1314 Program Notes: Curtis On Tour

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Curtis On Tour Wind Ensemble Di Wu, piano Sunday, March 23, 2014

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Mondavi

Curtis On Tour Wind Ensemble Di Wu, piano Niles Watson, flute Corbin Stair, oboe Slavko Popovic, clarinet Catherine Chen, bassoon Sarah Boxmeyer, horn A Debut Series Event Sunday, March 23, 2014 Vanderhoef Studio Theatre There will be one intermission.

Individual support for the Debut Series artist residency program provided by Eunice Adair-Christensen in memory of Oren Christensen.

Program

Jennifer Higdon: Summer Shimmers [approx. 6:00]

Niles Watson, flute

Corbin Stair, oboe

Slavko Popovic, clarinet

Catherine Chen, bassoon

Sarah Boxmeyer, horn

Di Wu, piano Barber:Â Summer Music, Op. 31 [approx. 11:30]

Niles Watson, flute

Corbin Stair, oboe

Slavko Popovic, clarinet

Catherine Chen, bassoon

Sarah Boxmeyer, horn Mozart: Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 452 [approx. 22:00]

Corbin Stair, oboe

Slavko Popovic, clarinet

Catherine Chen, bassoon

Sarah Boxmeyer, horn

Di Wu, piano INTERMISSION

Katerina Kramarchuk: Winter Winds [approx. 9:00]

Niles Watson, flute

Corbin Stair, oboe

Slavko Popovic, clarinet

Catherine Chen, bassoon

Sarah Boxmeyer, horn Poulenc: Sextet [approx. 18:00]

Niles Watson, flute

Corbin Stair, oboe

Slavko Popovic, clarinet

Catherine Chen, bassoon

Sarah Boxmeyer, horn

Di Wu, piano

Program notes Summer Shimmers (2008) Jennifer Higdon (Born December 31, 1962, Brooklyn, NY) When I was young My brother and I used to go fishing At a beautiful quiet pond amongst fields It was there that we discovered ...

Summer Shimmers —Jennifer Higdon

Summer Music, Op. 31 (1955) Samuel Barber (Born March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania Died January 23, 1981 in New York City) Most works in the history of western music have been written to order, on commission, as it were, to meet the requirements of the musicians, occasion and performance situation specified by a church, court, theater, individual or organization. Samuel Barber’s Summer Music for Woodwind Quintet arose from that tradition, but with an unprecedented twist—it was paid for not by a single entity but by a public subscription of dozens of individuals each contributing a few dollars that was organized by the Chamber Music Society of Detroit in 1954. The first performance was given at the Detroit Institute of Arts on March 20, 1956 by Detroit Symphony principals James Pellerite (flute), Arno Mariotti (oboe), Albert Luconi (clarinet), Charles Sirard (bassoon) and Ray Alonge (horn).

Summer Music is suggestive, not programmatic: its clear, bright wind sonorities, its leisurely formal progression, its genial, expansive mood evoke the feelings if not the pictures of warm months and unhurried days. The work is in two chapters, each comprising several continuous sections. Horn and bassoon open the piece with a motto phrase of small intervals and gently undulant rhythms (to be played “slow and indolent” according to the score), strewn with delicate arabesques from flute and clarinet. The oboe then sings a broad, flowing melody before the ensemble begins a passage of crisp staccato chords in quicker tempo. The broad oboe melody returns, as does the motto phrase, considerably extended. The second formal chapter is occupied with a breezy dance in catchy rhythms initiated by the oboe. The dance pauses twice for a reminiscence of the motto phrase (a rest in the hammock?) before bringing this delightful evocation of summer to a sunny close.

Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 452 (1784) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna) Mozart’s personal happiness and public popularity were at their zeniths in 1784. He shared a comfortable apartment with Constanze, and they were looking forward to the birth of a baby in September.

He had been settled in Vienna for nearly three years, and had acquired a reputation as the finest pianist in town as well as a talented composer. So great was the demand for his performances in the city’s concert halls and the houses of the aristocracy that he played 22 concerts between February 26th and April 3rd. This

hectic schedule alone would be enough to fully occupy any solo performer, but the Viennese audience also expected that “I must play some new works and therefore I must compose,” he wrote. In addition, many of his mornings were given over to teaching, with the remaining cracks in his schedule devoted to carrying on a quite merry social life. “Have I not enough to do? I do not think I can get rusty at this rate,” he wrote in a letter to Leopold, his father in Salzburg, with which he proudly enclosed a list of his performances.

