Program

The 153rd Tokyo Opera City Subscription Concert

Thu. Mar. 9, 2023, 19:00 at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall
The 982nd Suntory Subscription Concert

Fri. Mar. 10, 2023, 19:00 at Suntory Hall
The 983rd Orchard Hall Subscription Concert

Sun. Mar. 12, 2023, 15:00 at

Orchard Hall

Andrea Battistoni, conductor
Yuka Ishimaru, organ

Kaoru Kondo, concertmaster

Hector Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9 (ca. 10 min)
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Alfredo Casella:
Italia, Rhapsody for Orchestra, Op. 11 (ca. 20 min)I. Lento, Grave, Tragico; Con molta fantasia
II. Lento assai – Lontano
III. Allegretto grazioso, poco mosso
IV. Allegro molto vivace. Festoso, con animo― intermission (ca. 15 min) ―Camille Saint-Saëns:Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 "Organ" (ca. 35 min)I. Adagio – Allegro moderato – Poco adagio
II. Allegro moderato – Presto – Maestoso – Allegro
Presented by Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Subsidized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan |Japan Arts Council(Mar. 12)In Association with- Exiting during the performance will be tolerated. If you do not feel well, please exit or enter as
you need. However, please mind the other listeners so that they will be minimally disturbed.
- If you enter just before the concert, we may escort you to a seat different from the one towhich you were originally assigned.
- Please refrain from using your cellphone or other electronic devices during performance.
- Late admittance will be refused during the live performance.
- Hold applause please. Please cherish the "afterglow" at the end of each piece for a moment
before your applause.

10Artist Profile

Andrea Battistoni,Artist Profile

Artist Profile
conductor

Chief Conductor ofthe Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

Born in Verona in 1987, Andrea Battistoni
is a rising star with an international reputation
as one of the most important conductors of©Takafumi Ueno
his generation. He was appointed First Guest
Conductor at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa
in 2013, and Chief Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestrain 2016.
In Tokyo he has proved to be a sensation with his charisma and sensitive
musicality, conducting Tokyo Phil in operas such as Nabucco, Rigoletto,
Madama Butterfly (Nikikai), and Aida (co-produced grand opera), as wellas numerous symphonic works including Roman Trilogy, Pictures at anExhibition, and Rite of Spring. The concert-style operas he has led - Turandot(2015), Iris (2016), and Mefistofele (2018) have secured his reputation as aleading light with critics and audiences alike. He has been regularly releasing
CDs with the Tokyo Phil through Nippon Colu mbia.
Other noteworthy engagements include: Teatro alla Scala, La Fenice in
Venice, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Arena di Verona, Bayerische Staatsoper in
Munich, Mariinsky Theater, and world-renowned orchestras such as theFilarmonica della Scala, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and Israel Philharmonic.
His book, Non e musica per vecchi was published by Rizzoli 2012, and by
Ongaku-No-Tomo-Sha in Japan in 2017.
In 2021, Andrea Battistoni, performing with Tokyo Phil, won the OPUSKLASSIK Prize 2021 in the 20th/21st Century symphonic category, one of
the most prestigious classical awards in Europe, for their international disc,"Dvorak: Symphony No. 9, ’From the New World' & Works of Akira Ifukube.”

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MarWebsite http://www.andreabattistoni.it/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Andrea-Battistoni-159320417463885/

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Artist ProfileYuka Ishimaru,organ

9Mar10Mar12Mar12©Naoko Nagasawa

Graduated from Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, Yuka Ishimaru
continued to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with the scholarshipfrom the government of Denmark, and further at Staatliche Hochschule fürMusik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart as a member of Japanese Government
Overseas Study Program for Artists. Won the Grand prix and Dane & Polly
Bales prize at the 22nd International Organ Competition Grand prix deChartres. She toured both in Europe and in Japan as well as performed withmajor orchestras and conductors around the globe. She also actively appears
in Japanese television programmes. Yuka Ishimaru is highly acclaimed forher passionate and rich sound, performance technique and dense registrationof the instrument. She is teaching at the Musashino Academia Musicae, andfrom April 2020, she is serving as residential organist at Niigata City
Performing Arts Center “RYUTOPIA”.

