Program Book - CSO Chamber Music: The Plymouth Ensemble at Beverly Arts Center

ONE H U NDR ED THI RT Y-T H IR D S EAS ON Sunday, February 25, 2024, at 3:00 Beverly Arts Center

CSO Chamber Music Series THE PLYMOUTH ENSEMBLE Qing Hou Violin Lawrence Neuman Viola Daniel Katz Cello John Blacklow Piano MOZART

Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493 Allegro Larghetto Allegretto

INTERMISSION

BRAHMS

Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60 Allegro non troppo Scherzo: Allegro Andante Finale: Allegro comodo

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

COMMENTS by Richard E. Rodda WOLFGANG MOZART Born January 27, 1756; Salzburg, Austria Died December 5, 1791; Vienna, Austria

Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493 COMPOSED

1786

As Mozart reached his full maturity in the years after arriving in Vienna in 1781, his most expressive manner of writing, whose chief evidences are the use of minor modes, chromaticism, rich counterpoint, and thorough thematic development, appeared in his compositions with increasing frequency. Among the most important harbingers of the shift in Mozart’s musical language was the Quartet in G minor (K. 478), which he completed on October 16, 1785, in response to a commission for three such works from the publisher Franz Hoffmeister. Hoffmeister had entered the business only a year earlier, and Mozart’s extraordinary and disturbing score, for which the publisher saw little market, threw a fright into him. “Write more popularly, or else I

can neither print nor pay for anything of yours!” he admonished. Mozart cast some quaint expletives upon the publisher’s head and said it was fine with him if the contract was canceled. It was. (Composer and publisher remained friends and associates, however. The following year, Hoffmeister brought out the Quartet in D major, K. 499, which still bears his name as sobriquet.) Rather surprisingly, then, Mozart completed another piano quartet, one in E-flat major (K. 493), eight months later in Vienna, on June 3, 1786, without any known prospect of commission or publication. The new work was somewhat

f r o m t o p : Wolfgang Mozart, silverpoint portrait by Dora Stock (1760–1832), taken during a visit to Dresden in 1789 | A pen-and-ink and watercolor drawing of central Vienna’s Kohlmarkt by Carl Schütz (1745–1800), 1786

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lighter in mood than its G minor predecessor but was every bit as rich (and challenging to the contemporary Viennese taste) in its harmonic daring and contrapuntal elaborations. Artaria & Co., proving bolder than Hoffmeister, acquired the piece and published both of the piano quartets a year later; there are hints in contemporary documents that they enjoyed a number of performances in Vienna. Mozart played K. 493 at the palace of his host in Prague, Count Joseph Thun, when he visited that city in January 1787 to observe for himself the wild success there of his Marriage of Figaro.

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lfred Einstein said of the Piano Quartet in E-flat that “it is bright in color but iridescent, with hints of darker shades,” a description that could well serve as a summation of many of the masterpieces of Mozart’s later years. The work opens with a broad, dramatic statement in chordal texture that serves as preface to the half-dozen motifs comprising the first theme group. The complementary subject is a graceful tune with a turn figure initiated by the piano and quickly taken over by the violin. It is this motif that is used, through modulation and instrumental dialogue, as the exclusive

material of the development section.

The recapitulation provides both formal balance and further elaborations of the themes, with the turn-figure motif serving as the subject for a brief coda.

The Larghetto is an essay that could have been authored by no one other than Mozart. Melding sonata-form balance, wistful grace, and melodic suavity with audacious harmonic invention (almost every phrase in the movement is immediately repeated with some unexpectable change of harmony) and expressive intensity, it is precisely such surpassing music that has made Mozart a living presence today while the then-more-popular creations of his contemporaries have long slipped from currency.

The finale is a large rondo with sonata elements based on a subject that Einstein deemed “the purest, most childlike and godlike melody ever sung,” a quality not lightly achieved by Mozart since this composer who almost always worked out his pieces fully in his head before committing a note to paper left two revised sketches for the theme.

The movement tries to break into unrestrained jubilation, but it is always held back by a certain inner tension expressed through the chromaticism of its harmony.

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JOHANNES BRAHMS Born May 7, 1833; Hamburg, Germany Died April 3, 1897; Vienna, Austria

Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60 COMPOSED

1855–56

In April 1853, the twenty-year-old Johannes Brahms set out from his native Hamburg for a concert tour of Germany with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi.

The following month, in Hanover, they met the violinist Joseph Joachim, who befriended Brahms and gave him several letters of introduction, including one to Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf. On the last day of September 1853, Brahms met the Schumanns for the first time. “Here is one of those who comes as if sent straight from God,” Clara recorded in her diary. The friendship was immediate and unstinting.

Brahms’s euphoria over his new relationship with the Schumanns turned quickly to concern for their well-being when Robert, long troubled by severe nervous disorders, tried to drown himself in the River Rhine on February 27, 1854. Brahms rushed to Düsseldorf and, a week later, helped Clara admit him to an asylum at Endenich. Brahms visited Düsseldorf and Endenich frequently and eagerly during the ensuing months to pay his respects to Robert, who was still able to converse and even write a little music during his lucid moments, and to offer his support to Clara. It was during that difficult period, when Clara proved herself both vulnerable and strong, that Brahms fell in love with her despite the fourteen-year age difference. Clara, however, though she may have been equally drawn to Brahms, never allowed their

t h i s pa g e , f r o m t o p : Johannes Brahms, ca. 1855 portrait, Robert-Schumann-Haus Zwickau, Saxony, Germany | Eduard Reményi (left) and Brahms, photographed in Altona (Hamburg), early spring 1853, just before their joint concert tour | o p p o s i t e pa g e , f r o m l e f t: Brahms and violinist Joseph Joachim | Lithograph of Robert and Clara Schumann by Eduard Kaiser (1820–1895), Vienna, 1847; inscribed to their Zwickau friend, composer and writer Emanuel Klitzsch (1812–1889)

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relationship to be anything more than completely proper, either before her husband’s death on July 29, 1856, or at any time thereafter.

