Program Notes - Lincoln Center`s Great Performers

The Program
Thursday Evening, February 25, 2016, at 7:30
Pre-concert lecture by Peter A. Hoyt at 6:15
in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Chamber Orchestras
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Gottfried von der Goltz, Violin and Conductor
Christian Gerhaher, Baritone
Lorenzo Coppola, Clarinet d’amour
(Program continued)
Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.
This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater
Adrienne Arsht Stage
Great Performers
BNY Mellon is Lead Supporter of Great Performers
Support is provided by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, Audrey Love Charitable Foundation,
Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center.
Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Endowment support for Symphonic Masters is provided by the Leon Levy Fund.
Endowment support is also provided by UBS.
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center
UPCOMING SYMPHONIC MASTERS EVENTS
IN DAVID GEFFEN HALL:
Sunday Afternoon, March 13, 2016 at 3:00
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, Conductor
Tamara Mumford, Mezzo-soprano
Concert Chorale of New York
James Bagwell, Director
Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Dianne Berkun-Menaker, Director
MAHLER: Symphony No. 3
Pre-concert lecture by Christopher H. Gibbs at 1:45 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Monday Evening, March 14, 2016 at 8:00
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, Conductor
Sergio Tiempo, Piano
JOHN WILLIAMS: Soundings (New York premiere)
GINASTERA: Piano Concerto No. 1
ANDREW NORMAN: Play: Level 1 (New York premiere)
COPLAND: Appalachian Spring
Monday Evening, March 21, 2016 at 8:00
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Joshua Bell, Director and Violin
Pamela Frank, Violin
BACH: Concerto for two violins in D minor
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 8
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto
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Performers brochure.
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We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might
distract the performers and your fellow audience members.
In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must
leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking
of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.
Great Performers I The Program
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Gottfried von der Goltz, Violin and Conductor
Christian Gerhaher, Baritone
Lorenzo Coppola, Clarinet d’amour
ALL-MOZART PROGRAM
Adagio—Allegro spiritoso, from Symphony No. 36 in C major, K.425
(“Linz”) (1783)
Metà di voi qua vadano, from Don Giovanni (1787)
Poco adagio, from Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”)
Non siate ritrosi, from Così fan tutte (1790)
Ah pietà, signori miei, from Don Giovanni
Menuetto, from Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”)
Tutto è disposto...Aprite un po’ quegli occhi, from Le nozze di Figaro (1786)
Presto, from Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”)
Intermission
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622 (1791)
Allegro
Adagio
Rondo: Allegro
Madamina, il catalogo è questo, from Don Giovanni
Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso, from Le nozze di Figaro
Contredanse in G major, K.610 (“Les filles malicieuses”) (1791)
Hai già vinta la causa!...Vedro, mentr’io sospiro, from Le nozze di Figaro
Snapshot
Great Performers
By Paul Schiavo
Timeframe
This evening’s concert presents a program
composed in a format that Mozart and his
contemporaries would have readily recognized and accepted; it departs strikingly from
modern concert practice. The typical orchestral performance today begins with an overture or other short piece, proceeds to a
concerto, and concludes with a symphony or
some other extended composition. But during Mozart’s lifetime things were different.
Concert fare was more varied and frequently
included vocal arias. More remarkably, these
or other short pieces were usually interspersed between movements of a symphony.
ARTS
Tonight’s program follows a variation of this
arrangement, which was quite usual in the
late 18th century. Mozart’s splendid “Linz”
Symphony is presented in the first half, and
between each of its four movements we
hear arias from the three operas Mozart
wrote to librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte. By
far the finest poet with whom he collaborated, da Ponte provided the composer with
stories and texts whose dramatic momentum and psychological complexity prompted
some of Mozart’s finest theatrical music.
The second half brings three more arias, as
well as dance music and the Clarinet
Concerto. Written shortly before his death,
this last is Mozart’s final work for solo instrument and orchestra and, apart from some of
the piano concertos he wrote for his own
performance, certainly the most beautiful.
—Copyright © 2016 by Paul Schiavo
1783
Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”)
The sustaining pedal is added
to the piano.
1787
Don Giovanni
Thomas Gainsborough paints
Cottage Children (The Wood
Gatherers).
1791
Clarinet Concerto and
Contradance in G major
Thomas Paine pens The Rights
of Man.
