Music@Menlo
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David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors
Marc A. Compton Senior Vice President, Market Executive 1000 El Camino Real, Suite 100 Menlo Park, California 94025 650.463.4841 marc.a.compton@ustrust.com
July 20–August 11, 2012
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Music@Menlo The Tenth Season: Resonance
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The Tenth Season: Resonance July 20–August 11, 2012 David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors
Tuesday, July 31
11:45 a.m.
Master Class: Jorja Fleezanis, violinist Martin Family Hall
page 81
Wednesday, August 1
11:45 a.m.
Master Class: Laurence Lesser, cellist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 81
Café Conversation: The Lute Version of Bach’s Fifth Cello Suite with Laurence Lesser, cellist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance Stent Family Hall
page 82
6:00 p.m.
Thursday, August 2
11:45 a.m. 5:30 p.m.
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program V: Motivated The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($65/$55)
page 26
7:30 p.m.
Encounter III: Expressing the Inexpressible: Music and the Spirit, led by Michael Parloff Martin Family Hall ($44)
page 11
page 73
page 74
Friday, August 3
11:45 a.m.
Master Class: Arnaud Sussmann, violinist Martin Family Hall
page 81
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program VI: Inspired St. Mark’s Episcopal Church ($55/$40)
page 30
Saturday, August 4
1:00 p.m.
Koret Young Performers Concert The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 79
8:00 p.m.
Carte Blanche Concert IV: Violin Celebration The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($70/$60)
page 49
6:00 p.m.
Concert Program VII: Impassioned The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($65/$55)
page 33
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program VII: Impassioned Stent Family Hall ($75)
page 33
7:30 p.m.
Encounter IV: Music and Modern Society, led by Patrick Castillo Martin Family Hall ($44)
page 11
8:00 p.m.
Carte Blanche Concert V: David Finckel and Wu Han The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($70/$60)
page 52
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program VIII: Delighted Stent Family Hall ($75)
page 36
Concert Program VIII: Delighted The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($65/$55) Fête the Festival: Tenth-Anniversary Celebration Menlo Park’s Arrillaga Family Recreation Center ($50)
page 36
6:00 p.m.
page 74
Sunday, August 5
4:00 p.m.
Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 75
Monday, August 6
11:45 a.m.
Café Conversation: Musical Gems of the Internet with David Finckel, Music@Menlo Artistic Codirector Martin Family Hall Listening Room series Martin Family Hall
page 82
Master Class: Ani Kavafian, violinist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance Martin Family Hall
page 81
Master Class: Gilbert Kalish, pianist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance Stent Family Hall
page 81
Master Class: Ian Swensen, violinist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 81
Master Class: Wu Han, pianist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance Martin Family Hall
page 81
Koret Young Performers Concert The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 80
6:00 p.m.
page 77
8:30 p.m.
4:15 p.m.
Tuesday, August 7
11:45 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, August 8
11:45 a.m. 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, August 9
11:45 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Friday, August 10
11:45 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 11
12:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m.
page 83
page 75
page 76
page 76
page 77
page 36
www.musicatmenlo.org 117
Music@Menlo Resonance the tenth season July 20–August 11, 2012 david finckel and wu han, artistic directors
Contents 2
Season Dedication
3
A Message from the Artistic Directors
4 Welcome from the Executive Director 4
Board, Administration, and Mission Statement
5 Resonance Program Overview 6 Essay: “How I Fell in Love with Music”
by Michael Steinberg
10
Encounters I–IV
13
Concert Programs I–VIII
39
Carte Blanche Concerts I–V
55
Music@Menlo Celebrates Ten Years
66
Music@Menlo Tenth-Anniversary Campaign
68
Chamber Music Institute
70
Prelude Performances
78
Koret Young Performers Concerts
81
Master Classes
82
Café Conversations
83
Listening Room
84
Open House
85
2012 Visual Artist: Eric J. Heller
87
Music@Menlo LIVE
88
2012–2013 Winter Series
90
Artist and Faculty Biographies
106
Internship Program
107 Glossary 110
Join Music@Menlo
114 Acknowledgments 115
Ticket and Performance Information
116 Calendar
Cover artwork: Transport IV and artwork on pp. 1, 5, and 85 by Eric J. Heller. Music@Menlo photographs: pp. 3, 4, 6, 39 (Anthony McGill), 46, 49, 52, 55, 57–62, 63 (photos 4, 8, and 10), 64 (photos 2, 3, and 12), 65 (photos 5 and 6), 66, 68, 82, and 111 by Tristan Cook; p. 39 (Gloria Chien) by Daniel Ashworth; pp. 43 (Kelly Markgraf and Gilbert Kalish), 65 (photos 1–4 and 7–10), 69, 70–81, 84, 108, and 115 by Ashley Pinnell; pp. 43 (Sasha Cooke), 64 (photos 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11), 83, and back cover by Kimberly Hsu; p. 56 (photos 1–3, 5, 6, and 12) by Da-Hong Seetoo; p. 56 (photos 4 and 7–11) by Steve Ibara; p. 63 (photos 1–3, 5–7, and 9) by Wilson Peters; pp. 64 (photo 1) and 88 (Menlo-Atherton) by Scott Chernish; pp. 110 and 114 by Tristan Schulz. Music@Menlo LIVE: p. 87 (CDs) by Nick Stone; p. 87 (Da-Hong Seetoo) by Christian Steiner. Music@Menlo Interns: p. 106 by Annie Rohan. Winter Series: pp. 88 and 89 (Miró Quartet) by Nathan Russell; p. 89 (Michala Petri) by Tom Barnard; p. 89 (Wu Han, Philip Setzer, and David Finckel) by Tristan Cook. Artist photos: p. 90 (David Finckel and Wu Han) by Tristan Cook; pp. 90 (Inon Barnatan) and 98 (Juho Pohjonen) by Marco Borggreve; p. 91 (Benjamin Beilman) by Maia Cabeza; pp. 91 (Nicholas Canellakis) and 96 (Kristin Lee) by Arthur Moeller; p. 92 (Sasha Cooke) by Nick Granito; p. 92 (Escher String Quartet) by J. Henry Fair; p. 92 (Jorja Fleezanis) courtesy of Indiana University; p. 93 (Jose Franch-Ballester) by Andrew Chiciak; pp. 93 (Marc Goldberg) and 99 (James Austin Smith) by Matt Dine; p. 94 (Ara Guzelimian) by Peter Schaaf; p. 94 (Jeffrey Kahane) by Annie Appel; p. 95 (Erin Keefe and Bridget Kibbey) by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco; p. 95 (Hye-Jin Kim) by Balazs Borocz, Pilvax Studio; p. 96 (Sean Lee) by Ai Ajdukovic; p. 96 (Kelly Markgraf) by Yiva Yrevall; p. 97 (Susanne Mentzer) by Marty Umans; p. 97 (Paul Neubauer) by Bernard Mindich; p. 97 (Pacifica Quartet) by Anthony Parmelee; p. 99 (Arnaud Sussmann) by Nyght Falcon; p. 100 (Geraldine Walther) by Susan Vogel; p. 100 (Carol Wincenc) by Christian Steiner; p. 101 (Lindsay Garritson) by Thomas Winter.
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2012 Season Dedication Music@Menlo’s tenth season is dedicated to the following individuals and organizations that share the festival’s vision and whose tremendous support and commitment to the Annual Fund continue to make the realization of Music@Menlo’s mission possible.
The Barnard/Fain Foundation Darren H. Bechtel Ann S. Bowers Jim & Mical Brenzel Iris & Paul Brest Terri Bullock Michèle & Larry Corash The Jeffrey Dean & Heidi Hopper Family Chandler B. & Oliver A. Evans David Finckel & Wu Han Joan & Allan Fisch Anne & Mark Flegel The Fleishhacker Foundation Paul & Marcia Ginsburg The David B. and Edward C. Goodstein Foundation Sue & Bill Gould Libby & Craig Heimark Kathleen G. Henschel The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Michael Jacobson & Trine Sorensen Jeehyun Kim Koret Foundation Funds Mary Lorey Hugh Martin The Martin Family Foundation Betsy & Bill Meehan The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Bill & Lee Perry Laurose & Burton Richter George & Camilla Smith U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management Marcia & Hap Wagner Melanie & Ron Wilensky Music@Menlo is additionally deeply appreciative of the generous support for its long-term vision provided by all donors to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign. (Please see p. 67.)
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Music@Menlo 2012
A Message from the Artistic Directors
Dear Friends, It is with enormous excitement—and some amazement, as well—that we begin our tenth letter of welcome to a Music@Menlo festival. As always, we are thrilled to share with you the wonderful music and programs that make up this celebratory season. Additionally, the occasion of this anniversary inspires varied perspectives. In some ways, the time has passed in the blink of an eye, and yet, Music@Menlo seems as if it has existed for far longer. Perhaps it is the timeless quality of the music, the depth of our common discoveries, and the permanence of countless new friendships that make this festival perennially fresh, all the while providing it with an indelible sense of tradition and continuity. Our programming this summer explores and celebrates your reactions to music. The concerts gather works whose effects on listeners are palpable and shared—one of the unique joys of the live performance experience. So please get ready to be Sustained, Inspired, Transported, or even Motivated to begin dancing in the aisles (you will be forgiven!). We look forward to performing for you and to meeting you at many events. Thank you so much for joining us for this landmark season. Best wishes,
David Finckel and Wu Han Artistic Directors The Martin Family Artistic Directorship
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Music@Menlo Board Darren H. Bechtel Ann S. Bowers Leonard Edwards Oliver A. Evans Earl Fry Paul M. Ginsburg Kathleen G. Henschel Michael J. Hunt Eff W. Martin Hugh Martin Camilla Smith Trine Sorensen David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors William R. Silver, ex officio Edward P. Sweeney, Executive Director, ex officio
Administration David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors Edward P. Sweeney, Executive Director Patrick Castillo, Artistic Administrator Andrew Goldstein, House Manager and Project Assistant Erin Hurson, Development Associate Melissa Johnson, Patron Services Coordinator Marianne LaCrosse, Operations Director Shayne Olson, Marketing Director Annie Rohan, Development Director Isaac Thompson, Assistant Artistic Administrator Daphne Wong, Artistic Operations Manager
Mission Statement To expand the chamber music community and enhance its enjoyment and understanding of the art form by championing the highest artistic quality in live performance, promoting extensive audience engagement with the music and its artists, and providing intensive training for aspiring professional musicians. In pursuing this mission, the festival offers myriad opportunities for audience members, artists, and young musicians to go deep into the music and its context, gaining greater insight and inspiration. In all its activities, Music@Menlo actively encourages the ongoing development of the chamber music art form, impelling it forward for the enjoyment of future generations.
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Music@Menlo 2012
Welcome from the Executive Director Dear Friends,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Music@Menlo. This is a landmark year for Music@Menlo: the tenth anniversary of our founding. For successful Silicon Valley enterprises, there comes a moment when an innovative start-up crosses the line to become a viable, permanent institution. Music@Menlo is now at that moment. The past ten years have been filled with brilliant music making and have seen a dedicated community come together to explore and enjoy the incredible repertoire performed on our stages. But in this anniversary year, we are not spending much time looking back. Rather, our focus remains fixed on the future, on our work to establish Music@Menlo as a permanent part of the Bay Area arts scene. This goal informs all our work. We have spent much of the last year crafting the organization’s third fiveyear planning framework. Our objectives over the coming decade focus on expanding our impact by enhancing our educational programs, strengthening Music@Menlo’s institutional infrastructure, and establishing reserved funding for special artistic initiatives. These ambitious goals will be made possible by your generous gifts to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign. For all of you who have already made donations to this effort, and to our entire community that supports Music@Menlo every year with their contributions and their participation, we extend a most heartfelt thank you! As we settle in to enjoy the incredible concerts in this tenth-anniversary season, I find it particularly fitting that this summer’s programs focus on how music affects us. The power of music to move us is what drives everything we do. It is why Music@Menlo was founded, and it is why it continues to thrive as it confidently moves into its second decade. Thank you for joining us in this momentous undertaking, and enjoy the music! With warmest regards,
Edward P. Sweeney Executive Director
Program Overview
Artists
Concert programs
Piano Inon Barnatan Gloria Chien* Jeffrey Kahane Gilbert Kalish Hyeyeon Park* Juho Pohjonen Stephen Prutsman Wu Han
Concert Program I: SUSTAINED (p. 13) Sat., July 21, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall / Sun., July 22, 6:00 p.m., Menlo-Atherton
Concert Program II: ILLUMINATED (p. 16) Tue., July 24, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall / Wed., July 25, 8:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Concert Program III: TRANSPORTED (p. 19) Fri., July 27, 8:00 p.m., Menlo-Atherton
Concert Program IV: ENHANCED (p. 23) Sun., July 29, 6:00 p.m., Menlo-Atherton
Concert Program V: MOTIVATED (p. 26) Wed., Aug. 1, 8:00 p.m., Menlo-Atherton
Concert Program VI: INSPIRED (p. 30) Fri., Aug. 3, 8:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Concert Program VII: IMPASSIONED (p. 33) Sun., Aug. 5, 6:00 p.m., Menlo-Atherton / Tue., Aug. 7, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall
Concert Program VIII: DELIGHTED (p. 36) Fri., Aug. 10, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall / Sat., Aug. 11, 6:00 p.m., Menlo-Atherton
CARTE BLANCHE CONCERTS Carte Blanche Concert I: Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien (p. 39) Sun., July 22, 10:30 a.m., Stent Family Hall
Carte Blanche Concert II: Sasha Cooke and Kelly Markgraf with Gilbert Kalish (p. 43) Sat., July 28, 8:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Carte Blanche Concert III: Juho Pohjonen (p. 46) Sun., July 29, 10:30 a.m., Stent Family Hall
Carte Blanche Concert IV: Violin Celebration (p. 49) Sat., Aug. 4, 8:00 p.m., Menlo-Atherton
Carte Blanche Concert V: David Finckel and Wu Han (p. 52)
Violin Benjamin Beilman* Jorja Fleezanis Ani Kavafian Erin Keefe Kristin Lee* Sean Lee* Arnaud Sussmann Ian Swensen Viola Paul Neubauer Richard O’Neill* Arnaud Sussmann Geraldine Walther Cello Dmitri Atapine* David Finckel Laurence Lesser
Thu., Aug. 9, 8:00 p.m., Menlo-Atherton
Bass Scott Pingel
ENCOUNTERS
Harp Bridget Kibbey*
Encounter I: Music and the Listener, led by Ara Guzelimian (p. 10) Fri., July 20, 7:30 p.m., Martin Family Hall
Encounter II: Music and Film, led by Stephen Prutsman (p. 10) Thu., July 26, 7:30 p.m., Menlo-Atherton
Encounter III: Expressing the Inexpressible: Music and the Spirit, led by Michael Parloff (p. 11)
Escher String Quartet Adam Barnett-Hart, violin Wu Jie, violin Pierre Lapointe, viola Dane Johansen, cello
Pacifica Quartet Simin Ganatra, violin Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin Masumi Per Rostad, viola Brandon Vamos, cello Percussion Florian Conzetti Christopher Froh Woodwinds Carol Wincenc, flute/piccolo James Austin Smith, oboe/ English horn* Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet* Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet* Anthony McGill, clarinet Marc Goldberg, bassoon* Brass David Washburn, trumpet Timothy Higgins, trombone* Vocalists Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano* Kelly Markgraf, baritone Encounter Leaders Patrick Castillo Ara Guzelimian Michael Parloff Stephen Prutsman Actors James Carpenter* Kay Kostopoulos* Max Rosenak* *Music@Menlo debut
Thu., Aug. 2, 7:30 p.m., Martin Family Hall
Encounter IV: Music and Modern Society, led by Patrick Castillo (p. 11) Wed., Aug. 8, 7:30 p.m., Martin Family Hall
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How I Fell in Love with Music By Michael Steinberg I fell in love with music in a murky alley when I was eleven. Sometimes I ask friends when and where and how it happened to them, and they recount childhood memories of hearing a beautiful cousin play a Chopin étude, of being stunned by a broadcast of the Saint Matthew Passion, or of being sent into reveries lying under the family piano while Mother practiced Songs without Words. My own fall was less romantic. More precisely, I was seduced and then proceeded to fall in love. It was Fantasia, the original 1940 version, that did me in. I saw it just once, at the Cosmopolitan, a dingy movie house in Cambridge, England, and although this was more than sixty-five years ago, I remember it more vividly than most of the movies I’ve seen in the last sixty-five weeks. I saw it just once because as a schoolboy on threepence a week in pocket money–– even in 1940 that bought hardly anything, and surely not more than half a
movie ticket––I couldn’t afford to go again. Besides, the guardians of Good Taste would not have encouraged, let alone subsidized, a return visit. But I also realized I did not need to see it again because the most important part was available for free. Behind the sweet little fleabag where Fantasia was playing, there was this alley where I could stand every day after school, stand undisturbed, and listen to the sound track of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra playing Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and Stravinsky. On a recent visit to Cambridge I was happy to see there is still a movie theater on the same site, but it is now called the Arts Theatre and is a lot cleaner. I should have been at my desk doing my homework, but these sneak auditions were one more escapade in my fairly consistently disreputable academic career. That afternoon music fix became a compulsion for as long as it was available. At least once at that time, Fantasia even entered my dreams; I saw the erupting volcanoes Walt Disney had set to the Dance of
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Music@Menlo 2012
the Adolescents in The Rite of Spring, heard something like Stravinsky’s so bafflingly irregular choom-choom-choom-choom-choom-choom-choomchoom-choom- CHOOM-choom-CHOOM, and woke up to the real-life sounds of anti-aircraft fire. Not that Fantasia was my first encounter with “classical” music. I had done the first phase of my growing up in Breslau in a cultivated, affluent, German Jewish household with a Bechstein grand and a good radio (but no record player, not an uncommon lack for the day). My mother and older brother played the piano, not brilliantly, but well enough to impress me, though I have no recollection of any particular item in their repertoires. I took lessons, but they were deadly finger lessons, not ear and music lessons, and so I was bored and didn’t practice. The radio was rarely switched on, but I recall––I must have been eight or so––my homeroom teacher, Frau Garbell, telling us the story of Lohengrin, which was to be broadcast that evening. I found it fascinating and frightening, this business of the glamorous and wronged princess who was not allowed to ask her savior and husband his name, and that evening I lay on the floor next to the big brown Telefunken and waited for Lohengrin, index finger extended in warning, to tell Elsa, “Nie sollst du mich befragen!”––”Never may you ask me!” What Frau Garbell didn’t say was how long it would take Wagner to get to the point, how much of tedious King Henry and his tiresome Herald I would have to put up with first, and I never made it to the great moment. I eventually caught up with Lohengrin when I was a college freshman. It was my first visit to the Met, with the aging and rather improvisatory Lauritz Melchior, Helen Traubel, Kerstin Thorborg, Herbert Janssen, and with Fritz Busch conducting his first performance in that house. Going to concerts in Breslau was out because by the time I was old enough to be taken, public events of that sort were forbidden to Jews. Not knowing what I was missing, I was much more bothered by not being able to go ice-skating or to the zoo anymore. So, while there was a general sense at home that music was A Good Thing, and a few names and titles were familiar––Beethoven, Brahms, Furtwängler, Adolf Busch, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, and Die Meistersinger prominent among them and always pronounced with reverence––I had nearly nothing by way of actual musical sounds to tie to them. The exception was The Threepenny Opera, whose premiere had taken place not quite two months before I was born. I have been told that “Mack the Knife” and Mr. Peachum’s song about the perpetual insufficiency of human endeavor, “Der Mensch lebt durch den Kopf,” both sung to me by my brother, were the first music I heard, and that “Mack the Knife” was also the first song I learned to sing myself. At ten I went to England on a Kindertransport. There I spent most of the year in boarding school, the rest with the highly literate, politically aware, and quite unmusical English family that had taken me in. Even so, the paterfamilias maintained a surprising totemic reverence for two symphonies, Beethoven’s Ninth and Elgar’s Second, actually suspending his obsessive gardening when they showed up on the radio, which we still called “the wireless.” Otherwise, indifference to music was complete. No, not quite: I remember materfamilias bristling indignantly at a broadcast of something from Verdi’s Otello, dark comments being made about “foreigners” and “our English Shakespeare.” There was an upright piano in
the house, and on that I played tunes from The Oxford Book of Carols and a score of The Mikado. Oddly, I knew a few of the Sullivan songs, though with German words, because my mother had seen The Mikado in Breslau around the turn of the century. I also continued not to practice for a continuing series of unstimulating and unenlightening lessons. When I visited my old school, the Perse, a few years ago I was happy to see that they now have varied and flourishing musical activities, but during my time there music only meant bawling “Loch Lomond,” “Shenandoah,” and “The Campbells Are Coming” for an hour a week under the tutelage of the pompous Mr. Macfarlane-Grieve, and though I liked the songs themselves, that hardly stretched my musical experience. At my first schools in Germany, “music” also meant classroom singing, but at least there one of my teachers was Erich Werner, a real musician who went on to a distinguished career in musicology. All of this meant that I had to find my way to music on my own. Or, rather, it found me. Fantasia came to the rescue at the right moment, and after that it was a question of learning how to still my growing hunger. I remember the happy distraction, or so it seemed at the time, of jazz and other nonclassical music. Someone at school must have had a record player; at any rate I remember delighting in Benny Goodman, then the most idolized musician in the world, and my excitement over Artie Shaw and the sizzling trumpet of Harry James (also my disappointment upon finding at the library at twelve or so what unreadable books he wrote when he called himself Henry). Jazz or classical: that was an either/or question in those days. You chose up sides and went for Beethoven or Louis Armstrong but not possibly for both. Part of my fun with this music was in the annoyance that my pleasure, and for that matter the music itself, caused the Elders of the People. I had made that fundamental discovery of childhood and adolescence––that if the grownups hate it, it can’t be all bad. To avoid pleasing them too much, I went a little bit underground with my more “serious” musical passions, but it was becoming clear to me where my heart belonged. I discovered record stores, which in those days had tiny listening rooms in which one could try those imposing, shiny, black, dangerously fragile disks. (When I revisited Cambridge for the first time more than twenty years later I wanted to go into Miller’s to thank them for what, unwittingly and probably not happily, they had done for me on my journey toward music, but I am sorry to say I didn’t actually do it.) I began by listening to the pieces I had come to know through Fantasia. My favorite at first was the Dance of the Hours played by what on English HMV labels was called the Boston Promenade Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler. Next came Schubert’s Ave Maria because I had so loved that glorious Disney hokum when the sinister trees of Night on Bald Mountain magically turned into the Gothic arches of a sylvan cathedral. Trying different recordings of “Ave Maria” brought the amazing revelation that sung by Elisabeth Schumann it sounded different from the tarted-up Stokowski orchestration, or that the violin versions of Heifetz and Menuhin were astonishingly unlike even though the notes were the same. Miller’s was a treasure trove, and I took pains to learn the schedules of the various salespeople so that no one of them would see me too often and I would not wear out my thinly based welcome. Even the Goldberg Variations came my way there, but I had not the slightest idea of what to make of Goldberg, variations, or harpsichord. I did, however, find the name Wanda Landowska, whom I assumed to be a man, captivatingly elegant. After Fantasia’s brief stay at the dingy Cosmopolitan was over, Miller’s was virtually my only source of music during the school year, a long desert of no radio, no records, no concerts, no sympathy. Piano lessons were as limited and unstimulating as they had been in Breslau. But there were a few memorable concert experiences. Once, my mother took me to a Mozart concert conducted by Herbert Menges, which brought me my first encounter with the g minor Symphony and in which I loved most the high horns in the trio of the minuet. On another occasion I managed, by virtue of looking pitiful but presentable, to get someone to take me into the Guildhall to hear Myra Hess play a couple of Mozart concertos with an orchestra from London. And on one of my only two dizzyingly exciting trips to London, I was taken to one of the lunchtime concerts she had started
in the National Gallery, denuded for the time being of its greatest paintings. It was then that I heard my first string quartet, the Zorian, who played Schubert’s Death and the Maiden. Hess was in the audience, and I watched her, as they say in England, “go behind” to thank the performers. That, too, was a good lesson. What made more of an impact than any of these was a school concert––the only one we were ever taken to––at the Guildhall by the London Philharmonic conducted by Anatole Fistoulari, a name older record collectors will remember. I recall three things about that hour. One is that for most of the other kids it was not the most thrilling event of their lives thus far. Another was that Fistoulari conducted Weber’s Invitation to the Dance and explained to us how the lively waltz is preceded by a tender cello solo in which we were to imagine a young man asking a lady for a dance, and that it is followed by a postlude, also quiet and with solo cello, which depicts his escorting her back to her chair and thanking her. Therefore, he said, we should not applaud when the waltz ends because the little scene of the postlude was yet to come. I need hardly say what actually happened. The third thing was that the program ended with the Hungarian March from Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, and Fistoulari showed us the huge bass drum and had the player demonstrate that, amazingly, this instrument makes its most stunning effect when it is hit as softly as possible. Sixty-some years later, that still gives me goosebumps. That morning hooked me on orchestras, and it was a crucial step onto the road that led me to spending the happiest years of my professional life working for them. And there was Mr. Hardacre. The Perse School was one of two in England that had a separate boarding house for Jewish boys. Its housemaster, Mr. Dagut, was a cultured and kind gentleman, but he was beyond being able to maintain order, and the task of keeping things running fell to the assistant housemaster. For the last year I was at Hillel House that position was occupied by Mr. Hardacre––Kenneth Hardacre, a young, pipe-smoking teacher of English. I think this may have been his first job after university. He loved music, and he had a small radio, some books about music, and a few miniature scores. Every now and again––and this had to be managed with great discretion––when there was something on the radio he thought I should not miss, he would invite me into his tiny, smoke-filled room to listen to a Brahms symphony or a Mozart piano concerto. He offered a bit of instruction and some opinions, and he would also press the appropriate volume of Tovey’s Essays in Musical Analysis into my hand in preparation for our clandestine listening sessions. The six slender blue volumes had a place of honor on his overcrowded shelves. In fact, I could hardly understand a word of Tovey’s essays, but I was immensely flattered by those loans and loved carrying those books around. To this day I find it amazing, sometimes incredible, that my own books bear the same Oxford University Press imprint as Tovey’s. Later, when I was in college, equipped with some more background and more musical vocabulary, I looked for Tovey in the library and, one at a time, acquired his writings. Reading Tovey and having him before me as a never-to-be-equaled example had, I am sure, everything to do with my landing up as a writer of program notes in my fifties. Sooner or later I would of course have found Tovey anyway, but because it was Mr. Hardacre who got my unprepared self there first, I have always mentally thanked him for setting my foot on that path. We corresponded for a while after I left the school and left England, but eventually we lost touch. I mentioned the role he had played in my life in the introduction to my first book, The Symphony: A Listener’s Guide, and a little later tried to locate him, only to learn that he was a widower completely lost in an Alzheimer fog. Radio also made a huge difference when I was home for the holidays. The BBC was generous with music, live and recorded, and I discovered–– an ominous sign surely––that like people in wartime getting outrageous pleasure from reading cookbooks full of recipes calling for the butter and eggs they hardly believe they will ever see again, I could generate shudders of delight simply by reading concert listings in the Radio Times. When I arrived at my next home, St. Louis, the radio was on in my brother’s apartment––I still remember that it was Toscanini and the NBC Symphony, with Horszowski playing, of all things, the Martucci Piano Concerto.
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I quickly got to know how and when to find Toscanini myself (Sunday late afternoon) and also the New York Philharmonic (Sunday early afternoon), the Boston Symphony (Saturday night), the Cleveland Orchestra (Friday night), and that astonishing world opened up by the Metropolitan Opera (Saturday afternoon). I could still reconstruct, stick by stick, the living room of our friends, the Arndts, where, bug-eyed, I heard Jan Peerce sing Che gelida manina. “Talor dal mio forziere…”––nothing had prepared me for being so swept away by a single phrase of music! Two stations tied to schools––WEW at St. Louis University and KFUO at Concordia Seminary–– offered an hour or so of records a day; these were limited, repetitious, with titles and names mispronounced, record sides played in the wrong order (they never seemed to look whether a set was in manual or automatic sequence), and they ALWAYS stopped Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody during the long silence before the final “Amen” cadence on “sein Herz.” That infuriated my mother every time, even more than Marian Anderson’s version of German vowels, and she always supplied the missing two notes herself. Still, it added up to indispensable nourishment and pleasure. All this was haphazard, determined by the taste of the time and what by today’s standards were the exceedingly limited contents of record company catalogs. I am sure that by the time I went to college I had heard only one symphony each of Mahler and Bruckner, only the most famous Tchaikovsky and Dvorˇák, hardly any chamber music or songs, virtually nothing from our century (though someone at KFUO was very fond of Howard Hanson’s Lament for Beowulf ). I also remained ignorant of everything to do with music except how it sounded. I scarcely knew what harmony meant, certainly had no idea of what counterpoint was, and had only the vaguest sense of the history of music. By the time I was fifteen I had read only one book about music, The Orchestra Speaks, a still absorbing account by Bernard Shore, the BBC Symphony’s witty and literate Principal Violist, of what it was like to work with the famous conductors of the day. Of course that made me want to be a conductor. All in all, I don’t think my long-sustained ignorance did me any harm. No doubt it is best to learn what is so oddly misnamed “theory” at eleven or twelve, which is also a good age to learn languages, but it was all right at sixteen, as well. As for history, I enjoyed it more for getting to it when I already had a sense of what some of the music sounded like, so that it was an entertaining and often even illuminating way of reexamining and ordering material to which, in some other and more important sense, I already had a key. By no means did I just bliss out to every musical sound that came my way. For instance, brought up as I was in a thoroughly Austro-German orthodoxy, I was absolutely unequipped to deal with Debussy. I couldn’t make head or tail of him, thought him a fraud, and still remember––and here, too, I can place myself exactly in the corner armchair in the living room at 1341 McCausland Avenue in St. Louis––being rattled into blind rage by Nuages and Fêtes (Stokowski’s recording). Mahler seemed absurdly incoherent nonsense, too, as did some of the weirder patches in Beethoven’s late quartets like the scherzo in Opus 131 and the first movement of Opus 135. For that matter I quarreled for years with Wagner and particularly Brahms. Occasional encounters with modern music were mostly dismaying. It bothered me that Stravinsky’s Symphony in C did not sound like my beloved Rite of Spring. After a promising half-minute waltz at the beginning I didn’t know what to make of the rest of Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto on an NBC Symphony broadcast (Stokowski lost his job for insisting on programming it), and his Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, whose premiere was broadcast by the New York Philharmonic, was equally baffling and the weirdly singsong declamation of Byron’s text was inclined to make me giggle. Even a few year later, when I should have known better, Schoenberg’s String Quartet no. 3 was unintelligible to me when I heard it at a Kolisch Quartet concert at Princeton, and so was Elliott Carter’s Piano Sonata, which I stumbled onto not knowing what it was, having arrived late at a concert for which the program had been changed. This list could now serve as the beginning of an inventory of pieces I especially love. The first classical album I ever bought was Debussy’s Violin Sonata with Zino Francescatti and Robert Casadesus; one of the
most challenging and joyous experiences of my musical life has been the opportunity to perform the Ode to Napoleon a number of times as well as the Sprechstimme parts in Gurre-Lieder and A Survivor from Warsaw; and Carter is for me one of the most exciting of living composers. Every one of my musical loves began with a strong reaction, with passion. I can think of plenty of examples of love at first hearing (also of the occasional crush I mistook for love), but I cannot forget that sometimes the first powerful response was one of rejection. What have I learned? In the alley behind the Cosmo I learned––happily without realizing I was actually learning something––that I did not need Mickey Mouse or those bra-clad centaurettes or even the beautiful images of darting violin bows in the Bach Toccata and Fugue in d minor to make the music enjoyable. I learned that music repaid repeated listening. Most music anyway. The Dance of the Hours did not get more interesting (though it continued to be fun), but the Bach and the Pastoral Symphony did, and The Rite of Spring, whose sounds I had adored from the beginning, started to reveal intelligible and remembered shapes and patterns. I learned to pay attention, because if I missed something it was gone, at least till the next afternoon. I learned that my focus changed from details to at least something like the whole, from the raisins to the cake. And I learned that there was a lot to hear in some of those pieces and that they did not cease to be full of surprises. I could of course not have articulated any of this then. One Fantasia lesson I wish I had learned more quickly, but here I was slow on the uptake. At some point it was revealed to me that Stokowski, with his cuts and splices and re-orchestrations, had treated Beethoven, Schubert, Mussorgsky, and Stravinsky pretty damn willfully, not to say brutally. I grew to be awfully sniffy about this sort of thing. It was years before it dawned on me that Stokowski had ultimately done no serious harm, that first meeting the Pastoral Symphony or The Rite of Spring in his versions did not keep me or need not keep anyone else from eventually discovering that what Beethoven and Stravinsky had written was even better than what Stokowski––or perhaps Stokowski and the Disney people––thought they ought to have written. Making a piece sound unintelligible or just plain boring is a worse sin. What else did I eventually learn? To pay heed to my first reactions but also not to take them too seriously and certainly not to assume that they have permanent value. Not to think too much at the beginning and not to think at all about what I thought I was maybe supposed to be thinking. To be patient or––better––suspenseful, to wait and see how the piece or I might change (the former is of course an illusion), and to remember my fifteen-year-old self in righteous indignation over the Debussy Nocturnes. That in the end the only study of music is music, that good program notes and preconcert talks are helpful ways of showing you the door in the wall and of turning on some extra lights, but that the only thing that really matters is what happens privately between you and the music. That, as with any other form of falling in love, no one can do it for you and no one can draw you a map. That listening to music is not like getting a haircut or a manicure, but that it is something for you to do. That music, like any worthwhile partner in love, is demanding, sometimes exasperatingly, exhaustingly demanding. That––and here I borrow a perfect formulation from Karen Armstrong’s memoir, The Spiral Staircase––”you have to give it your full attention, wait patiently upon it, and make an empty space for it in your mind.” That it is a demon that can pursue us as relentlessly as the Hound of Heaven. That its capacity to give is as near to infinite as anything in this world, and that what it offers us is always and inescapably in exact proportion to what we ourselves give.
Essay from Michael Steinberg and Larry Rothe, For the Love of Music: Invitations to Listening. By permission of Oxford University Press, USA, 2006 (www.oup.com/us/). Available online or at your local bookstore.
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E n c o u n t e r es n c o u n t e r s
The Michael Steinberg Encounter Series
July 20
July 26
encounter i
encounter ii
Music and the Listener led by Ara Guzelimian
Music and Film led by Stephen Prutsman
Friday, July 20, 7:30 p.m. Martin Family Hall, Menlo School
Thursday, July 26, 7:30 p.m. The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Why music?
During the height of the silent film era, music played an integral role in the realization of cinematic drama. In this special Encounter, the enterprising pianist Stephen Prutsman will return to Music@Menlo to present original compositions written specifically for two iconic silent films: Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. and Charlie Chaplin’s classic film One A.M. The Encounter will include a screening of the films accompanied by live music performed by Prutsman, the Escher String Quartet, and clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester.
Since time immemorial, we humans have created music as a means of filling the space of silence. Whether to mark celebration, ritual, public occasions of drama and dance, or the deep privacy of spirituality, music has served to measure time and reflect our experience of it. At this season’s first Encounter, Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School, examines music making at its most fundamental level. What does music mean? How do we define the vital human need that inspires this strange and powerful phenomenon? And how do we understand the urgency of our response to it?
SPECIAL THANKS
SPECIAL THANKS
Music@Menlo dedicates this Encounter to Ann S. Bowers with gratitude for her generous support.
Music@Menlo dedicates this Encounter to Terri Bullock and also to U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management with gratitude for their generous support.
Claude Debussy, 1862–1918, French composer, playing piano at the home of Ernest Chausson, 1855–1899, French composer, nineteenth-century photograph. Photo credit: Gianni Dagli Orti/ The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY
Buster Keaton in Sherlock Jr., 1924. [Metro/The Kobal Collection]
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August 2
August 8
encounter iii
encounter iv
Expressing the Inexpressible: Music and the Spirit led by Michael Parloff
Music and Modern Society led by Patrick Castillo
Thursday, August 2, 7:30 p.m. Martin Family Hall, Menlo School “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” —Aldous Huxley “Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near the infinite.” —Thomas Carlyle Regardless of culture or style, music has always been experienced as a direct pathway to the spirit. In the summer’s third Encounter, Michael Parloff will explore music’s unique power to connect us to our interior lives and to provide moments of spiritual transcendence. The evening will include live and recorded performances as well as a multimedia prelude to the following evening’s performance of Haydn’s string quartet masterwork The Seven Last Words of Christ.
Wednesday, August 8, 7:30 p.m. Martin Family Hall, Menlo School With each day, the breadth of our musical world expands profoundly. The wealth of music history that fired Bach’s imagination, haunted the generation of composers that followed Beethoven, and dared composers a century later to conquer new frontiers—that history grows ever more expansive and is more vibrantly alive today than ever before. As the chronicle of musical creation evolves, our experience of music becomes more sophisticated. No longer does music reside solely in courts, churches, concert halls, and salons. Music today is inescapably everywhere. And with its ubiquity and immediacy, music has become a constant means of engaging with contemporary society. As Music@Menlo’s tenth-anniversary season reaches its conclusion, festival Artistic Administrator Patrick Castillo guides audiences in a reflection on how we relate to music today. What does the evolution of our modern musical experience tell us about its future?
SPECIAL THANKS
SPECIAL THANKS
Music@Menlo dedicates this Encounter to Chandler B. and Oliver A. Evans with gratitude for their generous support.
Music@Menlo dedicates this Encounter to Michèle and Larry Corash with gratitude for their generous support.
René Magritte (1898–1967). © ARS, NY. The Spirit and the Form, 1961. Gouache, pencil, and collage on paper, 44 x 36 cm. Location: Private collection. Photo credit: Banque d’Images, ADAGP/Art Resource, NY
Max Ernst (1891–1976). © ARS, NY. Untitled (Dada), ca. 1922. Photo credit: Nimatallah/Art Resource, NY
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e n c o u n t e r es n c o u n t e r s
Encounters, Music@Menlo’s signature lecture series and a cornerstone of the festival’s educational mission, are named in memory of Michael Steinberg, celebrated writer, musicologist, educator, and founding Music@Menlo Encounter Leader.
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Music@Menlo chamber music festival and institute
Your Contributions Make a Difference Give a gift to the Annual Fund Support this year’s festival season
Give a gift to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign Be a part of Music@Menlo’s long-term vision
Donations from individuals like you make each festival season—from the main-stage performances to the daily Institute activities—possible. By becoming a Member with a gift to the Annual Fund, you will also enjoy many benefits that give you additional ways to connect more intimately with the festival’s music, artists, students, and community.
On this special occasion of Music@Menlo’s tenth anniversary, please consider furthering the long-term future of chamber music performance and education by making a special gift to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign. Help Music@Menlo’s artists, students, and educators reach new heights of excellence by making a gift today!
To learn more, go online to www.musicatmenlo.org/giving or contact Annie Rohan, Development Director, at 650-330-2133 or annie@musicatmenlo.org.
concert program i:
Sustained: July 21 and 22 Saturday, July 21, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School Sunday, July 22, 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Program Overview Music possesses an ineffable power to nurture our whole being. It nourishes the mind, sustains the soul, and gives voice to our most deeply felt passions. Music of great warmth and lyricism can offer comfort, just as in works of majesty and brilliance we find inspiration and strength. Concert Program I illustrates the power of music to satisfy this most fundamental human need. In Schubert’s magnificent Fantasy for Violin and Piano and in the transcendent strains of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, we encounter music as a source of holistic sustenance. The program concludes with Beethoven’s indomitable Opus 70 Number 2 Piano Trio, one of the grandest essays of the composer’s Heroic period.
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates these performances to the following individuals with gratitude for their generous support:
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C Major, op. 159, D. 934 (1827) Andante molto Allegretto Andantino Allegro Allegretto Presto
Benjamin Beilman, violin; Juho Pohjonen, piano
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581 (1789) Allegro Larghetto Minuetto Allegretto con variazioni
Anthony McGill, clarinet; Pacifica Quartet: Simin Ganatra, Sibbi Bernhardsson, violins; Masumi Per Rostad, viola; Brandon Vamos, cello
Intermission
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Piano Trio in E-flat Major, op. 70, no. 2 (1808)
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
finding strength
Poco sostenuto – Allegro ma non troppo Allegretto Allegretto ma non troppo Finale: Allegro
Juho Pohjonen, piano; Benjamin Beilman, violin; David Finckel, cello
July 21: Karen and Rick DeGolia July 22: Anne and Mark Flegel
Walker Evans (1903–1975). City lunch counter, New York, 1929. Gelatin silver print. © Walker Evans Archive/The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Program Notes: Sustained Franz Schubert (Born January 31, 1797, Vienna; died November 19, 1828, Vienna) Fantasy in C Major, D. 934 Composed: December 1827
Andantino movement derives from its seeming melodic innocence combined with the poignancy of Schubert’s harmonies. Four variations on this vintage Schubertian theme follow, each one illustrating the composer’s melodic inventiveness.
Published: 1850, as Schubert’s Opus 159 First performance: Vienna, January 1828 Other works from this period: Detailed in the notes below
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
Approximate duration: 25 minutes Franz Schubert, one of Western music’s greatest geniuses, was born in Vienna in 1797, the only composer of the Viennese canon native to that musical capital. His was a Vienna revolutionized by Beethoven’s powerful symphonies but likewise under the spell of Rossini’s delectable operas and the thrilling virtuosity of Niccolò Paganini. In this environment, and supported by a devoted coterie of friends and patrons, Schubert quietly produced an astounding body of work. The American composer John Harbison has credited Schubert with writing “the best piece in every genre he really tackled”—these included, most notably, more than six hundred lieder (songs for voice and piano) as well as an extensive catalog of solo piano music, chamber music, and symphonies. In all of these, Schubert demonstrated a sublime instinct for melody and an expressive depth that have endeared his music to listeners for nearly two centuries. Schubert’s musical life was as ephemeral as it was remarkable. He became gravely ill in 1823, contracting what almost certainly was syphilis, and died five years later at the age of thirty-one. But despite the great physical suffering and psychic anguish at the end of his life, Schubert remained incredibly prolific. Indeed, for the composer who had once proclaimed, “I have come into this world for no other purpose but to compose,” music truly represented an essential source of spiritual sustenance. In the final year of his life, Schubert completed the two piano trios, the Ninth Symphony (appropriately known as The Great), the Cello Quintet, and the last three piano sonatas, among numerous other keyboard, vocal, and orchestral works—all told, an imposing set of masterpieces, miraculously concentrated within a deeply trying twelve months and unequaled by many composers over entire lifetimes. The C Major fantasy for Violin and Piano dates from this exceptional final chapter of Schubert’s life. It was composed in December 1827 for a young Bohemian virtuoso named Josef Slawjk, whom Schubert had met the previous year. The work masquerades somewhat as a virtuoso showpiece, intended perhaps to appeal to the Viennese appetite for Paganini’s pyrotechnic caprices for solo violin. But, while it does indeed require its share of virtuosity, the fantasy’s expressive richness betrays it as something more than simply a soloist vehicle. Also, its substantive twenty-five minutes of music—which speak to a Schubertian quality famously praised by Robert Schumann as “heavenly length”—likewise place the piece in a different class. When Slawjk premiered the Fantasy in C Major in January 1828, one critic observed that the work “occupied rather too much of the time the Viennese are prepared to devote to the pleasures of the mind.” The work begins with a hushed tremolando figure in the piano, from which emerges a long, generous melody in the violin. The violin hangs suspended above the trills and turns of the piano accompaniment, its infinite slowness seemingly belonging to another world. The second movement Allegretto takes a more piquant turn, characterized by a mischievous repartee between the violin and piano. The centerpiece of the fantasy is the third movement Andantino, a set of variations on Schubert’s lied “Sei mir gegrußt.” The particular character of the *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg; died December 5, 1791, Vienna) Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581 Composed: Vienna, September 29, 1789 (date from Verzeichnüß aller meiner Werke [Catalog of All My Works]) Other works from this period: Important works from the final two years of Mozart’s life include the piano sonatas in B-flat major, K. 570, and D major, K. 576 (1789); the Prussian String Quartets, K. 575, 589, and 590 (1790); the string quintets in D major, K. 593 (1790), and E-flat major, K. 614 (1791); the operas Così fan tutte (1790), La clemenza di Tito (1791), and Die Zauberflöte (1791); the Piano Concerto in B-flat Major, K. 595 (1791); the Clarinet Concerto, K. 622 (1791, written, like the Clarinet Quintet, for Anton Stadler); and the famous Requiem, K. 626, left unfinished at the composer’s death. Approximate duration: 32 minutes Throughout the history of Western classical music, a number of performers have become immortalized in part for the works that they inspired from the great composers of their day, from the nineteenth-century violinist Joseph Joachim, who inspired much of Brahms’s violin writing, to the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who coaxed countless contributions to the cello repertoire from the twentieth century’s leading composers. But it may be that no performer-muse has been paid deeper gratitude by subsequent generations of music lovers than the Austrian clarinetist Anton Stadler. Stadler served as Principal Clarinetist of the Court Orchestra of Vienna during Mozart’s years in the Austrian capital, and his virtuosic playing resulted in two of the repertoire’s most cherished works: Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and the Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581. History has generally remembered Stadler not only as Mozart’s muse but also as a friend and fellow Freemason who shared a warm and generous relationship with the composer. But despite his superior skills as an interpreter of Mozart’s compositions, Stadler seems to have been a less-than-ideal friend. He lived for a time in Mozart’s home, borrowing money that would never be repaid and at times even stealing and selling his gracious host’s pawn tickets. Mozart’s sister-in-law Sophie Haibel counted Stadler among Mozart’s “false friends, secret bloodsuckers, and worthless persons who served only to amuse him at the table and intercourse with whom injured his reputation.” Mozart was apparently ignorant of his muse’s nefarious activities or else—perhaps more likely—he may have accepted Stadler’s shortcomings as a small price to pay for the gift of his musicianship. Regardless of the nuances pertaining to the personal relationship between Mozart and his muse, Anton Stadler’s name has nevertheless become synonymous with Mozart’s miraculous works for the clarinet. The sublime Clarinet Quintet has been referred to by some as “Stadler’s Quintet,” and it remains one of the most popular and beloved pieces in the chamber music literature. The quintet’s serene, well-mannered character is established immediately with the opening theme of the first movement Allegro: the strings present a descending arpeggio not answered by the clarinet’s first entrance until the seventh measure. The violin introduces the similarly tender second theme, which the clarinet immediately echoes in the more melancholy key of e minor over a soft, syncopated accom-
As much as any other works from the early 1800s, these works signify Beethoven’s determination to “embark on a new path.” Hoffmann later wrote of the Opus 70 trios, “Beethoven carries the romantic spirit of music deep into his soul and with what high geniality, with what deep sense of self-possession he enlivens each work.” As useful a perspective as the categorization of Beethoven’s works into early, middle, and late periods offers for beginning to understand the scope of Beethoven’s creativity, the system nevertheless has its flaws: within each of these periods we find works of extremely diverse character. The Opus 70 piano trios demonstrate this point perfectly. Beethoven biographer Lewis Lockwood has commented, “After the Ghost, the E-flat Trio, op. 70, no. 2, turns from the demonic to the human.” Although not as well known as the Ghost Trio, the E-flat Trio is every bit as marvelous. While the former presents polarized extremes of emotion in a more concentrated fashion, this work offers more understated musical ideas reliant on subtlety and nuance. —Patrick Castillo
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
paniment in the strings. After presenting the wealth of musical ideas that compose the exposition, Mozart fashions a development section that can be described as nothing short of divine inspiration. Each of the exposition’s themes reappears but is now exploited to a completely fresh emotive effect, as individual lines combine to create a rich contrapuntal texture. As the development proceeds, Mozart uses the full range of the clarinet to color the string quartet timbre while the rest of the ensemble, seemingly unaware of the soloist’s activities, pursues an increasingly heated conversation. After a slow movement of exquisite simplicity comes the minuet, a stately French dance in triple meter. The minuet typically appears as the third movement of a four-movement work of the Classical period and features a contrasting middle section called the trio; this minuet features two separate trios. The first of the movement’s two trios features a curious twist: trumping the clarinetist’s concertante role, Mozart inserts an extended passage for string quartet, showcasing the lush timbral possibilities of the supporting cast. The final movement of the Clarinet Quintet is a theme and variations, a musical form in which a central melody—the theme—is presented and then subject to a series of transformations. Mozart’s theme begins with a cheerful gesture in the violins, answered by the full ensemble. Rather than merely exhibiting his peerless craftsmanship, Mozart uses the variations form as a means of threading a logical narrative and heightening the finale’s emotive substance. An especially satisfying dramatic effect comes when an unexpected sorrowful solo viola variation yields to a cheerful, virtuosic dialog between clarinet and violin. One more variation follows—an operatic aria introduced by the violin—before a final Allegro finish.
