ProgrammeTuesday 2 February 2010 at 19.30 Oslo

Wednesday 3 February 2010 at 19.30 Copenhagen

Thursday 4 February 2010 at 20.00 Hamburg

Saturday 6 February 2010 at 19.30 Stockholm

Staatskapelle Dresden

Conductor: Neeme Järvi

Soloist: Frank Peter Zimmermann

Concert Master: Kai Vogler

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77

Duration 38’

I Allegro non troppo

II Adagio

III Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace

Intermission

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Also sprach Zarathustra (Tone Poem, Op.30)

Duration 33’

Fabio Luisi regrets his cancel-

lation of the tour due to illness.

Nordic Concerts is grateful to

Neeme Järvi who has stepped in

on short notice.

The concert in Copenhagen

will be broadcast live on DR P2

(Danish radio).

The concert will be offered to

the EBU (European Broadcasting

Corporation).

Neeme Järvi

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The head of a musical dynasty, Maestro Neeme Järvi is

one of today’s most respected conductors. He conducts

many of the world’s most prominent orchestras and

works alongside soloists of the highest calibre. A pro-

lific recording artist, he has amassed a discography

of over 440 recordings. Recent and future seasons in-

clude engagements with the Berliner Philharmoniker,

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra de Paris,

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks,

Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestre de la Suisse

Romande, and the major orchestras of Scandinavia. In

the US he is regularly invited to conduct the Chicago

and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, the Philadelphia

Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, Wa-

shington.

Over his long and highly successful career he has held

positions with orchestras across the world. He is cur-

rently Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest (The

Hague, Netherlands) and Conductor Laureate and Ar-

tistic Advisor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

He also holds the titles of Music Director Emeritus of

the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor

Emeritus of the National Orchestra of Sweden – Göte-

borgs Symfoniker, First Principal Guest Conductor

of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Conductor

Laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

From the 2010/11 season he will become Principal

Conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orche-

stra.

Highlights of an impressive discography include cri-

tically acclaimed complete symphony cycles of Pro-

kofiev, Siblieus, Nielsen and Brahms. Neeme Järvi

has also championed less widely known composers

such as Wilhelm Stenhammar, Hugo Alfvén and Niels

Gade; and composers from his native Estonia inclu-

ding Rudolf Tobias, Eduard Tubin and Arvo Pärt. His

recent Chandos disc, Wagner: The Ring - An Orche-

stral Adventure (arranged by Henk de Vlieger), recei-

ved rave reviews; Edward Greenfield described it as

“an excellent disc” in Gramophone Magazine.

Many international accolades and awards have been

bestowed upon Neeme Järvi. In Estonia these inclu-

de an honorary doctorate from the Music Academy

of Estonia in Tallinn, and the Order of the National

Coat of Arms from the President of the Republic of

Estonia, Mr. Lennart Meri. The mayor of Tallinn pre-

sented Maestro Järvi with the city’s first-ever ceremo-

nial sash and coat of arms insignia, and he has been

named one of the ‘Estonians of the Century’. He has

also received the Commander of the North Star Order

from King Karl Gustav XVI of Sweden.

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Frank Peter Zimmermann

the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra / Manfred Hon-

eck and the Staatskapelle Dresden / Fabio Luisi.

Frank Peter Zimmermann has given world premieres

of 3 violin concertos: in 2009 the violin concerto no. 3

“Juggler in Paradise” by Augusta Read Thomas with

the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and

Andrey Boreyko; in 2007 the violin concerto “The Lost

Art of Letter Writing” by Brett Dean, who received the

2009 Grawemeyer Award for this composition, with

the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by

the composer; and in 2003 the violin concerto ‘en

sourdine’ by Matthias Pintscher with the Berlin Phil-

harmonic Orchestra and Peter Eötvös.

Frank Peter Zimmermann was awarded the ‘Premio

del Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena 1990’. In

April 1994 he received the important Rheinischer Kul-

turpreis 1994 and in October 2002 the Musikpreis of

the city of Duisburg. On 21 January 2008 he received

the “Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse der Bundesre-

publik Deutschland”.

Frank Peter Zimmermann plays a Stradivarius from

1711, which once belonged to Fritz Kreisler, and which

is kindly sponsored by the WestLB AG.

Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, Frank Peter Zim-

mermann started playing the violin when he was 5

years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at

the age of 10. After finishing his studies with Valery

Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers in

1983, Frank Peter Zimmermann has been performing

with all major orchestras in the world, collaborating

on these occasions with the world’s most renowned

conductors. His many concert engagements take him

to all major concert venues and international music

festivals in Europe, the United States, Japan, South

America and Australia.

Highlights during the 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons

include(d) engagements with a.o. the Berlin Philhar-

monic Orchestra / Bernard Haitink, the Vienna Phil-

harmonic Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle, the Royal Con-

certgebouw Orchestra / Bernard Haitink, the Boston

Symphony Orchestra / Christoph von Dohnányi, the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Pierre Boulez (includ-

ing a concert at Carnegie Hall, New York), the New

York Philharmonic Orchestra / Alan Gilbert (includ-

ing a Far East tour), the London Symphony Orchestra

/ Daniel Harding, the Staatskapelle Berlin / Daniel

Barenboim, the orchestra of the NDR Hamburg / Chris-

toph von Dohnanyi (including a tour to China), the

Philharmonia Orchestra / Christoph von Dohnanyi,

as a «Strauss orchestra». Many other famous compo-

sers have written works either dedicated to the orche-

stra or first performed in Dresden, including Vivaldi,

Bach, Schumann, Wagner, Liszt, Hindemith, Weill,

or more recently, Matthus, Zimmermann and Rihm.

In 2007 Fabio Luisi reaffirmed this tradition by intro-

ducing an annually-appointed «Capell-Compositeur».

Following on from Isabel Mundry and Bernhard Lang,

the composer-in-residence for 2009|2010 will be the

British composer Rebecca Saunders. Today the Staats-

kapelle performs around 260 operas and ballets each

season in the Semper Opera House, in addition to

50 symphonic and chamber concerts. The orchestra

also holds its own concert series in Dresden’s Frauen-

kirche. A busy touring schedule regularly brings the

ensemble to the great music centres of Europe, Asia

and the USA, while long-term residencies at Vienna’s

Musikverein and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in

Paris mean that audiences there can enjoy the Sta-

atskapelle several times each year. From the early

1920s the Staatskapelle’s outstanding reputation as an

opera and concert orchestra has been documented by

numerous recordings, including now legendary per-

formances with famous conductors and soloists.

On 22 September 2008 the Staatskapelle Dresden ce-

lebrated its 460th jubilee. Founded by Prince Elector

Moritz von Sachsen in 1548, it is one of the oldest or-

chestras in the world and steeped in tradition. A lea-

ding ensemble throughout various musical eras, the

Kapelle is in fact unique in having been in continuous

existence for over four and a half centuries.

Distinguished conductors have helped shape the de-

velopment of this one-time court orchestra, including

Heinrich Schütz, Johann Adolf Hasse, Carl Maria von

Weber and Richard Wagner, for whom the ensemble

was his «miraculous harp». The list of prominent

conductors of the last 100 years includes Ernst von

Schuch, Fritz Reiner, Fritz Busch, Karl Böhm, Joseph

Keilberth, Rudolf Kempe, Otmar Suitner, Kurt San-

derling, Herbert Blomstedt, Giuseppe Sinopoli and

Bernard Haitink. Fabio Luisi, music director from

2007, is now in charge of both Saxon State Opera and

the Staatskapelle Dresden. Sir Colin Davis has been

the orchestra’s conductor laureate since 1990. Richard

Strauss and the Staatskapelle were closely linked for

almost 70 years. Nine of the composer’s operas were

premiered in Dresden (including «Salome», «Elektra»

and «Der Rosenkavalier») while Strauss’s «Alpine

Symphony» was dedicated to the Staatskapelle. In fact,

the ensemble has retained until today its reputation

AboutStaatskapelle Dresden

Staatskapelle Dresden / www.semperoper.de/de/staatskapelle/

Together with Fabio Luisi, the orchestra is currently

recording a complete cycle of Richard Strauss’s orche-

stral works for Sony Music. The initial releases from

this project have been warmly received by classical

reviewers.

At a ceremony in Brussels in 2007 the Staatskapelle

became the first – and so far only – orchestra to be

awarded the «European Prize for the Preservation of

the World’s Musical Heritage». In December 2008 the

British classical music magazine «Gramophone» once

again voted the Staatskapelle one of the world’s top

ten orchestras.

