after his departure from Germany, to compose a ballet for the company that George Balanchine had just formed. Underwriting this venture was the wealthy patron Edward James, an aficionado of surrealism, who wanted a work that could feature his wife, the dancer Tilly Losch. As it happened, Losch bore a striking resemblance to Lotte Lenya, the singer/actress wife of Weill (she was in the process of getting divorced from the composer at the time, though they would remarry a few years later). From this coincidence was born the idea of an unusual hybrid, a ballet chanté or sung ballet for vocalists and orchestra. The Seven Deadly Sins centers on a character that is split into two aspects (“sisters”): Anna I, whose singing helps narrate the story, and Anna II, who dances and has a few spoken lines (in concert performances such as the present one, the same singer typically performs both roles).

At first, Weill wanted to team with Jean Cocteau (who turned him down), but James was keen on instigating yet another collaboration with Brecht, who by this time was also in exile. Brecht’s lyrics brought his trademark biting cynicism, now more entrenched than ever in doctrinaire Marxism, to this Freudian scenario of a split personality. The story—in nine brief scenes, framing the seven types of sin with a prologue and epilogue—tells of the two Annas setting out to enrich the family they leave behind in “old Louisiana” through diligent application of capitalist ethics as they travel from city to city in a typically Brechtian mishmash of place-names.

The vocal Anna I is the “realistic” one, playing business manager to her more idealistic sister. Anna II must learn that the real sins—natural inclinations such as compassion, hunger, or love— are behaviors obstructing the steady flow of income. Meanwhile, back home the “family”— consisting of a tenor as father, another tenor and a baritone as the brothers, and the vocal drag role of a bass as the chiding mother—reinforces the topsy-turvy moral catechism as they fret over Anna’s money-making potential.

Weill is at the top of his game in this score, adding a rich dimension to what might otherwise have fossilized into a piece of period agit-prop. The mixture of musical styles is polymorphous yet creates an underlying unity of purpose. The very beginning of the Prologue introduces a wistful motif that recurs as a unifying device (centered on a descending, sigh-like half-step); it is connected to Anna II’s resigned mortgaging of her personal happiness to this capitalist pilgrim’s progress. Weill keeps us off balance with fascinatingly unpredictable choices. The agitated music of Sloth, for example, is hardly an “illustration” of its subject. The family’s music is especially parody-rich throughout the score, from the pseudo-Bachian chorale ending this scene to the a cappella barbershop harmonizing of Gluttony and the mock-heroic tenor aria of the father in Covetousness.

Vernacular dance idioms are also integrated with great imagination. Notice how the waltz music of Pride blossoms in an orchestral passage while depicting the conflict in Anna II between “art” and the less lofty intentions of the men patronising her cabaret act in Memphis. In Anger, Weill brilliantly conjoins his neoclassical orchestral texture with the Threepenny-ish “entertainment” music of the foxtrot, used to signify the sisters’ sojourn in Hollywood. The most elaborate scene, Lust, becomes a music drama in miniature as the family joins in with Anna I’s scheme to sabotage Anna II’s true love, ending with the most plaintive variant of her central motif. Envy recaps the litany of “sins” Anna II has learned to overcome to a neo-baroque lament and then turns into a march of Mahlerian ferocity. This then segues into the understated melancholy of the Epilogue, with the sisters now returned and chastened by the theater of cruelty they have experienced.

Thomas May writes frequently about music and the arts.


DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 11 in G Minor, Op. 103 "The Year 1905"
Born St. Petersburg, Russia on September 25, 1906; died Moscow on August 9, 1975

Composed in 1957, the Eleventh Symphony was premiered on October 30 of that year with conductor Natan Rakhlin and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra. It received its Carnegie Hall and New York premiere on December 12, 1958 with conductor Leopold Stokowski and the Symphony of the Air.

Shostakovich composed his Tenth Symphony in 1953, shortly after the death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. In it, he gave voice to the suffering his country had undergone at Stalin’s hands, and the rage he felt about it. It provoked considerable controversy for its often harsh tone, but its eventual acceptance helped spark a thaw in the repression that Soviet artists had endured while Stalin lived.

Two years later Shostakovich announced that his next symphony would depict the events of 1905, when a first, unsuccessful Russian revolution had taken place. Numerous diversions meant that work on it was delayed until 1957. He completed it in time for it to honor the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, the one that finally ended the 300-year reign of the imperial Romanov dynasty. Outwardly, its creation satisfied the cultural bureaucrats’ directive for straightforward, uplifting music that celebrated the history and policies of the Soviet communist government. They awarded it a Lenin Prize.

Yet quite a different set of meanings may be drawn from it, one that runs boldly counter to official dogma. Its thematic materials include nine revolutionary and prison songs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many of them familiar to 1950s Soviet audiences. This practice, too, would seem to reflect official policy, until it is recognized that many of their texts (unheard in this symphonic context) strongly condemn the actions of dictators. Also, Shostakovich composed the symphony just one year after the brutal Soviet suppression of a political uprising in Hungary. It may represent his revulsion toward that event, or a condemnation of intolerance and repression in general.

