Last updated: June 16, 2022
Program
WYNTON MARSALIS Tuba Concerto
MAHLER Symphony No. 1
Repertoire
Tuba Concerto
I. Up!
II. Boogaloo Americana
III. Lament
IV. In Bird’s Basement
Wynton Marsalis has distinguished himself as a composer of works that are inventive hybrids of Western art music and jazz traditions. Notably, he adapts and fuses art music’s forms and mediums (e.g., orchestra, string quartet) with jazz and its many styles, along with other Black music idioms including work songs and spirituals. In this vein, his Tuba Concerto expands the notion of virtuosity for the soloist—as not only about technical prowess, but also about playing expressively, as well as being able to deftly perform a diverse range of Black and Latin American musical styles.
Co-commissioned by several orchestras including the NAC Orchestra, Marsalis composed his Tuba Concerto in 2021. Originally written for Carol Jantsch, principal tuba of the Philadelphia Orchestra, she premiered the piece with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin on December 9, 2021. It has since been performed by several other tubists and orchestras; tonight’s presentation featuring NACO Principal Tuba Chris Lee as soloist is the concerto’s Canadian premiere.
The energetic first movement Up! introduces various musical materials that then return throughout, arranged in different ways. Against forceful orchestral accompaniment, the tuba plays an angular, restless melody. In the movement’s three cadenzas, the soloist plays multiphonics, an extended technique that requires playing one pitch and singing another simultaneously. Later, handclaps in parts of the orchestra along with marked syncopations in the percussion propel the movement to the finish as the tuba dazzles with a series of licks.
“Funky tuba” was the inspiration for Boogaloo Americana, said Marsalis in a video conversation with Jantsch. He noted he wrote a boogaloo, a 1960s style of dance music that combines Latin American idioms such as clave rhythms with African American funk music, to give the tuba a chance to play some “quirky bass lines”. (Jantsch had explicitly requested that funk be incorporated somehow.) Other boogaloo sounds—handclaps (again) and agogo bells—are integrated into the orchestral palette. Along with the “different ratios” of Latin styles (which include danzon and mambo) and funk, there’s also an “Americana” section featuring open-fourth harmonies. According to Jantsch, Marsalis said the movement is about “taste and finesse.”
“The tuba is such a singing instrument,” Marsalis told Jantsch. For Lament, he wanted to write a part that “started introspectively…the kind of thing we equate with Bill Evans and Wayne Shorter.” From introspection, the movement shifts to 19th-century Romantic lyricism, with the tuba playing a “kind of an opera recitative” to which the orchestra responds. After another introspective moment, a march appears; based on a repeated bass line and featuring tambourines, Marsalis explained that it’s a reference to the minstrel show: “I wanted the tuba to deal with the whole pathos that comes with this type of parody…the bittersweet quality of having to make a parody of yourself.” The middle section has “burlesques” with “extreme dissonances…and when you sing your part, you slowly realize that no matter what you do…you’re a comic-tragic character. A sad clown.” To drive this point home in interpretation, Marsalis instructs the tuba at the movement’s climax to “shout as if wailing wasn’t enough.”
Solo tuba and orchestra take on bebop in the concerto’s lively finale In Bird’s Basement. (The movement’s title refers to jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, who was one of the pioneering figures of bebop.) Following Jantsch’s suggestion that Marsalis incorporate bebop in the work’s final movement, the composer noted he was inspired to “write for an orchestra and write bebop…to try to actually use the language of it and have them play breaks and riffs.” The resulting tuba part, with its incredibly fast passages and rapid-changing harmonies, is a brilliant showcase for the soloist’s technical as well as stylistic virtuosity
Symphony No. 1
I. Langsam, schleppend (Slow, dragging) – Immer sehr gemächlich (Very leisurely throughout)
II. Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell (Moving energetically, but not too fast) – Trio: Recht gemächlich (Rather leisurely)
III. Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen (Solemn and measured, but without dragging)
IV. Stürmisch bewegt (In a stormy tempo)
After its initial composition in 1888, it took Gustav Mahler a decade to arrive at the version of the score that we know today as his First Symphony. He first conceived of it in five movements and conducted this version’s premiere in Budapest in 1889 to mixed reviews. He revised it, giving it the title of “Titan: a tone poem in symphonic form”. Still in five movements, Mahler, notably, provided a programmatic description for the work, which was published in the concert notes for this version’s first performance in Hamburg in 1893. In 1896, Mahler conducted yet another revised version in Berlin for which he dropped the second movement (“Blumine”) as well as the “Titan” title and accompanying program (he had determined they confused audiences). The final four-movement version was published in 1899 as Symphony No. 1.