SCIENCE
1783
The unusually bright Great
Meteor passes over Great
Britain.
1787
The first moons of Uranus are
discovered.
1791
France decides to adopt the
metric system.
IN NEW YORK
1783
British troops leave New
York City, followed by the
end of the Revolutionary
War.
1787
Alexander Hamilton, James
Madison, and John Jay start
publishing the Federalist
Papers.
1791
Aaron Burr takes a seat as
New York senator.
Notes on the Program
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
By Paul Schiavo
Symphony No. 36 in C major, K.425 (“Linz”) (1783)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Born January 27, 1756, in Salzburg
Died December 5, 1791, in Vienna
Approximate length: 32 minutes
Mozart composed his “Linz” Symphony in the autumn of 1783, while
visiting the Austrian city that is its namesake. The circumstances surrounding the work’s genesis reveal the astonishing speed at which
the composer could create. On October 31, Mozart wrote from Linz
to his father, in Salzburg: “On Tuesday, November 4, I am giving a
concert in the theater here, and as I haven’t a single symphony with
me, I am writing at breakneck speed a new one which must be
ready at that time.” Apparently, then, Mozart completed his “Linz”
Symphony in just four or, at most, five days.
Mozart opens the symphony with an introduction in slow tempo,
the first time in his career that he employs this device in a symphony. The main Allegro portion of the movement begins, in typical
Mozartian fashion, with a theme that initially seems placid but
shows a more vigorous character during its consequent phrase,
where the winds bolster the string choir. Unusually, the second subject seems even more animated than the first. Its faintly alla turca
flavor seems an echo of the opera The Abduction from the Seraglio,
which Mozart had completed the previous year.
Next comes a slow movement presenting a beautiful play of sunlight
and shadow (this and the ensuing movements follow at intervals over
the course of the first half of the concert). The third movement brings
a sonorous minuet, which Mozart balances with a lightly scored central section featuring an echoic duet for oboe and bassoon.
Contrapuntal dialogues form a prominent part of the finale also. But
despite the skilled use of counterpoint here, Mozart wears his learning lightly. Indeed, there is an insouciance to much of this movement
that suggests the spirit of comic opera. Mozart further enlivens the
proceedings with sudden contrasts in dynamic levels and by juxtaposing small groups of instruments with the full orchestra.
Metà di voi qua vadano, from Don Giovanni, K.527 (1787)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Approximate length: 3 minutes
Don Giovanni resists categorization as either a tragic or a comic opera.
Though descended from a straightforward morality tale—the
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
centuries-old story of Don Juan, that seducer extraordinaire whose refusal to
abandon his licentious ways brings about his doom—the work walks an uncertain line between high humor and pathos. Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte,
recalled in his memoirs that the composer was intent on a serious approach to
the story, while he, da Ponte, preferred a comic one. In the end, the collaborators managed to fuse both views to create what William Mann, the English critic
and authority on Mozart’s stage works, called “an opera of ambivalences.”
In the opera’s second act, the title character manages a narrow escape by donning the cloak of his servant. Through this disguise he keeps his true identity
hidden from a group of upstanding citizens seeking to find and punish him. He
even purports to aid their search but sends them in the wrong direction. The
aria “Metà di voi qua vadano” also allows Don Giovanni to brag surreptitiously
about his amatory prowess.
Metà di voi qua vadano
Text: Lorenzo da Ponte
Half of You Go That Way
Trans.: © 1990 Avril Bardoni
Metà di voi qua vadano,
E gli altri vadan là,
E pian pianin lo cerchino,
Lontan non fia di qua.
Half of you go that way,
and the rest down there.
Softly, softly we’ll track him down;
he can’t be far away.
Se un uom e una ragazza
Passeggian per la piazza,
Se sotto a una finestra
Fare all’amor sentite:
Ferite pur, ferite,
Il mio padron sarà.
In testa egli ha un cappello
Con candidi pennacchi,
Addosso un gran mantello,
E spada al fianco egli ha.
If you see a man and a girl
strolling through the square,
or if you hear billing and cooing
underneath a window,
then strike and don’t hold back:
It’s bound to be my master.
He’s wearing a hat
with white plumes
and an ample cape,
and has a sword at his side.
Andate, fate presto!
Tu sol verrai con me.
Noi far dobbiamo il resto,
E già vedrai cos’è.
Go now, make haste!
