Chestnut Hill Concerts 2014 program book by Vincent Oneppo

Chestnut Hill Concerts

45th Season â&#x20AC;˘ 2014 Ronald Thomas, Artistic Director

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2014 Concert Season Ronald Thomas, Artistic Director

Board of Directors David A. Rackey, president Jeanne Guertin-Potoff, vice president Mahlon Hale, MD, treasurer Connie Dickinson Michael Ebert, MD Mihae Lee David Lopath

Staff Vincent Oneppo, managing director Christopher Melillo, technical manager Daniel Kurpaska, production assistant and page turner Paula Raggio, bookkeeper Barbara Leish, program annotator

Chestnut Hill Concerts P.O. Box 183, Guilford, CT 06437 (203) 245-5736 www.chestnuthillconcerts.org Friend us on Facebook

Cover: Celia Thazxterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Garden, Isle of Shoals, Maine (detail) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1890 by Frederick Childe Hassam, 1859-1935

From the President of the Board To Our Audience, Sponsors, Contributors, and Musicians —

Welcome to our 2014 Chestnut Hill Concerts chamber music series. This summer marks our 45th year of presenting extraordinary concerts on the Connecticut shoreline, and our fifth summer at The Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center – an ideal venue for listening to fine chamber music in complete comfort. The 21st century world would be totally unfathomable to the composers and musicians who originally performed the programs you are about to hear. But the music itself is reassuringly the same. Many of the instruments used by tonight’s musicians are identical to those used in the original performances; and those that are more modern are still very similar. But everything else has changed, from the nature of the performance venue, to the distance the musicians travel, the breadth of the audience and the number of people, and the organizations and foundations that make these performances possible. Our concert sponsors for this 45th year include Guilford Savings Bank, Northstar Wealth Partners, and generous individuals; Essex Savings Bank sponsors our Kids and Teens Come Free program, and our Musician sponsors are Mary and Daniel Hally. The lead sponsor of our May 17 Benefit Concert (please see the article on pages 46 & 47) was TD Ameritrade. We are grateful to all our donors for their role in supporting these very special performances. Most of all, I want to express our appreciation for the talented musicians who have been brought together by our esteemed artistic director, Ronald Thomas, for this wonderful concert tonight. Their profession is truly a labor of love, and we, the audience, are the beneficiaries of their talent, training and passion for fine music. Before the music begins, I want to call your attention to our expanded public outreach efforts, which this year included performances by talented “Musicians of Chestnut Hill” at three Old Saybrook schools. In a marathon day (documented photographically on pages 50 and 51) these musicians played for – and with – more than 700 students and performed a concert for a rapt and appreciative audience at Essex Meadows. This new outreach effort was made possible by the support of the Old Saybrook Educational Foundation, The Edgard and Geraldine Feder Foundation, Sonny Whelen, and Essex Meadows. A final thanks goes to you, our appreciative and loyal audience, without whom Chestnut Hill Concerts would not exist.

David A. Rackey 3

Kids & Teens Come Free! Chestnut Hill Concerts is pleased to introduce young people to the world of classical music by offering complimentary tickets to all children and teenagers accompanied by an adult. Special opportunities for music teachers are also available. For more information, please call (203) 245-5736. Generously supported by Essex Savings Bank.

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Violin Sonata in G Major, k. 379 Adagio — Allegro Tema con variationi: Andantino cantabile Jesse Mills, violin Rieko Aizawa, piano

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 67 Dmitri Shostakovich Andante (1905-1975) Allegro con brio Largo Allegretto Jessica Lee, violin Ronald Thomas, cello  Rieko Aizawa, piano

intermission Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 Johannes Brahms Allegro non troppo (1833-1897) Andante, un poco adagio Scherzo: Allegro Finale: Poco sostenuto - Allegro non troppo - Presto, non troppo Jessica Lee, violin Jesse Mills, violin Mark Holloway, viola  Ronald Thomas, cello  Rieko Aizawa, piano

“In Hoc Signo Vinces” Thank you, The Hally Family 8

Program Notes by Barbara Leish “Chamber music,” said Shostakovich, “demands of a composer the most impeccable technique and depth of thought. The timbral riches that are at the disposal of the contemporary symphony orchestra are inaccessible to the small chamber ensemble.” From the transparency of Mozart’s sonata for two instruments, to the weight of Shostakovich’s trio, to the symphonic scope of Brahms’s quintet, these chamber-music works brilliantly demonstrate the range of what can be achieved with small numbers of instruments.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Violin Sonata in G Major, K. 379 (1781) The life of an eighteenth-century European musician could be stressful, especially if he was dependent on a patron who was imperious and demanding. Mozart’s patron, Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo of Salzburg, more than fit that bill. In the spring of 1781 Colloredo abruptly summoned Mozart and a few other Salzburg court musicians to Vienna. Among the many concerts Mozart was ordered to give on short notice was one at the home of the archbishop’s father, Prince Rudolph. In a letter to his father dated April 8, 1781, Wolfgang reported, “Today (for I am writing at eleven o’clock at night) we had a concert where three of my compositions were performed—new ones, of course; a rondo for a concerto for [the violinist Antonio] Brunetti, a sonata with violin accompaniment for myself, which I composed last night between eleven and twelve (but in order to be able to finish it, I only wrote out the accompaniment for Brunetti and retained my own part in my head): and then a rondo for [the castrato Francesco] Ceccarelli.” The sonata Mozart refers to is the one on tonight’s program. Mozart’s letter is illuminating on several counts. Its tone suggests his irritation with the Archbishop (elsewhere, Mozart referred to him as the “arch-clown”). Theirs was a contentious relationship, with Mozart becoming increasingly angry at what he felt was Colloredo’s abusiveness and exploitation. Within weeks Mozart would break from Colloredo and begin his life as a freelance composer, teacher, and performer in his new home, Vienna. Meanwhile though, as the letter also shows, he was composing at the remarkably swift pace that, for him, was normal – an hour for this sonata, a day for three arias from The Abduction from the Seraglio, four or five days for the Linz symphony. What is most interesting in the letter, however, from the point of view of the development of the violin sonata, is Mozart’s reference to “a sonata with violin accompaniment.” This was the traditional relationship that audiences would expect, and indeed there are stretches of piano dominance here, including parts of the Adagio 9

(a movement placed, unusually, at the beginning of the sonata) and a solo piano variation in the last movement. But in other places the instruments work closely together to produce music that is filled with delights – among them a serene first movement that at times has the feel of an improvisation; a charming theme and variations; and in the middle, a tempestuous minor-key Allegro that the musicologist Hermann Abert described as “a thunderstorm sweeping suddenly over a smiling landscape.” Throughout, the violin is given important material, as Mozart shows that he is moving toward something new and surprising — an equal partnership between the two instruments. The Sonata in G major was one of six violin-andpiano sonatas that were published in 1781 as Opus 2. A critic writing in Cramer’s Musical Magazine praised them as “unique of their type,” “rich in new ideas,” and requiring “just as skillful a player on the violin as on the clavier.”

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 67 (1944) Shostakovich’s closest friend was Ivan Sollertinsky, an erudite musicologist and scholar known for his great intellect, passion for music, and mischievous sense of humor. They met as young men and quickly became inseparable. According to Shostakovich’s sister, “They had an insane friendship. Sollertinsky came to see us every day in the morning and stayed until the evening. They spent the whole day together, laughing and chuckling.” In February 1944 the 41-year-old Sollertinsky died of a heart attack. Shostakovich was devastated. “It is impossible to express in words all the grief that engulfed me on hearing the news about Ivan Ivanovich’s death,” he wrote to Sollertinsky’s widow. “I am indebted to him for all my growth. To live without him will be unbearably difficult.” What Shostakovich couldn’t say in words, he expressed in music. The summer before, he had begun work on the first movement of a new piano trio on Russian folk themes. Within days of Sollertinsky’s death he finished the movement. Several months later he completed the Trio and dedicated it to the memory of his friend. By then, other tragedies were weighing on Shostakovich: the horrific toll the war was taking on Russia, and the appalling news of the Holocaust that was beginning to reach him. So the Trio can be heard as an elegy both for Sollertinsky and for the war’s millions of victims. It’s a powerful work, filled with pain, anger, melancholy, and mordant wit. It begins eerily, with a ghostly melody that is introduced by the cello at the top of its range, picked up by the violin in the middle range, and finally repeated quietly by the piano in the low bass. Other themes evolve from this opening fugato as the Andante builds through a series of escalating climaxes. Contributing to the movement’s emotional force are the strident rhythms and the startling contrasts in tone and mood that are characteristic of Shostakovich’s music. With the second movement, despair gives way to manic energy. Sollertinskly’s sister described this brash movement as “an amazingly exact portrait of Ivan Ivanovich, 11