With its intense psychological narrative (evident, despite being made “secret”) conveyed through the medium of a large orchestra, Mahler’s First Symphony is powerful and cathartic, especially when experienced live. The first movement begins with an atmospheric introduction that Mahler described as portraying “the awakening of nature from a long winter’s sleep.” Against a shimmering backdrop of sustained high harmonics in the strings, the motifs of the awakening emerge: first, a phrase of descending fourths that Mahler labeled in the score “like a sound of nature; it alternates with fanfares in the clarinet, then trumpets “placed at a very great distance” (usually off-stage). Following cuckoo calls, the horns intone a warm melody. Finally, through a groggily crawling chromatic passage for cellos and basses, we arrive at the movement proper—on a merry theme from Mahler’s song “Gin heut’ Morgen übers Feld” (Went this morning through the fields) from his cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). Music of the song’s first and third verses are presented and culminate in a joyous closing passage.
The opening section is then repeated, after which the introduction material returns, this time with added mystery and suspense. The cellos sing sighing phrases, tinged with melancholy, that, following a horn fanfare, morph into an extended lyrical melody. It develops alongside phrases from the main song theme, cycling through various keys. Later, the music darkens, becoming more insistent and menacing, but in a gigantic climax, breaks through to triumphant brass fanfares. They lead back to the opening song, which now flows more freely, accelerating with near-delirious joy. Suddenly, the timpani crashes in boisterously, stunning the rest of the orchestra. The movement closes on this humorous moment, which Mahler once described as Beethoven “breaking out into loud laughter and running away.”
In the second movement, yodelling phrases introduce a Ländler melody of rustic character (including vigorous stamping), which the woodwinds and upper strings alternately present. Hints of the earlier threat later appear but the dance reasserts itself; beginning very softly, it builds to a grand orchestral climax, which then accelerates to the horns’ culminating shout. The mood drastically shifts in the contrasting Trio—a tender waltz of nostalgic quality, with falling, sighing phrases and the melody enriched by glissandi in the violins. A truncated version of the Ländler returns to bookend the movement.
The remarkable third movement is a sharply ironic Todtenmarsch (death march), conveyed through unusual tone colours. According to Mahler’s original program note, the tragic-comic nature of the movement was inspired by a “parodistic picture” (a woodcut by Moritz von Schwind) from a children’s book of fairy tales, depicting “the animals of the forest escorting the coffin of a deceased hunter to the gravesite.” Musically, he depicts the procession with the children’s song “Bruder Martin” (or “Frère Jacques”) but set in the minor mode to give it an “eerie and brooding effect.” It’s introduced by muted solo double bass in its high register, accompanied by timpani, after which other low instruments enter in turn with the tune in a canon—bassoon, muted cellos, tuba, bass clarinet. The oboe offers biting commentary as more instruments join the march. After the procession, a pair of oboes begin a lament; it’s soon interrupted by the intrusion of a noisy band—including Turkish cymbals, bass drum, and strings playing on the wood of their bows—with a tune of banal gaiety (Mahler instructs it to be played “with parody”).
The middle section provides ethereal contrast, with the violins singing a melody borrowed from the last stanza of the final song in Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen: “Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz” (The two blue eyes of my beloved). It has the effect of recalling a poignant memory, which then fades out—listen for touches of gong. The funeral procession returns with renewed intensity—in a different key and with thicker textures, including a new lament in the trumpets. After the banal band tune is reprised by the clarinets with cymbals and bass drum, the pace accelerates, and suddenly, the death march, the trumpets’ lament, and the band tune clash simultaneously. Eventually, they go their separate ways, with the procession waning last.
Proceeding without a break, the fourth movement begins with a shocking crash of cymbals and an anguished howl of a chord, which Mahler described as “the sudden erupting of a heart wounded to its depths.” Extant communications reveal that Mahler shaped the musical content of this movement to an explicit narrative; he once titled it “Dall’ Inferno al Paradiso”. In a conversation with his close friend Natalie Bauer-Lechner from November 1900, Mahler summarized it like this:
The last movement…begins with a horrible outcry. Our hero is completely abandoned, engaged in a most dreadful battle with all the sorrow of this world. Time and again he—and the victorious motif with him—is dealt a blow by fate whenever he rises above it and seems to get hold of it, and only in death, when he has become victorious over himself, does he gain victory. Then the wonderful allusion to his youth rings out once again with the theme of the first movement. (Glorious Victory Chorale!)
