Subscription Concert B Series

【Sold Out】Subscription Concert No.1003 B Series

This concert is over. Date: Thu. 4. July 2024 19:00 (18:00)

Venue: Suntory Hall Venue Info Seat

[Bruckner 200]

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Artists

Jakub HRŮŠA, Conductor
Karen GOMYO, Violin

Profile

Jakub HRŮŠA (Conductor)

Born in Czech Republic, Jakub Hrůša is Chief Conductor of Bamberger Symphoniker, Music Director Designate of Royal Opera House (Music Director from 2025), Principal Guest Conductor of Czech Philharmonic, and Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestra dellʼAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He was also formerly Principal Guest Conductor of Philharmonia Orchestra and of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. He is a frequent guest with orchestras including Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Boston Symphony. As a conductor of opera, he has led productions for Salzburger Festspiele, Glyndebourne Festival, Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris, and Opernhaus Zürich.

photo:©Marian Lenhard

Karen GOMYO (Violin)

Born in Tokyo and raised in Montreal and New York, Karen Gomyo now resides in Berlin.
Highlights of recent seasons include performances with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. She also performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel.

photo：©Irène Zandel

Program

Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, op.26

Program Notes
Bruckner: Symphony No.4 in E-flat major, WAB104, “Romantic” (Korstvedt: 1878/80)

Program Notes

Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, op.26

Ⅰ Vorspiel: Allegro moderato
Ⅱ Adagio
Ⅲ Finale: Allegro energico

Max Bruch: Born in Cologne, January 6, 1838; died in Friedenau, near Berlin, October 2, 1920

　Max Bruch is remembered by concertgoers today on the strength of just two or three works (Kol Nidrei for cello and orchestra, the Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra, and of course the First Violin Concerto in G minor), but we of the twenty-first century have largely forgotten that Bruch was highly regarded in his day, especially for secular choral music.
　Bruch was born in Cologne and remained most of his life in Germany, traveling extensively throughout the country. His career embraced more than seven decades, and peaked in 1891 when he was appointed professor of composition at the Berlin Academy, a post he held for nearly twenty years. The general lack of attention paid to Bruch today may be explained by Sir Donald Francis Tovey: “He was the type of artist universally accepted as a master, about whose works no controversy could arise because no doubt was possible as to their effectiveness and sincerity.”
　Bruch began working on his First Violin Concerto in 1857 but put it aside for nine years. It was taken up again and completed in 1866. Otto von Königslow performed the work on April 24, with the composer conducting. But Bruch was not satisfied with the concerto; after some revisions, he submitted it to the famous violinist Joseph Joachim for comment. Joachim suggested numerous changes, but rejected the composerʼs opinion that, because of the free-form first movement, it would be better entitled a fantasy than a concerto. Joachim wrote: “The designation concerto is completely apt. Indeed, the second and third movements are too fully and symmetrically developed for a fantasy. The separate sections of the work cohere in a lovely relationship, and yet − and this is the most important thing − there is adequate contrast. Moreover, Spohr entitled his Gesangszene a concerto!” The final version was first heard in Bremen on January 7, 1868. Nearly forty years later, Joachim still ranked the concerto as one of the four greatest of the nineteenth century, alongside those of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms, noting that Bruchʼs was “the richest, the most seductive.”
　The composer himself had these comments to make regarding his interest in the violin: “In my youth I studied the violin for four or five years. … The violin seemed to me even at that time the queen of instruments. … I was destined by nature to write compositions for the voice, and I always studied singing with special interest and have associated largely with singers. This tendency has, of course, also been displayed in my violin works.”
　The first movement, marked “Vorspiel” (Prelude), does not follow the standard sonata-allegro form. Nevertheless, its dark undercurrent of passion and drama serves to maintain interest. A brief cadenza precedes the orchestral transition to the second movement, the emotional heart of the concerto. Here we find three distinct themes, some of the loveliest and most lyrical in the violin repertory. A vigorous, energetic orchestral passage introduces the third movement. The soloist enters with a full statement of the gypsy-like theme, played with virtuosic flair across all four strings of the instrument. It has been suggested that Brahms had this movement in mind when he composed the finale of his own violin concerto. A more expansive and lyrical second theme alternates with the first, and the movement builds to an exciting, brilliant conclusion.

Robert Markow's musical career began as a horn player in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He now writes program notes for orchestras and concert organizations in the USA, Canada, and several countries in Asia. As a journalist he covers the music scenes across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, especially Japan. At Montreal's McGill University he lectured on music for over 25 years.
　