Volkswagen’s Transparent Factory has been a Partner

of the Staatskapelle Dresden since 2008.

Matthias Creutziger Matthias Creutziger

Musicians

Music Director

Fabio Luisi

Conductor Laureate

Sir Colin Davis

Violin I

Kai Vogler Concert master

Michael Eckoldt

Jörg Faßmann

Michael Frenzel

Jörg Kettmann

Susanne Branny

Birgit Jahn

Martina Groth

Wieland Heinze

Henrik Woll

Anja Krauß

Roland Knauth

Anselm Telle

Franz Schubert

Renate Hecker

Andrea Karpinski

Cello

Isang Enders Concert master

Friedwart C. Dittmann Solo cello

Tom Höhnerbach

Martin Jungnickel

Uwe Kroggel

Andreas Priebst

Bernward Gruner

Jörg Hassenrück

Matthias Schreiber

Jakob Andert

Double bass

Christoph Anaker Solo Bass

Petr Popelka

Torsten Hoppe

Christoph Bechstein

Fred Weiche

Reimond Püschel

Thomas Grosche

Johannes Nalepa

Flute

Rozalia Szabo Solo Flute

Bernhard Kury

Jens-Jörg Becker

Tina Vorhofer

Violin II

Reinhard Krauß Concert master

Matthias Meißner

Annette Thiem

Jens Metzner

Ulrike Scobel

Olaf-Torsten Spies

Beate Prasse

Mechthild von Ryssel

Alexander Ernst

Emanuel Held

Martin Fraustadt

Stanko Madić

Johanna Fuchs

Steffen Gaitzsch

Viola

Michael Neuhaus Solo viola

Andreas Schreiber

Michael Horwath

Michael Schöne

Uwe Jahn

Ulrich Milatz

Ralf Dietze

Susanne Neuhaus

Juliane Böcking

Irena Krause

Eva Maria Knauer

Reinald Ross

Oboe

Céline Moinet Solo Oboe

Andreas Lorenz

Volker Hanemann

Albrecht Krauß

Clarinet

Johannes Gmeinder Solo Clarinet

Egbert Esterl

Jan Seifert

Christian Dollfuß

Bassoon

Thomas Eberhardt Solo Bassoon

Hannes Schirlitz

Joachim Huschke

Andreas Börtitz

Horn

Jochen Ubbelohde Solo Horn

Robert Langbein Solo Horn

Harald Heim

Julius Rönnebeck

Miklós Takács

Klaus Gayer

Trumpet

Mathias Schmutzler Solo Trumpet

Siegfried Schneider

Volker Stegmann

Gerd Graner

Trombone

Tobias Schiessler Solo Trombone

Jürgen Umbreit

Frank van Nooy

Tuba

Hans-Werner Liemen

Jens-Peter Erbe

Timpani

Bernhard Schmidt

Percussion

Christian Langer

Frank Behsing

Stefan Seidl

Harp

Vicky Müller Solo Harp

Astrid von Brück Solo Harp

Organ

Jobst Schneiderat

It was at Pörtschach on the Wörthersee, on one of

those summer trips that lesser men might have tre-

ated as a holiday, that Brahms completed his Violin

Concerto. At 45 years of age and thoroughly experi-

enced in handling large instrumental forces, he had

evolved an orchestral sound so individual that any

Brahms score declared its authorship to the ear in a

matter of seconds – a sound that emphasises warmth

and richness far more than brilliance. In attempting a

violin concerto he was doubtless seeking to solve the

problems of inter-relationship between solo instru-

ment and orchestra not only from the personal stand-

point of his own method of composition but perhaps

in a manner that had not been satisfactorily achieved

before.

Fortunately for himself, us, and the music, Brahms

embarked upon this concerto before the personal

breach that temporarily blighted his friendship with

Joseph Joachim in the 1880s. (The Hungarian musi-

cian was having marital problems and Brahms undi-

plomatically took Mrs Joachim’s side in the dispute).

Joachim, two years older than Brahms, was the out-

standing violinist of his time and a not inconsiderable

composer himself. Thus the habit of exchanging works

for mutual discussion and criticism that the two men

had kept up since their first meeting in 1853 was more

than ever valuable to Brahms when he tackled the pro-

blems of solo writing and balance inherent in the vio-

lin concerto medium. He was a gifted pianist but no

violinist. In addition to suggesting a number of chan-

ges in the solo part and giving the first performance

on New Year’s Day, 1879 (in the Leipzig Gewandhaus

with the composer conducting) Joachim, as the work’s

dedicatee, set his seal on the work by contributing a

cadenza that is still played more often than the later

efforts of Kreisler, Auer, Busoni and Tovey.