As you’ll hear, Mahler utilizes the maximum power of the orchestra’s forces to portray this psychological battle. The first section features the unleashing of the terrifying “inferno”, with a menacing series of march-like themes. It collapses, and the mood shifts to a melody of heartfelt nostalgia in the violins. At the song’s end, the crawling passage from the first movement’s introduction returns, leading into inferno’s return at the beginning of the second section. Here, we get glimpses of triumph with the introduction of the “victorious” motif; announced by a variation of the Grail Theme from Richard Wagner’s Parsifal, trumpets and trombones intone it very softly the first time. The inferno rises once more, and as it threatens to overwhelm, the “victorious” motif resounds again, much more assertively. This time, it’s extended to include a “chorale”—a statement, declared by no less than seven horns, of descending fourths that is itself a variation on the “nature” theme at the symphony’s opening. But the climax dissolves, into the reminiscences of the fanfares and motifs from the symphony’s introduction—the allusion to the hero’s youth. It melts into the nostalgic song at the start of the third and final section, gradually spinning out into an impassioned climax. The inferno then makes one last attempt to claim the hero’s soul, but a massive breakthrough occurs, like the one near the end of the first movement. With the declamation of the “victory chorale” (horns standing with bells up), triumph in paradise is at last attained at the symphony’s glorious finish.
Program notes by Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
Artists
A native of Toronto, Chris began playing tuba at the age of twelve at Winona Drive Senior Public School and instantly discovered a passion for performing. During his time at Winona, Chris met Chuck Daellenbach of the Canadian Brass, and performed over 50 concerts with the Winona Brass Quintet including a tour of Japan. Chuck would serve as a role model and mentor for the remainder of Chris' career and those early musical experiences with the quintet would leave an indelible imprint on him.
After graduating from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, Chris’ formal education included studies with Dennis Miller at McGill, Alain Cazes at the Montreal Conservatoire and Dan Perantoni at Indiana University. His summers were spent performing at various summer festival orchestras including the National Academy Orchestra (Hamilton Canada), National Repertory Orchestra (Breckenridge, Colorado), National Orchestral Institute (College Park, Maryland), Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra (Switzerland) and a memorable summer in the Ceremonial Guard Band performing on Parliament Hill.
Chris’ professional orchestral tuba career began overseas in Spain, performing as Principal Tuba with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia for 2 seasons from 2001 to 2003 before returning to Canada to take up the same position with the Winnipeg Symphony in 2003. Chris served as Principal Tuba with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for 15 seasons from 2003 until 2018, when he started as Principal Tuba with the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Chris has been an active teacher and enjoys sharing his passion for music. While in Europe, Chris was the Professor of Tuba at the ESMAE School of Music in Porto, Portugal and is the former Instructor of Tuba at the University of Manitoba. He is very proud of his former students who hold a variety of positions.
Chris has recorded with the Winnipeg Symphony, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Real Philharmonic de Galicia, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Brass and numerous studio recordings in the US. Chris has appeared as a soloist with a variety of ensembles including the Winnipeg Symphony, the University of Manitoba Wind Ensemble and the National Youth Band of Canada. Chris gave the orchestral premiere of the Victor Davies Tuba Concerto in 2009 with the WSO and is always on the lookout to find new tuba repertoire to perform for Canadian audiences. When he is not playing tuba, Chris enjoys running, playing golf and spending time with his wife, Desiree and their two kids; Evelyn and Keenan.
Wynton Marsalis is a world-renowned trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and a leading advocate of American culture. He presently serves as Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and Director of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961, Wynton started playing trumpet at 6 on an instrument gifted to him by New Orleans legend Al Hirt. By 9, he played in the Fairview Baptist Church Marching band, and he began formal studies at age 12; at 15, he played the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the New Orleans Philharmonic and entered The Juilliard School at 17, soon thereafter joining the legendary Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers.
In 1981, Wynton assembled his own band and hit the road, performing all over the world. To date, he has performed 4,777 concerts in 849 distinct cities and 64 countries across the globe. Through a diversity of performances and music workshops, Marsalis has rekindled and animated widespread interest in jazz both at home and internationally. The range and quality of the music that his soulful, swinging, and sophisticated bands create have deeply inspired audiences. Today, Marsalis is continuing the renaissance that he first sparked in the early 1980s, attracting new generations of young talent to jazz while also maintaining the mythic meanings in the jazz tradition.
Marsalis has been called the ‘pied piper’ of jazz and the “Doctor of Swing.” Since his recording debut in 1982, he has released 110 jazz and classical recordings and won many awards—both significant and trivial. He regularly performs in the most prestigious concert halls and loves also to play and jam in the most inconspicuous local clubs. Over the course of his tenured career, he has mentored and taught too many artists to name.