Program Notes

Text by Robert MarkowHector Berlioz:
Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9On September 10, 1838, Berlioz saw his first opera, Benvenuto
Cellini, receive its premiere in Paris. The opera failed miserably, duepartly to a faulty libretto, partly to a disastrously ineffective Cellini,partly to the unsympathetic conductor, and partly to an audience
expecting a stage spectacle of Meyerbeerian proportions. After three
more poorly-attended performances it was dropped and not heard again
in France until 1913; even today this magnificent work is rarely presented.
The only popular excerpts from this opera are its overture and theadditional music written in 1843 to serve as either the Introduction to Act
II or as an independent concert work. This music is known today as theRoman Carnival Overture. Its first performance as an independent work
was given at the Salle Herz in Paris on February 3, 1844, conducted by thecomposer.
The frenetic bustle of Carnival season (just before Lent, a period of
about six weeks in the Christian liturgical calendar leading up to Easter)has been depicted on numerous occasions in music. The best-known
expressions in orchestral terms are probably Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio
italien, Dvořàk’s Carnival Overture and Berlioz’ Roman Carnival
Overture. Much of the musical substance derives from the opera itself,
especially from the Carnival scene, portrayed by the joyous, exhilarating
saltarello theme. The long, expressive English horn solo, which occurs
just after the brief introductory f lourish, is one of the most famous in therepertory for that instrument. The melody comes from the first-act duet
between Cellini and Teresa, and later becomes the subject of a fugato
section. This leads into the Allegro, the famous saltarello (an Italiandance whose rhythm is characterized by rapidly pulsing triplets grouped
into pairs). The impetuous verve, orchestral brilliance, and rhythmicenergy of this music combine to make the Roman Carnival Overture oneof the most famous and enduring works in the entire repertory.

Program Notes

Program Notes

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Program Notes

HECTOR BERLIOZ: Born in La Côte-Saint-André, near Grenoble,
December 11, 1803; died in Paris, March 8, 1869
Work composed: 1843 World premiere: February 3, 1844 in Paris at theSalle Herz, conducted by the composer
Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doublingon English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets,3 trombones, timpani, percussion (tambourine, triangle, cymbals), strings

Alfredo Casella:
Italia , Rhapsody for Orchestra, Op. 119Mar10Mar
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14Italy has long been a rich source of inspiration for composers:
Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, Strauss’s Aus Italian, Tchaikovsky’s
Capriccio italien, Berlioz’ Harold in Italy, and Wolf’s Italian Serenade,just for starters. Casella’s twenty-minute rhapsody Italia too belongs inthis company.
Casella came from a family of cellists. His grandfather (a friend ofPaganini), his father, and his two brothers were all cellists; his motherwas a pianist. In 1896, at the age of thirteen, he went to Paris to continue
his training at the Conservatoire, where he studied composition withFauré alongside other students including Enescu and Ravel. In Paris healso met Debussy, Stravinsky, and de Falla, and had passing acquaintancewith Mahler and Strauss as well. All of these to some extent had an effecton Casella’s music. He was an avid promoter of modern music, and had adistinguished career as a teacher, concert pianist, and conductor as well.
In 1921 he made an American tour, leading the orchestras of Philadelphia,Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago and other major cities. From 1927 to 1929
he was conductor of the Boston Pops, immediately preceding Arthur
Fiedler’s long reign at the post.
Italia was only Casella’s second orchestral work, following asymphony (Op. 5, 1905-06). Nevertheless, Mahler thought highly enoughof it that he persuaded the prestigious firm of Universal in Vienna to
publish the score. In 1941, Casella wrote in his memoir, Music in My

Program Notes
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Time, “ . . . I began two important orchestral works in which I intended
to face for the first time the problem of creating a style at once Italian in
spirit and contemporary in its sonorous language. One of these was theSuite in C major.…The other was a much greater undertaking and still
resists the weight of the years; it is the rhapsody Italia.”
Bearing in mind that Casella had been living outside his native Italy
from a young age, “it was quite difficult,” he wrote, “to create the style [I]imagined and sought to realize in that work in the environment in which[I] lived.” What gave Casella particular satisfaction was that despite“living in the midst of a musical culture overwhelmingly dominated byImpressionism, [Italia] turned out to be anti-Impressionistic. Nothingis more remote from Debussyism than this linear and monumentalarchitecture.” As for the use of Italian folk songs, Casella asserted that “itwas natural that when I wished to create a national music I should look fora basis in the national folklore. Many others still do this today, with lessingenuousness than mine.”
The four connected sections, each four-to-seven minutes in length,
are easily identifiable. The second begins with a long solo for the English
horn in a quiet pastoral setting. The third, introduced by the solo bassoon
to harp accompaniment, projects a jaunty tone, and the fourth features
one of the best-known Italian songs, “Funiculì, Funiculà.” The song was
so ubiquitous that many people assumed it belonged to antiquity. Notso. It was written by a contemporary of Casella, Luigi Denza (18461922). When Strauss incorporated the tune into his Aus Italien in 1886
he was apparently unaware that it was under copyright, and was sued by
Denza for royalties. Rimsky-Korsakov made the same assumption in his
orchestral arrangement entitled Neapolitan Song (Op. 63). In Casella’s
case, however, Denza liked Casella’s treatment so much that he waived
copyright fees. Critic Phillip Scott called the music “nothing less than amonumental celebratory fantasia on the tune, bringing to the final sectionof Italia an almost orgiastic impact.”
Casella conducted the premiere on April 23, 1910 in the Salle Gaveauin Paris. Italy waited until 1924 to hear the work.