Ludwig van Beethoven (Born Bonn, baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827, Vienna) Piano Trio in E-flat Major, op. 70, no. 2 Composed: 1808 Published: Leipzig, 1809 Dedication: Countess Maria von Erdödy Other works from this period: The Opus 70 piano trios are representative works of Beethoven’s Heroic period; other important hallmarks of this stage in his creative career include the Eroica Symphony (1803– 1804), the Waldstein (1803–1804) and the Appassionata (1805) piano sonatas, and the Razumovsky Quartets, op. 59 (1806). In addition to the two Opus 70 piano trios, the year 1808 saw the completion of the Opus 69 Cello Sonata, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, and the Choral Fantasy for Solo Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra. Approximate duration: 32 minutes With the two Opus 70 trios, Beethoven raised the technical and artistic standards for the piano trio to new heights. The German Romantic author, composer, and cultural commentator E. T. A. Hoffmann offered his rapturous praise to the composer upon discovering the works, writing: How deeply, O! exalted Master! have your noble piano compositions penetrated into my soul; how hollow and meaningless in comparison all music seems which does not emanate from you, or from the contemplative Mozart, or that powerful genius, Sebastian Bach...[I]t has been such a pleasure to me this evening that now, like one who wanders through the sinuous mazes of a fantastic park, among all kinds of rare trees, plants, and wonderful flowers, always tempted to wander further, I am unable to tear myself away from the marvelous variety and interweaving figures of your trios. The pure siren voices of your gaily varied and beautiful themes always tempt me on further and further.
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concert program ii:
Illuminated: c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
life stories
July 24 and 25 Tuesday, July 24, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School Wednesday, July 25, 8:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Program Overview “Where words fail, music speaks.” —Hans Christian Andersen Concert Program II presents three deeply personal stories told through music, illuminating these composers’ experiences of life’s profoundest challenges. Beethoven’s Opus 135 Quartet asks timeless questions as the composer confronts his own mortality. Janácˇ ek’s Intimate Letters tells the story of unrequited love and complicated desire. And in Smetana’s autobiographical From My Life, we witness the composer wrestling with his own hearing loss.
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates these performances to the following individuals with gratitude for their generous support: July 24: Libby and Craig Heimark July 25: Laurose and Burton Richter
Ludwig van Beethoven’s writing desk with some of his personal belongings. Location: Beethoven House, Bonn, Germany. Photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) String Quartet in F Major, op. 135 (1826) Allegretto Vivace Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo Grave ma non troppo tratto – Allegro
ˇ ek (1854–1928) Leoš Janác String Quartet no. 2, Intimate Letters (1928)
Andante – Con moto – Allegro Adagio – Vivace Moderato – Adagio – Allegro Allegro – Andante – Adagio
Intermission
ˇ ich Smetana (1824–1884) Bedr String Quartet no. 1 in e minor, From My Life (1876) Allegro vivo appassionato Allegro moderato à la polka Largo sostenuto Vivace
Pacifica Quartet: Simin Ganatra, Sibbi Bernhardsson, violins; Masumi Per Rostad, viola; Brandon Vamos, cello
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
Ludwig van Beethoven (Born Bonn, baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827, Vienna) String Quartet in F Major, op. 135 Composed: 1826 Published: Berlin and Paris, 1827 Dedication: Johann Wolfmayer First performance: March 23, 1828 Other works from this period: Following the completion of the late piano sonatas, opp. 109, 110, and 111 (1821); Missa Solemnis (1822); and the Ninth Symphony (1824), Beethoven’s creative career ended with the creation of the five late string quartets, opp. 127, 130, 131, 132, and 135. Approximate duration: 25 minutes After completing his last symphony and his last piano sonata, Beethoven turned once again after a twelve-year hiatus to the string quartet as the medium for his deepest musical thoughts. The quartets to which Beethoven devoted his final years represent the pinnacle of the composer’s mighty creative powers and infinite imagination. In these five late quartets, Beethoven surpassed all precedent for the expressive capabilities of music, as if transcending this world and composing for listeners of future generations. The impetus for the late quartets was a commission from the Russian prince Nikolai Galitzin, himself an amateur cellist, who asked Beethoven for “one, two, or three quartets, for which labor I will be glad to pay you what you think proper.” After fulfilling Galitzin’s commission for one, two, or three quartets, Beethoven had conceived so many musical ideas that he needed to continue. The resulting works are the String Quartet in c-sharp minor, op. 131, and the String Quartet in F Major, op. 135. The latter of these would be Beethoven’s final work. After the increasing structural innovations of the first four late quartets (in order of composition: Opuses 127, 130, 132, and 131—which comprise, respectively, four, five, six, and seven movements), Opus 135 returns to a standard four-movement architecture, similar to the Opus 18 quartets composed when Beethoven was in his late twenties. But within this guise of Haydnesque simplicity is contained the unmistakable depth of Beethoven’s musical imagination. The quartet begins with a quiet conversation between the individual voices of the ensemble; the four instruments enter tentatively, as if looking around the room to see whether it’s safe to begin. Allegretto Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla.
Vc.
Just when the quartet finds its footing, a mysterious, disjointed melody follows, uttered in quiet octaves—but this quickly leads to a more extroverted passage. A warmer musical idea follows and then yet another subject: this one the most assertive yet, juxtaposing playful triplet figures with an ascending staccato statement. What sounds like a closing figure to the exposition leads to a reminiscence of the quiet introduction. Within just these opening minutes of the quartet, Beethoven weaves together a staggering quantity of distinct musical ideas, each with its own character—
yet despite their disparate characters, there is an uncanny logic to how the music unfolds. To wit: the movement’s development section, in which Beethoven extends, fragments, and combines his various materials with remarkable mastery and imagination. The Vivace second movement functions as the quartet’s scherzo but shares a certain enigmatic quality with the first movement. The movement opens with a straightforward syncopated figure, but as soon as the music settles into a rhythm, Beethoven interjects a strange, angry interruption, which yields immediately back to the sunny opening. What are we to make of this? What does it mean? Of course, there’s no clear answer—indeed, the psychological complexity of this and much of Beethoven’s late music, and that we can never get to the bottom of it, is what makes it timeless. The stunning Lento assai offers a sublime contrast to the extroverted Vivace. Opus 135 is perhaps most famous for its final movement, on the manuscript of which Beethoven inscribed the following title: “Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß”—“The resolution reached with difficulty.” And then, accompanying the movement’s mysterious opening three-note melody are the words “Muß es sein?”—“Must it be?” The answer is provided by the inversion of this figure, which begins the Allegro and under which Beethoven wrote, “Es muß sein!”—“It must be!” Beethoven apparently intended this musical dialog as a joke. An amateur musician named Ignaz Dembscher had missed the Schuppanzigh Quartet’s premiere of the Opus 130 String Quartet and requested free copies of the work from Beethoven for a performance in his home. Offended by the request, Beethoven sent word that Dembscher should pay Schuppanzigh the price of admission for the concert he had missed. Dembscher asked the violinist Karl Holz (who at this time was working as Beethoven’s secretary), “Muß es sein?” The story goes that Beethoven replied with a four-voiced canon on these words, from which the immortal theme was eventually drawn. —Patrick Castillo
Leoš Janácˇ ek (Born July 3, 1854, Hukvaldy, Moravia; died August 12, 1928, Moravská Ostrava) String Quartet no. 2, Intimate Letters Composed: 1928
concert Programs
Program Notes: Illuminated
Published: 1938 First performance: September 11, 1928 Other works from this period: Detailed in the notes below Approximate duration: 23 minutes In the summer of 1917, Leoš Janácˇek and his wife, Zdenka, vacationed in the fashionable Moravian village of Luhacˇovice, where the couple met the antiques dealer David Stössell and his young wife, Kamila Stösslová. Janácˇek, at the age of sixty-two, became insatiably infatuated with Stösslová, nearly thirty-seven years his junior. Prior to his meeting Stösslová, with his marriage to Zdenka stagnating following the death of their daughter, Janácˇek faced what can best be described as a creative drought. His primary focus had been on composing operas. However, there was little hope for performances outside of his provincial hometown of Brno. Janácˇek’s newfound obsession and passion for Stösslová not only resuscitated his creative impulses but also spawned over seven hundred letters between them in the following ten years. Stösslová’s responses kept Janácˇek at arm’s length, though his letters were filled with pathos and longing. In 1917, perhaps inspired by his own unrequited love, Janácˇek entered one of his most creative periods, composing numerous works with Stösslová as the unofficial subject matter. The creativity continued
*Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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concert Programs
until the end of his life. During this time, Janácˇek would write his first string quartet in 1923; an opera, The Cunning Little Vixen, in 1924; and the Glagolitic Mass and Sinfonietta in 1926. The Second String Quartet, subtitled Intimate Letters, documents Janácˇek’s obsession with Stösslová. Initially, Janácˇek had subtitled the work Love Letters but he later changed the name to avoid scandal. He began composing the work in January of 1928 and finished it within three weeks. Each movement tells the story of their association, albeit from Janácˇek’s perspective. Throughout, the viola takes on the persona of Stösslová. The Andante con moto tells, as Janácˇek wrote to Stösslová, of “the impression of when I saw your face for the first time.” The movement begins with a declarative statement in the violins transitioning into juxtaposed sections of sul ponticello. In this first movement, we witness idiomatic characteristics of Janácˇek’s late style: abbreviated thematic material with abrupt changes in tempo. Janácˇek had hoped that the Adagio movement would “flare up the Luhacˇovice heat.” The movement begins with a serene theme presented in the viola, which passes to the violins and is developed through varying sections of serenity and passion. The third movement, marked Moderato, is Janácˇek’s depiction of when he told Stösslová he loved her. Janácˇek wrote, “[F]or it seemed that the earth burst open when I said it to her and she was silent, she ran and stood still again, I stood and ran after her again—yes, just like the birds do—who don’t lie about love.” The final movement begins with a rustic dance, which continues to be interrupted by themes from the previous movements. The unsettling character of the movement evokes the great yearning that Janácˇek felt for Stösslová, never to be fulfilled or reciprocated. The work closes with frantic triplet trills in the violin, punctuated by underlying chords left unresolved.
ˇ ich Smetana Bedr (Born March 2, 1824, Litomyšl; died May 12, 1884, Prague) String Quartet no. 1 in e minor, From My Life Composed: 1876 First performance: The private premiere was given in Prague in 1878 with Antonín Dvorˇák performing on viola. The public premiere was given on March 29, 1879, in Prague with Ferdinand Lachner, Jan Pelikán, Josef Krehan, and Alois Neruda performing. Other works from this period: Má vlast (1874–1879); The Kiss (1875– 1876); The Two Widows (1877) Approximate duration: 26 minutes Born in Bohemia in 1824, Bedrˇich Smetana would become known as the father of Czech classical music and a crucial figure in the Czech National Revival, a movement that flourished during the mid-nineteenth century. Under the authority of the Habsburg Austrian Empire for several hundred years, Bohemia had virtually been stripped of all Czech culture, leaving a population emblazoned with bitterness toward its rulers. In 1848, a series of revolutions occurred throughout Habsburg-ruled territories, including Prague, where the young Smetana would take part in the uprising. Fully immersed in the spirit of Czech nationalism, as well as with the intention of bolstering his own popularity, Smetana would eventually become a seminal figure in the Czech cultural revival, pioneering using the Czech language in opera and incorporating elements of Czech culture into many of his compositions. Around 1874, Smetana began suffering from hearing loss, forcing him to resign from his post as Kapellmeister of the theater in Prague. By July of that year, Smetana had what he described as a permanent buzzing in his ear and was unable to distinguish individual sounds. By October, he had fully lost hearing in both of his ears. In 1876, Smetana began composing his first string quartet, which he would eventually subtitle Z mého života or From My Life. Smetana would write: “I wanted to depict in music the course of my life…the composition is almost only a private one and so purposely written for four instruments which, as in a small circle of friends,
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talk among themselves about what has oppressed me so significantly.” The Allegro vivo appassionato begins with a strikingly large chord in all the voices, followed by a passionate and yearning viola solo. Smetana wrote: “The first movement depicts my youthful leanings toward art, the Romantic atmosphere, the inexpressible yearning for something I could neither express nor define, and also a kind of warning of my future misfortune.” The second movement is a lively polka which evokes, as Smetana wrote, “the joyful days of youth when I composed dance tunes and was known everywhere as a passionate lover of dancing.” As in the first movement, the viola is given a great deal of prominence, particularly in the first entrance of the rustic theme. The Largo sostenuto serves as the emotional core of the quartet. Smetana wrote, “It reminds me of the happiness of my first love, the girl who later became my faithful wife.” The movement begins with a cello recitative, which introduces the serene, lyrical first theme. Smetana develops this theme throughout the movement with a series of variations running the gamut of expressive capabilities. The final movement, marked Vivace, begins with a celebratory opening, evoking a palpable sense of joy. The opening gives way to a folk-like tune, which is passed throughout the instruments. Near the end of the movement, the music and momentum come to a surprising halt, and Smetana writes a high-pitched harmonic in the violin, evoking the ringing in his ears as his hearing began to fade. Smetana would write of the movement: “The fourth movement describes the discovery that I could treat national elements in music and my joy in following this path until it was checked by the catastrophe of the onset of my deafness, the outlook into the sad future, the tiny rays of hope of recovery, but remembering all the promise of my early career, a feeling of painful regret.” The quartet concludes with a return of thematic material from the previous movements, in a moment of quiet longing and nostalgia. —Isaac Thompson
concert program iii:
Transported: July 27
Samuel Barber (1910–1981) Dover Beach, op. 3 (1931)
Friday, July 27, 8:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Kelly Markgraf, baritone; Escher String Quartet: Adam Barnett-Hart, Wu Jie, violins; Pierre Lapointe, viola; Dane Johansen, cello
Program Overview Music, the most abstract of art forms, perhaps most intensely captures the imagination. “Transported” explores music’s ability to enrapture listeners through vivid depictions of places near and far. Samuel Barber’s classic Dover Beach sets poet Matthew Arnold’s picturesque paean to the English shore. Chen Yi’s Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in takes listeners farther afield, magically conjuring traditional Chinese folk music using Western instruments. Debussy’s Ibéria and Albéniz’s Iberia Suite both capture the spirit of the Iberian Peninsula, just as Sibelius’s Voces Intimae evokes the mystery of the composer’s native Finland. The program culminates in Gustav Mahler’s enchanting setting of a child’s vision of heaven.
Chen Yi (b. 1953) Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in (1995; rev. 1999) Jorja Fleezanis, violin; Jeffrey Kahane, piano
Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) String Quartet in d minor, op. 56, Voces Intimae (1909) Andante – Allegro molto moderato Vivace Adagio di molto Allegretto (ma pesante) Allegro
Escher String Quartet: Adam Barnett-Hart, Wu Jie, violins; Pierre Lapointe, viola; Dane Johansen, cello
Intermission
Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) Evocación from Iberia Suite, B. 47, Book I (1905–1909)
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
sonic journeys
Enrique Granados (1867–1916) Los requiebros from Goyescas: Los majos enamorados, Book I (1909–1911) SPECIAL THANKS
Jeffrey Kahane, piano
Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Marilyn and Boris Wolper with gratitude for their generous support.
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Ibéria, transcribed for piano, four hands, by André Caplet (1905–1908, 1910) Jeffrey Kahane, Wu Han, piano
Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) Das himmlische Leben from Symphony no. 4 (1899–1900) (Transcribed by Erwin Stein) Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Carol Wincenc, flute/piccolo; James Austin Smith, oboe/English horn; Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; Jeffrey Kahane, piano; Hyeyeon Park, harmonium; Jorja Fleezanis, Wu Jie, violins; Pierre Lapointe, viola; Dane Johansen, cello; Scott Pingel, bass; Florian Conzetti, Christopher Froh, percussion
James Valentine (1815–1880). Paddington Station, London, ca. 1880. Photograph. Adoc-photos/Art Resource, NY
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Program Notes: Transported Samuel Barber (Born March 9, 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania; died January 23, 1981, New York) Dover Beach, op. 3 Composed: 1931 Other works from this period: Overture to the School for Scandal (1931); Cello Sonata (1932); Music for a Scene from Shelley (1933)
concert Programs
Approximate duration: 8 minutes American composer Samuel Barber was always drawn to the human voice. One of the composer’s earliest musical memories was attending a performance at the Metropolitan Opera at the age of six of Verdi’s Aida, and one of his first compositions was an operetta entitled The Rose Tree, based on a libretto by the family cook, which Barber composed when he was ten years old. Barber had aspirations of becoming a professional vocalist himself and performed and studied voice throughout his schooling at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. This connection and fascination with the human voice would permeate Barber’s musical language—highlighted by the distinct and fluid lyricism which is a hallmark of much of his music across genres. Dover Beach is a setting of a poem by the same name, written by the English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold. It is thought that the poem was written while Arnold was on his honeymoon at Dover Beach. The poem depicts the English shoreline around the ferry port of Dover, Kent, at the narrowest point of the English Channel. In its stunningly beautiful language, the poem begins with a description of the coastline and sets up the serene but perhaps bleak night scene. Barber, through music, begins his musical depiction with two violins, the second violin playing a flowing line complementing the yearning theme in the first. The flow of the music becomes notably more restrained in the second stanza, at the introduction of Sophocles’s idea of “the turbid ebb and flow of human misery.” The opening texture, accentuated by the rich depth of the viola and cello, returns near the work’s conclusion, revealing the “eternal note of sadness” inherent in the sea. —Isaac Thompson “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Chen Yi (Born April 4, 1953, Guangzhou, China) Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in Composed: 1995; rev. 1999 First performance: Detailed in the notes below Other works from this period: Momentum (1998); Spring Festival for Winds (1999) Approximate duration: 3 minutes Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in was originally composed in 1995 for two violins and string orchestra, dedicated to Maestro Yehudi Menuhin and Edna Michell. It was premiered by Shlomo Mintz and Elmar Oliveira with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Maestro Menuhin at “A Benefit Tribute to Yehudi Menuhin” at Lincoln Center, August 11, 1996. Responding to many requests, I created this version for violin and piano in 1999. Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in is written for Western musical instruments reproducing the style of the hsiao and ch’in, traditional Chinese instruments. The hsiao is a vertical bamboo flute that carries lyrical melodies through delicate lines, grace notes, and silence. The ch’in is a two-thousand-year-old Chinese seven-string zither, with a rich repertoire in the history of Chinese music and literature. In performance, the ch’in produces various articulations through different fingerings of plucking and vibrato, played with both hands. These two instruments are often played together and produce a good balance for sonority. In this version of Romance, the solo violin transmits the lyrical sense of the hsiao, expressing my love for humanities, while the piano accompaniment, sounding like an enlarged ch’in, symbolizes nature. —Chen Yi
Jean Sibelius (Born December 8, 1865, Hämeenlinna; died September 20, 1957, Järvenpää) String Quartet in d minor, op. 56, Voces Intimae Composed: 1909 Other works from this period: Symphony no. 3 in C Major (1906); Öinen ratsastus ja auringonnousu (1908); Symphony no. 4 in a minor (1910–1911) Approximate duration: 28 minutes
most important work. Olivier Messiaen would write: “Iberia is the wonder for the piano; it is perhaps on the highest place among the more brilliant pieces for the king of the instruments.” Evocación comes from the first book of Iberia. Though the title does not suggest a specific locale, the piece features elements of the Spanish fandango, a lively triple-meter dance, as well as the Navarrese jota, another triple-meter dance hailing from Spain’s northern Navarra region. The work’s dreamy and coloristic soundscape beautifully demonstrates Albéniz’s rich musical language.
Enrique Granados (Born July 27, 1867, Lérida, Spain; died at sea, English Channel, March 24, 1916) Los requiebros from Goyescas, Book I Composed: 1909–1911 First performance: Book I of Goyescas was premiered by the composer at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona on March 11, 1911. Other works from this period: Two Military Marches for Piano, Four Hands (1910); Libro de horas (1912); Two Impromptus (1912) Approximate duration: 9 minutes Similar to Albéniz’s biography, Enrique Granados was born in Spain, though he spent two years in France studying piano with noted pianist and composer Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot. A virtuosic pianist by all accounts, Granados returned to Barcelona in 1890 to embark on his career as a concert pianist. Around this time, Granados began composing his first significant works for piano. The pinnacle of Granados’s compositional output is his Goyescas, a set of piano works in four sections composed between 1909 and 1911 drawing inspiration from the eighteenth-century Spanish artist Francisco Goya. The first movement of the set, entitled Los requiebros, is evocative of a jota from the northern Spanish region of Aragón. The piece’s languorous opening gives way to sections of stunning virtuosity and color. The critic and scholar Ernest Newman wrote of the work: “The music, for all the fervor of its passion, is of classical beauty and composure. It is a gorgeous treat for the fingers.”
Claude Debussy (Born August 22, 1862, Saint-Germain-en-Laye; died March 25, 1918, Paris)
concert Programs
By the turn of the twentieth century, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s fame had been secured by the success of his first two symphonies, which had been performed to much acclaim throughout Western Europe. In Germany in particular, Sibelius found remarkable success, which bolstered the composer’s spirit. Sibelius wrote to a friend in the summer of 1900, “I can win a place, I believe, with my music. No, I don’t believe, I know I can.” Unfortunately, Sibelius’s self-confidence was short lived, inhibited by his struggle with alcoholism, excessive smoking, and poor money management. By 1909, Sibelius’s finances and health had reached a dire state and, for the first time, Sibelius was haunted by his own mortality. Around this time of deep introspection, Sibelius began work on his String Quartet in d minor, the only substantial chamber music work he would write after the turn of the century. Subtitled Voces Intimae, or Intimate Voices, the string quartet is a remarkable and deeply personal statement. Though there is no known program, the work can be construed through its somber and brooding qualities as a representation of the isolation and despair that Sibelius encountered during this tumultuous period. Throughout his life, Sibelius also fostered a deep connection to his home country—the brutal winters and stoic qualities of the people are often represented through his musical language, as strongly exhibited in the d minor String Quartet. The work begins with a duet between the first violin and cello, with all the voices subsequently entering to play the spinning opening melody in rhythmic unison. The idiomatic qualities of Sibelius’s counterpoint, defined by strong cadences and spacious intervallic movement, are in full force throughout the first movement of the quartet. The subtle and surprising mood changes contribute to the haunting and beautifully brooding quality of the music. The Vivace is a brief scherzo, serving as a kind of interlude between the enigmatic first movement and the emotionally charged Adagio di molto. The third movement serves as the emotional core of the work. Early in the movement, the manuscript shows three hushed chords, with the mysterious phrase “voces intimae” written over it. The movement is highlighted by heartbreaking and yearning chromaticism, foreshadowing the musical language of Sibelius’s late symphonies. Though there is palpable angst and despair throughout the movement, near the end, Sibelius finds temporary resolution and repose. The Allegretto ma pesante serves as a second scherzo, contrasting with the brief second movement. The peasant quality of the movement’s opening evokes a kind of folk dance, which through restless episodes return throughout. The Allegro begins with a rather frightening statement in unison, followed by the main thematic material presented in the viola. Certain elements of the first movement’s thematic material return before the work builds to an exciting concluding climax.
Ibéria, transcribed for piano, four hands, by André Caplet
Isaac Albéniz (Born May 29, 1860, Camprodón, Gerona; died May 18, 1909, Cambo-les-Bains) Evocación from Iberia Suite, B. 47, Book I Composed: 1905–1909 First performance: Book I of the Iberia Suite was first performed by pianist Blanche Selva on May 9, 1906, at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Other works from this period: Yvonne en visite! in Album pour enfants (1905); La morena (1905); Iberia Suite, Books II, III, and IV (1905–1909) Approximate duration: 6 minutes A Spaniard by birth, Isaac Albéniz spent much of his career in France but never lost his deep connection to his Spanish roots. After traveling throughout the world concertizing as a pianist between the years 1880 and 1892, Albéniz turned his full attention later in life to composing. In 1905, Albéniz began working on his Iberia Suite, a remarkable four-volume musical travelogue evoking places throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Iberia is a pianistic masterpiece and arguably the composer’s
Composed: 1905–1908 Other works from this period: La mer (1903–1905); Children’s Corner (1906–1908); Première rhapsodie (1909–1910) Approximate duration: 20 minutes By 1905, Debussy had solidified his reputation as one of France’s most important musical voices. Following the success of his opera Pelléas et Mélisande in 1895 and his symphonic masterpiece La mer in 1905, Debussy signed with the exclusive Parisian publishing company Durand to compose a series of “images”—six pieces for solo piano and six more for two pianos or orchestra. These formed what would eventually become two books of Images for solo piano and one for orchestra. Debussy’s Ibéria comes from the set of Images composed for orchestra between 1905 and 1912. In 1910, Debussy’s close friend and fellow composer André Caplet transcribed Debussy’s Ibéria for piano, four hands, in the version that we hear today. As its title suggests, Debussy’s Ibéria evokes Spanish culture, though the composer never spent any considerable time on the Iberian Peninsula. The lack of time spent, however, does not detract in any way
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from Debussy’s depiction of the exotic colors and warm landscape of the region. The Spanish composer Manuel de Falla would remark:
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
The echoes from the villages, a kind of sevillana—the generic theme of the work—which seems to float in a clear atmosphere of scintillating light; the intoxicating spell of Andalusian nights, the festive gaiety of a people dancing to the joyous strains of a banda of guitars and bandurrias…all this whirls in the air, approaches and recedes, and our imagination is continually kept awake and dazzled by the power of an intensely expressive and richly varied music. The first movement, entitled In the Streets and Byways, begins with an infectious triplet figure, evoking a busy and colorful street scene. Following the rhythmic vitality of the opening section, an exotic theme is introduced, defined by close half-step intervals giving it a Moorish quality. A regal, march-like statement follows, contrasting with the exoticism of the previous theme. The movement concludes in a dream-like fashion, fading to nothing. The second movement, Perfumes of the Night, is a seductive portrait of a steamy Spanish evening. Debussy’s full palette of Impressionistic colors is on display in this evocative and richly wrought movement. His characteristic use of the whole-tone scale and exotic harmonies, hallmarks of his later period, is also exhibited. The final movement, Morning of a Festival Day, begins softly at daybreak, with distant church bells heard in the background. The movement evolves into a joyous and dazzling array of color, full of juxtaposed sections of dancing and celebration.
Gustav Mahler (Born July 7, 1860, Kalischt, Bohemia; died May 18, 1911, Vienna) Das himmlische Leben from Symphony no. 4, transcribed by Erwin Stein Publisher: Josef Weinberger, Ltd. Arranged for chamber ensemble by Erwin Stein Composed: 1899–1900 Published: Vienna, 1902 First performance: November 25, 1901, Munich Other works from this period: Symphony no. 3 (1893–1896); Symphony no. 5 (1901–1902); Kindertotenlieder (1901–1904) Approximate duration: 9 minutes Perhaps the greatest symphonist of the twentieth century, Gustav Mahler created a remarkable body of large-scale orchestral works that remains unparalleled in its scope and emotional breadth. His symphonic music exhibits a deeply personal and rich worldview that Mahler expressed by stretching the capabilities of the symphonic orchestra to the ultimate extremes. Mahler once wrote, “A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.” Though primarily known during his lifetime as a conductor, Mahler spent his summers prolifically composing his symphonic works. The genesis of the Fourth Symphony is rooted in Mahler’s deep fascination with the collection of German folk poetry entitled Des Knaben Wunderhorn, or The Young Boy’s Magic Horn, a collection that had similarly inspired other Romantic composers such as Robert Schumann. While work on the symphony proper took place between 1899 and 1900, the Fourth Symphony took for its finale a song actually composed in 1892: “Das himmlische Leben”—or “The Heavenly Life.” Motifs from this song run throughout the symphony’s preceding three movements, thus prefacing the work’s conclusive statement—a vision of heaven—with prefigurations of that vision.
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Mahler wrote of the Fourth Symphony: It contains the cheerfulness of a higher and, to us, an unfamiliar world that holds for us something eerie and horrifying. In the final movement (The Heavenly Life), although already belonging to this higher world, the child explains to us how everything is meant to be. Mahler’s Fourth Symphony presents something of an anomaly among the composer’s other symphonies. Especially in contrast to the unrelenting Second Symphony and the sprawling Third, whose massive opening movement alone outlasts any of Mozart’s symphonies in their entirety, Mahler’s Fourth is limpid and compact. It is also scored for smaller orchestral forces. The inherent intimacy of the piece, particularly in the final movement, lends itself well to an adaptation for chamber music ensemble. Erwin Stein, an ardent early supporter of Mahler’s symphonic music who studied with the composer Arnold Schoenberg, adapted the final movement of the Fourth Symphony for chamber ensemble and soprano in 1921. The movement is a depiction of a child’s view of heaven. The piece begins with a beautifully simple clarinet melody, which is passed to the oboe and flute. The soprano enters in the spirit of the opening, displaying Mahler’s incredible and ingenious ability to spin a seemingly simple melody out of just about any material. This opening spirit is contrasted with occasional hymn passages, representing Saint Peter looking on. Near the end of the movement, Mahler turns to the sunny key of E major, with the tender and soft music representing his idea of heaven. In the final verse, we hear the emotional high point of the work, with Saint Ursula laughing, after which the movement concludes with a quiet iteration of the movement’s opening melody. —Isaac Thompson
concert program iv:
Enhanced: July 29
Bernard Herrmann (1911–1975) Psycho Suite for Strings (1960)
Sunday, July 29, 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Adam Barnett-Hart, Sean Lee, Wu Jie, Kristin Lee, violins; Paul Neubauer, Geraldine Walther, violas; Dane Johansen, Dmitri Atapine, cellos; Scott Pingel, bass
Program Overview Music and drama have been intertwined throughout history. From the earliest operas to present-day cinema, music has added unrealized dimensions and intensity to drama. “Enhanced” explores four works that intensify the underlying drama. The program begins with a suite taken from Bernard Herrmann’s iconic score originally written for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film Psycho. André Caplet’s The Masque of the Red Death draws inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe’s dark short story. Respighi’s ethereal Il tramonto brings forth the Romantic poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The program concludes with Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, based on a Russian folktale.
André Caplet (1878–1925) Conte Fantastique (The Masque of the Red Death) (1922–1923) Bridget Kibbey, harp; Kristin Lee, Sean Lee, violins; Paul Neubauer, viola; Dane Johansen, cello
Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936) Il tramonto, P. 101 (1914) Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano; Jorja Fleezanis, Sean Lee, violins; Geraldine Walther, viola; Dmitri Atapine, cello
Intermission
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) L’histoire du soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) (1918) Kay Kostopoulos, Narrator; Max Rosenak, Soldier; James Carpenter, Devil; Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; David Washburn, trumpet; Timothy Higgins, trombone; Christopher Froh, percussion; Jorja Fleezanis, violin; Scott Pingel, bass
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
tales intensified
This program is underwritten by Michael Jacobson and Trine Sorensen through their gift to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign. SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Iris and Paul Brest with gratitude for their generous support.
Sorcerers and witches on Sabbath dancing to violin, from Compendium Maleficarum, 1626, by Francesco Maria Guazzo, Italian demonologist. Photo credit: Alfredo Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY
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Program Notes: Enhanced Bernard Herrmann
Composed: 1922–1923
(Born June 29, 1911, New York; died December 24, 1975, North Hollywood) Psycho Suite for Strings
Other works from this period: Le miroir de Jésus, mystères du Rosaire (1923); Panis angelicus (1920); Epiphanie, fresque musicale d’après une légende éthiopienne (1924)
Composed: 1960
Approximate duration: 17 minutes
Other works from this period: The Birds (1963); North by Northwest (1959); Vertigo (1958)
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
Approximate duration: 15 minutes Bernard Herrmann can arguably be considered the most important film composer of the twentieth century. Born in New York City in 1911, Herrmann studied music from an early age, eventually matriculating at New York University and the Juilliard School, where he studied with noted composers Percy Grainger and Philip James. Joining the Columbia Broadcasting System as a staff conductor in 1934, Herrmann came into association with Orson Welles, with whom he collaborated on the epic 1941 film Citizen Kane. However, Herrmann’s closest collaborative relationship would not begin until 1955, when he met the film director Alfred Hitchcock. Herrmann would go on to write music for every Hitchcock film between 1955 and 1964. He redefined the idea of a film composer’s role and never deferred solely to the creative will of the film director. Herrmann once stated: I have the final say, or I don’t do the music. The reason for insisting on this is simply, compared to Orson Welles, a man of great musical culture, most other directors are just babes in the woods…and Hitchcock, you know, is very sensitive, he leaves me alone. It depends on the person. But if I have to take what a director says, I’d rather not do the film. I find it’s impossible to work that way. Bernard Herrmann’s score to the 1960 iconic Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho, demonstrates the undeniable power of music to accentuate and enhance onscreen drama. Hitchcock had made the creative decision to shoot the film in black and white, a decision on which Herrmann later commented: “I knew that musically I had to counter-reinforce his decision, and I decided to use only string instruments throughout the entire movie.” The striking variety of sounds and effects that Herrmann elicits from the string orchestration is remarkable. Psycho contains probably the single most iconic and influential passage of movie music ever composed. Hitchcock originally intended for the film’s pivotal shower scene to remain eerily silent, but Herrmann insisted that Hitchcock try it with the musical cue that he had composed; Hitchcock agreed, and the resulting scene has become one of the most notorious in cinematic history. Herrmann’s shrieking strings, mimicking the violent stabbing of Janet Leigh’s character, make this one of the most terrifying moments in all of film. Hitchcock himself later acknowledged that “33 percent of the effect of Psycho was due to the music.” The score’s harmonic originality, bold gestures, and rhythmic ingenuity are emblematic of Herrmann’s compositional craft, and it continues to be a stunning musical achievement. —Isaac Thompson
André Caplet, born in Le Havre in 1878, showed an early talent for music and by fourteen was playing violin at the Grand Theater in his hometown. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1896 as a student in composition and there developed his creative gifts sufficiently to win the Prix de Rome for his cantata Myrrha in 1901. While still in school, Caplet began conducting and performing (as a timpanist) in various Parisian orchestras, and in 1899 he was appointed Director of Music at the Théâtre de l’Odéon. His other Parisian posts included conducting appointments at the Opéra as well as the Lamoureux and Pasdeloup Concerts, and from 1910 to 1914, he was the conductor of the Boston Opera Company. Caplet is also remembered for his close friendship with Claude Debussy, who entrusted him with proofreading his scores and orchestrating Le martyre de Saint Sébastien and the Children’s Corner Suite. He volunteered for military service during World War I, and the injury to his lungs from gas forced him thereafter to curtail his conducting in favor of composing and hastened his death from pleurisy in 1925. Caplet’s long involvement with opera gave him a keen sense of the possibilities of the human voice, and most of his compositions are songs or works for small vocal ensembles, many showing the influence of Debussy’s Impressionism. Among his few compositions for instruments are chamber works for flute and piano and cello and piano, a score for military band, a concert work for cello and orchestra, two divertissements for harp, and the Conte Fantastique for harp and string quartet. In his Conte Fantastique (Fantastic Story), Caplet created a miniature tone poem based on Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling tale The Masque of the Red Death. The score contains the following preface: Death, that horrible and fatal specter, haunts the region, seeking its prey. A young prince and his friends challenge the plague by shutting themselves into a fortified abbey. There, the prince rewards his guests with a magnificent masked ball. However, every hour, at the striking of an ancient clock, the dancers’ movements seem paralyzed. When the echo of the chimes dies away, the party resumes, but each time with less spirit and a growing sense of foreboding. Still, the music animates the dancers again. The couples whirl feverishly. Suddenly, the prince stops the music with a brusque gesture. There, standing in the shadow of the clock just as it booms out its midnight toll, is a figure wrapped in a shroud. A mortal terror runs through the hall. It is the Red Death, come like a thief in the night. One after another the guests fall, convulsed, to the floor of the hall, covered with a deadly dew. —Richard Rodda
Ottorino Respighi (Born July 9, 1879, Bologna; died April 18, 1936, Rome)
André Caplet
Il tramonto, P. 101
(Born November 23, 1878, Le Havre; died April 22, 1925, Neuilly-surSeine)
Composed: 1914
The Masque of the Red Death
Other works from this period: Ouverture carnevalesca, P. 99 (1913); Sinfonia drammatica, P. 102 (1914); La sensitiva, P. 104 (1914)
Publisher: Durand
Approximate duration: 16 minutes
*Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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sells his violin to the Devil for a magical book which forecasts the future of the economy and promises untold wealth. L’histoire du soldat illustrates Stravinsky’s neoclassical style—an aesthetic, prevalent during the early twentieth century and pioneered particularly by Stravinsky, characterized by a preoccupation with the musical principles of the Classical period. Though its sound is distinctly modern, L’histoire du soldat, like Stravinsky’s other neoclassical works, values melodic and formal clarity and avoids the dramatic excesses of Romanticism. The plot of L’histoire is made perfectly clear in performance through the spoken narration. But independently of the overtly theatrical elements of the work, the music is remarkably vivid and truly brings the story to life. Stravinsky later made an abridged suite based on L’histoire scored just for clarinet, violin, and piano, which is very dramatically satisfying in its own right—so clearly does Stravinsky’s music illustrate the story. The work begins with “The Soldier’s March,” whose affable gait and colorful instrumentation set the tone for the ensuing folk tale; Stravinsky mischievously transfigures this music at the work’s conclusion in the form of “The Triumphal March of the Devil.” Also notable among the work’s many musical delights is the multicultural suite of three dances that Joseph plays after reviving the fallen princess from her illness: to mark this celebratory turn in L’histoire, Stravinsky puts together an Argentinean tango, a Viennese waltz, and an American rag. —Patrick Castillo
concert Programs
Though Ottorino Respighi is primarily remembered as a symphonic composer of such epic works as the Pines of Rome and the Fountains of Rome, he was also a prolific composer of vocal music. Hailing from a musical family, Respighi studied violin and piano from an early age in his native Bologna, eventually attending that city’s Liceo Musicale. After completing his studies in 1901, Respighi embarked on a career as an orchestral musician while composing on the side. In 1911, Respighi’s solo cantata Aretusa was premiered to much acclaim, prompting him to dedicate more of his time to composition. Aretusa also marked the beginning of Respighi’s fascination with the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley, translations of whose work he would use in many of his vocal works. Il tramonto is based on the Shelley poem “The Sunset,” written shortly before Shelley’s death in 1822. The poem embodies many of the Romantic sensibilities and subjects that permeated much of Shelley’s work: love, grief, longing, and death. Perhaps foreshadowing the fascination numerous composers had with Shelley’s poetry, nineteenth-century British poet Matthew Arnold wrote: “It always seems to me that the right sphere for Shelley’s genius was the sphere of music, not poetry.” Respighi’s setting of “Il tramonto” offers a revealing look into the breadth of his compositional style. In contrast to the grandeur of his colorful symphonic works, Il tramonto is subtle and intimate. The piece begins with a dramatic string quartet opening, leading into the calm and lyrical entrance of the soprano. The ebb and flow of the poetry are painted through Respighi’s music, from the opening stanza, describing the passion of two lovers, to the concluding stanza, vividly portraying the plea of an aging woman. Respighi’s richly textured and contrapuntal string writing provides added drama to the poetry, with the soprano weaving in and out of the textures, often doubling the string voices. The work ends in quiet reflection, meditating on the peace found through death. —Isaac Thompson
Igor Stravinsky (Born June 5/17, 1882, Oranienbaum [now Lomonosov], near St. Petersburg; died April 6, 1971, New York) L’histoire du soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner Composed: 1918 Published: Chester, 1924 First performance: September 28, 1918, Lausanne, conducted by Ernest Ansermet Other works from this period: Ragtime (1917–1918); Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo (1918); Suite no. 2 for Orchestra (1915–1921) Approximate duration: 65 minutes The breadth of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s influence on music history is difficult to exaggerate. That he was the twentieth century’s greatest composer remains the contention of many. Living from 1882 to 1971, Stravinsky absorbed virtually every significant musical innovation of the twentieth century, from neoclassicism to serialism, each of which consequently became a part of his arsenal of compositional techniques. In his own words: “I stumble upon something unexpected. This unexpected element strikes me. I make note of it. At the proper time, I put it to profitable use.” Stravinsky composed L’histoire du soldat in 1918, five years after Paris infamously rioted at the premiere of The Rite of Spring. It is one of numerous stage works Stravinsky composed over his career. Scored for a large ensemble of clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, violin, double bass, and percussion plus three actors (Narrator, Soldier, and Devil) and, in many performances, one dancer (the Princess), L’histoire du soldat tells the darkly comic parable of a soldier named Joseph who
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concert program v:
Motivated: c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
invitation to the dance
August 1 Wednesday, August 1, 8:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Program Overview “Dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals.” —Charles Baudelaire “Motivated” celebrates the vital dimension of dance in the musical art form across more than two centuries, from the Second Orchestral Suite of Johann Sebastian Bach, a collection of traditional Baroque dance forms, to Aaron Copland’s iconic ballet Appalachian Spring. Along the way, Schubert’s rustic Six German Dances and the Kaiserwalzer of the “Waltz King” Johann Strauss Jr.—in a decadent arrangement by Arnold Schoenberg—illustrate the vitality of dance in nineteenth-century Vienna, while Debussy’s impressionistic Danses sacrée et profane and Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances encapsulate those composers’ native cultures.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) Suite no. 2 in b minor, BWV 1067 (ca. 1738–1739) Ouverture Rondeau Sarabande Bourrée Polonaise Minuet Badinerie
Carol Wincenc, flute; Wu Han, harpsichord; Kristin Lee, Ian Swensen, violins; Paul Neubauer, viola; Dane Johansen, cello; Scott Pingel, bass
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Six German Dances, D. 820 (1824) Gilbert Kalish, piano
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Danse sacrée et danse profane (1904) Bridget Kibbey, harp; Erin Keefe, Jorja Fleezanis, violins; Paul Neubauer, viola; Dane Johansen, cello; Scott Pingel, bass
Johann Strauss (1825–1899) Kaiserwalzer, op. 437 (1889, arr. 1925) (arr. Arnold Schoenberg, 1864–1949) Carol Wincenc, flute; Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; Gloria Chien, piano; Ian Swensen, Erin Keefe, violins; Paul Neubauer, viola; Dane Johansen, cello
SPECIAL THANKS
Intermission
Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Kris Klint with gratitude for her generous support.
Béla Bartók (1881–1945) Seven Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 68, BB 76 (1915) Jocul cu bât˘a (Stick Dance) Brâul (Sash Dance) Pe loc (In One Spot) Buciumeana (Dance from Bucsum) Poarga Româneasca˘ (Romanian Polka) M˘arunt.el (Fast Dance) M˘arunt.el (Fast Dance)
Erin Keefe, Jorja Fleezanis, Adam Barnett-Hart, Wu Jie, violins; Paul Neubauer, Geraldine Walther, violas; Dane Johansen, cello; Scott Pingel, bass
Aaron Copland (1900–1990) Appalachian Spring (1944) Martha Graham and ensemble in Appalachian Spring. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
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Carol Wincenc, flute; Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; Gloria Chien, piano; Jorja Fleezanis, Wu Jie, Adam Barnett-Hart, Kristin Lee, violins; Pierre Lapointe, Geraldine Walther, violas; Dane Johansen, David Finckel, cellos; Scott Pingel, bass
Program Notes: Motivated Johann Sebastian Bach (Born March 21, 1685, Eisenach; died July 28, 1750, Leipzig) Orchestral Suite no. 2 in b minor, BWV 1067
is impeccable—and, for the solo flutist, the Badinerie offers one of the classic tunes in that instrument’s repertoire. —Patrick Castillo
Composed: ca. 1738–1739 Other works from this period: Sonata in A Major for Flute and Harpsichord, BWV 1032 (ca. 1736); Fantasia on a Rondo in c minor, BWV 918 (ca. 1740)
Franz Schubert
Approximate duration: 20 minutes
Six German Dances, D. 820
(Born January 31, 1797, Vienna; died November 19, 1828, Vienna) Composed: 1824 Other works from this period: Detailed in the notes below Approximate duration: 8 minutes Late in 1822, Franz Schubert contracted syphilis, and within a few months he was hospitalized for a lengthy period. With much of the European continent affected by the disease, Schubert was well aware of his own mortality. He wrote to a friend in March of 1824: I find myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair continually makes things worse and worse instead of better; imagine a man, I say, whose most brilliant hopes have perished, to whom the felicity of love and friendship has nothing to offer but pain at best, whom enthusiasm (at least of the stimulating variety) for all things beautiful threatens to forsake, and I ask you, is he not a miserable, unhappy being? “My peace is gone, my heart is sore, I shall find it nevermore.” I might as well sing every day now, for upon retiring to bed each night I hope that I may not wake again, and each morning only recalls yesterday’s grief. Despite the dire outlook of his health, Schubert remained remarkably prolific in his compositional output. In 1824, four years before his death, Schubert wrote his Octet for Strings and Winds, the Rosamunde and Death and the Maiden string quartets, the Grand Duo for piano duet, and the Arpeggione Sonata. In the summer of 1824, Schubert returned to Zselíz, one hundred miles east of Vienna, to the summer home of Count Johann Karl Esterhazy, where he had previously been employed. While there, Schubert tutored the count’s two daughters, the Countesses Marie and Karoline, and composed numerous works for keyboard, including his Six German Dances, D. 820. Each of the six dances, though relatively short in length, demonstrates Schubert’s ingenious and subtle pianistic writing and use of such forward-thinking techniques as rhythmic and metric displacement. Performed without pause, the six dances come across as one piece with six distinct episodes. The first three dances are in A-flat major, and the first of these begins with a lilting primary theme. In each of the two following dances, the primary theme of the first dance returns after sections of wistful reflection. The final set of dances, all in B-flat major, begins with a rustic quality, with heavy use of the bass register. In the final two dances, Schubert’s characteristic Viennese elegance shines forth, before returning to the rustic earthiness of the fourth dance. —Isaac Thompson
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
In 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach was appointed to the music directorships of the Nikolaikirche and the Paulinerkirche, the two most prominent churches in Leipzig, as well as to the post of Cantor of the St. Thomas School at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche. These prestigious appointments lured him from his position as Kapellmeister at the court of Cöthen to the city where he would remain until his death in 1750. Also during his tenure in Leipzig, Bach assumed the directorship of the Collegium Musicum, a strong amateur ensemble founded in 1701 by Bach’s contemporary Georg Philipp Telemann. The Collegium Musicum was one of numerous such performance groups in Germany at the time, mostly founded by university music students and which were a vital part of German musical life. Much of Bach’s instrumental music during this period was composed for the Collegium Musicum’s performances at such venues as Zimmermann’s Coffeehouse, a café made famous by hosting the premiere performances of some of Bach’s finest music. Bach’s Four Orchestral Suites are among the works presented at Zimmermann’s Coffeehouse by the Collegium Musicum. The second of these, the Orchestral Suite no. 2 in b minor, was the last of the four to be completed: its composition dates from between 1738 and 1739, though recent research suggests that some of its material comes from Bach’s earlier time in Cöthen. Bach’s directorship of the Collegium Musicum, in addition to his various other posts, helped reinforce his position as Leipzig’s most influential musical figure. More importantly, it provided Bach, one of history’s most indefatigable composers, with an outlet to produce a body of secular instrumental music that was not needed for his church positions but that over history became essential to the Western canon. Each of the orchestral suites begins with an overture; the b minor suite’s overture is set in the French style, characterized by its stately dotted-rhythm opening. As per the French overture style, the regal opening leads to a central fugato section. Following the overtures, the orchestral suites are compendia of Baroque dance forms. The second movement is a rondeau, a French dance form rooted in the early thirteenth century. The third movement is a sarabande, a genre of sung dance from sixteenth-century Spain. The bourrée, another French dance form, follows and then the polonaise, a stately Polish dance in triple meter. The minuet, another triple-meter dance, resembles the waltz with its elegant gait. This form would remain a key component of instrumental music throughout the Classical period, serving as the second or third movement in the multimovement works of Haydn and Mozart. The suite concludes with its most famous movement, the sprightly Badinerie. The term badinerie (or badinage) came into use around the time of this suite and, according to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the finale to Bach’s b minor suite is the only known badinerie in the repertoire. The term has no exact musical definition—it was generally used to describe music of a light and frivolous character. Whether frivolous or profound, as with all of Bach’s music, the execution *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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Claude Debussy (Born August 22, 1862, Saint-Germain-en-Laye; died March 25, 1918, Paris) Danses sacrée et profane Composed: 1904 Published: 1904 Dedication: Gustave Lyon Other works from this period: Estampes (1903); L’isle joyeuse (1903– 1904); La mer (1903–1905)
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
Approximate duration: 9 minutes Debussy composed the Danses sacrée et profane (Sacred and Profane Dances) in 1904 on a commission from the instrument manufacturer Pleyel. The company had recently introduced the chromatic harp and was seeking repertoire for the new instrument. The conventional harp is tuned to the diatonic major scale (i.e., its strings are tuned only to the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G), with a set of seven pedals to flatten or sharpen each pitch. The chromatic harp by contrast had separate strings for all twelve pitches and no pedals. Debussy composed his Danses sacrée et profane for this instrument; the work was intended as an exam piece for students at the Brussels Conservatoire. While the chromatic harp never ultimately caught on and has long since been abandoned, the Sacred and Profane Dances quickly became one of the most popular works in the harp repertoire and are still widely performed today on the conventional harp. The Sacred Dance emerges quietly and mysteriously, as if from some primordial state. The harp enters with a tranquil series of chords. Debussy’s modal harmonies evoke an aura of antiquity, perhaps in deference to the harp, one of the most ancient instruments. Whole-tone figurations later in the dance reinforce the music’s unearthly quality. After the featherweight Sacred Dance, the Profane Dance establishes a steady, waltz-like tempo—an earthly quality that contrasts with the sacred character of the first dance.