For his program of April 1st at the Burgtheater, which also included the Concertos Nos. 15 and 16 (K. 450 and K. 451) and the Symphonies No. 35 (“Haffner”) and No. 36 (“Linz”), Mozart composed a Quintet for Piano and Winds (K. 452), completing it just the night before the concert. The composer played the piano part himself, but the names of the other performers are unrecorded.

It is possible that the horn player was Mozart’s old Salzburg pal, Joseph Leutgeb, who had settled in Vienna two years earlier; the earliest of the four concertos for Leutgeb dates from that year.

The clarinettist was perhaps Anton Stadler, for whom Mozart later wrote the Clarinet Concerto and the Clarinet Quintet, and who had performed in Mozart’s B-flat Serenade (K. 361) at the Burgtheater just a week earlier. The premiere of the new Quintet went well.

“It had the greatest applause,” Mozart reported to his father on April 10th. “I myself consider it the best thing I have written in my life. I wish you could have heard it, and how beautifully it was performed, though to tell the truth I grew rather tired from all the playing by the end. It reflects no small credit on me that my audience did not in any degree share the fatigue.” John N. Burk noted of this extraordinary epistle, “Mozart until this moment had never in his letters spoken of the quality of a new work, but only of its acceptability and its success, duly reported for his father’s satisfaction. Now for the first time he shows pride in what he has done.”

The Quintet’s opening movement, bursting with melody, begins with a slow introduction followed by a sonata-form essay with a tiny development section. The Larghetto, also in sonata form, is sweet and limpid. The finale is a perky rondo with a written-out cadenza near the end marked by entrances in close imitation. ©2014 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

Winter Winds (2014) Katerina Kramarchuk (Born 1988, Kishinev, Moldova) I wrote Winter Winds in January while contemplating the different moods of the winter season. The musical content is inspired by the contrast in the image of peaceful scenery followed by a snowstorm.

The beginning of the piece is like a dialogue between a moderate section, which represents cold and quiet stillness, and a fast “windy” section. This dialogue is interrupted by a slow nostalgic meditation.

The rapid winds take over and end the piece in a snowstorm.

This commission was supported by grants from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia and the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy.

— Katerina Kramarchuk

Sextet for Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn (1932) Francis Poulenc (Born January 7, 1899 in Paris Died there on January 30, 1963) Poulenc established the foundation for his lifetime’s music early in his career. “I seek a musical style,” he wrote, “that is healthy, clear and robust, a style as plainly French as Stravinsky’s is Slavic.”

In forming the elements of his creative language, Poulenc was a pronounced eclectic, freely borrowing from the whole range of French composers active around the turn of the 20th century: Fauré, Ravel, Koechlin, Stravinsky, Roussel and especially Debussy, Satie and Chabrier. The resulting concoction was, however, distinctly that of Poulenc, so much so that the American composer and devoted Francophile Ned Rorem could write, “He is among the magic few. Without his art, my world would weigh less.” Poulenc’s technical strength was melody, and it is not coincidental that he was one of the greatest song writers of the 20th century. Though rooted in the traditional harmonic system, his melodies are peppered with frequent, surprisingly piquant dissonances and unexpected turns of rhythmic phrase. Roger Nichols assessed, “For him the most important element of all was melody, and he found his way to a vast treasury of undiscovered tunes within an area that had, according to the most up-to-date musical maps, been surveyed, worked and exhausted.” These straightforward and tuneful melodies were often based on what Poulenc and his confrères in the group of French composers known as Les Six called “Parisian folklore” — the ditties of popular entertainers such as street musicians, music hall performers or circus bands. Much of Poulenc’s pre-World War II music partakes of the blended spirits of carefree insouciance and chuckling gaiety. In the words of Rollo Myers, “Poulenc deliberately sets out to charm you with his music. His music, in fact, is written expressly to give pleasure ... Poulenc dares to be a hedonist in his music.”

The chamber works demonstrate the lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek aspect of Poulenc’s musical personality to perfection. Of his thirteen compositions for various instrumental ensembles, only three are exclusively for strings. Probably inspired by the excellent woodwind and brass players produced by the Paris Conservatoire, Poulenc confessed, “I have always adored wind instruments, preferring them to strings, and this love developed independent of the tendencies of the era. Of course, L’Histoire du Soldat [‘The Soldier’s Tale’] and Stravinsky’s solo clarinet pieces stimulated my taste for winds, but I had already developed the taste as a child.” Among the chief delights of his music for chamber ensembles is the Sextet for Piano and Winds.

The Sextet was originally composed in 1932, but after a trial performance of the piece, Poulenc was dissatisfied enough to withdraw the score. He thoroughly renovated the composition in 1939, and the revised version has become one of his most popular works. The opening movement is divided into three large sections.

The first, in quick tempo, exploits the agility of the instruments in the witty interchange of snippets of the melodic material. A bassoon recitative leads to the central section, a bittersweet strain derived from the theme of the movement’s opening. The fast tempo and the opening section return before a mock-military coda draws the movement to a bustling close. The second movement, marked Divertissement, is related to the three-part structure of the first, but with the tempos reversed. Here, the fast music occurs in the center

with the slow tempos flanking it at beginning and end. The finale is a progeny of the Parisian music hall filtered through the singular vision of the great musical iconoclast Eric Satie. In formal type, it most closely corresponds to the Classical rondo, with the boisterous rondo theme appearing twice after its initial presentation. The intervening episodes employ a slightly tipsy lyricism, giving the peculiar impression of a chanteuse coming on stage for her last set after perhaps one glass of Sauternes too many. As postlude to this midnight merriment, the Sextet finishes with a nostalgic coda at once sweet and hauntingly sad in its simplicity. ©2014 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

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he Curtis Institute of Music educates and trains exceptionally gifted young musicians for careers as performing artists on the highest professional level. One of the world’s leading conservatories, Curtis provides its 168 students with full-tuition scholarships and personalized attention from a celebrated faculty. Its distinctive “learn by doing” approach has produced an impressive number of notable artists, from such legends as Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber to current stars Jonathan Biss, Juan Diego Flórez, Alan Gilbert, Hilary Hahn, Jennifer Higdon, and Lang Lang. Curtis alumni hold principal chairs in every major American orchestra, and each season they are featured as guest soloists with the world’s leading orchestras, opera houses, and chamber music series.

Curtis’s innovative programs encourage students to perform often and hone 21st-century musical skills. The school’s facilities offer superb spaces for music-making, as well as state-of-the-art technologies to enhance learning. In addition to more than 200 performances in and around Philadelphia each year, students perform internationally with Curtis On Tour. When they graduate, they become musical leaders, making a profound impact on music around the globe. To learn more, visit www.curtis.edu.

About Curtis On Tour Curtis on Tour is the global touring initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music. An embodiment of the school’s “learn by doing” philosophy, it offers students real-world, professional touring experience alongside celebrated alumni and faculty. Since Curtis On Tour was established in 2008, students, faculty, and alumni have traveled to 44 destinations worldwide. In addition to performances, students frequently offer master classes, in-school demonstrations, and other community engagement activities. Touring ensembles have performed on stages in Europe, Asia, and North and South America, with new venues added each year.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES Sarah Boxmeyer, horn Sarah Boxmeyer, from Philadelphia, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2010 and studies with Jennifer Montone, principal horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra. All students at Curtis receive merit-based full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Boxmeyer is the Louisa Knapp Curtis Fellow.

Catherine Chen, bassoon Catherine Chen, born in Taipei, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2010 and studies with Daniel Matsukawa, principal bassoon of the Philadelphia Orchestra. All students at Curtis receive merit-based full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Chen is the Gie and Lisa Liem Annual Fellow.

Ms. Chen has been a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Orchestra, and “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. She has performed in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, and at the Great Wall of China.

Ms. Chen is second bassoon of Symphony in C. She has been principal bassoon of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, New York String Seminar, the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Symphony and PreCollege Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, and Youth Band for the United Nations.

Ms. Chen won the senior division of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2012 Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition and was a National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) YoungArts 2010 finalist. She has attended the Castleton Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, National Orchestra Institute, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Kinhaven Music School.

Ms. Chen moved to the United States at age six. Her previous teachers include Joyce Kelley and Marc Goldberg.

Slavko Popovic, clarinet Slavko Popovic, from Hamilton, Ontario, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013 and studies with Donald Montanaro. Like all students at Curtis, Mr. Popovic attends on a merit-based full-tuition scholarship.

Mr. Popovic has performed as a soloist at the “WhatNext” Festival in Hamilton and with several orchestras, including the Toronto Youth Symphony Orchestra, Oakville Symphony, Mississauga Youth Orchestra, Symphony Hamilton, and the Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. He has also been principal clarinet of the Mississauga Youth Orchestra, Steeltown Symphony, and the Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

Ms. Boxmeyer was the winner of the collegiate division of the 2013 Northeast Horn Workshop Solo Competition and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival Concerto Competition. She has attended the National Repertory Orchestra Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, and the Pierre Monteux School.

Mr. Popovic was a prize winner in several competitions, including the Ontario Music Festival Association Provincial Competition, the 2009 Symphony Hamilton Young Artists’ Competition, and the Rotary Music Festival of Burlington. He was also awarded the National Youth Orchestra of Canada 2012 Tour Scholarship, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra’s 2012 Maestro Award, and the Atlanta Heritage Festival’s 2010 Maestro Award.

Prior to entering Curtis, she attended Temple University where she studied with Jeffrey Lang. She has also studied with William Bonnell at Settlement Music School. She began horn lessons at age fourteen; her first instrument was the accordion, which she began playing at age six.

Mr. Popovic began clarinet lessons at age nine and previously studied with Joseph Orlowski of the University of Toronto and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as Stephen Pierre of the University of Toronto and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.

Corbin Stair, oboe Corbin Stair, from Warsaw, Ind., entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2011 and studies with Richard Woodhams, principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra. All students at Curtis receive merit-based full-tuition scholarships, and Mr. Stair is the Emily W. Sunstein Annual Fellow.

Mr. Stair has been a soloist with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Youth Symphony and with the Symphony of the Lakes. He has also been a member of the Grace College Wind Ensemble and toured Europe with the Indiana Ambassadors of Music Symphonic Band.

Mr. Stair was a fellow of the 2013 Tanglewood Music Center, where he held the Augustus Thorndike Fellowship and the Steinberg Fellowship. Prior to Curtis, he attended the 2008–11 Masterworks Festivals.

Mr. Stair began playing the oboe at age twelve. He is an avid golfer and Indianapolis Colts fan.

Niles Watson, flute Niles Watson, from Damascus, Md., entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2011 and studies with Jeffrey Khaner, principal flute of the Philadelphia Orchestra. All students at Curtis receive merit-based full-tuition scholarships, and Mr. Watson is the Julius Baker Fellow.

Mr. Watson has been a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and has been a member of the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra.

He received an honorable mention in the 2012 Yamaha Young Performing Artist competition and was the 2011 Greenfield Competition Junior Division winner.

Mr. Watson has attended the Brevard Music Center, the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute, the Skidmore Summer Flute Institute, and the McDaniel College Summer Music Camp.

Mr. Watson began studying the flute at age nine. He has studied with Aaron Goldman of the National Symphony Orchestra and Jessica Hull-Dambaugh of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.

Di Wu, piano Praised in the Wall Street Journal as “a most mature and sensitive pianist” and named one of the “up-and-coming talents” in classical music by Musical America, Chinese-American Di Wu continues to enhance her reputation as an elegant and powerful musician.

Ms. Wu made her professional debut at the age of 14 with the Beijing Philharmonic and has since performed with major orchestras around the globe. She debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2009, and her 2013–14 season began with a return engagement with the Philadelphia Orchestra, playing Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Other recent engagements include debuts with the North Carolina Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of Mexico, and the China NCPA Orchestra at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

In addition to orchestra engagements, Ms. Wu is also sought after as a recitalist. In New York, she has performed at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. She has also appeared at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, Ravinia Festival, and the Portland Piano Festival. A dedicated performer of chamber music and a Curtis Institute of Music alumna, she will join Curtis On Tour in the 2013–14 season, with performances in California, Costa Rica, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Winner of multiple awards including a coveted prize at the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition; The Juilliard School’s Petschek Award; The Virtuosi Prize at Lisbon’s prestigious Vendome Competition; and the winner of Astral Artists’ 2007 National Auditions, Ms. Wu came to the United States in 1999 to study at the Manhattan School of Music with Zenon Fishbein.

From 2000 to 2005 she studied at Curtis with Gary Graffman, subsequently earning a Master of Music degree at Juilliard under Yoheved Kaplinsky, and an Artist Diploma under the guidance of Joseph Kalichstein and Robert McDonald.