whom Shostakovich understood like no one else. That is his temper, his polemics, his manner of speech, his habit of returning to one and the same thought, developing it.” Funereal bleakness returns in full force in the Largo, a passacaglia in which the strings weave an anguished lament over a repeated set of eight tormented chords. The ironic last movement begins with a macabre Yiddish-sounding dance — the first appearance of the so-called Jewish theme that would play an ongoing role in Shostakovich’s music, both as a comment on anti-Semitism and because the modes, rhythms, and ambiguous attitudes of Jewish music and folklore suited him musically and temperamentally. Here the dance builds to a frenzy before ending abruptly. Shostakovich then brings back the fugal theme from the first movement and the chords from the Largo, after which the strings whisper the dance theme one last time to bring the Trio to an exhausted and sorrowful close.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 (1865) Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F Minor had a difficult birth. In 1862 Brahms sent a new string quintet to his friend Joseph Joachim for his opinion. Joachim thought it “a piece of great significance,” but he had doubts about the scoring. For one thing, he wrote to Brahms, “the instrumentation is not energetic enough to convey the powerful rhythmic convulsions.” Brahms evidently agreed, for he quickly abandoned this version and set about turning the music into a sonata for two pianos. Now it was Clara Schumann who had objections. “It is masterly from every point of view,” she wrote to Brahms, but “it is not a sonata, but a work whose ideas you might – and must – scatter as from a horn of plenty over an entire orchestra.” Brahms wasn’t yet ready to undertake a symphony, though, so instead he prepared a third and final rescoring, this time for piano and strings. Clara approved. Brahms finally had found the right combination of instruments to bring out the exceptional richness and complexity of his magnificent creation. (Brahms destroyed the string quintet version, as he frequently did with works that dissatisfied him, but he allowed the two-piano version to be published as Opus 34b.) The Piano Quintet is considered by many to be Brahms’s crowning chamber-music achievement. It’s a work of powerful lyricism, in which small motivic ideas play key roles in carrying out a grandly conceived formal design. All of the characteristic Brahmsian traits are here: the dramatic intensity, the lush lyricism, the rhythmic adventurousness, the intricate thematic and tonal innovations. What is added is a sense of dramatic progression that links the four movements and gives the work an overall unity. From the opening measures of the majestic first movement, Brahms indicates how he will handle his material to achieve both unity of form and great emotional impact. After a quiet beginning, in stark octaves, the music explodes as Brahms speeds up the theme – one of the many rhythmic devices he uses to great effect throughout the movement. The opening theme also introduces the falling halftones that become 12

a unifying motive throughout the Quintet. A wealth of melodic ideas follow, in sharply contrasting moods and varied rhythms. The movement ends with a striking coda that begins quietly and ends, fortissimo, with the same explosive energy and passion that opened the Quintet. The Andante that follows is as lyrical and tender as the first movement is stormy and tense, and as relatively straightforward as the first movement is complex. It’s a respite before the return of intensity and passion in the Scherzo. Another richly inventive movement, driven by syncopation and displaced downbeats, the Scherzo is built from three successive themes: the first shadowy, the second energetically rhythmic, the third bold and vehement. A lyrical trio provides a brief island of calm. Among the highlights of the Finale are a trove of thematic ideas, starting with the Slavic-sounding dance theme that Brahms introduces after a strange, somber opening. There’s an energetic Presto, and an extended coda that’s a whirlwind of verve and powerful sound – a big, orchestral-like ending that must have delighted Clara.

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Chestnut Hill Concerts 8:00 pm, Friday, August 8, 2014 Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center Sponsored by Dave Rackey & Emily Eisenlohr and Zoe & Mahlon Hale

Music by

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827 Piano Sonata in C sharp Minor, Op. 27 no. 2, “Moonlight”  Adagio sostenuto Allegretto Presto agitato Benjamin Hochman, piano Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major, Op. 47 “Kreutzer”  Adagio sostenuto — Presto — Adagio Andante con variazioni Presto Todd Phillips, violin Benjamin Hochman, piano intermission Piano Trio in B flat Major, Op. 97 “Archduke”  Allegro moderato Scherzo: Allegro Andante cantabile ma però con moto. Poco piu adagio Allegro moderato – Presto Todd Phillips, violin  Ronald Thomas, cello Benjamin Hochman, piano   15

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Program Notes by Barbara Leish “What’s in a name?” Juliet asked of Romeo. The same might be asked of Beethoven. Moonlight, Kreutzer, Archduke – Beethoven may not have picked these titles, but by now they are inseparable from the works. True, these masterpieces would sound just as wonderful by any other names. What matters is that they are beloved milestones on Beethoven’s revolutionary road.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp Minor, Op. 27 No. 2, “Moonlight” (1801) By 1801, Beethoven was in despair over his encroaching deafness. As he wrote to his friend Franz Wegeler, “For almost two years I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I am deaf.” One bright spot, he told Wegeler, was “a dear charming girl who loves me and whom I love.” Beethoven most likely was referring to the Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, his 16-yearold piano pupil. For a time it was assumed that she was Beethoven’s mysterious Immortal Beloved, but that no longer is considered likely. At any rate, he appeared to be smitten, and she appeared to enjoy her influence over him; a drawing she made depicts Beethoven as a lovestruck Romeo gazing up at her balcony. But although she liked flirting with the famous composer, and although he dedicated the “Moonlight” Sonata to her, two years later she married a man her own age. Personal turmoil didn’t appear to slow down Beethoven’s extraordinary musical productivity, however. “Hardly have I completed one composition when I have already begun another,” he wrote to Wegeler. “I often produce three or four works at the same time.” For some time he had been testing the boundaries of the Classical style. In his piano sonatas in particular he seemed intent on breaking new ground. Lewis Lockwood calls the 11 sonatas Beethoven wrote between 1798 and 1802 “a laboratory of invention.” Of these, none was more startling than the Piano Sonata in C sharp Minor, Op. 27 No.2, which Beethoven titled “Sonata quasi una fantasia.” Here Beethoven challenges the Classical ideal by scrambling the order of the movements. Instead of starting with a big allegro movement in sonata form, Beethoven opens with a slow, hypnotic, fantasia-like Adagio. It is followed by a graceful Allegretto, and finally by a tumultuous sonata-form Presto agitato that, from a launch of frenzied arpeggios and violent chords, pounds forward with unabated passion. By beginning with the slow movement and building – without pauses between the movements – to a dramatic last-movement climax, Beethoven was experimenting with how to give the whole sonata an unbroken flow. “The probability is that few of Beethoven’s contemporaries grasped such music as this, stuck fast as they were in eighteenth-century conventions,” Eric Blom commented. “The wonder is that the Viennese aristocrats of the time were enlightened enough to tolerate his musical 17

revolts and his incredibly boorish behavior for the sake of his genius.” The poet and critic Ludwig Rellstab gave the sonata its famous title “Moonlight,” supposedly because the music reminded him of the waters of Lake Lucerne on a moonlit night. (The name certainly doesn’t fit the second and third movements.) Thanks in particular to the first movement, the sonata was immensely popular, to Beethoven’s annoyance. He complained to Czerny, “People are constantly talking about the C sharp minor sonata! But I have written much better things.” Perhaps – but nothing he wrote has captured the popular imagination quite like the Moonlight.

Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9, in A Major,Op. 47, “Kreutzer” (1802-3) Would we love the Kreutzer Sonata just as much if it were called the Bridgetower? For a long time that is what is was called, according to Czerny. Beethoven wrote it for the half-Polish, half-African London-based violinist George Bridgetower, who came to Vienna in 1803. After he and Beethoven met, Beethoven quickly finished a new sonata he was working on so that they could perform it together. During the premiere, Bridgetower reportedly read the second movement over Beethoven’s shoulder because the composer hadn’t had time to copy out the violin part. Beethoven was so delighted with Bridgetower’s playing of the dauntingly difficult work that at one point he leapt up and embraced him. But although Beethoven dedicated the sonata to his new friend, the two men soon quarreled, and when the work was published in 1805 an angry Beethoven had rededicated it to the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer. If Beethoven had hoped to please Kreutzer, however, he didn’t succeed. Kreutzer disliked the sonata, pronounced it “outrageously unintelligible,” and never performed it. So it’s ironic that it is Kreutzer’s name that is forever linked to this tour de force. The Kreutzer Sonata expands the boundaries of the Classical sonata so dramatically that some consider it to be the launch of Beethoven’s musical revolution. Written a year before the landmark “Eroica” Symphony, it turns the familiar, stylized Mozartian model into a dynamic work of dazzling power and scope. Beethoven makes it clear

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that he has something new in mind: On the title page of the published edition, he describes the Sonata as “Written in a very concertante style, like that of a concerto.” Like a concerto, the Kreutzer has a grand emotional sweep. As in a concerto, too, both the violin and the piano are given big, demanding parts — this is no work for amateurs. While the violin has plenty of chances to shine, Beethoven has also achieved an admirable instrumental balance, technically and sonorously. Throughout, the two instruments are equal partners in a complex relationship. The first movement is the emotional and dramatic heart of the Sonata. From the opening notes, Beethoven shows that he will be challenging convention. Instead of the piano and the violin opening the sonata together, the violin opens alone, uneasily, with slow, strained chords. From this stunning introduction – which blurs the line between major and minor, and which introduces the half-steps that will play a significant thematic role in the rest of the movement – the mood quickly shifts to a fiery and passionate Presto that Charles Rosen described as “unequaled in formal clarity, grandeur, and dramatic force by anything that Beethoven had yet written.” After the storm of the Presto, the good-natured Andante, with its genial theme and four variations, brings refreshing relief. So does the whirlwind Finale, an upbeat and witty movement that Beethoven originally had written for an earlier sonata. It works here as a perfect conclusion to the work Berlioz called “one of the most sublime of all violin sonatas.”