Johann Strauss Jr. (Born October 25, 1825, Vienna; died June 3, 1899, Vienna) Kaiserwalzer, op. 437 Composed: 1889 (arr. Schoenberg, 1925) Published: Berlin, 1889 Other works from this period: Sinnen und Minnen, op. 435 (1888); Durch’s Telephon, op. 439 (1890) Approximate duration: 10 minutes The Viennese composer and conductor Johann Strauss Jr. was responsible for some of the most wildly popular music of nineteenth-century Vienna—and, indeed, what remains some of the most popular music in the repertoire today. The son of the celebrated composer Johann Strauss I, he was known during his lifetime variously as Strauss Son or Strauss the Younger. But it is by another nickname that Strauss is more fondly known: to legions of music lovers, Johann Strauss Jr. is the “Waltz King.” Strauss made his public debut as a composer and conductor at the age of eighteen, and his music immediately met with public acclaim. Referring to the elder Johann Strauss, the press proclaimed, “Strauss’s name will be worthily continued in his son; children and children’s children can look forward to the future, and three-quarter time”—referring to the triple meter of waltz music—“will find a strong footing in him.” Indeed, Strauss’s waltzes would become emblematic of Viennese dance music. Owing largely to those enchanting waltzes, Strauss the Younger’s popularity continued to grow, and in 1852, the Viennese press declared, “Strauss Father has been fully replaced by Strauss Son.”
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Strauss was greatly prolific and commercially shrewd: any significant event in Viennese public life, as well as many important occasions elsewhere in Europe, was commemorated by a festive Strauss waltz, ensuring that the composer remained always in the public eye. Strauss scholar Peter Kemp writes, “The titles and dedicatees of [Strauss’s] compositions may be viewed as a musically illustrated guide to about fifty years of European history.” Though he is regarded, not inaccurately, as a composer of lighter fare, it would be a mistake to dismiss Strauss as a composer lacking in substance. Despite the lack of any gravitas in his own music, he was fascinated by the progressive musical innovations of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt, and his own keen instinct for melody and instrumental color won the admiration of such “serious” composers as Brahms, Richard Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner. Today, it surprises many listeners that the iconoclastic composers of the Second Viennese School likewise held Strauss’s music in quite high regard. Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg even made arrangements of Strauss waltzes for the Society for Private Musical Performances, an organization founded by Schoenberg in 1918 to champion what he saw as the finest examples of modern music. One of the most delectable of these is Schoenberg’s arrangement of Strauss’s Kaiserwalzer, or Emperor Waltz, for flute, clarinet, string quartet, and piano. —Patrick Castillo
Béla Bartók (Born March 25, 1881, Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary [now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania]; died September 26, 1945, New York) Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 68, BB 76 Composed: 1915 Other works from this period: Detailed in the notes below Approximate duration: 6 minutes On March 18, 1905, the twenty-three-year-old Béla Bartók met Zoltán Kodály in Budapest for the first time. Both had studied with Hans von Koessler, a distinguished German composer who spent much of his career teaching at the National Music Academy of Budapest. Bartók and Kodály’s meeting would be the beginning of a lasting artistic and personal relationship. Kodály had a great interest and much knowledge in what is now known as ethnomusicology. Bartók was immediately fascinated with this subject and embarked with Kodály, as well as independently, on numerous expeditions to rural locations throughout Eastern Europe to study and record the folk music of various regions. In 1907, Bartók traveled to Transylvania, in the central part of Romania, on a collecting expedition, where he first had the realization that the harmonic, rhythmic, and formal aspects of folk music could be adapted into his own musical language. Throughout his life, Bartók held a particular fondness for the folk music from Transylvania, whose Romanian population was isolated within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Romanian Folk Dances were composed in 1915, a year which has become known as Bartók’s “Romanian” year. Around the same time, Bartók completed his Romanian Christmas Songs, the Sonatina for Solo Piano, and the Transylvanian Dances. Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances pay homage to various Romanian locales where the composer collected folk music. Originally composed for solo piano, the Romanian Folk Dances have been transcribed and arranged for numerous instrumental combinations. The first dance, from Mesöszabad, is a strident Transylvanian dance, defined by its strong duple meter and restrained yet infectious theme. The Sash Dance and In One Spot, both hailing from Egres, embody a more mysterious quality. The Buciumeana, from Bisztra, is highlighted by a lyrical and longing Transylvanian melody, first presented in the solo violin and eventually passed to the entire ensemble. The Romanian Polka presents a vigorous dance that would accompany children’s games in the Belényes region. The final pair of
Aaron Copland (Born November 14, 1900, Brooklyn, New York; died December 2, 1990, North Tarrytown, New York) Appalachian Spring Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes (New York) Composed: 1943–1944 (orchestrated 1954); suite prepared in 1944 (orchestrated 1945) First performance: October 30, 1944, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Other works from this period: Fanfare for the Common Man (1942); Symphony no. 3 (1944–1946); Clarinet Concerto (1947–1948) Approximate duration: 33 minutes Aaron Copland owns a legacy as one of the United States’ most seminal composers. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1900 to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Copland lived and worked during the formative years of America’s musical development. Charles Ives, the innovative patriarch of American music, was twenty-six years old and nearing his artistic maturity when Copland was born. Another revolutionary American composer, Henry Cowell, was just three years Copland’s senior. Over the course of his own fruitful career, Copland served as a mentor to many definitive American composers, including William Schuman, Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss, Elliott Carter, and others. He furthermore worked tirelessly to nurture the growth of an American musical community. In addition to composing, Copland produced concerts, wrote extensively on music, oversaw the publication of new works by American composers, and, in 1939, cofounded the American Music Center, an important service and resource center for classical music in the United States. But above all, it is through his compositional activities that Copland garnered the honorary moniker of “Dean of American Music.” In searching for a distinctly American musical language, he integrated elements of jazz, blues, and other popular American styles with the characteristics of those composers whom he most revered: the modernism of Stravinsky, the textures of Gabriel Fauré and Gustav Mahler. Intrepidly curious, he even tinkered with Schoenberg’s twelve-tone method in his Piano Quartet of 1950. Appalachian Spring, a one-act ballet composed in 1944 for Martha Graham, is one of Copland’s most renowned scores and won him the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The music was originally scored for an ensemble of thirteen instruments; Copland also prepared an orchestral version, and both remain popular and frequently performed today. In addition to arguably becoming Copland’s most popular piece, Appalachian Spring is widely regarded as a quintessentially American work: the sound world that Copland creates resonates with many listeners as the signature sound of American music. The ballet depicts the story of nineteenth-century pioneers and their springtime celebration after building a farmhouse for a young couple soon to wed. The other central characters are the young couple’s neighbor, a revivalist preacher, and his congregation. Copland provided descriptions of each of the score’s eight sections as follows: Very slowly. Introduction of the characters, one by one, in a suffused light. Fast/Allegro. Sudden burst of unison strings in A major arpeggios starts the action. A sentiment both elated and religious gives the keynote to this scene.
Moderate/Moderato. Duo for the Bride and her Intended – scene of tenderness and passion. Quite fast. The Revivalist and his flock. Folksy feeling – suggestions of square dances and country fiddlers. Still faster/Subito allegro. Solo dance of the Bride – presentiment of motherhood. Extremes of joy and fear and wonder. Very slowly (as at first). Transition scene to music reminiscent of the introduction. Calm and flowing/Doppio movimento. Scenes of daily activity for the Bride and her Farmer husband. There are five variations on a Shaker theme. The theme, sung by a solo clarinet, was taken from a collection of Shaker melodies compiled by Edward D. Andrews and published under the title The Gift to Be Simple. The melody most borrowed and used almost literally is called “Simple Gifts.” Moderate. Coda/Moderato – Coda. The Bride takes her place among her neighbors. At the end the couple is left “quiet and strong in their new house.” Muted strings intone a hushed, prayer-like chorale passage. The close is reminiscent of the opening music. —Patrick Castillo
Music@Menlo chamber music festival and institute
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
dances, both entitled Fast Dance, are seamlessly connected and feature music that seems to move faster and faster until all the dancers fall over in exhaustion. —Isaac Thompson
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concert program vi:
Inspired: c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
musical meditations
August 3 Friday, August 3, 8:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Program Overview For generations, people of diverse backgrounds and traditions have found spiritual nourishment through works of music, both in a religious context and through the transporting power of the communal concert experience. “Inspired” explores these spiritual connections through a work that depicts a story deeply meaningful to many: The Seven Last Words of Christ by Joseph Haydn. Though rooted in the Christian tradition, the piece has the power to speak to people of all backgrounds. As Michael Steinberg put it, “This is music addressed to all of us. And have we not all known love, sacrifice, compassion, awe, transcendence, and the other facets of experience we encounter in the Passion story?”
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Jim and Mical Brenzel with gratitude for their generous support.
Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884). An Effect of the Sun. Albumen print from collodion on glass negative, nineteenth century. Photo credit: V & A Images, London/Art Resource, NY
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Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross, op. 51, Hob. III: 50–56 (1787) (Arrangement from the original orchestral version courtesy of the Emerson String Quartet) Introduction Sonata I: Vater, vergib ihnen (Father, forgive them) Sonata II: Furwahr, ich sag’ es dir (Verily I say unto you) Sonata III: Frau, hier siehe deinen Sohn (Woman, behold your son) Sonata IV: Mein Gott, mein Gott (My God, my God) Sonata V: Jesus rufet, Ach, mich durstet (Jesus said, I thirst) Sonata VI: Es ist vollbracht (It is finished) Sonata VII: Vater, in deine Hande (Father, into your hands) Il terremoto: Presto e con tutta forza (The earthquake)
Erin Keefe, Jorja Fleezanis, violins; Richard O’Neill, viola; Laurence Lesser, cello
This program begins with remarks by Encounter Leader Michael Parloff, to be followed by the performance of Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross.
Program Notes: Inspired (Born March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Lower Austria; died May 31, 1809, Vienna) The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross, op. 51, Hob. III: 50–56 Composed: 1786 or 1787 First performance: Good Friday, 1787 Other works from this period: The Paris Symphonies, nos. 82–87 (1785–1786); Six Quartets nos. 36–41 (1787) Approximate duration: 70 minutes In 1785 or 1786, the cathedral in the Spanish city of Cádiz commissioned Joseph Haydn to compose a major work for its Good Friday service. In the Catholic Church, Good Friday marks the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and represents one of the most important dates of the liturgical calendar. The Good Friday observance is a solemn occasion, comprising readings and meditations on each of the seven last words of Christ: seven expressions that appear in the Gospels, reportedly uttered by Jesus during his crucifixion. Haydn, who was a devout Catholic, was asked to provide orchestral interludes to accompany the readings. The resultant work, The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross, is one of Haydn’s most original and affecting creations. The Seven Last Words premiered on Good Friday in 1787; in the same year, Haydn arranged the work for string quartet to enable more widespread performance; in 1796, he prepared a choral version, as well. Haydn wrote in the preface to the choral score: Some fifteen years ago I was requested by a canon of Cádiz to compose instrumental music on the seven last words of Our Savior on the cross. It was customary at the Cathedral of Cádiz to produce an oratorio every year during Lent, the effect of the performance being not a little enhanced by the following circumstances. The walls, windows, and pillars of the church were hung with black cloth, and only one large lamp hanging from the center of the roof broke the solemn darkness. At midday, the doors were closed and the ceremony began. After a short service the bishop ascended the pulpit, pronounced the first of the seven words…and delivered a discourse thereon. This ended, he left the pulpit and fell to his knees before the altar. The interval was filled by music. The bishop then in like manner pronounced the second word, then the third, and so on, the orchestra following on the conclusion of each discourse. My composition was subject to these conditions, and it was no easy task to compose seven Adagios lasting ten minutes each and succeeding one another without fatiguing the listeners. Sonata I: Largo The work is organized into a set of sonatas to accompany each of the seven last words. Following the somber d minor Introduction, Sonata I corresponds to Christ’s first utterance from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The atmosphere turns from dour to warmer hearted, befitting the theme of forgiveness. Also, at the start of each sonata, the first violin offers a melodic setting of the actual Latin text on which the movement is based.
Throughout The Seven Last Words, Haydn depicts the figure of Jesus very subjectively and, in keeping with the spirit of the Catholic doctrine, as being both human and divine. In the first sonata, we encounter Jesus tortured and suffering but speaking about forgiveness with a very serene temper. Later in the movement, though, perhaps giving voice to Jesus’s humanity, Haydn recasts the “Pater, Pater” motif in darker tones. Sonata II: Grave e cantabile The Gospels tell that Jesus was crucified in between two common thieves: one of the thieves mocked Jesus, but the other, a believer in Jesus’s teachings, was penitent. “Dost not thou fear God,” he asks the other criminal, “seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.” Then, turning to Jesus, the man says, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” Jesus replies, “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” Vln. I Ho - die me - cum,
ho - die
me - cum
e - ris in Pa - ra
-
di - so.
The weary c minor theme that begins this sonata quickly reappears in the brighter key of E-flat major and with a more joyful accompaniment in the lower strings—a clear representation of Jesus’s vision of heaven. Sonata III: Grave The Gospel of John makes frequent mention of “the disciple whom Jesus loved”—traditionally considered to be John himself. At the scene of the crucifixion, John and Mary, Jesus’s mother, are grieving at the foot of the cross. Jesus says to Mary, “Woman, behold thy son.” The theological significance of this third word is in its installment of Mary as a comforter, protector, and intercessor to God on behalf of all Christians. The tenderness of Sonata III aptly reflects the spirit of this teaching. Vln. I Mu - lier,
ec - ce
fi
-
lius
tu - us.
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
Joseph Haydn
Sonata IV: Largo The most poignantly human moment of the Passion story is Jesus’s cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus’s distress permeates the music of Sonata IV. Vln. I De - us
me - us,
De - us
me - us, ut - quid de - re - li - qui - sti me?
The clearest representation of Jesus’s sense of abandonment comes near the end of the movement, when the first violin embarks on a wayward solo cadenza. The chromaticism of this passage gives an impression of the solo violin having lost its harmonic foundation—an apt musical metaphor for Jesus questioning his faith in God. Sonata V: Adagio Another human moment is depicted in Sonata V: physically defeated and nearing the end, Jesus says, “Sitio”—“I thirst.” The dry pizzicato accompaniment to the first violin’s laconic “Sitio” motif vividly befits the notion of thirst.
Vln. I
Vln. I Pa - ter,
Pa - ter, di - mit - te
il -
lis,
quia nes - ciunt, quid
fa - ciunt.
Si
-
tio.
*Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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Sonata VI: Lento Sonata VI presents the starkest music of the cycle, appropriate to the sixth word: “It is finished.” Vln. I Con
-
sum
-
ma
-
tum
est.
Sonata VII: Largo Sonata VII reverently presents Jesus’s dying statement: “Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit.” Despite the resolute character of the theme, Haydn instructs the violins to play with their mutes; violinist Eugene Drucker of the Emerson String Quartet has surmised that the sound of the muted violins might “represent the weakened voice of the Savior at the end of his ordeal. The separation of the human and divine has come at a tremendous cost, which we are made to feel throughout the entire work.” Vln. I
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
In
ma - nus tu - as, Do - mi - ne,
com - men - do
spi - ri - tum me
-
um.
Il terremoto: Presto e con tutta forza In the Passion story, Jesus’s death is followed by a terrifying earthquake. Haydn’s Seven Last Words likewise ends with a musical depiction of the earthquake, full of reeling trills and tremolandos and angular melodic fragments. This dramatic postlude, designed to illustrate the chaos of human sinfulness in the wake of the crucifixion, brings what has been a meditative and austere spiritual journey to a suddenly gripping conclusion. —Patrick Castillo
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concert program vii:
Impassioned: listeners on fire
Sunday, August 5, 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Tuesday, August 7, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School
Program Overview “Impassioned” speaks to music’s capacity to incite our most visceral emotions. Robert Schumann’s ephemeral Märchenbilder at once expresses the fanciful daydreams, amorous longing, deep pathos, and ecstatic bliss known to all listeners. Antonín Dvorˇák’s f minor Piano Trio and Gabriel Fauré’s g minor Piano Quartet, each composed at the height of Western music’s Romantic period, reach towards the same expressive extremes on a grander scale, offering monumental statements on the depth of human feeling.
SPECIAL THANKS
Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Märchenbilder (Fairy-Tale Pictures), op. 113 (1851)
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August 5 and 7
Nicht schnell Lebhaft Rasch Langsam, mit melancholischem Ausdruck Richard O’Neill, viola; Gilbert Kalish, piano
ˇ ák (1841–1904) Antonín Dvor Piano Trio in f minor, op. 65 (1883)
Allegro ma non troppo Allegro grazioso Poco adagio Finale: Allegro con brio
Gilbert Kalish, piano; Arnaud Sussmann, violin; David Finckel, cello
Intermission
Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) Piano Quartet no. 2 in g minor, op. 45 (1885–1886)
Allegro molto moderato Allegro molto Adagio non troppo Finale: Allegro molto
Wu Han, piano; Arnaud Sussmann, violin; Richard O’Neill, viola; Dmitri Atapine, cello
Music@Menlo dedicates these performances to the following individuals and organizations with gratitude for their generous support: August 5: Paul and Marcia Ginsburg and also to the Barnard/Fain Foundation August 7: Betsy and Bill Meehan
André Kertész (1894–1985). © André Kertész - RMN. Paris, A Summer Evening Storm, 1925. Gelatin silver print, 19.8 x 24.8 cm. AM1978-72(1). Photo: Georges Meguerditchian. Photo credit: CNAC/MNAM/Dist. Réunion des Musées Nationaux/ Art Resource, NY
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Program Notes: Impassioned Robert Schumann (Born June 8, 1810, Zwickau, Saxony; died July 29, 1856, Endenich, near Bonn) Märchenbilder, op. 113 Composed: 1851 Other works from this period: Detailed in the notes below
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
Approximate duration: 16 minutes In 1850, Robert Schumann accepted the position of Municipal Music Director in the city of Düsseldorf. Upon Robert and Clara Schumann’s arrival in Düsseldorf on September 2 of that year, he was given a hero’s welcome. As part of his new duties, Schumann was charged with directing the orchestra and chorus at the Allgemeiner Musikverein as well as overseeing the major feast days at the city’s prominent Catholic churches. But while his tenure in Düsseldorf began auspiciously, by his second season, Schumann had become dismayed at the quality of the musicians in his charge and the irregular concert attendance of the city’s population. Perhaps as an escape from his orchestral-centric directorial duties, in 1851, Schumann turned his attention to instrumental chamber music, composing his a minor Violin Sonata, the Märchenbilder for Viola and Piano, the g minor Piano Trio, and the d minor Violin Sonata in quick succession. The Märchenbilder, or Fairy-Tale Pictures, in their child-like innocence and imagination hearken back to the style of Schumann’s beloved Carnaval and Fantasiestück, composed a dozen years earlier. Though there is no specific fairy tale associated with the Märchenbilder, the charming music evokes the spirit of a fantastical story. The somber Nicht schnell (Not fast) begins contemplatively in the key of d minor with a lyrical melody presented in the viola. Through various guises, the melody weaves its way through the viola and piano, highlighting the conversational quality of Schumann’s music. The exuberant Lebhaft (Spirited) movement can be thought of as a march, with the viola taking on a percussive quality from the opening bars. The moto perpetuo Rasch (Swift) movement begins with the piano and viola trading vigorous passages of running triplets. This energetic opening is contrasted with a dreamy and elusive second theme, before the opening character returns. The final and most substantial movement of the Märchenbilder, Langsam, mit melancholischem Ausdruck (Slowly, with melancholy expression), begins in the key of D major and is tinged with a bittersweet sadness throughout. —Isaac Thompson
popularity of these pieces placed Dvorˇák at the forefront of the Eastern European nationalist movement, whose proponents also included Bedrˇich Smetana, Leoš Janácˇek, and, a generation later, Béla Bartók. The Opus 65 Piano Trio in f minor is the third of Dvorˇák’s four existing trios. It was composed in 1883, when he was at a crossroads in his artistic career. Having built his reputation up to this point in his career on the strength of the Czech accent of his music, he was now also more broadly incorporating the language of his German Romantic contemporaries. Not insignificantly, it was around this time that Dvorˇák became personally acquainted with Brahms, who would become an important mentor figure for him. As a result, though the Czech element would always be a vital part of Dvorˇák’s musical language, the Opus 65 Piano Trio and other works from this period have less of a gleeful Slavonic folk flavor than his earlier work, favoring instead a darker, Germanic Sturm und Drang. Indeed, throughout its four movements, the f minor trio is relentlessly expressive and can be heard as a case study of the Romantic aesthetic. It is also a work that bespeaks a newfound artistic maturity in Dvorˇák’s writing—betraying perhaps an increased familiarity with Brahms’s scores, the f minor trio demonstrates remarkable assurance and control on Dvorˇák’s part in the development and organization of his musical ideas. The Allegro ma non troppo begins with a dramatic introduction, begun in expectant octaves by the violin and cello and then joined by the piano; a crescendo from pianissimo to fortissimo ushers in the forceful first theme. The first theme group is a succession of one exceptional melody after another. Equally impressive is how seamlessly Dvorˇák brings the listener through such wide-ranging emotional terrain. The first theme group closes with a menacing melodic idea, stated by the violin and marked by an ominous half step; the quietly burbling sixteenth-note piano accompaniment adds to the tension. Violin I
Violoncello
Piano
3
Vln. I
Vc.
ˇ ák Antonín Dvor (Born September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, near Kralupy; died May 1, 1904, Prague)
Pno.
Piano Trio in f minor, op. 65 Composed: 1883 Published: 1883 First performance: October 27, 1883, in Mladá Boleslav Other works from this period: String Quartet no. 11 in C Major (1881); Violin Concerto in a minor (1883); Symphony no. 7 (1884–1885)
The second theme group departs from the agita of the first. The cello introduces a lyrical and deeply felt melody. But, although the mood has dramatically changed, this melody is closely related to what came before: the half-step figure that distinguished the close of the first theme group is here recast in an entirely different light.
Approximate duration: 40 minutes Violoncello
The Czech composer Antonín Dvorˇák personifies two important artistic movements of the latter half of the nineteenth century. His music contains all of the hallmarks of Western European Romanticism, largely through the influence of Johannes Brahms. But Dvorˇák’s mature works moreover incorporate elements of Czech folk music. The widespread *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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espress.
Piano
Meno mosso Violin I molto espress.
dim.
The slow third movement shows Dvorˇák at his most inspired. Above solemn chords in the piano, the cello offers a broad and generous melody. The writing is strikingly vocal and, as a result, human in its expressive quality. And when the violin enters, the resulting duet could rank alongside the most affecting love duets of any Romantic opera. As a foil to the devastating emotional depth of this opening, Dvorˇák follows with another violin-and-cello dialog that couldn’t be more simple: the child-like naïveté of this theme is disarming and exquisitely poignant. Like the scherzo, the final movement begins with the élan of a lively folk dance; the cross-rhythms call to mind the furiant, a Czech dance form that Dvorˇák drew upon numerous times throughout his compositional career. The folk flavor of the movement is reinforced by the second theme, a tranquil, waltz-like tune. The remainder of the movement is given over to working through both themes until, near the end of the finale, Dvorˇák shows a cunning sleight of hand: the restless energy of the finale culminates in a powerful reminiscence of the first theme of the first movement. This dissolves into a wistful moment of reflection, before the trio finally races to its blazing finish.
Gabriel Fauré (Born May 12, 1845, Pamiers, Ariège; died November 4, 1924, Paris) Piano Quartet no. 2 in g minor, op. 45 Composed: 1885–1886 Published: 1887 Dedication: Hans von Bülow Other works from this period: Papillon for Cello and Piano, op. 77 (1884); Barcarolle no. 2 in G Major (1886); Pavane in f-sharp minor, op. 50 (1887) Approximate duration: 32 minutes Gabriel Fauré’s Second Piano Quartet represents a manifold enigma for chamber music audiences. In contrast with the composer’s reputation as a miniaturist of characteristic (and characteristically French) elegance, the quartet’s rhetorical power places it toe to toe with the robust piano quartets of the German Romantics, such as the Opus 44 Piano Quintet of Robert Schumann or the three piano quartets of Brahms. It has inexplicably failed to achieve the same popularity as its elder sibling, the Piano Quartet in c minor, op. 15, even though, as Opus 45 devotees will attest, the masterfully wrought Second Quartet is at least the
c minor’s equal. French-music scholar Robert Orledge has specifically lauded the g minor’s “significant advance on the First Quartet in the force of its expression [and] the increased rhythmic drive and complexity of its themes.” The Second Quartet moreover remains enigmatic for how little we know surrounding its creation. Fauré likely composed the work between 1885 and 1886 and played the piano part himself at its premiere on January 22, 1887, at a concert presented in Paris by the Société Nationale de Musique Française. (Another performance of note came on November 9, 1891, in London, involving the Belgian composer and violin virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe.) The score bears a dedication to the German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow. Otherwise, almost nothing is known of the quartet’s circumstances. Nevertheless, the work does demonstrate that Fauré’s keyboard prowess matched his compositional imagination: the muscular piano part, realized by the composer at the premiere, requires strength and sensitivity in equal measures. For much of the work, Fauré weights the ensemble unevenly, with the piano singlehandedly counterbalancing the trio of strings rather than taking part as one of four equal voices. This dynamic propels the work immediately from the start of the first movement: over a turbulent piano accompaniment, violin, viola, and cello in unison introduce the impassioned theme. Much of the movement’s subsequent material derives from the physiognomy of this opening melody. A thoughtful utterance by the viola heralds a change in complexion; Fauré fashions a gentler and more tender music, which soon progresses to the ethereal high register of the violin. Following a tranquil recitative in the viola and cello, punctuated by quietly rolled chords in the piano, the violin further transfigures the theme, pianissimo and dolcissimo. The viola, assuming further significance in the movement’s narrative structure, emerges from this transfiguration cryptically hemming and hawing; the movement passes into the development section, a harmonically rich mosaic of fragments of earlier material. The arrival at the recapitulation is forceful and abrupt. The quartet’s fiendish pianism continues in the scherzo. The left hand’s frenetic eighth-note accompaniment, accentuated by forceful pizzicati, provides a propulsive backdrop for the mischievously syncopated melody in the right hand. The strings, in unison, introduce their own musical idea, painted in broad strokes and superimposing 3/4 time onto the established 6/8 meter. The piano comments with increasingly chromatic iterations of its own melody. As the scherzo progresses, the music seems on the verge of eruption at any moment, but Fauré allows no such indulgence; instead, his sure-handed restraint only stokes further disquiet. The piano introduction to the Adagio extends the scherzo’s metric ambiguity, as Fauré divides the movement’s 9/8 meter—a time signature typically treated as nine small beats grouped into three big beats (1-2-3, 2-2-3, 3-2-3)—into uneven groups of two (1-2, 2-2…). Fauré apparently designed this passage to evoke church bells that he heard as a child in the village of Cadirac. The viola again assumes a prominent role, answering the piano undulations with fitting simplicity. Fauré lovingly instructs the viola to play piano, dolce, espressivo, senza rigor. The dialog between these two musical ideas—or, perhaps, not a dialog but a poignant attachment of two estranged monologs—provides the blueprint for the rest of the movement. (Aaron Copland remarked that this slow movement’s “beauty is truly classic if we define classicism as intensity on a background of calm.”) The finale answers the Adagio with a return to the first movement’s furious energy. Fauré even ups the fourth movement, marking it Allegro molto, but his economy and concision of thematic material hold the wagon firmly intact through the tempestuous journey. The movement never relents; indeed, Fauré saves the coup de grâce for the exuberantly triumphant coda. —Patrick Castillo
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c o n c e r t P r o g r ams ams
The development section, in characteristically Romantic fashion, mines the expressive depth of the exposition’s thematic material, beginning with the dark first theme, now set in the warm key of B major. But this quickly yields to further disquiet, with the music making a startling harmonic shift from B major to b-flat minor. At the end of the development section, the cello puts together a long, eloquent melody, based on fragments of thematic material from the exposition but slowed down to half tempo. The music arrives at the recapitulation forcefully and with gripping conviction. The scherzo movement evokes Dvorˇák’s Slavic roots, adopting the rhythmic gait of a polka. Wrapped in the garb of this Bohemian dance, however, is a vigorously Romantic statement. The trio section offsets the driving, forward motion of the dance with a dreamlike idyll. This music’s serenity is colored with a subtle melodic inflection: the half step between A-flat and B-double flat, which appears at the top of the violin melody, among other places. This simple turn gives the melody a Bohemian accent and also recalls the meaningful half-step gestures from the first movement.
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concert program viii:
Delighted: c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
music for the fun of it
August 10 and 11 Friday, August 10, 8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School Saturday, August 11, 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Program Overview Music is universally able to delight and bring joy. The final Concert Program of Music@Menlo’s tenth-anniversary season explores music that conjures these feelings of festivity. Paul Schoenfield’s desire to compose a work that would be appropriate for celebratory Hassidic gatherings as well as the concert hall was the impetus for his rollicking Clarinet Trio. Mendelssohn’s exuberant Allegro brillant and Moszkowski’s spirited Suite for Two Violins and Piano demonstrate the celebratory emotions that music has the power to convey. The season fittingly concludes with Chausson’s rousing, colorful, and evocative Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet.
Fête the Festival: Tenth-Anniversary Celebration Dinner Saturday, August 11, 8:30 p.m., Menlo Park’s Arrillaga Recreation Center Tickets are $50, and space is limited. Please see the patron services team for availability.
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates these performances to the following individuals and organizations with gratitude for their generous support: August 10: The David B. and Edward C. Goodstein Foundation August 11: Marcia and Hap Wagner and also to the Fleishhacker Foundation
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Paul Schoenfield (b. 1947) Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano (1990) Freylakh March Nigun Koztzke
Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; Arnaud Sussmann, violin; Gloria Chien, piano
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) Allegro brillant in A Major for Piano, Four Hands, op. 92 (1841) Inon Barnatan, Wu Han, piano
Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1925) Suite for Two Violins and Piano, op. 71 (1909)
Allegro energico Allegro moderato Lento assai Molto vivace
Sean Lee, Kristin Lee, violins; Wu Han, piano
Intermission
Ernest Chausson (1855–1899) Concerto in D Major for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, op. 21 (1889–1891) Decidé – Calme – Animé Sicilienne Grave Très animé
Ani Kavafian, solo violin; Inon Barnatan, piano; Sean Lee, Kristin Lee, violins; Arnaud Sussmann, viola; Dmitri Atapine, cello
Program Notes: Delighted (Born January 24, 1947, Detroit) Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano Composed: 1990 Other works from this period: Café Music (1986); Tales from Chelm (1991) Approximate duration: 20 minutes Born in Detroit in 1947, Paul Schoenfield began studying piano at the age of six and wrote his first compositions one year later. Early in his career, Schoenfield enjoyed considerable success as a concert pianist but he eventually turned his full attention to composition. A man of diverse influences, he draws upon his life experiences for his work, from living on a kibbutz in Israel to moonlighting as a lounge pianist at a steakhouse in Minneapolis. When he received the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1994, Paul Schoenfield’s music was aptly described by the author Dennis Dooley as follows: Echoes of Mozart, Brahms, Bartók, and Shostakovich and a host of other ingredients impart an infectious zest, and distinctive flavor, to Paul Schoenfield’s music. He moves with what has been called “wizardly ease” from jazz to popular styles, from vaudeville to klezmer (an Eastern European Jewish music that features a quirky clarinet), to folk music and dances from different cultures. In 1986, clarinetist David Shifrin approached Paul Schoenfield about writing a trio for clarinet, violin, and piano. Inundated with various other projects at that time, Schoenfield was not able to begin sketching out the trio until 1990. Fascinated for much of his career with the music of Hassidic gatherings and festivals, he tackled the challenge of melding artistic and entertainment aesthetics. The first movement, Freylakh, evokes a traditional Eastern European dance that is often heard at Hassidic courts during festive holidays. The movement’s frenetic energy features virtuosic writing for each of the instruments. Schoenfield described the March as “bizarre and somewhat diabolical.” The movement begins with a short piano introduction before launching into the main tune, a duet with the clarinet in a high register with the violin supporting in the instrument’s lowest register. The third movement, Nigun, is an introspective meditation, evoking the deeply mystical and spiritual aspects of the Hassidic tradition. The exuberance of the first movement returns in the Koztzke, a Russian Jewish wedding dance, seamlessly incorporating elements of jazz and traditional folk music.
Felix Mendelssohn (Born February 3, 1809, Leipzig; died November 4, 1847, Leipzig) Allegro brillant in A Major, op. 92 Composed: 1841 Published: 1851 Other works from this period: Symphony no. 2 (1840); Variations sérieuses, op. 54 (1841); Symphony no. 3, Scottish (1842) Approximate duration: 9 minutes As Music Director of Leipzig’s famed Gewandhaus, Felix Mendelssohn regularly came in contact with the greatest musicians and composers of the day, including the composer Robert Schumann and his young wife, the piano virtuoso Clara Schumann. In March of 1841, Robert and Clara Schumann, still embroiled in a bitter legal battle with Clara’s *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
father over their courtship and subsequent marriage, were engaged by Mendelssohn to appear at a special fundraiser for the pension fund of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. The event served a dual purpose as both a fundraiser and a public show of support for Robert and Clara Schumann. In addition to a performance of Robert Schumann’s First Symphony, the concert included Mendelssohn’s newly composed Allegro brillant in A Major, which he performed with Clara Schumann. The Allegro brillant begins with a rush of scales before launching into a light and virtuosic scherzo, evoking the spirit of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The second theme features a lyrical, song-like melody. It is followed by a return of the exuberant opening material. After a moment of quiet reflection, the work concludes with a fleeting coda, full of exuberance and celebration. —Isaac Thompson
Moritz Moszkowski (Born August 23, 1854, Breslau [now Wrocław]; died March 4, 1925, Paris) Suite for Two Violins and Piano, op. 71 Composed: 1909 Dedication: Isabelle Levallois Other works from this period: Zwei Concertstücke for Violin and Piano (1909); Drei Stücke for Cello and Piano (1909) Approximate duration: 20 minutes Moritz Moszkowski was a German pianist, conductor, and composer of Polish descent. He lived from 1854 to 1925 and, though not a household name today, was celebrated in his time as one of Europe’s great virtuosos and, later, piano pedagogues. He was also a sufficiently able violinist to occasionally sit first violin with the academy orchestra. A nervous disorder Moszkowski suffered from while he was in his early thirties prematurely ended his days as a touring musician, after which point he focused more intently on composition. He was also active as a conductor and scored some early compositional success with his orchestral scores, but his reputation as a composer was built almost entirely on the strength of his solo piano and chamber music. The language of these pieces is marked by brilliant virtuosity and, usually, a lightness of character that qualify them as salon music. The irresistible charm of much of this music made it widely popular among the day’s flourishing amateur music-making community. The Opus 71 Suite for Two Violins and Piano is a case in point: the lack of gravitas in this and Moszkowski’s other scores has, in all likelihood, been a major cause of the scant amount of attention paid to his music. But in its glorification of the two instruments with which Moszkowski was most intimately familiar, the violin and piano, the Opus 71 Suite reveals him to be a composer of great imagination. The suite comprises four movements. The opening Allegro energico begins with a hot-blooded descending theme in the violins. One impressive trait of the suite is made evident right away: despite the absence of a viola or cello, Moszkowski’s treatment of the violins and piano is such that the music never feels texturally thin. The piano offers quick, staccato chords, which the violins answer with fragments of the opening theme. The second theme is more lyrical but no less impassioned than the first. The second movement is built on deeply affecting melodies, betraying Moszkowski’s penchant for the music of Schumann and Mendelssohn. The nostalgic air of the slow movement likewise bespeaks the deep Romantic influence on Moszkowski’s language. The final movement proceeds with a rhythmic vitality that suggests the tarantella, an energetic Italian dance popularly thought to counter the poison of a spider bite. A contrasting middle section is marked by a mellifluous
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c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
Paul Schoenfield
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lyricism, but the élan of the main theme returns; Moszkowski even steps it up a notch for the finale’s coda, which brings the suite to an exuberant close.
Ernest Chausson (Born January 20, 1855, Paris; died June 10, 1899, Limay, near Mantes, Yvelines) Concerto in D Major for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, op. 21 Composed: 1889–1891 Published: 1892 Other works from this period: Symphony in B-flat Major (1889–1890); Poème for Violin and Orchestra (1896)
c o n c e r t P r o g r ams
Approximate duration: 40 minutes The composer Ernest Chausson represents one of the essential voices of French Romanticism in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Chausson studied first with the French operatic composer Jules Massenet and then, more significantly, with César Franck, and his early compositional output, from roughly 1878 to 1886, bears the hallmarks of his training. The music of this period shows an ear for attractively spun melodies and elegant harmonies as well as a reserved melancholy that marks Chausson’s language throughout his career. In the late 1880s, Chausson’s music became even bolder, and the French sensibility of his earlier work gained in dramatic depth. The scholar Jean Gallois observes that this period coincided with Chausson’s appointment as Secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique, which “led to his closer involvement in Parisian intellectual and musical circles, and, as a consequence, to a more elaborate, more intensely dramatic style, as if the musician, brought face to face with other composers, was experiencing either new self-doubts or greater difficulty in expressing his original ideas.” Gallois continues, “Not surprisingly…this whole period is dominated by large-scale, essentially dramatic works.” Though not a work intended for a dramatic setting, the Opus 21 Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, composed between 1889 and 1891, does nevertheless illustrate the dramatic character of Chausson’s music during this time. It is also, in its design, a unique work: it is a hybrid between chamber music and a double concerto for violin and piano, with the string quartet serving as a kind of pseudo-orchestra but with each individual player distinctly involved, as befits a chamber work. The concerto begins with an emphatic three-note motif, introduced by the piano and then repeated with the viola and cello. Décidé
moins vite
Décidé
moins vite
and his contemporary Vincent d’Indy compared the wistfulness of this music to “the charming fanciful gardens of Gabriel Fauré.” Chausson biographer Ralph Grover praises the concerto’s third movement as “a tremendous outpouring of despair and pessimism, one of the really remarkable slow movements in all chamber music.” The movement begins with a humorless chromatic figure in the piano, over which appears a desolate theme, played in unison by the piano and violin. The entrance of the quartet heralds a new section. Rather than offering a contrast in mood, however, this passage only deepens the sense of anguish. The featherweight texture of a passage midway through the movement, built on hushed chords in the piano and whispered arpeggios in the strings, makes for a seeming moment of respite—but even this music turns out to be simply another perspective on the movement’s essential despair. The music arrives at a piano-and-violin duet of exquisite delicacy; the chromatic melody and syncopated rhythms sustain a feeling of unease. The desolate theme from the opening returns, but now in a state of great agitation, bringing the movement to an arresting climax. The final movement answers the gravity of the slow movement with renewed vigor. Structurally, the finale combines elements of rondo form—in which a recurring theme alternates with contrasting episodes—and variations form, meaning that the recurrences of the theme are steadily transformed throughout the movement. Using this technique, Chausson takes the movement through a variety of expressive characters. Chausson also calls on an innovation of his teacher César Franck, who developed the use of cyclic form, a technique by which material from preceding movements returns later in the work, thereby drawing a narrative arc over the entirety of the piece. Indeed, this device lends a dramatic effect to one of the finale’s episodes, which recalls the anguished slow movement. —Patrick Castillo
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Viola
Violoncello
Piano
long.
The string quartet expands on this motif in hushed tones. After further build-up, the solo violin makes a dramatic entrance, spinning the exultant main theme from the three-note motif. The solo violin and cello issue a pleading melody, built on plaintive half steps, and the music gradually melts into the deeply felt second theme. Building on the exposition’s thematic material, Chausson crafts a development section of magnificent power. The three-note motif returns, but now tempered by a gentle response from the piano. Over a shimmering piano accompaniment, Chausson revisits the poignant second theme, slowed down to create a feeling of time suspended. At the movement’s climactic point, the plaintive second theme cries out a final time, but the turbulence subsides, and the movement ends on a note of serene repose. The second movement is a Sicilienne, an instrumental form that dates back to the Baroque period, normally in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 tempo. Chausson
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carte blanche concert i:
July 22
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Première rhapsodie (1909–1910)
Sunday, July 22, 10:30 a.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School
Aleksandr Scriabin (1871–1915) Selected Preludes
Program Overview Clarinetist Anthony McGill, an audience favorite since the inaugural season in 2003, and pianist Gloria Chien, alumnacum-Director of the Chamber Music Institute, inaugurate the 2012 Carte Blanche series. Their program explores the element of Romantic longing—verlangen—inherent in the warm, nostalgic sound of the clarinet and subsequently in the clarinet repertoire. The instrument’s round, mellifluous tone ideally suits the colorful harmonic language of French composers Debussy, Messiaen, and Poulenc; its depth and mystery equally befit the dramatic weight of Schumann and Berg. The program ends with one of the most virtuosic works in the clarinet repertoire, Carl Maria von Weber’s Grand Duo.
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Joan and Allan Fisch with gratitude for their generous support.
Opus 11 Number 23 in F Major Opus 16 Number 1 in B Major Opus 16 Number 2 in g-sharp minor Opus 16 Number 4 in e-flat minor
Nocturne for the Left Hand in D-flat Major, op. 9, no. 2 (1894) Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the Birds) from the Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940) Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet (1919)
Sempre piano e molto tranquillo (quarter note = 52) Eighth note = 168 Eighth note = 160
Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, FP 184 (1962)
Allegro tristamente: Allegretto – Très calme – Tempo allegretto Romanza: Très calme Allegro con fuoco: Très animé
Intermission
carte blanche concerts
Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien: Sehnsucht/Verlangen
Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Three Romances for Clarinet and Piano, op. 94 (1849) Nicht schnell Einfach, innig Nicht schnell
Alban Berg (1885–1935) Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, op. 5 (1913) Mässig Sehr langsam Sehr rasch Langsam
Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) Grand Duo Concertante in E-flat Major, op. 48 (1815–1816) Allegro con fuoco Andante con moto Rondo: Allegro
Anthony McGill, clarinet; Gloria Chien, piano
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Program Notes: Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien: Sehnsucht/Verlangen Claude Debussy (Born August 22, 1862, Saint-Germain-en-Laye; died March 25, 1918, Paris) Première rhapsodie Composed: 1909–1910 Premiered: January 16, 1911, in Paris, with Prosper Mimart as clarinetist Dedication: Prosper Mimart Other works from this period: Hommage à Haydn (1909); Masques et bergamasques (1910); Khamma (1910–1912); Ibéria (1910)
carte blanche concerts
Approximate duration: 8 minutes By 1907, despite his iconoclastic views, his unprecedented musical style, and the scandals surrounding his personal life (he abandoned his first wife in 1904 for another woman—Paris was deliciously outraged), it could no longer be denied by those in bureaucratic power that Claude Debussy, the author of the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, the Nocturnes, and the hotly debated Pelléas et Mélisande, had established a significant reputation as a leading French composer. As a sort of backhanded recognition in lieu of the official establishment’s imprimatur of a faculty position at the Paris Conservatoire, he was invited by Gabriel Fauré, then the school’s Director, to help judge the competitions for prizes in wind instrument performance in 1907. Apparently Fauré was pleased with Debussy’s participation, since he invited him to become a regular competition judge in February 1909. In December 1909 and January 1910, Debussy wrote two short works for the 1910 clarinet competitions—his Première rhapsodie, intended as the principal examination piece, and Petite pièce for sight-reading. Prosper Mimart, Professor of Clarinet at the Conservatoire and the dedicatee of the score, premiered the Première rhapsodie (Debussy never composed a “deuxième rhapsodie”) on January 16, 1911, at a Paris concert of the Société Musicale Indépendente. As is true of virtually all of Debussy’s compositions, the Première rhapsodie does not follow a traditional form but is rather a seemingly free but actually tightly controlled elaboration of several thematic motives wrapped in the luminous harmonies and sonorities of his Impressionistic musical language. The work is in several continuous sections that become more animated and virtuosic as they progress.
Aleksandr Scriabin (Born December 25, 1871, Moscow; died April 14, 1915, Moscow) Selected Preludes (arr. for clarinet and piano); Nocturne for the Left Hand, op. 9, no. 2 Composed: 1894–1895 (preludes arranged for clarinet and piano in 1986) Other works from this period: Piano Sonata no. 2 in g-sharp minor, op. 19 (1892–1897); Piano Sonata no. 3 in f-sharp minor, op. 23 (1897–1898) Approximate duration: 12 minutes Scriabin found the aphoristic form of the prelude congenial throughout his career, and he entrusted to it some eighty-five of his most succinct musical thoughts, from the Twenty-Four Preludes, op. 11, composed between 1888 and 1896, which were inspired by and modeled on Chopin’s Opus 28 (Scriabin slept with scores of Chopin’s music under his pillow as a youth), to the dense, nearly atonal Five Preludes, op. 74, *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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the last music he wrote before his sudden death from blood poisoning in 1915 at the age of forty-three. The Prelude in F Major, op. 11, no. 23 (1895), flowing and limpid, is a wide-ranging pastorale. The first of the Opus 16 Five Preludes (B major) of 1894–1895 drapes a dreamy melody upon a cushion of almost Impressionistic harmonies. The Prelude in g-sharp minor, op. 16, no. 2, begins in a hesitant manner but accumulates considerable dramatic tension as it unfolds. The e-flat minor Prelude, op. 16, no. 4, is a tiny but heartfelt threnody. These arrangements for clarinet and piano are by Willard Elliot (1926–2000), composer, arranger, and Principal Bassoonist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for thirty-two years. The Nocturne in D-flat Major for Piano, Left Hand, op. 9, no. 2, composed in 1894 while Scriabin was recovering from a broken collar bone on his right side and could only play the piano with his left hand, is marked by a strong sense of melody, a richness of figuration, a clarity of form, and a traditional (but considerably extended) harmonic palette grown from his study of Chopin’s music.
Olivier Messiaen (Born December 10, 1908, Avignon; died April 28, 1992, Paris) Abîme des oiseaux from the Quatuor pour la fin du temps Composed: 1940 Other works from this period: Rondeau, I/24 (1943); Chant des déportés, I/60 (1945) Approximate duration: 9 minutes When World War II erupted across Europe in 1939, Messiaen, then organist at Trinity Cathedral, a teacher at the École Normale de Musique and the Schola Cantorum, and a composer of rapidly growing reputation, was called up for service but deemed unfit for military duty because of his poor eyesight. He was instead first assigned as a furniture mover at Sarreguemines and then as a hospital attendant at Sarralbe before ending up with a medical unit in Verdun. Here he met Henri Akoka, a clarinetist with the Strasbourg Radio Orchestra, and Étienne Pasquier, cellist in an internationally renowned string trio with his brothers, violinist Jean and violist Pierre. Inspired by the dawn birdsongs that marked the end of his night watch at Verdun, Messiaen composed the Abyss of the Birds for solo clarinet, but even before Akoka could try it out, the Germans invaded France in May 1940 and all three musicians were captured the following month and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp—Stalag VIIIA—at Görlitz, Silesia (now in Poland). At Stalag VIIIA, they met the violinist Jean Le Boulaire, who had graduated from the Paris Conservatoire but spent much of his life in military service (and who would become a successful actor under the name Jean Lanier after the war). It was for this unlikely ensemble that Messiaen composed his Quartet for the End of Time during his internment, incorporating the solo clarinet movement he had written for Akoka. Messiaen’s introduction to the score of the Quartet for the End of Time bespeaks the work’s interpenetration of cosmology, religion, and music as it reflects his visionary universe: “I saw a mighty angel descend from heaven, clad in mist; and a rainbow was upon his head. He set his right foot on the sea, his left foot on the earth, and standing thus on sea and earth, he lifted his hand to heaven and swore by Him who liveth for ever and ever, saying: There shall be time no longer; but on the day of the trumpet of the seventh angel, the mystery of God shall be finished.” Messiaen noted of the third movement, for solo clarinet, Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the Birds): “The abyss is Time, with its sadness and tediums. The birds are the opposite of Time; they are our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant outpourings of song! There
Igor Stravinsky (Born June 5/17, 1882, Oranienbaum [now Lomonosov], near St. Petersburg; died April 6, 1971, New York) Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet Composed: 1919 First performance: November 8, 1919, in Lausanne by Edmondo Allegra Other works from this period: Suite from L’histoire du soldat (1818– 1819); Pulcinella (1919–1920); Suite from The Firebird (1910) Approximate duration: 5 minutes With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Stravinsky settled full-time in Switzerland, near Lausanne, where he remained until moving back to France in 1920. With the strictures of performance imposed by the war, Stravinsky turned from the opulent ballets that had established his reputation in Paris during the preceding years and collaborated with the Swiss novelist and poet Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz on a vest-pocket theatrical entertainment for instrumental ensemble, narrator, and dancers based on a traditional Russian story titled The Soldier’s Tale. The costs of the venture were underwritten by the Winterthur industrialist and talented amateur clarinetist Werner Reinhart, and the work was given a successful premiere at the Théâtre Municipal in Lausanne on September 28, 1918. Reinhart continued his support of Stravinsky’s work the following year by funding a series of concerts of his recent chamber music (including a suite from The Soldier’s Tale arranged for violin, clarinet, and piano), which were given in Lausanne, Zurich, and Geneva. In appreciation, Stravinsky composed for the Lausanne program a set of Three Pieces for Clarinet, Reinhart’s instrument, and dedicated the score to him; Zurich clarinetist Edmondo Allegra played the premiere. Stravinsky told the English music critic Edwin Evans that the Three Pieces for Clarinet were inspired by “Characteristic Blues” by Sidney Bechet, the famous New Orleans clarinetist and soprano saxophonist who played with many of the leading early jazz artists and died in France in 1959. The opening number, slow, meditative, and pitched in the clarinet’s lowest register, was probably intended to be a blues, but its nearest musical kin seems rather to be the bardic, Slavic folk music–inspired bassoon solo that opens The Rite of Spring. The second movement, written without bar-lines, uses mercurial arpeggios sweeping across the instrument’s entire compass to frame a quiet central section. The closing piece is a Stravinskian tango.