Every now and then some well-intentioned commenta-

tor tells us that the Brahms concertos are ‘really sym-

phonies for solo instrument and orchestra’. Tone and

context usually suggest that the observation is meant

as a compliment: but the compliment is a left-handed

one. To appreciate Brahms’s Violin Concerto for what

it is – with Beethoven’s and Elgar’s, one of just three

supreme examples of the medium in its true classi-

cal shape – we should rid ourselves of the notion that

concertos are concerned primarily with technical dis-

play. The opening of Brahms’s concerto sets the scene

with an orderly presentation of the thematic material

through the orchestra; then when its turn comes, the

solo instrument is able to establish its primacy by

means of varying and extending the orchestra’s ideas,

introducing new ones of its own, and extending the

the oboe accompanied by octave figures for the violin

is exquisitely accomplished, and the contrast to the

woodwind sound is beautifully pointed when later

the violin picks up the melody over pizzicato strings;

at the end the solo soars quietly to the heights to con-

clude the movement.

The finale is notable for its extrovert Hungarian

flavour. At the outset the violin exults in a bold tune

tailor-made for the instrument, the orchestra proving

just as enthusiastic and seizing upon it whenever it

gets the chance. The secondary theme, even more

energetic, is first heard in rising octaves from the solo

instrument. After a recall of the main theme Brahms

interpolates a contrasting lyrical central episode, in ¾

time, again led off by the violin but with airy wood-

wind in attendance. Both the first and second main

themes come in for extensive development, and there

is at one point a fascinating passage for the violin alo-

ne beginning with a hint of polyphony: the orchestral

violins soon enter gently, however, as if to remind the

violin that this is a romantic concerto. Ultimately the

music arrives at a dramatic pause suggestive of a ca-

denza; but it is only the briefest flourish, and the solo

violin straightaway sets off into an excitingly rhyth-

mic coda, now faster than before, but again supported

to the hilt by the orchestra.

music’s tonal range. A prime example comes when the

soloist, having already held the attention through the

stratospheric flights that follow its first forceful ap-

pearance on the scene, offers a master-stoke halfway

through the solo exposition: earlier on a little rising fi-

gure heard on woodwind and strings was abruptly cut

off; now, when this figure reappears, the violin seizes

on it and launches on a glorious new stream of melody

like an ethereal waltz. Also striking are the bold vio-

lin chords over the octave passage derived from the

first subject. As might be expected, development and

recapitulation follow in orderly pattern, and when all

the material has been thoroughly explored a forceful

tutti prepares us for the cadenza. This resolves into

an ethereal version of the first theme, which furnishes

the material for a short coda.

The principal theme of the Adagio - music that is very

the essence of this composer in romantic mood - is

scored initially for woodwind and horns alone (no

strings), with the first oboe carrying the long and me-

morable principal melody. When the violin at last en-

ters it is with a thoughtful and highly ornate version

of this theme. The ornamentation continues in the

contrasting middle section, where the feeling is brie-

fly more dramatic though the music never becomes

louder than forte. The return of the main theme on

Johannes Brahms(1833-1897)

Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77

Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus spake Zarathustra)

was the fifth of the seven symphonic tone-poems that

Strauss completed between 1886-1898; it was compo-

sed between February and August 1896, and received

its first performance in Frankfurt-am-Main on 27

November that year with the composer conducting.

The work is based on the book by the German poet

and philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-

1900) in which he expounds his philosophy of the

Superman, and in which Zarathustra (the Zoroaster

of the ancient Greeks) delivers his pronouncements

on a wide variety of subjects during his periodic re-

turns to his fellow men from his solitary abode among

wild beasts. In a programme-note for the first Berlin

performance in December 1898 Strauss (who added

under the title at the head of the score the qualifica-

tion ‘Freely after Friedr.Nietzsche’) wrote: ‘I did not

intend to write philosophical music or to portray Ni-

etzsche’s great work in music. I meant to convey by

means of music an idea of the evolution of the human

race from its origin, through the various phases of

its development, religious as well as scientific, up to

Nietzsche’s idea of Superman. The whole symphonic

poem is intended as my homage to Nietzsche’s genius,

which found its greatest exemplification in his book

Also Sprach Zarathustra’. The form of the work is ne-

cessarily free, and corresponds to none of the sonata,

rondo or variation designs of its companion works; it

can most simply be described as a series of eight epi-

sodes (each marked in the score by a chapter heading

from Nietzsche’s book) framed by a prologue and an

epilogue.