Piano Trio in B flat Major, Op. 97, “Archduke” (1810-11) With the Piano Trio in B flat Major, Beethoven arrived at another pinnacle. For several years, starting with the massive “Eroica” Symphony, he had been composing tempestuous, conflict-ridden works in what has been called his heroic period. Just as revolutionary, however, were several compositions that were distinguished by spaciousness, serenity, and lyric breadth. Among this group was the great piano trio that he dedicated to one of his most important patrons, Archduke Rudolph. A young brother of the Austrian Emperor, Rudolph was a talented pianist who at 16 began studying piano and composition with Beethoven. It was the beginning of a lifelong close relationship between the cultured archduke and the testy composer. Among other things, when Napoleon’s brother offered Beethoven the post of kappellmeister in Westphalia in 1809, Rudolph arranged for a yearly annuity that would keep Beethoven in Vienna and relieve him of financial pressures. Beethoven dedicated many important works to Rudolph, including three piano sonatas, a violin sonata, the last two piano concertos, the Grosse Fuge, the Missa Solemnis, and the monumental piano trio that bears his name. Like the Archduke to whom it is dedicated, The B flat Major Trio is a noble work, dramatic in scope and in the richness of its harmonies. The Trio’s first movement – a gracious, easy-paced Allegro moderato – begins with one of Beethoven’s most beguiling melodies, a broad, flowing legato theme that is first introduced by the piano alone, then repeated with the cello and violin joining in. Beethoven quickly 19

establishes that the cello will range widely, that modulations will be surprising, and that textures and sonorities will be lush. Among the many pleasures of the complex movement are the ingenious way Beethoven develops his opening theme, phrase by phrase; the extended pizzicatos in the development section; the quiet trills that, after some teasing, lead back to the recapitulation; and a brief but imposing coda. After tranquility comes impishness. The Scherzo begins humorously with a rising scale, then continues on its lighthearted way to an extended trio with two themes, the first a mysterious fugato, the second a flashy Viennese-like waltz. Unusually, Beethoven repeats the sections before ending with the Scherzo proper and a coda that brings back the fugato. Serenity returns with the Andante cantabile, whose chorale-like theme is followed by a set of exquisitely-ornamented variations. Then, as he so enjoys doing, Beethoven jolts the listener again with another abrupt change of mood. Donald Francis Tovey has a wonderful description of the last movement: “When the finale of the B flat Trio shocks us with unseemly conviviality before the slow movement has finished dying away, Beethoven has no apologies to offer. The outrageous jocularity continues unabashed, until not only the proportions, but the actual mysterious quality, of the finale develop a sublimity of their own. It is a marvelous study in Bacchanalian indolence.” Over the course of four movements, Beethoven the alchemist has melded transcendent beauty with bravura wit to create musical gold. Not surprisingly, Beethoven thought the Archduke was one of his finest creations.

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“My summer’s delight” — Phyllis M. McDowell

Chestnut Hill Concerts 8:00 pm, Friday, August 15, 2014 Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center Sponsored by Phyllis M. McDowell Selection of Lieder  Du bist wie eine Blume, Op. 25, Nr. 24 Der Nussbaum, Op. 25, Nr. 3 Meine Rose, Op. 90, Nr. 2 Röselein, Röselein! Op. 89, Nr. 6 Er ist’s, Op. 79, Nr. 24

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Hyunah Yu, soprano   Mihae Lee, piano Song texts begin on the following page Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano, Op. 70  William Purvis, horn  Mihae Lee, piano “Auf dem Strom”, D. 943,   for soprano, horn, and piano

Robert Schumann

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Hyunah Yu, soprano William Purvis, horn   Mihae Lee, piano intermission Piano Trio in E flat Major, Op. 100  Allegro Andante con moto Scherzando. Allegro moderato Allegro moderato

Franz Schubert

Jennifer Koh, violin  Ronald Thomas, cello  Mihae Lee, piano 23

Song texts Du bist wie eine Blume Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

Thou art so like a flower

Du bist wie eine Blume so hold und schön und rein ich schau’ dich an, und Wehmut schleicht mir ins Herz hinein.

Thou art so like a flower, So pure, and fair and kind; I gaze on thee, and sorrow Then in my heart I find.

Mir ist, als ob ich die Hände aufs Haupt dir legen sollt’, betend, daß [Gott dich]2 erhalte so rein und schön und hold.

It seems as though I must lay then My hand upon thy brow, Praying that God may preserve thee, As pure and fair as now.

Der Nussbaum Julius Mosen (1803-1867)

The Walnut Tree

Es grünet ein Nußbaum vor dem Haus, A walnut tree stands greenly in front of Duftig the house, Luftig fragrantly and airly Breitet er blättrig die Äste aus. spreading out its leafy branches. Viel liebliche Blüten stehen dran; Linde Winde Kommen, sie herzlich zu umfahn.

Many lovely blossoms does it bear; gentle winds come to caress them.

Es flüstern je zwei zu zwei gepaart, Neigend, Beugend Zierlich zum Kusse die Häuptchen zart.

They whisper, paired two by two, gracefully inclining their tender heads to kiss.

Sie flüstern von einem Mägdlein, Dächte Nächte, Tagelang, wüsste, ach! selber nicht was.

They whisper of a maiden who thinks day and night long of... but alas! she does not herself know!

Sie flüstern - wer mag verstehn so gar Leise Weise? – Flüstern von Bräut›gam und nächstem Jahr.

They whisper - who can understand such a soft song? – they whisper of a bridegroom and of the coming year.

Das Mägdlein horchet, es rauscht im Baum; Sehnend, Wähnend Sinkt es lächelnd in Schlaf und Traum.

The maiden listens, the tree rustles; yearning, hoping, she sinks smiling into sleep and dream.

Meine Rose Nikolaus Lenau (1802-1850)

My Rose

Dem holden Lenzgeschmeide, Der Rose, meiner Freude, Die schon gebeugt und blasser Vom heißen Strahl der Sonnen, Reich› ich den Becher Wasser Aus tiefem Bronnen.

To the lovely jewelry of Spring, to the rose, my delight, that is already bowing and turning pale from the hot beams of the sun, I reach out a cup of water from a deep well.

Du Rose meines Herzens! Vom stillen Strahl des Schmerzens Bist du gebeugt und blasser; Ich möchte dir zu Füßen, Wie dieser Blume Wasser, Still meine Seele gießen! Könnt› ich dann auch nicht sehen Dich auferstehen.

You rose of my heart! From the silent beam of pain you bow and turn pale; At your feet, I would like, as this flower water does, to silently pour my soul out, even if I then might not see you rise.

Röselein, Röselein! Friedrich Schopff (1826-1916)

Little rose, little rose!

Röselein, Röselein, Müssen denn Dornen sein? Schlief am schatt’gen Bächelein Einst zu süssem Träumen ein, Sah in goldner Sonne-Schein Dornenlos ein Röselein, Pflückt’ es auch und küsst’ es fein, “Dornloses Röselein!”

Little rose, little rose. Must you have thorns? I fell asleep once by a shady brooklet, And had such a sweet dream, I saw in the golden sunshine A rose without thorns. I picked it and delicately kissed it “Thornless rose”!

Ich erwacht’ und schaute drein: “Hatt’ ich’s doch! wo mag es sein?” Rings im weiten Sonnenschein Standen nur Dornröselein! Und das Bächlein lachte mein: “Lass du nur dein Träumen sein! Merk’ dir’s fein, merk’ dir’s fein, Dornröslein müssen sein!”

I woke up and looked around, “If it were only here. Where can it be?” All around in the sunlight There were only roses with thorns! And the brooklet laughed at me; “Leave off with your dreaming, Mark this well, mark this well, Roses will always have thorns.” 25

Er ist’s Eduard Mörike (1804-1875)

It is he

Frühling läßt sein blaues Band Wieder flattern durch die Lüfte; Süße, wohlbekannte Düfte Streifen ahnungsvoll das Land. Veilchen träumen schon, Wollen balde kommen. Horch, von fern ein leiser Harfenton! Frühling, ja du bist’s! Dich hab ich vernommen!

Spring unfurls her blue ribbon, makes it stream in vernal breezes; sweet, familiar fragrance pleases with a touch the land anew. Violets, dream-bound, will be soon appearing. Hark, from far a silver harping sound! Spring, it must be you! You I have been hearing.

Auf dem Strom Ludwig Rellstab (1799-1860) Nimm die letzen Abschiedsküsse, Und die wehenden, die Grüsse, Die ich noch ans Ufer sende, Eh’ dein Fuss sich scheidend wende! Schon wird von des Stromes Wogen Rasch der Nachen fortgezogen, Doch den tränendunklen Blick Zieht die Sehnsucht stets zurück!

Take these last farewell kisses, And the wafted greetings That I send to the shore, Before your foot turns to leave. Already the boat is pulled away By the waves’ rapid current; But longing forever draws back My gaze, clouded with tears.

Und so trägt mich denn die Welle Fort mit unerflehter Schnelle. Ach, schon ist die Flur verschwunden, Wo ich selig Sie gefunden! Ewig hin, ihr Wonnetage! Hoffnungsleer verhallt die Klage Um ich ihre Liebe fand.

And so the waves bear me away With relentless speed. Ah, already the meadows Where, overjoyed, I found her have disappeared. Days of bliss, you are gone forever! Hopelessly my lament echoes Round the fair homeland Where I found her love.

Sieh, wie flieht der Strand vorüber, Und wie drängt es mich hinüber, Zieht mit unnennbaren Banden, An der Hütte dort zu landen, In der Laube dort zu weilen; Doch des Stromes Wellen eilen Weiter ohne Rast und Ruh, Führen mich dem Weltmeer zu!

See how the shore flies past, And how mysterious ties Draw me across To a land by yonder cottage, To linger in yonder arbor. But the river’s waves rush onwards, Without respite, Bearing me on towards the ocean.

Ach, vor jener dunklen Wüste, Fern von jeder heitern Küste, Wo kein Eiland zu erschauen, O, wie fast mich zitternd Grauen! Wehmutstränen sanft zu bringen, Kann kein Lied vom Ufer dringen; Nur der Sturm weht kalt daher Durch das grau gehobne Meer!

Ah, how I tremble with dread At that dark wilderness, Far from every cheerful shore, Where no island can be seen! No song can reach me from the shore To bring forth tears of gentle sadness; Only the tempest blows cold Across the grey, angry sea.