You alone will come with me.
The rest is up to us,
and you’ll soon see what I mean.
Non siate ritrosi, from Così fan tutte, K.588 (1790)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Approximate length: 2 minutes
Così fan tutte is the third and final opera that Mozart wrote with Lorenzo da
Ponte. Like its predecessors, Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, it is a complex and finely nuanced work, especially with regard to its portrayal of love. The
opera’s plot centers on two soldiers who accept a wager to test their sweethearts’ devotion. Disguising themselves beyond recognition, each woos the
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
other’s belle to see whether or not she will remain faithful. In doing so, they
learn painful lessons about human frailty and the ephemeral nature of love.
Near the end of the opera’s first act, Guglielmo, one of the disguised soldiers,
attempts to ingratiate himself and his companion with their unwitting
fiancées. In the aria “Non siate ritrosi,” he urges the ladies not to be coy and
lists the fine features of himself and his friend: their muscles and well-made
figures, their feet, eyes, noses, and mustaches, the last being “manly triumphs, the plumage of love.” Mozart’s light-hearted music reminds us not to
place much stock in Guglielmo’s boasts.
Non siate ritrosi
Text: Lorenzo da Ponte
Be not reluctant
Trans.: Stewart Spencer
Non siate ritrosi,
Occhietti vezzosi:
Due lampi amorosi
Vibrate un po’ qua.
Be not reluctant,
dear beguiling eyes;
let two loving lightning-flashes
strike for a moment here.
Felici rendeteci,
Amate con noi,
E noi felicissime
Faremo anche voi;
Make us happy,
and love with us,
and we will make you in return
the happiest of women.
Guardate, toccate,
Il tutto osservate;
Siam due cari matti,
Siam forti e ben fatti,
Look at us, touch us,
take stock of us:
we’re crazy, but we’re charming,
we’re strong and well-made,
E come ognun vede,
Sia merto, sia caso,
Abbiamo bel piede,
Bell’occhio, bel naso;
and, as anyone can see,
whether by merit or by chance,
we’ve good feet,
good eyes, good noses;
E questi mustacchi
Chiamare si possono
Trionfi degli uomini,
Pennacchi d’amor.
and these moustaches
could be called
manly triumphs,
the plumage of love.
Ah pietà, signori miei, from Don Giovanni, K.527 (1787)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Approximate length: 2 minutes
As we saw in connection with the aria “Metà di voi qua vadano,” the ruse of
trading cloaks with his servant worked well for Don Giovanni. Not so, however, for his hired man, Leporello. For when the latter is discovered in his master’s garb, he is very nearly beaten for the Don’s misdeeds. Leporello manages
to avoid punishment by explaining the situation and insisting that the fault lies
with Don Giovanni, not himself.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Ah pietà, signori miei
Text: Lorenzo da Ponte
Ah have pity, sir and madam
Trans.: © 1990 Avril Bardoni
Ah pietà, signori miei,
Ah pietà, pietà di me!
Do ragione a voi e lei,
Ma il delitto mio non è.
Ah have pity, sir and madam,
ah have pity on me!
I admit you have right on your side,
but I’m not the guilty one.
Il padron con prepotenza
L’innocenza mi rubò.
Donna Elvira, compatite!
Già capite come andò.
My master bullied me
into doing wrong.
Donna Elvira, I appeal to you!
You know what happened.
Di Masetto non so nulla;
Vel dirà questa fanciulla:
È un’ oretta circumcirca
Che con lei girando vo.
I know nothing about Masetto,
as this young lady will tell you.
For the last hour, more or less,
I’ve been with her.
A voi, signore, non dico niente.
Certo timore…certo accidente…
Di fuori chiaro…di dentro oscuro…
To you, sir, I say nothing.
Partly fear…and partly bad luck…
it being light out there…and dark in
here…
no shelter…the door…the wall…
I…tried… to…find a way out…
then hiding here…it all got, you know…
But if I’d only known, I’d have gone
this way.
Non c’è riparo…la porta…il muro…
Lo…il…la…vo da quel lato…
Poi qui celato…l’affar si sa…
Ma s’io sapeva fuggia per qua.
Tutto è disposto...Aprite un po’ quegli occhi, from Le nozze di Figaro (1786)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Approximate length: 4 minutes
Mozart’s first collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte, Le nozze di Figaro (The
Marriage of Figaro), is another comic opera that is far more than just farce.