Francis Poulenc (Born January 7, 1899, Paris; died January 30, 1963, Paris) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Composed: 1962
to the memory of Arthur Honegger; Goodman and Leonard Bernstein gave the premiere in New York on April 10, 1963, ten weeks after the composer’s death from a heart attack in Paris on January 30th. Keith W. Daniel noted that this composition and the sonatas for flute (1957) and oboe (1962) “rank among Poulenc’s most profound, accomplished works: they retain the early tunefulness, but the impertinent edge is replaced by serenity and self-confidence, deepened by the addition of a religious undertone.” Rather than the sonata structure often heard in the first movement of such works, the Clarinet Sonata opens with a three-part form in which a central section, at once benedictory and slightly exotic, is surrounded by a beginning and ending paragraph in quicker tempo. The second movement, marked “very sweetly and with melancholy,” is almost hymnal in its lyricism and quiet intensity. The finale is based on the progeny of a French music hall tune that is treated with good humor and sympathy rather than as a parody.
Robert Schumann (Born June 8, 1810, Saxony; died July 29, 1856, Endenich) Three Romances for Clarinet and Piano, op. 94 Composed: 1849 Other works from this period: Adagio and Allegro, op. 70 (1849); Symphony no. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 97, Rhenish (1850); Trio no. 1 in d minor, op. 63 (1847) Approximate duration: 12 minutes On May 3, 1849, insurrection broke out in Dresden. Richard Wagner was one of the leaders of the rebellion, but Schumann, though he admired Wagner the musician, was not about to join with Wagner the politician. Schumann fled to the country with his wife, Clara, and their oldest daughter. Such turmoil was difficult for Schumann, who not only suffered repeated bouts of melancholia during that time but was also grieving over the recent deaths of his brother Karl and his friend and champion Felix Mendelssohn. The rebellion was soon quelled, and Schumann was able to return to Dresden. He found the town full of Prussian soldiers (“Oh, shame! After shooting harmless citizens, now they demand food and drink,” he complained) but was quickly able to resume composing. His inspiration, temporarily checked by events, started to flow once again, and the closing months of 1849 were among his most productive. In addition to many piano works and choral compositions, he finished large parts of the Scenes from Goethe’s Faust as well as the lovely Romances for Clarinet and Piano. Schumann throughout his life had a superb ability to write beautiful melodies. This characteristic demonstrated itself in his earliest piano works and was confirmed by his many settings of German Romantic poems for voice, including the nine sets of Romanzen und Balladen he wrote for chorus. In the same vein of expressive lyricism, he composed Three Romances for Clarinet and Piano in December 1849. The romances, each of which is disposed in the simple, three-part form that he so favored for his smaller works, are imbued with the twilit tenderness and bittersweet nostalgia that mark the best of Schumann’s music.
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is a great contrast between the desolation of Time (the abyss) and the joy of the birdsongs (desire of the eternal light).”
Dedication: Arthur Honegger First performance: April 10, 1963, in New York, by Benny Goodman and Leonard Bernstein
Alban Berg
Other works from this period: Trois mouvements perpétuels (1962); Novelette sur un thème de Manuel de Falla (1959); Élégie for Horn (1957)
(Born February 9, 1885, Vienna; died December 24, 1935, Vienna)
Approximate duration: 13 minutes
First performance: October 17, 1919, in Vienna
Of Poulenc’s thirteen chamber works for various instrumental combinations, only three are exclusively for strings. The Clarinet Sonata, Poulenc’s last work except for the Sonata for Oboe and Piano, was composed in the summer of 1962 for Benny Goodman and is dedicated
Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, op. 5 Composed: 1913 Other works from this period: Piano Sonata, op. 1 (1907–1908); Four Songs, op. 2 (1909–1910) Approximate duration: 8 minutes
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Berg served his musical apprenticeship under Arnold Schoenberg from 1904 to 1910, and he mooted a large symphonic score, perhaps even something with voices, as his first major work after finishing his studies. His sketches had not gotten any farther than a few ideas for an opening movement, however, before he turned to making succinct settings for voice and orchestra of five aphoristic poems by his friend Peter Altenberg, which were directly influenced by Schoenberg’s Opus 11 and Opus 19 piano pieces (1908 and 1911) and Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra, op. 6 (1910), seminal creations in both their atonal harmonic language and their miniature scale. Schoenberg included two of the Altenberg Lieder, op. 4, in the concert of new music that he presented in Vienna on March 31, 1913, and Berg followed them with an instrumental sequel, the Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, op. 5, which he completed in June. Though the short durations of the Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano do not allow for the unfolding of any conventional formal patterns, the movements are unified by repeated references to a few melodic and harmonic interval cells, a technique that Schoenberg was to evolve into his system of serialism a decade later. The writing here is virtuosic not in the traditional sense but in the control and the range of techniques—from warmly expressive legato to flutter-tongue growls, echo tones, trills, and extreme registers—demanded of the clarinetist. Except for brief dramatic outbursts in the first and last movements, the Four Pieces are whisper-soft throughout, hardly more than echoes of a dream of music.
We’re excited to be back!
Returns to the South Bay & Peninsula on
Carl Maria von Weber (Born November 19, 1786, Eutin; died June 5, 1826, London) Grand Duo Concertante in E-flat Major, op. 48
104.9 FM
Composed: 1815–1816 First performance: February 10, 1817, in Dresden, by Johann Simon Hermstedt and the composer Other works from this period: Music for König Yngurd (1817); Overture and marches for Turandot (1818) Approximate duration: 22 minutes During a visit to Prague late in 1814, Weber met the clarinetist Johann Simon Hermstedt, whose brilliant playing had inspired four concertos and several chamber works from Louis Spohr. The virtuoso asked the visitor to compose a concerto for his instrument, and Weber went to work on the piece immediately, but he ended up with a duo for piano and clarinet rather than a full concerto. He finished the Grand Duo Concertante in Berlin the following November and performed it twice with Hermstedt when they met in Dresden in February 1817. Of the musical nature of the Grand Duo Concertante, Weber’s biographer John Warrack wrote, “This is not a sonata for clarinet with piano accompaniment but a full-scale concert work for two virtuosos.” The opening movement, Allegro con fuoco (Fast, with fire), is a large sonata form with a pleasing balance of themes and an ingenious development section. The Andante begins and ends with a somber melody in c minor whose poignant lyricism is indebted to Weber’s experience as an opera composer; the movement’s middle portion is marked by a certain chromatic peregrination. The Grand Duo closes with an expansive and delightfully showy rondo. —Richard Rodda
august 11, 2012 8:30 p.m. Following the August 11 performance of Concert Program VIII, please join Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han and Music@Menlo’s community of musicians and aspiring young artists for a dinner celebration of Music@Menlo’s tenth-anniversary season! Arrillaga Family Recreation Center 701 Laurel Street, Menlo Park Dinner tickets are $50
Reserve online at www.musicatmenlo.org or by calling 650-331-0202.
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carte blanche concert ii:
July 28
Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Minnespiel op. 101 no. 3: “Ich bin dein Baum, o Gärtner” (1849)
Saturday, July 28, 8:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Kelly Markgraf, baritone; Gilbert Kalish, piano
Program Overview
Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) Selected Songs
The husband-and-wife team of Sasha Cooke and Kelly Markgraf returns to Music@Menlo with a program exploring personal artistic choices. Singers have countless options in approaching repertoire, not only of composer but of poet and language, aesthetic and expression. How do artists make such choices? And why? Joined by pianist Gilbert Kalish, Cooke and Markgraf have assembled a program exploring the different elements that move us to make music. The program features the aching poetry of Heine and Whitman, the lyricism of Schumann, Brahms, and George Crumb, and songs that pay tribute to each singer’s heritage, from Edvard Grieg to Irving Berlin.
“Jeg elsker dig”; “En svane”; “Med en vandlilje” Kelly Markgraf, baritone; Gilbert Kalish, piano
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Selected Songs
“Sapphische Ode,” op. 94, no. 4 “Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen,” op. 32, no. 2
“Die Mainacht,” op. 43, no. 2 “Unbewegte, laue Luft,” op. 57, no. 8
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Gilbert Kalish, piano
Hugo Wolf (1860–1903) Liederstrauss (1878)
“Sie haben heut’ Abend Gesellschaft” “Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen” “Das ist ein Brausen und Heulen” “Aus meinen grossen Schmerzen”
“Mir träumte von einem Königskind” “Mein Liebchen, wir sassen beisammen” “Es blasen die blauen Husaren”
Kelly Markgraf, baritone; Gilbert Kalish, piano
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Kathleen G. Henschel with gratitude for her generous support.
Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) Cinq poèmes de Max Jacob, FP 59 (1931)
“Chanson bretonne”; “Berceuse”; “Cimetière”; “Souric et Mouric”; “La petite servante”
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Sasha Cooke and Kelly Markgraf with Gilbert Kalish
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Gilbert Kalish, piano
intermission
Ned Rorem (b. 1923) War Scenes (1969)
“A Night Battle” “A Specimen Case” “An Incident”
“Inauguration Ball” “The Real War Will Never Get in the Books”
Kelly Markgraf, baritone; Gilbert Kalish, piano
George Crumb (b. 1929) Three Early Songs (1947)
“Night”; “Wind Elegy”; “Let It Be Forgotten” Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Gilbert Kalish, piano
Jerome Kern (1885–1945) Selected Songs
“Make Believe”; “You Are Love”; “Why Do I Love You?” Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Kelly Markgraf, baritone; Gilbert Kalish, piano
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Program Notes: Sasha Cooke and Kelly Markgraf Along with the honor of receiving a Carte Blanche recital came the challenge of living up to the programmatic influence and incredible standard here. It should be no surprise then that about five or so ideas and truly “carte blanche” desires melded into this one program. At the start we couldn’t help but consider Menlo’s thematic plan for the summer and, in turn, why we as musicians come to music or more specifically how we as singers put together a vocal recital. Hoping to offer a mirror image, we decided to explore the music from a musician’s perspective. This perspective is particularly interesting among the phenomenal cast of instrumentalists at Menlo, as we often have different reasons for selecting repertoire and setting the pace. Chamber music here is just about as close to being an instrumentalist as a singer can get, and yet we embrace our roots and want to explore the immense landscape that the vocal repertoire offers. Inspirations can be deeply meaningful or seemingly random. Going from the rich chromatic world of Wolf’s Liederstrauss to the often intentionally simple Poulenc Max Jacob songs, you can’t help but witness how a song’s text plays a huge part. The variety is essential to both audience and performer. Just as with a dinner party, one wants to have a main course and a side dish or two, maybe a salad: we plan the evening for your consumption and don’t want you to leave feeling too heavy—not to mention that there is a vocal and emotional toll on our side. Undoubtedly, the poetry is our great privilege and responsibility as singers, and sometimes, as in the case of Kelly’s Wolf, it is even our reason for choosing the songs. Other influential facets include the simple fact that we are married! It’s not so often that we get to sing with each other so we figure that we should take advantage of the opportunity. This reason brought us to the beautiful wedding vow–esque Schumann and playful American duets. Our nuptial union and new family of three may have been the seeds that attracted us to the idea of performing music from the countries of our ancestors, another theme thrown into the mix. We also were compelled towards some repertoire knowing we’d be with our friend from last summer and incredible colleague Gil. It essentially meant we could do anything! The question was what might he love to do. In reflecting on our process, it seems that Menlo was the driving force. The almost salon-like culture of expressing ideas and sharing them so generously here awakened our many recital dreams—so we decided to embrace them all. SASHA AND KELLY: Schumann is very much a friend to the Menlo family and without a doubt one of the most towering figures of the vocal realm. It’s fitting then that he introduce us, not only as a very familiar mentor throughout our vocal studies but also for the welldocumented and legendary love of his spouse. The ballad “Ich bin dein Baum, o Gärtner” was written at a time in his marriage when Brahms was not yet in the picture and the couple had already had several children. One can hear the grounded, simple sincerity right at the start. The duet comes from his Minnespiel of 1849, a collection of eight Friedrich Rückert songs in solo and chamber settings. Psychologically speaking, Schumann was beginning to deteriorate at this point, dealing with depression and severe anxiety, among other things. Some critics have found these circumstances to be the reason behind the awkward and edgy musical writing of this period or that much of it, like this cycle, is rarely performed. Outside of Carmen or Don Giovanni, there aren’t many duets for baritone and mezzo-soprano, so we are grateful to Schumann for this beautiful and heartrending ode. KELLY: There’s nothing like having a child to pique your interest in your family history. This little being makes you ponder your own mortality, if for no other reason, simply because you know how greatly his or *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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her life would be affected if you were gone. It also makes me wonder whether she will be interested in her history—where her grandparents came from and what makes them who they are. I’ve tread an intriguing path while exploring my Norwegian heritage, discovering new names on faded records, reconnecting with estranged family members to hear hidden stories, and even driving blindly into the rolling hills of Wisconsin’s western farmlands to locate the ancestral farmstead. In the midst of this searching, I wondered why I hadn’t ever sung any songs by a Norwegian composer. Much like Scandinavian history in general, Norwegian musical history doesn’t exactly take a front seat in the course books. Who were the primary composers? What did they write? Edvard Grieg was a natural entry point, and I was thrilled to find a wealth of songs that are rich in both harmony and feeling. “Jeg elsker dig” is perhaps Grieg’s most famous song. Direct and charmingly simple, it has impassioned harmonies that show us a composer who knew powerful love. Nina Grieg, Edvard’s wife, was an acclaimed singer and interpreter of his songs, traveling through Europe and performing with her husband until the end of their lives. I like to imagine what this song would have been like for her to sing, knowing that her husband had composed it for her. Notably, both “En svane” and “Med en vandlilje” invoke the Nøkken character of Scandinavian folklore, a dangerous water troll that lures unwary travelers, only to pull them into the depths and drown them. In both pieces, Grieg manages to create concrete and compelling musical ideas out of Ibsen’s terse, symbolic poetry. SASHA: What words come to mind with the mention of Brahms? For me it is lyricism, melody, beauty, torment, and immense, long-awaited joy. Within the vocal world he has become known as one of the composers performed by the great voices or singers of the “golden era”—in addition to those singers who don’t feel entirely comfortable venturing too far into the recital realm or who mostly do opera. The reason lies in his vocal writing and the space and depth he provides for breath, support, and ideal vocalism. I particularly recall the voices of Christa Ludwig, Marilyn Horne, and Jessye Norman, to name a few. For this reason Brahms has always scared me! And I have avoided singing any of his vocal solos. So I wanted to finally face my fear at Menlo and take on the challenge. It not only is a matter of singing with grounded legato and good technique but also involves a fearlessness that comes into play in the live performance itself. That, I suppose, is the true test of technique for all musicians, but with Brahms it is incredibly apparent. What will happen with nerves, an audience, and whatever surprises that may occur? To give you a sense of the music, in the first song (1884), “Sapphische Ode,” Brahms envelops the listener in an even calm laid out to accompany the simple, strophic, and sinuous vocal line. The nocturnal quality of the syncopation in the piano works to underline Hans von Schmidt’s beautiful and evocative poetry. In number two (1864), “Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen,” Georg Friedrich Daumer’s depiction of the lover’s pained and almost obsessive longing is felt in the very first note, ominous and hesitant. This for me is more monolog than song. The third (1866), “Die Mainacht,” is truly Brahms at his best. It is one of his most famous lieder and the “tear” of Ludwig Holty’s poem has been known to beget more tears, all due to Brahms’s sense of timing, vocal registration, and rapturous harmony. Finally, in another Daumer setting of 1871, “Unbewegte, laue Luft” brings us from the depths of darker hues so innate in Brahms to an exultant and daring finish. KELLY: I first became intimately aware of the poetry of Heine in 2010, through my study of Schumann’s Dichterliebe. Heine’s words may not seem daring to our eyes and ears, but in his time they were shocking to the cultivated, literate world. This is a difficult thing for us to imagine in our oversaturated world, where we are constantly bombarded by
SASHA: Now for a bit of the absurd. Poulenc composed these lighthearted songs in 1931, only a few years after being introduced to Max Jacob, among many other fascinating poets and artists at a bookstore called Maison des Amis des Lettres in his hometown of Paris. (How amazing it must have been. If I could pick a time to have lived it would be then.) A follower of Satie’s simple musical canvases, Poulenc set out to do the opposite of Wagner and Debussy and create music embracing simplicity, irony, and even banality. As one of the group of Les Six, he often deliberately was obscure to maintain an air of mystery and, I’d like to think, to even leave some things unanswered for himself. In these songs you’re not sure whether you’re dealing with a child-like purity and innocence or a hidden truth behind it all. Regardless, the images conjure up emotions and sensations we all can relate to. This is my favorite aspect of music—its ability to connect us on a human level. As Jacob died in a concentration camp and believed up until the end that he would be saved, I can’t help but think of him during the third song, “La petite servante.” Throughout the group, you will hear the use of speech-like vocal writing, simple rhythms, easy melodies, and open and sometimes percussive accompaniment (with possibly as many rests as notes if that gives you an idea). Poulenc’s use of repetition and traces of popular tunes was likely derived from Parisian musical entertainment. All of this lends to the ultimate clarity and immediacy intrinsic to Poulenc’s songs. He always gives the sense that he doesn’t take himself too seriously, something we could all use. In the context of a recital, he is a wink and a breath of fresh air. Sometimes while singing Poulenc, I feel as if I’m sitting in a dark and smoky cafe with a piano playing in the background. Is there any wonder why his music is so much fun? KELLY: Whitman’s words have always resonated deeply with me. Native, lusty, gritty, and full of breath, his is an aesthetic replete with keen observances of life’s drab details and plain testimony of its barbarousness. It always struck me that here was a man who could encapsulate it all: the myriad experiences of a life fully lived. In 1969, American composer Ned Rorem scribed War Scenes, choosing not Whitman’s poetry but prose from his pastiche of Civil War journaling, Specimen Days. Stomach-twisting and touching, the essays lay bare the grimy horrors of the war, their lens focused intently on its human cost. Raised as a Quaker
and hence an ardent pacifist, Rorem dedicated the songs “To those who died in Vietnam, both sides, during the composition: 20–30 June 1969.” In his best settings, one has the sense that Rorem has a unique ability for composing without composing or sort of uncomposing a poem. Seldom, if ever, are words obscured for musical effect. Especially in the quieter settings, there is such reverence for the text that it is as if he is the architect of an invisible stage for the poetry. In War Scenes, Rorem’s gifts align perfectly with Whitman’s: the composer’s ability to stay out of the way allows the poet’s uncomplicated utterance to stand tall and be heard the way that Whitman—a great lover of music and opera—would have wanted. SASHA: For a long time George Crumb has been a favorite of mine. Last summer, in a moment of absolute splendor listening to Gil [Kalish] speak at Menlo, Patrick [Castillo] played these pieces and I was instantly won over. It certainly helped that Jan DeGaetani was his collaborator on the recording, a mezzo I’ve revered since I discovered her singing while I was in the music recording library at Rice University in 2000. When you’re a student or even at the beginning of your career, it’s certainly helpful to see experienced artists with whom you feel a kinship. Crumb wrote much of his music for Gil and DeGaetani (lucky me!). Unlike the aural world and performance aesthetic you might associate with him, these songs are much more tuneful and intimate. When I’ve played the songs for friends, they all say, “Oh that doesn’t even sound like Crumb!” To give you an idea, in the last Crumb song I performed, the pianist tapped on the piano’s lid for accompaniment. In all of his music, though, there is a magic and sense of the cosmos, a truly original soundscape. He wrote Three Early Songs in 1947 to the poetry of Robert Southey and Sara Teasdale. He dedicated the songs to his wife, Elizabeth Brown, who did the first reading. Interestingly enough, his daughter, Ann, was later asked to record them on Bridge Records, so in Crumb’s words, “it was something of a completion.” SASHA AND KELLY: How rare a treat to be able to sing love duets with the one you love and to share them with the Menlo family! It’s a tremendous joy to be able to perform together. Choosing duets to end a program naturally took on a romantic air, and we realized that one of our favorite shows, Show Boat, has a trio of charming duos. The show itself is a monument in the history of American musical theater, ushering in an entirely new genre: the musical play. The audience saw for the first time a show on Broadway that put a dramatically believable story in the front row; all else existed solely to serve the drama. In contrast to the trivial musical comedies prevalent during the 1920s, Show Boat daringly presented the segregated reality of a biracial society, even giving one of the pivotal roles and songs (“Ol’ Man River”) to a black stevedore. Kern’s music is part pure excitement, part passion, and part poignant desperation and, without fail, it is always memorably melodious. Show Boat opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre on December 27, 1927, and met with tremendous success, running a year and a half before closing. It has been revived numerous times, including in a 1994 production, which ran for 947 performances and was Broadway’s longest running Show Boat to date. Interestingly, Kelly is related to Charles Winninger, who created the role of Cap’n Andy in the original 1927 production and also starred in the 1936 Universal Studios film adaptation of the show. Thank you to David and Wu Han and the incredible Menlo family, which we’ve felt deeply honored to be a part of. Each year has brought new joys, and this summer particularly, we’re incredibly grateful to share this special program with you!
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carte blanche concerts
billboards and banner ads, television and the Internet—a world where words are no longer sacred. When one reads this poetry, one must conjure a time when the layperson might acquire only one or two new books per year; when lives maintained a proper privacy that we would be unfamiliar with; when books were practically the only in-home entertainment. What was on the page held great sway. In this landscape, Heine spoke of the unspoken in a way that stripped away all sense of poetic pretense, topical boundaries, or compositional conventions; he introduced tones of sarcasm, satire, and disillusionment into the otherwise flowery world of the literary values of Romanticism. Indeed, at one point in his career, several of his works were officially banned. The affinity that I developed for Heine led me to my discovery of Liederstrauss when the title of an album of Wolf songs (Lieder nach Heine und Lenau) caught my eye. Giving it a listen, I was immediately struck by Wolf’s twisted harmonic playfulness and sheer symbiosis with the text. Hugo Wolf (1860–1903) was known for his peculiar, difficult disposition and was prone to despondency and mood swings. It should be no surprise, then, that at the age of eighteen the young composer could identify with the Winterreise-like sentiments of Liederstrauss, and it is possible that he was inspired by the beginning of his not-fully-requited love for César Franck’s daughter, Vally. Interestingly, Heine and Wolf both suffered miserable ends: Heine was paralyzed from chronic lead poisoning and was confined to bed for the last eight years of his life, and Wolf slipped in and out of syphilitic insanity, eventually dying in an asylum after a failed attempt to drown himself. Liederstrauss is a cycle I had never heard of, and months later I am still wondering why. It is rarely performed, and it is my pleasure to present it here tonight.
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carte blanche concert iii:
carte blanche concerts
Juho Pohjonen
July 29 Sunday, July 29, 10:30 a.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School
Program Overview One of the most sought-after pianists of his generation, Juho Pohjonen returns to Music@Menlo to perform an ambitious solo recital that celebrates the fantastical elements of music. The program begins with Mozart’s Fantasy and Sonata in c minor, works known to have haunted Beethoven in the composition of his own mature sonatas. Scriabin’s fiendish Sonata Fantasy is followed by Beethoven’s dream-like Opus 27 Number 1 Sonata, Quasi una fantasia. The recital concludes with one of the seminal works of the late Romantic piano repertoire, Liszt’s Dante Sonata, inspired by Dante’s epic poem the Divine Comedy.
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Dr. Condoleezza Rice with gratitude for her generous support.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Fantasy in c minor, K. 475 (1785)
Adagio – Allegro – Andantino – Più allegro – Tempo primo
Piano Sonata no. 14 in c minor, K. 457 (1784) Molto allegro Adagio Allegro assai
Aleksandr Scriabin (1871–1915) Sonata no. 2 in g-sharp minor, op. 19, Sonata Fantasy (1892–1897) Andante Presto
Intermission
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Sonata in E-flat Major, op. 27, no. 1, Quasi una fantasia (1800–1801)
Andante – Allegro – Tempo I Allegro molto e vivace Adagio con espressione Allegro vivace – Adagio – Presto
Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Après une lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi sonata (1839, rev. 1849) Juho Pohjonen, piano
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Program Notes: Juho Pohjonen (Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg; died December 5, 1791, Vienna) Fantasy and Sonata in c minor, K. 457 and K. 475 Composed: 1784–1785 Other works from this period: Symphony no. 37 in G Major, K. 444 (1784); Piano Concerto no. 14 in E-flat Major, K. 449 (1784); Piano Concert no. 18 in B-flat Major, K. 456 (1784); String Quartet in B-flat Major, K. 458, The Hunt (1784) Approximate duration: 32 minutes Throughout Mozart’s career, there was an undercurrent in his works of a particularly probing sort of expression, one very different from the rococo charm and surface prettiness of the vast bulk of late eighteenthcentury music. As early as 1771, his overture to the oratorio La Betulia liberata (K. 118) was cast in a solemn minor mode. In 1773, when he was seventeen, the unexpected expressive elements that pierced the customary galanterie of his opera Lucio Silla so disturbed and puzzled Milanese audiences that his earlier popularity in Italy began to wane and he never returned to that country. Later that same year, he visited Vienna and learned of the new passionate, Romantic sensibility—the so-called Sturm und Drang (“storm and stress”)—which was then infusing the music of some of the best German and Austrian composers, including Joseph Haydn. When Mozart returned home to Salzburg in September, he wrote his stormy “little” g minor Symphony (K. 183). As Mozart reached his full maturity in the years after his arrival in Vienna in 1781, his most expressive manner of writing, whose chief evidences are minor modes, chromaticism, rich counterpoint, and thorough thematic development, appeared in his compositions with increasing frequency. Such musical speech had regularly been found in the slow movements of his piano concertos, but in 1785 he actually dared to compose an entire work (the Concerto no. 20 in d minor, K. 466) in a minor key. At that same time, perhaps the most productive period of his life (twelve of his last fourteen piano concertos were written between 1784 and 1786), Mozart created a series of three piano works cast in the tragic key of c minor—the Sonata, K. 457, completed on October 14, 1784; the Fantasy, K. 475, completed on May 20, 1785; and the Concerto no. 24, K. 491, completed in April 1786. The fantasy and sonata were published together in a single volume by Artaria in December 1785 with a dedication to Thérèse von Trattner, the composer’s twenty-three-year-old piano student who was the second wife of the sixty-four-year-old court printer and publisher Johann Thomas von Trattner. Mozart was close to the Trattners during that time, and he hired the ballroom of their palace in Vienna to present his Lenten concerts of 1784. He sent Frau von Trattner a series of letters concerning the proper execution of the Fantasy and Sonata in c minor, but these missives have unfortunately been lost (or destroyed—speculation has it that the letters may have referred to some delicate personal matters that associates and family of neither the lady nor the composer wished to have made public); Alfred Einstein said that if they ever turn up, the letters would be among “the most important documents of Mozart’s aesthetic practice.” Mozart’s tandem issuance of the c minor Fantasy and Sonata has led to the assumption that he intended them to be performed together. In The New Grove Dictionary, Stanley Sadie wrote, “The pairing implies that continuous performance was intended, with the formal orderliness of the sonata resolving the tensions of the impassioned and irregular fantasy, notable for its remote modulations and its unpredictable structure and textures.” The fantasy consists of five large structural paragraphs played continuously—a portentous opening Adagio that is *Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
brought back at the end to round out the work; an unsettled Allegro; a cautious Andantino; a tempestuous Più allegro; and the closing Adagio. Einstein believed that this tiny anthology of inchoate movements “gives us the truest picture of Mozart’s mighty powers of improvisation—his ability to indulge in the greatest freedom and boldness of imagination, the most extreme contrast of ideas, the most uninhibited variety of lyric and virtuoso elements, while yet preserving structural logic.” (Beethoven’s extraordinary Fantasy in g minor, op. 77, similarly opens a rare window onto that composer’s manner of improvisation.) The companion sonata is more formalistic in structure—a sonata-form opening Allegro, a slow-tempo rondo that comes close to being a set of free variations, and a quick closing movement—but shares the fantasy’s deeply felt emotions.
Aleksandr Scriabin (Born December 25, 1871, Moscow; died April 14, 1915, Moscow) Sonata no. 2 in g-sharp minor, op. 19, Sonata Fantasy Composed: 1892–1897 Other works from this period: Etude in d-sharp minor, op. 8, no. 12 (1894); Seven Preludes, op. 17 (1895–1896); Nine Mazurkas, op. 25 (1898–1899) Approximate duration: 12 minutes “The Muscovite seer”; “the Russian musical mystic”; “the clearest case of artistic egomania in the chronicles of music”: Aleksandr Scriabin was one of the most unusual of all composers. Living in the generation between Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, he showed an early talent for music and trod the accepted path of lessons, conservatory training, and teaching. His visions, however, refused to be channeled into the conventional forms of artistic expression, and he developed a style and a philosophy that were unique. Scriabin’s life was shaken by several significant changes around 1902, when he resigned from the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory to devote himself to composition and rumination and left his first wife to take up with another woman. From that time on, Scriabin bent his music ever more forcibly to expressing his dizzying world vision. He believed that humankind was approaching a final cataclysm, from which a nobler race would emerge, with he himself playing some exalted but ill-defined Messianic role in the new order. (He welcomed the beginning of World War I as the fulfillment of his prophecy.) For the transition through this apocalypse, Scriabin posited an enormous ritual that would purge humanity and make it fit for the millennium. He felt that he was divinely called to create this ritual, this “Mystery” as he called it, and he spent the last twelve years of his life concocting ideas for its realization. Scriabin’s mammoth “Mystery” was to be performed in a specially built temple in India (in which country he never set foot) and was to include music, mime, fragrance, light, sculpture, costume, etc., which were to represent the history of humanity from the dawn of time to the ultimate world convulsion. He even imagined a language of sighs and groans that would express feelings not translatable into mere words. He whipped all these fantasies together with a seething sexuality to create a vision of whirling emotional ferment quite unlike anything else in the history of music or any other art. In describing the Poem of Ecstasy to his friend Ivan Lipaev, he said, “When you listen to it, look straight into the eye of the sun!” Scriabin began sketching his Sonata no. 2 in 1892, around the time he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, but he did not complete it until five years later, after he returned to Russia from the tour that established his reputation in Europe. He noted the influence of the sea
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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on the work: “The first movement represents the quiet of a Southern night by the seashore; the development section is the dark agitations of the deep, deep sea. The E major section [recapitulation] shows caressing moonlight coming after the first darkness of night. The second movement (Presto) represents the vast expanse of the ocean stormily agitated.” The opening Andante follows sonata form, with a quietly ominous main theme in unsteady rhythms, a lyrical second subject, and a broad closing theme. A brief development section treats the first and second themes before a truncated recall of the opening subject begins the recapitulation. The two remaining themes are given in luminous settings to round out the movement. The Presto is in a free sonata form that takes a roiling melody as its main theme and a noble strain as its complementary subject. Wrote Scriabin’s early biographer A. Eaglefield Hull of the Sonata no. 2, “The composer has here thrown off the reflections of the musical giants who preceded him and has manifested the full individuality of his own brilliant personality.”
The E-flat Major Sonata, op. 27, no. 1, opens with an episode of child-like simplicity in moderate tempo that some later musicians (notably Hans von Bülow) thought unworthy of Beethoven; Sir Donald Tovey noted that the bass motive here moves “like a kitten in pursuit of its tail.” Beethoven knew very well what he was about, however, since the deliberate shifting of emotional and formal weight from the beginning to the end of the sonata requires just such a low level of tension as the platform upon which to build the successive movements. (The slow, dreamy music that begins the Moonlight Sonata accomplishes the same formal purpose in that work.) A sudden Allegro outburst erupts in the middle of the movement, but the calm of the opening soon returns. The second movement, which follows almost without pause, is an attenuated c minor scherzo whose haunted mood presages that of the scherzo of the Fifth Symphony. An abbreviated slow movement (Adagio con espressione) of great stillness and introspection leads by means of sweeping, cadenza-like figures to the brilliant finale, whose vibrant impetuosity is interrupted on the sonata’s penultimate page by a recall of the quiet music of the Adagio before the closing dash to the end.
Ludwig van Beethoven (Born Bonn, baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827, Vienna) Sonata no. 13 in E-flat Major, op. 27, no. 1, Quasi una fantasia
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Composed: 1800–1801 Other works from this period: Symphony no. 1 in C Major, op. 22 (1799–1800); Piano Concerto no. 3 in c minor, op. 37 (1800–1803); Septet in E-flat Major, op. 20 (1799–1800) Approximate duration: 15 minutes
Franz Liszt (Born October 22, 1811, Raiding; died July 31, 1886, Bayreuth) Après une lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi sonata Composed: 1839, rev. 1849 Other works from this period: Ballade no. 1 in D-flat Major (1845– 1849); Les préludes (1849–1855); Héroïde funèbre (1849–1850) Approximate duration: 16 minutes
The period of the two Opus 27 sonatas—1800–1801—was an important time in Beethoven’s personal and artistic development. He had achieved a success good enough to write to his old friend Franz Wegeler in Bonn, “My compositions bring me in a good deal, and may I say that I am offered more commissions than it is possible for me to carry out. Moreover, for every composition, I can count on six or seven publishers and even more, if I want them. People no longer come to an arrangement with me. I state my price, and they pay.” At the time of this gratifying recognition of his talent, however, the first signs of his fateful deafness appeared, and he began the titanic struggle that became one of the gravitational poles of his life. Within two years, driven from the social contact on which he had flourished by fear of the discovery of his malady, he penned his “Heiligenstadt Testament,” his cri de cœur against this wicked trick of the gods. These sonatas stand on the brink of that great crisis in Beethoven’s life. The Opus 27 Number 1 Sonata (the famous Moonlight Sonata is Opus 27 Number 2) was completed by the end of 1801 and published by the Viennese house of Cappi on March 3, 1802. The work was dedicated to Princess Josephine Sophie von Liechtenstein, née von Fürstenberg, wife of General Field Marshal Prince Joseph Johann von Liechtenstein; she was one of Beethoven’s pupils and one of his most important patrons at the time. The composer remained on friendly terms with her at least until 1805, when he asked her to assist his student Ferdinand Ries, who had been conscripted into the army and was about to leave Vienna penniless. In noting the experimental nature of the form of the Opus 27 sonatas, Beethoven specified that they were written “in the manner of a fantasy” (“quasi una fantasia”). The Classical model for the instrumental sonata comprised three independent movements: a fast movement in sonata form; an Adagio or Andante usually arranged as a set of variations or a three-part structure; and a closing rondo in galloping meter. In the Opus 27 sonatas, Beethoven altered the traditional fast-slow-fast sequence in favor of an innovative organization that shifts the expressive weight from the beginning to the end of the work, and he made the cumulative effect evident by instructing that the movements be played without pause.
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After a series of dazzling concerts in Paris in the spring of 1837, Liszt and his longtime mistress, Countess Marie d’Agoult, spent the summer with George Sand at her villa in Nohant before visiting their daughter, Blandine, in Switzerland and then descending upon Milan in September. As the birth of their second child approached, they retreated to Lake Como, where Cosima (later the wife of Hans von Bülow before she was stolen away by Richard Wagner) was born on Christmas Eve. They remained in Italy for the next year and a half, making extended visits for performances in Venice, Genoa, Milan, Florence, and Bologna before settling early in 1839 in Rome, where their third child, Daniel, was born on May 9th. Liszt’s guide to the artistic riches of the Eternal City was the famed painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, then Director of the French Academy at the Villa Medici; Liszt was particularly impressed with the works of Raphael and Michelangelo and the music of the Sistine Chapel. He took home as a souvenir of his Roman holiday the now-famous drawing that Ingres did of him and inscribed to Mme. d’Agoult. Liszt’s Italian travels were the inspiration for the series of seven luminous piano pieces that he composed between 1837 and 1849 and gathered together as Book II of his Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) for publication in 1858. Liszt and Marie were avid readers of Dante Alighieri, the patriarch of Italian literature, and while in Rome in 1839, Liszt was moved by the Inferno in the poet’s Divine Comedy to compose his Après une lecture de Dante (After a Reading of Dante). The work was thoroughly revised ten years later and included in Book II of the Années de pèlerinage. (The Divine Comedy inspired a full symphony from Liszt in 1855–1856.) Après une lecture de Dante, largely constructed from continuous transformations of the two principal themes—an ominous augmented fourth and an anxious chromatic descent—is a virtual tone poem for piano, a keyboard evocation of Dante’s weird and horrible visions. —Richard Rodda
carte blanche concert iv:
August 4 Saturday, August 4, 8:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Program Overview Throughout the history of Western music, composers have been drawn to the violin for its lyrical and expressive capabilities. Through this fascination, an unparalleled body of work has been amassed, and audiences have fallen in love time and again with the instrument’s rich oeuvre. In this special performance, Music@Menlo celebrates the violin’s history with performances of four diverse sonatas for violin and piano.
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Michael Jacobson and Trine Sorensen with gratitude for their generous support.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Sonata in D Major for Violin and Piano, op. 12, no. 1 (1797–1798) Allegro con brio Theme and variations: Andante con moto Rondo: Allegro Erin Keefe, violin; Wu Han, piano
Aaron Copland (1900–1990) Sonata for Violin and Piano (1942–1943) Andante semplice Lento Allegretto giusto
Jorja Fleezanis, violin; Gilbert Kalish, piano
Intermission
ˇ ek (1854–1928) Leoš Janác Violin Sonata (1914–1915) Con moto Ballada: Con moto Allegretto Adagio
Ian Swensen, violin; Hyeyeon Park, piano
Richard Strauss (1864–1949) Violin Sonata in E-flat Major, op. 18 (1887)
carte blanche concerts
Violin Celebration
Allegro ma non troppo Improvisation: Andante cantabile Finale: Andante – Allegro
Arnaud Sussmann, violin; Gloria Chien, piano
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Program Notes: Violin Celebration Ludwig van Beethoven
Aaron Copland
(Born Bonn, baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827, Vienna) Sonata in D Major for Violin and Piano, op. 12, no. 1
(Born November 14, 1900, Brooklyn, New York; died December 2, 1990, North Tarrytown, New York)
Composed: 1797–1798
Sonata for Violin and Piano
Dedication: Antonio Salieri
Composed: 1942–1943
Other works from this period: Serenade for Violin, Viola, and Cello, op. 8 (1797); Cello Sonatas nos. 1 and 2 (1797); Quintet for Piano and Winds, op. 16 (1797); Septet in E-flat Major, op. 20 (1799)
Dedication: Harry L. Dunham
Approximate duration: 19 minutes
Other works from this period: Rodeo (Four Dance Episodes) (1942); An Outdoor Adventure (1938); Lincoln Portrait (1942)
In November of 1792, the young Ludwig van Beethoven traveled to Vienna, Europe’s musical capital, to study with the composer Joseph Haydn. Unfortunately, to Beethoven’s dismay, Haydn’s busy schedule as Vienna’s preeminent composer precluded him from spending any thorough time tutoring Beethoven. After a year of frustration, Beethoven and Haydn parted ways, and Beethoven began studying with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Antonio Salieri, two of Vienna’s most noted compositional pedagogues at that time. During his studies, Beethoven began to establish his name within Vienna’s aristocratic circles, both as a composer and as a pianist. By 1797, Beethoven’s career was in full swing; having made a successful trip to Prague, he wrote to his brother: “I am well, very well. My art is winning me friends and respect, and what more do I want?” In 1797, Beethoven began composing his Opus 12 violin sonatas, works that demonstrate his full compositional maturity. Though the exact genesis of Beethoven’s First Violin Sonata is unknown, the impetus for its composition could lie in Beethoven’s close friendship with Karl Amenda, a violinist and student of theology who arrived in Vienna from Courland in 1798. Amenda was employed as a musical tutor to Prince Lobkowicz’s children, and he and Beethoven soon became inseparable. Beethoven biographer Maynard Solomon described Beethoven’s friendship with Amenda:
Approximate duration: 20 minutes
He quickly made Beethoven’s acquaintance and soon, and in the words of a contemporary document, “captured Beethoven’s heart.” They became such inseparable companions that when one was seen alone people would call out, “where is the other one?” Written between 1797 and 1798, Beethoven’s First Violin Sonata is a remarkable musical statement, different from the violin sonatas of Beethoven’s predecessors in that the two instruments are treated as equal partners. The Allegro con brio begins with a bold and stately passage, with the piano and violin in rhythmic unison, making way for a lyrical melody passed between the two voices. The movement proceeds through varying characters and developmental passages, demonstrating Beethoven’s remarkable ability to weave melodic material seamlessly through unconventional key areas, far removed from the home key of D major. The second movement is a traditional theme and variations with the theme in A major first presented in the piano. Interestingly and rather unconventionally, the first variation features the piano in the primary role with the violin accompanying it. The mood of the movement changes drastically in the third variation, where Beethoven introduces a stormy a minor variation, before the movement returns to the sweet buoyancy of its opening character. The final movement is a lively and playful rondo, full of subtle syncopation and offbeat sforzandos, hinting at the rhythmic complexity and rustic humor of Beethoven’s later works.
*Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
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First performance: January 17, 1944, with violinist Ruth Posselt and the composer on piano
In 1931, the composer Aaron Copland met a striking twenty-one-yearold Princeton undergraduate named Harry Dunham. Described by the composer David Diamond as “the most adorable, good-looking boy,” Dunham became a close friend of Copland’s, admiring him and his artistic circle in New York before going off to serve in World War II. By 1942, with the war ravaging the European continent and Japan and a whole generation of young men from the United States sent off to serve with the Allied Forces, a palpable sense of the unknown swept across America. Artists and the larger public were left to grasp with the uncertain reality of whether their friends, loved ones, and acquaintances that went to serve would ever return home. The realities of the war hit Aaron Copland hard when he learned the news in 1943 that Harry Dunham had been shot down over the South Pacific. Completing his Violin Sonata that year, Copland inscribed in the score this simple dedication: “To Lt. Harry Dunham (1910–1943), a friend of mine who lost his life while on duty in the South Pacific.” Upon the premiere of the piece in 1944, the composer Virgil Thomson wrote: “[This is] one of the author’s most satisfying pieces. It has a quality at once of calm elevation and of buoyancy that is characteristic of Copland and irresistibly touching.” The work is tinged with a bittersweet solemnity and tenderness that permeate each of the three movements. The Andante semplice begins with a slow piano introduction, evoking the spirit of a chorale and highlighted by Copland’s characteristic use of open fourths and fifths. The violin then enters with a simple tune, contrasting with the stoic chorale opening in the piano. A dialog between the piano and violin ensues with the spinning violin melody juxtaposed against the piano’s homorhythmic progression. The movement develops with the piano and violin voices in close dialog, leading to a stunning tripleforte climax, before a return of the opening material. The second movement, Lento, is a beautifully simple elegy and features a canon between three voices: violin, piano right hand, and piano left hand. Copland brings back thematic material from the first movement in the piano, highlighted by a gentle rocking gesture in the violin. The Allegretto giusto is a rhythmic tour de force, beginning with an extended violin riff. As the movement develops, jazz influences, so prevalent in the 1940s, can be heard throughout. The tenderness of the first movement’s opening returns near the conclusion of the piece, conjuring feelings of nostalgia and longing.
(Born July 3, 1854, Hukvaldy, Moravia; died August 12, 1928, Moravská Ostrava) Violin Sonata Composed: 1914–1915 Other works from this period: Perina (The Eiderdown) (1914); The Wolf’s Trail (1916); In the Mists (1912) Approximate duration: 18 minutes As with many artists of the time, Leoš Janácˇ ek was deeply affected by World War I. With the advent of new weapons and technology, the realities of war took on new meaning, leaving much of the European population to wrestle with the frightful atrocities that were happening around them. No country in Europe was immune from the war that was raging throughout the continent. Janácˇ ek, who spent most of his career in Moravia, held deep Russian and Serbian sympathies, perhaps owing to Moravia’s close historical ties as well as its close geographic proximity to both countries. A seminal moment in the conflict came on August 1, 1914, with Germany declaring war on Russia. Janácˇ ek, who had been working on a sketch of what would eventually become his Violin Sonata, inscribed this date in the manuscript of the work. Though Janácˇek composed the bulk of the Violin Sonata between 1914 and 1915, he tinkered with the piece until its premiere in 1922, leaving doubts about any overt connection between the piece and World War I. Janácˇ ek’s Violin Sonata is a relatively compact work highlighted by brief melodic motifs and abrupt changes in rhythm and tempo, hallmarks of the composer’s late style. The opening Con moto begins with a declamatory statement in the violin followed by a nervous and rhapsodic lyrical melody, spun over a trembling figure in the piano. The opening’s urgency is juxtaposed against sections of quiet repose. In the Ballada, Janácˇ ek takes the menacing sonorities of the first movement and transforms them into a warm, angelic melody in the violin, highlighted by the piano’s oscillating broken chords. The third movement, marked Allegretto, features the return of the first movement’s urgency, beginning with an insistent theme in the piano, played over a trill. The violin comments with a flourishing downward figure before the momentum stops with a series of bleak, punctuated chords. The movement continues with various fragmented hints at the thematic material from the two previous movements. The final Adagio movement opens with a series of ethereal piano chords, before being abruptly interrupted by an angry interjection from the violin. Both the violin and piano continue, each voice restlessly insisting on its own contrasting character, until they eventually merge together with a lyrical melody, reminiscent of the second movement. The movement ends mysteriously, suspended in quiet reflection.
Strauss experienced an intellectual awakening upon entering the University of Munich. There, he immersed himself in literature, art history, and philosophy, influences that would manifest themselves in many of his later works. Also around the time he entered the university, Strauss became acquainted with the influential German conductor Hans von Bülow. Bülow would serve as an important mentor figure for Strauss and would eventually give him his first opportunities to conduct. By 1888, Richard Strauss had firmly established himself as one of the most promising young musicians of his generation. Having returned to Munich to become a conductor with the Munich Hofoper two years earlier, Strauss began to familiarize himself with the symphonic poems of Franz Liszt. After a journey to Italy in 1887, the same year Strauss completed his Violin Sonata, he wrote his first large-scale symphonic fantasy, Aus Italien. The following year, he would compose his first symphonic tone poem, Don Juan. The Violin Sonata would prove to be the composer’s last substantial instrumental chamber music work before he fully delved into symphonic writing. Full of youthful energy, the Violin Sonata demonstrates the Classical influences of Strauss’s musical upbringing, in addition to foreshadowing the forward-looking and boundary-defying musical language that would become a hallmark of his later works. Throughout the sonata, the intricacies and interweaving of the violin and piano voices evoke symphonic textures. The first movement begins with a brief and heroic piano fanfare, answered quietly by the violin with a gentle melody. Out of these two contrasting ideas, Strauss builds a movement of tremendous variety, from virtuosic passages for both instruments to gorgeous lyrical melodies. The Improvisation, marked Andante cantabile, is a beautifully rendered song, emblematic of the lieder that Strauss wrote from an early age. It is possible that Strauss drew inspiration for this movement from a relationship he cultivated around this time with a young singer named Pauline de Ahna, who would eventually become his wife. The movement, in its tender lovingness, demonstrates Strauss’s ability to compose music of remarkable intimacy and subtlety. The final movement begins with an ominous piano introduction before launching into an energetic and heroic Allegro. The symphonic thrust of the music is highlighted by a series of virtuosic ascending sixteenth-note passages in both the violin and the piano. Elements of the extended melodies and lyricism of the first movement return, before the work closes with bristling and boundless energy. —Isaac Thompson
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ˇ ek Leoš Janác
Richard Strauss (Born June 11, 1864, Munich; died September 8, 1949, GarmischPartenkirchen) Violin Sonata in E-flat Major, op. 18 Composed: 1887 Other works from this period: Detailed in the notes below Approximate duration: 29 minutes Richard Strauss had a remarkably prolific musical career, both as a composer and as a conductor, spanning nearly eight decades. Primarily remembered as a composer of large-scale symphonic works, Strauss spent much of his early career composing music for solo piano and small chamber ensembles under the strict tutelage of his father, Franz Strauss, the Principal Horn Player in Munich’s Court Orchestra. Under his father’s watchful eye, Richard Strauss spent his childhood engrossed in the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. In 1882,
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carte blanche concert v:
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David Finckel and Wu Han
August 9
Richard Strauss (1864–1949) Cello Sonata in F Major, op. 6, TrV 115 (1881–1883)
Thursday, August 9, 8:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Allegro con brio Andante ma non troppo Finale: Allegro vivo
Program Overview
Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) Louange à l’éternité de Jésus from Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940–1941)
Music@Menlo’s 2012 Carte Blanche series concludes with a recital celebrating the breadth of the season’s theme: Resonance. The program begins with Strauss’s youthful and energetic Cello Sonata, juxtaposed against Olivier Messiaen’s deeply personal Praise to the Eternity of Jesus from his Quartet for the End of Time. Evoking places far and wide, the program continues with a solo piano work by Albéniz, as well as Glazunov’s Chant du ménestrel. The program is capped by the impassioned Cello Sonata by Fryderyk Chopin, his final work to be published.