Since Brahms was prevented from demonstrating his emotions in the usual more prosaic ways, he sublimated his feelings into the most eloquent language at his command—music—and wrote several impassioned compositions during the mid-1850s, notably the Trio in B major, op. 8, and a quartet for piano and strings that he began in 1855. The Piano Quartet no. 3, his first attempt at that genre, was completed in its original form—in the key of C-sharp minor and in just three movements—by April 1856, but Brahms refused to have it published and hid the score away for two decades. In 1874 he thoroughly revised the quartet, transposing it into C minor, rewriting the finale, and adding a scherzo. (The original version is lost, probably burned by the composer.)

Even at that late date, the quartet

remained a potent reminder of his earlier fervent emotions.

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he quartet’s powerful first movement begins with stark octaves in the piano, which are answered by the tear-drop phrase in the strings that serves as the main theme; the subsidiary subject is a brighter legato strain initiated by the piano. These motifs (the main theme most prominently) are treated in the development, which builds to an episode of furious octaveleap unisons as the gateway to the recapitulation. The ferocious scherzo has no true formal trio to serve as a foil to the impetuosity of the music, only a lyrical string passage that is hurried along by an incessant triplet accompaniment. The tender Andante, according CS O.O RG

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to Richard Specht, is Brahms’s farewell to the vision of Clara as lover, “a painful acknowledgment of their impossible relationship.” The violin presents the finale’s broad main subject to the accompaniment of motoric piano figurations; the strings provide a brief chordal phrase as second theme. Both ideas are treated in the development, after which the recapitulation arrives with a unison statement of the main

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theme by the strings. The second theme is heard in a brighter key, but the music returns to C minor for its final despondent gestures.

Richard E. Rodda, a former faculty member at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, provides program notes for many American orchestras, concert series, and festivals.

PROFILES Qing Hou Violin

Lawrence Neuman Viola

Qing Hou has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1997.

A native of China, she attended the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing before coming to the United States in 1988 to continue her studies. She holds degrees from the Peabody Institute and New England Conservatory. Before joining the CSO, Hou was a member of the San Francisco Symphony. An avid chamber musician, she has performed for the Andover Chamber Music Society and at festivals in Madison, Napa, El Paso, and Sun Valley. She has been heard on NPR’s Performance Today and regularly appears in the Chicago area with various ensembles. In 1997 she founded the Lincoln Quartet with her sister, CSO violinist Lei Hou, and CSO violist Lawrence Neuman (now Qing’s husband).

As a soloist, Qing Hou has appeared with orchestras in China and in the cities of Boston, Baltimore, and Chicago.

In the fall of 2003, she made her first appearance with the Orchestra as soloist, performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G major under Daniel Barenboim.

Lawrence Neuman has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1991. Before coming to Chicago, he was violist with the Miami String Quartet.

As a chamber musician, he is heard frequently throughout the Chicago area and has performed across the United States and Europe. He has appeared at festivals and chamber music series in Boston, Marlboro, La Jolla, Madison, Napa, Portland, and Davenport.

Chamber music collaborators have included artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Lydia Artymiw, Gil Shaham, and Aaron Rosand.

During the 1998–99 season, Neuman took a leave of absence from the CSO to serve as principal viola of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. For several years, he has taught viola and chamber music at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

A native of Saint Louis, Missouri, Neuman attended the Eastman School of Music, the University of Southern California, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and he was a student of Heidi Castleman, Donald McInnes, and Robert Vernon.

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P ROF ILES

Daniel Katz Cello

John Blacklow Piano

A Chicago native, Daniel Katz was appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2011 by Riccardo Muti. Prior to joining the Orchestra, he was a regular substitute with the CSO and the Cleveland Orchestra and a member of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra.

He received a doctor of musical arts degree with honors from Northwestern University under Hans Jensen, a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory under Laurence Lesser, and a bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University with Marc Johnson.

Other teachers include Paul Katz, Richard Hirschl, and Gilda Barston.

As a dedicated teacher, Katz serves on the faculty at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts and maintains a private studio. Previously, he was an adjunct assistant professor and artist-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame. Katz has participated in a number of major music festivals, including Tanglewood, Verbier, Sarasota, and Norfolk. He has performed for live solo and chamber music broadcasts on WFMT-FM Chicago.

Recently, Katz recorded an album of works by Victoria Bond (Naxos) and a disc of James Stephenson’s works (Liquid Melancholy: Clarinet Music of James M. Stephenson, Cedille), both with the ensemble Chicago Pro Musica.

John Blacklow has performed at venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington (D.C.); Carnegie’s Zankel Hall; Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Salle Gaveau, Louvre Auditorium, and Cité de la Musique in Paris; Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Wigmore Hall in London; Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna; and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, among others.

Blacklow’s discography includes Schumann’s complete sonatas for violin and piano with violinist Jennifer Frautschi and the album American Duos, consisting of five works by living American composers. He has recorded for Universal Music Inc., Albany Records, Bridge Records, EDI, and Deutsche Grammophon iTunes.

Blacklow has performed with esteemed orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, Leonard Slatkin, John Adams, Edo de Waart, Jeffrey Kahane, Rafael Payare, and many others.

He studied piano with Tatiana Yampolsky, John Browning, and Bella Davidovich, graduating from Harvard and Juilliard. Blacklow serves as professor of piano at the University of Notre Dame and is a Steinway concert artist.

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