Marsalis is a prolific and inventive composer, with a body of work that includes 573 songs, 11 ballets, four symphonies, eight suites, two chamber pieces, a string quartet, two masses, and concertos for violin and tuba. He is the first musician to perform and compose across the full jazz spectrum from its New Orleans roots to bebop, to modern jazz. His knowledge of the interconnected roots of American vernacular music inspires him to experiment in an ever-widening palette of forms and concepts that present some of the most advanced thinking in modern jazz.
Wynton has received such accolades as The Louis Armstrong Memorial Medal, The French Grand Prix du Disque, and The Frederick Douglass Medallion. He was appointed Messenger of Peace by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (2001), awarded The National Medal of Arts (2005), and The National Medal of Humanities (2016). Britain’s Royal Academy of Music has granted Marsalis Honorary Membership; in the fall of 2009, he received France’s highest distinction, the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He has received honorary doctorates from 39 of America’s top academic institutions including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Tulane University in his hometown of New Orleans.
Wynton is the music’s chief advocate, philosopher and performer who is called upon at ceremonial occasions to place events in their proper historical context. To that end, his is a principal speaker in several vital documentaries on jazz and American culture and has written many relevant essays on jazz-related topics. Between 2011 and 2014, he delivered six groundbreaking and definitive lectures entitled Hidden in Plain View: Meanings in American Music at Harvard University. Marsalis is the author of seven books, including two children’s books.
Marsalis’ vision and passionate leadership were essential to the effort to construct Jazz at Lincoln Center’s home— Frederick P. Rose Hall—the world’s first education, performance, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz, which opened its doors in October 2004.
Wynton Marsalis’ core beliefs for living are based on the principles of jazz: individual creativity (improvisation), collective cooperation (swing), gratitude and good manners (sophistication), and stubborn optimism (the blues). Wynton believes that music possesses the power to elevate the quality of human engagement for individuals, social networks and cultural institutions throughout the world.
Gustav Mahler
(1860–1911)
Gustav Mahler was an Austrian composer and conductor. His compositional output was limited to songs, song cycles including with orchestra (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert Lieder, Kindertotenlieder, Das Lied von der Erde), and symphonies (nine complete and a tenth that was incomplete at his death). However, the symphonies especially, have, since the centenary of his birth, acquired canonic status in the performance repertoire. With their deep psychological narratives, they are highly wrought, expansive works, many of them including voices, that are admired for their intensely cathartic quality. Extensive and ongoing research into his compositions as well as his conducting activities have revealed Mahler to be one of the 20th century’s most significant figures of European art music.
Mahler was born on July 7, 1860, in Kalischt, near Iglau, in Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). The eldest of six children in a middle-class Jewish family, he was the local piano prodigy by age 10 and in 1875, was accepted into the Vienna Conservatory. While there, composition was his primary subject; he was one of many students inspired by the music of Richard Wagner, and thus supported the burgeoning modernist trend. He later attended courses at Vienna University, where he became acquainted with Anton Bruckner, whose music he later championed as a conductor.
Mahler’s conducting career proceeded through positions in increasingly prestigious theatres in Central Europe. He began at Bad Hall, south of Linz, then moved on to Kassel (1883–5), Prague (1885–6), Leipzig (1886–8), Budapest (1888–91), Hamburg (1891–7), and finally to Vienna’s Hofoper in 1897. His directorship there, which was facilitated by his conversion to Catholicism and lasted until 1907, was distinguished particularly by productions with innovative stage designs by the Secessionist artist Alfred Roller.
Mahler gained a reputation for being a very demanding and exacting conductor. Yet, while his volatile temper got him into trouble with musicians, singers, and the theatre administration many times, the results he got in performance were undeniably powerful, and audiences flocked to see him at the podium. In Hamburg, then later in Vienna, Mahler also conducted orchestral subscription concerts, often with adventurous programming that included idiosyncratic (and frequently controversial) interpretations of oft-performed “classics” by composers like Ludwig van Beethoven and Robert Schumann.
In 1902, he married the composer Alma Schindler, with whom he had two daughters (the elder Maria died in 1907 from scarlet fever and diptheria). Meanwhile, he wrote and conducted his own symphonies to increasing critical acclaim, with premieres being highly anticipated events. In 1907, the same year he was diagnosed with a heart defect, Mahler crossed the Atlantic to conduct two seasons at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, followed by two seasons with the New York Philharmonic. In February 1911, he contracted bacterial endocarditis, and following attempts at treatment in Paris, he died in Vienna on May 18, 1911.
By Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley
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Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s NAC Orchestra in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as being “transformed... hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen) and Shelley’s programming credited for turning the orchestra into “one of the more audacious in North America” (Maclean’s).