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to the Martin Family Foundation with gratitude for its generous support.
David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano
Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) Selections from Suite española, op. 47 (1886–1887) Granada Cádiz Cataluña Wu Han, piano
INTERMission
Aleksandr Glazunov (1865–1936) Chant du ménestrel, op. 71 (1900) Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849) Cello Sonata in g minor, op. 65, B. 204 (1845–1846) Allegro moderato Scherzo: Allegro con brio Largo Finale: Allegro
David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano
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Program Notes: David Finckel and Wu Han Richard Strauss
Olivier Messiaen
(Born June 11, 1864, Munich; died September 8, 1949, GarmischPartenkirchen)
(Born December 10, 1908, Avignon; died April 28, 1992, Paris)
Cello Sonata in F Major, op. 6
Composed: 1940–1941
Composed: 1881–1883
Other works from this period: Rondeau (1943); Visions of the Amen (1943)
Other works from this period: Symphony no. 1 in d minor, op. 94 (1880); Horn Concerto no. 1 in E-flat Major, op. 11 (1882); Piano Quartet in c minor, op. 13 (1883) Approximate duration: 23 minutes Strauss was born in Munich on the 11th of June, 1864, the son of Franz Joseph Strauss, Principal Hornist in the Court Orchestra (Hoforchester), and Josephine Pschorr, whose family were prominent brewers in the Bavarian capital (a city still famous the world over for its beer). This lineage provided the young Richard with a background both musically and financially secure and, indeed, he showed great promise from an early age: he started piano at four (he could read musical notes before letters and words) and began composing at the age of six (lieder, piano pieces, and orchestral overtures). At the age of eight, Richard Strauss began violin studies and at eleven, theory, harmony, and instrumentation (of which he was to become an acknowledged master). His father encouraged him to listen to the music of the older masters, including Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, all of whose influences can be clearly heard in Strauss’s Cello Sonata, which he began to compose in 1881 at the age of seventeen. He revised the work extensively during the winter of 1882–1883, preserving only the introductory Allegro con brio, in which the cello is treated in a heroic style anticipating his tone poem of 1888, Don Juan. When the sonata was first performed in Berlin in 1884, he was congratulated on the opening lyrical theme by the legendary violinist and composer Joseph Joachim. The vitality and verve of the opening pervade the entire first movement, whose unified thematic structure shows the influence of Beethoven and Schumann. There is extensive dialog between the cello and piano, and an ingenious four-part fugue leads into the recapitulation. The second movement, with its pensive, dark-hued atmosphere and sensitive theme in “romanza” style, is clearly inspired by Mendelssohn—possibly by one of his “Songs without Words.” (Strauss also composed a Romance for Cello and Orchestra in the same year, 1883.) In the finale, Strauss draws inspiration from Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony and Wagner’s Parsifal (which he had heard in Bayreuth). In addition, the movement reveals some unmistakably Straussian characteristics, including a cadence that foreshadows his own Elektra, written fifteen years later. The F Major Cello Sonata was written for the Czech cellist Hanuš Wihan, who gave the first performance in Nuremberg on the 8th of December, 1883. (Twelve years later, Wihan was the dedicatee of Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto.) The Dresden premiere of the sonata took place two weeks later, with the cellist Ferdinand Böckmann and Strauss himself at the piano, after which the composer reported proudly to his mother, “My sonata pleased the audience greatly, and they applauded most enthusiastically. I was congratulated from all sides, and the cellist, Böckmann, reflected quite wonderfully in his playing how much he liked the work and plans to play it quite soon again in his concerts.” —Steven Paul
Approximate duration: 9 minutes In 1939, Messiaen was called to serve in World War II. In May of the following year, he was captured and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz. It was there that he completed the Quartet for the End of Time, one of only a handful of chamber works he composed and one of his most powerful and significant contributions to the repertoire in any medium. Although work on the quartet had begun well before Messiaen’s imprisonment, the piece nevertheless represents his catharsis from, in his own words, the “cruelty and horrors of camp.” Messiaen also suffered from synesthesia, a condition that caused him to see music and hear colors. The bleakness of Görlitz made him thirst for what he called “sound-colors,” which he attempted to capture in his music. The Quartet for the End of Time alludes to a passage from chapter ten of the Book of Revelations: And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow on his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire...Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land...and, standing on the sea and on the land, he raised his right hand toward Heaven and swore by He who lives forever and ever...saying: “There will be no more Time; but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.” Messiaen wrote in his preface to the score of the quartet, “When we are freed from before and after, when we enter into that other dimension of the beyond, thus participating a little in Eternity, then we shall understand the terrible simplicity of the angel’s words, and then indeed there shall be Time no longer.” Composer’s note on the movement: V. Praise to the Eternity of Jesus. Jesus is here considered as one with the Word. A long phrase, infinitely slow, by the cello, expiates with love and reverence on the everlastingness of the Word. Majestically the melody unfolds itself at a distance both intimate and awesome. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
carte blanche concerts
First performance: 1883, in Nuremberg
Louange à l’éternité de Jésus from Quatuor pour la fin du temps
—Patrick Castillo
Isaac Albéniz (Born May 29, 1860, Camprodón; died May 18, 1909, Cambo-les-Bains) Selections from Suite española, op. 47 Composed: 1886–1887 Other works from this period: Suite ancienne, op. 54 (1886); Piano Sonata no. 4 in G-flat Major, op. 82 (1888); Suite española no. 2, op. 97 (1889) Approximate duration: 5 minutes
*Bolded terms are defined in the glossary, which begins on page 107.
At an early age, Isaac Albéniz moved with his family from the remote northern Spanish city of Camprodón to the bustling metropolis of Bar-
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celona. Although Albéniz would eventually go on to study in Paris and Leipzig, his Catalonian upbringing in the warm landscape and culturally rich city of Barcelona would continue to have a lasting effect on his musical language. By 1885, Albéniz had settled in Madrid, where he immersed himself in the city’s cultural fabric. A pianist of prodigious talent, he performed extensively in the homes of wealthy patrons and on various concert series throughout the city. Albéniz quickly established himself as a consummate improviser, awing the public with his skill at turning simply rendered tunes into coloristic masterpieces. He wrote many of these improvisations down, producing a remarkable body of solo piano music in a short amount of time. Albéniz began composing movements of his Suite española in 1886, eventually compiling the works into a set in 1887. As with many of Albéniz’s compositions, the Suite española evokes specific locations throughout Spain. Granada, a peaceful and serene serenade, pays homage to the city and region in southern Spain. The movement features strumming, guitar-like chords, with a beautifully simple melody in the piano’s tenor register. Cádiz captures the essence of the port city by the same name on Spain’s western coast. Subtitled Canción, or Spanish song, the movement begins with a brief four-bar introduction before the primary melody is presented in octaves in the piano’s right hand. In the score, this theme is fittingly labeled cantando, or singing. Cataluña evokes the region where Albéniz spent much of his childhood. The movement is a Spanish-style courante written in a 6/8 meter, creating the duple-meter feel of a rustic country dance.
Aleksandr Glazunov (Born August 10, 1865, St. Petersburg; died March 21, 1936, Paris) Chant du ménestrel, op. 71 Composed: 1900 Other works from this period: Piano Sonata no. 1 in b-flat minor, op. 74 (1901); Symphony no. 7 in F Major, op. 77, Pastoral (1902); From the Middle Ages, op. 79 (1902) Approximate duration: 4 minutes Russian composer Aleksandr Glazunov composed his short, elegiac Chant du ménestrel in 1900, one year after being appointed Professor of Composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In the decade prior, Glazunov had completed three symphonies, two string quartets, and the immensely successful ballet Raymonda. The overwhelmingly positive response to Glazunov’s robust compositional output during that period had launched his career to new heights. The Chant du ménestrel, originally scored for solo cello and orchestra, contributed to Glazunov’s international acclaim, partially owing to the many performances of the work given by the young British cellist Beatrice Harrison, a classical music sensation at the time. The Chant du ménestrel, or Minstrel’s Song, evokes the image of a Russian troubadour, a traveling performer who wandered and freely sang his or her own original compositions. The piece begins with a short piano introduction before the cello enters with the plaintive and sorrowful theme. Throughout the work, the cello is scored primarily in the instrument’s tenor range, giving the melody a distinctively songlike feel. Though the majority of the melodic material is given to the cello, the piano offers wonderful dialog throughout, commenting on the cello’s rather improvisatory melodic musings. —Isaac Thompson
Fryderyk Chopin (Born March 1, 1810, Z˙ elazowa Wola, near Warsaw; died October 17, 1849, Paris) Sonata in g minor for Cello and Piano, op. 65
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Composed: 1845–1846 Other works from this period: Three Mazurkas, op. 63 (1845); Two Nocturnes, op. 62 (1846) Approximate duration: 26 minutes Chopin’s Cello Sonata represents an extraordinary effort on the part of a composer who, only a few years from the end of his life, determined to master a genre he had never before attempted. Only five chamber works by Chopin exist; three of them are for cello and piano. That the cello was Chopin’s favorite instrument after the piano is not in doubt for me! In poor health and the middle of an anguished breakup with George Sand, Chopin found it within himself to labor extensively on this work, making numerous sketches and revisions: “...with my cello sonata I am now contented, now discontented.” The result is a grand sonata on a scale with Chopin’s most serious and significant works. A big, virtuosic cello part is counterbalanced by masterful piano writing in which Chopin never compromises his unique style. All cellists owe a debt of gratitude to Auguste Franchomme (1808–1884), Chopin’s close friend during his later years, for whom the sonata was written. Allegro moderato A melancholy piano solo foreshadows a long and complex story. A fragment of the main theme is introduced, supported by rich and intense harmonies, and gives way to an impressionistic flourish. The cello, interrupting, states the theme in its entirety, and both instruments proceed together through melodic episodes, culminating in a heroic transformation of the theme. The excitement quickly dissipates to allow for the appearance of the second subject, beautifully still and thoughtful, only ten notes long. As if sacred, this theme is not further developed and is heard again only in its original form. Chopin continues rhapsodically, bringing in new melodies in both the cello and piano, until a spectacular climax is reached in which the two instruments play a rapid scale in opposite directions. The exposition is repeated, and the development is again introduced by a piano solo. A standard recapitulation is abandoned in favor of a sudden reappearance of the magical second subject. The movement concludes in an appropriately stormy fashion. Scherzo: Allegro con brio The second movement’s energetic theme uses repeated notes in rapid succession, giving it a hammering momentum, especially when played by the piano. This scherzo is almost quirky, alternating lyrical phrases with thunderous chords and virtuosic flourishes. In the cantabile trio, the cello is given the upper hand the whole way, spinning out a seamless melody over plangent harmonies reminiscent of a folk song. Largo The heart of the work is indeed the gorgeous Largo, as tranquil and brief as its neighbors are troubled and lengthy. Words cannot adequately describe this little gem, the only really extended peaceful experience in the sonata. Finale: Allegro The finale is again in a minor key, its main theme dramatic and complex. There is something of a martial air about the first and second subjects, which both utilize dotted rhythms. But seriousness soon turns to fun as the dotted rhythms, repeated over and over, are turned into a rollicking rollercoaster ride. The main theme then reappears, but Chopin has worked it into a canon, and a highly contrapuntal episode creates the development section. The second subject returns, curiously drained of its energy by the disappearance of the dotted rhythms. The rollercoaster leads us to an even faster coda, full of brilliant writing for both instruments. Chopin’s great work ends triumphantly, its penultimate chord somehow reminding us of the magnitude of the experience. —David Finckel
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Celebrating Ten Years of Music@Menlo Since its beginning, Music@Menlo has held the belief that classical music viewed through intelligent lenses has the power to transform and to bring people of diverse backgrounds together. Over the course of ten years, Music@Menlo has become a vital destination for artists, students, and music lovers of all ages. The following pages reflect on many of the festival’s defining moments, from memorable performances to seminal figures in the evolution of Music@Menlo. Though it is impossible to encapsulate the breadth of each season, these pages are a reminder of a remarkable decade of listening, learning, and discovery. Music@Menlo’s vision has become a reality only through the unwavering dedication and visionary generosity of the Music@Menlo community. Thank you for your continuing support and for joining us in this milestone season!
in the first ten years:
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Total annual attendance has exceeded 15,000 The $1.8 million annual budget supports more than 65 public events each year 250 Chamber Music Institute participants have been immersed in a rigorous exploration of chamber music under the tutelage of the Institute’s esteemed artist-faculty 171 artists have performed in the main-stage concerts and coached in the Chamber Music Institute 164 interns have gained real-world experience from the industry-leading Arts Administration Internship Program 55 CDs have been released on the Menlo@Menlo LIVE label Thousands of Menlo School students have enjoyed an enhanced educational experience through the annual Winter Residency Program
PHOTOS: 1) Stent Family Hall on the Menlo School campus (2006). 2) Michael Steinberg leading a poetry workshop with Young Performer Alex van der Veen. 3) International Program artists cellist Sunny Yang and pianist Liza Stepanova. 4) Violinist Ian Swensen. 5) David Finckel and Wu Han. 6) Institute students arriving on the campus of Menlo School.
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2002: The Pilot Festival At the invitation of Menlo School and with generous support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Music@Menlo was born Saturday, August 3, 2002. The single-day pilot event was designed as a microcosm of the full three-week version to come and included a workshop for young musicians, open master classes, a Young Listeners Concert, an AudioNotes CD, and a main-stage performance of a Haydn piano trio, the Ravel String Quartet, and Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Robert Winter lectured and coached, and the performers and teachers were the St. Lawrence String Quartet, clarinetist Anthony McGill, violinist Jorja Fleezanis, cellist David Finckel, and pianists Gilbert Kalish and Wu Han. Da-Hong Seetoo recorded the concert, beginning what would become a vital Music@Menlo tradition in the following years. “Haydn Punch,” made from Haydn’s own recipe, was served at intermission, and the performance was followed by a post-concert banquet on the serene grounds of Menlo School, concluding an eventful day with merriment to match the eager anticipation of the following summer.
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1) Production Manager Liisa Juola, Artistic Administrator Patrick Castillo, and David Finckel at work in the first office. 2) The first rehearsal, Haydn piano trio. 3) Menlo School’s marquee. 4) Robert Winter coaches young musicians. 5) Geoff Nuttall of the St. Lawrence String Quartet teaches the first master class in the Menlo School Commons. 6) Wu Han introducing the first Young Listeners Concert in the Middle School Commons. 7) Jorja Fleezanis, David Finckel, and Wu Han perform Haydn. 8) Wu Han welcomes audiences before the first Music@Menlo performance. 9) St. Lawrence String Quartet. 10) Norman Colb, Head of Menlo School, greets audience members. 11) Jorja Fleezanis, Gilbert Kalish, David Finckel, and Anthony McGill following their performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. 12) Music@Menlo’s first concert was met with an enthusiastic ovation.
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2003: The Inaugural Season – Innovation/Evolution: The Unfolding of Music
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From its inception, Music@Menlo has sought to foster the discovery of great music through world-class performances and learning opportunities for all listeners. The goal of the first full season was for audiences to easily grasp and enjoy the full spectrum of chamber music, from its earliest days to the present. A series of five main programs, beginning with a Baroque program of colorful variety and concluding with a concert of music by five living composers, laid a groundwork of understanding for festival participants. All of the value-added features of the pilot year—AudioNotes, workshops (the precursor to the Institute) and master classes, and concerts for families—became tradition, and the Encounter series and Prelude Performances were added. The festival offered concerts at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, in addition to venues at Menlo School, and achieved 98 percent of its venue capacity. Suzanne Field became the first Executive Director, the Board of Directors took shape, and the first season brochure was designed by Nick Stone. Robert Kelly was the first Music@Menlo Visual Artist, street banners went up along El Camino Real, Minnesota Public Radio (American Public Media) joined the festival as media partner, and the “Finckel” lights, which still illuminate Stent Family Hall and St. Mark’s, were invented by David in the basement of his New York apartment. The first Music@Menlo LIVE CDs, featuring concert recordings produced by Da-Hong Seetoo, were released, and photographer and videographer Tristan Cook documented his first festival. Michael Steinberg, Robert Winter, and Ara Guzelimian—stalwart figures in the educational offerings of the festival’s first ten years—each took part in the first Encounter series.
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1) Michael Steinberg, with Music@Menlo supporter Jennifer DeGolia, during Encounter IV. 2) 2003 Visual Artist Robert Kelly. 3) Wu Han welcomes festival audiences. 4) Jeffrey Kahane leads a coaching session with Institute students. 5) Michael Feldman, ArtistLed staff member, with Lilian Finckel in the festival offices. 6) Left to right: oboist Allan Vogel, harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper, and cellist Colin Carr rehearse Couperin’s Concert Royal no. 4, the first piece on Music@Menlo’s first official Concert Program. 7) David Finckel coaching young musicians. 8) Left to right: Michael Steinberg, Jorja Fleezanis, and Patrick Castillo during a panel discussion with Doug McLennan of ArtsJournal. 9) Left to right: violinists Geoff Nuttall and Barry Shiffman, violin soloist Philip Setzer, harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper, flutist Carol Wincenc, cellist David Finckel, violist Lesley Robertson, and bassist Charles Chandler rehearse Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 5.
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2004: The Second Season – Origin/Essence: A Musical Odyssey Exploring music from another perspective, participants at Music@Menlo’s second season took a journey through the five rich musical cultures of Italy, Vienna, France, Eastern Europe, and Russia. The festival grew to include the three programs for talented young musicians (the Explorers Program and the Young Performers and International Programs, which were originally called the Bay Area Program and National Program, respectively), Café Conversations, and the Carte Blanche Concerts, which launched with marathon performances of Bach’s Six Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard by violinist Ani Kavafian and harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper and Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello by Colin Carr. The festival presented many landmark works for the first time, among them Schubert’s Trout Quintet, Bartók’s Contrasts, Fauré’s Piano Quartet, Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, and vocal works by Verdi, Schubert, Poulenc, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninov. Darren Waterston was the festival’s Visual Artist-in-Residence.
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1) Violinist Ian Swensen, violist Cynthia Phelps, and cellists Ronald Thomas and Sumire Kudo perform Arensky’s Cello Quartet. 2) David Finckel, Michael Steinberg, and Wu Han. 3) David Finckel hanging a painting by 2004 Visual Artist Darren Waterston. 4) Cellist Colin Carr performing the Bach Cello Suites. 5) Left to right: violinist Jorja Fleezanis, pianist Gilbert Kalish, soprano Dina Kuznetsova, and cellist Ronald Thomas performing Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poems of Aleksandr Blok. 6) Wu Han with pianist Peter Asimov. 7) Left to right: cellist David Finckel, violinists Elmar Oliveira and Jorja Fleezanis, violist Geraldine Walther, cellist Sumire Kudo, and violist Cynthia Phelps, following the season’s final concert. 8) Encounter Leader Robert Winter. 9) Pianist Derek Han and clarinetist Anthony McGill. 10) President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Paul Brest with David Finckel, Wu Han, and Young Performers following a concert at the Hewlett Foundation. 11) Violinist Philip Setzer coaching Young Performers. 12) Executive Director Suzanne Field.
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2005: The Third Season – Beethoven: Center of Gravity
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Music@Menlo’s First Ten Years
Having vividly unveiled the landscape of chamber music during its first two seasons, Music@Menlo was ready to turn its lens towards a single innovative genius whose music places him firmly among the immortals: Ludwig van Beethoven. The festival’s most ambitious season so far presented a vast amount of music by Beethoven, including the complete cycle of string quartets, but just as importantly it demonstrated through inventive Concert Programs how Beethoven drew from traditions of the past and influenced composers after him. Beethoven was heard in the company of Bach, Mozart, and Haydn, as well as Ives, Schumann, Brahms, and Schubert. Two heroic pianists, Jeffrey Kahane and Gilbert Kalish, presented marathon Carte Blanche Concerts and many performers made festival debuts, including pianist Claude Frank and the Miró, Miami, and Emerson String Quartets, who tackled the Beethoven quartet cycle. Creative support came from the BeethovenHaus, Bonn, and from the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State. The Chamber Music Institute evolved into its current form, encompassing the Young Performers and International Programs. Caio Fonseca was the festival Visual Artist.
1) Ara Guzelimian leads an Encounter with David Finckel and Wu Han. 2) Wu Han, David Finckel, and Suzanne Field celebrate opening night. 3) Claude Frank teaching International Program pianist Teresa Yu. 4) Anthony McGill and the Miró Quartet perform Weber’s Clarinet Quintet. 5) International Program pianist Adam Golka. 6) Violist Geraldine Walther coaching International Program artists. 7) Derek Han leads a master class with Eunice Kim, violin. 8) Pianist Jeffrey Kahane presenting an analysis of the Goldberg Variations as part of his Carte Blanche Concert performance. 9) Music@Menlo volunteers (left to right) Lisa Marsh, Ray Walton, Jane Fowler Wyman, Jack Phillips, and Pat Blankenburg with David Finckel. 10) Recording engineer Da-Hong Seetoo in his studio at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. 11) Yujin Ariza, violin; Spencer Kim, cello; and Lilian Finckel, piano; perform at a Young Performers Concert. 12) Left to right: violinist Jorja Fleezanis, pianist Gilbert Kalish, and cellist Ralph Kirshbaum.
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2006: The Fourth Season – Returning to Mozart
Music@Menlo’s First Ten Years
In 2006, Music@Menlo marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a festival celebrating the redemptive qualities of his music. The ethereal paintings of 2006 Visual Artist Younhee Paik introduced a festival in which daring programming took a prominent role. Offering an unexpected program format, each concert began with music ranging from Schubert to Shostakovich to Messiaen that spoke in different ways to life’s adversities; each program concluded by “returning to Mozart,” thus answering the trials expressed beforehand with the singularly Mozartian message of solace, transcendence, and hope. The Carte Blanche Concerts featured a celebration of Mozart and the violin by Joseph Silverstein and Derek Han and a recital of Schubert’s final two piano sonatas by Claude Frank. The season also featured the debuts of fourteen artists, including Encounter Leader Bruce Adolphe, the Orion String Quartet, and violist Paul Neubauer.
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1) The Orion String Quartet. 2) David Finckel leading a master class with cellist Ella van Poucke and pianist Hilda Huang. 3) Violinist Joseph Silverstein and pianist Derek Han’s Carte Blanche Concert. 4) Music@Menlo board member Ann Bowers (second from right) with International Program students the Moët Trio, (left to right) pianist Michael Mizrahi, violinist Yuri Namkung, and cellist Yves Dharamraj. 5) Pianist Claude Frank performs at a Carte Blanche Concert. 6) Michael Steinberg and Claude Frank giving a post-concert discussion. 7) Open House Day, Q & A with the Artistic Directors, Artistic Administrator Patrick Castillo, and Encounter Leader Ara Guzelimian. 8) Students of the 2006 Chamber Music Institute in front of Stent Family Hall. 9) Prelude Performance by Bella Hristova, violin; Gloria Chien, piano; and Jacqueline Cho, cello. 10) Board member Hugh Martin with Artistic Codirector Wu Han. 11) Cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han. 12) Clarinetist Anthony McGill and cellist Colin Carr in the season finale performance of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time.
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2007: The Fifth Season – Bridging the Ages
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Music@Menlo’s fifth-anniversary season celebrated the common ideas which have produced great music over centuries. Each of the five programs united a wide range of composers, from Mendelssohn to Schnittke and Biber to Crumb, whose works shared identical inspirations. Musical highlights included the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio, Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals (presented as part of the festival’s first-ever concert at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church), Bach’s Sixth Brandenburg Concerto, Whispers of Mortality by composer and Encounter Leader Bruce Adolphe, and Brahms’s Piano Quartet in g minor, which closed the festival. Sixteen artists made festival debuts, including Gary Graffman, Erin Keefe, Jason Vieaux, Heidi Grant Murphy, and the Escher String Quartet. The festival featured the vibrant art of Bay Area artist Gustavo Ramos Rivera, the 2007 Visual Artist. Edward Sweeney succeeded Suzanne Field as Executive Director.
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1) Roberto Díaz and Masao Kawasaki, solo violas; Andrés Díaz, Ralph Kirshbaum, and David Finckel, cellos; and DaXun Zhang, bass. 2) Carol Wincenc, flute; William Bennett, oboe; Dennis Godburn, bassoon; William VerMeulen, French horn; and Carey Bell, clarinet; performing Barber’s Summer Music, op. 31. 3) David Finckel, outgoing Executive Director Suzanne Field, Wu Han, and newly named Executive Director Edward Sweeney at the opening-night celebration. 4) Violinist Jorja Fleezanis leads a master class with International Program artist Katie Hyun. 5) Encounter Leader Bruce Adolphe. 6) Young Performers Marisa Yang and Hilda Huang. 7) Violinists Erin Keefe and Philip Setzer with harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper. 8) Kenneth Cooper teaching Young Performer pianist Lilian Finckel. 9) Koret Young Performers Concert featuring violinist Alexi Kenney, pianist Nicolas van Poucke, and cellist Will Chow. 10) Violinists Ian Swensen and Joseph Swensen. 11) Boccherini’s Guitar Quartet no. 4 in D Major performed by guitarist Jason Vieaux and the Escher String Quartet with Marcella Prieto, castanets. 12) Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy singing Beethoven’s Scottish Songs, op. 108, with cellist Colin Carr.
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2008: The Sixth Season – The Unfolding of Music II
Music@Menlo’s First Ten Years
Fulfilling a commitment to reprise inspiring programming concepts, Music@Menlo presented its second chronological festival, which took everyone on a 358-year journey in sound. Each program, however, was a slight variation on its counterpart from the first festival, with the final contemporary concert featuring the festival’s first commission—a world premiere of Kenneth Frazelle’s Piano Trio—alongside two West Coast premieres and the Bay Area premiere of Tan Dun’s Elegy: Snow in June. A record number of composers were in attendance, and extraordinary Carte Blanche Concerts broke unprecedented repertoire ground with pianist Stephen Prutsman’s debut recital, “Bach and Forth”; Schubert’s two magnificent piano trios performed by Wu Han, Philip Setzer, and David Finckel; and the complete Bartók quartet cycle performed by the Borromeo String Quartet. Visual Artist Doug Glovaski demonstrated his unique painting skills at a special Café Conversation on Open House Day, and Music@Menlo launched its festival video project, featuring daily online videos of festival highlights by filmmaker and photographer Tristan Cook.
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1) Supporters of Music@Menlo’s first commission and world premiere Joan and Allan Fisch (front) with Wu Han, Edward Sweeney, David Finckel, Jeffrey Kahane, Kenneth Frazelle, and Joseph Swensen. 2) Board member Eff Martin with Patty Martin, Jorja Fleezanis, and Michael Steinberg. 3) Gary Graffman’s Carte Blanche Concert, “For the Left Hand.” 4) The Borromeo String Quartet’s marathon performance of Bartók’s complete quartet cycle. 5) Cellist Laurence Lesser leads a master class with cellist Ella van Poucke (front) and pianist Nicolas van Poucke. 6) Percussionist Christopher Froh and cellist Andrés Díaz performing Tan Dun’s Elegy: Snow in June. 7) Left to right: board member Paul Ginsburg with International Program cellist Dmitri Atapine and Marcia Ginsburg. 8) 2008 International Program participants cellist Dmitri Atapine, violinists Areta Zhulla and Grace Park, and cellist Sunny Yang. 9) Philip Setzer, Wu Han, and David Finckel performing the Schubert piano trios.
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2009: The Seventh Season – Being Mendelssohn Deeply inspired by the extraordinary life and work of the German Romantic master Felix Mendelssohn, Wu Han and David Finckel committed the entire seventh season to the study of his music and unparalleled example. Four Encounters, one of which included the festival debut of the world’s leading Mendelssohn scholar and biographer, R. Larry Todd, told Mendelssohn’s extraordinary story. Every program presented Mendelssohn’s works in fascinating contexts. His complete string quartets were performed by the Pacifica Quartet, making its Music@Menlo debut. The Pacifica also joined members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet for the composer’s Opus 18 String Quintet and his beloved Octet. The season concluded with Mendelssohn’s two piano trios, featuring the Music@Menlo debut of pianist Menahem Pressler. For the first time, live-streaming of select Café Conversations and master classes was available worldwide. Mendelssohn’s own paintings graced the brochure along with the art of the 2009 Visual Artist, German painter Theo Noll, who spent two weeks at the festival.
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1) Members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and Pacifica Quartet performing Mendelssohn’s String Quintet in A Major, op. 18. 2) Visual Artist Theo Noll gives a demonstration as part of the Open House Day festivities. 3) Violinist Arnaud Sussmann and pianist Wu Han. 4) The 2009 Arts Administration Program interns. 5) Pianist Menahem Pressler gives a master class with International Program artists. 6) Young Performers violinist Geraldine Chok and pianist Tristan Yang. 7) Students of the International Program performing Mendelssohn’s Octet. 8) Executive Director Edward Sweeney with board member Kathleen G. Henschel. 9) Violinist Eugene Drucker, pianist Menahem Pressler, and cellist David Finckel following their performance of Mendelssohn’s piano trios. 10) Menahem Pressler greets board member Michael Hunt and Joanie Banks-Hunt at a postconcert gathering.
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2010: The Eighth Season – Maps and Legends
Music@Menlo’s First Ten Years
In a reimagined model of the festival’s second season programming, Maps and Legends explored music from different places, times, and cultures, connecting composers and their work in illuminating and provocative ways. From an opening concert pairing Vivaldi with American innovator George Crumb to a multicultural sampling of Paris in the 1920s, listeners were treated to a lineup of distinctive programs unique to Menlo. The Encounter series was named after the late Michael Steinberg, who passed away in 2009, and the Carte Blanche Concerts immersed audiences in piano, cello, and vocal masterpieces and showcased the debuts of pianists Juho Pohjonen and Alessio Bax. The Listening Room series with festival Artistic Administrator Patrick Castillo began spontaneously, and the festival presented its first concerts at the newly constructed Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton. International Program alumna Gloria Chien succeeded Hasse Borup as Institute Director and aerial photographic artist Alex S. MacLean was the first photographer to be named Visual Artist. The inaugural Winter Series was also announced.
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1) The 2010 season-opening event at the new Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton. 2) Left to right: Gilbert Kalish, Christopher Froh, Ayano Kataoka, and Wu Han performing George Crumb’s Music for a Summer Evening. 3) Vivaldi’s Four Seasons: pianist Inon Barnatan, violinist Ani Kavafian, and cellist Joshua Gindele. 4) Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony no. 1, op. 9, performed by Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Lily Francis, violin; Todd Palmer, clarinet; Joshua Gindele, cello; and Gilbert Kalish, piano (not shown). 5) Guitarist Jason Vieaux and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. 6) The Amphion String Quartet, International Program artists. 7) Flown in to fill in at an unexpected Carte Blanche cancellation, pianist Juho Pohjonen made his festival debut with a program highlighting the theme-and-variations form. 8) Young Performers cello master class: (front to back) Ila Shon, Jonathan Swensen, Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz, Sarah Ghandour, and Johannes Gray. 9) Pianist Alessio Bax. 10) Pianist and Institute Director Gloria Chien coaching Eun Young Isabel Park. 11) Violinists Erin Keefe and Arnaud Sussmann, cellist Laurence Lesser, and violists Liz Freivogel and Beth Guterman perform Dvorˇák’s American Quintet. 12) Left to right: Michael Jacobson, board member Trine Sorensen, and David Finckel.
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2011: The Ninth Season – Through Brahms The music of Johannes Brahms is a worthy focus of any festival, and Music@Menlo immersed itself intensely in the work of a composer who, like Beethoven, united the music of his past, present, and future in immortal works that have never left the concert stage. The range of composers who influenced or were influenced by Brahms is staggering. Selections by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven were accompanied by those of Berg, Kirchner, Schoenberg, and Webern, and, of course, Brahms, whose music connected them all. Brahms’s complete string quartets were performed by the Orion String Quartet, and four Carte Blanche Concerts explored Brahms from fascinating additional perspectives and included festival debuts by violinist Daniel Hope and clarinetist David Shifrin. The Encounter series, exploring disparate facets of Brahms’s life, offered Music@Menlo debuts by two Encounter Leaders: Michael Parloff and founding festival Artistic Administrator and composer Patrick Castillo. John Morra became the festival’s first representational Visual Artist.
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1) Encounter Leader Patrick Castillo’s debut with Hyeyeon Park, piano, and Sean Lee, violin. 2) Pianist Alessio Bax signing CDs following a Carte Blanche Concert. 3) Koret Young Performers Concert: Kevin Zhu, violin; Anna Boonyanit, piano; and Jonathan Swensen, cello. 4) Gilbert Kalish, piano; Katherine Whyte, soprano; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Kelly Markgarf, baritone; and Paul Appleby, tenor. 5) The 2011 International Program participants. 6) Violist Paul Neubauer performing Gypsy-inspired works. 7) British violinist Daniel Hope’s festival debut. 8) Clarinetist David Shifrin’s festival debut with David Finckel and Wu Han. 9) Former International Program artist and member of the Institute faculty Sean Lee leads a coaching session with Kyoko Inagawa, violin. 10) The final program of 2011 featured Brahms’s String Quintet in G Major performed by (left to right) violinists Ani Kavafian and Philip Setzer, cellist Paul Watkins, and violists Yura Lee and Paul Neubauer, with audience members seated onstage.
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The Tenth-Anniversary Campaign:
We invite you to be a part of Music@Menlo’s future and its impact on the chamber music industry, its artists, and its audiences by making a special gift to Music@Menlo’s Tenth-Anniversary Campaign. Anniversaries are ideal occasions to step a bit outside the norm in order to better understand and appreciate where we have been—and where we may be headed. Beginning this year, Music@Menlo will invest significant new capital to lift the organization to the next level in all areas and to continue its unfaltering commitment to excellence—in education and programming, engagement and relationship building, and innovation—for the next ten years. Your gift will help ensure Music@Menlo’s position as a reliable and inspirational resource on the Peninsula for years to come. This summer, Music@Menlo will raise $3 million through the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign, which will enable strategic growth in the following inextricably linked areas: • Artistic and Professional Excellence • Education Initiatives • Media and Technology • Operating Reserve
Education Initiatives – extending and broadening the impact of the Chamber Music Institute, the Arts Administration Internship Program, and open-access educational programs. Initiatives may include adding a senior artist-mentor to the Institute faculty, extending recruitment of top-tier students and interns, offering expanded free online educational content, building a comprehensive music library, and adding professional networking opportunities for Institute alumni and administrative interns. Media and Technology Initiatives – leveraging technological advancements to expand audience engagement opportunities, online content, communications, and data management. Projects may include producing video features and interactive multimedia, expanding mobile content, better integrating online ticketing with other internal systems, and connecting with the public through digital media.
Artistic and Professional Excellence
Media and Technology
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Educational Operating Initiatives Reserve
Artistic and Professional Excellence – enabling Music@Menlo to take advantage of artistic opportunities as they arise, continue attracting the best artistic talent, and pilot new innovations. Projects may include exploring the creation of residency programs for emerging musicians, commissioning works of music and art, and creating incubators for artistic development.
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Commissions
Artistic Venture Fund
Education Initiatives
For more information about the campaign goals or about specially tailored acknowledgment opportunities, please see the patron services table, visit us online at www.musicatmenlo.org/giving/tenth-anniversary-campaign, or contact Annie Rohan, Development Director, at 650-330-2133 or annie@musicatmenlo.org.
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Thank You for Your Campaign Support! The achievement of the past ten years came to fruition through the brilliance and dedication of so many people. Now, we invite you to join the staff, the Board, and the community in building the future of Music@Menlo, and we acknowledge the generosity of the following individuals and organizations for leading this effort through their early support of the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign. (Gifts, grants, and pledges received as of June 25, 2012.)
$10,000–$99,999 Darren H. Bechtel Jim & Mical Brenzel Iris & Paul Brest Terri Bullock Karen & Rick DeGolia Sue & Bill Gould Libby & Craig Heimark Kathleen G. Henschel Leslie Hsu & Rick Lenon Michael J. Hunt & Joanie Banks-Hunt Hugh Martin Bill & Lee Perry In memory of Michael Steinberg Melanie & Ron Wilensky Marilyn & Boris Wolper $1,000–$9,999 Anonymous (2) Judy & Doug Adams Eileen & Joel Birnbaum Patrick Castillo David Finckel & Wu Han Betsy & David Fryberger Margy & Art Lim, in memory of Myrna Robinson, Don DeJongh, and Pat Blankenburg Mary Lorey Carol & Doug Melamed Nancy & DuBose Montgomery Linda & Stuart Nelson, in honor of David Finckel & Wu Han Bill & Paula Powar Laurose & Burton Richter Barry & Janet Robbins Annie E. Rohan Bill & Joan Silver Edward Sweeney & Kathy Hansen Vivian Sweeney Elizabeth Wright
$100–$999 Alan & Corinne Barkin Mark Berger & Candace DeLeo Malkah & Donald Carothers Leonard & Margaret Edwards Mike & Allyson Ely Maria & George Erdi Bruce & Marilyn Fogel Rose Green Jerome Guillen Erin L. Hurson Melissa Johnson Frank Mainzer & Lonnie Zwerin Peter & Liz Neumann Isaac Thompson Dr. George & Bay Westlake Bryant & Daphne Wong Ronald & Alice Wong
T h e T e n t h - A n n i v e r sa r y Campa i g n
Leadership Circle ($100,000+) Anonymous Ann S. Bowers Chandler B. & Oliver A. Evans Paul & Marcia Ginsburg Michael Jacobson & Trine Sorensen The Martin Family Foundation
Gifts under $100 Anonymous Kathleen & Dan Brenzel Constance Crawford David Fox & Kathy Wosika Sandra Gifford Andrew Goldstein Jennifer Hartzell & Donn R. Martin Margaret Harvey Ben Mathes Merla Murdock Joan Norton Rossannah & Alan Reeves Nancy & Norm Rossen Alice Smith Margaret Wunderlich The artistic directorship, the young artist fund, special artistic ventures, the coaching staff of the Chamber Music Institute, Prelude Performances, the visual artist, the Chamber Music Institute Music Library, and the instrumental chairs are also supported through generous gifts to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign. All gifts to the campaign will be acknowledged in the festival program books through 2016 and in Music@Menlo’s 2012 Annual Report. With a gift to the campaign of $10,000 or more, enjoy a private concert and dinner celebration in the fall of 2012.
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Chamber Music Institute david finckel and wu han, artistic directors
gloria chien, chamber music institute director gilbert kalish, international program director The Chamber Music Institute, which runs in tandem with the festival, embodies Music@Menlo’s strong commitment to nurturing the next generation of chamber musicians. Prelude Performances expand on the festival’s Concert Programs and offer audiences the opportunity to experience masterworks of the chamber music repertoire free of cost.
Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute welcomes forty exceptional young musicians, selected from an international pool of applicants, to work closely with an elite artist-faculty throughout the festival season. Festival audiences can witness the timeless art of musical interpretation being passed from today’s leading artists to the next generation of chamber musicians in various settings, including the festival’s master classes (see p. 81), Café Conversations (see p. 82), Prelude Performances, and Koret Young Performers Concerts, all of which are free and open to the public.
Prelude Performances are generously supported by Chandler B. and Oliver A. Evans through their gift to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign.
The Chamber Music Institute and its International Program and Young Performers Program participants are supported by the Ann S. Bowers Young Artist Fund, and the coaching faculty is generously supported by Paul and Marcia Ginsburg through their gift to the TenthAnniversary Campaign.
The Young Performers Program is a training program for gifted young musicians ages nine to eighteen. These extraordinary students work with a diverse faculty comprising festival artists and International Program alumni. Each week during the festival, student ensembles share their work with audiences through the Koret Young Performers Concerts (see p. 78), in which they introduce and perform great works of the chamber music literature for listeners of all ages.
International Program Music@Menlo’s distinguished training program serves conservatorylevel and young professional musicians ages eighteen to twenty-nine in the burgeoning stages of their careers. Following their participation in Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute, alumni of the International Program have gone on to perform in the world’s most prestigious venues, including Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York and London’s Wigmore Hall, and earn top prizes at the Naumburg Competition, Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and other important competitions. Laura Keller, violin Tessa Lark, violin Jennifer Liu, violin Dawn Dongeun Wohn, violin Eleanor Kendra James, viola Chieh-Fan Yiu, viola
Ana Kim, cello Peter Myers, cello Camden Shaw, cello Lindsay Garritson, piano Naomi Kudo, piano
The students of the International Program work daily with Music@Menlo’s esteemed artist-faculty and are featured in the festival’s Prelude Performances (see p. 70), which precede selected evening concerts.
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Young Performers Program
Berlin Chen, violin Matthew Hakkarainen, violin Da Eun Kim, violin Hayaka Komatsu, violin/viola Manami Mizumoto, violin Clara Neubauer, violin Oliver Neubauer, violin Sean Takada, violin Alex van der Veen, violin Albert Yamamoto, violin Alex Zhou, violin Clara Chan, viola Emily Liu, viola Rosemary Nelis, viola Elena Ariza, cello
Hannah Chen, cello Travis Chen, cello Alexander Chong, cello Sarah Ghandour, cello Irene Jeong, cello Anwen Lin, cello Emily Yoshimoto, cello Alex Chien, piano Sophia Lin, piano Yoko Rosenbaum, piano Koji Shiromoto, piano Agata Sorotokin, piano Vivian Wang, piano Tristan Yang, piano
The Chamber Music Institute’s Music Library is generously supported by Melanie and Ron Wilensky through their gift to the TenthAnniversary Campaign.
The Ann S. Bowers Young Artist Fund Through the support of the Ann S. Bowers Young Artist Fund, all eleven artists from Music@Menlo’s esteemed International Program (ages eighteen through twenty-nine) are able to participate in the Institute’s programs at no cost, with fully sponsored fellowships. Music@Menlo is also able to offer all Young Performers Program participants (ages nine through eighteen) a subsidized tuition. And, this season, through the generosity of the many contributors to the Young Artist Fund, all Young Performers Program participants who applied for merit scholarship or financial aid received partial or full assistance.
Contributors to this fund nourish the future of classical music by enabling Music@Menlo to offer an inspiring and rigorous learning environment coupled with a world-class roster of artist-faculty. Please consider becoming a vital part of this community by making a gift to the Ann S. Bowers Young Artist Fund or being a Full Sponsor with a gift of $12,500. Donors to the Young Artist Fund receive benefits at the corresponding membership levels. The greatest reward of supporting these young artists is knowing that you are making a meaningful difference in their lives.
We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals and organizations that have generously contributed to the Ann S. Bowers Young Artist Fund in 2012: Full Sponsors Ann S. Bowers The Jeffrey Dean & Heidi Hopper Family Joan & Allan Fisch Paul & Marcia Ginsburg Sue & Bill Gould Mary Lorey Marcia & Hap Wagner Melanie & Ron Wilensky
Contributors Anonymous The ACMP Foundation Bill & Marsha Adler Mickie & Gibson Anderson A. Augustin Agnes Babcock Elaine & Herb Berman John & Lu Bingham Susan Biniaz & Robert Harris Patricia Foster Lawrence & Leah Friedman Betsy & David Fryberger In memory of Suk Ki Hahn Carol & Mac MacCorkle Annie E. Rohan Laurie Spaeth Peggy & Art Stauffer In memory of Michael Steinberg
To learn more about sponsoring a young artist in the Chamber Music Institute, please contact Annie Rohan, Development Director, at 650-330-2133 or annie@musicatmenlo.org. Contributors to this fund play a crucial role in supporting Music@Menlo’s educational mission.
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Prelude Performances Prelude Performances free concerts performed by the international
performed by theofinternational program artists program artists the chamber music institute Prelude are generously supported HonoringPerformances the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for its by Chandler B. and Oliver A. Evans. leadership, vision, and dedication to the arts and educationx
July 20
July 21
Friday, July 20 5:30 p.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School
Saturday, July 21 6:00 p.m., Martin Family Hall, Menlo School
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) String Quartet in D Major, op. 64, no. 5, The Lark (1790)
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) String Quartet in D Major, op. 64, no. 5, The Lark (1790)
Dawn Dongeun Wohn, Laura Keller, violins; Chieh-Fan Yiu, viola; Peter Myers, cello
Dawn Dongeun Wohn, Laura Keller, violins; Chieh-Fan Yiu, viola; Peter Myers, cello
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Piano Trio in c minor, op. 1, no. 3 (1795)
ˇ ák (1841–1904) Antonín Dvor Piano Quartet no. 2 in E-flat Major, op. 87, B. 162 (1883)
Naomi Kudo, piano; Tessa Lark, violin; Ana Kim, cello
Lindsay Garritson, piano; Jennifer Liu, violin; Eleanor Kendra James, viola; Camden Shaw, cello
P r e l u d e pP e r f o r ma n c e s
Allegro moderato Adagio cantabile Minuetto: Allegretto Finale: Vivace
Allegro con brio Andante cantabile con variazioni Minuetto: Quasi allegro Finale: Prestissimo
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation with gratitude for its generous support.
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Allegro moderato Adagio cantabile Minuetto: Allegretto Finale: Vivace
Allegro con fuoco Lento Allegro moderato, grazioso Finale: Allegro ma non troppo
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to the Jeffrey Dean and Heidi Hopper Family with gratitude for its generous support.
July 24
July 25
Tuesday, July 24 6:00 p.m., Martin Family Hall, Menlo School
Wednesday, July 25 6:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Piano Trio in c minor, op. 1, no. 3 (1795)
Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–1975) String Quartet no. 8 in c minor, op. 110 (1960)
Allegro con brio Andante cantabile con variazioni Minuetto: Quasi allegro Finale: Prestissimo
Naomi Kudo, piano; Tessa Lark, violin; Ana Kim, cello
ˇ ák (1841–1904) Antonín Dvor Piano Quartet no. 2 in E-flat Major, op. 87, B. 162 (1883) Allegro con fuoco Lento Allegro moderato, grazioso Finale: Allegro ma non troppo
Lindsay Garritson, piano; Jennifer Liu, violin; Eleanor Kendra James, viola; Camden Shaw, cello
Largo Allegro molto Allegretto Largo Largo
Tessa Lark, Dawn Dongeun Wohn, violins; Eleanor Kendra James, viola; Ana Kim, cello
Dmitry Shostakovich Cello Sonata in d minor, op. 40 (1934) Allegro non troppo Allegro Largo Allegro
Peter Myers, cello; Lindsay Garritson, piano
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Michael J. Hunt and Joanie Banks-Hunt and also to Mr. Laurance R. Hoagland Jr. and Mrs. Grace M. Hoagland with gratitude for their generous support.
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Eileen and Joel Birnbaum with gratitude for their generous support.
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July 26
July 27
Thursday, July 26 5:30 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Friday, July 27 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–1975) String Quartet no. 8 in c minor, op. 110 (1960)
Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–1975) Cello Sonata in d minor, op. 40 (1934)
P r e l u d e p e r f o r ma n c e s
Largo Allegro molto Allegretto Largo Largo
Tessa Lark, Dawn Dongeun Wohn, violins; Eleanor Kendra James, viola; Ana Kim, cello
ErnÖ Dohnányi (1877–1960) Piano Quintet no. 2 in e-flat minor, op. 26 (1914) Allegro non troppo Intermezzo: Allegretto Moderato
Allegro non troppo Allegro Largo Allegro
Peter Myers, cello; Lindsay Garritson, piano
ErnÖ Dohnányi (1877–1960) Piano Quintet no. 2 in e-flat minor, op. 26 (1914) Allegro non troppo Intermezzo: Allegretto Moderato
Naomi Kudo, piano; Laura Keller, Jennifer Liu, violins; Chieh-Fan Yiu, viola; Camden Shaw, cello
Naomi Kudo, piano; Laura Keller, Jennifer Liu, violins; Chieh-Fan Yiu, viola; Camden Shaw, cello
SPECIAL THANKS SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Elizabeth Wright with gratitude for her generous support.
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Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Sue and Bill Gould with gratitude for their generous support.
July 29
August 1
Sunday, July 29 4:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Wednesday, August 1 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Piano Trio in D Major, op. 70, no. 1, Ghost Trio (1809)
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Piano Trio in a minor (1914)
Lindsay Garritson, piano; Laura Keller, violin; Ana Kim, cello
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) String Quintet no. 2 in B-flat Major, op. 87 (1845)
Allegro vivace Andante scherzando Adagio e lento Allegro molto vivace
Jennifer Liu, Tessa Lark, violins; Chieh-Fan Yiu, Eleanor Kendra James, violas; Peter Myers, cello
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to the memory of Michael Steinberg.