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ALFREDO CASELLA: Born in Turin, July 25, 1883; died in Rome, March5, 1947
Work composed: 1909 World premiere: April 23, 1910 in Paris at theSalle Gaveau, conducted by the composer
Instrumentation: 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo), 3 oboes (3rddoubling on English horn: 1st on score, but customarily 3rd), E♭ clarinet,
2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (tambourine, snaredrum, bass drum, triangle, cymbals, bell, tam-tam, glockenspiel), 2 harps,strings

Camille Saint-Saëns:Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 "Organ"
For grandeur, majesty and sheer tonal opulence, few symphonies canstand beside the Third of Saint-Saëns. The prominent contribution fromthe organ, the “King of Instruments,” provides an additional measureof imposing sonority to the work. Yet, there is little in Saint-Saëns’other music to prepare us for this symphony's monumentality and its
undisguised attempts to “wow” the audience. Saint-Saëns generally
conformed to the stylistic traits of much French music – charm, elegance,restraint, plus the transparent scoring, clean outlines and consummate
craftsmanship of a basically classical orientation. The Organ Symphonyhas all of this, but it has more as well – much more. Michael Steinberg has
dubbed Saint-Saëns the “master of the immense and effortless fortissimo.”
The Third Symphony was written in early 1886 as the result of acommission from the Royal Philharmonic Society of London. The first
performance took place in St. James’s Hall in London on May 19 of thatyear. It was a gala event of course, with the Prince and Princess of Wales(Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) in attendance. Saint-Saëns conducted
his symphony after having already appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s
Fourth Piano Concerto in the same concert. The public loved thesymphony, and critical reception was generally favorable, though somecritics grumbled about its unorthodox design.

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The entire symphony is based on the principle of continualtransformation of a “motto” theme. This theme makes its first fullappearance in the restless series of short detached notes in the violins,
following the slow, mysterious introduction. The attentive ear will pickout this theme in its rhythmic and coloristic metamorphoses throughout
the symphony ̶ at varying times f lowing and lyrical, detached andfragmented, broad and noble, or agitated and restless. The melodic line
is also sometimes altered as well.
Although ostensibly in two large parts, the work conforms basicallyto a standard four-movement symphony. The first movement contains acontrasting second theme – a gently swaying line in the violins which
serves as a contrast to the first – but it is the first theme (the “motto”)
that is mostly developed. The Adagio movement is ushered in by soft
pedal points in the organ, and unfolds leisurely in a mood of elevatedand lofty contemplation. After a full, extended pause comes the agitatedscherzo-like movement, one of extraordinary energy and drive. Into
its nervous principal theme are worked fragments of original “motto”
material (lightning f lashes of woodwinds). The most exultant moments
are reserved for the concluding section, announced by an enormous
C-major chord from the organ. Sonic thrills pile up to ever greaterheights, and the symphony ends in a magnificent blaze of C major.

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CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Born in Paris, October 9, 1835; died in Algiers,December 16, 1921
Work composed: 1886 World premiere: May 19, 1886 in London at St.
James's Hall, conducted by the composer
Instrumentation: 3 flutes (3rd doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, English
horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, triangle,cymbals), piano (four hands), organ, stringsFormerly a horn player in the Montreal Symphony, Robert Markow now writes program
notes for orchestras as well as for numerous other musical organizations in North America and Asia. He taught at Montreal’s McGill University for many years, has led music
tours to several countries, and writes for numerous leading classical music journals.

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