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Violinist Augustin Hadelich returns to Seattle to perform Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto under the baton of Seattle Symphony Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot. Anchored by Haydn’s Symphony No. 86, this program will broadcast live on Thursday, June 10, 2021, at 7:30pm on Seattle Symphony Live.

PROGRAM INFORMATION

THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2021, AT 7:30PM
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2
DELTA | MASTERWORKS

Ludovic Morlot, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Seattle Symphony

AUGUSTA READ THOMAS    Clara's Ascent

SERGEY PROKOFIEV    Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63

Allegro moderato
Andante assai—
Allegro, ben marcato

AUGUSTIN HADELICH, VIOLIN

PAUSE

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN    Symphony No. 86 in D major

Adagio—Allegro spiritoso
Capriccio: Largo
Menuet: Allegretto
Allegro con spirito

2020–2021 Season Streaming Sponsor: Scan Design Foundation
2020–2021 Masterworks Season Sponsor: Delta Air Lines
Augustin Hadelich’s performance is generously underwritten by Charles and Maria Schweizer.
Ludovic Morlot's performance is generously underwritten by Susan Detweiler, MD, in memory of Alexander W. Clowes, MD.
Additional support is provided by The Nakajima Family.
Ludovic Morlot's position is generously underwritten as the Judith Fong Conductor Emeritus.

PROGRAM NOTES

AUGUSTA READ THOMAS

Clara's Ascent

WORK COMPOSED: 2019
WORK PREMIERED: June 12, 2019, by the Chelsea Music Festival in New York, NY, with Ken-David Masur conducting.

Augusta Read Thomas is one of the most active composers in the world today, with commissions coming from leading symphony orchestras, opera companies and chamber ensembles. The music critic Edward Reichel wrote of Thomas that she “has secured for herself a permanent place in the pantheon of American composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. She is without question one of the best and most important composers that this country has today. Her music has substance and depth and a sense of purpose. She has a lot to say and she knows how to say it — and say it in a way that is intelligent yet appealing and sophisticated.”

As a leading advocate for new music and in support of her fellow composers, Thomas founded the Center for Contemporary Composition at the University of Chicago, which serves to engage artists in creating innovative concerts, recordings and research projects. Her music is known for boldly celebrating the sounds within each instrument and blending a soulful humanity with an intricate and lively modernist approach.

Clara’s Ascent was commissioned by the Chelsea Music Festival and premiered in 2019 as both a string quartet and a work for string orchestra. The orchestral version features the cello section in a lyrical and intricately contrapuntal work. The cellos lead the way, creating the musical force field around which the other string players revolve. Thomas explains in her notes for this work: “Musical transformations and carefully crafted connections unfold with a natural impulse. An optimistic, flexible-sounding, sonorous ascending journey weaves itself forward as if it is spinning innately out of the instruments.” The short piece consists of one long crescendo from the lowest range of the cellos to the highest, as if they were attempting to kiss the sky. Written for the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Clara Schumann’s birth, Thomas says in her notes, “this work honors the legacy and contributions of a pioneering performer, caring collaborator and artistic confidant.”

Scored for strings only.

SERGEY PROKOFIEV

Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63

BORN: April 23, 1891, in Sontsivka, Ukraine
DIED: March 5, 1953, in Moscow, Russia
WORK COMPOSED: 1935
WORK PREMIERED: December 1, 1935, at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid, Spain, by the violinist Robert Soetens and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Enrique Fernández Arbós.

Sergey Prokofiev’s two violin concertos are mainstays of the repertoire and showcase the expansive virtuosity and sustained lyricism inherent in the instrument. The Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 was composed shortly after Prokofiev returned to Russia after fifteen years abroad. He had left his country after the 1917 Revolution and had found much success as a performer and composer, gaining the acceptance he had lacked in his earlier more experimental years. Prokofiev suffered genuine homesickness, however, and in 1933 he repatriated to the Soviet Union amid the ominous atmosphere of Stalin’s gaining regime. Despite the growing political unease, his creativity flourished upon his return.

The Second Violin Concerto was Prokofiev’s last Western commission, from the French violinist Robert Soetens, who performed the work many times throughout the world. This concerto is a serious, somber work that opens with the soloist alone, starkly stating the theme in G minor without orchestral support. The low strings soon enter in the entirely different B minor key before the second theme appears in the warm key of B-flat. The violin soars with a deceptively simple melody in the second movement over pizzicato strings and unfurls in seamless variations. The finale concludes in a rondo form, with the rhythmic energy of the primary theme interspersed with contrasting episodes and virtuosic violin passages. The castanets and Spanish ornamentation are perhaps a nod to the concerto’s scheduled premiere performance in Madrid. The piece rushes to an end with the soloist, percussion and bass line in a frenetic dance to the finish.

Scored for solo violin; pairs of woodwinds, horns and trumpets; percussion; strings.

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN

Symphony No. 86 in D major

BORN: March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria
DIED: May 31, 1809, in Vienna, Austria
WORK COMPOSED: 1786
WORK PREMIERED: 1787, in Paris, France

Franz Joseph Haydn was born into a poor family in rural Lower Austria. As a young boy, he showed signs of musical talent and was sent to a church school in the village of Hainburg. While traveling through the region, Georg Reuter, the Kapellmeister of St. Stephens Cathedral in Vienna, heard the young Haydn and recruited him to become a chorister in the famed cathedral. This was a remarkable opportunity for young Haydn’s musical education; it was quite rare for someone of his low stature to move far away from his home to study music, let alone become an internationally renowned composer.

In another fortuitous meeting in 1761, Haydn was hired as a musician in the court of Prince Esterhazy, one of the wealthiest families in the Holy Roman Empire, and was later promoted to Kapellmeister, a post he held for thirty years. Living in relative seclusion on the grand estate in Eisenstadt, Haydn churned out music in great quantities, honing his craft and refining what would later be recognized as the epitome of the classical sonata form in an abundance of symphonies, quartets and trios. While Haydn was firmly situated in his position at the court, with no real freedom to travel or explore other musical opportunities, his music, nevertheless, travelled far and wide, making Haydn a sought-after composer of considerable fame. In 1779, Haydn managed to renegotiate his courtly contract, allowing him to write and publish his music for whomever he pleased. He rapidly received commissions from across Europe, most notably a series of symphonies in both London and Paris.

Symphony No. 86 in D major is the fifth of his six “Paris” symphonies, written for La Loge Olympique, a prominent French musical society. It is one of only two in the set to employ trumpets and timpani, to grand effect. The piece opens with a slow introduction before the main theme enters in ambiguous harmonies, finally settling into the home key of D major with a triumphant outburst. The second movement has the unusual label of Capriccio and is marked by playful, wandering melodies and harmonic deceptions. This whimsical and capricious nature pairs with the slow, hesitant Largo tempo to produce an astounding effect. The bassoons and first violins take the lead in the central waltz-like trio of the Menuet, lending it a charming and pastoral mood. The final movement begins with a lively melody that harkens back to the first movement with its repeated-note motive, further demonstrating Haydn’s remarkable talent for mining all the gold within a theme.

Scored for flute; 2 oboes; 2 bassoons; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; strings.

© 2021 Catherine Case