Kann des Auges sehnend Schweifen Keine Ufer mehr ergreifen, Nun so schau’ich zu den Sternen Auf in jenen heil’gen Fernen! Ach, bei ihrem milden Scheine Nannt’ ich sie zuerst die Meine; Dort vielleicht, o tröstend Glück! Dort begegn’ich ihrem Blick.

If my wistful, roaming eyes Can no longer descry the shore, I shall look up to the stars There in the sacred distance. Ah! By their gentle radiance I first called her mine; There, perhaps, O consoling fate, There I shall meet her gaze.

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Program Notes by Barbara Leish When 18-year-old Robert Schumann heard of Schubert’s death in 1828, he reportedly sobbed the entire night. Ten years later, on a visit to Vienna, Schumann discovered the manuscript for Schubert’s “Great” C Major Symphony and excitedly sent the score to Mendelssohn. It was another emotional link between two musical giants who took the German lied to new heights, and who profoundly affected the course of mid-nineteenth-century European Romanticism.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano, Op. 70 (1849) The Schumanns were living in Dresden in 1849 when the violent uprisings that were sweeping Europe reached that city, forcing the family temporarily to flee to a village in the countryside. Surprisingly, none of the turmoil put a halt to Robert’s composing. On the contrary, as he said to a friend, 1849 was turning out to be “my most fruitful year – as if the outer storms have driven me more into myself. Thus I have found a counterweight to the terrible things which have broken from outside.” Robert and Clara had their sixth child that year, and he was always looking for ways to earn money to support his large and growing family. The year before, he had written his famous Album for the Young, a delightful collection of piano miniatures composed specially for children. It had sold extremely well, and its popular success inspired him to write a series of shorter pieces that would appeal to amateur performers and sell quickly. Economic pressures coincided with his interest in trying out the piano with different combinations of instruments. In the space of a few months, in a characteristic outburst of nonstop activity, he composed several shorter pieces for piano and a variety of instruments – horn, violin, viola, cello, oboe, clarinet. (“All the instruments are having their turn,” Clara wrote in her diary.) Among them was the Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano. To increase the appeal and marketability of these works, Schumann published alternate instrumental combinations. On the score for the Adagio and Allegro, he noted that it also could be played with violin, viola, or cello. The Adagio and Allegro was written for a relatively new instrument, the valved horn, which slowly had been winning acceptance among musicians, although some, like Brahms, still preferred the tones of the natural horn. The valved horn, with its ability to play half steps and its three-octave range, introduced a new world of tones that Schumann was eager to explore, here and in the Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra that he composed immediately afterward. From the opening notes of the Adagio, with its long lyrical lines and songlike beauty, Schumann exploits the valved horn’s exciting new possibilities. The tender, moody Adagio (which Schumann 28

at first called Romanze) is followed by a vigorous rondo whose bravura passages alternate with quieter episodes that recall the Adagio. While the Adagio showcases the horn’s lyricism, the Allegro shines the light on its range and agility. Although the work was written for amateurs to play at home, it is a technically challenging showpiece that requires both great breath control and great nimbleness. When Robert heard Clara rehearsing the piece with Julius Schlitterlau, first horn in the Dresden Orchestra, he expressed his delight and acknowledged that he “had had fun with it.” Clara – who thought that everything Robert wrote was enchanting – was even more enthusiastic; she called it “a magnificent piece, fresh and passionate, and exactly what I like.”

Robert Schumann Lieder In 1839, Schumann wrote that he “considered vocal composition inferior to instrumental music – I have never regarded it as great art.” Yet a year later, after ten years of focusing exclusively on music for the piano, he turned to composing for piano and voice, with astonishing results. In just a few months early in 1840 he produced one great song cycle after another: Liederkreis, Dichterliebe (A poet’s love), Myrthen (Myrtles), Frauenliebe und leben (Woman’s love and life). The music poured out of him — more than 140 songs, often several a day. To a friend he wrote, “I can scarcely express to you what a joy it is to write for the voice…and how it surges and storms inside me when I work.” And to Clara he confessed, “I cannot do anything else. I must sing myself to death like a nightingale.” Clara was Robert’s inspiration. They finally married in 1840 after a long struggle with her domineering father that included lawsuits and accusations of slander. “Without such a bride one cannot make such music,” he told her. Myrthen was composed as a gift to his new bride – surely one of history’s greatest wedding presents. All the songs in the cycle are about emotions associated with love and marriage. Among its many gems are “Der Nussbaum” (The nut tree), with its beautiful balance between voice and piano, and the touchingly simple “Du bist wie eine Blume” (Thou art so like a flower). Clara was overwhelmed by her gift. “This I did not expect!” she wrote. “My reverence for him grows along with my love. No one alive today is as musically gifted as Robert.” Robert had an uncanny gift for capturing the spirit of a poem in music. He let the rhythm of the poem inspire the melody, and he used harmonies and musical gestures to support moods that ranged from passion to tenderness to melancholy. He also linked the songs in a cycle through recurring musical motifs. Most strikingly, like Schubert he treated the piano as an integral partner, whose textures and colors amplified the meaning of the words. Listen, for example, to how piano arpeggios depict leaves fluttering in the wind in “Der Nussbaum.” Always, Schumann put to stunning use his gift for painting pianistic word pictures. 29

Although 1840 has been called Schumann’s “year of song,” he continued to write masterful songs throughout his career. In 1849 he wrote Liederalbum für die Jugend (Album of Songs for the Young), an ambitious collection intended for the vocal training of children. “Er ist’s” (It is he), a charming setting of Eduard Mörike’s poem about the arrival of spring, is from that collection. Some of the songs he wrote in 1850 took a darker turn, like the melancholy “Röselein, Röselein” and “Meine Rose” with its theme of lost love. Both may have been reflections of Schumann’s own darkening mood. But whatever his mood, his best songs placed him, along with Schubert, at the pinnacle of the German lied tradition.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) “Auf dem Strom,” for Voice, Horn, and Piano, D943 (1828) March 26, 1828, was a special day in Schubert’s life. For the first and only time, he presented a public concert devoted entirely to his own compositions. After a concert in 1824 in which Beethoven premiered his Ninth Symphony, Schubert had written, “God willing, I too am thinking of giving a similar concert next year.” Now he finally was ready. Some of Vienna’s finest musicians joined him in the music making. The event, a mix of vocal and chamber works, was a huge success. Hundreds of people jammed into the concert hall, clapping and cheering as they heard one brilliant piece

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after another. “Enormous applause, good receipts,” one friend noted laconically afterward. Another attendee was more effusive: “Everybody was lost in a frenzy of admiration and rapture.” Most of the compositions played in the concert – including the Piano Trio in E flat Major – either had been composed recently or never had been given a public performance. One of them, though, was written just for this occasion: “Auf dem Strom” (On the River), a work for voice, horn, and piano. “Auf dem Strom” had a special meaning for Schubert. The date of the concert, March 26, was the first anniversary of Beethoven’s death, and the song in many ways was a homage to the composer Schubert revered. For one thing, he used lyrics by the poet Ludwig Rellstab that initially may have been written for Beethoven. More tellingly, in verses two and four of this elegiac song there are echoes of the Funeral March from the “Eroica” Symphony. The very choice of the horn may have been significant, too, since Beethoven was a noted writer for that instrument. Schubert’s innovation here was to add a second instrument that becomes an integral part of the harmonic and melodic mix. (He would do the same later in the year, when he added a clarinet to the score of “The Shepherd on the Rock.”) The structure is straightforward and simple: the five verses alternate between major and minor keys and are linked by four horn-and-piano interludes. Nothing else about “Auf dem Strom” is simple, though. Schubert revolutionized the connection between words and music, and he was brilliant at using music to amplify the meaning of the words. You can hear it in the mood of farewell and lament established by the long horn-and-piano prelude; in the wonderful interweaving of horn and voice in the first verse; in the way the piano’s perpetual-motion triplets mimic the movement of water in all its changing moods; in the dramatic way Schubert sets the first line of the second verse – “And so the waves bear me away” – to the Funeral March theme; or in the memorable close, where the horn drops to the bottom of its range for its final four notes. “Auf dem Strom” reflects the hand of the master who had turned the German lied into an art form, who had written more than six hundred lieder, and who still made each song sound fresh and new.

Franz Schubert Piano Trio in E flat Major, D. 929, Op. 100 (1827) The high point of Schubert’s concert in March 1828 was the magnificent E flat Major Piano Trio, which he had written quickly the previous November in one of his awe-inspiring bursts of creativity. In the space of a few months he produced Part Two of the Winterreise, the second group of Four Impromptus, the Fantasy in C for violin and piano, and the Piano Trios in B Flat and E Flat Major – all while suffering from the severe headaches that were signs that his final illness had begun. While Schubert still was best known as a composer of songs, much of the music that poured out of him during the last year of his life was on a grander scale. It was almost as if Beethoven’s death the previous year had spurred Schubert to focus on 31

expanding his own reputation and establishing himself as Vienna’s greatest living composer. There were signs of a new confidence, not just in the way Schubert planned and gave his concert, but also in his more assertive effort to get his largescale instrumental compositions published, beginning with the E Flat Major Trio. Schubert was particularly fond of this huge, ingeniously constructed work, with its wealth of lyrical themes, continual transformations, wandering tonalities, and dramatic mood shifts. The surprises begin with the unusual way in which Schubert builds the Allegro. Instead of introducing two or three themes that become the basis for the development, Schubert opens with a rhythmic motif, then quickly moves away from it as the music evolves through several other themes that wind their way through unexpected keys. The last of these, a brief captivating melody drawn from a phrase introduced by the cello at the end of the opening motif, is expanded in a development that Richard Wigmore describes as marked by “ravishing contrasts of color and harmony and a sense of infinite space.” The poetic and powerful Andante starts with the cello intoning a lament over the piano’s marchlike thrumming; it then proceeds through passionate eruptions as the opening theme collides with a blithe second melody. Schubert reportedly drew the Andante’s falling two-note motif from a Swedish folksong he heard the month he wrote the Trio. The mood brightens with the Scherzo, a lighthearted canon with a robust trio. The long and complex finale features two more glorious melodies from Schubert’s inexhaustible imagination, the second of which Brian Newbould calls “one of Schubert’s most captivating examples of instrumental scoring in chamber music.” In another surprise, Schubert also brings back the melody from the Andante. Schubert sent the Trio to the Leipzig publisher Probst, who accepted it for a measly sum. At one point during their correspondence, the publisher asked Schubert for a dedication. Schubert responded, “This work is to be dedicated to nobody, save those who find pleasure in it” – a wonderful gesture to all the listeners who have been thrilled by this profound work. Unhappily, the Trio arrived too late for Schubert. He died in October, the month it was published, and probably never saw it.

