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ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOURTH SEASON

Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at 6:30

CSO Chamber Music Series

Robert Chen Violin

Teng Li Viola

Richard Hirschl Cello

William Welter Oboe

BRITTEN Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio in F Minor, Op. 2

MOZART Divertimento for String Trio in E-flat Major, K. 563

Allegro

Adagio

Menuetto: Allegretto Andante

Menuetto: Allegretto Allegro

There will be no intermission.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.

COMMENTS by Richard E. Rodda

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

Born November 22, 1913; Lowestoft, England

Died December 4, 1976; Aldeburgh, England

Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio in F Minor, Op. 2

COMPOSED 1932

Benjamin Britten was perhaps the most precocious of all twentieth-century composers: he scribbled his first music when he was just six years old, and by fourteen had written ten piano sonatas, six string quartets, three piano suites, an oratorio, and numerous songs. One of the decisive experiences in igniting his youthful talent was a concert he heard at the 1924 Norwich Triennial Festival at which the composer Frank Bridge conducted his own orchestral suite The Sea—“I was knocked sideways,” remembered Britten. When Bridge was invited back to Norwich in 1927 to direct another of his works, Mrs. Audrey Alston, a family friend of the Brittens and Benjamin’s viola teacher, introduced her young student to the composer. It was a happy encounter. “We got on splendidly,” Britten recalled many years later. When Britten went off to the Royal College of Music in 1930, he was filled with the creative fervor fostered in him by Bridge; the RCM, however, did surprisingly little to nurture it.

above: Benjamin Britten, 1948

Britten’s talent was already far in advance of the conventional rules and exercises of academia when he enrolled at the Royal College of Music, and he was ready, at age seventeen, to establish a distinctive musical style. “What is an English public schoolboy doing writing music of this kind?” fumed one committee member at his scholarship examination. Britten found his principal composition teacher, John Ireland, to be “gloomy” and claimed that he learned little from him, though Ireland did seem to recognize his student’s ability. The only one of Britten’s works that the college presented during his three years there was the Sinfonietta, op. 1 (on March 16, 1933), and even that piece was heard only after it had been given a successful public premiere at London’s Mercury Theatre on the series of contemporary music concerts, recently established by violinist Anne Macnaghten, conductor Iris Lemare, and composer Elisabeth Lutyens. Britten returned regularly to Frank Bridge for guidance and inspiration during those years, and many of his early works were written under his mentor’s watchful eye.

At the beginning of 1932, while he was still a student at the RCM, Britten (age

eighteen) composed his Phantasy for String Quintet in F minor under Bridge’s supervision for a chamber music competition sponsored by the London businessman, amateur violinist, and enthusiastic patron of the arts, Walter Wilson Cobbett. (W.W. Cobbett’s name is fondly remembered by music lovers for his 1929 Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, which still serves as a standard reference work in the field.) Cobbett specified that submissions to his competition, which Bridge had won twice previously, synthesize the old English form of the sixteenth-century fantasy with the nineteenth-century technique of cyclical construction. Britten’s quintet suited Cobbett’s taste well enough that he chose it as that year’s prize winner and had it presented on the competition concert at the RCM on July 22, 1932. Two months later, Britten, still flush with the success of his newfound acclaim, began another of these hybrid works, this one for oboe, violin, viola, and cello, the same instrumentation as Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370. (The scoring of the earlier phantasy—two violins, two violas, and cello—was modeled on that of Mozart’s six string quintets.) The Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio was completed on October 20 and submitted just a week later, not to Cobbett but to a competition sponsored by the Daily Telegraph; it did not win but was “highly commended.” The premiere was given on a BBC broadcast on August 6, 1933, by Leon Goossens, principal oboist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and teacher of that instrument at the

RCM, and members of the International String Quartet; the score was dedicated to Goossens. The same players gave the first public performance on November 21, 1933, at a concert at St. John’s Institute, Westminster. The work provided Britten’s first recognition outside his island nation when it was heard at the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Florence on April 5, 1934. The noted English critic and scholar Edwin Evans announced presciently in The Musical Companion, an anthology of essays published at that time, “Much is expected of this very young composer, Benjamin Britten.”

The formal unfolding of the Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio in F minor follows an ingenious transformation of traditional sonata structure through which a set of unifying motific cells is carefully woven, most pervasively, the small interval that the cello draws from silence at the beginning of the work. The other strings fall in line as the march rhythm of this introductory section clarifies itself sufficiently to provide accompaniment to the oboe’s arch-shaped theme. The parade draws near, takes up its concert formation with some string trills and an excited oboe flourish, and launches into the formal exposition section. The violin announces the principal theme, consisting of a tightly compacted motif that is attracted almost magnetically back to its opening tone and a short patch of scurrying downward scales. The oboe takes up this theme before

COMMENTS

the music arrives at the curious collection of snippets that comprise the second subject: snapping pizzicato notes alternating between violin and viola, cryptic trills in the cello that seem content to refer to the small-interval cell of the introduction rather than to build themselves into a distinct melody, and chattering arpeggiated comments from the oboe. The strings decide that they like the oboe’s idea well enough to try it out for a while, so the oboe is then free to cobble a theme from the cello’s tiny motif and a quick run up the scale that it has discovered by itself. A climax

is reached, and the intensity subsides to lead to the development section, which first treats the principal theme, and then, in a slower tempo, the melody from the introduction. There follows an expressive “slow movement” for strings alone whose theme is freely derived from the principal subject. The oboe returns for an elaborated recapitulation of the introduction and a condensed one of the principal theme. The music of the introduction is again recalled to serve as a postlude for the work, which fades into silence as the little band marches off into the distance.

WOLFGANG MOZART

Born January 27, 1756; Salzburg, Austria

Died December 5, 1791; Vienna, Austria

Divertimento for String Trio in E-flat Major, K. 563

COMPOSED 1788

Mozart’s life was starting to come apart in 1788—his money, health, family situation, and professional status were all on the decline. He was a poor money manager, and the last years of his life saw him sliding progressively deeper into debt. One of his most generous creditors was Michael Puchberg, a brother Mason, to

whom he wrote a letter that included the following pitiable statement: “If you, worthy brother, do not help me in this predicament, I shall lose my honor and my credit, which I so wish to preserve.” Sources of income dried up. His students had dwindled to only two by summer, and he had to sell his new compositions for a pittance to pay the most immediate bills. He hoped that Vienna would receive Don Giovanni as well as Prague had when that opera was premiered there the preceding year, but it was met with a haughty indifference

above: Wolfgang Mozart, portrait sketched and engraved by Edmé Quenedey (1756–1830). Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France

when first heard in the Austrian capital in May 1788. He could no longer draw enough subscribers to produce his own concerts and had to take second billing on the programs of other musicians. His wife, Constanze, was ill from worry and continuous pregnancy and spent much time away from her husband, taking cures at various mineral spas. On June 29, their fourth child and only daughter, Theresia, age six months, died.

Despite the disappointments inflicted upon him, his precarious pecuniary position, and an alarming decline in his health and that of his wife, Mozart was still working miracles in his music. Between June and August 1788, he composed the incomparable trilogy of symphonies that were to be his last works in the genre (E-flat major, K. 543; G minor, K. 550; and C major, Jupiter, K. 551). After jotting down a series of vocal canons (K. 553–562), Mozart then wrote a piece specially for his benefactor Puchberg, a trio for violin, viola, and cello in the old six-movement form of the divertimento, which he entered into his catalog on September 27, 1788.

The divertimento opens with a unison statement of the descending tonic chord in long notes as a preface to the genial main theme, whose darting scale figurations are shared in democratic conversation among the three participants. The violin and cello present the lyrical subsidiary subject in a sweet duet. The compact central development section examines the

earlier melodic materials in a more somber light, bringing to this movement the subtle fluctuations of emotional states through careful manipulation of harmony that characterize the greatest masterworks of Mozart’s later years. A full recapitulation of the lighthearted exposition themes rounds out the opening movement.

The Adagio, like many of Mozart’s slow movements, is a formal hybrid. Its structural framework is sonata-allegro, though its concentration on elaborations of the arpeggio-melody presented at the beginning by the cello rather than on presenting contrasting thematic material draws it close to the formal principle of theme and variations. The entertaining diversion implied by the work’s title is evident in the cunningly syncopated Menuetto that follows. The Andante, the expressive as well as the formal heart of the divertimento, is an introspective set of variations based on the folklike melody initiated by the violin at the outset. The work’s second Menuetto is a country-dance movement fitted with two trios. The closing Allegro, which blends formal elements of sonata and rondo, is music of such pure delight as has been given to few composers to create.

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

Robert Chen Violin

Robert Chen celebrates his twentyfifth season as concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure as the CSO concertmaster, he has been featured as soloist with many world-renowned conductors, including Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, and Bernard Haitink. He gave the CSO premiere of György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, Elliott Carter’s Violin Concerto, and Witold Lutoslawski’s Chain Two, as well as the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Astral Canticle. In addition to his duties as concertmaster, Chen enjoys a solo career that takes him around the world. Most recently, he toured Europe as soloist-conductor with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he has been an artistic partner of the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra since 2019.

An avid chamber musician, Chen has partnered with many of the most important musicians of our time. He is a past participant in the Marlboro Music Festival and a member of the Chen Quartet. Prior to joining the CSO, he won first prize in the Hannover International Violin Competition. He consequently recorded Tchaikovsky’s complete violin works with NDR Orchestra of Hannover for the Berlin Klassics label.

Robert Chen began his violin lessons in Taiwan at age seven. He continued his studies with Robert Lipsett when his family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1979. While in Los Angeles, he participated in Jascha Heifetz’s master classes. Chen received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki.

The Chen Quartet, comprised of the Chen family, is an integral part of his musical activity outside the CSO. It serves many of the Chicago area’s retirement communities as well as casual and formal performance venues. The Chen Quartet is featured regularly on Live from WFMT and at Bargemusic.

Teng Li Viola

Violist Teng Li is an internationally celebrated soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist. In September 2023, Li was appointed by Riccardo Muti to the Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post she assumed at the beginning of the 2024–25 season. Previously, she was principal viola of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2018 to 2024 and served for fourteen seasons as principal viola of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Li has appeared with premier ensembles throughout the world, including

the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra, and Esprit Orchestra. Most recently, she was featured in acclaimed performances of Paganini’s Sonata per la Grand Viola with Lina González-Granados and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as in Kancheli’s Styx with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

Li is an ardent chamber musician with notable past engagements at the Marlboro, Santa Fe Chamber, Rome Chamber, and Moritzburg music festivals, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, ChamberFest Cleveland, and the prestigious Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two program. She is a founding member of the Rosamunde Quartet with violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley and Shanshan Yao and cellist Nathan Vickery, with whom she has given performances and master classes throughout the United States and Canada.

Li’s probing interpretations of chamber works can be heard on several critically acclaimed recordings, among them, 1939, her solo album for Azica Records with violinist Benjamin Bowman and pianist Meng-Chieh Liu. Her discography also includes recording credits with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony, most notably on the latter’s Juno Award–winning Vaughan Williams album for Chandos, which features Li in a performance of Flos Campi.

Li has won top prizes at the Johansen International Competition, HollandAmerica Music Society Competition, Primrose International Viola Competition, Klein International String Competition, and ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany. She was also a winner of the Astral Artistic Services 2003 National Auditions.

A committed educator, Li has taught at the Colburn School, University of Toronto, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and Montreal’s Conservatoire de Musique and joined the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performance Arts in the 2024–25 academic year. In addition, she teaches at the Sarasota Music Festival and Morningside Music Bridge. Li is a graduate of the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Michael Tree, Joseph de Pasquale, and Karen Tuttle.

Richard Hirschl Cello

Richard Hirschl joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s cello section in 1989. A native of Washington, Missouri, he began cello lessons with his father, an amateur cellist. His intermediate studies were with Savely Schuster, associate principal cellist of

the St. Louis Symphony. Hirschl was accepted into the class of Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins at the Juilliard School, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1987 and a master’s degree in 1988. He was the winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition and Irving M. Klein International String Competition in 1988 and St. Louis Symphony Scholarship Competition in 1980.

Hirschl has given concerto performances with the Peoria Symphony, Jupiter Symphony, St. Louis Philharmonic, Maracaibo Symphony (Venezuela), National Repertory Orchestra, St. Louis Chamber Orchestra, and Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York. He has appeared in chamber music performances with celebrated pianists Daniel Barenboim, Sir András Schiff, and Ursula Oppens; cellists Lynn Harrell and Yo-Yo Ma; and violinist Vadim Repin. Hirschl is on the faculty of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he also serves as head of the string department. He plays a Venetian cello made by Matteo Goffriller in 1710 and a cello made in Chicago by William Whedbee in 2014.

William Welter Oboe

William Welter was appointed principal oboe of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by Riccardo Muti in June 2018. Prior to his appointment to the CSO, Welter performed as a guest musician with the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and as guest principal oboe of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Welter was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and participated in several esteemed music festivals, including Aspen Music Festival, Bravo Vail Festival, and Music Academy of the West. He also participated in Music from Angelfire by invitation of acclaimed violinist Ida Kavafian.

A native of Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Crescent, Iowa, William Welter is a 2016 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Richard Woodhams, the longtime principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Welter completed an artist diploma at the Oberlin Conservatory under the instruction of Robert Walters. His other teachers include Eugene Izotov, former principal oboe of the CSO and current principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony, and Christopher Philpotts, principal english horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Welter is an alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he studied with Daniel Stolper.