Rather, it offers a wise and humane look at love, with all its pleasure and pain.
The title character, Figaro, is at the center of the action. From one fast-paced
incident to the next he endeavors to foil his employer’s lecherous designs on
his bride, mollify her suspicions about his own behavior, comfort his patron’s
neglected wife, and negotiate various other complications.
Were all this not enough, by the opera’s final act, Figaro has mistakenly
become convinced that his beloved Susanna means to cuckold him on their
wedding night. This erroneous conclusion leads him to bitterly decry the falsehood of women generally. Mozart prepares his aria with an anguished recitative
in which Figaro imagines himself betrayed even as he and Susanna exchanged
wedding vows.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Tutto è disposto…Aprite un po’
quegli occhi
Text: Lorenzo da Ponte
Everything is ready…Open your
eyes for a moment
Trans.: Stewart Spencer
Tutto è disposto: l’ora
Dovrebbe esser vicina; io sento gente.
È dessa…non è alcun…buia è la notte…
Ed io comincio omai
A fare il scimunito
Mestiero di marito.
Everything is ready: the hour
must be near, I hear them coming.
It’s her; no, it’s no one. The night is dark,
and I’m already beginning
to ply the foolish trade
of cuckolded husband.
Ingrata! Nel momento
Della mia cerimonia
Ei godeva leggendo: e nel vederlo
Ungrateful! At the moment
of my wedding ceremony
he enjoyed her through a letter, and
seeing him
I laughed at myself without knowing it.
Io rideva di me senza saperlo.
Oh Susanna, Susanna,
Quanta pena mi costi!
Con quell’ingenua faccia…
Con quegli occhi innocenti…
Chi creduto l’avria?
Ah che il fidarsi a donna è ognor follia.
Oh, Susanna, Susanna,
what pains have you cost me!
With that artless face,
with those innocent eyes,
who would have believed it?
Ah, it’s always madness to trust a
woman.
Aprite un po’ quegli’occhi,
Uomini incauti e sciocchi,
Guardate queste femmine,
Guardate cosa son!
Queste chiamate Dee
Dagli ingannati sensi,
A cui tributa incensi
La debole ragion,
Son streghe che incantano
Per farci penar,
Sirene che cantano
Per farci affogar,
Civette che allettano
per trarci le piume,
Comete che brillano
Per toglierci il lume;
Son rose spinose,
Son volpi vezzose,
Son orse benigne,
Colombe maligne,
Maestre d’inganni,
Amiche d’affanni
Open your eyes for a moment,
rash and foolish men,
look at these women,
look at what they are.
You call them goddesses,
with your befuddled senses,
and pay them tribute
with your weakened minds.
They are witches who work spells
to make you miserable,
sirens who sing
to make you drown,
screech-owls that lure you
to pluck out your feathers,
comets that dazzle
to take away your light:
they are thorny roses,
cunning vixen,
hugging bears,
spiteful doves,
masters of deceit,
friends of trouble,
(Please turn the page quietly.)
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Che fingono, mentono,
Amore non senton,
Non senton pietà.
Il resto nol dico,
Già ognuno lo sa!
who pretend, lie,
feel no love,
feel no pity!
The rest I won’t say,
because everyone knows it already.
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622 (1791)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Approximate length: 30 minutes
Mozart composed his Clarinet Concerto, K.622, for his friend and Masonic
brother Anton Stadler during the autumn of 1791. Stadler was a superb clarinetist. Moreover, he was active in the technical development of the clarinet,
which was, in his day, a fairly new instrument. Among other things, he had
built an experimental clarinet with an extended range somewhat below that of
the standard instrument, and it was for this that Mozart composed his concerto. But because Stadler’s altered instrument never came into widespread
use, the music was published in a revised version that accommodates the
slightly smaller range of the standard clarinet pitched in A.
This evening’s performance uses neither the “Stadler clarinet” nor the familiar clarinet in A but another instrument, the clarinet d’amour. This instrument,
which has a rounded bell like that of an English horn, enjoyed popularity during
the years around 1800 but subsequently fell into disuse. With very nearly the
same range as Stadler’s clarinet, and with a dark tone color, it is well suited to
Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.