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Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 56 Arr. by Zoltan Zékely

Bela Bartók (1881-1945)

Jocul cu bâta (Stick Dance) Brâul (Sash Dance) Pe loc (In One Spot) Buciumeana (Dance from Bucsum) Poarga Româneasca (Romanian Polka) Maruntel (Fast Dance) Dimitri Murrath, viola Mihae Lee, piano

Serenade for String Trio, Op. 10  Marcia Romanza Scherzo Tema con variazioni Rondo

Ernö von Dohnanyi (1877-1960)

Yura Lee, violin Dimitri Murrath, viola Julie Albers, cello intermission Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25  Allegro Intermezzo: Allegro Andante con moto Rondo alla Zingarese: Presto Yura Lee, violin   Dimitri Murrath, viola  Julie Albers, cello  Mihae Lee, piano

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Program Notes by Barbara Leish For Brahms, Hungarian music was the foot-stamping rhythms and the tonal colors of gypsy music. The Hungarian composer Dohnányi was influenced more by Brahms than by Hungarian nationalism, while Bartók wanted to search out the authentic sounds of indigenous folk music, whether from Hungary or elsewhere. It’s a musical adventure to compare the different ways in which these three composers used folk music in their works.

Béla Bartók (1881-1945) Romanian Folk Dances (1915) In 1904, during a summer spent in the Hungarian countryside, Bartók heard a young peasant girl singing indigenous folksongs. For the young composer it was a life-changing moment. As he wrote to his sister, “I have a new plan now, to collect the finest examples of Hungarian folksongs and to raise them to the level of works of art with the best possible piano accompaniment.” So began Bartók’s quest to collect, catalog, and classify thousands of folk melodies. With his friend Zoltan Kodaly and an Edison phonograph, over the next several years Bartók set out on scores of expeditions to remote villages to record the songs of peasants whose lives were untouched by modern civilization. Describing the exhilarating but difficult work, he later wrote, “In order to obtain older songs – songs perhaps centuries old – we had to turn to old people, old women in particular, whom, quite naturally, it was difficult to get to sing. They were ashamed to sing before a strange gentleman; they were afraid of being laughed at and mocked by the villagers; and they were also afraid of the phonograph.” Bartók believed that one couldn’t understand Hungarian music without also understanding the music of its neighbors, so he soon spread his efforts to include the villages of populations that bordered Hungary, particularly the Slovaks to the north and the Romanians to the east. As he said years later in an interview, “All peasant music deeply interests me, and my goal is to extract the essence from it.” Over the next several years, Bartók transcribed many of the songs he gathered – an effort he described as “the mounting of a jewel.” The Romanian collections, with their unique harmonies and rhythms, proved to be an especially rich trove. In 1915 he published piano transcriptions of Romanian Christmas Carols and Romanian Folk Dances, as well as a Sonatina for piano that was based on Romanian material. Two years later he orchestrated the Folk Dances. Many other versions followed, including this one for viola and piano — a testament to the popularity of this marvelous work. The Folk Dances consist of six colorful miniatures, each with its own character. 36

Bartók recorded two Gypsy fiddlers playing the lively, rhythmically decisive opening melody. It is followed by a lighter, quicker dance in a different style, a pattern that Bartók will follow throughout the work. The slower third dance is more exotic, with the viola playing at the top of its register and modal harmonies giving the music an oriental character. Next comes a wistful horn dance that, with its augmented seconds, sounds equally exotic. A foot-stamping polka and a breathless finale bring the dances to a close. In addition to their obvious charms, the Romanian Folk Dances are a succinct compendium of the folk elements that Bartók would absorb and make his own, including flexible tempos, irregular rhythms, asymmetrical phrases, dissonant harmonies, and the distinctive tonality that he described in his Autobiography as “emancipation from the exclusive rule of the traditional major-minor system.”

Ernö Dohnányi (1877-1960) Serenade in C for String Trio, Op. 10 (1902) In Hungary in the years before World War II, Ernö Dohnányi was practically his own musical institution – a multitalented pianist, composer, conductor, and teacher whose prestige and influence were almost as great as Liszt’s had been a generation earlier. By the time he was in his twenties, Dohnányi had won international acclaim as a brilliant pianist, had earned important prizes for his compositions (his first published work, the 1895 Piano Quintet in C Minor, was praised and promoted by Brahms), and had been invited by Josef Joachim to teach at the prestigious Berlin Musikhochschule. In 1915 he returned to Budapest to teach at the Music Academy, where he became a dominant presence. In the turmoil surrounding the end of the First World War, according to his friend Bartók, “Dohnányi almost single-handedly kept Hungarian musical life from descending into utter chaos.” Until he withdrew following the pro-Nazi government’s anti-Semitic edicts early in the 1940s, Dohnányi headed just about every major musical institution in the country, including the Academy of Music, Hungarian Radio, and the Budapest Philharmonic. He left Hungary before the end of the war and eventually came to the United States, where he lived until his death. As composers, Dohnányi and Bartók headed in different directions. Dohnányi’s principal influence was late nineteenth-century European Romanticism, especially the music of Brahms. He was quite prolific – his output included about two dozen major piano and chamber works and numerous symphonic works (including his well-known Variations on a Nursery Song), plus four operas, a Mass, and two cantatas – and his compositions were widely admired. Bartók faulted Dohnányi for not being nationalistic enough in his music. But while for Dohnányi Hungarian music was more of a flavoring than an essence of his style, he did use Gypsy rhythms and modalities effectively, and the folk sound was an important element in works like the Serenade for String Trio. The Serenade is a vivacious, tightly constructed work that gives a modern cast to an eighteenth-century form. It is distinguished by sprightly rhythms, beautiful 37

melodies, and deft scoring for the three instruments. It opens with a spirited march that immediately introduces a Hungarian flavor: the brief movement’s middle section is a moody folk-sounding melody played over a drone accompaniment. The Hungarian influence continues to be heard in the Romanza — in the long-lined, evocative melody played by the viola over off-the-beat pizzicatos, as well as in the passionate middle section with its striking textures. Next comes a breathless, scampering Scherzo that features a nimble opening fugue, a short lyrical trio, and irregular rhythms. The Theme and variations offer a fine example of Dohnányi’s technical adroitness. The theme itself is a variation of the first movement’s folk melody. In the five variations that follow, the three instruments engage in an ongoing dialogue as they blend with and complement one another. At the end of the giddy Rondo finale the Hungarian melody from the first movement makes its final appearance, giving a satisfying sense of unity to a thoroughly delightful composition.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25 (1861) Gypsy music may not have fit Bartok’s definition of authentic folk music, but when Brahms used it in the last movement of his G Minor Piano Quartet, audiences were on their feet. Brahms wrote the quartet after he had moved out of his family’s cramped house in Hamburg and into his own rooms in the suburb of Hamm. The setting apparently inspired him, and masterful works flowed from his pen, starting with the G Minor Quartet. With it, Brahms entered a significant new stage in his development. Yet despite its originality, the work did not entirely please his friends Clara Schumann and Josef Joachim, who had problems with the first movement. Clara complained about Brahms’s choice of keys (“Too little in G minor and too much in D major”) and about the looseness with which he dealt with sonata form. As Jan Swafford summed up their reaction, “They were not net accustomed to the dialectic Johannes had begun with tradition.” Unlike nineteenth-century purists who insisted on adherence to an abstract form, Brahms knew that Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven had not been bound by rigid principles. As Clara wrote in her journal a few months later, “An interesting conversation with Johannes about form. How the old masters had the freest form, while modern compositions move within the stiffest and most narrow limits, He himself emulates the older generation.” It is worth noting Clara’s reaction, because her uneasiness was shared by many listeners. That uneasiness derived largely from the way in which Brahms blurs the expected transitions from section to section in the first movement. Instead of the traditional repeat of the exposition, he writes a short restatement of the first bars of the movement before moving directly into an intense, extended development section. Adding to Clara’s discomfort, Brahms blurs the start of the recapitulation, another change that would have confused his listeners. Along with this characteristically unorthodox treatment of form, though, there is an equally characteristic melodic expressiveness that gives a Brahmsian lushness to this powerful movement. 38

Brahms originally called the second movement a Scherzo – it is in scherzo form, complete with a trio – but Clara apparently suggested that Intermezzo would be more appropriate, given the movement’s slower tempos and tuneful grace. In the romantically expressive third movement Brahms combines two very different ideas, as a melodious theme flanks a dotted-rhythm march. While the first movement may have puzzled listeners, the last – a breathless Gypsystyle rondo (alla Zingarese) – “was obviously intended to bring the house down, and it did,” as Brahms’s biographer Ivor Keys noted. Clara, who premiered the Quartet in Hamburg in 1861, wrote in her diary, “The last movement took the audience by storm.” Joachim, who had dedicated his own “Hungarian” Violin Concerto to Brahms, wrote to his friend, “You have beaten me on my own turf.” A year later, the musicians who performed the Quartet with Brahms in Vienna added their own accolade: At the end of a rehearsal, the first violinist leapt up and proclaimed, “This is Beethoven’s heir!”