Some listeners criticized him for caving in to bureaucratic pressure, but many of his friends understood the symphony’s hidden agenda, and congratulated him for once again giving voice to the loathing they all felt toward their country’s politics. Musicologist Lev Lebedinsky wrote, “This was so clear to those ‘who have ears to listen’ that his son, with whom he wasn’t in the habit of sharing his deepest thoughts, whispered to his father during the dress rehearsal, ‘Papa, what if they hang you for this?’…The Eleventh Symphony is a truly contemporary work, camouflaged by necessity with a historic programme.”

The four movements flow into each other without pause and are linked by recurrence of thematic materials. The first two relate directly to events that took place in the vast square in front of Tsar Nicholas II’s winter place in St. Petersburg on January 9, 1905. A crowd of 150,000 unarmed workers and their families gathered there to petition peacefully for relief from their poverty.

The first movement, The Palace Square, with its glacial strings, echoing brass fanfares and murmuring drums, sets the scene in ominous fashion. Quiet yet violent stirrings in the low strings usher in the second movement. Entitled The Ninth of January, it recreates in graphic, virtually cinematic fashion first the assembling of the crowd, then the horror and panic that broke out when the Tsar’s soldiers fired on them. As many as a thousand people were killed or wounded in the massacre. After a tempestuous climax, the eerie quiet in which the symphony began returns, with heightened intensity. This “Bloody Sunday” incident proved a turning point in Russian history, when the people realized that the uncaring, autocratic reign of the Tsars must come to an end. Twelve years later, it did.

The remaining movements present more generalized impressions. Plucked notes in the lower strings usher in the third movement, In Memoriam. The violas introduce You Fell as Heroes, a song that was written in tribute to the victims of the massacre shortly after it took place. Shostakovich adopts it as the main theme of this sombre, eloquent funeral march. A forceful sense of outrage sustains its lengthy central climax. Shostakovich launches the finale, Tocsin (Alarm Bell), abruptly and with great vigour. Its primary emotion is defiance – against, it seems, all who would inflict suffering on common folk. Before the galloping, bell-tolling conclusion, the symphony’s bleak opening music makes a final appearance, perhaps as a warning to remain vigilant against the rebirth of evil forces.

|by Don Anderson

Copyright © 2008 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Peter Oundjian, Music Director and Conductor
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 87th season in 2008–2009. More than 400,000 patrons visit the Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto each year, and an additional five million Canadians tune in to frequent concert broadcasts on CBC Radio. The Orchestra maintains a strong international presence through extensive traveling, including a triumphant European tour in 2000, and acclaimed recordings available worldwide.

The Orchestra was founded in 1922 by a group of Toronto musicians and Viennese-born conductor Luigi von Kunits. The New Symphony Orchestra, as it was then called, gave its first performance in April 1923 at Massey Hall. Since then, artistic leadership has included Sir Ernest MacMillan (1931–1956); Sir Andrew Davis, now Conductor Laureate (1975–988); Günther Herbig (1988–1994); and Jukka-Pekka Saraste (1994–2001). Now in his fifth season as Music Director of the TSO, Peter Oundjian’s tenure was extended in February 2007 for a further four years.

International tours have taken the TSO to such hallowed destinations as the Musikverein in Vienna, New York's Carnegie Hall, and other prestigious venues throughout the US, Japan, Australia, Europe, and the Canadian North. The Orchestra's acclaimed discography on the Finlandia Records label includes Juno-nominated recordings of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4 with soloist Alexei Lubimov; Bartók's Dance Suite; and music by Henri Dutilleux, including the Symphony No. 2. The TSO’s recording of Sibelius's Lemminkäinen Suite won a Juno Award in 2001 in the Best Classical Album: Large Ensemble category.

Throughout its history, the TSO has welcomed some of the greatest international artists, including Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov, Yo-Yo Ma, Evgeny Kissin, Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman, Karen Kain, and actor Christopher Plummer. Renowned composers Henri Dutilleux, R. Murray Schafer, and the late Sir Michael Tippett, among many others, have been in attendance for the Orchestra's presentations of their music.


Peter Oundjian continues to make his mark as one of today’s most dynamic and exciting faces on the conducting scene. His strong bond with the musicians and community of Toronto continues through his fifth season as Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Through his communicative gifts, Mr. Oundjian has drawn capacity audiences, exploring the breadth and depth of orchestral repertoire through seasons featuring world-renowned soloists and guest conductors. At the beginning of his tenure, he created the now-annual Mozart Festival and the New Creations Festival. His probing musicality, collaborative spirit, and engaging personality have earned him accolades from musicians and critics alike.

Last season, Mr. Oundjian and the TSO introduced the acclaimed “TSO Live” recording series, featuring performances of Elgar, Mussorgsky, and Bruckner. Additionally, the award-winning Rhombus Media documentary “Five Days In September: The Rebirth of An Orchestra” has been issued on DVD, with plans for wider theatrical release.

As Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony, Mr. Oundjian where he helped create and launch an innovative multi-disciplinary festival during his tenure as the orchestra’s artistic advisor. He played a major role at the Caramoor International Music Festival for over a decade, having served, most recently, as its artistic advisor and principal conductor. From 1998–2003, Oundjian was the music director of the Nieuw Sinfonietta in Amsterdam, and recorded a BIS CD of his own arrangements of Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue and String Quartet , Op. 131.

