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Welcome, music (and food) lovers! We are excited that you are here to share our yearly musical feast, the Skaneateles Festival. The musical dishes are as sumptuous as always, from classics like Schubert and Mozart to the most imaginative contemporary fare. We know you’ll be thrilled with the world-class service, from Festival favorite Hilary Hahn to first-timers Anonymous 4. And the ambiance? An intimate setting beside one of the most beautiful lakes imaginable, in front of one of the country’s most enthusiastic, warm audiences. It’s a perfect combination. Thank your continued part in supporting the Skaneateles Festival magic.

Elinor Freer and David Ying Artistic Directors, Skaneateles Festival

Come join us!

FamilyFest! pg. 6

Bella Hristova pg. 32

Donal Fox pg. 22 Anonymous 4 pg. 18

Hilary Hahn pg. 24

A Far Cry pg. 58 1

Skaneateles Festival

2013

Board of Directors

Advisory Council

Administration

Dave Birchenough, President Doug Sutherland, Vice President George Bain, Treasurer Sharon Slater and Koko Fuller, Co-Secretaries

Thomas Bersani Ellen Bifano Beth Boudreau Mary Cotter William Davis John DeFrancisco Michael P. Falcone Lindsay Groves Claire Howard Daniel Labeille Andy Latchem Linda Kenan Dan McCann Andrew Ramsgard David Robinson (1924-2006)

Susan Mark, Executive Director David Ying and Elinor Freer, Artistic Directors

Karin Blute Patti Carey Edward Conan Barb Connor David Duggan Steve Frackenpohl Joseph Grasso Joyce Jowaisas Jackie Keady Sharon Magee Bill Mahood

Fred Marty Margaret Murray Amy Neumann Louise Robinson Linda Roche Sharon Slater Michael Tutor Arleen Van Riper Jo Werner Doug Whitehouse

Steve Frackenpohl, Stage Manager Marilyn Oliver, Public Relations Intern Kathryn Magee, Jessica Boyce, Grace Magee, Madeleine Van Riper, Office Assistants Eric Boyce, Stage Assistant Outside the Box Business Solutions, Bookkeeping & Ad Sales Nancy Boyce, Graphic Designer Keith Horner, Program Notes Writer Tom Doser, Music Librarian

A Special Thank You to our 2012 Volunteers Diane and Cindi Aberi Miki Bangs Henry and Helga Beck Dave Birchenough and Carrie Lazarus Tom and Arlene Bloomer Alyssa Blount Nancy, Eric and Jessy Boyce Mary Bradly Carol Bryant Judy Bryant Mary and Charlie Buckley Betsy Burton Corinne and Bill Buterbaugh Patti and Bud Carey Maryellen Casey and Bruce Keplinger Stephanie Chow

Joan Christy and Tom Bersani Vicky Clark Pat & Bill Conole Carol Ann Cook Susie Dailey Evan and Liz Dreyfuss Kim and Charlie Driscoll Ian and Rita Edwards Paul & Erika Fiutak Barbara Foster Steve and Sandi Frackenpohl Koko Fuller Judy Gelston Mary Gomoll-Granicz David Graham Georgina Gregory Dana and Susan Hall Gay Hembach Tom Higgins

Don Hughes Mary Knepper Myron and Luba Kopchynsky Wendy Kopley Josephine Kress Bob and Betty Liegel Craig Lindsey and the First Presbyterian Church Marshall, Sharon, Kathryn and Grace Magee Wendy Mageria Bill and Miki Mahood John and Peggy Manring Ellie McGaan Donna Merchant Madonna and Jeff Meyer James and Nancy Mion Peter Moller

Margaret Murray Richard Naughton Bob and Sally Neumann Tim and JoDean Orcutt Jeff Paston Bob and Christine Pierce Mimi Purington Louise Robinson Anne Roth Susan Schroeder Ros Schwartz Julie Sharpe David and Sharon Slater Mona Smalley Carolyn Smith Lynn and Corinne Smith Peter and Elsa Soderberg

Margaret Sovik Jan Sterling Chacea and Don Sundman Peggy Surdam Jennifer Sutherland Flo and Peter Swartz Gail van der Linde Patty Weisse Suzanne Weitz Jo and Bob Werner Doug and Peg Whitehouse Tina Williams Sheryl Woodmansee Jeff and Kate Youle

A special thanks to all the volunteers and cooks who made Summer Suite such a great success.

Acknowledgements Louise Robinson, Brook Farm – Concert Location & Hospitality Maryellen Casey & Bruce Keplinger, “Cybersolvers” – Webmaster and Computer Coordinators Sue & Dana Hall; Elizabeth & Evan Dreyfuss; Dave Birchenough & Carrie Lazarus; Don & Chacea Sundman – Musician Dinners

Many thanks to the generous Skaneateles residents who open their homes to the Festival’s visiting musicians.

Joan Christy – Musician Dinners & Guarantor Reception First Presbyterian Church – Concert Location Koko Fuller – Ticket Sales ChaseDesign – Brochure & Program Cover Arthur Nick Smith – Piano Tuning Skaneateles High School – Music Stands & Percussion

Programs and artists subject to change. © The Skaneateles Festival 2013

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volunteer The Festival is made possible by volunteers...

like you! We are always looking for help with concerts post-concert receptions food for musician dinners musician housing and more

If you are interested in helping, please visit the “Get Involved” section of our website

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#1 in Listings and Sales in #1 in Listings and Sales in Skaneateles Skaneateles After you enjoy the music, A Stop fter in oryou giveenjoy us a the call music, to discuss

Stop or give a Finger call to Lakes. discuss RealinEstate inus the Real Estate in the Finger Lakes.

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Thank you to all the Skaneateles Festival Donors!

Gifts received as of July 26, 2013

Guarantor Society Roland and Tacie Anderson Artist Pianos George Bain Dave Birchenough and Carrie Lazarus Jim and Karin Blute Patience Brewster and Holly Gregg Rick and Ann Capozza Maryellen Casey and Bruce Keplinger ChaseDesign Joan Christy and Tom Bersani Ed and Paula Conan

Bob and Sue Congel Barb Connor Bill and Donna Davis The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Sid and Suzanne Devorsetz Evan and Elizabeth Dreyfuss David Duggan and Lynn Cleary Michael and Noreen Falcone Michael Falcone and Nicole Ruvo The Fletcher Foundation Koko Fuller Donna Graber, Planning Sense

The David Graham Family Grossman St. Amour CPAs PLLC Donna Himelfarb Hiscock & Barclay, LLP The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation National Endowment for the Arts / Art Works Bob and Sally Neumann New York State Council on the Arts Onondaga County and CNY Arts

Faye Panasci Andy and Sherie Ramsgard, Ramsgard Architectural Louise Robinson Carl Schramm and Ellyn Brown Sherwood Inn Jary and Julie Shimer Peter and Elsa Soderberg Donald and Chacea Sundman Doug Sutherland and Nancy Kramer WCNY Classic FM Sieglinde Wikstrom

Donald and Jean Eygnor Colleen and Dan Fisher Franklin Properties, LLC Dr. and Mrs. Gianfranco Frittelli Joseph and Marie Grasso Tom and Gretchen Jeffers Bruce and Linda Kenan Andrea Latchem

David and Anne Lee Sharon and Marshall Magee John and Peggy Manring Fred and Ginny Marty Peter and Betsy McKinnell Dan and Kathleen Mezzalingua Chris and Amy Neumann Robert and Christine Pierce Doug and Judy Robertson

Linda and Dan Roche Jennifer Sutherland Sutton Real Estate Testone, Marshall & Discenza, CPAs Salli and James Tuozzolo Welch Allyn WRVO Public Media

Dana and Susan Hall Joe and Mary Ellen Hennigan George Iocolano Joyce and Robin Jowaisas John MacAllister and Laurel Moranz Bill and Miki Mahood Susan Mark

Frank and Frances Revoir Foundation David Rubin and Tina Press Jack and Stephanie Rudnick Chris Lego and Jeff Shingleton Dr. Frank C. Smith Lynn and Corinne Smith Peter and Florence Swartz

Paul and Mary Torrisi Arleen and Loren Van Riper Jack and Judy Varney Wells Fargo Advisors Bob and Jo Werner Doug and Peg Whitehouse David Ying and Elinor Freer Dr. and Mrs. David P.W. Ying

Carolyn and Roger Friedlander Marianne Gage Mel and Dorothee Goldman Jean Jeffery Greene Steve and Ann Hahn Robert and Josephine Harris Scott Heinekamp Pamela Heintz Sally Holben Rob and Claire Howard Joseph and Eleanor Hubbard Louis and Mary Iannettoni Dr. Paul Karpinski Jackie Keady Daniel and Virginia Kenney Mary Knepper Wendy and John Kopley Don and Judy Krieger Roger A. Krieger

Ted and Joan Kuck Marilyn Lerman David and Stacia Landsberg William and Anne Lynn James and Nancy Marquardt Susan Martineau John and Candace Marsellus Mark Martino Luis Mejico Gary and Carolyn Mucci Eric Allyn and Meg O’Connell Marc and Cristina Pietropaoli Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Potter Greg and Debbie Quick Raz Rahman Dan and Lisa Riordan Nick and Linda Rossi Al and Vicky Sabin Marilyn and James Seago

Sharon Slater Jason Slottje Jeffrey Stannard Jan Sterling Judith Stoikov and Richard Miller Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Stokes III Carol and William Stokes-Cawley John Sutter Frank and Rose Swiskey Cynthia Tracy Charles Tremper Jaime Tuozzolo John and Jean Vincent Ben and Eleanor Ware Suzanne and Walter Weitz John and Carol Young

Benefactor Bill and Penny Allyn Henry and Helga Beck John Gazda and Ellen Bifano Gwen and Bill Birchenough Mark and Lou Bitz Clear Channel The CNY Business Journal The Columbian Foundation Mary Cotter

Gold Patron Corinne and Bill Buterbaugh Carl Byrne Patti and Bud Carey Susan T. Dailey Guy and Nancy Easter Robert and Nicolena Errico Patricia and Steven Ford Georgina Gregory

Patron

Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood E. Bain Beth Boudreau Judith Bryant Elet and John Callahan Andres and Monique Cardenes Edward P. Castilano Nancy Collins Sylvia Crawford Tim and Margie Creamer Alan Curle and Andrew London Alan and Linda Dolmatch Myron and Barbara Egtvedt Linda and J. Randolph Evans Hamilton and Fran Fish Bill and Sharon Fox Steven and Sandi Frackenpohl John V. Frank Mona and Coburn Freer

Contributor Bernard and Lilan Asher Karl Barth Jackie Bays Lynne and Richard Bennett Ann Marie Bergold John and Marsha Bisgrove Dave and Pat Blackwell Barbara Bloom Cynthia Blume Mary Bradly Louise Bristol Hal and Peggy Brown Theresa and Dan Brown Judith Bryant Curt and Joyce Carlson Mary Ching Stephanie R Choguill Stephen and Linda Chow Phyllis Clark Joe and Nancy Clayton Rev. Becky and Kip Coerper Paul and Gail Cowley Charles and Margaret Crosman Jim and Cecilia Curley Auburn Public Theater Dick and Claire Damaske Starke Donnally Marvin and Patricia Druger Ian and Rita Edwards Anna and Ed Egert

Mohsen Emami Stuart and Barbara Evans Bob and Kay Fagliarone Paul and Erika Fiutak Judith Fox Susan and Frank Freer Thomas and Louise Gilhooley Dr. Phillip Gioia Gloria and Joshua Goldberg Kenneth Grant and Katherine Cronin Bob and Val Gray Agnes E. Griffith, Ph.D Estelle Hahn Jennifer Loviglio and Paul Hartman William and Karen Havens Bob and Peggy Hegel Mary and Mark Hetrick Donald Hiller Rich and Debbie Hole Bob and Barbara Holloway Jack and Ruth Howard Dorothy Hughes John and Linda Isaac Lin Kroeger and Alan Johnson Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Kaplan Stephen and Terry Kline Barbara Kotula Eric and Anne Krouse

Carol Lynn Krumhansl Daniel and Grace Labeille Daniel and Marianne Larson Rev. Frank Lioi Edward and Carol Lipson Marian Loftus Anthony and Sandra Lombardo Dawn and Guy Mackenzie James and Patricia MacKillop Edward Mazur Margaret Merli Margaret and Bill Murray Eileen Murphy and CJ Ryan Sean and Laura O’Keefe Nancy Oplinger and Richard Freeman JoDean and Timothy Orcutt Dr. and Mrs. Bernard Panner Eleanor K. Peterson Penny and Stewart Pollock Arnold and Judith Poltenson Dick and Kim Poppa Lawrence and Janet Ruston RJR Associates Shannon Ryan Milton Sack Jane Burkhead and Robert Sarason Bob Scheer Herbert and Hillery Schneiderman

Jon and Thelie Selzer Elizabeth Weinstein and Steven Shahan Susan and Steven Shaw Elaine Shende Dr. Melanie Six Beverly and Doug Smith Margaret Sovik Sal and Hope Strods Holly Strong Eugene and Joan Tarolli Ron Thiele Margaret and Douglas Tiedemann Nancy E. Tiedemann Susan Keefe and Michael Tutor Margaret Usdansky and Gustav Niebuhr Linda Van Buskirk Lynn Walsh Ron and Jane Walsh Virginia Wickwire Charles and Nancy Williams Don and Mary Anne Winfield Carol Wixson Susan Wolstenholme Bob and Jeanne Young Joyce Zadzilka Andrew Zepp

Shirley Feldmann Barbara Foster Aubrey and Carol Garlington Amandy and Wolfgang Geihe Marya Gendzielewski Alex and Donna Giambartolomei Karen Given Nancy Graham Chris and Philip Grajko Louis Green and Nanette Sable Louise Harpster Bob Hiemenz Perry and Dottie Howland Dr. and Mrs. Peter Huntington Maren and John King Richard and Mary Lee Kokosa Myron and Luba Kopchynsky Ann and Richard Kornbluth Claudia and Thomas Lambdin Harry and Nancy Lambright Norma Leone

Edward and Karen Levene Ed Little Peggy Liuzzi and David Michel Bob and Dee Maguire Cliff and Roberta Malzman Marc Morabito Deborah Moscarito Virginia Muggleton David and Janet Muir Eileen and Don O’Connell Bruce and Margaret Osborne Elizabeth Patton Joel Potash and Sandra Hurd Carol Rowehl and John Kahler John Ryckbost Louis Green and Nanette Sable Edith Schmitz Janet and Vito Sciscioli Julie Sharpe Terrance and Mary Frances Squires

Nancy Stones Elizabeth Kolodney and Barbara Sutton Dennis and Deborah Trepanier Eric Vandewater and Rebecca Mays Meg Vanek Cynthia Wandursky-Sciacca Mark Watkins and Brenda Silverman John and Marcia Watt Patty Weisse and George Thomas George and Nancy Wettlaufer Tina and Rodney Ashby Miryam Yardumian Laura Yelinek Cheryl and Peter Ward Kendra and Don Witter Laura Yelinek Joyce Zadzilka

Joan Gracie Mark and Mary Hetrick Ruth Hunt Eric and Anne Krouse

Mr. and Mrs. Peter Lord Sal and Hope Strods George Thomas and Patti Weisse

Cynthia Wandursky Peter and Cheryl Ward Robert and Joan Warf

Member Deborah Loo Anderson Matteo and Rose Bartolotta Walt and Pat Blackler Jane Blake Barbara and Dennis Bowen Bernie and Ona Bregman William Brokhoff David & Lynn Brown Carol Bryant Charlie and Mary Buckley Robert and Mary Burdick Kathryn Carlson John and Lucia Cataldo Jim and Sharon Cirincione Victoria Clark Goodwin Cooke Ransford and Janice Cooper Carol Delaney Kate DiDonato Thomas Eldred Dorothy Fagerstrom

In memory of David Slater Eric Allyn and Meg O’Connell David Duggan and Lynn Cleary Pamela and Richard Foss Marya Gendzielewski

FREE at the Festival Educational & Community Events

FamilyFest and Workshops are sponsored by:

The Panasci Family and the Fletcher Foundation

FamilyFest! “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!” Wednesday, August 14, 11:00 am • First Presbyterian Church Join the Festival’s Artistic Directors David Ying (cello) and Elinor Freer (piano) to learn how composers have “recycled” materials in their music. Afterward, children will have the opportunity to transform recycled material into a musical instrument and take it home.

The Sounds of Nature Wednesday, August 21, 11:00 am • First Presbyterian Church Do you ever close your eyes and just listen to the wind? Or to the sounds of the night, the songs of the bird, the gentle cracklings of a fire? If so, this concert is for you. Come and hear the Festival artists perform music inspired by the sounds of nature.

Open Workshops For Music Students Wednesday, August 28, 11:00 am • First Presbyterian Church Open to students of all ages and abilities.* Members of A Far Cry, violin, viola, cello and bass; and Elinor Freer, piano *Please Note: Pre-registration is required – students interested in participating can find the registration form online at www.skanfest.org or call 685-7418.

Behind the Scenes Open Rehearsal Wednesday, August 7, 2:00 Pm • First Presbyterian Church Get a sneak peek backstage as Festival performers rehearse for one of this week’s upcoming concerts.

Pre-Concert Chat Thursday, August 15, 7:00 Pm • First Presbyterian Church Meet pianist and composer Donal Fox

Please support our sponsors and advertisers.

Ways to Support Your Skaneateles Festival Donate for Music Today Donate today and support the 2013 season. Your gift will be recognized in the next year’s program.

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week 1

The Voice

Thursday, August 8

8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Dave Birchenough & Carrie Lazarus and Gwen & Bill Birchenough

Schubert Duet: Liebhaber in allen Gestalten (A lover in all disguises), D. 558

Die Liebe (Klärchens Lied), (Love), D. 210

Jennifer Aylmer, soprano Randall Scarlata, baritone Laura Ward, piano

Erster Verlust (First Loss), D. 226 Rastlose Liebe (Restless love), D. 138 Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the spinning-wheel), D. 118 Duet: Szene aus Goethes Faust (Scene from Goethe’s Faust), D. 126 Suleika I: Was bedeutet die Bewegung (What does this stirring mean?), D. 720 Wandrers Nachtlied I (Wayfarer’s night-song I), D. 224 Wandrers Nachtlied II (Wayfarer’s night-song II), D. 768 Erlkönig (The Erlking), D. 328

intermission

Schubert

Quartet in D minor, D. 810 (Death and the Maiden) Allegro Andante con moto Scherzo - Allegro molto Presto

tonight’s guest sponsorships:

Jennifer Aylmer is sponsored by Planning Sense Randall Scarlata is sponsored by Don & Chacea Sundman Laura Ward is sponsored by David Lee & Co. David Ying is sponsored by Evan & Elizabeth Dreyfuss Ying Quartet is sponsored by George Bain

The Ying Quartet Ayano Ninomiya, violin Janet Ying, violin Phillip Ying, viola David Ying, cello

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

From the Artistic Directors

Week 1 at a Glance…

The Voice From ancient times onwards, nearly all cultures have used singing for pleasure, comfort, and ritual. From sung lullabies to songs of worship to television talent searches, music for the voice is at the core of our desire for human expression. This week we’ll be able to appreciate the human voice as the ultimate musical instrument, and we’ll hear works by some of the great song and opera composers, as well as music that makes string instruments “sing.” Schubert’s lieder, as iconic as Bach fugues or Stravinsky’s ballets, form the basis of a fascinating intersection between sung text and instrumental playing. Italian opera and American song make for more classic vocal and vocally inspired music, and the week is capped off by the Skaneateles debut of one of the world’s great a capella groups, Anonymous 4.

Program Notes Tonight, songs from Schubert, the greatest composer of art song, are juxtaposed with one of his greatest string quartets, a work based on a song that embraces both life and death. “There is no song by Schubert that cannot teach us something,” Johannes Brahms once said of Schubert’s more than 600 songs. Brahms’s admiration and humility are well placed; Schubert’s achievement was unprecedented. He wrote songs at every stage of his life, taking inspiration from more than 100 poets. His catalog includes some of the great German poets, including, notably, the celebrated man of letters Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, around whose poetry this evening’s recital is built. Schubert’s songs with piano accompaniment were frequently included in convivial gatherings centered around an evening of informal music-making. These Schubertiads, as they soon became known, included one very grand occasion. “There

was a huge gathering [including] Gahy, who played four-hand piano music gloriously with Schubert, and Vogl, who sang almost thirty splendid songs,” one of Schubert’s friends, lawyer Franz von Hartmann, reported. “When the music was over, there was a grand feast and dancing. At 12:30 [we went] home. To bed at 1 o’clock.” The good-natured ‘take-me-as-I-am’ sentiment of Liebhaber in allen Schumann said Gestalten (A lover in all that “Schubert’s disguises) is typical of the pencil was dipped in comfortable, Biedermeier moonbeams and in tastes of the Viennese the flame of the sun.” middle-class society to which Schubert’s friends belonged. I’m not a fish to be caught, or a horse to pull your carriage, neither am I gold to buy you what you wish, Goethe says in a charming, unpretentious poem from the summer of 1810. “I am as I am. Just take me as such!”

Fun Fact…

Schubert drew the words for Die Liebe (Love) from a better-known source by Goethe, from Act 3 Scene 2 of his drama Egmont. Sung by Clara (Clärchen or Klärchen), Count Egmont’s lover, Schubert offers an intense, emotional ode to love, just 20 measures in duration, through a deeply expressive harmonic palette.

Wendy Kopley and Linda Roche enjoy Summer Suite

Both Erster Verlust (First Loss) and Rastlose Liebe (Restless love), also date from 1815, during which Schubert wrote 30 settings of Goethe. In Erster Verlust he transcends a somewhat run-of-the-mill expression of loss over a past lover by creating a profound and now universal statement of loss that resonates at many levels. Goethe’s poem Rastlose Liebe instantly struck a chord with Schubert who immediately began to set down the music he heard in his head. The rushing piano line marries the physicality of nature – Goethe wrote the original poem during a May snowstorm – with the impetuosity of love. Schubert’s

8/8 Program Notes (continued)

burst of creativity made the song one of his earliest to win public acclaim. With his compelling setting of Goethe’s Gretchen am Spinnrade made at the age of 17, Schubert “established the independence of the lied as a musical form once and for all, using the poem as a pretext for song,” argues British author John Reed in his authoritative volume The Schubert Song Companion. Gretchen shows how song can remain faithful to the text at a higher musical level. The text comes from Part One of Faust when Gretchen is sitting alone at her spinning-wheel, intensely desiring Faust (in the version of the drama Schubert would have known), her innocence defenseless against his power. Her agitation is reflected not only in the short breaks in the vocal line at the end of each phrase and its tendency to push ever upward, but also in the constant movement and tension of the piano part – itself a representation of a spinning-wheel in motion. The Szene aus Goethes Faust (Scene from Goethe’s Faust) is a scene from an opera on the Faust theme that Schubert was never to write. Dated 1814, when he was 17, it is titled “Cathedral service, organ, and singing. Gretchen surrounded by a crowd. Evil Spirits behind Gretchen.” Schubert indicates chorus, orchestra and trombones at appropriate spots showing that he had a full dramatic setting in mind. The extraordinary dialogue between Gretchen and an

evil spirit is interwoven with a solemn setting of the Dies irae from the Mass for the Dead. As the drama unfolds, Gretchen is pregnant and has unknowingly poisoned her mother with a sleeping draught, while Faust has just killed her brother in a duel. Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan is an anthology of love poems inspired by the Persian poet Hafiz and published in 1821. The character of Suleika in the collection evolved from a brief but intense love affair between the elderly Goethe and a younger married woman, Marianne von Willemer. Many years later it was revealed that Marianne herself, not Goethe, wrote the two Suleika poems, the first as she traveled East to meet her love. In it, the East wind brings messages of love, while the rustling piano sounds of the first five verses reflect both the heroine’s emotional turbuSchubert was one lence and the East wind of the torch bearers itself. Brahms thought at Beethoven’s funeral. this ardent love-song ‘the loveliest song that has ever been written.’

Fun Fact…

At a mere 11 bars of musical score, Wandrers Nachtlied I (Wayfarer’s night-song I) is a miracle of musical compression. Goethe’s much-admired lyrical poem is a prayer for peace whose changing degrees of world-weariness are echoed in the varying pulse of Schubert’s song. A poem with the same title that Goethe wrote four years later is

Planning Sense Peace of Mind... New Monthly Articles @www.planningsense.com And visit the Archives! Donna Graber, JD, ChFC (315) 423 -7700 ext 25 10

8/13Program 8/8 ProgramNotes Notes(continued) (continued)

even more admired – as is Schubert’s song from 1822. Wandrers Nachtlied II (Wayfarer’s night-song II) follows a similar progression as the earlier song, arriving at an inner peace with a serenity that marks a songwriter of true genius. Erlkönig (The Erlking), one of the greatest of 19thcentury lieder, again represents the perfect marriage of poet and composer. Goethe’s song is found in the opening scene of Die Fischerin, a singspiel written in 1782. Whether or not Schubert composed the song in a state of great agitation and inspiration, as reported by one of his friends, the ballad nevertheless creates a vivid feeling of urgency and immediacy in the listener. This largely results from Goethe’s use of direct speech between father and son and between the son and the terrifying Erlking. The repeated octaves in the piano propel the music relentlessly forward and bring a daemonic energy to its chilling conclusion.

Quartet in D minor, D. 810 (Death and the Maiden) (1824)

Another powerful image of Death is found in Schubert’s 1817 song Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the Maiden) to words by the German poet and essayist Matthias Claudius. The haunting piano accompaniment of the song contains an insistent long-short-short rhythm whose relentless onward tread becomes a rhythmic death motif to which Schubert sets only music sung by Death itself. Seven

years later, the rhythmic motif became the emotional heartbeat of the slow movement of a new string quartet. But the evocative rhythm also underlines the other movements of his dark and urgent quartet, giving it a unity of purpose and design that is unmatched. That said, by no stretch of the imagination could the quartet itself claim to be about Death. There’s much in it about life, too. The opening movement is virtually without theme. Its fierce opening triplets encourage melodies to appear. But they are not the long lyrical lines we customarily associate with Schubert. Both the scale of the music and its sonorities are orchestral. The themes confront one another. The quiet, bitter-sweet closing of the slow movement contrasts sharply with the driving syncopations of the Scherzo. This powerful, tightly constructed movement had its origins in an unlikely source: a G sharp minor dance for keyboard (D. 790). To the dance, Schubert added the rhythm associated with Death. It reflects Schubert’s interest in cyclical unity within the quartet rather than any preoccupation with stretching the image of Death into another movement. The finale returns to motives from the first movement and its saltarello-like rhythm propels the music forward with tremendous energy and brilliance. The minor key prevails not only through the five variations of the slow movement but throughout the entire work. — Notes © 2013 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca

The musicians perform at Summer Suite 2012

week 1

The Voice

tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Friday, August 9

Peter & Elsa Soderberg

7:00 PM Pre-Concert Event (for ticket holders only)

8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

pre - concert S pecial E vent

A performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles Featuring: Jennifer Aylmer, soprano; Randall Scarlata, baritone; Elinor Freer and Laura Ward, piano

Concert PUCCINI

BERNSTEIN

Crisantemi, for String Quartet

Ying Quartet Ayano Ninomiya, violin Janet Ying, violin Phillip Ying, viola David Ying, cello

To What You Said (from Songfest) Randall Scarlata, baritone David Ying, cello Laura Ward, piano

ANDRÉ PREVIN

Vocalise for Soprano, Cello and Piano Jennifer Aylmer, soprano David Ying, cello Laura Ward, piano

DONIZETTI

Duet: Pronta son; purch’io non manchi (I am ready; so I do not lose the love of my adored one) from Act 1, Scene 5 of Don Pasquale

Randall Scarlata, baritone Jennifer Aylmer, soprano Laura Ward, piano

intermission

BARBER

Dover Beach, for Voice and String Quartet, Op. 3 Randall Scarlata, baritone Ying Quartet

VERDI

String Quartet in E minor, Op. 68 Allegro Andantino Prestissimo Scherzo Fuga: Allegro assai mosso

Ying Quartet

Join us in welcoming the musicians at a post-concert reception in Dobson Hall. tonight’s guest sponsorships:

tonight’s media sponsor is WRVO

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible in part by funding from Onondaga County and CNY Arts.

Program Notes Arias and Barcarolles, for Soprano, Baritone and Piano, four-hands (1988)

Prelude Love Duet Little Smary The Love of My Life Greeting Oif Mayn Khas’neh (At My Wedding) Mr. and Mrs. Webb Say Goodnight Nachspiel (Postlude) LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)

Melody lies at the heart of Bernstein’s music, whether for stage, concert hall or sacred place. And the nature of Bernstein’s melodic writing ranges characteristically widely in his last song suite, from 1988. In Arias and Barcarolles, you’ll hear the comfortably romantic melodies that made the composer a household name. You’ll also find a spacious, Copland-like lyricism alongside the sort of seriallyorganized atonality found among composers in early 20thcentury Vienna. “Bernstein’s sense of tune is all-embracing, infectious, strange,” American composer, Ned Rorem, once said, by way of tribute to a mentor he respected as ‘the epitome of glamor combined with quality.” Melody was also responsible for the strange title of the piece. “I liked that last piece; it had a tune,” President Dwight D.

Eisenhower said to Bernstein after he had conducted a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at the White House in 1960. “I like pieces with tunes, not all them [sic] arias and barcarolles and things.” The comment stayed with Bernstein for a quarter of a century before it reappeared, with a keen sense of irony, as the title of his last song suite, in 1988. Its eight songs embrace a theme of love and explore human relationships among lovers, spouses and families. The texts are, for the most part, by Bernstein himself, while the songs themselves span three decades, from Greeting, written to celebrate the birth of his son Alexander in 1955, to the ghostly Nachspiel (Postlude), echoing Mahler, from 1986. The idea of romantic love is immediately introduced by the two singers in the short Prelude – “I love you,” they sing. “It’s easy to say it. And so easy to mean it, too.” The rhythmically propulsive, angular lines of the original piano duo score, meanwhile, suggest that conflict is never far distant. There’s a feeling of detachment as the lovers sing and it is further explored in the Love Duet, as a string of everyday questions is batted around from one singer to the other. In the process, their relationship becomes the underlying subject of the song itself and an unresolved enigma: is it minimal music or classical or popular song? In the third song, Little Smary, for soprano, Bernstein portrays

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8/9 Program Notes (continued)

destructive powers on those in its path. ‘Have mercy,’ the village elders say as the fiddler continues to play.

his mother’s animated voice as she narrates a bedtime story, together with the horror felt by a child after losing a favorite toy – this in intense, Alban Berg-like harmonic writing. Bernstein attributed the song’s lyrics to his mother Jennie Bernstein and made her a member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers And Publishers) for the royalties.

In the penultimate song, with the Charles Ives-like title Mr. and “Music can name Mrs. Webb Say Goodnight, the unnameable Bernstein takes us inside and communicate the a family drama played out unknowable.” at four in the morning. -Leonard Bernstein The Webbs’ two boys Malcolm and Kent (aka our pianists) keep their parents awake with their teenage scat singing. Now unable to sleep, their mother Kenda tells of her plans for the big family move, while her husband Charles attempts to console her with soothing words. [Charles Webb was, in fact, Dean of the School of Music at Indiana University and he and Kenda Webb became close friends of Bernstein. The school now houses the contents of the composer’s composing studio as a teaching studio]. After the longest song in the suite, Bernstein closes with a wordless vocalise titled Nachspiel (Postlude), much colored by the music of one of the composer’s greatest loves, Gustav Mahler. Its origins lay in a slow waltz titled First Love (For my Mother, March, 1986) that Bernstein wrote for the 88 keys of the piano for his mother’s 88th birthday.

The autobiographical element, which is present throughout the song suite, becomes even more personal in The Love of My Life. This is an ironic song in which the baritone wonders at the transitory nature of love he has experienced. It ends with a closing thought [“So that was it, huh”] that ever so briefly alludes to the opening of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. In striking contrast, the gentle song titled Greeting is open and transparent and utterly sincere in its expression of wonder at the birth of a child – truly one of Bernstein’s finest songs. Oif Mayn Khas’neh (At My Wedding) is a setting of Yankev-Yitskhok Segal, the 20th-century Ukraine-born Yiddish poet who spent most of his life in Montreal. An element of surrealism prevails in this poem which describes the terrifying power of a young klezmer fiddler’s music-making. The surrealism is enhanced by Bernstein’s use of a recurring 12-tone row and constantly evolving tonalities. The music builds to a tremendous climax as it becomes clear that passion can have

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8/9 Program Notes (continued)

Tonight, Donizetti appears on the program with an aria. Puccini and Verdi bring their much rarer string quartets. Bernstein and Previn are represented by songs from late in their lives, while Barber appears with an early masterpiece that combines both song and string quartet.

Crisantemi, for String Quartet (1890) GIACOMO PUCCINI (1858-1924) Puccini wrote a handful of pieces for string quartet – barely half an hour’s worth of music – most of them during his student years at the Milan Conservatory. On February 6, 1890, he told his brother Michele that he had written one of these works in one night and dedicated it to the memory of Prince Amadeo of Savoy. He called it Crisantemi, after the Italian custom of using chrysanthemums at funerals. The six-minute score is an inspired, darkly-colored elegy in the form of a da-capo aria, whose melancholy outer sections enclose a more active central section. Puccini was to later re-use some of its most poignant measures in his opera Manon Lescaut (1893), but the music finds its most moving expression in the original string quartet version.

To What You Said (Songfest) (1976) LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-1990) To What You Said is a setting of a little-known, nine-line poem by Walt Whitman discovered in the 1950s. The poem particularly resonated with Bernstein because it represents – in the words of singer Thomas Hampson, who has published a study of the poem – ‘a repressed poem on a repressed subject.’ Bernstein recognized that Whitman’s images of love also seemed to express his own mid-life marital crisis and sexual dalliances. The direct, melancholy, expressive music that we hear in To What You Said in turn enhances and heightens the words of the poem. The song has become the best-known selection from Songfest, a 12-movement orchestral cycle with six solo voices that Bernstein composed in 1976 for the nation’s bicentennial. In it, he celebrates a diverse group of American poets whose experiences, roots and intellect helped define an American identity.

Vocalise for Soprano, Cello and Piano (1995) ANDRÉ PREVIN (b.1929) It’s a testament to the language of music and to the human voice as the ultimate musical instrument that André Previn’s simple, haunting Vocalise can say so much with so little in just four minutes. Soprano, cello and piano engage in a dialogue free from words, moving seemingly at will

8/9 Program Notes (continued)

from one modal center to another, in dialogue and in partnership with one another. The soprano choses the vowel that best matches the instrumental voices. Like Puccini, Previn wrote the piece basically in one sitting at Tanglewood, on July 18, 1995. After Sylvia McNair, Yo-Yo Ma and Previn himself gave the première; André Previn, considered to all three artists be one of the most versatile then recorded musicians, has won 4 Academy the piece at Awards and 10 Grammy Awards, 6:00am the as well a Grammy Lifetime following Achievement Award. morning in Ozawa Hall.

Fun Fact…

Duet: Pronta son; purch’io non manchi (I am ready; as long as I don’t fail) from Act 1, Scene 5 of Don Pasquale (1842)

Dover Beach, for Voice and String Quartet, Op. 3 (1931)

GAETANO DONIZETTI (1797-1848)

American composer Samuel Barber composed Dover Beach in 1930 at the Curtis Institute, while he was still studying composition and voice. It is a setting for voice and string quartet of a dark and rather melancholy poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). In it, Arnold contrasts past and present, finding comfort for human misery in the tenderness of the present moment, his lover by his side, as he stares at the sadness he sees in the English

Don Pasquale, written in just 12 weeks in 1842, is Donizetti’s finest comic opera. Set in a villa in mid-19th century Rome, the opera centers around Don Pasquale, a bachelor in his late sixties, who lives with his nephew, Ernesto. Ernesto has refused to marry the wealthy woman that his uncle has found for him, instead professing his love for a young (and poor) widow, Norina. Angry that Ernesto

is choosing to marry for love and not for money, Don Pasquale decides to get married himself, so that he can produce his own heir and therefore not have to leave his inheritance to Ernesto. He consults his physician and friend, Dr. Malatesta, for advice, and the doctor pretends to help Pasquale search for a bride but in reality decides to teach the old man a lesson. The doctor tells Pasquale that he has the perfect bride for him: She is honest, sweet, and beautiful, and she is in fact his own sister. Pasquale is overjoyed and demands to meet the young lady at once. In reality, Malatesta has no sister, and has instead persuaded the young widow Norina to play the part of his sister. In this scene that closes Act I Norina agrees to impersonate Malatesta’s sister, and Malatesta assures her that Ernesto is also part of the deception. Malatesta and Norina sing of their strategies and deception in this lively duet full of vocal brilliance.

2012 Summer Suite event

SAMUEL BARBER (1910-1981)

Channel beyond the famous white cliffs. Barber’s composition is Barber’s upstairs a remarkable setting of neighbor in his the famous poem, not New York City apartment least for the fact that was the jazz clarinetist, it comes from a 21 Benny Goodman, and the year-old composer. two became good friends! When he sang it to Vaughan Williams in 1931, playing the piano accompaniment himself, the 59 year-old English composer congratulated him and said: “I tried several times to set Dover Beach, but you really got it!” Barber was very proud of his setting of the poem. He was the first singer to record it and when he was 70 he could rightly look back on the continuing relevance of the music and the poetry. “It’s extremely pessimistic,” he said, “but the emotions seem contemporary. Dover Beach is one of the few Victorian poems that continues to hold its stature; it is a great poem, in fact.” Time has proved that Barber’s musical setting is an equally great artistic creation.

8/13 Program Notes (continued)

Fun Fact…

String Quartet in E minor, Op. 68 (1873) GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901) With more than two dozen operas in his catalog, Verdi waited until he was 59 to write his only chamber music composition and a further four years before publishing it. He wrote the quartet during a delay in rehearsals while

supervising productions of his operas Aida and Don Carlos. The première was a modest occasion, in the grand salon of Verdi’s hotel. Although a music critic from the Milan Gazetta musicale felt that Verdi had ‘given the world of art a new masterpiece,’ Verdi was nonplussed. “I don’t know whether it is good or bad,” he wrote, “but I do know that it is a quartet!” This was 1873. In the same summer, the 40 year-old Brahms, too, was arranging private performances of his two earliest quartets. Brahms felt the weight of the Austro-German tradition on his shoulders – and it shows in his writing. In Italy, the land of opera, Verdi had not to worry about a similar tradition of quartet – or symphonic – writing. He was, at heart, a lyrical composer with a career built on a tradition of writing for the human voice. So it’s not surprising that melodies abound in his quartet. The opening movement is based on five melodic ideas, the first drawn from some of Amneris’s music in Aida. A later melody, high in the first violin, has a Mendelssohn-like airiness. All the ideas and motifs are developed Verdi, known for being the with a real greatest Italian opera seriousness of composer, applied to the Milan purpose. Verdi Conservatory of Music and was knew the string rejected. Its officials said he was quartet reper“lacking in musical talent.” toire thoroughly; he is said to have kept copies of the quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven by his bedside. An elegant, beautifully structured slow movement follows, full of melodic writing. There’s more from the opera house in the third movement, beginning with a sparkling opening chorus and continuing with a heroic serenade sung by the cello. The busy, fugal finale both honors tradition in its use of all the academic techniques and offers a preview of the fugue in the finale of his operatic masterpiece Falstaff, which was to follow two decades later.

Fun Fact…

week 1

The Voice

tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Holly Gregg & Patience Brewster

Saturday, August 10 7:30 PM St. Mary’s of the Lake

Anonymous 4 – Anthology 25 Susan Hellauer, Ruth Cunningham, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek and Marsha Genensky

Ladymass

Prosa: Gaude Virgo Salutata – An English Ladymass Conductus: Ave Maria salus hominum – The Lily & The Lamb Carol: Ecce quod natura – On Yoolis Night

Legends

Antiphon: Que es ista – A Lammas Ladymass the wood and the vine (David Lang, 2011)

Visions & Miracles

Ballad-carol: Lullay my child – This ender nithgt – The Cherry Tree The Lord’s Prayer (John Tavener) – Darkness into Light Lection: Apocalypse 21:1-5 – 1000: A Mass for the End of Time Conductus: Nicholai presulis – Legends of St. Nicholas Song: Novus Annus Adiit – Christmas Music from Medieval Hungary Trope: Gratulantes celebremus festum – Miracles of Sant'Iago

Sisterhood

Hymn: An teicheahd go hÉigipt – Wolcum Yule Antiphon: O quam mirabilis est (Hildegard of Bingen) – The Origin of Fire Antiphon: O rubor sanguinis (Hildegard of Bingen) – 11,000 Virgins Motet: Claustrum/Virgo viget/FLOS FILIUS – Secret Voices

Ardor

Song: Mainte chançon ai fait – la bele marie Motet: Amours mi font souffrir/En mai/FLOS FILIUS – Love’s Illusion Ballata: Echo la primavera (Francesco Landini) – The Second Circle The Scientist (Richard Einhorn) – The WNYC Commissions

Partings

Folk song: You fair and pretty ladies – Gloryland Gospel song: Shall we gather at the river – American Angels Folk hymn: Parting Friends – Gloryland

tonight’s guest sponsorships:

Anonymous 4 is sponsored by Michael Falcone and Nicole Ruvo 18

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

The musicians prepare for a Brook Farm Concert.

PATIENCE BREWSTER

e are thrilled to sponsor

nonymous

4 in concert 19

week 2 concerts are sponsored in part by the generous donations of week 2

Carl Schramm & Ellyn Brown

Going Green

and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Outreach Concerts (not open to the public)

today’s concerts is sponsored by:

David Duggan & Lynn Cleary

“The Joy of Music” Tuesday, August 13 • 10:30 -11:15 AM

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St. Paul’s Cathedral

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Retirement Living and . at it’s Best! Discover and experience why we get joy from listening to music! For families and friends connected to

The Skaneateles Festival’s Artistic Directors, cellist David Ying and pianist Elinor Freer, will take us on a musical journey in a program of works for these two instruments by such noted composers as Rachmaninoff, Dvořák, and Bach.

Donal Fox

at Bluefield Manor

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today’s guest sponsorships:

Donal Fox is sponsored by Sutton Real Estate Company LLC, Franklin Properties and Testone, Marshall & Discenza, CPAs David Ying and Elinor Freer are sponsored by Evan & Elizabeth Dreyfuss 20

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts Donal Fox is exclusively represented by Bernstein Artists, Inc.: www.bernsarts.com Donal Fox is a Steinway Artist

Our mission is to work with people of all abilities to create a fair and just community in which everyone can fully participate.

Founded in 1979, ARISE is a non-profit organization run by and for people with disabilities. ARISE serves children and adults with disabilities through more than 50 programs in several broad areas, including advocacy, employment, independent living supports, information and referral services, integrated recreation programs, mental health services, and peer counseling. Programs are primarily based in Onondaga, Oswego, and Madison Counties. Inclusive recreation programs include ARISE at the Farm and ARISE & Ski. UNIQUE, an annual art and literary magazine featuring the creative work of people with disabilities, is published by ARISE every year.

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Serving children and adults with disabilities in Central New York for 65 years. Since 1948, our mission has been to enhance the quality of life for people with developmental or physical disabilities through an array of services. Enable provides assessment, training, therapy and support for over 1,800 children and adults with disabilities and their families each year.

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Wishing the Skaneateles Festival a successful 33 rd season!

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2012 Outreach Concert performed by the Imani Winds 21

Adapt. Develop. Renew. Wishing the Skaneateles Festival a successful 33 rd season!

week 2

Going Green

week 2 concerts are sponsored in part by the generous donations of

Carl Schramm & Ellyn Brown

Thursday, August 15

7:00 PM Behind the Scenes (for ticket holders only)

8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Donal Fox is sponsored by

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Behind the Scenes with Donal Fox

Pre-concert chat with the pianist, composer, and innovator

Tonight’s concert program will be announced from the stage.

Concert Innovations in Blue Donal Fox, piano The incomparable Fox brings together the worlds of jazz and classical music in ways that make it hard to believe they were ever separate in the first place. With an encyclopedic ear, exquisite chops and impeccable taste, Fox draws on a vast repertoire that includes J.S. Bach, Thelonious Monk, George Frederic Handel, John Coltrane, Robert Schumann, Ornette Coleman, John Dowland, Horace Silver, Radiohead and more.

with additional support from

Bob & Christine Pierce and Jim & Salli Tuozzolo

week 2

Going Green concerts are sponsored in part by the generous donations of Carl Schramm & Ellyn Brown and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

From the Artistic Directors

Week 2 at a Glance…

Going Green Can music be a form of recycling? You bet it can! In fact, classical music, loved and re-loved over generations, is some of the most recycled music we can think of. We’ll see how music can be reused this week first in Donal Fox’s solo recital: he’ll recycle pre-existing tunes and other musical ideas, turn classic pieces into jazz improvisations, and many other “green” musical feats. Then we’ll hear Hilary Hahn and pianist Cory Smythe play contemporary composer Lera Auerbach’s recycling of her own piece “Speak, Memory.” They’ll also present variations by Mozart and Schubert, in which the composers take a theme (in Schubert’s case, a song he wrote five years earlier) and then repurpose that fragment by continuously changing it. Finally, Donal and his Inventions Trio will team up with Hilary for a genre-bending concert in which Bach’s solo violin masterpieces will get re-worked through jazz improvisations. We’ll also invite young people to get in on the recycling theme at our family concert, where we’ll show them how musical recycling works. Then they’ll get to make and take home their own instruments made from recyclables.

Adapt. Develop. Renew.

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week 2 concerts are sponsored in part by the generous donations of week 2

Going Green

Carl Schramm & Ellyn Brown and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Friday, August 16

8:00 PM Skaneateles High School

tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Sieglinde Wikstrom Hilary Hahn is sponsored by The David Graham Family

An Evening with Hilary Hahn Hilary Hahn, violin Cory Smythe, piano LERA AUERBACH Speak, Memory, for Violin and Piano SCHOENBERG Phantasy, for Violin with Piano accompaniment, Op. 47 MOZART

Violin Sonata in A, K. 305 Allegro molto Tema con variazioni: Andante grazioso

intermission

LERA AUERBACH SCHUBERT

Speak, Memory, for solo Violin Fantasie in C, for Violin and Piano, D. 934 Andante molto – Allegretto – Andantino – Tempo primo – Allegro vivace – Allegretto – Presto

tonight’s guest sponsorships:

Cory Smythe is sponsored by Bob & Sally Neumann 24

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts

Program Notes A song lies at the heart of the great C Major Fantasie that concludes tonight’s program. In it, Schubert re-purposes his song Sei mir gegrüsst in a series of brilliant variations. He treats both violin and piano as joint soloists. By contrast, the variation movement in Mozart’s A Major Violin Sonata provides the composer with an opportunity to re-examine the relationship between piano and the ‘accompanying’ violin. Schoenberg turns this relationship on its head in his Phantasy, while Lera Auerbach ponders how to write a piece with two related, but distinct lives.

Speak, Memory, for Violin and Piano (2010) Speak, Memory, for solo Violin (2010) LERA AUERBACH (b.1973) “There is something very powerful yet fragile about the sound of a solo violin,” says Russian-American pianistcomposer Lera Auerbach, “something strikingly alone and exposed. It’s very different from two instruments in conversation with each other, or in conflict.” So how did the hugely successful young composer react when asked for two different performing versions of the same new piece? “To write the same piece which would have two absolutely

different lives [solo violin and violin and piano] was an interesting concept,” she says in conversation with Hahn*. “I didn’t want one to be a transcription of the other. Each version is original – and yet they are recognizably the same material.” The commission came as part of Hilary Hahn’s current project In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores, an international plan to revitalize the short-form recital encore piece. The title of Auerbach’s encore, Speak, Memory, comes from Vladimir Nabokov’s 1951 autobiographical memoir of the same title. It’s a book in which the prodigiously gifted Auerbach – herself a published poet – recognizes the writer’s gift to trigger long-forgotten memories or dreams from the reader’s own childhood. “In a way, the greatest gift that a writer can give to the reader is to bring back memories,” she says. “In my piece there is a similar sense of addressing time, addressing something familiar yet which was changed through life… I wanted to create a sense of something very fragile, something that can disappear quite easily, yet is essential when one is looking back.” *For more of this conversation visit http://www.youtube. com/all_comments?v=iJAuJK55CPw

A Brook Farm evening. 25

8/16 Program Notes (continued)

Phantasy, for violin with piano accompaniment, Op. 47 (1949) ARNOLD SCHOENBERG (1874-1951) Pianist Glenn Gould wryly described Schoenberg’s first draft of the Phantasy – a long, rhapsodic statement for solo violin, initially without accompaniment – as a ‘fiddler's dream.’ Schoenberg, Gould continued, then added ‘cranky comments’ from the accompanying piano, an instrument ‘barred from any competitive function,’ ‘melodically and rhythmically subservient to the violin.’ Another musician, Leonard Stein, the pianist at the première in Los Angeles in 1949, viewed the Phantasy as Schoenberg's Last Testament to the great tradition of classical music, the summit of his absorption of this tradition. The violin line certainly underscores the primacy of melody in his final instrumental composition while the fleeting allusions to the waltz and shadowy dance fragments add to its Viennese feel. Commentary from the piano via rhythmic, textural and dynamic support and contrast leads the piece to inhabit a space somewhere between that of a solo partita by Bach and a duo sonata by, say, Brahms. Its five sections within an eight-minute duration add the impression of a compressed sonata structure. The opening music of the Phantasy, marked Grave, recurs varied and condensed in the middle and closing sections. The second moves

through three changes of tempo with primarily lyrical material, while the fourth is marked Scherzando.

Violin Sonata in A, K. 305 (1778) WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Mozart’s credentials as a string player were strong. In 1769, aged just 13, he was appointed third concertmaster to the Salzburg court. He wrote his first violin concerto before writing his first piano concerto. “You yourself do not know how well you play the violin,” Leopold Mozart wrote to his son when the 21 year-old composer was traveling to Munich. Leopold Mozart was one of the leading authorities on violin technique and his statement carries some weight. Mozart continued to play both violin and viola throughout his life and wrote more than two dozen sonatas for violin and keyboard. In the spring of 1778, Mozart and his mother were in Mannheim, on their way to Paris. Here, in a city with an orchestra that composer and violinist Carl Stamitz had developed into the most renowned in Europe, Mozart was hoping to find employment at the court. With this in mind, he began to write a collection of six violin sonatas and dedicated them to Maria Elisabeth, Electress Palatine whose enormous 18th-century palace dominated the city (and now houses the University of Mannheim). The A major sonata is the fourth of these Palatine sonatas and was written for keyboard with either violin or flute as the ‘accompanying’ instrument’ – then the customary way of treating the two instruments and the exact opposite of

8/16 Program Notes (continued)

Schoenberg’s approach. In common with other sonatas written for domestic use in the gallant era, the sonata has just two movements. A lively gigue-like opening movement is followed by six variations during which the violin increasingly asserts its independence from the convention of being an optional ‘accompanying’ instrument.