This composition differs noticeably from Mozart’s earlier works for solo instrument and orchestra. Instead of the extroverted tone and delight in virtuosity
that mark his concertos for violin, piano, flute, oboe, or horn, Mozart here
gives us music of grace, tenderness, and intimacy. Some commentators have
also detected an autumnal sadness beneath its bright surface, particularly in
the central slow movement.
Madamina, il catalogo è questo, from Don Giovanni, K.527 (1787)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Approximate length: 6 minutes
One of the lighter moments in Don Giovanni is the famous “catalog aria” in
Act I. Here Leporello, Don Giovanni’s manservant, tries to assuage Donna
Elvira, whom the Don has loved and abandoned. To prove that she is hardly in
a unique position, Leporello shows her a list of his master’s amorous conquests and describes it in detail. It is a preposterous account—more than a
thousand women in Spain alone—and Mozart lets us know that we are not to
take it seriously by punctuating Leporello’s enumeration with laughing figures
from the orchestra.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Madamina, il catalogo è questo
Text: Lorenzo da Ponte
Little lady, this is the record
Trans.: © 1990 Avril Bardoni
Madamina, il catalogo è questo
Delle belle che amò il padron mio,
Un catalogo egli è che ho fatt’io,
Osservate, leggete con me.
Little lady, this is the record
of the beauties my master has loved;
’tis a catalogue that I myself compiled.
Come closer, read it with me.
In Italia seicento e quaranta,
In Lamagna duecento e trent’una,
Cento in Francia, in Turchia
novant’una,
Ma in Ispagna son già mille e tre.
In Italy six hundred and forty,
in Germany two hundred and thirty-one,
one hundred in France, in Turkey
ninety-one,
but in Spain already one thousand
and three.
V’han fra queste contadine,
Cameriere e cittadine,
V’han contesse, baronesse,
Marchesane, principesse,
E v’han donne d’ogni grado,
D’ogni forma, d’ogni età.
Here are country wenches,
chambermaids and city ladies,
countesses, baronesses,
marchionesses, princesses;
there are women of every social class,
every shape and every age.
Nella bionda egli ha l’usanza
Di lodar la gentilezza,
Nella bruna la costanza,
Nella bianca la dolcezza.
With a fair-haired girl his habit
is to praise her kindliness,
a brunette is always constant,
a blonde is always sweet.
Vuol d’inverno la grassotta,
Vuol d’estate la magrotta;
È la grande maestosa,
La piccina è ognor vezzosa…
In winter he likes plumpish girls,
in summer slender ones;
tall ones he calls majestic,
short ones always dainty.
Delle vecchie fa conquista
Pel piacer di porle in lista;
Ma passion predominante
È la giovin principiante.
He seduces older women
just to add them to his list;
but his ruling passion
is for the young novice.
Non si picca se sia ricca,
Se sia brutta, se sia bella:
Purchè porti la gonnella,
Voi sapete quel che fa.
He doesn’t give a hoot for wealth,
or ugliness or beauty;
provided that she wears a skirt,
you know what he’ll do.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso, from Le nozze di Figaro, K.492 (1786)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Approximate length: 4 minutes
Among the vexations with which the title character must contend in Le nozze
di Figaro is a love-sick teenager whose romantic hijinks threaten to land him,
and several others, in trouble. When that amorous young man is sent packing
to join the army, Figaro bids him a cheery farewell in the aria “Non più andrai,
farfallone amoroso.”
Text: Lorenzo da Ponte
No more will you, amorous
butterfly
Trans.: Stewart Spencer
Non più andrai farfallone amoroso,
Notte e giorno d’intorno girando,
Delle belle turbando il riposo
Narcisetto, Adoncino d’amor.
No more will you, amorous butterfly,
flit around the castle night and day,
upsetting all the pretty girls,
love’s little Narcissus and Adonis.
Non più avrai questi bei pennacchini,
No more will you have those fine
plumes,
that soft and stylish hat,
those fine locks, that striking air,
those rosy, girl-like cheeks.
Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso
Quel cappello leggero e galante,
Quella chioma quell’aria brillante,
Quel vermiglio donnesco color.
Tra guerrieri poffar Bacco!
Gran mustacchi, stretto sacco.
Schioppo in spalla, sciabla al fianco,
Collo dritto, muso franco,
Un gran casco, o un gran turbante,
Molto onor, poco contante!
Ed invece del fandango
Una marcia per il fango
Per montagne, per valloni
Con le nevi e i sollioni,
Al concerto di tromboni,
Di bombarde, di cannoni,
Che le palle in tutti i tuoni
All’orecchio fan fischiar.
Cherubino alla vittoria;
Alla gloria militar.
Among warriors swearing by Bacchus!
A splendid moustache, holding your
pack,
a gun on your shoulder, a sabre
hanging
at your right, musket ready,
or some great helmet or a turban,
winning honors, but little money,
and in place of the fandango
a march through the mud,
over mountains, over valleys,
through the snow and burning sun,
to the music of trumpets,
of shells and cannons,
with balls sounding thunder,
making your ears ring.
Cherubino, on to victory,
on to victory in war!
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Contredanse in G major, K.610 (“Les filles malicieuses”) (1791)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Approximate length: 2 minutes
In 1787 Mozart was appointed Imperial Chamber Composer to the court of the
Austrian emperor. This was, to be sure, a minor post. One of the few duties it
entailed was the production of dance music for court balls held in the
Redoutensaal, the grand ballroom of the Imperial Palace.
Mozart began writing minuets and other dances for these events in 1788, but
his most notable production of such music came early in 1791, the last year of
his life. Between January 23 and March 6, Mozart produced over 30 dances for
the Redoutensaal balls. Among them is a contredanse he had written some
years earlier—precisely when remains unknown—but now re-scored for a larger
orchestra. The date of its composition is not the only mystery attending this
music, for the score bears the curious title “Les filles malicieuses.” The identity
of the malicious girls alluded to in that title has eluded investigation and probably
will never be known.
Be that as it may, this short composition is light and enjoyable, a very brief
minor-mode episode notwithstanding. It affirms the view of the renowned
Mozart scholar H. C. Robbins Landon, who wrote of the composer’s dance
pieces that “clearly Mozart took them seriously, lavishing on them the same
care, particularly as regards orchestration, that he took with his larger instrumental works.”
Hai già vinta la causa!...Vedro, mentre io sospiro, from Le nozze di Figaro,
K.492 (1786)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Approximate length: 5 minutes
In Le nozze di Figaro, the title character’s nemesis is his aristocratic employer,
Count Almaviva, who lusts after Figaro’s young bride, Susanna. During the
opera’s third act, the Count overhears the betrothed couple exulting that they
have already won their case in a legal challenge their master has raised against
their marriage. Incensed, Almaviva vows not to be defeated and robbed of his
happiness by a mere servant.
Paul Schiavo serves as program annotator for the St. Louis and Seattle
Symphonies, and writes frequently for concerts at Lincoln Center.
—Copyright © 2016 by Paul Schiavo
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Hai già vinta la causa!…
Vedrò, mentre io sospiro
Text: Lorenzo da Ponte
Their case is won!…
Shall I live to see
Trans.: Stewart Spencer
Hai già vinta la causa! Cosa sento!
In qual laccio io cadea? Perfidi! io
voglio di tal modo punirvi…
Ma s’ei pagasse la vecchia
pretendente?
Pagarla! In qual maniera! E poi v’è
Antonio,
Che a un incognito Figaro ricusa
Di dare una nipote in matrimonio.
Coltivando l’orgoglio
Di questo mentecatto…
Tutto giova a un raggiro…
Il colpo è fatto.
Their case is won! What’s that!
What trap have I fallen into?
Tricksters! I’m going to punish you
in such a way…
the punishment shall be what I
choose…
But what if he should pay the old
suitor?
Pay her! With what? And then there
is Antonio,
who will refuse to give his niece in
marriage to the upstart Figaro.
By flattering the pride
of that half-wit…
Everything’s falling into my scheme…
I’ll strike while the iron’s hot.
Vedrò, mentre io sospiro,
Felice un servo mio!
E un ben che invan desio,
Ei posseder dovrà?
Vedrò per man d’amore
Unita a un vile oggetto
Chi in me destò un affetto
Che per me poi non ha?
Ah no, lasciarti in pace,
Non vo’ questo contento,
Tu non nascesti, audace
Per dare a me tormento,
E forse ancor per ridere
Di mia infelicità.
Già la speranza sola
Delle vendette mie
Quest’anima consola,
E giubilar mi fa.
Shall I live to see
a servant of mine happy
And enjoying pleasure
that I desire in vain?
