LUCIANO BERIO (1925-2003)
Sinfonia (1968-69)
“Music is everything that one listens to with the intention of listening to music.” So said Luciano Berio, one of the 20th century’s most important composers. Beyond music, of course, he was fascinated with language—in particular the musical qualities of language. Many of his works include writing for the human voice, though not necessarily to be grasped as meaningful text, but more for its inherent sound qualities and as integral part of the musical tapestry. Nowhere is this fascination more obvious than in his Sinfonia, scored for eight amplified voices and orchestra. It begins and ends with a hushed gong, but what comes in between has made this work a modern classic. Its musical effects include wisps of melodies, outbursts of syllables, musical quotations from Beethoven, Richard Strauss, and Debussy, and fragmented texts from a wide variety of writers spoken or sung—all coming together in an intriguing sonic collage. The texts may be syllables, snatches of slogans, and fragments from the writings of Samuel Beckett, anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, e.e. cummings, James Joyce, and Italo Calvino—resulting in a labyrinthine tour de force. That this will be a different kind of symphony is already apparent from the five movement designations, three of which are only metronomic markings. The second movement, entitled “O King,” is a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that was incorporated into Sinfonia after the civil rights leader’s slaying in 1968. It begins with the “deconstructed” sounds of King’s name, and concludes by assembling those sounds into the words “O Martin Luther King” at the end. The German name of the pivotal third movement, “In ruhig fliessender Bewegung” (“With quietly flowing movement”) is borrowed directly from the middle movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 and plays an important role in Berio’s work. “If I were asked to explain the presence of Mahler’s scherzo in Sinfonia, the image that would naturally spring to mind would be that of a river running through a constantly changing landscape, disappearing from time to time underground, only to emerge later totally transformed. Its course is at times perfectly apparent, at others hard to perceive, sometimes it takes on a totally recognizable form, at others it is made up of a multitude of tiny details lost in the surrounding forest of musical presences.” The 1969 version of Sinfonia was premiered on October 8, 1970 by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein’s direction. The published score is inscribed as follows: “Written for (and commissioned by) the New York Philharmonic and dedicated to Leonard Bernstein.”

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Symphony No. 4 (1885)
“God forbid, it is nothing so aristocratic—I’ve merely put together another collection of polkas and waltzes,” Brahms wrote to his friend Max Kalbeck about his Fourth Symphony, in the typically deprecating way he had when he was about to give birth to a masterpiece. It is Brahms’s farewell to the symphony—his final great work in the genre, whose supreme master he was (despite his initial dread of standing in Beethoven’s shadow). It is nothing less than a summing up of what he had learned about composing for orchestra. This symphony did not easily find a place in the orchestral repertoire—it is austere and tragic, although defiant. Even Brahms’s more ardent and loyal admirers were reluctant to praise it. When Brahms heard a performance of the Fourth in Vienna many years later, he was accorded a tumultuous ovation. As he stood to receive it, tears streamed down his face. At last his work had received the recognition it deserved. The composer died less than a month later. Though a Romantic at heart, Brahms chose the classical modes of expression he had inherited, reaching back to Bach and beyond for techniques like counterpoint and the Baroque passacaglia form (he masterfully varies an 8-note motif 30 times in the finale). Speaking with deepest emotion and resignation in this autumnal work Brahms had reached the pinnacle of his magnificent symphonic output.

Lorin Maazel, who has led more than 150 orchestras in more than 5,000 opera and concert performances, became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2002. His appointment came 60 years after his debut with the Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium, then the Orchestra’s summer venue. As Music Director he has conducted seven World Premiere–NewYork Philharmonic Commissions, including the Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–winning On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; and Melinda Wagner’s Trombone Concerto. He has led cycles of works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky; and he conducted the Orchestra’s inaugural performances in the DG Concerts series — a groundbreaking initiative to offer downloadable New York Philharmonic concerts exclusively on iTunes.

Mr. Maazel has taken the Orchestra on numerous international tours, including the historic visit to Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in February 2008 — the first performance there by an American orchestra, and an event watched around the world. Other recent tours have included Asia 2008 — to Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing; the May 2007 Tour of Europe; the November 2006 visit to Japan and Korea; the Philharmonic Tour of Italy in June 2006, sponsored by Generali; the two-part 75th Anniversary European Tour to thirteen cities in five countries in the fall of 2005; and residencies in Cagliari, Sardinia, and at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.

In addition to the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Maazel is music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. A frequent conductor on the world’s operatic stages, he returned to The Metropolitan Opera in January 2008 for the first time in 45 years to conduct Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Prior to his tenure as New York Philharmonic Music Director, Mr. Maazel led more than 100 performances of the Orchestra as a guest conductor. He served as music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002), and has held positions as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper (1982–84); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965–71). He is an honorary member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic. On February 17, 2009, he will be named a Commander of the Legion of Honor by the government of France.

A second-generation American, born in Paris, Mr. Maazel was raised and educated in the United States. He took his first violin lesson at age five, and first conducting lesson at seven. Between ages 9 and 15 he conducted most of the major American orchestras. In 1953 he made his European conducting debut in Catania, Italy.

Mr. Maazel is also an accomplished composer. His opera, 1984, received its world premiere on May 3, 2005, at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It was revived in the 2007–08 season at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and has been released on DVD by Decca.

STEVEN STUCKY
Host of Hear & Now, born in 1949 in Hutchinson, Kansas
Not everyone in the pantheon of today’s composer can claim to have spent time on a farm in Pretty Prairie, Kansas. But Steven Stucky can. It’s also on the prairie that he took up the viola as a boy of 10. Now he’s a music professor at Cornell, his alma mater, and has other prestigious appointments in the music world. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic, for example, where he is Consulting Composer for New Music, one responsibility is to study scores of other living composers hoping to have their works performed. His credentials make him the perfect choice for the New York Philharmonic’s three Hear and Now concerts this season, in which he leads adventurous music lovers into explorations of new works by fellow American composers—usually in the company of those composers. The programs begin one hour before concert start time, and an abbreviated version of his remarks takes place during the concert itself. Steven Stucky knows each of the composers featured on Hear and Now: Elliott Carter, Avner Dorman, and Peter Lieberson, and says: “I can’t think of three more different composers, but who are so perfect for a Hear and Now treatment. Elliott Carter, whose 100th birthday we celebrate this season, is charming and holds audiences in his hand; Avner Dorman is hot, hot, hot in music circles today, yet his music is approachable and energetic. And Peter Lieberson is a gentle, kind, warm, generous person who writes some of the most beautiful music today.” Steven Stucky will get ready for Hear and Now by studying the scores, communicating with the composers, and attending rehearsals. He believes the secret to opening up fearlessly to new music is to make a human connection between audience and composer—the approach taken in Hear and Now presentations. “The fact that someone is talking to you about the music is almost more important than what the person says. The barriers are taken down when the composer and the audience think of themselves as allies. Call it ‘rooting for the home team.’ That way everybody wins.”