Modéré Pantoum (Assez vif) Passacaille (Très large) Final (Animé)
Naomi Kudo, piano; Dawn Dongeun Wohn, violin; Camden Shaw, cello
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) String Quintet no. 2 in B-flat Major, op. 87 (1845)
Allegro vivace Andante scherzando Adagio e lento Allegro molto vivace
Jennifer Liu, Tessa Lark, violins; Chieh-Fan Yiu, Eleanor Kendra James, violas; Peter Myers, cello
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Kathleen and Dan Brenzel with gratitude for their generous support.
www.musicatmenlo.org
P r e l u d e p e r f o r ma n c e s
Allegro vivace e con brio Largo assai ed espressivo Presto
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P r e l u d e p e r f o r ma n c e S e r i e s
August 2
August 4
Thursday, August 2 5:30 p.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School
Saturday, August 4 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Piano Trio in D Major, op. 70, no. 1, Ghost Trio (1809)
Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) Violin Sonata no. 1 in A Major, op. 13 (1875)
Allegro vivace e con brio Largo assai ed espressivo Presto
P r e l u d e p e r f o r ma n c e S
Lindsay Garritson, piano; Laura Keller, violin; Ana Kim, cello
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Piano Trio in a minor (1914) Modéré Pantoum (Assez vif) Passacaille (Très large) Final (Animé)
Allegro molto Andante Scherzo: Allegro vivo Allegro quasi presto
Tessa Lark, violin; Naomi Kudo, piano
ˇ ich Smetana (1824–1884) BedR Piano Trio in g minor, op. 15 (1855) Moderato assai Allegro ma non agitato Finale: Presto
Naomi Kudo, piano; Dawn Dongeun Wohn, violin; Camden Shaw, cello
Lindsay Garritson, piano; Jennifer Liu, violin; Ana Kim, cello
SPECIAL THANKS
SPECIAL THANKS
Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Vivian Sweeney with gratitude for her generous support.
Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Camilla and George Smith and also to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation with gratitude for their generous support.
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August 5
August 7
Sunday, August 5 4:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Tuesday, August 7 6:00 p.m., Martin Family Hall, Menlo School
ˇ ich Smetana (1824–1884) BedR Piano Trio in g minor, op. 15 (1855)
Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) Violin Sonata no. 1 in A Major, op. 13 (1875)
Lindsay Garritson, piano; Jennifer Liu, violin; Ana Kim, cello
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) String Sextet in G Major, op. 36 (1864)
Allegro non troppo Scherzo: Allegro non troppo Poco adagio Poco allegro
Dawn Dongeun Wohn, Laura Keller, violins; Eleanor Kendra James, Chieh-Fan Yiu, violas; Peter Myers, Camden Shaw, cellos
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Melanie and Ron Wilensky with gratitude for their generous support.
Allegro molto Andante Scherzo: Allegro vivo Allegro quasi presto
Tessa Lark, violin; Naomi Kudo, piano
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) String Sextet in G Major, op. 36 (1864)
Allegro non troppo Scherzo: Allegro non troppo Poco adagio Poco allegro
Dawn Dongeun Wohn, Laura Keller, violins; Eleanor Kendra James, Chieh-Fan Yiu, violas; Peter Myers, Camden Shaw, cellos
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Mary Lorey with gratitude for her generous support.
www.musicatmenlo.org
P r e l u d e p e r f o r ma n c e S
Moderato assai Allegro ma non agitato Finale: Presto
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August 8
August 9
Wednesday, August 8 5:30 p.m., Stent Family Hall, Menlo School
Thursday, August 9 6:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Piano Trio in E Major, K. 542 (1786)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Piano Quartet no. 1 in g minor, K. 478 (1785)
Lindsay Garritson, piano; Dawn Dongeun Wohn, violin; Camden Shaw, cello
Naomi Kudo, piano; Tessa Lark, violin; Chieh-Fan Yiu, viola; Peter Myers, cello
Béla Bartók (1881–1945) String Quartet no. 2 in A Major, op. 17, Sz. 67 (1914–1917)
Béla Bartók (1881–1945) String Quartet no. 2 in A Major, op. 17, Sz. 67 (1914–1917)
Laura Keller, Jennifer Liu, violins; Eleanor Kendra James, viola; Ana Kim, cello
Laura Keller, Jennifer Liu, violins; Eleanor Kendra James, viola; Ana Kim, cello
SPECIAL THANKS
SPECIAL THANKS
Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Hugh Martin with gratitude for his generous support.
Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Bill and Lee Perry with gratitude for their generous support.
P r e l u d e p e r f o r ma n c e S
Allegro Andante grazioso Finale: Allegro
Moderato Allegro molto capriccioso Lento
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Allegro Andante Rondo: Allegro moderato
Moderato Allegro molto capriccioso Lento
P r e l u d e p e r f o r ma n c e S e r i e s
August 10
August 11
Friday, August 10 6:00 p.m., Martin Family Hall, Menlo School
Saturday, August 11 4:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Piano Trio in E Major, K. 542 (1786)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Piano Trio in E Major, K. 542 (1786)
Lindsay Garritson, piano; Dawn Dongeun Wohn, violin; Camden Shaw, cello
Lindsay Garritson, piano; Dawn Dongeun Wohn, violin; Camden Shaw, cello
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet no. 1 in g minor, K. 478 (1785)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet no. 1 in g minor, K. 478 (1785)
Naomi Kudo, piano; Tessa Lark, violin; Chieh-Fan Yiu, viola; Peter Myers, cello
Naomi Kudo, piano; Tessa Lark, violin; Chieh-Fan Yiu, viola; Peter Myers, cello
Allegro Andante Rondo: Allegro moderato
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Darren H. Bechtel with gratitude for his generous support.
Allegro Andante grazioso Finale: Allegro
Allegro Andante Rondo: Allegro moderato
Béla Bartók (1881–1945) String Quartet no. 2 in A Major, op. 17, Sz. 67 (1914–1917) Moderato Allegro molto capriccioso Lento
Laura Keller, Jennifer Liu, violins; Eleanor Kendra James, viola; Ana Kim, cello
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Lindy Barocchi with gratitude for her generous support.
www.musicatmenlo.org
P r e l u d e p e r f o r ma n c e S
Allegro Andante grazioso Finale: Allegro
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Koret Young Performers Concerts
free concerts performed by the young performers program artists of the chamber music institute Young Performers Concerts are generously supported by Koret Foundation Funds.
July 28 Saturday, July 28 1:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Repertoire is not listed in program order.
koret young performers concerts
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) Piano Trio no. 1 in d minor, op. 49 (1839)
I. Molto allegro ed agitato
Tristan Yang, piano; Alex van der Veen, violin; Travis Chen, cello II. Andante con moto tranquillo III. Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace Alex Chien, piano; Matthew Hakkarainen, violin; Anwen Lin, cello IV. Finale: Allegro assai appassionato Vivian Wang, piano; Berlin Chen, violin; Alexander Chong, cello
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 493 (1787) I. Allegro
Koji Shiromoto, piano; Albert Yamamoto, violin; Clara Chan, viola; Hannah Chen, cello III. Allegretto Agata Sorotokin, piano; Oliver Neubauer, violin; Emily Liu, viola; Emily Yoshimoto, cello
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Claude Debussy (1862–1918) String Quartet in g minor, op. 10 (1894) I. Animé et très décidé
Manami Mizumoto, Hayaka Komatsu, violins; Rosemary Nelis, viola; Sarah Ghandour, cello
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Piano Trio in B-flat Major, op. 11 (1797) II. Adagio III. Tema con variazioni
Sophia Lin, piano; Alex Zhou, violin; Irene Jeong, cello
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Sonata for Cello and Piano in e minor, op. 38, no. 1 (1866) I. Allegro non troppo
Elena Ariza, cello; Yoko Rosenbaum, piano
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to David Finckel and Wu Han with gratitude for their generous support.
August 4 Saturday, August 4 1:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, op. 44 (1842) I. Allegro brillante
Vivian Wang, piano; Hayaka Komatsu, Matthew Hakkarainen, violins; Rosemary Nelis, viola; Alexander Chong, cello
Aleksandr Borodin (1833–1887) String Quartet no. 2 in D Major (1881) I. Allegro moderato
Oliver Neubauer, Sean Takada, violins; Emily Liu, viola; Irene Jeong, cello
ˇ ák (1841–1904) Antonín Dvor Piano Trio in g minor, op. 26 (1871) I. Allegro moderato
IV. Allegro ma non troppo Koji Shiromoto, piano; Manami Mizumoto, Alex van der Veen, violins; Clara Chan, viola; Hannah Chen, cello
ˇ ich Smetana (1824–1884) BedR Piano Trio in g minor, op. 15 (1855) I. Moderato assai
Agata Sorotokin, piano; Da Eun Kim, violin; Sarah Ghandour, cello
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Piano Trio in G Major, Hob. XV: 25, Gypsy (1795) III. Finale: Rondo all’ongarese: Presto
Sophia Lin, piano; Clara Neubauer, violin; Anwen Lin, cello
Tristan Yang, piano; Albert Yamamoto, violin; Elena Ariza, cello II. Allegro, ma non agitato Alex Chien, piano; Alex Zhou, violin; Emily Yoshimoto, cello III. Finale: Presto Yoko Rosenbaum, piano; Berlin Chen, violin; Travis Chen, cello
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to George Cogan and Fannie Allen and also to the City of Menlo Park with gratitude for their generous support.
www.musicatmenlo.org
koret young performers concerts
Repertoire is not listed in program order.
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August 11 Saturday, August 11 12:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Repertoire is not listed in program order.
koret young performers concerts
Louis Spohr (1784–1859) Double Quartet no. 1 in d minor, op. 65 (1823) I. Allegro
Henry Purcell (1659–1695) Nymphs and Shepherds When I Am Laid in Earth Irene Jeong, Emily Yoshimoto, Elena Ariza, Hannah Chen, cellos
Oliver Neubauer, Alex Zhou, Albert Yamamoto, Matthew Hakkarainen, violins; Clara Chan, Emily Liu, violas; Travis Chen, Anwen Lin, cellos
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Fugue from Two Choral Works
Jean-Marie Leclair (1697–1764) Sonata for Two Violins in e minor, op. 3, no. 5 (1730)
Hannah Chen, Elena Ariza, Emily Yoshimoto, Irene Jeong, cellos
I. Allegro ma poco
Sean Takada, Clara Neubauer, violins III. Presto Clara Neubauer, Sean Takada, violins
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Sonata in C Major for Piano, Four Hands, K. 521 (1787)
Edwin Finckel (1913–2001) Brief Encounter (1970) Elena Ariza, Irene Jeong, Emily Yoshimoto, Hannah Chen, cellos
Louis Couperin (1626–1661) Chaconne in g minor Emily Yoshimoto, Hannah Chen, Irene Jeong, Elena Ariza, cellos
Sophia Lin, Alex Chien, piano
Jacob Obrecht (1457–1505) Tsaat Een Meskin for Cello Quartet
Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) Homage to Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich for Piano, Six Hands (1979)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) Octet for Strings, op. 20 (1825)
I. Allegro
Agata Sorotokin, Yoko Rosenbaum, Tristan Yang, piano
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Lebensstürme for Piano, Four Hands (1828) Vivian Wang, Koji Shiromoto, piano
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Hannah Chen, Elena Ariza, Irene Jeong, Emily Yoshimoto, cellos
IV. Presto
Manami Mizumoto, Berlin Chen, Da Eun Kim, Alex van der Veen, violins; Hayaka Komatsu, Rosemary Nelis, violas; Sarah Ghandour, Alexander Chong, cellos
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo dedicates this performance to Jeehyun Kim with gratitude for her generous support.
Master Classes Free and open to the public, Music@Menlo’s master classes offer a unique opportunity to observe the interaction between mentors and students of the Chamber Music Institute. Music@Menlo unites the next generation of exceptional musicians with a renowned faculty of today’s most esteemed artists and educators. Join the young artists and faculty of the Chamber Music Institute as they exchange ideas, discuss interpretive approaches, and prepare masterworks of the chamber music literature for the concert stage. The Institute’s master classes and other select Institute activities give visitors the rare opportunity to deepen their appreciation for the nuanced process of preparing a piece of music for performance. All master classes are held at 11:45 a.m. in Martin Family Hall on the Menlo School campus and are free and open to the public. Monday, July 23, 11:45 a.m.
Pacifica Quartet Thursday, July 26, 11:45 a.m.
Jeffrey Kahane, pianist
Friday, August 3, 11:45 a.m.
Arnaud Sussmann, violinist Tuesday, August 7, 11:45 a.m.
Ani Kavafian, violinist Wednesday, August 8, 11:45 a.m.
Gilbert Kalish, pianist Thursday, August 9, 11:45 a.m.
Ian Swensen, violinist Friday, August 10, 11:45 a.m.
Wu Han, pianist Master class schedule subject to change. Please visit www.musicatmenlo.org during the festival for the latest information.
Friday, July 27, 11:45 a.m.
David Finckel, cellist Tuesday, July 31, 11:45 a.m.
Jorja Fleezanis, violinist Wednesday, August 1, 11:45 a.m.
Laurence Lesser, cellist www.musicatmenlo.org
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Café Conversations
Music@Menlo’s unique series of free and informal discussion events led by festival artists and distinguished guests offers audiences an engaging forum to explore a wide range of topics relating to music and culture. Since their inception, Café Conversations have explored a multitude of issues from the unique perspectives of the festival’s artistic community. Café Conversations allow audiences to gain insight into a fascinating array of music- and arts-related issues. All Café Conversations take place at 11:45 a.m. in Martin Family Hall on the campus of Menlo School and are free and open to the public.
Monday, July 30, 11:45 a.m.
The Harp Uncovered With Bridget Kibbey, harpist Thursday, August 2, 11:45 a.m.
The Lute Version of Bach’s Fifth Cello Suite With Laurence Lesser, cellist
Saturday, July 21, 11:45 a.m.
Musical Manuscripts throughout History With Ara Guzelimian, Encounter Leader, and David Finckel, Music@Menlo Artistic Codirector Tuesday, July 24, 11:45 a.m.
Poetry Reading Workshop With Jorja Fleezanis, violinist, Patrick Castillo, Artistic Administrator, and Isaac Thompson, Assistant Artistic Administrator Wednesday, July 25, 11:45 a.m.
The Art of the Voice With Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano, and Oliver Condy, Editor, BBC Music Magazine
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Monday, August 6, 11:45 a.m.
Musical Gems of the Internet With David Finckel, Music@Menlo Artistic Codirector Café Conversation topics and speakers subject to change. Please visit www.musicatmenlo.org during the festival for the latest information.
Listening Room
Music@Menlo’s informal series of free symposia explores audio and video recordings that complement the season’s concert offerings. Music@Menlo’s popular Listening Room series will return for its third season. Hosted by Encounter Leader and festival Artistic Administrator Patrick Castillo, the free afternoon series takes a journey through audio and video recordings of a variety of repertoire—including symphonic works, operatic arias, chamber music, and more—to present audiences with a context-rich understanding of the season’s concert offerings. Monday, July 23, 4:15 p.m. Martin Family Hall, Menlo School Monday, July 30, 4:15 p.m. Martin Family Hall, Menlo School Monday, August 6, 4:15 p.m. Martin Family Hall, Menlo School Schedule of events subject to change. For the latest information, please visit www.musicatmenlo.org.
www.musicatmenlo.org
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Open House Saturday, July 21 Join Music@Menlo for an exclusive one-day glance behind the curtain at the festival’s concerts, rehearsals, and Institute events, occurring on the grounds of Menlo School. (All events are free unless otherwise noted.) Open House Schedule of Events 8:30 a.m.
Q & A Coffee with the Artistic Directors Martin Family Hall, Menlo School Learn about the inner workings of the festival in an informal question-and-answer session with David Finckel and Wu Han, followed by a coffee reception. 9:15 a.m.–11:30 a.m.
Institute Coachings Menlo School Music@Menlo’s core teaching faculty and select artists coach the Institute’s young musicians in preparation for their upcoming performances. 9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m.
Open Rehearsal Martin Family Hall, Menlo School The Pacifica Quartet rehearses pieces from Concert Program II: Illuminated. 11:45 a.m.
afé Conversation: Musical Manuscripts C throughout History, with Ara Guzelimian and David Finckel Martin Family Hall, Menlo School
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2:45 p.m.–4:00 p.m.
Institute Coachings Menlo School Music@Menlo’s core teaching faculty and select artists coach the Institute’s young musicians in preparation for their upcoming performances. 3:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Open Rehearsal Stent Family Hall, Menlo School Clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gloria Chien rehearse selections from the first Carte Blanche Concert of the season. 6:00 p.m.
Prelude Performance Martin Family Hall, Menlo School The artists of the Chamber Music Institute’s International Program perform music by Haydn and Dvorˇák. 8:00 p.m.
Concert Program I: Sustained* Stent Family Hall, Menlo School *See page 13 for details. Tickets required; order at www.musicatmenlo.org or 650-331-0202.
2012 Visual Artist: Eric J. Heller Each season, Music@Menlo invites a distinguished visual artist to exhibit a selection of works at Menlo School throughout the festival and showcases the artist’s work in the festival’s publications. This year Music@Menlo is pleased to feature Eric J. Heller. Eric J. Heller (b. 1946) was born in Washington, D.C., and received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Minnesota and his Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University. A Harvard University faculty member since 1993, Heller was appointed the Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics in 2009. He has made theoretical contributions in quantum dynamics, spectroscopy, semiclassical approximations, and condensed-matter physics. He is perhaps best known for his work on the time-domain wavepacket approach to quantum dynamics and molecular spectroscopy and on the quantum mechanics of classically chaotic systems, where he discovered the phenomenon which he called scarring. As an artist, Heller specializes in large-format computer-generated images inspired by his research. The prints are characterized by highresolution detail and painterly effects and are typically printed by a
LightJet imager onto archival photographic paper. His work has been seen in museums and galleries and at ericjhellergallery.com. Heller now enjoys teaching a course on the physics of music and sound to nonscience majors at Harvard. He is finishing a full-color book, How You Hear What You Hear, to be published later in 2012 by Princeton University Press. The book is revolutionary in its head-on treatment of the genesis and perception of sound and its embrace of modern, hands-on sound production and analysis tools. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Eric Heller has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society, as well as a Sloan Fellow, a Humboldt Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. He has delivered many named lectures and has authored over 250 publications. Eric Heller’s work will be displayed on campus throughout the festival.
Caustic Sea, Caustics (2005)
One Bounce, Quantum Random Waves (2007) Rogue II, Rogue Waves (2005)
Music@Menlo’s Visual Artist is generously supported by Libby and Craig Heimark through their gift to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign.
www.musicatmenlo.org
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Music@Menlo chamber music festival and institute
Music@Menlo— There’s an App for That! Music@Menlo’s iPad and iPhone Apps (new for 2012) are available for free through iTunes. App users can access up-to-date festival news, view the summer calendar and program information, listen to AudioNotes, experience the festival through daily videos, and receive exclusive offers for discounted tickets and merchandise. Keep connected with Music@Menlo and enhance your festival experience!
DON’T MISS THE M A GIC 2012–13 SEASON
RIGOLETTO Giuseppe Verdi Sep 7–30 THE
CAPULETS MONTAGUES
AND THE
Vincenzo Bellini Sep 29–Oct 19
MOBY-DICK Jake Heggie
. Gene Scheer
Oct 10–Nov 2
LOHENGRIN Richard Wagner Oct 20–Nov 9
TOSCA Giacomo Puccini Nov 15–Dec 2
TALES OF HOFFMANN
THE
Jacques Offenbach June 5–July 6
COSÌ FAN TUTTE Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“This app is an indispensable tool for getting the most out of one of chamber music’s premier events.” (Five Stars) —Stradivari1737
June 9–July 1
RENÉE FLEMING STARS IN LUCREZIA BORGIA
GOSPEL OF MARY MAGDALENE THE
Mark Adamo June 19–July 7
Purchase Now! sfopera.com OPERA BOX OFFICE War Memorial Opera House Hours: Mon 10am–5pm, Tue–Sat 10am–6pm Photos: Joyce DiDonato/Sheila Rock; The Capulets and the Montagues/Christian Lieber; Moby-Dick/Karen Almond; Natalie Dessay/Ken Howard; Rigoletto/Terrence McCarthy
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•
(415) 864-3330
Download the FREE Music@Menlo App today from iTunes and enhance your festival experience!
www.musicatmenlo.org
“ Hours of world-class chamber music performed by top-ranked players and captured for posterity by a first-rate sound engineer.” —Strings Lesser, and Paul Watkins; clarinetists Carey Bell and David Shifrin; flutist Sooyun Kim; mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke; and others.
Recording Producer: Da-Hong Seetoo
Music@Menlo LIVE, the festival’s exclusive recording label, has been praised as “the most ambitious recording project of any classical music festival in the world” (San Jose Mercury News) and its recordings have been hailed as “without question the best CDs I have ever heard” (Positive Feedback Online). Produced by Grammy Award-winning engineer Da-Hong Seetoo using state-of-the-art recording technology, these unique boxed sets feature select concert recordings from all of Music@Menlo’s nine seasons and offer “hours of chamber music delight, recapturing all that Menlo magic” (Gramophone).
Six-time Grammy Award-winning recording producer Da-Hong Seetoo returns to Music@Menlo for a tenth consecutive season in 2012 to record the festival concerts. A Curtis Institute– and Juilliard School–trained violinist, Da-Hong Seetoo has emerged as one of a handful of elite audio engineers, using his own custom-designed microphones, monitor speakers, and computer software. His recent clients include the Borromeo, Escher, Emerson, Miró, and Tokyo String Quartets; the Beaux Arts Trio; pianists Daniel Barenboim, Yefim Bronfman, Derek Han, and Christopher O’Riley; violinist Gil Shaham; cellist Truls Mørk; the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under David Zinman; the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra (Taipei, Taiwan); the New York Philharmonic under Music Director Lorin Maazel; the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra (Columbus, Ohio); the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Carlos Miguel Prieto; the Singapore Symphony Orchestra; and David Finckel and Wu Han for the ArtistLed label. His recording with the Emerson String Quartet for Deutsche Grammophon, Intimate Letters, garnered the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.
NOW AVAILABLE IN DIGITAL FORMAT! Music@Menlo LIVE’s entire critically acclaimed catalog, which features extraordinary recordings of some of classical music’s most beloved works as well as numerous rarely recorded masterpieces, is now available online in digital format from a variety of online digital music retailers, including Classical Archives, iTunes, and Amazon.
Coming This Winter: 2012’s Resonance Watch for the 2012 festival recordings to be released this winter. Complete boxed sets and individual CDs from every Music@Menlo season can be purchased on our website at www.musicatmenlo.org—or downloaded from Classical Archives, iTunes, and Amazon.
Latest Release: 2011’s Through Brahms A set of seven CDs, Through Brahms commemorates Music@Menlo’s remarkable ninth season, which surveyed and illuminated the historical magnitude of the music of Johannes Brahms. This set explores centuries of great music through the lens of Brahms’s art, showcasing his works alongside those of composers from Bach and Mozart to Schoenberg and John Harbison. The recordings feature performances by a roster of the world’s finest chamber musicians including festival Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han, pianists Alessio Bax, Lucille Chung, Gilbert Kalish, Jon Kimura Parker, and Juho Pohjonen; violinists Yehonatan Berick, Jorja Fleezanis, Ani Kavafian, Cho-Liang Lin, Elmar Oliveira, Philip Setzer, Arnaud Sussmann, and Ian Swensen; violinist/violist Yura Lee; cellists Eric Kim, Laurence
Broadcast Partner: American Public Media This summer, Music@Menlo is proud to once again welcome American Public Media as the festival’s broadcast partner. Performances from the festival will air nationwide on American Public Media’s Performance Today®, the largest daily classical music program in the United States, which airs on 245 stations and reaches more than 1.2 million people each week, and via Classical 24®, a live classical music service broadcast on 250 stations reaching 2.7 million weekly listeners and distributed by Public Radio International. Hosts and producers from American Public Media also participate in the festival as event moderators and educators. Go online to www.americanpublicmedia.org for archived performances, photos, and interviews. American Public Media is the leading producer of classical music programming for public radio, including Performance Today®, SymphonyCast™, Saint Paul Sunday®, Pipedreams®, Composers Datebook®, and Classical 24®.
www.musicatmenlo.org
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winter series
Music@Menlo 2012–2013 Winter Series Music@Menlo’s Winter Series offers listeners the opportunity to experience the festival’s signature chamber music programming throughout the year, deepening the festival’s presence as one of the Bay Area’s leading cultural institutions. Following the success of the first two Winter Series seasons, the 2012– 2013 season will comprise three Sunday afternoon performances at the Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton, featuring a variety of repertoire performed by some of classical music’s most commanding performers. Become a Winter Series Subscriber and save $10 on the threeconcert series, plus get a 10 percent discount on Music@Menlo merchandise. Tickets for the 2012–2013 Winter Series are on sale now! Order today at www.musicatmenlo.org or 650-331-0202.
Sunday, September 30, 2012 Miró Quartet 4:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Tickets: $50/$45 adult; $25/$20 student Hailed as one of the most exciting chamber ensembles on the international music scene, the acclaimed Miró Quartet returns to Music@Menlo to usher in the 2012–2013 Winter Series. Its all-Beethoven program will feature the composer’s Opus 59 quartets, written for and dedicated to Count Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador in Vienna and an amateur violinist and music aficionado. These three quartets are essential works of the string quartet literature and demonstrate the maturity and ever-evolving complexity that defined Beethoven’s middle period. As musicologist Michael Steinberg wrote, “The Razumovsky quartets are to their genre what the Eroica had been to the symphony and the Waldstein to the piano sonata.”
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Sunday, May 12, 2013
Baroque Journeys: Michala Petri and Friends
Wu Han, Philip Setzer, and David Finckel
4:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Tickets: $50/$45 adult; $25/$20 student
4:00 p.m., The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Tickets: $50/$45 adult; $25/$20 student
Regarded as the foremost virtuoso of the recorder, Michala Petri joins forces with returning Music@Menlo artists cellist Christopher Costanza of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and oboist Allan Vogel, as well as harpsichordist John Gibbons, for a performance of rarely heard Baroque chamber music works for recorder and ensemble. Michala Petri, described by Fanfare magazine as an artist “who more than any other single player, has made the recorder into an instrument to be taken very, very seriously,” offers Menlo audiences a rare glimpse into this remarkable repertoire. The program features a diverse selection of music by Baroque masters, from Corelli and Vivaldi to Bach and Tartini.
To close the 2012–2013 Music@Menlo Winter Series, cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han will be joined by Emerson String Quartet violinist and Music@Menlo favorite Philip Setzer to perform a program of beloved works for piano trio. The program begins with the exuberant A Major Trio by Joseph Haydn, a composer who is regarded as one of the fathers of the genre. A magnum opus of the composer, Dvorˇák’s Dumky Trio evokes the emotionally complicated and brooding qualities of a Bohemian lament. Seamlessly incorporating elements of Classicism and Romanticism, Mendelssohn’s chamber music has become one of his most cherished genres for its refreshing clarity and exuberant pathos, as exhibited in his d minor Piano Trio.
www.musicatmenlo.org
winter series
Sunday, February 10, 2013
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2012 Artist and Faculty Biographies
Today, an annual festival held in Seoul, South Korea. In all of these capacities, as well as through a multitude of other education initiatives, they have achieved universal renown for their passionate commitment to nurturing the careers of countless young artists. For many years, the duo taught alongside the late Isaac Stern at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center. Recently, under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, David Finckel and Wu Han have established chamber music training workshops for young artists in Korea and Taiwan, intensive residency programs designed to bring student musicians into contact with an elite artist-faculty. They reside in New York with their eighteen-year-old daughter, Lilian. For more information, visit www.davidfinckelandwuhan.com. Wu Han will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27), Concert Program V (August 1), Carte Blanche Concert IV (August 4), Concert Program VII (August 5 and 7), Carte Blanche Concert V (August 9), and Concert Program VIII (August 10 and 11). David Finckel will be performing in Concert Program I (July 21 and 22), Concert Program V (August 1), Concert Program VII (August 5 and 7), and Carte Blanche Concert V (August 9). The Martin Family Artistic Directorship is generously supported through a gift to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign.
biographies
Artistic Directors The Martin Family Artistic Directorship Cellist DAVID FINCKEL and pianist WU HAN, the founding Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, rank among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. The talent, energy, imagination, and dedication they bring to their multifaceted endeavors as concert performers, recording artists, educators, artistic administrators, and cultural entrepreneurs go unmatched. Their duo performances have garnered superlatives from the press, the public, and presenters alike. In recognition of their wide-ranging musical activities, they were named Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year. In high demand year after year among chamber music audiences worldwide, the duo has appeared each season at the most prestigious venues and concert series across the United States, Mexico, Canada, the Far East, and Europe to unanimous critical acclaim. London’s Musical Opinion said of their Wigmore Hall debut: “They enthralled both myself and the audience with performances whose idiomatic command, technical mastery, and unsullied integrity of vision made me think right back to the days of Schnabel and Fournier, Solomon and Piatigorsky.” Beyond the duo’s recital activities, David Finckel also serves as cellist of the Grammy Award-winning Emerson String Quartet. In addition to their distinction as world-class performers, David Finckel and Wu Han have established a reputation for their dynamic and innovative approach to recording. In 1997, they launched ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company, which has served as a model for numerous independent labels. All fourteen ArtistLed recordings have been met with critical acclaim and are available via the company’s website at www.artistled.com. The duo’s repertoire spans virtually the entire literature for cello and piano, with an equal emphasis on the classics and the contemporaries. Its commitment to new music has brought commissioned works by many of today’s leading composers to audiences around the world. David Finckel and Wu Han have also overseen the establishment and design of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Studio Recordings label and the society’s recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, in addition to Music@Menlo LIVE, which has been praised as “the most ambitious recording project of any classical music festival in the world” (San Jose Mercury News). David Finckel and Wu Han have also served as Artistic Directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Chamber Music
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Dmitri Atapine has been described as “a splendid, elegant cellist” demonstrating “an astonishing showcase of virtuosity” and “effortless command of any stylistic device.” As a soloist and recitalist, he has appeared on some of the world’s foremost stages, including Zankel and Weill Halls at Carnegie Hall and the National Auditorium of Spain, to name a few. His frequent festival appearances include Music@Menlo, Cactus Pear, Banff, Great Mountains, and Miguel Bernal Jiménez, with performances broadcast on radio and television in North America, Europe, and Asia. Dmitri Atapine’s multiple awards include top prizes at the Carlos Prieto, the Florián de Ocampo, and the Llanes cello competitions, as well as the Plowman, the New England, and most recently the Vittorio Gui chamber competitions. His recordings can be found on the Naxos, Albany, Urtext Digital, and Bridge record labels. Born into a family of musicians, Atapine graduated from the Asturias Conservatory in Spain, studying with Alexander Fedortchenko. He went on to earn degrees from Michigan State University under the instruction of Suren Bagratuni and completed his education with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music, obtaining an Artist Diploma and a doctor of musical arts degree. Since 2007 he has served as the Artistic Director of the Ribadesella Chamber Music Festival in northern Spain. Currently Atapine is a professor of cello at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is the Artistic Director of the Argenta Concert Series. Dmitri Atapine will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29), Concert Program VII (August 5 and 7), and Concert Program VIII (August 10 and 11), and he is a faculty member of Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute Young Performers Program. Pianist Inon Barnatan has rapidly gained international recognition for engaging and communicative performances that pair insightful interpretation with impeccable technique. Described by London’s Evening Standard as “a true poet of the keyboard,” Barnatan performs a diverse range of repertoire, encompassing both classical and contemporary composers, and is thus equally valued as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Since moving to the United States in 2006, Barnatan has made his orchestral debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Houston, Philadelphia, and San Fran-
Inon Barnatan holds the Karen and Rick DeGolia Piano Chair for 2012. In 2010, violinist Benjamin Beilman captured First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize in the Montréal International Musical Competition, and the bronze medal in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. This season Beilman will be presented by YCA in recital debuts in New York, sponsored by the Peter Jay Sharp Prize and the Summis Auspiciis Prize, in Washington, D.C., and in Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. He will also debut with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Malaysian Philharmonic, and the Edmonton, Kansas City, and South Dakota symphonies, in addition to performing recitals with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Montréal Bach Festival, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. An avid chamber musician, Benjamin Beilman will join the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two next season. He has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, toured with Musicians from Marlboro, and appeared at Music from Angel Fire and the Verbier Festival. Beilman has been heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and From the Top, WQXR’s The McGraw-Hill Companies Young Artists Showcase, and Chicago WFMT’s Impromptu. He works with Ida Kavafian (YCA alumna) and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music and previously worked with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago. Benjamin Beilman will be performing in Concert Program I (July 21 and 22). Cellist Nicholas Canellakis has performed throughout Europe and the United States and has participated in the festivals of Santa Fe, Mecklenburg, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Moab, Verbier, Aspen, Music from Angel Fire, and Sarasota. Canellakis is a member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two, with which he frequently performs in Alice Tully Hall and on tour throughout the country. From 2008 to 2010, he was in residence at Carnegie Hall as a member of the Academy. A regular performer at Bargemusic in New York City, he has also concertized in Weill and Zankel Halls, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, and Disney Hall, among others. Nicholas Canellakis graduated from the Curtis Institute and New England Conservatory, studying with Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley, and Paul Katz. He is on the faculty of the Precollege Division of Manhattan School of Music and Hotchkiss Summer Portals. Nicholas Canellakis is a faculty member of Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute Young Performers Program.
Actor James Carpenter has been performing for over thirty years throughout the Bay Area. A former Associate Artist with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, he has performed in over thirty of its productions. His other Bay Area credits include Aurora Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Marin Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and TheatreWorks. This will be his eleventh year as an Associate Artist with California Shakespeare Theater. Regional credits include work at Yale Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, the Huntington Theatre Company, Intiman Theatre, the Old Globe, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. James Carpenter is the 2007 recipient of BATCC’s Barbara Bladen Porter Award for Continued Excellence in the Arts, and in 2010 he was named a LuntFontanne Fellow. His film and television credits include Nash Bridges, the films Metro and The Rainmaker, and the independent projects Singing, Presque Isle, and The Sunflower Boy. James Carpenter will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29). Patrick Castillo leads a multifaceted career as a composer, performer, writer, and educator. His music has been featured at festivals and venues throughout the United States and internationally, including Spoleto Festival USA, June in Buffalo, the Santa Fe New Music Festival, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Berklee College of Music, Tenri Cultural Institute, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Bavarian Academy of Music (Munich), and the Nuremberg Museum of Contemporary Art. Patrick Castillo is variously active as an explicator of music to a wide range of listeners. He has provided program notes for numerous concert series, most prolifically for Music@Menlo, where he has served as Artistic Administrator since 2003. In this role, he leads a variety of preconcert discussion events; designs outreach presentations as part of the annual Winter Residency program; and authors, narrates, and produces the festival’s AudioNotes series of preconcert listener guides. His writing credits also include New York City Opera’s musical introduction to Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’étoile, a live presentation for young listeners featuring full orchestra and soloists. Castillo has been a guest lecturer at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass (Kentucky), Fordham University, and String Theory at the Hunter (Chattanooga, Tennessee). In October 2010, Patrick Castillo was appointed Director of Artistic Planning by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, in which capacity he creates and implements a wide variety of artistic initiatives—including season programming, artist engagements, tours, and recording projects—and oversees the SPCO’s education programs. Patrick Castillo will lead Encounter IV (August 8).
biographies
cisco Symphony Orchestras and has performed in New York at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Alice Tully Hall. In 2009 he was awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, an honor reflecting the strong impression he has made on the American music scene in such a short period of time. An avid chamber musician, Inon Barnatan recently completed three seasons as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program. In 2008 he received the Andrew Wolf Memorial Award in Rockport, awarded every two years to an exceptional chamber music pianist. His rigorous U.S. festival schedule has included concerts at Spoleto Festival USA and the Aspen, Bridgehampton, Santa Fe, and Seattle Chamber Music Society music festivals, among others. Barnatan recently released his second solo recording, Darknesse Visible, featuring wide-ranging but thematically related pieces by composers from Ravel to Thomas Adès. Inon Barnatan will be performing in Concert Program VIII (August 10 and 11).
Gloria Chien has been named by the Boston Globe as one of the Superior Pianists of the Year, “…who appears to excel in everything.” Richard Dyer praises her for “a wondrously rich palette of colors, which she mixes with dashing bravado and with an uncanny precision of calibration…Chien’s performance had it all, and it was fabulous.” Chien made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist under the batons of Sergiu Comissiona, Keith Lockhart, and Thomas Dausgaard. She has given recitals in the United States, Europe, and Asia and has participated in such festivals as Music Academy of the West, Verbier, and Music@Menlo, where she was appointed Chamber Music Institute Director in 2010. An avid chamber musician, Gloria
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biographies
Chien has been selected to join the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two. Her recent performances include collaborations with the St. Lawrence, Miró, and Borromeo quartets, David Shifrin, Wu Han, Jaime Laredo, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, Cho-Liang Lin, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Paul Neubauer, Roberto Díaz, Andrés Díaz, Paul Katz, and Anthony McGill. She has recorded for Chandos Records. Gloria Chien is an Associate Professor at Lee University (Cleveland, Tennessee). She graduated from New England Conservatory, where she studied with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun. In the fall of 2009, Chien launched String Theory at the Hunter, a chamber music series in downtown Chattanooga, as its founder and Artistic Director. She is a Steinway Artist. Gloria Chien will be performing in Carte Blanche Concert I (July 22), Concert Program V (August 1), Carte Blanche Concert IV (August 4), and Concert Program VIII (August 10 and 11), and she is the Director of Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute. Percussionist Florian Conzetti performs as a soloist and chamber music collaborator. He has appeared at Music@Menlo, the Astoria Music Festival, Cascadia Composers Concerts, Cal Performances, and Stanford Lively Arts; performed with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, Alarm Will Sound, and the Meridian Arts Ensemble; and recorded solo and chamber music works for the Innova, Albany, and Music@Menlo LIVE labels. Conzetti is Artistic Codirector of Northwest New Music, a Portland-based contemporary chamber music ensemble he founded with former Colorado Quartet cellist Diane Chaplin. Critics write that Northwest New Music “sets a commendably high standard for chamber music” and called recent performances “spinetingling” and “revelatory.” Conzetti also pursues scholarly interests. His dissertation deals with the influence of Balinese gamelan on Western composers, studying the example of British composer James Wood, and he has given lectures at UC Berkeley, Stanford, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was formerly on the faculty of UC Berkeley and currently teaches percussion, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory at Portland State University and Linfield College. Florian Conzetti attended the Konservatorium für Musik in Bern, Switzerland, the Eastman School of Music, and the Peabody Conservatory, where he earned a doctor of musical arts degree, studying with musicologist John Spitzer and marimbist Robert van Sice. Florian Conzetti will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27). With a “voice of powerful sensual warmth” (New York Times), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns to Music@Menlo for her third summer. Exciting debuts of the past season included Harbison’s Fifth Symphony with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Orchestre National de Lyon, and works of Chausson and Mahler with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, as well as a tour with the Escher String Quartet. The 2011–2012 season found her singing Bach’s Magnificat with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, Debussy’s Le martyre de Saint Sébastien with the San Francisco Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth with the Houston and Kansas City Symphonies, Bernstein and Berlioz with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and holiday performances of Handel’s Messiah with Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall. A dedicated recitalist, Cooke received the Kennedy Center’s Marian Anderson Award in 2010 and gave recitals in Boston and New York this past spring. She was presented by Young Concert Artists in her widely acclaimed debuts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and at the Kennedy Center in 2008, as well as in concerts throughout
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the United States. She performs frequently with the New York Festival of Song. A former member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she was acclaimed for her portrayal of Kitty Oppenheimer in the Met’s premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. Next summer, Cooke returns to the West Coast in the world premiere of Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene at San Francisco Opera. Sasha Cooke will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27) and Carte Blanche Concert II (July 28). The Escher String Quartet (Adam Barnett-Hart and Wu Jie, violins; Pierre Lapointe, viola; and Dane Johansen, cello) has received acclaim for its individual sound and unique cohesiveness. The quartet has performed at prestigious venues and festivals across the United States, including Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, and Symphony Space in New York, Boston’s Gardner Museum, the Louvre in Paris, the Dallas Chamber Music Society, the Fortas Series at the Kennedy Center, the New Orleans Friends of Music, and the Orange County Performing Arts Center, as well as the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals and La Jolla SummerFest. The group has collaborated with such eminent artists as Andrés Díaz, Lawrence Dutton, Kurt Elling, Leon Fleisher, Lynn Harrell, Wu Han, Jeffrey Kahane, Joseph Kalichstein, Pepe Romero, pop folk singer-songwriter Luke Temple, David Shifrin, and Pinchas Zukerman. Within months of its inception in 2005, the Escher was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be Quartet-in-Residence at each artist’s summer festival. Currently one of the BBC’s prestigious New Generation Artists, the quartet recently completed its three-year residency as artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program. The Escher began the 2011–2012 season by performing at the opening-night concert of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the first of multiple concerts last season. International engagements included its Wigmore Hall debut as well as debuts on tour in Turkey and Australia. The ensemble takes its name from Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher and draws inspiration from the artist’s use of interplay between individual components that work together to form a whole. The Escher String Quartet will be performing in Encounter II (July 26) and Concert Program III (July 27). Additionally, Adam Barnett-Hart, Wu Jie, and Dane Johansen will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29) and Concert Program V (August 1). Pierre Lapointe will be performing in Concert Program V (August 1). Jorja Fleezanis has led a diverse career, serving as Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra for twenty years, Associate Concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony, a member of the Chicago Symphony, violinist of the Bay Area FOG Trio, and teacher/artist at the San Francisco Conservatory and University of Minnesota. Fleezanis now serves as Professor of Orchestral Studies and Violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. The Minnesota Orchestra commissioned two major solo works for Fleezanis, the John Adams Violin Concerto and Ikon of Eros by John Tavener, the latter of which was recorded on Reference Records. Her recording of the complete violin sonatas of Beethoven with the French fortepianist Cyril Huvé was released in 2003 on the Cyprès label. Other recordings include Aaron Jay Kernis’s Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky on CRI, commissioned for her by the Schubert Club of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Stefan
Jorja Fleezanis holds the Violin Chair in Honor of Philip Setzer for 2012. Spanish clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester is a soloist and chamber musician in great demand. He plays regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Camerata Pacifica, Chamber Music Northwest, the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire. Internationally he has performed at the Usedomer Musikfestival, the Verbier Festival, the Cartagena Festival Internacional de Música, and the Young Concert Artists Festival at Nexus Hall in Tokyo. As a concerto soloist, Franch-Ballester has appeared with numerous orchestras, including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and in Spain he performed with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Radio Televisión Española and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castellón. Winner of the 2004 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, he was awarded the Claire Tow Prize, which sponsored his New York debut, and the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize, which sponsored his Kennedy Center debut. In 2008, he received a coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 2010 he was awarded Cannes’s MIDEM/IAMA Prize for Outstanding Young Artist, which aims to introduce the as-yet-unsigned recording stars of the future to the classical music recording industry. He earned a bachelor of music degree in 2005 from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Donald Montanaro and Pamela Frank. Jose Franch-Ballester will be performing in Encounter II (July 26), Concert Program III (July 27), Concert Program V (August 1), and Concert Program VIII (August 10 and 11). Principally committed to influencing and expanding the repertoire for solo percussion through commissions and premieres, Christopher Froh is a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Empyrean Ensemble, and San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. He is known for energized performances that have been hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “tremendous” and by San Francisco Classical Voice as “mesmerizing,” and his solo appearances stretch from Rome to Tokyo to Istanbul. His critically acclaimed solo recordings can be heard on the Albany, Bridge, Equilibrium, and Innova labels. A frequent collaborator with leading composers from across the globe, Froh has premiered works by dozens of composers including John Adams, Chaya Czernowin, Liza Lim, David Lang, Keiko Abe, and François Paris. He frequently tours Japan with marimbist Mayumi Hama and with his former teacher, marimba pioneer Keiko Abe. Solo festival appearances include the Festival Nuovi Spazi Musicali, the Festival of New American Music, Pacific Rim, and Other Minds. Active in music for theater and dance, Froh has recorded scores for American Conservatory Theater, performed as a soloist with Berke-
ley Repertory Theatre, and composed original music for Oakland-based Dance Elixir. Equally committed to pedagogy, he mentors percussionists through UC Berkeley’s Young Musicians Program. He is a faculty member at UC Davis, where he directs the UCD Samba School and Percussion Group Davis. Christopher Froh will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27) and Concert Program IV (July 29). Bassoonist Marc Goldberg’s work as musician and educator has taken him throughout the country and around the world with a host of premier ensembles. A member of the renowned New York Woodwind Quintet and Principal Bassoonist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, he has previously held the positions of Associate Principal Bassoonist with the New York Philharmonic and Acting Principal Bassoonist with New York City Opera. A frequent guest of the Metropolitan Opera, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, he has toured with these ensembles across four continents and joined them on numerous recordings. Goldberg has also made guest principal bassoon appearances in Japan with Seiji Ozawa’s Tokyo Opera Nomori, the Saito Kinen Orchestra, and the Mito Chamber Orchestra and in Korea with Myung-Whun Chung and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Solo appearances include performances with the Brandenburg Ensemble at Boston’s Symphony Hall and New York’s Avery Fisher Hall and performances throughout the United States, in South America, and across the Pacific Rim with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, New York Chamber Soloists, and the New York Symphonic Ensemble. He has been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Da Camera Society of Houston, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Musicians from Marlboro, the Brentano String Quartet, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band, the Boston Chamber Music Society, and the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival. Marc Goldberg is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School, Mannes College, the Hartt School, Columbia University, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Marc Goldberg will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29) and Concert Program V (August 1).
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Wolpe’s Violin Sonata, with Garrick Ohlsson as her partner for Koch International. Her performance of the premiere of Nicholas Maw’s Sonata for Solo Violin, commissioned for her by Minnesota Public Radio, was broadcast on Public Radio International’s Saint Paul Sunday in 1998, and in 1999, she gave the British premiere at the Chester Summer Festival. In 1998, she was the violin soloist in the United States premiere of Britten’s recently discovered Double Concerto for Violin and Viola. Jorja Fleezanis will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27), Concert Program IV (July 29), Concert Program V (August 1), Concert Program VI (August 3), and Carte Blanche Concert IV (August 4).