Shelley is a champion of Canadian creation; recent hallmarks include the multimedia projects Life Reflected and UNDISRUPTED,and three major new ballets in partnership with NAC Dance for Encount3rs. He is passionate about arts education and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He is an Ambassador for Ottawa’s OrKidstra, a charitable social development program that teaches children life skills through making music together.
Alexander Shelley is also the Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and, starting with the 2024–2025 season, Artistic and Music Director of Artis-Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, USA. In the spring of 2019, he led the NAC Orchestra on its critically acclaimed 50th Anniversary European tour, and in 2017, he led the Orchestra in a tour across Canada, celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary. Most recently, he led the Orchestra in its first performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 30 years.
He has made eight recordings with the NAC Orchestra, including the JUNO-nominated New Worlds, Life Reflected, ENCOUNT3RS, The Bounds of Our Dreams, and the acclaimed Clara, Robert, Johannes four-album series, all with Canadian label Analekta.
The Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., O.N.L., LL.D. (hc)
FIRST VIOLINS
Yosuke Kawasaki (concertmaster)
Jessica Linnebach (associate concertmaster)
Noémi Racine Gaudreault (assistant concertmaster)
**Elaine Klimasko
Marjolaine Lambert
Jeremy Mastrangelo
Manuela Milani
Frédéric Moisan
*Oleg Chelpanov
*Martine Dubé
*Erica Miller
◊Katelyn Emery
◊Marianne Di Tomaso
◊Danielle Greene
◊Zhengdong Liang
◊Maria-Sophia Pera
◊Yu Kai Sun
SECOND VIOLINS
Mintje van Lier (principal)
Winston Webber (assistant solo)
Mark Friedman
Carissa Klopoushak
**Edvard Skerjanc
Karoly Sziladi
Leah Roseman
Emily Westell
*Andéa Armijo Fortin
*Renée London
*Heather Schnarr
◊Jeanne-Sophie Baron
◊Kimberly Durflinger
◊Lindsey Herle
◊Austin Wu
◊Jingpu Xi
◊Xueao Yang
VIOLAS
Jethro Marks (principal / solo)
David Marks (associate principal / solo associé)
David Goldblatt (assistant principal / assistant solo)
Paul Casey
**Ren Martin-Doike
David Thies-Thompson
◊Tovin Allers
◊Daniel McCarthy
◊Alexander Moroz
◊Emily Rekrut Pressey
CELLOS
Rachel Mercer (principal)
Julia MacLaine (assistant principal)
Timothy McCoy
Marc-André Riberdy
Leah Wyber
*Karen Kang
◊Peter Ryan
◊Tsung Yu Tsai
DOUBLE BASSES
*Joel Quarrington (guest principal)
Hilda Cowie (acting assistant principal)
Vincent Gendron
Marjolaine Fournier
*David Fay
*Paul Mach
◊Philippe Chaput
◊Logan Nelson
◊Hector Ponce
FLUTES
Joanna G'froerer (principal / solo)
Stephanie Morin
◊Christian Paquette
◊Arin Sarkissian
OBOES
Charles Hamann (principal)
Anna Petersen
◊Myriam Navarri
◊Kira Shiner
CLARINETS
Kimball Sykes (principal)
Sean Rice
◊Juan Olivares
◊Timothy Yung
BASSOONS
Christopher Millard (principal)
Vincent Parizeau
*Joelle Amar
◊Chia Yu Hsu
◊Thalia Navas
HORNS
Lawrence Vine (principal)
Julie Fauteux (associate principal)
Lauren Anker
Elizabeth Simpson
Louis-Pierre Bergeron
◊Connor Landers
◊Corine Chartré Lefebvre
◊Roberto Rivera
◊Shin Yu Wang
TRUMPETS
Karen Donnelly (principal)
Steven van Gulik
◊Jose Juan Hernandez Torres
◊Daniel Lehmann
TROMBONES
Donald Renshaw (principal)
Douglas Burden
Colin Traquair
*Steve Dyer
◊Micah Kroeker
◊Wing Kwong Tang
◊Collins Sanders
TUBA
Chris Lee (principal)
◊Alec Rich
TIMPANI
Feza Zweifel (principal)
*Alexander Cohen
PERCUSSION
**Jonathan Wade
*Andrew Johnson
◊Michael Carp
◊Jacob Kryger
HARP
Angela Schwarzkopf*
PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN
Nancy Elbeck
ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN
Corey Rempel
PERSONNEL MANAGER
Meiko Lydall
*Additional musicians
**On leave
Non-titled members of the Orchestra are listed alphabetically
◊ Mentorship Program Participants
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Official Car of the NAC Orchestra