Mr. Oundjian returns this and next season to many of the orchestras with which he has built ongoing relationships, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco, St. Louis, Houston, Baltimore, and Colorado symphonies, as well as the Caramoor, Tanglewood, Aspen, and Music Academy of the West summer festivals. Among his future engagements abroad are appearances with Radio Philharmonique in Paris, and the Zurich Tonhalle, Royal Scottish National, and Budapest Festival orchestras.

Born in Toronto, Mr. Oundjian was educated in England and attended the Royal College of Music, receiving the Gold Medal for Most Distinguished Student and the Stoutzker Prize for excellence in violin playing. He completed his violin training at The Juilliard School and later became the first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet, a position he held for 14 years. Now in his 27th year as a visiting professor at the Yale School of Music, Mr. Oundjian lives with his wife Nadine and their two children, Lara and Peter.

Ute Lemper
Through a vast and varied career, Ute Lemper has drawn universal praise for her interpretations of Berlin cabaret songs, the works of Kurt Weill and French chanson, and for her portrayals on Broadway, in Paris, and in London’s West End. She will release Ute Lemper: Between Yesterday and Tomorrow in fall 2008.

Ms. Lemper made her professional debut on the musical stage in the original Vienna production of Cats and later went on to star in Peter Pan (Berlin) and play Sally Bowles in Jerome Savary’s Cabaret (Paris), for which she received the Moliere Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She has also performed in The Blue Angel (Berlin) and La Mort Subite (Paris), a ballet Maurice Bejart created for her, and appeared in many Weill Revues with the Pina Bausch Tanztheater. She originated the part of Velma Kelly in London’s production of Chicago in the West End, winning the Laurence Olivier Award, and subsequently made her Broadway debut in 1998. She starred with Chita Rivera in the Las Vegas premiere of Chicago the following year.

Ms. Lemper’s solo concerts, such as Kurt Weill’s Recital and Illusions, have been produced in prestigious venues throughout the world. Her symphony performances include The Seven Deadly Sins, Songbook (Michael Nyman), and Songs from Piaf and Dietrich with the orchestras of London, Israel, Boston, Hollywood, San Francisco, and Berlin, as well as The Paris Radio Symphony and Illusions orchestras. She also appeared in Folksongs with the Luciano Berio Orchestra and with The Matrix Ensemble.

Her celebrated recordings for Decca are numerous, and she was named Billboard Magazine’s Crossover Artist of the Year for 1993–1994. Her latest Decca release But One Day features new arrangements of Weill, Brel, Piazolla, Heymann, and Eisler songs, as well as the first recordings of her original compositions. Earlier albums feature songs composed for her by Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Philip Glass, and Nick Cave. Ms. Lemper has also recorded for CBS Records, POLYDOR, DRG / Koch, and Edel Records in Europe.

Born in Munster, Germany, Ms. Lemper completed her studies at The Dance Academy in Cologne and the Max Reinhardt Seminary Drama School in Vienna. She currently lives in New York with her three children, Max, Stella and Julian.

Hudson Shad
Originally a six-member ensemble comprising five singers and a pianist, Hudson Shad debuted officially in 1992. Its nucleus formed in 1977, when three members made their Carnegie Hall debuts as soloists in Penderecki's Magnificat. Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, its members were in demand as early music specialists, oratorio soloists, and opera singers, occasionally performing as Gentlemen of the Choir at Manhattan’s St. Thomas Church. The late 1980s saw an engagement at St. Ann’s Warehouse in a production of Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins with Marianne Faithfull, and before its first performance in a 1992 tribute to The Comedian Harmonists, the group named itself Hudson Shad.

Hudson Shad given has 100 performances in over 20 different productions of Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien, National Symphony Ottawa, and Orchestra Regionale di Toscana. The ensemble has recorded the work with conductors Kurt Masur and Dennis Russell Davies, and participated in a staging of it in a double bill with Weill's Der Lindbergflug at the Macerata Festival. Tonight’s concert marks its seventh performance with Ute Lemper in The Seven Deadly Sins.

Hudson Shad has performed throughout Europe in cabarets, concert halls, and such opera houses as Semper Oper in Dresden, Prinzregententheater in Munich, and Deutsche Oper in Berlin. It has appeared at the Salzburg Festival and with the Bruckner Orchester in Linz, where it performed Schubert songs orchestrated by Reger during the Schubert bicentennial. Last year the ensemble toured Germany in a Christmas program featuring Spike Jones's version of The Nutcracker, and in a program highlighting repertoire from Sinatra, Martin, Crosby, and Jolson.

2008 saw Hudson Shad's debuts with the Nashville Symphony and Atlanta Symphony orchestras, the latter in Oliver Knussen's Where The Wild Things Are; an appearance at Wisconsin’s Green River Festival; and a return to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center for the premiere of an English version of Stravinsky's Renard with Charles Dutoit. It makes its Ravinia Festival debut in August 2009.