Praised as “…extraordinary...” and “…a formidable clarinetist...” by the New York Times, Romie de Guise-Langlois has appeared as soloist with the Houston Symphony, Ensemble ACJW, the Yale Philharmonia, and the McGill University Symphony Orchestra, as well as at Music@Menlo and the Banff Centre for the Arts. She is a winner of the 2011 Astral Artists’ National Auditions and was awarded First Prize in the 2009 Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition, and she was additionally a First Prize winner of the Woolsey Hall Competition at Yale University, the McGill University Classical Concerto Competition, and the Canadian Music Competition. An avid chamber musician, de Guise-Langlois joins the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two in 2012. She has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and has appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia and Boston Chamber Music Societies, the 92 Street Y, and Chamber Music Northwest, among many others. She has performed as Principal Clarinetist for Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the New Haven and Stamford Symphony Orchestras and she is a member of the Knights Chamber Orchestra. A native of Montreal, Romie de Guise-Langlois earned her B.M. degree from McGill University and her
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M.M. and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music, where she studied under David Shifrin. De Guise-Langlois completed her fellowship at the Academy—a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute—and is now Adjunct Professor of Clarinet and Concert Artist at the Kean University Conservatory of Music. Romie de Guise-Langlois will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29).
biographies
Ara Guzelimian is Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School, where he oversees the faculty, curriculum, and artistic planning of the distinguished performing arts conservatory in all three of its divisions: dance, drama, and music. He previously served as Senior Director and Artistic Advisor of Carnegie Hall from 1998 to 2006. In the past he has served as Artistic Administrator of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Aspen Music Festival and School and as Artistic Director of the Ojai Festival. He is also an active lecturer, writer, and music critic. In recent years, he has given lectures at the invitation of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the National Cultural Center of Taiwan, and the Chicago Symphony. He is the editor of Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society, a collection of dialogs between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said. In 2003, Ara Guzelimian was awarded the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to French culture. Ara Guzelimian will lead Encounter I (July 20). Timothy Higgins was appointed to the position of Principal Trombonist of the San Francisco Symphony by Michael Tilson Thomas in 2008. He was previously the Acting Second Trombonist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Higgins has a music performance degree from Northwestern University and has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Music of the Baroque, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Washington National Opera, and the Baltimore Symphony. His principal teachers have been Michael Mulcahy (Chicago Symphony) and Michael Warny (Houston Grand Opera). He has participated in music festivals with the Round Top Festival Institute, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Music Center. In 2005, Timothy Higgins won the Robert Marsteller Solo Trombone Competition as well as the ITA Trombone Quartet Competition with the CT3 Trombone Quartet. In addition to his busy orchestra career, Higgins is an active arranger of music. He has arranged music for the CT3 Trombone Quartet, the National Brass Quintet, the Bay Brass, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Brass Ensemble. His arrangements have also been performed by the Washington Symphony Brass, the Chicago Symphony Brass Section, and the Northwestern University Brass Ensemble. As a teacher, Timothy Higgins has led master classes in Japan and the United States. He is currently on faculty at Northwestern University, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the Affinis Music Festival. Timothy Higgins will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29). Equally at home at the keyboard or on the podium, pianist Jeffrey Kahane has established an international reputation as a truly versatile artist. Appearing regularly in recital and as a guest soloist with major orchestras around the world, Kahane is equally well-known for his collaborations with artists and chamber ensembles such
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as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell, Thomas Quasthoff, and the Emerson String and Takács Quartets. Jeffrey Kahane made his conducting debut at the Oregon Bach Festival in 1988. Since then, he has guest conducted orchestras such as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Salzburg Camerata, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Hamburg, Baltimore, Dallas, and New World Symphonies. Currently in his fifteenth season as Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane concluded his tenure as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in June 2010 and was Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony for ten seasons. He is a native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. An avid linguist who reads widely in a number of ancient and modern languages, Kahane received a master’s degree in classics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011. Jeffrey Kahane resides in Santa Rosa with his wife, Martha, a clinical psychologist in private practice. They have two children: Gabriel, a composer, pianist, and singer/ songwriter, and Annie, a dancer and poet. Jeffrey Kahane will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27). Gilbert Kalish leads a musical life of unusual variety and breadth. His profound influence on the musical community as educator and as pianist has established him as a major figure in American music making. He was the pianist of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players for thirty years and was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a group devoted to new music that flourished during the 1960s and 1970s. He is a frequent guest artist with many of the world’s most distinguished chamber ensembles and is an Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His thirty-year partnership with the great mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani was universally recognized as one of the most remarkable artistic collaborations of our time. He maintains long-standing duos with cellists Timothy Eddy and Joel Krosnick, and he appears frequently with soprano Dawn Upshaw. As an educator, Gilbert Kalish is Distinguished Professor and Head of Performance Activities at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. From 1969 to 1997, he was a faculty member at the Tanglewood Music Center, serving as Chair of the Faculty from 1985 to 1997. In 1995, he was presented with the Paul Fromm Award by the University of Chicago Music Department for distinguished service to the music of our time. In January 2002, he was the recipient of Chamber Music America’s Service Award for his exceptional contributions in the field of chamber music, and, most recently, he was awarded the George Peabody Medal for outstanding contributions to music in the United States. Gilbert Kalish will be performing in Carte Blanche Concert II (July 28), Concert Program V (August 1), Carte Blanche Concert IV (August 4), and Concert Program VII (August 5 and 7), and he is the Director of Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute International Program. Gilbert Kalish holds the Kathleen G. Henschel Piano Chair in honor of Wu Han for 2012. Violinist Ani Kavafian enjoys a career as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. In December of 2009, she conducted workshops in Taiwan for talented young students alongside David Finckel, Wu Han, Leon Fleisher, and Arnold Steinhardt. She appears frequently with her sister, violinist Ida Kavafian; they recently celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of their Carnegie Hall debut as a duo with a concert dedicated to them and their students, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She has teamed with clarinetist David Shifrin and pianist André-Michel Schub to form
Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra, violinist Erin Keefe was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006. She was also the Grand Prize winner in the Valsesia Musica, Toru´n, Schadt, and Corpus Christi international violin competitions and was the silver medalist in the Carl Nielsen, Sendai, and Gyeongnam competitions. Keefe has appeared in recent seasons as soloist with orchestras such as the Minnesota Orchestra, the New Mexico Symphony, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Korean Symphony Orchestra, the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, the Sendai Philharmonic, and the Göttingen Symphony and has given recitals throughout the United States, Austria, Italy, Germany, Korea, Poland, Japan, and Denmark. She has collaborated with artists such as the Emerson String Quartet, Roberto and Andrés Díaz, Edgar Meyer, Gary Hoffman, Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler, and Leon Fleisher, and she has recorded for Naxos, Onyx, the CMS Studio Recordings label, and Deutsche Grammophon. Keefe has made festival appearances with Music@Menlo, the Marlboro Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, Ravinia, and the Seattle, OK Mozart, Mimir, Bravo! Vail Valley, Music in the Vineyards, and Bridgehampton chamber music festivals. She performs regularly with the Brooklyn and Boston Chamber Music Societies and is an Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Erin Keefe earned a master of music degree from the Juilliard School and a bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute. Her teachers included Ronald Copes, Ida Kavafian, Arnold Steinhardt, and Philip Setzer. She plays on a Nicolò Gagliano violin from 1732. Erin Keefe will be performing in Concert Program V (August 1), Concert Program VI (August 3), and Carte Blanche Concert IV (August 4). Harpist Bridget Kibbey is an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and a winner of the Concert Artists Guild’s 2007 International Competition and Astral Artists Auditions. Her performances have been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today, New York’s WQXR, WNYC’s Soundcheck, and A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts. She can be heard on Deutsche Grammophon with Dawn Upshaw on Berio’s Folk Songs and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre. Her debut album, Love Is Come Again, was named one of 2007’s Top Ten Releases by Time Out New York. As hailed by the New York Times, harpist Bridget Kibbey “…made it seem as though her instrument had been waiting all its life to explode with the gorgeous colors and energetic figures she was getting from it.” She is frequently featured with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is the founding harpist of the International Contemporary
Ensemble and Metropolis Ensemble. This season’s highlights include opening night at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and multiple appearances in Alice Tully Hall showcasing French works with harp; appearances at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Boston’s Gardner Museum, and Chicago’s Music Now series and concerto appearances with the Modesto Symphony and the Illinois Symphony; a concerto tour with the Manchester Festival Strings; and performances at Music@Menlo and the Mostly Mozart Festival. Bridget Kibbey is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied with Nancy Allen. She is on the harp faculties of Bard Conservatory, New York University, and the Juilliard Pre-College Division. Bridget Kibbey will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29) and Concert Program V (August 1). Describing the artistry of violinist Hye-Jin Kim, the Strad lauded her “…heart-stopping and unrivaled beauty...” Kim’s sensitive and powerfully poignant playing, combined with an intellectual understanding of a wide range of repertoire, enables her to transport audiences beyond mere technical virtuosity. Winner of the 2004 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition and the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Hye-Jin Kim has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Pan Asia Symphony, the Minnesota Sinfonia, the Greenwich Village Orchestra, and the Hanover Chamber Orchestra. She made her Weill Recital Hall debut at Carnegie Hall in 2011 and recently appeared at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, LeFrak Hall at Queens College’s Copland School of Music, Rockefeller University, and the Little Rock Chamber Music Society. As a chamber musician, she has performed at Marlboro, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Music from Angel Fire, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music, Prussia Cove, and the Seoul Spring Festival. Kim has toured North America and the United Kingdom with Musicians from Marlboro and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove. Korean-born, Hye-Jin Kim studied with Miriam Fried, Ida Kavafian, and Jaime Laredo at the Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory. In addition to performing, she is an avid reader and a baseball fan and serves as Assistant Professor of Violin at East Carolina University. Hye-Jin Kim is a faculty member of Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute Young Performers Program.
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the Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio, and she and cellist Carter Brey are Artistic Codirectors of Mostly Music, a chamber music series in New Jersey that celebrated its thirtieth anniversary last year. She is Concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, where she is currently recording the complete Mozart concertos. For the past three years, Kavafian was also Guest Concertmaster and soloist with the Seattle Symphony. She has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Her recordings include the recently released piano trio of Justin Dello Joio with Jeremy Denk and Carter Brey. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, she is a Full Professor at Yale University. Ani Kavafian, who plays a 1736 Stradivarius, has been an Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1979. Ani Kavafian will be performing in Concert Program VIII (August 10 and 11).
Kay Kostopoulos has acted in many Bay Area and regional theaters, including A.C.T., Magic Theatre, the San Francisco and California Shakespeare Festivals, and Stanford Summer Theater. She has additional credits in voiceover, film, and television and performs throughout the Bay Area with her music ensemble, Black Olive Jazz. At Stanford University, Kostopoulos performed the voices of Athena, Penelope, Circe, Calypso, and Helen in “Encountering Homer’s Odyssey,” an online classics program through the Stanford/Princeton/ Yale Alliance. She has directed and performed in educational projects for Stanford’s Continuing Studies Program, including the Emily Dickinson, William Saroyan, and Charles Darwin centennials. She has directed and taught acting, speech, and voice in Stanford’s Drama Department and Continuing Studies Program for over fourteen years and currently teaches “Acting with Power” in the Graduate School of Business. She has co-created training programs for Stanford’s School of Medicine and for Symbolic Systems in the development of facial recognition for the treatment of autism. Kay Kostopoulos was a core faculty member of American Conservatory The-
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ater’s Advanced Training Program and has taught at Dominican University, City College of San Francisco, American Musical Theatre of San Jose, and DeAnza College, and she has served as Education Director at the California Shakespeare Festival. She also coaches business executives and has taught seminars for Genentech, Cisco Systems, the National Association of Speakers, Stanford’s Executive Program for Women and Women in Entrepreneurship Program, and eBay’s Global Women’s Conference. Her work has been featured in O (Oprah) Magazine. Kay Kostopoulos will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29). Violinist Kristin Lee enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has performed concertos with orchestras throughout the United States and abroad, including the Saint Louis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Pusan Philharmonic, and KBS Symphony Orchestra. As a recitalist, she has performed at Ravinia’s Rising Stars series, the Salon de Virtuosi at Steinway Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre in Paris, the Kumho Art Gallery in her native Seoul, and throughout northern Italy. A winner of Juilliard’s Concerto Competition and the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, she won Astral Artists Auditions in 2010 and Italy’s Premio Trio di Trieste Competition in 2011. Lee gave the premiere of Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto in September, and the recording on the Naxos label was released in spring 2012. Other highlights this season include solo performances with the New Jersey Symphony, Colgate Symphony, and Nova Philharmonic and recitals in Pennsylvania, Alabama, New York, Massachusetts, and Verona, Italy. As a chamber musician, she has participated in the festivals of Ravinia, Music@ Menlo, Sarasota, and the Perlman Music Program. Kristin Lee earned a master’s degree from the Juilliard School in May of 2010 under Itzhak Perlman and Donald Weilerstein and served as a Teaching Assistant in Itzhak Perlman’s studio. She is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two and is on the faculty at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Kristin Lee will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29), Concert Program V (August 1), and Concert Program VIII (August 10 and 11), and she is a faculty member of Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute Young Performers Program. With performances described by the New York Times as “breathtakingly beautiful,” violinist Sean Lee is quickly gaining recognition as one of today’s most talented rising artists, having received top prizes in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice, Westchester Symphony, Peninsula Symphony, Torrance Symphony, Redlands Symphony, and Juilliard Orchestra, and as a recitalist, he has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium. In addition to his solo engagements, Lee is an equally involved chamber musician and will perform with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2012 to 2015 as a CMS Two Artist. Since receiving his bachelor of music and master of music degrees studying with Itzhak Perlman, Lee has served as a Teaching Assistant to Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School for the past two years. He also teaches as a faculty member of the Perlman Music Program, where he was a student since 2003. Sean Lee was selected for Music@Menlo’s International Program in 2009 and joined the faculty of Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute in 2010. Sean Lee will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29) and Concert Program VIII (August 10 and 11), and he is a faculty member of Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute Young Performers Program.
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Laurence Lesser, cellist, has enjoyed a multifaceted career as concert artist, teacher, and arts administrator. A native of Los Angeles, he was a top-prize winner in the 1966 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and a participant in the historic Heifetz-Piatigorsky concerts and recordings. Laurence Lesser has been a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the New Japan Philharmonic, and other orchestras worldwide. He has performed under the batons of Ozawa, Rostropovich, and Tilson Thomas, among others. As a chamber musician he has participated at the Casals, Marlboro, Spoleto, and Santa Fe festivals. This is his fourth season at Music@Menlo. Lesser has served as a jury member for most international cello competitions, and in 1994 he was Chair of the Tchaikovsky Competition (cello) in Moscow. He was President of New England Conservatory (NEC) from 1983 to 1996. His former students are active in many countries as soloists, chamber musicians, orchestra members, and teachers. His recent recordings for Bridge Records of the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven with Hae Sun Paik have been highly praised. Laurence Lesser plays a 1622 cello made in Cremona by the brothers Amati. Laurence Lesser will be performing in Concert Program VI (August 3). Laurence Lesser holds the Kathleen G. Henschel Cello Chair in honor of David Finckel for 2012. American baritone Kelly Markgraf has appeared with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (Rorem’s Aftermath), Symphony Space (U.S. premiere of Shostakovich’s War Front Songs), Sacred Music in a Sacred Space (Handel’s Jephtha), Princeton Pro Musica (Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and Moravec’s Songs of Love and War), the La Jolla Music Festival (Schumann’s Dichterliebe), OK Mozart, the Brazos Valley Symphony, Chamber Music Northwest, and Ensemble ACJW at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (Mozart’s Zaide) with Maestro David Robertson. He participated under Michael Tilson Thomas in the knockout West Side Story portion of the all-Bernstein program which opened Carnegie Hall’s season in 2008 and was nationally televised, was conducted by John Adams in the Juilliard Opera Center’s concert production of The Death of Klinghoffer, and recently joined the New York Philharmonic for concerts with Music Director Alan Gilbert. Future concerts include his debut with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Markgraf’s operatic repertoire ranges from Telemann to Verdi, and he has appeared with Santa Fe Opera, Kentucky Opera, Hawaii Opera, New York City Opera, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, Crested Butte Music Festival, Madison Opera, Opera Omaha, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Minnesota Opera. He also appeared in a leading role in a workshop of Michael Torke’s opera Senna as part of the Metropolitan Opera Commissions Program. A native of Wisconsin, Kelly Markgraf holds degrees from Boston University, the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music, and the Juilliard School. Kelly Markgraf will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27) and Carte Blanche Concert II (July 28). Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, has quickly earned a reputation as one of classical music’s finest solo, chamber, and orchestral musicians. Before joining the Met Orchestra in 2004, he served as Associate Principal Clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. McGill frequently per-
One of today’s foremost mezzo-sopranos, Susanne Mentzer enjoys a significant opera, concert, and recital career, with a particular interest in chamber music, and is known as an interpreter of the vocal works of Mahler and as a proponent of women’s music. Mentzer has appeared in recital on the Great Performers series at Alice Tully Hall and at Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, the New York Festival of Song, Tisch Center for the Arts, Morgan Library, Town Hall, Tannery Pond, the Schubert Club, the Kennedy Center, Spivey Hall near Atlanta, Schwartz Hall at Emory, the Santa Fe Concert Association, the Aspen Music Festival, and Aspen Winter Music, among others. As a chamber musician she has collaborated with the Orion, American, and Brentano String Quartets and appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music in the Vineyards, Music from Angel Fire, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Da Camera of Houston, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Chamber Musicians, University of Chicago Chamber Music, Rembrandt Chamber Musicians, Music@Menlo, and the New York Philharmonic Chamber Musicians. Susanne Mentzer has been fortunate to have appeared with nearly every great opera house and orchestra on four continents. She also received the Thelen Award from the Alexian Brothers for her efforts to raise over one million dollars for Bonaventure House in Chicago, a residence for homeless people with AIDS. Mentzer has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School and was trained in the Houston Opera Studio. Susanne Mentzer will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29). Violist Paul Neubauer’s exceptional musicality and effortless playing distinguish him as one of this generation’s quintessential artists. Appointed Principal Violist of the New York Philharmonic at age twenty-one, he is the Chamber Music Director of the OK Mozart Festival in Oklahoma and Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Extravaganza in Curaçao. His recording of Joan Tower’s Purple Rhapsody, commissioned for him by seven orchestras and the Koussevitzky Foundation, was recently released by Summit Records. A two-time Grammy Award nominee, he recorded a disc of works by Schumann with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and has also recorded three pieces that were composed for him: Wild Purple for solo viola by Joan Tower;
Viola Rhapsody, a concerto by Henri Lazarof; and Soul Garden for viola and chamber ensemble by Derek Bermel. His recording of the Walton Viola Concerto was recently re-released on Decca. He has appeared with over one hundred orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki Philharmonics; the National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth Symphonies; and the Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle Orchestras. He gave the world premiere of the revised Bartók Viola Concerto as well as concertos by Tower, Penderecki, Picker, Jacob, Lazarof, Suter, Müller-Siemens, Ott, and Friedman and has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning and on Public Radio’s Performance Today, Morning Edition, St. Paul Sunday, and A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Paul Neubauer is a faculty member of the Juilliard School and Mannes College. Paul Neubauer will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29) and Concert Program V (August 1). Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy Award nominee, violist Richard O’Neill has appeared with the London, Los Angeles, Seoul, and EuroAsian Philharmonics; the KBS and Korean Symphony Orchestras; the Moscow and Württemberg Chamber Orchestras; and Alte Musik Köln. Most recently he was re-engaged to perform with the London Philharmonic led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin for performances at London’s South Bank Centre, Madrid’s National Concert Hall, and the Seoul Arts Center. He has made recital debuts at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Herbst Theatre, Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot, Tokyo Opera City, and the Seoul Arts Center. A Universal/Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, O’Neill has made six solo albums that have sold well over one hundred thousand copies. He is an Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Resident Violist of Camerata Pacifica and has collaborated with many leading artists including the Emerson and Juilliard String Quartets, Emanuel Ax, Leon Fleisher, Garrick Ohlsson, Menahem Pressler, and Steven Isserlis. His chamber music initiative, DITTO, has introduced tens of thousands of people to chamber music in South Korea alone and recently sold out the Tokyo International Forum and Osaka Symphony Hall. A marathoner, Special Representative for UNICEF, and PR Ambassador for South Korea’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, he was presented with a Proclamation from the New York City Council for his achievement and contribution to the arts. The first violist to receive an Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School, Richard O’Neill currently serves on the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles. Richard O’Neill will be performing in Concert Program VI (August 3) and Concert Program VII (August 5 and 7).
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forms with the Met Chamber Ensemble in Carnegie Hall, and in January 2012 he performed the Copland Clarinet Concerto there with the Met Orchestra. On January 20, 2009, McGill performed Air and Simple Gifts by John Williams with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Gabriela Montero at the inauguration of President Obama. In 2000, he was a winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. McGill’s love of chamber music has taken him throughout the United States as well as Europe and Asia. He has worked with such quartets as the Guarneri, Tokyo, Brentano, Shanghai, Pacifica, Miami, Miró, and Daedalus and with such groups as Musicians from Marlboro and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He attended Interlochen Arts Academy and the Curtis Institute of Music. In high demand as a teacher, Anthony McGill currently serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, Mannes College, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music. He has given master classes at the Curtis Institute, the University of Michigan, SUNY Stony Brook, Temple University, UCLA, the University of New Mexico, and Manhattan School of Music and has been a coach at the Verbier Festival. Anthony McGill will be performing in Concert Program I (July 21 and 22) and Carte Blanche Concert I (July 22).
Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often daring repertory choices, the Grammy Awardwinning Pacifica Quartet (Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violins; Masumi Per Rostad, viola; Brandon Vamos, cello) tours extensively worldwide. Named Musical America’s 2009 Ensemble of the Year, the quartet has gained international stature as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today. Shortly after its 1994 formation, the Pacifica won the 1998 Naumburg Prize, and it has since received many honors, including being appointed Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a position previously held by the Guarneri String Quartet. The Pacifica Quartet presented the monumental Shostakovich cycle in Chicago and New York during the 2010–2011 season and in the summer of 2011 presented the complete Beethoven cycle at Tokyo’s Suntory
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Hall in an unprecedented presentation of five concerts in three days. In 2011–2012, the quartet took the Shostakovich cycle to London’s Wigmore Hall and also performed the Beethoven cycle at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and for the Denver Friends of Chamber Music. The members of the Pacifica Quartet were appointed to the faculty of the University of Illinois in 2003 and have also served as Resident Performing Artists at the University of Chicago. In the fall of 2012, the Pacifica Quartet will be joining the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as Quartet-in-Residence. The Pacifica Quartet will be performing in Concert Program I (July 21 and 22) and Concert Program II (July 24 and 25). A prizewinner at numerous international competitions including Oberlin, Hugo Kauder, and Corpus Christi (United States); Ettlingen and Prix Amadèo (Germany); Maria Canals (Spain); and Premio Vittorio Gui (Italy), pianist Hyeyeon Park has appeared as soloist and chamber musician on major concert stages throughout the world, performing with orchestras such as the Seoul Philharmonic, Seoul Symphony, and Incheon Philharmonic, to name a few. She has been presented at the Dame Myra Hess Recital Series in Chicago, the Trinity Wall Street Series in New York City, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., among others, leading her to venues such as Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Seoul Arts Center. Her performances have been broadcast on KBS and EBS television in Korea and channel LOOP in the United States and on radio stations including RAI3 (Italy), WQXR (New York), WFMT (Chicago), WBJC (Baltimore), and WETA (Washington, D.C.). As an active chamber musician, Park has been invited to festivals such as Yellow Barn, Chamber Music Northwest, Santander, and Music@Menlo. A graduate of the Korean National University of Arts and Yale School of Music, Hyeyeon Park recently received her doctor of musical arts degree at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and she is currently an adjunct faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno. She can be heard on the Urtext Digital, HM, and Naxos labels. Hyeyeon Park will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27) and Carte Blanche Concert IV (August 4), and she is a faculty member of Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute Young Performers Program. Michael Parloff is the founder and Artistic Director of Parlance Chamber Concerts. The mission of Parlance Chamber Concerts is to promote the appreciation and understanding of classical chamber music by presenting the world’s finest singers and instrumentalists in affordable, innovatively programmed public concerts and educational events. Principal Flutist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1977 until his retirement in 2008, Michael Parloff has been heard regularly as recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. His many New York City appearances have included solo recitals at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, concerto appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and chamber music performances at the Mostly Mozart Festival and the Morgan Library and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Parloff opened the Met Orchestra’s 2002 Carnegie Hall concert season with a performance of Carl Nielsen’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra under the direction of James Levine. He has collaborated in New York City chamber music concerts with such noted artists as James Levine, Jessye Norman, James Galway, Peter Serkin, Dawn Upshaw, Thomas
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Hampson, Jaime Laredo, and the Emerson String Quartet. Highly respected as a teacher and lecturer, Michael Parloff has presented master classes at major conservatories and university music schools in the United States and abroad. A member of the flute faculty at Manhattan School of Music since 1985, he is also the conductor of woodwind ensemble concerts. Michael Parloff will lead Encounter III (August 2). Scott Pingel began playing the doublebass at age seventeen because of a strong interest in jazz, Latin, and classical music. In 2004, at age twenty-nine, he became Principal Bass of the San Francisco Symphony and was named by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the most “prominent additions” to the ensemble. Previously, he served as Principal Bass of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra; performed with the Metropolitan Opera, the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, and the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra; and served as Guest Principal with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Julia Fischer, Wu Han, Joseph Silverstein, Yefim Bronfman, and members of the Emerson, St. Lawrence, Takács, Miró, and Pacifica quartets. He can often be heard at the Music@Menlo and Music in the Vineyards festivals and on television and radio programs including NPR’s Performance Today. Pingel has taught master classes at prestigious institutions such as the Curtis Institute, Juilliard, the Colburn School, Manhattan School of Music, the Shanghai Conservatory, and the New World Symphony, and he is currently a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and a master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music and spent two years as a fellow at the New World Symphony. Scott Pingel lives in San Francisco with his wife, Iris, and their daughter, Hannah. Scott Pingel will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27), Concert Program IV (July 29), and Concert Program V (August 1). One of today’s brightest young instrumental talents to emerge from Finland, Juho Pohjonen has attracted great attention as one of the Nordic country’s most intriguing and talented pianists. Widely praised for his interpretations of music from Bach to Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pohjonen made his New York debut recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 2004; the performance was selected as one of the most memorable New York concert events that year by the New York Times. Last summer, he had his debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival, both in recital and with orchestra. He performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony, returning to Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in November 2011. As part of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two Residency Program for Outstanding Young Artists, Pohjonen participated in concerts in New York, Boston, and Chicago. European engagements included his debut at the Louvre with flutist Sooyun Kim and a recital at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and concerts with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland. Critical acclaim has brought re-engagements for all of his North American appearances. Juho Pohjonen’s studies began in 1989, when he entered the Junior Academy of the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. He studied with Meri Louhos and Hui-Ying Liu at the Sibelius Academy, where he completed his master’s degree in 2008. Juho Pohjonen will be performing in Concert Program I (July 21 and 22) and Carte Blanche Concert III (July 29).
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Max Rosenak’s Bay Area credits include A Christmas Carol with American Conservatory Theater and The Drawer Boy with TheatreFIRST. Regional credits include Antony and Cleopatra and Twelfth Night with A Noise Within (Los Angeles); The Rivals with the Huntington Theatre Company (Boston); The Miracle Worker with the Olney Theatre Center (Maryland); 6969 with CollaborationTown at 59E59 (New York); and The James Wilde Project with Blessed Unrest (New York). Film and television credits include La Mission (2009 Sundance Film Selection), Seducing Charlie Barker, and an episode of Tosh.0. Max Rosenak has worked as a Teaching Artist with the Olney Theatre Summer Institute, Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, and A Noise Within. He is a member of the New York–based company CollaborationTown. He received his M.F.A. in acting from American Conservatory Theater and his B.F.A. in theater arts from Boston University. Max Rosenak will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29). Praised for his “brilliant” (New York Times) solo performances, New York–based oboist James Austin Smith is an active performer of and advocate for chamber and new music. Smith is an artist of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and the Talea Ensemble and a regular guest with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. In the fall of 2012, he will become the first oboist to be a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two. Smith’s festival appearances include Marlboro, Lucerne, Chamber Music Northwest, Schleswig-Holstein, OK Mozart, Schwetzingen, and Spoleto USA. He has recorded for the Nonesuch, Bridge, Mode, and Kairos labels. Smith is a recent alumnus of the Academy, a collaboration between Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, the Weill Music Institute, and the New York City Department of Education. He received his master of music degree in 2008 from the Yale School of Music and graduated in 2005 with bachelor of arts (political science) and bachelor of music degrees from Northwestern University. He spent a year as a
Fulbright Scholar in Leipzig, Germany, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” James Austin Smith’s principal teachers are Stephen Taylor, Christian Wetzel, Humbert Lucarelli, Hansjörg Schellenberger, and Ray Still. The son of musician parents and the eldest of four boys, Smith was born in New York and raised in Connecticut. James Austin Smith will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27). Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, violinist Arnaud Sussmann is quickly establishing a reputation as a multifaceted and compelling artist, earning the highest praise from critics and audiences alike. He has performed as a soloist throughout the United States, Central America, Europe, and Asia at many renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Louvre Museum. Sussmann has recently appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Nice Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and presented recitals in New York, Memphis, Chicago, San Salvador, London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, among other cities. As a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has appeared in performances at Lincoln Center in New York as well as on tour throughout the United States. He also recently recorded works of Beethoven and Dvorˇák with CMS Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han. Sussmann has performed with many of today’s leading artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, Joseph Kalichstein, Miriam Fried, Paul Neubauer, Fred Sherry, and Gary Hoffman. The winner of several international competitions, including the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, the Andrea Postacchini Competition, and the Vatelot/Rampal Competition, Arnaud Sussmann holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Itzhak Perlman, who chose him to be a Starling Fellow. Arnaud Sussmann will be performing in Carte Blanche Concert IV (August 4), Concert Program VII (August 5 and 7), and Concert Program VIII (August 10 and 11). Arnaud Sussmann holds the Leslie Hsu and Richard Lenon Violin Chair for 2012. Violinist Ian Swensen has established himself as one of the most dynamic, diverse, and sought-after performers and teachers on the music scene today. He has been fortunate to have been able to perform, teach, and study music with the greatest artists of our time––through his work in San Francisco at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and in Sacramento at its state university. A perennial favorite in Canada, Swensen regularly coaches and performs at the Banff Centre, Toronto Summer Music, and Morningside Music Bridge, as well as in Calgary, Vancouver, and Quebec. In addition to his visits to Canada, his active schedule has taken him in recent years from San Francisco (Music@Menlo with Wu Han and David Finckel and the Chamber Music Masters Series at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music) to New York (the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center) and Washington, D.C. (the Smithsonian Institution), as well as to Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, and Korea. Swensen has performed with members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Emerson, Takács, Concord, and Tokyo String Quartets as well as with Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, Mark O’Connor, Yo-Yo Ma, and Martha Strongin Katz, to name a few. He is one of the few musicians to have been awarded the Walter W. Naumburg International Competition’s top prize for both chamber music and violin. In addition to his performances as a recitalist, Ian Swensen has been a featured soloist with the Boston Philharmonic, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the
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Born in Los Angeles, Stephen Prutsman was the keyboard player for several art-rock ensembles, worked extensively as a jazz pianist, and was the music arranger for a nationally syndicated televangelist program in his early twenties. Since then, Prutsman moves easily from classical to jazz to world music as pianist, composer, conductor, and curator, continuing to explore and seek common ground in the music of all cultures and languages. In the 1990s, he was a prizewinner at the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elisabeth Piano Competitions and performed as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras on international concert stages. From 2004 to 2007 Prutsman was Artistic Partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he led concertos from the keyboard, conducted works of living composers, arranged music for world-music collaborations, and composed several new works for the orchestra. From 2009 to 2012 he was the Artistic Director of the Cartagena International Music Festival, South America’s largest festival of its kind. Stephen Prutsman has written and arranged over forty works for the Kronos Quartet, in addition to having written for many of the world’s leading classical and popular artists and ensembles. Other passions of his include working for causes benefiting children with autism and their families. Stephen Prutsman will lead Encounter II (July 26).
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Toulouse Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and several California orchestras. Ian Swensen will be performing in Concert Program V (August 1) and Carte Blanche Concert IV (August 4). Geraldine Walther, violist of the Takács Quartet, served as Principal Violist of the San Francisco Symphony for twenty-nine years, having previously served as Assistant Principal of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Miami Philharmonic, and the Baltimore Symphony. During her San Francisco Symphony tenure, she performed as soloist forty-one times and gave the U.S. premieres of several important works with the orchestra, including Toru Takemitsu’s A String around Autumn, Peter Lieberson’s Viola Concerto, George Benjamin’s Viola, Viola (together with SFS Associate Principal Violist Yun Jie Liu), and Robin Holloway’s Viola Concerto. In 1995 Walther was selected by Sir Georg Solti as a member of his Musicians of the World, an orchestra composed of leading musicians from around the globe, for concerts in Geneva to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. In 2011 she was awarded the Order of Merit Officer’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary, and, as a member of the Takács Quartet, she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the Chamber Music and Song category. Geraldine Walther has performed as soloist with various orchestras in the United States and abroad. An avid chamber musician, she has participated in music festivals including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, Aspen, the Music Academy of the West, Music@Menlo, Cape Cod, Ruby Mountain, Telluride, Seattle, and the Green Music Festival. She has recorded with the Takács Quartet on Hyperion and as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony on London/Decca. Geraldine Walther will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29) and Concert Program V (August 1). David Washburn is a Yamaha Performing Artist and is Principal Trumpet of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. A much sought-after musician in Los Angeles, he also holds the position of Associate Principal Trumpet of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. He has served as Principal Trumpet and soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Washburn has been a featured soloist with many different orchestras including the Los Angeles, St. Louis, Hong Kong, and California Philharmonics; the Los Angeles, San Diego, and South Bay Chamber Orchestras; the Berkeley, Burbank, Knox-Galesburg, and Glendale Symphonies; the New York String, University of California at Irvine, and Pasadena Pops Orchestras; and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as at the Santa Fe, La Jolla, and Music@Menlo chamber music festivals. Active in the recording studio, Washburn has numerous motion picture soundtracks to his credit. Currently, he is a member of the faculty at Chapman University, Biola University, the University of California at Irvine, and California State University Long Beach. He has held teaching positions at California State University Northridge, Redlands University, Idyllwild School of the Performing Arts, and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He received his master of music, with distinction, from New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and his bachelor of music from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. When he is not performing, Washburn’s favorite pastime is boating with his children, Timothy, Samantha, Nicholas, and Julia. David Washburn will be performing in Concert Program IV (July 29).
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One of today’s international stars of the flute and a recent Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the National Flute Association, Carol Wincenc has appeared as soloist with major orchestras around the world and has premiered works written for her by many of today’s most prominent composers. The Grand Prize winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Solo Flute Competition, Wincenc has appeared with the Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Houston, and Seattle Symphonies, among many others, and the Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Spoleto, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, Yale/Norfolk, and Marlboro music festivals. She has performed in all the major New York venues, including Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series for four consecutive seasons. Equally in demand abroad, she has given acclaimed performances with the London Symphony and the English and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras and at numerous international music festivals. In great demand as a chamber musician, Wincenc has collaborated with the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo, and Cleveland String Quartets and performed with such distinguished colleagues as Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Joshua Bell, Bella Davidovich, Lukas Foss, and Aaron Copland. As a champion of contemporary works, she has premiered and recorded Christopher Rouse’s Flute Concerto with the Detroit Symphony and Henryk Górecki’s Concerto Cantata with the Warsaw Philharmonic. A Grammy Award winner, Carol Wincenc has recorded on the Decca, Telarc, Naxos, Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Hännsler, CRI, New World, d’Note, and Musical Heritage/Music Masters record labels. She is currently a professor of flute at both the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University. Carol Wincenc will be performing in Concert Program III (July 27) and Concert Program V (August 1). Pianist Teresa Yu is enjoying a career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator and Director of Amabile School of Music in San Francisco. She founded Amabile School of Music in 2008 and has been devoted to her passion for music education ever since. Yu participated in Music@Menlo’s International Program in 2005 and was a member of the Chamber Music Institute faculty in 2006, 2007, and 2008. She has won First Prize at several competitions, including the New England Piano Teachers’ Association’s competition, the San Francisco Young Pianists Competition, the Berkeley Piano Club Competition, and the Mu Phi Epsilon Competition. She has performed the Bach Double Piano Concerto in Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory of Music and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 1 at the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. As a winner of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Concerto Competition, she performed Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto no. 2 with the conservatory orchestra. She was also invited to perform Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 2 with Symphony of the Redwoods and Liszt’s Piano Concerto no. 1 with the Redwood Symphony. Teresa Yu was invited to perform multiple times at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for the Conservatory Project. Currently, she is a member of the Aleron Trio, an ensemble of three women from France, the United States, and Taiwan. The Aleron Trio has toured multiple cities in France and the United States and was recently invited to become Trio-in-Residence and perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Southeast Iowa Symphony. Teresa Yu is a faculty member of Music@Menlo’s 2012 Chamber Music Institute Young Performers Program.
Pianist Lindsay Garritson has been performing across the United States and abroad since the age of five. As a concerto soloist, she has performed with such orchestras as the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, and European Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. Most recently, she was awarded Second Prize at the 2011 Montreal International Competition and First Prize at the 2010 Salzburg Mozarteum International Chopin Competition. Her teachers include Boris Berman, Zena Ilyashov, Emilio del Rosario, Luiz de Moura Castro, and Jane Allen. A frequent participant in master classes, she has studied with such luminaries as András Schiff, Menahem Pressler, Dmitri Bashkirov, Claude Frank, and John Perry. In 2011, Lindsay Garritson received her Artist Diploma from the Yale University School of Music studying with Boris Berman. She currently serves as a staff accompanist for the String Department at Yale University. A native of Vancouver, violist Eleanor Kendra James has soloed with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony and the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra. She won first place in the 2011 Shean Strings Competition and was a prizewinner in the Atlantic Symphony Concerto Competition and the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra Instrumental Competition in 2011, as well as the Vancouver Women’s Musical Society Scholarship Competition in 2012. An avid chamber musician, James has performed with Ron Leonard, Paul Neubauer, Ani Kavafian, and Paul Coletti and has been coached by Michael Tree, Pinchas Zukerman, Clive Greensmith, and Martin Beaver. In 2011, her piano quartet won the Yale Chamber Music Competition. She is currently the Principal Violist of the Yale Philharmonia and the Delphi Chamber Orchestra. She has attended festivals in the United States, Canada, and China, including the Sarasota Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Morningside Music Bridge, and Pinchas Zukerman’s Young Artists Programme. Eleanor Kendra James studied at the Vancouver Academy of Music with Gerald Stanick and holds a bachelor of music degree from the Colburn School, where she studied with Paul Coletti. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree at Yale, studying with Ettore Causa. Hawaiian violinist Laura Keller recently completed graduate studies at the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Ani Kavafian. Born in 1988 in Honolulu, Keller began Suzuki violin studies at the age of three. She attended the Punahou School and upon graduation in 2006 she moved to Boston for undergraduate studies at New England Conservatory, where she studied with Miriam Fried. She played her first concerto with orchestra at age twelve, performing Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra as a winner of the HSO’s concerto competition. Keller has been featured multiple times on National Public Radio’s shows From the Top and Performance Today. She has appeared in recital in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Boston, Honolulu, and New York City at Carnegie Hall. She has attended the Encore School for Strings, Music@Menlo’s Young Performers Program, the Aspen Music Festival as a member of the Aspen Festival Orchestra and Aspen Chamber Symphony, and the Taos School of Music. Laura Keller has participated in master classes with Christian Tetzlaff, Robert McDuffie, and Joseph Silverstein, among others, and her primary chamber music teachers have included Paul Katz and members of the Borromeo and Tokyo String Quartets.
Ana Kim began cello studies at the age of four and entered Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division four years later. Her various performances range from a concert at Carnegie’s Weill Hall to an appearance on NPR’s From the Top. An avid chamber musician, Kim has performed at the Kennedy Center as a member of the Kuttner Quartet and has been invited to perform at the Manchester and Larzac Chamber Music Festivals. She has attended and performed at numerous music festivals, including the Verbier Academy, Sarasota Music Festival, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. She holds degrees from the Royal Northern College of Music and Indiana University, where she studied with Ralph Kirshbaum and János Starker. During her studies in England, she was awarded the Prince of Wales Award from the Philharmonia Orchestra/Martin Musical Scholarship Fund. Ana Kim is currently continuing her studies at the University of Southern California, where she is also serving as a Teaching Assistant. Winner of the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award in 2008, pianist Naomi Kudo made her orchestral debut at age sixteen with the Fort Worth and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Subsequent highlights include performances at the International Chopin Festival in DusznikiZdrój, the Musikverein in Vienna, Salle Cortot in Paris, the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Chopin’s birth ˙ house ( Zelazowa Wola), and the Tel Aviv Art Museum in Israel. While earning her undergraduate and graduate degrees under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Joseph Kalichstein at the Juilliard School, she was awarded the school’s 2007 Chopin Prize, the 2009 Arthur Rubinstein Prize, and the 2011 Sanders/Tel Aviv Museum Recital Prize and was a consecutive winner of two Gina Bachauer International Piano Competitions. Born in Washington, D.C., to Japanese-Korean parents, Naomi Kudo began studying piano at the age of four with Emilio del Rosario and later studied with Kum-Sing Lee. She currently studies with Richard Goode at Mannes College of Music. Kentucky native Tessa Lark has toured internationally as a violin soloist and chamber musician. Lark was a First Prize winner in the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition in June. Other awards include First Prize in both the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players and the 2008 Irving Klein International String Competition. Lark has performed concerti with several major orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony and has attended many distinguished chamber music festivals including Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Caramoor’s Rising Stars series, and Yellow Barn. She started playing violin at age six and began studies with Kurt Sassmannshaus in 2001 as part of the Starling Preparatory Program at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She studied with Miriam Fried and Lucy Chapman at New England Conservatory and completed her master of music at NEC in May 2012. Tessa Lark plays a Tononi violin on generous loan to her from the Ravinia Festival.
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Chamber Music Institute International Program Artists
Violinist Jennifer Liu has performed extensively throughout the United States as a soloist and chamber musician. Currently studying with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho at the Juilliard School, Liu has received scholarships and awards from the Starling Foundation, the Young Musicians Foundation, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Bronislaw Kaper Awards). She has participated in numerous music festivals including Kneisel Hall, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program, Summit Music Festival, and the Encore School
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for Strings. Recent performances include concerto appearances with the New West Symphony and the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra as well as chamber music performances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Kennedy Center with alumni of the Perlman Music Program. Jennifer Liu is a 2010 graduate of the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division.
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Cellist Peter Myers, born in St. Louis in 1985, completed his undergraduate studies with Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory and a master’s degree with Ralph Kirshbaum at the University of Southern California. He is the cellist of the Saguaro Piano Trio, which placed first in the 2009 Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition. Myers is a frequent participant at the Marlboro Music Festival and has performed with musicians such as pianist Richard Goode and violist Michael Tree. He is also passionate about music outreach and has played in a string quartet with Midori in schools and communities throughout Mongolia, Laos, and Japan. This August and September, he will join a similar project in Pakistan. Recent appearances have included concert tours with Musicians from Marlboro and with his trio in Australia and New Zealand. Peter Myers is also a composer and is currently completing a commission from violist Kim Kashkashian. Cellist Camden Shaw has captivated audiences across the United States as an artist of unique and sincere vision. His playing has been described as “wonderfully rich” (Kansas City Star) as well as “dynamic and brave” (Stereo Times). Shaw is the cellist of the Dover String Quartet (formerly the Old City String Quartet), formed at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Peter Wiley. The quartet was Grand Prize winner of the 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and has appeared all over the world as one of today’s prominent young quartets. Shaw has collaborated in chamber music with such artists as Mark O’Connor, Matt Haimovitz, and Ida Kavafian as a guest artist at Music from Angel Fire and has performed with Roberto Díaz as part of Rockport, Maine’s Bay Chamber Concerts. Active as a soloist, he has recently performed the Brahms Double Concerto with both the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony and released a solo album by the audiophile label Unipheye Music. In addition to being a graduate of the Curtis Institute, Camden Shaw has studied intensively with renowned British cellist Steven Isserlis at the International Musicians Seminar in Cornwall, England. He is currently enrolled at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studies with Norman Fischer. Dawn Dongeun Wohn is an accomplished violinist who is equally in demand for solo and chamber music performances. Her performances have taken her to four continents and across America in venues including Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Jordan Hall. As a soloist, she has appeared in live broadcast performances with orchestras such as the Aspen Conducting Orchestra, the KBS Symphony Orchestra, and Japan’s Telemann Ensemble. An active chamber musician, Wohn has collaborated with the Emerson String Quartet, Colin Carr, and Christina Dahl. She attended the Juilliard School’s PreCollege and College Divisions as a scholarship student, studying with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang. She received a master’s degree and an Artist Diploma from Yale University with a full scholarship, studying with
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Syoko Aki. Currently, she is a doctor of musical arts candidate at SUNY Stony Brook, where she studies with Philip Setzer and Soovin Kim. Chieh-Fan Yiu, a Taiwanese-born Canadian, has established himself as one of the most exciting young violists on the international stage today. He won top prizes in the 2012 Lima Symphony Competition and the 2011 Hellam Young Artists’ Competition and the Best Viola Performance Award in the 2008 Kingsville International Competition and was the winner of the 2008 Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition and the 2006 University of British Columbia Concerto Competition. Chieh-Fan Yiu has performed as a soloist with the Art Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. He was a recent participant at the Moritzburg and Verbier festivals and has performed under such esteemed conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alan Gilbert, James Levine, André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, and David Zinman. Chieh-Fan Yiu completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Juilliard School with a full scholarship and is now pursuing his doctoral degree at Stony Brook University.
Music@Menlo
chamber music festival and institute
Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts Free concerts featuring extraordinary young artists from around the world
Reserve Free Tickets in Advance for Free Performances! For Music@Menlo’s popular Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts, in addition to picking up free tickets in person starting one hour before the concert, you can also reserve your tickets online! Advance reservations can be made on the day of the performance from 9:00 a.m. to ninety minutes prior to the concert start time. To make your reservation, visit www.musicatmenlo.org and click the “Reserve your ticket for today’s free concert” link on the home page or visit the online festival calendar. Note: All advance reservations must be claimed no later than fifteen minutes prior to the performance start time, at which time they will be released. Visit www.musicatmenlo.org to learn more.
biographies
Chamber Music Institute Young Performers Program Artists Elena Ariza, cello
Matthew Hakkarainen, violin
Hometown: Cupertino, CA Instructor: Jonathan Koh Age: 14
Hometown: Palm Beach Gardens, FL Instructor: Maree Sawhney Age: 12
Clara Chan, viola
Irene Jeong, cello
Hometown: Hillsborough, CA Instructor: Jodi Levitz Age: 16
Hometown: Palo Alto, CA Instructor: Jonathan Koh Age: 15
Berlin Chen, violin
Da Eun Kim, violin
Hometown: Saratoga, CA Instructor: Li Lin Age: 14
Hometown: Pleasanton, CA Instructor: Wei He Age: 16
Hannah Chen, cello
Hayaka Komatsu, violin/viola
Hometown: Fremont, CA Instructor: Vicky Wang Age: 17
Hometown: San Rafael, CA Instructor: Li Lin & Jodi Levitz Age: 17
Travis Chen, cello
Anwen Lin, cello
Hometown: Palo Alto, CA Instructor: Jonathan Koh Age: 15
Hometown: Santa Rosa, CA Instructor: Jonathan Koh Age: 10
Alex Chien, piano
Sophia Lin, piano
Hometown: San Jose, CA Instructor: Kai Chi Zhu Age: 14
Hometown: Saratoga, CA Instructor: Anna Semyanovsky Age: 14
Alexander Chong, cello
Emily Liu, viola
Hometown: Davis, CA Instructor: Richard Andaya Age: 18
Hometown: Foster City, CA Instructor: Yunjie Liu Age: 15
Sarah Ghandour, cello
Manami Mizumoto, violin
Hometown: Atherton, CA Instructor: Jean-Michel Fonteneau Age: 18
Hometown: New York, NY Instructor: Catherine Cho Age: 17
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Vivian Wang, piano
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY Instructor: Viktor Basis Age: 17
Hometown: Saratoga, CA Instructor: Olya Katsman Age: 16
Clara Neubauer, violin
Albert Yamamoto, violin
Hometown: New York, NY Instructor: Sophia Arbuckle & Arik Braude Age: 10
Hometown: Berkeley, CA Instructor: Wei He Age: 16
Oliver Neubauer, violin
Tristan Yang, piano
Hometown: New York, NY Instructor: Sophia Arbuckle & Arik Braude Age: 12
Hometown: Cupertino, CA Instructor: John McCarthy Age: 13
Yoko Rosenbaum, piano
Emily Yoshimoto, cello
Hometown: Santa Monica, CA Instructor: Mary Ann Cummins Age: 13
Hometown: Sunnyvale, CA Instructor: Jean-Michel Fonteneau Age: 17
Koji Shiromoto, piano
Alex Zhou, violin
Hometown: Scarsdale, NY Instructor: Hélène Jeanney Age: 15
Hometown: San Jose, CA Instructor: Zhao Wei Age: 11
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Rosemary Nelis, viola
Agata Sorotokin, piano Hometown: San Jose, CA Instructor: John McCarthy Age: 15
Sean Takada, violin Hometown: Mountain View, CA Instructor: Bettina Mussumeli Age: 11
Alex van der Veen, violin Hometown: Palo Alto, CA Instructor: Sarn Oliver Age: 17
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Music@Menlo Internship Program in Arts Administration Music@Menlo’s internship program provides college students and recent college graduates with the opportunity to learn what goes on behind the scenes at an internationally acclaimed music festival. Each summer, Music@Menlo hires approximately twenty-five interns to assist with all areas of the festival, including marketing and merchandising, development, event planning and catering, patron services and ticketing, production, artist services, student services, operations, and photography and videography. Through project-based, hands-on work, the summer experience allows interns to learn skills in project management, customer service, organization, communication, and planning.