Bruckner: Symphony No.4 in E-flat major, WAB104, “Romantic” (Korstvedt: 1878/80)

Ⅰ Bewegt, nicht zu schnell
Ⅱ Andante quasi Allegretto
Ⅲ Scherzo: Bewegt
Ⅳ Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell

Anton Bruckner: Born in Ansfelden, Austria, September 4, 1824; died in Vienna, October 11, 1896

　As a composer of “absolute” (i.e., non-programmatic) music, Bruckner represents the conservative trend in late nineteenth-century symphonic writing. Aside from the unfinished Ninth, each of his symphonies is in four movements, mostly in standard order. Aside from the last two, they require only an average-sized orchestra and, aside from the Fourth, have no extra-musical associations.
　Nature imagery and knightly tales of yore fascinated the nineteenth-century Romantics. Bruckner described the opening of his Fourth Symphony as follows: “A citadel of the Middle Ages. Daybreak. Reveille sounds from the tower. The gates open. Knights on proud chargers leap forth. The magic of nature surrounds them. Forest murmurs. Bird songs.” The dark, mysterious German forests, filled with the magical calls and echoes of horns, held a special place in the hearts of German romantic writers, and it is no accident that the tone poetry of Brucknerʼs Romantic Symphony gives special prominence to the horn section: note the opening theme of the first movement, the sweeping lyrical lines in the second, the hunting calls in the third, and in the Finale, again the first main theme, plus reminiscences of the previous three movements.
　The composer himself considered the Fourth to be the “most understandable” of his symphonies, an opinion history has supported in this workʼs continuing popularity. The Fourthʼs popularity persists to this day, dating from the first performance on February 20, 1881 with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Hans Richter. Keeping track of the various versions of the symphony and editions of each amounts to a small industry. The version Jakub Hrůša conducts at this concert is a newly edited score prepared by the American musicologist Benjamin Korstvedt. Listeners with even just a casual acquaintance with this symphony will recognize that the Finale, designated by Bruckner himself as the “Volksfest” (Folk Festival) movement, is radically different from what they already know − so different in fact as to constitute almost a new movement. Bruckner soon discarded it in favor of the one we are now familiar with, but it is always fascinating to explore a composerʼs alternative ideas. The other major difference in Korstvedtʼs edition is a 26-bar passage shortly before the climax of the slow movement, a passage Bruckner cut before the score was published in 1881. There are additional minor changes in the first and third movements. Avid Brucknerians can read Korstvedtʼs detailed commentary in the notes accompanying Jakub Hrůšaʼs recording of this edition with the Bamberg Symphony, released in 2021.
　The symphony opens with a distant horn call, played over a background of shimmering strings. Woodwinds pick up the theme. The music slowly unfolds in Brucknerʼs special, majestic manner. This broad opening of remarkable breadth takes fifty bars to reach the first grand climax, which is marked by the composerʼs favorite rhythmic pattern: a duplet followed by a triplet. The second theme, in the warm and mellow key of D-flat major, combines a chirping birdlike figure (violins) with a flowing countermelody in the violas. These musical motifs, plus various episodes (notably brass chorales) form the material from which Bruckner erects a vast cathedral in sound. Thematic inversions, elongations, fragmentations and sequences (motifs played at successively higher or lower pitch levels), extended crescendos, and all sorts of contrapuntal techniques are employed with great resourcefulness. The movement ends with a thrilling projection of the initial horn call, now heard in unison fortissimo by the entire horn section.
　The second movement is, characteristically for Bruckner, solemn, slow and meditative. A mood of nostalgic reverie pervades. Echoes of a distant past (horn, woodwinds) punctuate the two principal themes, each heard initially in the somber colors of mid-range strings (cellos for the first, violas for the second) while violins accompany with slow, treading figures. A long, broadly-conceived coda brings the movement to a glorious climax, from which it subsides into nothingness.
　Shimmering strings return to usher in the Scherzo, which features the horn quartet in its romantic association with the hunt. A second, more relaxed theme is entrusted to the strings. The two themes mix and combine in varied patterns. At its height, the music rushes forward with incredible vigor and motoric energy. A restrained, pastoral Trio section takes the character of a Ländler (a gently flowing Austrian country dance in triple meter). The Scherzo is then repeated.
　The finale is long, complex, and brimming with huge contrasts, from mysterious murmurs to stentorian outbursts to lovely lyricism, all woven together in Brucknerʼs own inimitable manner.

Robert Markow's musical career began as a horn player in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He now writes program notes for orchestras and concert organizations in the USA, Canada, and several countries in Asia. As a journalist he covers the music scenes across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, especially Japan. At Montreal's McGill University he lectured on music for over 25 years.
　

【Soloist Encore】（7/5up）
Piazzolla：Tango Etude No.3
（Karen GOMYO, Violin）

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