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Artist biographies Ronald Thomas, cellist, has been Artistic Director of Chestnut Hill Concerts since 1989. He sustains one of the most active and varied careers in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s music world as performer, teacher, and artistic administrator. Former principal cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, he is the newly-appointed Artistic Partner of the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego. His solo appearances include performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Louis, Baltimore and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Handel and Haydn Society and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestras of Boston and the Blossom Festival Orchestra, among many others. Mr. Thomas has played recitals in virtually every state in the United States as well as New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston and Los Angeles, and numerous concerts in Europe and Asia. In great demand as a chamber music collaborator, Mr. Thomas is also co-founder and artistic director emeritus of the Boston Chamber Music Society and has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center both at Alice Tully Hall and on tour. Other chamber music appearances include the Seattle, Bravo! Colorado and Portland Chamber Music Festivals, and the Spoleto, Blossom and Yale at Norfolk Festivals, as well as the festivals of Dubrovnik, Edinburgh and Amsterdam. Mr. Thomas was a member of the Players in Residence committee and the Board of Overseers at Bargemusic in New York. While he was member of the Boston Musica Viva and the Aeolian Chamber Players he premiered countless new works, including compositions by Gunther Schuller, Michael Colgrass, Ellen Zwillich, Donald Erb, William Bolcom and William Thomas McKinley. Before winning the Young Concert Artists auditions at nineteen, Mr. Thomas attended the New England Conservatory and the Curtis Institute. His principal teachers were Lorne Munroe, David Soyer, and Mary Canberg.

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Praised by the NY Times for her “impressive musicality, a crisp touch and expressive phrasing”, Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa has performed in solo and orchestral engagements throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. At the age of thirteen, Ms. Aizawa was brought to the attention of conductor Alexander Schneider on the recommendation of the pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Schneider engaged Ms. Aizawa as soloist with his Brandenburg Ensemble at the opening concerts of Tokyo’s Casals Hall. Later that year, Schneider presented her in her United States debut concerts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall with his New York String Orchestra. She has since established her own unique musical voice. Ms. Aizawa is also an active chamber musician. The youngest-ever participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, she has also performed as a guest with string quartets including the Guarneri Quartet and the Orion Quartet. Ms. Aizawa is a founding member of Duo Prism with violinist Jesse Mills, which earned the First Prize at the Zinetti International Competition in Italy in 2006. With Mr. Mills, Ms. Aizawa became co-artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010. Ms. Aizawa’s first solo recording of Shostakovich’s and Scriabin’s “24 Preludes,” on the Altus Music label, was released in 2005. Her second album of Messiaen’s and Fauré’s preludes came out in 2013. Rieko Aizawa was the last pupil of Mieczyslaw Horszowski at the Curtis Institute, where she received the Rachmaninoff Prize, and she also studied with Seymour Lipkin and Peter Serkin at the Juilliard School.

American cellist Julie Albers is recognized for her superlative artistry, her charismatic and radiant performing style, and her intense musicianship. Born into a musical family in Longmont, Colorado, she began violin studies at the age of two with her mother, switching to cello at four. She moved to Cleveland during her junior year of high school to study with Richard Aaron at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Young Artist Program. Awarded the Grand Prize at the XIII International Competition for Young Musicians in Douai, France, she toured France as soloist with Orchestre Symphonique de Douai. Julie Albers made her major orchestral debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1998, and thereafter has performed in recital and with orchestras throughout North America, Europe, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2001, she won Second Prize in Munich’s Internationalen Musikwettbewerbes der ARD and in 2003 was named the first Gold Medal Laureate of South Korea’s Gyeongnam International Music Competition. In North America, Miss Albers has performed with many important orchestras and ensembles. Recent performances have included debuts on the San Francisco Performances series and with the Grant Park Music Festival where she performed Penderecki’s Concerto Grosso for 3 cellos with Mr. Penderecki conducting. Past seasons have included concerto appearances with the Orchestras of Colorado, Indianapolis, San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver, and Munchener Kammerorchester among others. Miss Albers regularly participates in chamber music festivals around the world. 2009 marked the end of a three-year residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two. She is currently active with the Albers String Trio and the Cortona Trio. She currently is Assistant Professor and holds the Mary Jean and Charles Yates Cello Chair at the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Miss Albers’ debut album with Orion Weiss includes works by Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Schumann, Massenet, and Piatagorsky and is available on the Artek Label. Julie Albers performs on a N.F. Vuillaume cello made in 1872 and makes her home in Atlanta with her husband, Bourbon, and their dog, Dozer.

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Pianist Benjamin Hochman’s eloquent and virtuosic performances blend artistic bravura with poetic interpretation exciting audiences and critics alike. He performs around the world as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber music partner, working with a celebrated array of renowned conductors and colleagues. Hailed by the New York Times as a “gifted, fast-rising artist,” he won the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2011. After his New York recital debut in 2006 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he subsequently performed as soloist with the Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Houston, Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, New Jersey and Portland Symphony Orchestras, the Los Angeles, Israel, and New York Philharmonic orchestras, Prague Philharmonia, Istanbul State Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada among many others. Avie Records released Mr. Hochman’s second solo album entitled “Homage to Schubert” in 2013; his debut solo recording was released by Artek in 2009. A masterful collaborator, he has worked with the Tokyo, Mendelssohn, Casals, Prazak, and Daedalus Quartets, members of the Guarneri, Juilliard and Orion Quartets, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin and Ani Kavafian, Miklós Perényi, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Sharon Robinson.

Save These 2015 Dates! Mihae Lee, Artistic Director

January 11, 2015 Fenton Brown Emerging Artist Concert – “StringFest 2” The Attacca Quartet, 2015 Emerging Artists with renowned violinist Erin Keefe and members of the Amphion String Quartet, our 2011 Emerging Artists February 8, 2015 Stu Ingersoll Jazz Concert Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks The most celebrated jazz band in the land will play favorites from the early decades of the twentieth century.

All concerts are held on Sundays at 3 p.m. at Valley Regional High School in Deep River, Conn., except as indicated.

March 1, 2015 (at Old Saybrook High School) Chanticleer – An Orchestra of Voices “The world’s reigning male chorus” – The New Yorker March 29, 2015 Mihae Lee and Friends Artistic Director and pianist Mihae Lee will be joined by two illustrious performers, violinist Chee Yun and cellist Julie Albers, in a delightful piano trio program.

P.O. Box 383, Essex, CT 06426 • (860) 272-4572 • essexwinterseries.com 45

2014 Benefit Concert Chestnut Hill Concerts’ 2014 benefit concert took place on May 17 at the home of Martin and Ann MacKay in Old Saybrook. The spacious home provided a gracious space for the concert, as well as ample porches and grounds for socializing on a beautiful spring day. The generous sponsor for the afternoon was again TD Ameritrade, with the support of Richard and Barbara Booth, Bruce and Kathy Kramer-Briggs, TD Bank, and MJP Financial Services. The honorees were Raymond and Karen Seligson, longtime supporters of CHC who have both served on our board of directors. For the concert, Artistic Director Ronald Thomas was joined by pianist Mihae Lee in two movements from Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in A major, and pianist Benjamin Hochman joined Mihae Lee for rousing piano four-hands music by Dvorák and Brahms.

Honorees Ray and Karen Seligson with Karen’s mother, Betty Cronin.

Left, artistic director and cellist Ronald Thomas, pianist and board member Mihae Lee, and pianist Benjamin Hochman

Right, Mort Potoff and Lisa LeMonte Below, JS Cox with Robert and Jeanne Chesanow.

Above: Phyllis M. McDowell with Ernst and Rosemary Prelinger. Left: Mihae Lee and Ronald Thomas with host Ann MacKay and her daughters Kimberley and Katie

Violist Mark Holloway has appeared at prestigious festivals such as Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Caramoor, Banff, Cartagena, Taos, Music from Angel Fire, Mainly Mozart, and the Boston Chamber Music Society. Performances have taken him to far-flung places such as Chile and Greenland, and he plays regularly at chamber music festivals in France and Switzerland, and at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England. In and around New York City, he frequently appears as a guest with the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus. Mr. Holloway has been principal violist at Tanglewood and the New York String Orchestra, and has played as guest principal violist of the American Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Camerata Bern, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has performed at Bargemusic, the 92nd Street Y, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and on radio and television throughout North and South America, and Europe, most recently in a Live From Lincoln Center broadcast. Hailed as an “outstanding violist” by American Record Guide, he has recorded for the Marlboro Recording Society, CMS Live, Music@Menlo LIVE, Naxos, and Albany labels. A former member of Chamber Music Society Two and a current Artist of the Society, Mr. Holloway was a student of Michael Tree at The Curtis Institute of Music and received his bachelor’s degree from Boston University.

Violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. She is dedicated to performing the violin repertoire of all eras from traditional to contemporary, believing that the past and present form a continuum. Since the 1994-95 season when she won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, she has been heard with leading orchestras worldwide. Also a prolific recitalist, she appears frequently at major music centers and festivals. The exploration of Bach’s music and its influence in today’s musical landscape has played an important role in her artistic journey. Her “Bach and Beyond” recital series explores the history of the solo violin repertoire from Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas to works by modern day composers including commissions; she frequently performs all six Sonatas and Partitas in a single concert; and her “Two x Four” project, with her former teacher from the Curtis Institute of Music violinist Jaime Laredo, pairs Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with newly commissioned double concerti. She recently launched a video series “Off Stage On Record” that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a concert artist on her YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/jenniferkohviolin. Ms. Koh regularly records for the Cedille label. Her recording featuring works from her first “Bach and Beyond” recital was chosen as one of the best recordings of 2012 by the New York Times. Her most recent album “Two x Four” was released in April 2014.

2014 Community Outreach An exciting new program, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Musicians from Chestnut Hill Concerts,â&#x20AC;? brought a trio of young, highly accomplished woodwind artists to three public schools in Old Saybrook and to Essex Meadows on June 3, 2014. Oboist Carl Oswald, clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois, and bassoonist Shelley Monroe Huang inspired, educated, and performed for over 700 students, from pre-school to high school, in six different sessions at Goodwin Elementary School, Old Saybrook Middle School, and Old Saybrook High School. Their informal concert and question-and-answer session at Essex Meadows concluded a very long but satisfying day. The Outreach Program was designed by pianist and CHC board member Mihae Lee, in consultation with artistic director Ronald Thomas. The program was sponsored by the Old Saybrook Educational Foundation, The Edgard and Geraldine Feder Foundation, Sonny Whelen, and Essex Meadows. Additional funding was provided by generous individual donors responding to a special request for outreach funding. Building on this very successful first effort, CHC hopes to expand the outreach program in 2015.

Clockwise from top left: At Goodwin Elementary School, principal Sheila Brown and a group of pre-schoolers; Romie deGuise-Langlois; Talking to students at Old Saybrook High School; Shelley Monroe Huang. Clockwise from below left: Taking questions at Old Saybrook Middle School; Carl Oswald; in performance at Essex Meadows; Shelley converses with a an audience member after the concert at Essex Meadows.

Violinist Jessica Lee, first-prize winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, has given debut recitals at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and Ravinia’s Rising Stars Series, and has made festival appearances at Bridgehampton and Santa Fe. In 2010, she made her European solo debut, featuring a concerto performance with the Plzen Philharmonic and a recital at the Rudolfinum in Prague; she also made her solo orchestra debut at the Seoul Arts Center in a special New Year’s concert. Her 2006 concerto debut at Alice Tully Hall featured Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony and was broadcast on WQXR. She is a member of the Johannes String Quartet, which toured with the Guarneri Quartet in its farewell season. She has performed with Musicians from Marlboro at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and is a member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, a conductor-less string ensemble. She has performed with such orchestras as the Grand Rapids Symphony, American Chamber Orchestra, Modesto Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and the New York String Orchestra. A native of Virginia, she graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music with a bachelor’s degree under the tutelage of Robert Mann and Ida Kavafian and she completed studies for a master’s degree at The Juilliard School in 2003. Currently on the faculty at Vassar College, Ms. Lee is a former member of Chamber Music Society Two.

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Praised by Boston Globe as “simply dazzling,” Koreanborn pianist Mihae Lee has captivated audiences throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in solo recitals and chamber music concerts, in such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Academia Nationale de Santa Cecilia in Rome, Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall, and Taipei National Hall. She is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and a founding member of the Triton Horn Trio with violinist Ani Kavafian and hornist William Purvis. Ms. Lee has appeared frequently at numerous international chamber music festivals including Dubrovnik, Amsterdam, Groningen, Festicamara (Colombia), Seattle, OK Mozart, Mainly Mozart, Music from Angel Fire, Chamber Music Northwest, Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, Rockport, Bard, Norfolk, Music Mountain, and Monadnock Music. She has been a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bargemusic, and Speculum Musicae; has collaborated with the Tokyo, Muir, Cassatt, and Manhattan string quartets; and has premiered and recorded works by such composers as Gunther Schuller, Ned Rorem, Paul Lansky, Henri Lazarof, Michael Daugherty, and Ezra Laderman. A graduate of The Juilliard School and the New England Conservatory, she has released compact discs on the Bridge, Etcetera, EDI, Northeastern, and BCMS labels. Ms. Lee is the Artistic Director of the Essex Winter Series and has performed at Chestnut Hill Concerts since 1989.

Spring Concert Friday and Sunday, December 12 and 14, 2014

Schubert: Magnificat Stroope: Cantus Natalis Sunday, April 19, 2015

Bach: Mass in F Con Brio Choral Society • Christ the King Church • 1 McCurdy Road, Old Lyme Tickets: (860) 526-5399 • www.conbrio.org

Violinist/violist Yura Lee, recipient of a 2007 Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the 2013 ARD Competition, is enjoying a career that spans almost two decades and takes her all over the world. As a soloist, she has performed with numerous major orchestras including those of New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Saint Louis. She has given recitals in London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. At age 12, she became the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the Performance Today awards given by National Public Radio. She received numerous international prizes, including the first prize and the audience prize at the 2006 Leopold Mozart Competition, the first prize at the 2010 UNISA International Competition, and top prizes in the Indianapolis, Hannover, Kreisler, Yuri Bashmet, and Paganini competitions. Her CD with Reinhard Goebel and the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, titled Mozart in Paris, received the prestigious Diapason d’Or Award. As a chamber musician, she regularly takes part in the festivals of Marlboro, Salzburg, Verbier, Caramoor, Ravinia, Kronberg, and Aspen. She was awarded two artist diplomas, by Indiana University in Bloomington and the New England Conservatory in Boston, and her main teachers included Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Thomas Riebl, Ana Chumachenko, and Nobuko Imai. Ms. Lee is an Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a former member of CMS Two, as both violinist and violist.

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Two-time Grammy nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention. In 2004, Mills made his concerto debut with the Chicago’s Ravinia Festival Orchestra. He has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada, including concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Boston’s Gardener Museum, and the Marlboro Music Festival. He has also appeared at prestigious venues in Europe, such as the Barbican Centre of London, La Cité de la Musique in Paris, Amsterdam’s Royal Carré Theatre, Teatro Arcimboldi in Milan, and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Mills is highly regarded as a champion of contemporary music, a renowned improvisational artist, as well as a composer. He earned a Grammy nomination for his work on a CD of Arnold Schoenberg’s music, released by NAXOS in 2005. He can also be heard on the Koch, Centaur, Tzadik, Max Jazz and Verve labels for various compositions of Webern, Schoenberg, Zorn, Wuorinen, and others. As a member of the FLUX Quartet from 2001-2003, Mills performed music composed during the last 50 years (including the famous six-hour-long String Quartet No. 2 by Morton Feldman), in addition to frequent world premieres. Mills is co-founder of Duo Prism, a violin-piano duo with Rieko Aizawa, which earned 1st Prize at the Zinetti International Competition in Italy in 2006. With Ms. Aizawa, Mills became co-artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010. As a composer and arranger, Mills has been commissioned by venues including Columbia University’s Miller Theater and the Chamber Music Northwest festival in Portland, OR. Mills is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay, Robert Mann and Itzhak Perlman. In 2010 the Third Street Music School Settlement in NYC honored him with the ‘Rising Star Award’ for musical achievement.

Born in Brussels, violist Dimitri Murrath has made his mark as a soloist on the international scene, performing regularly in venues including Jordan Hall (Boston), Kennedy Center (Washington), Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall (London), Kioi Hall (Tokyo), the National Auditorium (Madrid), and Palais des BeauxArts (Brussels). A 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, he has won numerous awards, including first prize at the Primrose International Viola Competition and second prize at the First Tokyo International Viola Competition. An avid chamber musician, Murrath has collaborated with Miriam Fried, Pamela Frank, Richard Goode, Laurence Lesser, Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, Menahem Pressler, Radovan Vlatkovic, Mitsuko Uchida, and members of the Borodin, Borromeo, Takacs, Cleveland, Juilliard, and Tokyo string quartets. Festivals include IMS Prussia Cove (UK), Raviniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Steans Institute for Young Artists (Chicago), Verbier Festival Academy, Gstaad Festival (Switzerland), Caramoor Rising Stars (New York), Great Lakes Festival (Michigan) and Marlboro Music Festival (Vermont). Violist Dimitri Murrath began his musical education at the Yehudi Menuhin School studying with Natalia Boyarsky, and went on to work in London with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He graduated with an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory as a student of Kim Kashkashian. He participates in the Music for Food project, which raises awareness of the hunger problem faced by a large percent of the population, and gives the opportunity to experience the powerful role music can play as a catalyst for change. He is on the viola faculties of New England Conservatory and Bowdoin International Music Festival.

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Todd Phillips is a member of the Orion String Quartet, sharing the first violin chair of that renowned ensemble with his brother, Daniel. The Orion, whose members serve as Artist Members of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, is one of America’s most highly-regarded and in-demand quartets. Apart from his career with the Orion, Todd Phillips has performed as guest soloist with leading orchestras throughout North America, Europe and Japan including the Pittsburgh Symphony, New York String Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with whom he made a critically acclaimed recording of Mozart›s Sinfonia Concertante for Deutsche Grammophon. Mr. Phillips has appeared at the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Santa Fe, Marlboro and Spoleto Festivals, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music at the 92nd St Y and New York Philomusica. His experience as a frequent leader of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has led to guest appearances as conductor/leader with chamber orchestras worldwide including the New World Symphony in Florida, Mannes Sinfonietta in NY, Camerata Nordica of Sweden, Tapiola Sinfonietta of Finland, the Brandenburg Ensemble and the Risor Festival Strings in Norway. He has collaborated with such renowned artists as Rudolf Serkin, Jaime Laredo, Richard Stoltzman, Peter Serkin and Pinchas Zukerman and has participated in eighteen «Musicians from Marlboro» tours. He serves on the violin and chamber music faculties of New York›s Mannes College of Music and Rutgers University. He has recorded for the Arabesque, Delos, Deutsche Grammophon, Finlandia, Marlboro Recording Society, New York Philomusica, RCA Red Seal and Sony Classical labels.