“The demanding responsibilities of the Music@Menlo internship program provided me with the experience I needed to kick-start a career in arts administration. There is no other program like it. The festival continues to inspire my work years later.” — Marina Vidor, Digital Assistant, Philharmonia Orchestra and Rite Digital (London), Music@Menlo Intern, 2004 and 2005 Music@Menlo interns are integral to the success of the festival. They work side by side with the festival’s staff and are highly visible members of the Music@Menlo team. In keeping with Music@Menlo’s mission, a unique component of the internship program is a series of educational seminars on various topics including marketing in the arts, strategic planning for nonprofit organizations, fundraising, and career planning and development. While these sessions are primarily focused on the arts, their main themes apply across many disciplines. Since 2003, Music@Menlo has provided 165 students and recent graduates with internships in the arts, twenty of whom have returned for a second internship. Many former interns have launched careers in the field of arts management, working at institutions such as Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Opera, the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Peninsula Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and Philharmonia Orchestra (London), as well as in other fields in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Students have traveled from nearly ninety colleges and universities across the United States
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and internationally to take part in Music@Menlo’s internship program. This year, we are pleased to welcome the following students: Daniel Brenzel, Merchandising and Sales Intern (Butler University) Elizabeth Chang, Production Intern (Eastman School of Music) Sarah Donahue, Operations Intern (University of Cincinnati) Lilian Finckel, Photography/ Videography Intern (Barnard College) Claire Gilhuly, Event Planning and Catering Intern (Duke University) Deborah Gold, Student Liaison Intern (University of Southern California) Christa Green, Event Planning and Catering Intern (University of San Francisco) Laura Grimbergen, Merchandising and Sales Intern (Yale University) Elizabeth Hansen, Development Intern (Boston University) Stephanie Kahan, Patron Services Intern (University of the Pacific) Sarah Kaufman, Photography/ Videography Intern (Oberlin College) Caitlin Kenney, Publications and Publicity Intern (Scripps College) Andrew Klingelhofer, Production Intern (New York University) Saskia Lee, Stage Manager Intern (UC Santa Cruz)
Jonathan Een Newton, Production Intern (St. Olaf College) Samantha Perry, Event Planning and Catering Intern (University of the Pacific) Emily Rew, Student Liaison Intern (University of Texas at Austin) Hana Rosenbaum, Development Intern (Barnard College) Max Ruppel, Patron Services Intern (University of Southern California) Lillian Steckman, Stage Manager Intern (University of Evansville) Wai Kit Tam, Production Intern (UC Davis) Danika Tatangsurja, Production Intern (Archbishop Mitty High School) Andrew Tripp, Recording Engineering Intern (University of Hartford) Stefan Turkowski, Production Intern (UC Davis) Amy Wipfler, Artist Liaison (Tufts University) Jonathan Yam, Production Intern (UC Santa Barbara) Rebecca Young, Event Planning and Catering Intern (Whitman College)
Music@Menlo’s internship program is made possible, in part, by the David B. and Edward C. Goodstein Foundation.
g l o ssa r y
Musical Glossary Adagio – Italian: leisurely. “Adagio” designates a slow tempo. Allegro – Italian: merry, lively. “Allegro” designates a fast tempo. (“Allegretto,” a diminutive of “allegro,” is used to indicate tempi slightly slower than “allegro.”) Andante – Italian: at a walking pace. “Andante” designates a moderate tempo. Aria – Italian: air. A lyrical work for voice (though the term has been used in instrumental works, as well), typically part of a larger work such as an opera or cantata.
Chorale – A passage comprising a sequence of chords; the chorale originated in four-part Lutheran hymns, as composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Double-stop – The technique of bowing two strings of a stringed instrument at once (triple- and quadruple-stops are also employed).
Chromatic – Relating to notes that are outside of the diatonic scale of a key that a piece or passage is written in.
Episode – In rondo form, any of the musical passages that alternate with the refrain.
Coda – Italian: tail. New musical material added to the end of a standard musical structure. Con brio – Italian: with vivacity.
Espressivo – Italian: expressive. Used as an emotive qualification of a tempo marking, as in “Andante espressivo.” Étude – French: study. Used to describe short pieces designed to explore and develop a certain performance technique.
Con moto – Italian: with motion.
Assai – Italian: very (as in “Allegro assai,” “Assai vivace”). Augmented – Increased by a semitone (as in an interval). Ballade – French: ballad. A term given by Chopin to a dramatic piano piece, the musical equivalent of a heroic, poetic ballad. Ballet – Entertainment in which dancers perform to music to tell a story or to express a mood. Barcarolle – A work evocative of songs sung by Venetian gondoliers.
Concertante – A term used to describe a concerto-like composition in which one voice is featured in a soloistic manner. Concerto – Typically an instrumental work marked by the contrast between an instrumental soloist (or group of soloists) and an orchestral ensemble. Counterpoint (contrapuntal) – The musical texture produced by note-againstnote movement between two or more instruments. Courante – A dance; the second movement of a Baroque suite, usually following the allemande. Crescendo – An increase in volume.
Berceuse – French: lullaby. BWV – Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (German): Bach works catalog. The BWV index is used to catalog the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Cadence – The conclusion or resolution of a musical phrase. Cadenza – A virtuosic passage at the end of a concerto or aria that is either improvised by the performer or written out by the composer.
Cycle – A complete work consisting of several independent items (as opposed to movements), for example, a song cycle or piano cycle. D. – Abbreviation for Deutsch. Deutsch numbers are used to catalog Schubert’s works; after Otto Erich Deutsch (1883– 1967).
Exposition – See Sonata form. Fandango – (Spanish) A dance in triple meter for couples, often accompanied by guitar and castanets. Fantasia (Fantasy, Fantasie) – A term used to describe a work whose form derives “solely from the fantasy and skill of an author who created it” (Luis de Milán, 1536). Forte – Italian: loud. (Fortissimo: very loud.) Fugue – A movement or passage of music based on the contrapuntal development of a short musical idea called the subject, which is stated in succession by each instrument at the start of the fugue. Grazioso – Italian: graceful. Half-step interval – See Semitone. Harmonics – On a stringed instrument, high ringing notes produced by lightly placing the finger at nodal points along the string.
Decrescendo – A decrease in volume. Development – See Sonata form.
Canon – A musical passage in which several instruments or voices state the same melody in succession.
Diatonic – Relating to a scale within one octave, consisting of five tones and two semitones.
Cantabile – Italian: song-like, singable.
Divertimento – Italian: Diversion, enjoyment. A term used to describe works designed to entertain and delight listeners and performers.
Capriccio – Italian: whim, fancy. A designation applied to a piece of music of capricious character.
Exoticism (Exotic) – The use of people, places, or social conditions that are perceived to be profoundly different from local norms.
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Arpeggio – The sounding of individual notes of a chord in succession rather than all at once.
Dolce – Italian: sweet.
Harmony – The combination of notes producing chords and chord progressions and the subsequent determination of the mood or atmosphere of a piece of music. Hob. – Abbreviation for Hoboken, used to catalog Haydn’s works; after Anthony van Hoboken (1887–1983), who spent thirty years compiling the extensive catalog. A Roman numeral indicates the genre (e.g., XV for piano trio), followed by an Arabic number, which places the work chronologically within that genre, as in the Piano Trio in G Major, Hob. XV: 25.
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Homorhythmic – Referring to parts or voices moving in one rhythm. Impressionism – An aesthetic term borrowed from French painting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The term comes from Claude Monet’s 1873 painting Impressionism, Sunrise. In music, Impressionism primarily refers to the vivid works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
g l o ssa r y
Incidental music – Music composed to accompany a dramatic production. Intermezzo – Originally, a musical interlude, such as an entr’acte in a dramatic work. Since the nineteenth century, “intermezzo” has been used as a designation for independent works or individual movements within multimovement works. K. – Abbreviation for Köchel. K. numbers are used to catalog Mozart’s works; after Ludwig Ritter von Köchel (1800–1877). Klezmer – (Yiddish) Originally meaning “musician,” the term now refers to an Eastern European tradition of Jewish music. Largo – Italian: broad. “Largo” indicates a slow tempo. (“Larghetto,” a diminutive of “largo,” is used to indicate a tempo slightly quicker than “largo.”) Legato – Italian: bound. A musical expression indicating that a succession of notes should be played smoothly and without separation. Leggiero – Italian: light. (Leggierissimo: very light.)
Meter – The rhythmic organization of a piece of music (e.g., 4/4 meter: ONE-two-threefour, ONE-two-three-four).
Octet – Chamber music for eight instruments. Minuet – An aristocratic French dance, played in a moderate triple tempo, which became a standard movement in works of the Classical period. It came to be replaced toward the end of the eighteenth century by the scherzo. (French: menuet; Italian: minuetto; German: Menuett)
Opus – Latin: work. The most common method of cataloging a composer’s work, although opus numbers are often unreliable in establishing the chronology of composition. (Abbreviated op.)
Mode – A harmonically altered scale type.
Oratorio – A large-scale musical setting of sacred texts, e.g., Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Mendelssohn’s St. Paul and Elijah.
Moderato – Italian: moderately. Modulation – The harmonic shift in tonal music from one key to another. Molto – Italian: very. Used as a qualification of a tempo marking, as in “Molto allegro.” Motive (motif) – A short musical gesture. Movement – A self-contained section of a larger composition. Movements of a piece of music are analogous to chapters in a book: although they can stand on their own to some degree, they more significantly combine with and relate to each other in ways that produce a cohesive whole.
Nocturne – A Romantic work for solo piano characterized by a lyrical melody played by the right hand above an arpeggiated accompaniment played by the left. Non troppo, non tanto – Italian: not too much (as in, e.g., “Allegro ma non tanto,” “Adagio ma non troppo”).
Maestoso – Italian: majestic. March – A walk or piece of music that has a regular and measured tread.
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Ostinato – A motif that repeats continuously, generally as an accompaniment to other motifs (such as melodies or harmonies) that are changing. Overture – A piece of music either introducing a dramatic work or intended for concert performance. Parody – A work based on an already existing one. Phrase – A musical gesture. Melodies, as complete ideas, typically comprise a series of interdependent phrases. Piano – Italian: soft. (Pianissimo: very soft.)
Neoclassical – An aesthetic style found in music, visual art, and architecture that draws inspiration from “classical” art, culture, and forms.
Lento – Italian: slow. Lied – German: song (plural “lieder”).
Octave – The interval between two notes that are seven diatonic scale degrees apart.
Notturno – Italian: of the night. An eighteenth-century term applied to a piece of music performed outdoors, late at night.
Pizzicato – Playing by plucking the strings of an instrument that is normally played with a bow, such as a violin or viola. Polka – A dance for couples in 2/4 time. Prelude – A piece preceding other music; its function is to introduce the mode or key. Presto – Italian: ready, prompt. “Presto” designates a fast tempo.
Rag – Often used to refer to popular piano music in early twentieth-century America that contains ragged, or syncopated, rhythmic ideas. Recapitulation – See Sonata form. Recitative – A style of writing, typically employed in opera and other vocal music, designed to imitate dramatic speech. Refrain – A phrase or theme that recurs at intervals, especially at the end of a verse or section of music. Register – A portion of the entire range of an instrument or voice. Relative key – A key sharing the same key signature as another. Each major key has a relative minor and vice versa. E.g., the relative key of C major is a minor: neither key has any sharps or flats; the relative key of d minor is F major: both keys have one flat. Rococo – (French) A post-Baroque style of ornamentation and light expression. Rondo (rondeau) – A musical structure, commonly used throughout the Classical and Romantic eras, in which a main passage, called the refrain, alternates with episodes, which depart from the movement’s central musical material. Rubato – Italian: robbed, or stolen, time. “Rubato” designates a flexible or unmarked tempo, i.e., Tempo rubato. Sarabande – Music often composed for a seventeenth-century courtly dance in slow triple meter. Scherzo – Italian: joke. A fast movement that came to replace the minuet around the turn of the nineteenth century. (Scherzando: playfully.) Second Viennese School – Refers collectively to a twentieth-century group of composers, Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, who independently but in tandem explored twelvetone composition.
in the music of Schoenberg) a twelve-note series comprising each pitch of the chromatic scale. Sforzando – Italian: compelling. “Sforzando” indicates a strongly accented note and/or suddenly loud dynamic. Sonata – A composition for one or more instruments, usually comprising several movements. While the term has been used to describe works quite different from each other formally and stylistically depending on the period of composition, a sonata almost always describes a work for solo instrument with or without piano accompaniment.
Tarantella – A Southern Italian folk dance in which one couple, surrounded by others in a circle, performs a courtship dance to castanets and tambourines. Usually in 3/8 or 6/8, with gradually increasing speed as the work progresses. Theme – A central musical idea which serves as substantive material in a piece of music. Theme and variations – A standard musical form in which a main theme is followed by a succession of variations on that theme. (Italian: Tema con variazioni.) Timbre – Tone color.
Sonata form – The most standard musical structure throughout the Classical and Romantic eras for first, and often final, movements of multimovement pieces composed for solo, chamber, or orchestral forces. In sonata form, musical ideas are organized into three sections: the exposition, in which the main themes are introduced; the development, in which the themes are transformed; and the recapitulation, in which the music restates each theme in the home key. (Also sonataallegro form.)
Time signature – The printed indication of the meter of a piece of music (such as 4/4).
Sostenuto – Italian: sustained.
Trill – A rapid alternation between the main note and a semitone above or below it; an embellishment.
Staccato – Italian: detached. A musical expression indicating that notes should be played with separation.
Tone poem – Much like a symphonic poem, an orchestral work that uses a program to illustrate meaning. Tremolando – With a tremolo effect; trembling. Tremolo – Italian: trembling. A musical expression indicating the rapid reiteration of a single note or chord.
Trio – The contrasting middle section of a minuet or scherzo.
Stanza – A line of music. Sturm und Drang – German: storm and stress. An artistic movement that valued impulse and emotion over more Classical virtues such as balance and form. The Sturm und Drang movement had a profound influence on the entire Romantic generation. Subject – The central musical idea of a fugue, which is stated in succession by each instrument to begin the fugue.
Triplet – A group of three notes performed in the time of two of the same kind.
g l o ssa r y
Program – A preface added to a piece of instrumental music by the composer to direct the listener’s attention to the poetic idea of the whole piece or to a particular part of it.
Twelve-tone – See Serialism. Unison – Performance of the same melody or note by various instruments or voices. Variations – A compositional technique in which a theme is altered or modified. Vibrato – See Tremolo.
Sul ponticello – The technique of playing near the bridge of a stringed instrument, impeding the vibration of the string to produce an unsettling sound. Symphonic poem – An orchestral work that includes a program to provide an illustrative narrative to the music.
Virtuoso – A musician of extraordinary technical skill. Vivace – Italian: lively. “Vivace” designates a fast tempo, in between “allegro” and “presto.” Waltz – A dance in 3/4 time.
Semitone – The smallest interval of the Western tone system; 1/12 of an octave. Serialism – A compositional method in which the musical structure is governed by a fixed permutation of a series of pitches, usually (as
Syncopation – The technique of shifting the rhythmic accent from a strong beat to a weak beat.
Zither – A simple chordophone, such as a harp or lute.
Tango – A Latin American dance genre; usually in 4/4 or 4/8.
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Join Music@Menlo
Make a gift to the 2012 Annual Fund today and get closer to the music, to the performers, and to other members of the Music@Menlo community during the festival and throughout the year.
2012 Annual Fund By making a gift to the 2012 Annual Fund, you can enjoy VIP ticketing and behind-the-scenes access while supporting the music you love by helping us enhance the education and performance activities that are at the core of Music@Menlo’s mission.
Performers Circle Be among the first to receive festival news, enjoy discounts on festival merchandise, and meet the Artistic Directors.
Paganini ($100–$249) Receive your festival brochure early and have the opportunity to reserve your tickets in advance of the general public, helping you obtain better seats in our reserved-seating venues and tickets to concerts that sell out quickly. You will be among the first to receive the latest festival news and your support will be acknowledged in the festival program book.
Joachim ($250–$499) Receive a discount of 10 percent on festival merchandise, including festival artists’ and Music@Menlo LIVE CDs, books, apparel, and more!
Caruso ($500–$999) Join the Artistic Directors for an exclusive daytime conversation during the festival—a wonderful opportunity to ask questions and learn what happens behind the scenes.
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Composers Circle Enjoy VIP ticket services, premium seating reservations, and private events with artists.
Bach ($1,000–$2,499) Enjoy VIP ticket services,* reduced handling fees, priority ticketing, and reserved seats for one Koret Young Performers Concert or Prelude Performance of your choice. Choose your favorite program and let us know at least four hours prior to the concert start time and we will save you the best seats in the house! Enjoy chamber music up close at a special invitation-only performance during the year and join festival artists and Chamber Music Institute International Program participants for the festival’s season-launch celebration.
Haydn ($2,500–$4,999) Join Music@Menlo’s Artistic Directors during the festival for a private lunch and an intimate recital featuring special performances by Chamber Music Institute participants. Enjoy two premium seating reservations.**
Mozart ($5,000–$9,999) Enjoy a private post-concert dinner party with the Artistic Directors, artists, and friends and receive a total of four premium seating reservations** and a concert dedication acknowledging your support.
Beethoven ($10,000–$24,999) Get to know the artists at an exclusive post-concert festival dinner party with musicians, staff, and members of the Music@Menlo community. Enjoy a total of eight premium seating reservations** and a nightly season dedication on concert-hall signage.
Patrons Circle ($25,000+)
Tenth-Anniversary Campaign:
Receive exclusive and customized benefits and recognition.
Education, Innovation, and Impact
Members of the Patrons Circle receive customized benefits and recognition tailored to meet their interests and enhance their enjoyment of the festival’s signature offerings, including an invitation to the Patrons Circle Season Announcement Celebration, special events, and additional premium seating reservations.** In addition to the benefits at your membership level, you will receive the benefits associated with all previous levels. * VIP ticket services include no-fee ticket exchanges, no-fee additional ticket purchases, and dedicated-staff assistance. VIP ticket orders are filled and VIP seats are assigned before those of Subscribers and the general public, according to level of giving. ** Use your premium seating reservations for the general-admission ticketed performance(s) of your choice, with the purchase of a paid ticket, or use them for reserved seating at Prelude Performances or Koret Young Performers Concerts. Assigned seating is available upon request. The total number of reservations is noted above for each level.
Make a Gift Today! Online: Visit www.musicatmenlo.org and donate now using our secure online donation form. Phone: Please call Annie Rohan, Development Director, at 650-330-2133. Mail: Send a check made payable to “Menlo School: Music@Menlo” to Music@Menlo, 50 Valparaiso Avenue, Atherton, CA 94027.
On this special occasion of Music@Menlo’s tenth anniversary, please consider furthering the future of chamber music performance and education by making a gift to the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign. For more information about Music@Menlo’s long-term vision, please see p. 66.
Consider Music@Menlo in Your Estate Plans The Isaac Stern Circle has been created by Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han as a living testament to the vision of one of their most influential and treasured mentors. Legendary for championing the power and importance of great music and nurturing the next generation of classical musicians, Isaac Stern remains a beacon for today’s classical music leaders, including many Music@Menlo artists. Stern’s legacy continues to inspire countless musicians in their artistic endeavors towards cultivating a fulfilling present and promising future for great music. Help nourish the intellectual and spiritual lives of generations of artists, students, and music lovers by joining the Isaac Stern Circle and including Music@Menlo in your estate plans. Planned commitments of support can fund specific projects or underwrite activities that reflect your individual passions and interests. We will be glad to speak with you in person about your interests and wishes. Please contact Annie Rohan at 650-330-2133 or annie@musicatmenlo.org.
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Thank You! Music@Menlo is grateful for the generosity of contributing organizations and individuals, who have made this year’s festival possible. (Gifts, grants, and pledges received as of June 25, 2012.)
Medici Circle ($100,000+)
Ann S. Bowers The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation The Martin Family Foundation
Carnegie Circle ($50,000–$99,999) Jim & Mical Brenzel Chandler B. & Oliver A. Evans Paul & Marcia Ginsburg Michael Jacobson & Trine Sorensen Hugh Martin
Esterhazy Circle ($25,000–$49,999)
Iris & Paul Brest Joan & Allan Fisch Kathleen G. Henschel The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Bill & Lee Perry The Silicon Valley Community Foundation U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management Marcia & Hap Wagner
Beethoven Circle ($10,000–$24,999)
The Barnard/Fain Foundation Darren H. Bechtel Terri Bullock Michèle & Larry Corash The Jeffrey Dean & Heidi Hopper Family David Finckel & Wu Han Anne & Mark Flegel The Fleishhacker Foundation The David B. and Edward C. Goodstein Foundation Sue & Bill Gould Libby & Craig Heimark Jeehyun Kim Koret Foundation Funds Mary Lorey The Marin Community Foundation Betsy & Bill Meehan Laurose & Burton Richter George & Camilla Smith Melanie & Ron Wilensky
Mozart Circle ($5,000–$9,999)
Lindy Barocchi Eileen & Joel Birnbaum Kathleen & Dan Brenzel George Cogan & Fannie Allen Rick & Karen DeGolia The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Mr. Laurance R. Hoagland Jr. & Mrs. Grace M. Hoagland Michael J. Hunt & Joanie Banks-Hunt The Hurlbut-Johnson Fund The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund Kris Klint Carol & Norman Nie Dr. Condoleezza Rice Schwab Charitable Fund In memory of Michael Steinberg Vivian Sweeney Marilyn & Boris Wolper Elizabeth Wright
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Haydn Circle ($2,500–$4,999)
Anonymous Michiharu & Nagisa Ariza Alan & Corinne Barkin Malkah & Donald Carothers Bill & Bridget Coughran Linda DeMelis & Ted Wobber Mrs. Ralph I. Dorfman Maureen & Paul Draper The Robert J. and Helen H. Glaser Family Foundation Larry & Anne Hambly Leslie Hsu & Rick Lenon Susan & Knud Knudsen David Lorey, in memory of Jim Lorey Drs. Michael & Jane Marmor/Marmor Foundation Bill & Paula Powar Harold & Jann Slapin Andrea & Lubert Stryer Edward Sweeney & Kathy Hansen Wells Fargo Edwin & Kathe Williamson
Bach Circle ($1,000–$2,499)
Anonymous (3) Anita & Marc Abramowitz The ACMP Foundation Judy & Doug Adams Adler Jarach Fund of Equity Foundation Richard & Barbara Almond Dave & Judy Preves Anderson, in memory of Naomi Fisk Jeff & Jamie Barnett Dr. & Mrs. Melvin C. Britton Chris Byrne Dr. Michael Condie Jennifer Howard DeGolia Delia Ehrlich Dr. Harvey Eisenberg Carolyn & Scott Feamster Dan & Sandra Feldman Betsy & David Fryberger Robert & Betsy Gamburd Laura & Peter Haas Linda & Jim Hagan In memory of Suk Ki Hahn Adele M. Hayutin Jerre & Nancy Hitz Sunny Kaplan Carol & Mac MacCorkle Peggie & Donald MacLeod Joan Mansour Larry Marks Dr. Bettina McAdoo & Gordon Russell Brian P. McCune MIT Community Running Club (MITcrc) George & Holde Muller John Oxaal Kay Pauling The Public Welfare Foundation Barry & Janet Robbins Annie E. Rohan Jim & Carol Rohan Barry Rosenbaum & Eriko Matsumoto Nancy & Norm Rossen Armand A. Schwartz Jr. The Shrader-Suriyapa Family Bill & Joan Silver Alice J. Sklar Art Small Harold & Jan Thomas Margrit & Jack Vanderryn Joe & Anne Welsh Susan Wilson Peter & Georgia Windhorst
Caruso Circle ($500–$999)
Anonymous Charlotte & David Biegelsen Julie & Ellis Brenner Wai T. Chang/Casa Sandoval & Glenwood Inn Hazel Cheilek Betsy & Nick Clinch Christine & Frank Currie John & Mary Dahlquist Jo & John De Luca The Ara and Edma Dumanian Foundation Leonard & Margaret Edwards Thomas & Ellen Ehrlich Gladys R. Garabedian Rich Gifford Fred & Linda Grauer Chris & Susan Hoebich Robert & Linda Holub Thomas Humphrey Etty Huynen Iain Johnston & James Smaltz Marjo Lachman Marilyn Lavezzo Michael & Vicki Link Ben Lipson BJ & Frank Lockfeld William & Muriel McGee In honor of the Music@Menlo staff Neela Patel Janice & Jeff Pettit Nancy G. Schrier Chalmers Smith Jim & Mary Smith Abe & Marian Sofaer Peter & Natalia Sorotokin Peggy & Art Stauffer Betty Swanson Ellen & Mike Turbow Sallie & Jay Whaley, in honor of Mary Lorey
Joachim Circle ($250–$499) Anonymous (2) Bill & Marsha Adler Sue & Howie Anawalt Jonathan Arons & Claire Max Susan & Steve Bell Stuart & Helen Bessler John & Lu Bingham Brenda & Roger Borovoy Ruth & Wayland Brill Joan Brodovsky John & Bea Chambers Dr. & Mrs. Bernard Cooper Joan & Victor Corsiglia Jacqueline M. & Robert H. Cowden Albert & Connie Eisenstat Ruth Eliel & Bill Cooney Maria & George Erdi Mary Falvey Suzanne Field & Nicholas Smith Bruce & Marilyn Fogel Ruth & Neil Foley Mr. & Mrs. Robert Freedman Lawrence & Leah Friedman Gerry H. Goldsholle & Myra K. Levenson Helen & Gary Harmon Elsa & Raymond Heald David Heintz Marney & Larry Janss Jim & Kathy Johnson Andrea G. Julian Ed Kaz Hal & Iris Korol Terri Lahey & Steve Smith Larry & Charlotte Langdon
Joan & Philip Leighton Robert March & Lisa Lawrence Juliet Melamid Frances & John Morse Dolly Musey, in memory of John H. Musey Peter & Liz Neumann Joan Norton Anne Peck Allen & Joyce Phipps Gordon & Teresa Pusser Robert & Shirley Raymer Rossannah & Alan Reeves Benn & Evangeline Sah Lorraine & Gerard Seelig Steven Shladover Judy & Lee Shulman Clinton & Sharon Snyder Susan Southworth Barbara Tam Golda Tatz Ian & Julia Wall Dr. George & Bay Westlake Jane Fowler Wyman
Paganini Circle ($100–$249) Anonymous Carole Alexander Marcia & Matthew Allen Mickie & Gibson Anderson Ross & Joane Anderson Jo Ariko Rolene AuClaire Anne & Robert Baldwin Elaine Baskin & Ken Krechmer Carl Baum & Annie McFadden Paul Bendix Mark Berger & Candace DeLeo Elaine & Herb Berman Enrico & Jane Bernasconi Donna Bestock Frederick & Alice Bethke Bill Blankenburg Arnold & Barbara Bloom Kan & Wassika Boonyanit Carol & Michael Bradley Joan S. Brennan Laurel Brobst Peter Brodie Katherine & Roy Bukstein J. Anne Carlson Marjorie Cassingham William & JoAn Chace Gregory Cheung Renee Chevalier Robert & Ann Chun P. L. Cleary Norm & Susan Colb Mary Combs Paula J. Cooper James Cowley Constance Crawford Anne Dauer Gordon & Carolyn Davidson Ken & Sue Dinwiddie Ann & John Dizikes Alvin & Caryl Dockter Philip & Jean Eastman Alan M. Eisner Jane Enright Edward & Linda Ericson Tom & Nancy Fiene Patricia Foster Carol C. & Joel P. Friedman, M.D. Maria & Mark Geenen Gloria H. Goldberg In honor of Bill and Sue Gould
Diane & Harry Greenberg, in honor of Michèle & Larry Corash Renee & Mark Greenstein Joseph Grodin Edie & Gabe Groner Sheila & Patrick Gross Eleanor S. Hansen Margaret Harvey Robert & Jonnie Herring Linda S. Hibbs Allyson Hobbs Rod Howard Erin L. Hurson Gene F. Jacobson Jane & Bill Johnson Ms. Mary S. Joyce Liisa Juola Howard & Barbara Kalt Julie Kaufman Dr. Ronald & Tobye Kaye Bob & Debbie Kessler Jin Mi Kim & Sung Ho Yeuen Kim Sarah King Beverly & Don Kobrin Suzanne Koppett Michael Korbholz & Katherine Lerer Mimi & Alex Kugushev Henry Kwong & Jenny Shum Michael & Carol Lavelle Mrs. Harold Leitstein Henry Lesser Howard & Laura Levin Naomi Bernhard Levinson Drs. John & Penny Loeb Stephen Lowens Tom Garvey & Teresa Lunt Vera Luth Susie MacLean Manjunath Mahishi & Sangita Patel Hope & Paul Makler John & Rosemary Maulbetsch In memory of David Maurice James E. McKeown Ellen Mezzera Bill Miller & Ida Houby Evelyn Miller & Fred Snively Brenda & Mario Miralles David Morandi Shirley & David Negrin Rebecca & John Nelson Trevor Reed Nelson Billie Sue Parry Teri Perl David & Virginia Pollard Anne T. Prescott Marcia Pugsley & Kent Mather Marlene Rabinovitch & Richard Bland Beverly Radin & Larry Breed Ann Ratcliffe Martin & Mary Ratner Richard Recht Robert & Diane Reid Barbara Richards In memory of Ilene Rockman Adelle & Robert Rosenzweig Amir & Nicole Rubin Paul & Karen Salinger Phyllis & Jeffrey Scargle
Will & Linda Schieber Gerry & Coco Schoenwald Louise Schwebel Edwin & Barbara Seipp Sharon & Dennis Sheehan Laurie Spaeth Verna Spinrad Jean Swanson & Brendan Leary Sue Swezey Mr. & Mrs. T. G. Szymanski Marion Taylor Isaac Thompson Les Thompson & Freda Hofland Hal & Carol Toppel Darlene & Charles Whitney Weldon & Carol Wong Margaret Wunderlich
Friends (Gifts up to $99)
Anonymous (2) J. M. Abel Jeanne Althouse A. Augustin Agnes Babcock Michael & Maria Babiak Julie & Jonathan Backlund Susan Albro Barkan Melanie Bieder & Dave Wills Susan Biniaz & Robert Harris Harry Bremond & Peggy Forbes Marda Buchholz Miriam DeJongh Dr. & Mrs. Ronald Dorfman Robert & Loretta Dorsett Penelope Duckham Melissa Eddy Charlotte & David Epstein Sherrie & Wallace Epstein Oscar & Theda Firschein Jo R. Gilbert Andrew Goldstein Rose Green Mickey & Ike Griffin Jerome Guillen Barbara Hariton Andrea & Arthur Harris Jennifer Hartzell & Donn R. Martin Xuefei He Michael Herrinton Barbara Hunter Gilda & Harold Itskovitz Walter & Diana Jaye John Josse Stephen & Elizabeth Kaufman Lois & Paul Levine Ernest Lieberman Eric Lin Carol & Harry Louchheim Harvey Lynch Valerie J. Marshall Yoshiko Matsumoto Karen Moffeit Thomas & Cassandra Moore Jared Mundell Merla Murdock Julia Oliver Claudio Pelligrini Drs. Jeanette & David Pleasure
Michael Popa Daryl Richard Bill Rose Sid & Susan Rosenberg Kenneth Seeman, M.D. Joan Segall Charlotte Siegel George Simmonds David & Barbara Sloss Alice Smith Garnet Spielman Arielle Sumits John & Ann Varady Barbara Wareck Kevin Wasbauer & Erika Takada Corey Weinstein Patricia Whaley & Mitchell Sardou Klein Lyn & Greg Wilbur Jennifer Yiu Jane Zuckert
Music@Menlo would like to express sincere appreciation to the family, friends, and colleagues of Dr. Alan Sklar for their gifts in his memory.
In Kind
A1 Party Rentals Arrillaga Family Recreation Center, Menlo Park Corazonas, Inc. Maureen & Paul Draper Garden Court Hotel Gerry’s Cakes, Menlo Park House of Bagels, Palo Alto Lärabar Lawrence Zaven Markosian Mayfield Bakery & Cafe Monique’s Chocolates Philz Coffee, Inc. Pop Chips Ridge Vineyards Safeway, Menlo Park Sigona’s Farmers Market Stanford Park Hotel Straps Unlimited Trader Joe’s, Menlo Park Twig and Petals Weir & Associates Catering and Event Planning
Phyllis Albertson Merry Astor Charlotte & David Biegelsen Manuela Bornstein Neil Brast Stephanie Brown & Robert Harris Michelle & Christopher Capelle David Chu Theodore & Virginia Chu John Elman Norman Freed Dale & Clarice Horelick Gillian Humphries Raymond Linkerman & Carol Eisenberg Mary Lorey Susan & John Owicki Helene Pier Diane & Daniel Sagalowicz Joan Sakaldasis Penny & Ken Schreiber Mark Shipley Susan Stahl Ann Stevenson Carol & Ludwig Tannenwald Chester & Carla Villalba Allan & Catherine Wallace Edna Wallace
Matching Gifts
Abbott Fund Adobe Matching Gift Program The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation IBM Matching Grants Program Microsoft Matching Grants Program The David and Lucile Packard Foundation SPX Foundation Matching Gift Program
SPECIAL THANKS Music@Menlo is made possible by a leadership grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Additional support provided by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Koret Foundation Funds, U.S. Trust, Bank of America, and the many individuals and organizations that share the festival’s vision.
ProPiano is the official provider of Steinway grand pianos to Music@Menlo 2012.
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Acknowledgments Music@Menlo thanks the following individuals and organizations for their dedication and commitment.
Seasonal Staff and Service Professionals
Dmitri Atapine, Lead Faculty, Chamber Music Institute Joe Beahm, Technical Director Nick Canellakis, Faculty, Chamber Music Institute Gloria Chien, Director, Chamber Music Institute Tristan Cook, Filmmaker and Photographer Mark Hurty, Webmaster Gilbert Kalish, Director, Chamber Music Institute International Program Hye-Jin Kim, Faculty, Chamber Music Institute Kristin Lee, Faculty, Chamber Music Institute Sean Lee, Faculty, Chamber Music Institute Julie Lewis, Editor David Lorey, Strategy Consultant Ellen Mezzera, Production Manager Zac Nicholson, Filmmaker Hyeyeon Park, Faculty, Chamber Music Institute Claire Prescott, Bookkeeper Da-Hong Seetoo, Recording Engineer Nick Stone, Graphic Designer Heath Yob, Technology Services Consultant Teresa Yu, Faculty, Chamber Music Institute
Milina Barry PR
Milina Barry, President You You Xia, Associate Mary Montalbano, Office Manager Kristen O’Melia, Research Assistant
Internship Program
Music@Menlo’s internship program is underwritten, in part, by the David B. and Edward C. Goodstein Foundation. Special thanks to the foundation directors and staff for their support in sustaining the program: Francesca Eastman Edward Goodstein Inga Dorosz Shelley Farrell
2012 Interns
Daniel Brenzel, Merchandising and Sales Intern Elizabeth Chang, Production Intern Sarah Donahue, Operations Intern Lilian Finckel, Photography/Videography Intern Claire Gilhuly, Event Planning and Catering Intern Deborah Gold, Student Liaison Intern Christa Green, Event Planning and Catering Intern Laura Grimbergen, Merchandising and Sales Intern Elizabeth Hansen, Development Intern Stephanie Kahan, Patron Services Intern Sarah Kaufman, Photography/Videography Intern Caitlin Kenney, Publications and Publicity Intern Andrew Klingelhofer, Production Intern Saskia Lee, Stage Manager Intern Jonathan Een Newton, Production Intern Samantha Perry, Event Planning and Catering Intern Emily Rew, Student Liaison Intern Hana Rosenbaum, Development Intern Max Ruppel, Patron Services Intern Lillian Steckman, Stage Manager Intern Wai Kit Tam, Production Intern Danika Tatangsurja, Production Intern Andrew Tripp, Recording Engineering Intern Stefan Turkowski, Production Intern Amy Wipfler, Artist Liaison Jonathan Yam, Production Intern Rebecca Young, Event Planning and Catering Intern
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Menlo School
Special thanks to Menlo School’s Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students, and families for their continuing enthusiasm and support: Norm Colb, Head of School William R. Silver, Business Manager & Chief Financial Officer Tony Lapolla, Dean of Students John Schafer, Upper School Director Erin Brigham, Middle School Director Alex Perez, Director of Creative Arts & Communications Diane Clausen, Director of Development Liza Bennigson, Alumni Relations Director Denise McAdoo, Annual Fund Director & Campaign Associate Eden Beck, Associate Director of Communications Colleen Labozetta, Development Coordinator Mimi Paulsen, Major Gifts Officer David McAdoo, Director of Operations & Construction Tom DelCarlo, Facilities Supervisor Jeff Healey, Operations Service Coordinator Jeanne Honig, Human Resources Jill Kasser, Public Relations Consultant
The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
Matthew Zito, Principal Simone Rick-Kennel, Administrative Vice Principal Karl Losekoot, Administrative Vice Principal Sandy Nelson, Administrative Assistant Andy Hayes, Theater Manager Brien Oliver, Custodian
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Rev. Matthew McDermott, Rector Salying Wong, Associate Rector Elyce Smith, Office Administrator Agustin Gutierrez, Sexton
City of Menlo Park
Kirsten Keith, Mayor Alex D. McIntyre, City Manager Katrina Whiteaker, Community Services Manager, Recreation Karen Mihalek, Recreation Coordinator
American Public Media
American Public Media is the leading national producer of classical music programming, including Performance Today, SymphonyCast, Pipedreams, Composers Datebook, and Classical 24. Brian Newhouse, Managing Director, Classical Bradley Althoff, Managing Producer, National Programs, Classical Fred Child, Host, Performance Today Julie Amacher, Manager, Classical 24
Home and Event Hosts
Jennifer Acheson & Ghassan Ghandour Betsy Alexander David & Marty Arscott Jeff & Jamie Barnett Ann S. Bowers Iris & Paul Brest Dr. & Mrs. Melvin C. Britton Terri Bullock Susan Chamberlain Janet & Neal Coberly Jennifer & Michael Cuneo Frank & Christine Currie Sharon & Stuart Dalton
Jeff Dean & Heidi Hopper Karen & Rick DeGolia Delia Ehrlich Wallace & Sherrie Epstein Joan & Allan Fisch Garden Court Hotel Sue & Bill Gould Mickey & Ike Griffin Christine Hansen & Roger Knopf The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Michael Jacobson & Trine Sorensen Kris Klint Susan & Knud Knudsen Diana Koin & Bill Vermeere Joan & Philip Leighton Margy & Art Lim Patty & Eff Martin Denny McShane & Rich Gordon Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Café Too Kay Pauling Jack Phillips Bill & Paula Powar Carol Scheetz Kim & Lee Scheuer Alice Sklar Alice Smith Melodie & Alan Solway Stanford Park Hotel Peggy & Art Stauffer Francine Toder & Joe Hustein Ian & Julia Wall Diane Jordan Wexler & Bruce Beron Elizabeth Wright
Friends Council
Rich Gifford, Custom Mailings Coordinator Anne Peck, Usher Liaison Jack Phillips, Special Events Coordinator Alice Wong, Chair Jane Fowler Wyman, Member-at-Large
2012 Festival Volunteers Nagisa Ariza Anna Berman Susan Berman Barbara Bernstein Ruth Birman Diana Bloch Jocelyn Blum Bruce Boyd Marda Buchholz June Cancell Chris Cheng Janet & Neal Coberly Evie Davidson Miriam DeJongh Debbie Donez Jonathan Erman Olga Euben Kay Garcia Peggy George
Faith & David Gobuty Mimi Goity Gabe & Edie Groner Mary Holmes Clarice & Dale Horelick Shirley Ingalls Andrea Julian Yun Kim Amy Laden Marcia Leonhardt Pat Levinson Jennifer Lezin Margy & Art Lim Theodore Ma Betty & Ernst Meissner Sally Mentzer Jean Nixon Anne Peck Nan Reitz Lourdes Richardson Debby Scheraga Margaret Simmons Richard Steinberg Sueann & Jeffrey Stone Barbara Tam Sara Tanke Carol Toppel Susan Weisberg Alice Wong Chris Ziegler
More Thanks
A1 Party Rentals Accurate Staging Communication Rental Service Deutsche Grammophon Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Redwood City/Atherton Frank Music Company Kevin Fryer Enrico Giannini, Custom Books and Boxes, Italy Karen Gottlieb Great American Framing Company Eric J. Heller, 2012 Visual Artist Hyperion Records Menlo Grill Bistro & Bar Menlo Park Presbyterian Church Musson Theatrical Nonprofit Finance Fund ProPiano, Ricard de la Rosa San Jose State University Career Center Santa Clara University Career Center Servers Standing By Stanford University Career Development Center Taurus Bookbindery, San Francisco Tiffany & Co. The Travel Agents, Lynne Rosenfeld James Tyler Weir & Associates Catering and Event Planning Sebastien Wickert, iPad and iPhone application development
Ticket and Performance Information Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts
Ticket Services On-site ticketing and the will-call table open one hour prior to the start of each ticketed event. All programs and artists are subject to change without notice. All tickets are nonrefundable, except in cases of canceled events. Ticket exchanges are free for Members at the Bach Circle ($1,000) level and above and Subscribers; a $3-per-ticket handling charge applies to all other exchanges. For ticket-related questions or to exchange tickets, please contact Music@Menlo’s ticket services office at 650-331-0202 or tickets@musicatmenlo.org.
Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts are free and open to the public. A free ticket is required for these popular concerts. In addition to picking up your ticket in person at will call starting one hour before the concert, you can also reserve your tickets online in advance! Reservations can be made on the day of the performance from 9:00 a.m. to ninety minutes prior to the concert start time. To make your reservation, visit Music@Menlo’s website at www.musicatmenlo.org and click the “Reserve your ticket for today’s free concert” link on the home page or visit the online festival calendar. Note: All reservations must be claimed no later than fifteen minutes prior to the performance start time, at which time they will be released to walk-up audience members. Seating is by general admission. Exiting Free Concerts At the end of Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts, guests will be asked to clear the venue with personal belongings in hand for admission to the next event. Any items left behind when exiting Prelude Performances or Koret Young Performers Concerts may be claimed at the will-call table outside the venue. Music@Menlo is not responsible for lost or stolen articles.
Seating Policies
Locations and Parking
• Doors open approximately twenty-five minutes before the start time of each event.
Menlo School, Martin Family Hall, and Stent Family Hall are located at 50 Valparaiso Avenue in Atherton, between El Camino Real and Alameda de las Pulgas at the Menlo Park border. St. Mark’s Episcopal Church is located at 600 Colorado Avenue in midtown Palo Alto, between Middlefield Road and Cowper Street. The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton is located on the campus of Menlo-Atherton High School at 555 Middlefield Road in Atherton, near the intersection of Middlefield Road and Ravenswood Avenue. Parking is free in all of the venues’ available lots. Overflow parking is available on nearby neighborhood streets. Please be mindful of neighbors and posted parking restrictions.
• Seating for paid concerts at the Center for Performing Arts at MenloAtherton and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church is reserved. Seating in Stent Family Hall and Martin Family Hall and for all free events is by general admission. • Student-ticket holders who are ages eighteen and over must be prepared to present a valid full-time-student ID at the door. • Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the House Manager at an appropriate interval in the performance. • All performance venues are wheelchair accessible, and wheelchair seating is available in all venues in the designated wheelchair locations only. One companion seat is reserved next to each wheelchair location. Please let our patron services staff know of any special seating needs at the time you place your order.
Concert and Event Policies • As a courtesy to the artists and to your fellow audience members, please turn off cell phones, pagers, watch alarms, personal organizers, and all sound-emitting devices prior to the start of all events. • Please make a conscious effort to keep noises, such as coughing and conversation, to a minimum as they can be quite distracting. Please unwrap any lozenges or other products before the performance starts. We appreciate your consideration, as will the musicians, your fellow listeners, and our recording engineer. • Children need to be at least seven years of age and able to sit quietly throughout a full performance to attend paid concerts and Encounters. Please see pages 70–80 for events designed for younger audiences. • Unauthorized recording or photographing of any kind is strictly prohibited. • Food or beverages are not allowed inside the performance venues. Concessions are generally available for purchase outside of the concert halls. Water fountains are available at all venues except St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, where complimentary poured water is available.
Restrooms and Exits Restrooms at Menlo School are located through the side exit at the back of Spieker Ballroom and in the building behind Martin Family Hall. Restrooms at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church are available in the adjoining walkways, next to the church office. Restrooms at the Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton are located toward the back of the venue’s lobby. Fire exits are marked at each venue.
Lost and Found Any personal items found at festival venues will be held at the festival Welcome Center at Menlo School. Inquire at the Welcome Center or call 650-330-2030. The festival assumes no responsibility for personal property.
Help Us Achieve a Greener Festival Experience As Music@Menlo works to enhance the community through music, we also strive to practice environmental responsibility. Please join our efforts in being a more eco-friendly organization. Please reuse your program book throughout the festival and dispose of recyclable waste in the bins provided on campus. Thank you.
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Music@Menlo Calendar July 20–August 11, 2012 Friday, July 20
5:30 p.m.
Prelude Performance Stent Family Hall
page 70
7:30 p.m.
Encounter I: Music and the Listener, led by Ara Guzelimian Martin Family Hall ($44)
page 10
Saturday, July 21 Open House (all day)
8:30 a.m.
Q & A Coffee with the Artistic Directors Menlo School Open Rehearsal Menlo School Café Conversation: Musical Manuscripts throughout History with David Finckel and Ara Guzelimian Martin Family Hall Open Rehearsal Menlo School Prelude Performance Martin Family Hall
page 84
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program I: Sustained Stent Family Hall ($75)
page 13
9:30 a.m. 11:45 a.m. 3:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m.
page 84 page 82
page 84 page 70
Sunday, July 22
Monday, July 23
10:30 a.m.
11:45 a.m. 4:15 p.m.
Tuesday, July 24
11:45 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, July 25
11:45 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, July 26
11:45 a.m. 5:30 p.m.
Friday, July 27
11:45 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Master Class: Pacifica Quartet Martin Family Hall Listening Room series Martin Family Hall
page 81
Café Conversation: Poetry Reading Workshop with Jorja Fleezanis, violinist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance Martin Family Hall
page 82
Café Conversation: The Art of the Voice with Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
page 82
Master Class: Jeffrey Kahane, pianist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 81
Master Class: David Finckel, cellist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 81
Carte Blanche Concert I: Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien: Sehnsucht/Verlangen Stent Family Hall ($75) Picnic Lunch with the Artists ($18) 6:00 p.m. Concert Program I: Sustained The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($65/$55)
page 39
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program II: Illuminated Stent Family Hall ($75)
page 16
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program II: Illuminated St. Mark’s Episcopal Church ($55/$40)
page 16
7:30 p.m.
Encounter II: Music and Film, led by Stephen Prutsman The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($44/$36)
page 10
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program III: Transported The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($65/$55)
page 19
page 13
page 83
page 71
page 71
page 72
page 72
Saturday, July 28
1:00 p.m.
Koret Young Performers Concert St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
page 78
8:00 p.m.
Carte Blanche Concert II: Sasha Cooke and Kelly Markgraf with Gilbert Kalish St. Mark’s Episcopal Church ($60/$40)
page 43
Sunday, July 29
4:00 p.m.
Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 73
10:30 a.m.
Carte Blanche Concert III: Juho Pohjonen Stent Family Hall ($75) Concert Program IV: Enhanced The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($65/$55)
page 46
6:00 p.m.
Monday, July 30
11:45 a.m. 4:15 p.m.
116 Music@Menlo 2012
Café Conversation: The Harp Uncovered with Bridget Kibbey, harpist Martin Family Hall Listening Room series Martin Family Hall
page 82
page 83
page 23
Tuesday, July 31
11:45 a.m.
Master Class: Jorja Fleezanis, violinist Martin Family Hall
page 81
Wednesday, August 1
11:45 a.m.
Master Class: Laurence Lesser, cellist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 81
Café Conversation: The Lute Version of Bach’s Fifth Cello Suite with Laurence Lesser, cellist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance Stent Family Hall
page 82
6:00 p.m.
Thursday, August 2
11:45 a.m. 5:30 p.m.
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program V: Motivated The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($65/$55)
page 26
7:30 p.m.
Encounter III: Expressing the Inexpressible: Music and the Spirit, led by Michael Parloff Martin Family Hall ($44)
page 11
page 73
page 74
Friday, August 3
11:45 a.m.
Master Class: Arnaud Sussmann, violinist Martin Family Hall
page 81
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program VI: Inspired St. Mark’s Episcopal Church ($55/$40)
page 30
Saturday, August 4
1:00 p.m.
Koret Young Performers Concert The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 79
8:00 p.m.
Carte Blanche Concert IV: Violin Celebration The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($70/$60)
page 49
6:00 p.m.
Concert Program VII: Impassioned The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($65/$55)
page 33
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program VII: Impassioned Stent Family Hall ($75)
page 33
7:30 p.m.
Encounter IV: Music and Modern Society, led by Patrick Castillo Martin Family Hall ($44)
page 11
8:00 p.m.
Carte Blanche Concert V: David Finckel and Wu Han The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($70/$60)
page 52
8:00 p.m.
Concert Program VIII: Delighted Stent Family Hall ($75)
page 36
Concert Program VIII: Delighted The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton ($65/$55) Fête the Festival: Tenth-Anniversary Celebration Menlo Park’s Arrillaga Family Recreation Center ($50)
page 36
6:00 p.m.
page 74
Sunday, August 5
4:00 p.m.
Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 75
Monday, August 6
11:45 a.m.
Café Conversation: Musical Gems of the Internet with David Finckel, Music@Menlo Artistic Codirector Martin Family Hall Listening Room series Martin Family Hall
page 82
Master Class: Ani Kavafian, violinist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance Martin Family Hall
page 81
Master Class: Gilbert Kalish, pianist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance Stent Family Hall
page 81
Master Class: Ian Swensen, violinist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 81
Master Class: Wu Han, pianist Martin Family Hall Prelude Performance Martin Family Hall
page 81
Koret Young Performers Concert The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton Prelude Performance The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton
page 80
6:00 p.m.
page 77
8:30 p.m.
4:15 p.m.
Tuesday, August 7
11:45 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, August 8
11:45 a.m. 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, August 9
11:45 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Friday, August 10
11:45 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 11
12:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m.
page 83
page 75
page 76
page 76
page 77
page 36
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Music@Menlo
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David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors
Marc A. Compton Senior Vice President, Market Executive 1000 El Camino Real, Suite 100 Menlo Park, California 94025 650.463.4841 marc.a.compton@ustrust.com
July 20–August 11, 2012
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Music@Menlo The Tenth Season: Resonance
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The Tenth Season: Resonance July 20–August 11, 2012 David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors