2024.02.10 | Juilliard String Quartet Program

Juilliard String Quartet Saturday, February 10 | 3 PM Soka Performing Arts Center at Soka University of America

Juilliard String Quartet

PROGRAM

LEOŠ JANÁČEK String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Pages” Andante Adagio Moderato Allegro

TYSON DAVIS Amorphous Figures (String Quartet No. 2)* I. Introduction - Variations set 1 II. Burst I - Four Circles - scherzo III. Burst II. - Variations set 2

- INTERMISSION FRANZ SCHUBERT String Quartet in G Major, D. 887 Allegro molto moderato Andante un poco moto Scherzo: Allegro vivace Allegro assai

*Commissioned for the Juilliard String Quartet

ABOUT THE PROGRAM String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Pages” LEOŠ JANÁČEK Born July 3, 1854, Czechia Died August 12, 1928, Czechia In the summer of 1917 Leoš Janáček, a 63-year-old composer little known outside his homeland, met Kamila Stösslová, a 25-yearold married woman with a small child, and fell madly in love. Over the final eleven years of his life, she was the inspiration for a volcanic outpouring of masterpieces by the aging composer: four operas, two string quartets, a mass, tremendous orchestral works, and numerous choral and chamber pieces – as well as 600 letters written to her. Janáček’s love for Kamila Stösslová was entirely platonic–and one-sided. Mystified by the composer’s passion, she responded with affectionate friendship and encouragement, content to serve as muse for a creator she did not fully understand (Kamila was lucky to have an understanding husband–Janáček had a furiously jealous wife).

Janáček said that all his late works were, at some level, an expression of his love for Kamila, and one piece made that love explicit. During the winter of 1928, he took three weeks (January 29-February 19) off from work on his opera From the House of the Dead to compose his String Quartet No. 2, which he subtitled “Intimate Pages.” Janáček’s original nickname for the quartet had been “Love Letters,” but he decided against that, telling Kamila that he did not want “to deliver [his]

feelings up to the discretion of stupid people.” To underline the latent meaning of the quartet, he at first intended to replace the viola with the viola d’amore; when the older instrument proved to have insufficient power, he returned to the modern viola, which is given a very prominent role in this quartet.

Janáček noted that each movement had a particular program. The opening movement was inspired by his first meeting Kamila at the Luhačovice Spa during the summer of 1917; the second depicts events of that summer; the third he described as “gay, but melting into a vision of you”; the last expressed Janáček’s “fear for you–however it eventually sounds not as fear, but as longing and its fulfillment.” After hearing a private performance of the first two movements, the exultant composer wrote: “Kamila, it will be beautiful, strange, unrestrained, inspired, a composition beyond all the usual conventions! Together I think that we’ll triumph! It’s my first composition that sprang from directly experienced feeling.

Before then I composed only from things remembered; this piece, ‘Intimate Letters,’ was written in fire.”

This passionate, intense music is in Janáček’s extremely compressed late style. Themes tend to be short, there are countless abrupt tempo shifts, and the music is tightly unified–even accompaniment figures have thematic importance, and there is some cyclic use of themes.

Juilliard String Quartet The full-blooded beginning of the Andante gives away suddenly to the true first theme: an eerie, unsettling melody played ponticello by the viola – Janáček said that it reflected Kamila’s disquieting arrival in his life. This theme recurs in many forms in this movement, which pitches between the lyric and harshly dramatic. By contrast, the Adagio is based largely on the viola’s opening melody; this rises to a climax marked Maestoso before closing over flautato mutterings from viola and second violin. The Moderato begins with a lilting dance in 9/8, followed by a lyric violin duet. The climax of this movement is a stunner: the music comes to a stop, then the first violin rips out a stabbing entrance on its highest E–marked appassionato, this is an explosive variation of the preceding duet tune. The concluding Allegro, a rondo, gets off to a good-natured start with a theme that sounds as if it might have folk origins (actually it was Janáček’s own). Once again, there are frequent mood and tempo changes, and–driven by furious trills and mordants–the music drives to its impassioned close.

The 74-year-old Janáček was very pleased with this music. To Kamila, he wrote that it was “like a piece of living flesh. I don’t think I ever shall be able to write anything deeper or more truthful.” Six months later, the creator of this passionate music was dead.

Amorphous Figures (String Quartet No. 2) TYSON GHOLSTON DAVIS Born 2000 Tyson Davis entered the University of North Carolina School of Arts when he was a high school freshman and currently studies at the Juilliard School. He has had works commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard String Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, and many others. He has provided a program note for Amorphous Figures: Amorphous Figures will be a piece of music that is primarily concerned with the American abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler’s 1957 painting Jacob’s Ladder. This painting is on view at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA NYC). Over the last year, Frankenthaler’s works have intrigued me greatly. The control she has over the canvas and color scheme have a beautifully organic way of evoking her concepts. The string quartet will be zooming into aspects of the visual layout of the painting that drew me into falling in love with this painting. (ex. Pinkish-tan burst, four turquoise circles, and also larger themes of the painting, such as how it blooms upwards.) The way that the shapes in the painting dance and gradually seep into and across the canvas prompted the name “Amorphous Figures” for the name of the work.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM The work will be 7 sections all divided into 3 movements.

(Movements are pauses in the case, not just one piece in long continuous form). The center section (section No. 4) will be a fugue entitled “Four Circles”.

(Four Circles evokes the four turquoise circles in the painting that pull the painting together fully. Without them the painting would seem incomplete.) This fugue will be surrounded by 2 Ritornelli (Burst I, II), a scherzo and 2 sets of Variations.

As of lately, I’ve been recently reflecting on aspects of visual artists that have intrigued me.

As a composer, the visual is something that I think deeply about when creating a musical composition. Most recently, I’ve responded to a James Abbott McNeill Whistler painting from his tonalist period named Nocturne in Black and Red. My response, Veiled Light (2021) referenced the murky and ambiguous textures of this painting.

- Tyson Gholston Davis String Quartet in G Major, D. 887 FRANZ SCHUBERT Born January 31, 1797, Vienna Died November 19, 1828, Vienna Schubert wrote his fifteenth and final string quartet in the

unbelievably short span of eleven days (June 20-30, 1826) – Mozart himself would have been hardpressed to get a work of this breadth done in so brief a time. The Quartet in G Major is in every way a striking piece of music: in length (it stretches out to 45 minutes even when some of the most important repeats are omitted), in scope (its huge sonorities, often underpinned by violent tremolos, frequently suggest orchestral writing), and key relationships. Schubert was a master of the ingenious modulation, and this quartet’s quicksilvery shifts of tonality mirror the flickering moods within the music itself. This is mercurial music–elusive, haunting, and finally very moving.

From a near-silent beginning, the allegro molto moderato suddenly bursts to life on great chords, sharply-dotted rhythms, and jagged thematic edges. Within its first instants, the music pitches uneasily between G major and G minor, and over orchestralike tremolos the opening idea (derived from the jagged edges of the introduction) is announced pianissimo by first violin and cello. The gracefully-syncopated second subject arrives as a chordal melody, and–curiously–the rest of the exposition consists of a set of variations on this theme. The development at first concentrates on the opening idea, then resumes the variations on the second

Juilliard String Quartet subject. The movement drives to a close that returns to the powerful (and harmonically unstable) manner of the very beginning. The Andante un poco molto opens conventionally–the cello tune in the opening measures is pure Schubert–but suddenly come great rips of sound, discordant cries from the first violin over harmonically ambiguous tremolos in the lower voices. Agitated, dark, and almost shrill, these passages break in throughout the movement, which finally resolves peacefully.

The Scherzo, in B minor, is reminiscent of the scherzo of the “Great” C-Major Symphony–it bristles with energy as individual voices leap out of the general bustle. In complete contrast, the trio section is a laendler, and the languorous lilt of its main idea– introduced by the cello–brings an interlude of calm; the sudden jump back to the needle-sharp entrances of the scherzo is dramatic. The finale–Allegro assai– has been described as a perpetualJuilliard String Quartet With unparalleled artistry and enduring vigor, the Juilliard String Quartet (JSQ) continues to inspire audiences around the world.

Founded in 1946 and hailed by The Boston Globe as “the most important American quartet in history,” the ensemble draws on a deep and vital engagement to the classics, while embracing the mission of championing new works, a vibrant combination

motion movement. Actually, it is a tarantella-like rondo that rides exuberantly along its 6/8 meter.

Schubert supplies contrasting episodes along the way (smoothly making the 6/8 meter sound like 3/4 in the process), but it is the dancing opening music that finally takes the quartet to its energetic close.

Schubert apparently never heard this quartet. There is speculation that its opening movement might have been performed at the famous Schubertiad in March 1828, but even the best evidence is conjectural, and there is no convincing suggestion of a performance during his lifetime. The Quartet in G Major appears to have been consigned to the silence of dusty shelves, where it remained until it was premiered by the Hellmesberger Quartet in Vienna on December 8, 1850, twenty-two years after its composer’s death.

Program notes © Eric Bromberger, 2024

of the familiar and the daring.

Each performance of the Juilliard String Quartet is a unique experience, bringing together the four members’ profound understanding, total commitment, and unceasing curiosity in sharing the wonders of the string quartet literature.

In the 2023/2024 season the quartet returns to Japan with concerts in Tokyo, Niigata, Mishima, Hyogo, and Nagano. In

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Europe appearances include the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Schumann Saal in Dusseldorf and the Wimbledon Festival. In North America appearances include Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, South Mountain Concerts, Soka Performing Arts Center, Hartt School of Music, Lied Center of Kansas, Chamber Music Society of Louisville, Emory Chamber Music Society and the Amelia Islands Chamber Music Festival in addition to concerts at Alice Tully Hall and People’s Symphony Concerts. Their programs will feature new works by Jörg Widmann (String Quartets Nos. 8 & 10) and Tyson Davis (String Quartet No. 2) commissioned by the quartet and premiered last season, in addition to works by Janáček, Beethoven and Schubert.

of the first four Elliott Carter String Quartets along with the 2013 recording of Carter’s fifth quartet traces a remarkable period in the evolution of both the composer and the ensemble. The Quartet’s recordings of the Bartók and Schoenberg Quartets, as well as those of Debussy, Ravel and Beethoven, have won Grammy Awards, and in 2011 the JSQ became the first classical music ensemble to receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Adding to its celebrated discography, an album of works

by Beethoven, Bartók, and Dvořák was released by Sony Classical in April 2021 to critical acclaim.

Additionally, Sony Masterworks released a JSQ catalog release (The Early Juilliard Recordings) in June 2021. In the fall of 2018, the JSQ released an album on Sony featuring the world premiere recording of Mario Davidovsky’s Fragments (2016), together with Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 95 and Bartók’s Quartet No. 1. Additionally, Sony Classical’s 2014 reissue of the Quartet’s landmark recordings

Devoted master teachers, the members of the Juilliard String Quartet offer classes and open rehearsals when on tour. The JSQ is String Quartet in Residence at the Juilliard School and its members – Areta Zhulla, Ronald Copes, Molly Carr, and Astrid Schween – are all sought-after teachers on the string and chamber music faculties.

Each May, they host the five-day internationally recognized Juilliard String Quartet Seminar. During the summer, the JSQ works closely on string quartet repertoire with students at the Tanglewood Music Center.

“Hamelin’s legend will grow right now there is no one like him”

UPCOMING

Marc-André Hamelin PROGRAM: BEETHOVEN Hammerklavier INTERMISSION SCHUMANN Waldszenen, op. 82 RAVEL Gaspard de la Nuit SUNDAY, FEB 25, 3 PM SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER TICKETS & INFORMATION HERE

Sponsored by Dr. Ken & Sandy Tokita and the Parnassus Society

soka.edu/pac tickets@soka.edu 949-480-4278

UPCOMING “Pensive, rewarding, touching”

“a moving, sensurround experience”

“overflowing with joy and gratitude”

A Thousand Thoughts:

A Live Documentary with Kronos Quartet & Sam Green Join us for an unforgettable evening as Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Sam Green collaborates with Emmy Award®-winning writer Joe Bini to present a “live documentary” with the Kronos Quartet chronicling the group’s groundbreaking career.

SATURDAY, MAR 9, 8 PM SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER TICKETS & INFORMATION HERE soka.edu/pac tickets@soka.edu 949-480-4278

Soka Performing Arts Center Mission Statement

Our mission is to Engage, Educate, and Elevate the Human Spirit Soka Performing Arts Center strives to elevate humanity through transcendent experiences. Come experience our exquisite acoustics. Come to expand your understanding and appreciation of music. Come to forge community and emotional connections through the shared experience of live music.

Listen.

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ABOUT SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Soka Performing Arts Center is located on the beautiful hilltop campus of Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo. Our facility includes the 1,032seat Concert Hall featuring world-class acoustics designed by master acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, designer of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, among many others. We also have an intimate 350-seat Black Box Theatre that allows for multiple seating configurations including club seating with bistro tables.

More than 750 performances have taken place since the center’s dedication on May 27, 2011. The 2023-24 season marks our twelfth season presenting first-class programming in our world-class concert hall. We are continuing to expand our programming and outreach with the addition of a Children’s Concert Series, Blues Festival, and the only Great Pianists Series on the West Coast. From classical and jazz to world and contemporary music, the Soka Performing Arts Center has become a prized space for artists and audiences alike.

We are proud to be the home of the Pacific Symphony Chamber Orchestra.

Our Sundays @ Soka Series with Pacific Symphony continues to be one of our most popular series year after year. Our presentations with other Orange County arts organizations have enabled us to reach further into our community to offer arts education and programming. Our partnership with the Philharmonic Society of Orange County includes our PSOC Series, which brings superlative artists to our stage. We also partner with PSOC for our Outreach Program, bringing over 7,000 school children to Soka Performing Arts Center to experience live performances with outstanding musicians.

With its world-class acoustics and first-class performances, Soka Performing Arts Center is quickly becoming one of the cultural jewels of Orange County.

SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER DONORS

OUR SUPPORTERS

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE ($75,000+) Dr. Kenneth & Sandra Tokita Sam & Lyndie Ersan CONCERTMASTER ($10,000+) Ms. Emi Maeda STAGE CHAMPION ($5000+) Anonymous STAGE BENEFACTOR ($1000+) John and Sue Prange Terumi Saito Jochen Schumacher Scott A Shuping GOLD CLEF ($500+) Jeffrey Hendrix Jane A. Lynch Alex & Sandy Scott SILVER CLEF ($200+) Lorraine Leiser Anson and Marilyn Wong BRONZE CLEF ($25+) Raquel Bruno Sammy Chang Judy Kaufman Jeannette Pease Thomas Prigorac Jonia Suri Naomi Uchiyama Joseph Whitaker Joyce M Wrice Taro Yamanashi

List current as of 09/29/2023 The Soka Performing Arts Center deeply appreciates the support of its sponsors and donors, and makes every effort to ensure accurate and appropriate recognition. Contact Renee Bodie, General Manager at (949) 480-4821 to make us aware of any error or omission in the foregoing list.

CREATE YOUR OWN SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGE

This season, we have made exciting updates to our subscription and renewal program, providing you with even more flexibility in our season packages*.

With our enhanced program, you now have the power to curate your very own unique experience.

• 15% Discount for a 3 performance package • 18% Discount for a 4 performance package • 20% Discount for a 5+ performance package *full details online at soka.edu/pac

OUR PARTNERS • Blueport Jazz • Philharmonic Society of Orange County • Pacific Symphony • San Diego Symphony • Parnassus Society

SOKA PAC MANAGEMENT TEAM Renée Bodie General Manager & Artistic Director John Morgan Box Office Manager Jarmil Maupin Technical Services Manager Jenski Nguyen Stage Manager Madeline Webb Lighting Technician Hiroyuki Connor Miki Internal Events Manager Jaime Spataro Marketing & Communications Manager Joe Nicholls Marketing & Communications Assistant Steve Baker Interim Production/House Manager

SokaPAC @SokaPAC SokaPerformingArtsCenter @SokaPAC Website soka.edu/pac

SOKA UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA BOARD OF TRUSTEES Soka Performing Arts Center resides on the beautiful campus of Soka University of America.

We thank the SUA Board of Trustees and the SUA Leadership Council for all of their support.

SUA BOARD OF TRUSTEES Steve Dunham, JD Chair Vice President and General Counsel Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University | Baltimore, Maryland Tariq Hasan, PhD Vice Chair Chief Executive Officer, SGIUSA | New York, New York Andrea Bartoli, PhD President, Sant’Egidio Foundation for Peace and Dialogue | New York, New York Matilda Buck Benefactor | Los Angeles, California Lawrence E. Carter, Sr, PhD, DD, DH, DRS Dean, Professor of Religion, College Archivist and Curator, Morehouse College | Atlanta, Georgia Andy Firoved CEO, HOTB Software | Irvine, California Jason Goulah, PhD Professor of Bilingual-Bicultural Education and Director, Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education, Director of Programs in Bilingual-Bicultural Education, World Language Education, and Value-Creating Education for Global Citizenship, College of Education, DePaul University | Chicago, Illinois Clothilde V. Hewlett, JD Commissioner of Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, State of California | San Francisco, California Lawrence A. Hickman, PhD Director Emeritus, The Center for Dewey Studies and Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University Carbondale | Carbondale, Illinois

Kris Knudsen, JD Attorney | Wilsonville, Oregon Karen Lewis, PhD Sondheimer Professor of International Finance and Co-Director, Weiss Center for International Financial Research, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Luis Nieves Founder, Chairman Emeritus AUL Corp, Benefactor | Napa, California Gene Marie O’Connell, RN, MS Health Care Consultant, Associate Clinical Professor, University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing | Corte Madera, California Adin Strauss General Director, Soka Gakkai International-USA | Santa Monica, California Yoshiki Tanigawa Benefactor, Soka Gakkai | Tokyo, Japan Edward M. Feasel, PhD President, Soka University of America (ex-officio member) | Aliso Viejo, California

SUA LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

SUA LEADERSHIP COUNCIL Edward M. Feasel, PhD President Chief Academic Officer Professor of Economics

M. Robert Hamersley, PhD Dean of Faculty Professor of Environmental Biogeochemistry

Archibald E. Asawa Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Chief Financial Officer Chief Investment Officer

Hyon J. Moon, EdD Dean of Students Title IX and Section 504 Deputy Coordinator for Students

Katherine M. King, PHR Executive Vice President of University Community Chief Human Resources Officer Title IX and Section 504 Coordinator for Faculty, Staff and Others Michael Weiner, PhD Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Professor of East Asian History & International Studies Kevin Moncrief, PhD Vice President for Mission Integration Bryan E. Penprase, PhD Vice President for Sponsored Research and External Academic Relations Professor of Physics and Astronomy Tomoko Takahashi, PhD, EdD, LHD Vice President for Institutional Research and Assessment Dean of the Graduate School Professor of Linguistics and Education David Welch, JD Vice President University Counsel

Michelle Hobby-Mears, MBA Associate Dean of Students Director of Student Activities Andrew Woolsey, EdD Dean of Enrollment Services Martin Beck, MA Executive Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications

CONCESSIONS

Concessions A wide variety of wine, beer, soft drinks and freshly prepared snacks will be available before the concert and during intermission in the lobby.

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