On the title-page of his score Strauss quotes Zarat-

hustra’s invocation to the sun and the prologue is, fit-

tingly, a musical portrayal of sunrise, beginning with

a low pedal C which has much the same primeval

significance as the E flat that opens Das Rheingold at

the commencement of Wagner’s Ring cycle. Trumpets

intone the basic ‘Nature’ theme (the notes C, G, C), the

orchestra responds dramatically with thundering tim-

pani and the section ends in an imposing climax for

full orchestra and organ on the chord of C major. The

first episode, which is reached after a short bridge-

passage, is entitled Von den Hinterweltern (literally

‘Of the Backworldsman’ but perhaps better rendered

as ‘Of the Dwellers in the Outer World’ ): its beginning

with the plainchant melody of the ‘Credo in unum

deum’ on the horns is suggestive of the restrictive

dogma of the church, which limits the imagination

of the simple-minded beings named in the title; it is

followed by a theme for divided strings and organ (the

easy comfort of a benevolent, man-devised religion).

The second episode, Von der grossen Sehnsucht (‘Of

the Great Longing’), depicts the yearning for emanci-

on the lowest instruments with a subject that incor-

porates the ‘Nature’ theme with the motif of human

aspiration, as well as including all twelve notes of

the chromatic scale within its four bars. In the sixth

episode, Der Genesende (‘The Convalescent’), Zarat-

hustra emerges as though cleansed and reborn after

his hitherto futile searches after truth; at last he per-

ceives his true mission in the world. After a great C

major chord on the full orchestra the ‘aspiring’ mo-

tif gradually gathers energy and impetus, and a long

and highly virtuosic preparatory passage leads into

the seventh episode, Das Tanzlied (‘The Dance-song’)

where Zarathustra’s dance to the cheerful strains of

a Viennese-style waltz is led by a solo violin whose

music grows out of the ‘Nature’ theme. The ‘satiety’

motif becomes increasingly insistent towards the end

of this long section, whose gaiety is finally dispelled

by the tolling of the midnight bell. Now comes the

Nachtwanderlied (‘The Song of the Night Wanderer’),

the eighth and last episode and the climax of the tone

poem. But Strauss is not done: in a mellow epilogue

of considerable beauty the theme of aspiration emer-

ges once again in lush B minor harmonies and other

themes are recalled, though in the final chords im-

mutable Nature once more asserts herself dimly but

unmistakably in the music’s fundamental key of C

major.

pation from superstition and religious blindness and

an aspiration towards spiritual freedom. A sugary

theme grows out of the ‘aspiring’ motif in upward-lea-

ping arpeggios already suggested by pizzicato lower

strings at the beginning of the previous episode. The

great ‘Nature’ theme is subsequently combined with

this (the conflict between Man’s desire for self-expres-

sion and the force of Nature) and provides the first in-

stance of the polytonal element that is an underlying

feature of the whole work; the church is represented

by the opening notes of the plainchant ‘Magnificat’ on

the organ. The ‘aspiring’ motif finally triumphs, rea-

ches a peak in a climax of tremendous orchestral po-

wer, and is continued in the surging third episode Von

den Freuden und Leidenschaften (‘Of Joys and Passi-

ons’), a new and independent section giving free rein

to the sentiments of the title – albeit in music admit-

tedly on a more sensual plane than that of Nietzsche’s

writing. At its climax the trombones thunder out an

important new theme, the motif of satiety. The next

section, Grablied (‘Dirge’) provides a sombre contrast,

with its tender oboe melody and the ’yearning’ motif

together conjuring a nostalgic atmosphere that echoes

Zarathustra’s expression of regret at ‘the fleeting visi-

ons and apparitions of my youth’ .

The fifth episode, Von der Wissenschaft (‘Of lea-

rning’) is a deliberately academic fugue beginning

Richard Strauss(1864-1949)

Also Sprach Zarathustra (Tone Poem, Op.30)