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A native of Western Pennsylvania, William Purvis pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has participated in numerous premieres as hornist and conductor, including horn concerti by Peter Lieberson, Bayan Northcott and Penderecki (New York Premiere), horn trios by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky, and Sonate en Forme de Préludes by Steven Stucky with Emanuel Ax in Carnegie Hall. Recent world premieres include Paul Lansky’s Day Trips for Horn and Wind Ensemble in Carnegie Hall, and Elliott Carter’s Retracing II for solo horn and Nine for Five with the New York Woodwind Quintet. Mr. Purvis is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Yale Brass Trio and Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. A frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, he has also collaborated with the Tokyo, Juilliard, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Daedalus and Fine Arts string quartets, as well as appearing at numerous international festivals. Mr. Purvis has recorded extensively on many labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, and Bridge, with a broad collection spanning from original instrument performance to standard solo and chamber music repertoire to contemporary solo and chamber music works, as well as numerous recordings of contemporary music as conductor. Among many critically acclaimed recordings are Mozart Horn Concerti with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Peter Lieberson Horn Concerto, Richard Wernick Horn Quintet with the Juilliard Quartet, and works of Robert and Clara Schumann and Paul Lansky. A Deep River resident, Mr. Purvis is Professor of Horn at The Yale School of Music, where he is also Coordinator of Winds and Brasses and Director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.

Hyunah Yu’s star has risen quickly since 1999, when she appeared as a soloist in St. Matthew Passion with the New England Bach Festival, was a prizewinner at the Walter Naumburg International Competition, and was a finalist in both the Dutch International Vocal and Concert Artist Guild International competitions. Her promise was confirmed just a few years later as she received the coveted Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, followed closely by her acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut. She has enjoyed collaborations with many major orchestras, including the Bournemouth, Seattle, Baltimore, and Milwaukee Symphony orchestras, Rotterdam and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras, Concerto Koln, Salzburg Camerata, Boston Baroque, Sejong Soloists, and the Yale Cellos, to name a few. She has appeared at the Marlboro, Great Mountain, and Chamber Music Northwest festivals and performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with acclaimed conductors Myung Whun Chung, David Zinman, and Jaime Laredo. Ms. Yu also performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and of Valery Gergiev, and the Bach B minor Mass in Cologne with the Westdeutscher Rundfunk under Semyon Bychkov. In chamber music and recitals, Ms. Yu has enjoyed re-engagements with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Baltimore’s Shriver Hall Concert Series, at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and at the Bemberg Foundation in Toulouse, France. Ms. Yu has premiered many pieces specifically written for her. Most recently, she premiered the Symphony of Meditations by Aaron Jay Kernis with the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz. A highlight of her impressive opera career was the title role in Mozart’s Zaide in New York, London, and Vienna directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Louis Langrée. She has recorded Bach and Mozart arias for EMI and two solo recitals broadcast for the BBC. Ms. Yu also holds a degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.

COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL Building community through music since 1983

Private Lessons · New Horizons Band · Cabaret · Jazz Ensemble · Kindermusik · String Ensemble & more for students of all ages! 90 Main St., Centerbrook 860-767-0026 www.community-music-school.org

ROBBIE COLLOMORE 2014-2015 CONCERT SERIES SEAN LEE violin, PETER DUGAN piano Oct. 12, 2014 Acclaimed by the New York Times, Sean Lee is quickly gaining recognition as one of today’s most talented rising violin artists.

FRED HERSCH TRIO jazz Nov. 23, 2014 Vanity Fair magazine proclaims him “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade or so.”

JIM KWESKIN, GEOFF MULDAUR blues April 12, 2015

Please join us Sunday evenings at 5 pm for extraordinary music and informal receptions at the charming Chester Meeting House. For Tickets, Season Subscriptions or more information, call (860)526-5162 or write to: Robbie Collomore Music Series PO Box 614, Chester, CT 06412

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THE CHIARA STRING QUARTET May 10, 2015 They are renowned for bringing fresh excitement to the traditional repertoire and for their insightful interpretations of new music.

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CHCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s community outreach

Donors As it is with most arts organizations, the annual operating expenses of Chestnut Hill Concerts exceed our ticket income. Each concert season is made possible by the generous special gifts to our annual fund from individuals, foundations and corporations. We would like to acknowledge those who have contributed to our success this season.

Concert Season Concert Sponsors Guilford Savings Bank Phyllis M. McDowell Northstar Wealth Partners, LLC David A. Rackey & Emily Eisenlohr Mahlon & Zoe Hale

Supporters Paul Bauer, PT William A. Childress & Randi J. Bradbury George E. Davy Dr. Michael & Ellen Ebert Dean & Laura Godown Frank & Elizabet Landrey Carol LeWitt Kids and Teens Dr. Colin & Suki McLaren Come Free Sponsor Rolf Peterson Essex Savings Bank Steven Pincus & Maryjane Minkin Musician Sponsor Mary Schroeder & Daniel & Mary Hally Catherine Spencer Jane Siris & Peter Coombs Maestro Thomas & Joan Steitz Bruce & Kathy-Kramer Briggs Anonymous Bill & Paulette Kaufmann Mort & Jeanne Potoff Contributors David A. Rackey & Ray & Liz Archambault Tip & Janice Atkeson Emily Eisenlohr Joseph Benkovitz Richard & Barbara Booth Benefactors Kay & Don Brigham Marilyn & Richard Buel Jane E. Bugbee Connie & Peter Dickinson George P. Drenga Zoe & Mahlon Hale Lee & Joanna Jacobus Sukey & Peter Howard Nancy King Boynton Schmitt & Gary Koch Jean Richards Lisa & Lamar LeMonte Mr. & Mrs. Carleton Loucks Patrons Phyllis M. McDowell Andrew & Ellen Blight Senator Edward Meyer Jane Marcher Foundation Robert & Marilyn Regan Steven Marchese Amanda Rutledge Thea & Philip Putnam Donna B. Stamm 66

Priscilla Bollard Wilder Melvin Woody & Nissa Simon Anonymous (3) Friends Dr. Steven Guy Barasz Donald & Saundra Bialos Dr. & Mrs. Harold D. Bornstein, Jr. James L. Brother Barbara J. Fantone Dr. Maureen Fitzpatrick & Mr. Gerry Nepp Helen Greene Thomas & Maria Haar Patricia Hurley Carol Kaimowitz Mihae Lee & William Purvis Patty & Cliff McGuire Elizabeth D.C. Meyer Laura & Alan Moss Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Murray Carol K. Reynolds Anne Salonia Pamela R. Shine Pat & Damon Smith Arthur R. Thompson Hans & Barbara Ullstein George & Cynthia Willauer Anonymous

Benefit Concert Sponsor TD Ameritrade Benefactors Richard & Barbara Booth Bruce & Kathy-Kramer Briggs MJP Financial Services TD Bank

Outreach Honorees Raymond & Karen Seligson Hosts Martin & Ann MacKay

In-Kind Donations Monique Armstrong, Donors Coastal Cooking Tip & Janice Atkeson Company Dr. & Mrs. Harold D. Barbara J. LaFond, Bornstein Jr. Complete Party Jerry & Diana Brophy Josh Chalmers, earth2 Richard & Marilyn Buel Karen DiSaia, Randy & Cynthia Clegg Oriental Rugs, Ltd. Clo Davis Eric Murray, Jim Eckerle & Mark Renfrow Shoreline Piano Barbara J. Fantone Randy Hamilton, Judith Fisher Signs Now Jennifer Grant & Ron Noe Tracie Redway, Fritz & Cynthia Jellinghaus Taylor Rental Laura & Alan Moss Benjamin Hochman Susan Norz Mihae Lee Robert and Margaret Patricelli Ronald Thomas Family Foundation Ernst & Rosemarie Prelinger Jean Richards & Boynton Schmitt Anonymous

Outreach Sponsors Essex Meadows Edgard & Geraldine Feder Foundation Old Saybrook Education Foundation Sonny Whelen Outreach Donors Janice & Tip Atkeson Kay & Don Brigham James L. Brother Marilyn & Richard Buel Rita Christopher & David Frank Mary & Don Crane Connie & Peter Dickinson Mr. & Mrs. David D. Dudley Dr. Michael & Ellen Ebert Barbara Fantone Judith Fisher Helen Greene Eleanor Harper Patricia Hurley Vincent Oneppo Lawrence Pepper Lorraine Samela Boynton Schmitt & Jean Richards Hans & Barbara Ullstein

You manage more than assets. You manage aspirations. Good things happen when you put people first. Maybe that’s why 9 out of 10 advisor clients recently said that they are satisfied with us as their custodian.* So as you strive to help your clients meet their goals, you can rest assured that we’ll be here to help you reach yours. Welcome to Human Finance.

Give us a call at 800-444-6100 Or get to know us at HumanFinance.com

*Client Satisfaction Index (CSI) scores provided by third-party led outbound calls. CSI based on 11-point scale from 0 to 10. Top 3 Box = 8+9+10 rating points. Reported as of 9/1/2013. TD Ameritrade Institutional, Division of TD Ameritrade, Inc. member FINRA/SIPC/NFA. TD Ameritrade is a trademark jointly owned by TD Ameritrade IP Company, Inc. and The Toronto-Dominion Bank. ©2014 TD Ameritrade IP Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

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