Shall I see the hand of love
Unite a lowly person
to one who arouses feelings in me
she does not feel herself?
Ah no! I shall not leave
that carefree creature in peace!
You were not born, bold fellow,
to give me torment
or perhaps to laugh
at my unhappiness.
Now only hope
of my revenge
consoles my soul
and makes me rejoice!
A piacer mio la sentenza sarà…
—Texts © 2015 Sony Music Entertainment
ANNELIES VAN DER VEGT
Meet the Artists
Great Performers I Meet the Artists
Gottfried von der Goltz
Gottfried von der Goltz has established himself in the international music
scene as a Baroque violinist and as one of the artistic directors of the
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. As was common in the 18th century, he
leads the ensemble from the concertmaster position.
Mr. von der Goltz’s repertoire ranges from early Baroque to contemporary
music, illustrated by his broad discography as both a soloist and orchestra
director. He has gained a reputation as a specialist in the music of the longforgotten Dresden Baroque and the four songs of Bach. In addition to
his engagement with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Mr. von der Goltz
regularly performs as guest director and soloist with Berliner Barock
Solisten, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque
Orchestra, and others. He has also worked closely with the Norsk Barokkorkester, serving as its artistic director. Mr. von der Goltz is also dedicated
to performing chamber music in various formations. He is a professor of
Baroque and modern violin at the University of Music in Freiburg.
JIM RAKETE_SONY CLASSICAL
Christian Gerhaher
While completing his medical
studies, Christian Gerhaher took
private singing lessons with
Raimund Grumbach and Paul
Kuën, and attended master
classes given by Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau and Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf. Now, together
with pianist Gerold Huber,
Mr. Gerhaher’s exemplary lied
interpretations have set standards, and the duo’s recordings
Great Performers I Meet the Artists
have received many awards. In 2006 their Schubert album Abendbilder
received the Gramophone Award, and in 2009 Mr. Gerhaher received an Echo
Klassik Singer of the Year award and a BBC Music Award for the Schumann
album Mélancholie.
Mr. Gerhaher also performs on the opera stage in select productions. For his
performances as Prinz von Homburg and Wolfram in Vienna and Munich he
was voted Singer of the Year 2010 by the journal Opernwelt. In 2011 he
received the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award, and in 2013 the Der Faust
Award for his art of interpretation on stage. Mr. Gerhaher has worked with
world-renowned conductors and orchestras including the Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra and Berliner Philharmoniker, and was the artist in residence for both orchestras in addition to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in
Vienna and the Wigmore Hall in London. Currently Mr. Gerhaher has an exclusive recording partnership with Sony Classical.
STEFAN LIPPERT
Lorenzo Coppola
Lorenzo Coppola received his degree
in classical clarinet from the Royal
Conservatory of the Hague, studying
with Eric Hoeprich. Today he rates
among the most sought-after clarinetists in the realm of historically
informed performance practice, and
teaches historical clarinet at the
Escola Superior de Música de
Catalunya in Barcelona. Mr. Coppola
plays in ensembles such as La Petite
Bande, Les Arts Florissants, the
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century,
La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, Orchestra Libera Classica, and the
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. In addition he joins outstanding chamber ensembles like the Ensemble Zefiro and the Manon, Terpsycordes, and Kuijken quartets. He also appears with eminent musicians such as Andreas Staier, Isabelle
Faust, and Alexander Melnikov. His recordings include a critically acclaimed
2008 release with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (directed by Gottfried von
der Goltz) of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, K.622, on Harmonia Mundi France.
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra has enjoyed success for over 20 years. A selfadministrated ensemble with its own subscription concerts at Konzarthaus
Freiburg, Liederhalle in Stuttgart, and Philharmonie in Berlin, the orchestra is
a popular guest at concert halls and opera houses around the world. Under the
artistic directorship of its two concertmasters, Gottfried von der Goltz and
Great Performers I Meet the Artists
Petra Müllejans, the orchestra presents around 100 performances each year
in various formations from chamber ensemble to opera orchestra.
The orchestra performs a diverse repertoire, and is known for its cultivated
and rousing performances. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra frequently collaborates with renowned artists such as Christian Gerhaher, Isabelle Faust, René
Jacobs, Pablo Heras-Casado, and Andreas Staier, and has a close alliance with
the Harmonia Mundi France record label. Its own members also play solo concerts. The artistic success of this musical partnership is expressed in numerous CD productions, and the group has received awards including
Gramophone and Echo Klassik Awards, the German Record Critics’ Award, the
Edison Classical Music Award, and the Classic Brit Award.
Lincoln Center’s Great Performers
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers offers classical and contemporary music performances from the world’s outstanding
symphony orchestras, vocalists, chamber ensembles, and recitalists. Since its
initiation in 1965, the series has expanded to include significant emerging
artists and premieres of groundbreaking productions, with offerings from
October through June in Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall,
and other performance spaces around New York City. Along with lieder
recitals, Sunday morning coffee concerts, and films, Great Performers offers
a rich spectrum of programming throughout the season.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of
more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals including American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln
Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival,
and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award–winning Live From
Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln
Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center
complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion
campus renovation, completed in October 2012.
ANNELIES VAN DER VEGT
Great Performers I Meet the Artists
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Violin I
Gottfried von der Goltz
Martina Graulich
Beatrix Hülseman
Christa Kittel
Brian Dean
Peter Barczi
Violin II
Kathrin Tröger
Brigitte Täubl
Daniela Helm
Eva Borhi
Marie Desgoutte
Viola
Christian Goosses
Ulrike Kaufmann
Annette Schmidt
Werner Saller
Cello
Guido Larisch
Stefan Mühleisen
Andreas Voss
Bass
Miriam Shalinsky
Frank Coppieters
Flute
Daniela Lieb
Aya Kaminishi
Oboe
Ann-Kathrin Brüggemann
Maike Buhrow
Clarinet
Lorenzo Coppola
Carlos Cerrada Cuesta
Bassoon
Javier Zafra
Eyal Streett
Horn
Bart Aerbeydt
Gijs Laceulle
Trumpet
Jaroslav Roucek
Almut Rux
Timpani
Michael Juen
Great Performers
Lincoln Center Programming Department
Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director
Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming
Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming
Jill Sternheimer, Director, Public Programming
Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager
Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming
Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Regina Grande, Associate Producer
Amber Shavers, Associate Producer, Public Programming
Luna Shyr, Senior Editor
Olivia Fortunato, House Seat Coordinator
For Great Performers
Megan Young, Supertitles
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra’s representation:
New World Classics
www.newworldclassics.com
4 decades of thinking like an artist
ith 40 years of experience, Lincoln
Center Education (LCE) has a
significant wealth of knowledge in arts
education, teacher and teaching artist
training, aesthetic education, communitybased programming, and more. Beyond the
hundreds of local school and community
partnerships in New York, LCE shares
its expertise and perspective around the
globe through customized national and
international programs.
A decade ago, LCE began working with
the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
in South Korea’s capital city, facilitating
workshops and discussions about the
philosophy and methodology of aesthetic
education (a central focus of LCE’s learning
framework, which aims to foster creativity,
collaboration, and grit through guided
experiences with works of art). Today, this
partnership continues to grow as LCE trains
teachers and artists on how to bring the arts
into the daily lives of thousands of students.
In Singapore, the National Arts Council
is focused on positioning its government
as the next great creative economy by
promoting city-wide opportunities for arts
appreciation. LCE is working closely with
Council staff, local artists, and teachers
from the Ministry of Education to ensure
that a life-long love of the arts begins in
schools under the guidance of educators.
Closer to home, LCE began work last
year with the city of Mesa public school
system, the largest unified school district
in Arizona, where they are leading teacher
Photo: Kaitlyn Meade
W
Participants from South Korea and China enjoy an LCE
aesthetic immersion workshop at Summer Forum 2015
training programs and advising district
leaders and school principals on how
to integrate high-quality arts education
into the lives of young people and their
families. These programs also transcend
art forms, as evidenced by LCE’s longstanding history with the Farnsworth
Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, where
they have been leading workshops for
museum educators since 2010.
Every summer, LCE also welcomes artists,
educators, and practitioners from across
the country and around the world to
Lincoln Center to participate in Summer
Forum, a professional development
program open to the general public.
These participants enjoy world-renowned
keynote presentations, performances,
panel discussions, and workshops, and
share ideas, stories, and best practices
from locations as near as Canada and
Mexico, and as far away as Australia,
Brazil, China, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand,
and Switzerland.
Learn more about Lincoln Center Education: LincolnCenterEducation.org