Fantasie in C, for Violin and Piano, D. 934 (1827) FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) At the beginning of Schubert’s Fantasy, time appears to stand still as mysterious tremolando rumblings on the piano prepare us for the violin’s long, sustained entry. For the violinist, this is one of the most difficult entries in the repertoire. At a stroke, Schubert’s magical opening signals that the timeframe of his Fantasy is to be broad and expansive and that its content truly belongs in the world of the fantasy. By 1827, when he wrote the piece, the term was already much abused and was used indiscriminately for any lengthy piece of music of a vaguely romantic nature whose form could not be immediately pinned down. Schubert’s late C major Fantasy, however, was written when he was at the peak of his powers, only months before his death. It is the last and greatest of his works for violin and piano. It was preceded by two other great fantasies. The Wanderer Fantasy explores both virtuoso piano

technique and the cyclical development of a musical theme on a grand scale. The F minor Fantasy begins modestly but soon opens up into one of the grandest and greatest of all piano duets. When he came to write this C major Fantasy in December 1827, Schubert was to attempt something altogether different. The scale of the piece is more intimate than the earlier fantasies. It calls for great subtlety of expression and a close rapport between the two instruments in order to bring out its many beauties. Its structure of a single movement in seven sections is unusual, but quite convincing. After the shimmering introduction, Schubert introduces an upbeat, somewhat Hungarian-flavored Allegretto, where the violin and piano chase one another in contrapuntal writing. The piano then leads to the centerpiece of the Fantasy. This is a set of variations on the song Sei mir gegrüsst which he had composed five years earlier, to words by the German romantic poet Friedrich Rückert. Schubert modifies its melody, however, and adds a piquant harmony to its second half, making it deeper and more intense. The variations exploit the virtuosity of both instruments to an ever-increasing degree. The music then slows as florid cadenzas take us to a reprise of the shimmering music that opened the Fantasy. The final section is heroic and brilliant. As it approaches a climax, there’s an echo of the poignant melody of the song, then more fireworks to close. — Notes © 2013 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca

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Adapt. Develop. Renew.

week 2

Going Green

Saturday, August 17 7:30 PM Brook Farm

week 2 concerts are sponsored in part by the generous donations of

Carl Schramm & Ellyn Brown

Wishing the Skaneateles Festival a successful 33 rd season!

and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Ed & Paula Conan, Bob & Sue Congel and Sid & Suzanne Devorsetz

Rain Location: Skaneateles High School

Hilary Hahn is sponsored by The David Graham Family Donal Fox and the Innovations Trio are sponsored by

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spaces in Franklin Square.

221 W Division St, Syracuse, NY 13204 Leasing by Sutton Companies 315.424.1111

Tonight’s concert program will be announced from the stage.

The Donal Fox Innovations Trio with special guest

Hilary Hahn Festival favorite Hilary Hahn joins jazz greats Donal Fox and the Inventions Trio for an evening of jazz improvisations on the classics. Pianist Donal Fox and violinist Hilary Hahn will be joined by drummer Dafnis Prieto and bassist John Lockwood for a program inspired by Bach inventions and the reinvention of Bach and other baroque masters into dazzling original works. Be the first to witness this ground-breaking collaboration between shining stars from different spheres of the musical world.

Donal Fox is exclusively represented by Bernstein Artists, Inc.: www.bernsarts.com 28

Donal Fox is a Steinway Artist

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts

Brook Farm

Built in 1902, Brook Farm is on the National Register of Historic Places and is privately owned. The house is available to musicians and staff only. Enjoy the concert and please carry-in/carry-out your picnic supplies.

View from the porch at Brook Farm

week 3

tonight’s event is sponsored in part by:

Earth, Winds & Fire

Jim & Karin Blute and Barb Connor

Wednesday, August 21 6:30-9:00 PM Brook Farm

7 th Annual

Summer Suite

Join us at glorious Brook Farm, the lakeside home of

Louise Robinson Beautiful home, gourmet dining and beautiful music at Brook Farm… it doesn’t get any better than this! Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind event featuring music from Festival musicians. For more information visit www.skanfest.org or call 315-685-7418.

additional event sponsorship from:

Beak & Skiff Distillery BeauVine Chophouse Creekside Books & Coffee Fins & Tails 30

The Garage Joelle’s French Bistro Johnny Angel’s Mandana Inn

Mark’s Pizzeria–Skaneateles Mesa Grande Taqueria Mirbeau Pascale’s

Please support our sponsors and advertisers.

Pâtisserie Pure Catering and Events Sherwood Inn Wildflowers Florist

Musicians taking a break

World Class Music in a World Class Setting

Brook Farm · Picnic Saturdays · Summer Suite

www.skanfest.org 31

week 3

Earth, Winds & Fire

tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Dan & Colleen Fisher and Mark & Lou Bitz

Thursday, August 22

8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

Program to be performed without intermission

Not Your Mother’s Chamber Music Concert! (Part III) Debussy Syrinx, for solo Flute

Bart Feller, flute

Foote At Dusk, for Flute, Viola, and Harp

Bart Feller, flute Rebecca Albers, viola June Han, harp

Legend, for Viola and Piano

Rebecca Albers, viola Elinor Freer, piano

Bax

Debussy Beau soir (arr. Jascha Heifetz) GERSHWIN MEDTNER (arr. Jascha Heifetz) SARASATE PROKOFIEV (arr. Jascha Heifetz) TOURNIER

TALMA

Bella Hristova, violin Elinor Freer, piano

Summertime, from Porgy and Bess Fairy Tale in B-flat minor, Op. 20, No. 1 Spanish Dance in A, Op. 23, No.2 (Zapateado) March from the opera, The Love for Three Oranges Images: Suite No. 4, Op. 39

La volière magique (The magical aviary) Cloches sous la neige (Bells in the snow) La danse du Moujik (The dance of the moujik)

The Ambient Air, for Flute, Violin, Cello and Piano Bart Feller, flute Bella Hristova, violin David Ying, cello Elinor Freer, piano

Echo Chamber Driving Rain Creeping Fog Shifting Winds

FALLA

June Han, harp

Ritual Fire Dance, from El Amor Brujo

David Ying, cello Elinor Freer, piano

tonight’s guest sponsorships:

Rebecca Albers is sponsored by Koko Fuller Bart Feller is sponsored by Planning Sense June Han is sponsored by Roland and Tacie Anderson 32

Bella Hristova is sponsored by the Columbian Foundation David Ying and Elinor Freer are sponsored by Evan & Elizabeth Dreyfuss Please support our sponsors and advertisers.

From the Artistic Directors

Week at a Glance… Earth, Winds & Fire

“ There’s music in the singing of a reed; There’s music in the gushing of a rill*; There’s music in all things, if men had ears; Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.” –Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Lord Byron expressed in words what so many composers over many generations have also observed- that music and nature go hand in hand. Beethoven loved his forest walks and Bartok kept a nautilus shell on his desk, to be inspired by the aesthetic beauty of its perfect proportions. From Boccherini’s “Bird Sanctuary” Quintet to Schubert’s famed “Trout” Quintet to music of today’s composers, this week’s selections are all inspired by nature. Our musical nature walk for families and Brook Farm concert of winds both musical and actual, also underline the wonderful connection between music and the natural world around us.

* a small brook

Program Notes Syrinx, for solo Flute CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) Like the sinuously suggestive solo flute opening of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Syrinx is perfumed by a heady, erotically charged scene as the god Pan attempts to seduce Syrinx. She is one of several white-clad nymphs gathered by the water in the moonlight. Written as incidental music to the play Psyché, the short piece represents the last tune Pan played before dying. Debussy’s Happy Birthday, music was originally Claude Debussy! performed from the Born on August 22. wings of the theater stage as a short flute solo titled La flute de Pan. It continued to be played behind a screen on stage in concert by its dedicatee, Louis Fleury until his death in 1927. The piece was then published in 1927, long after Debussy’s death, as Syrinx. Suggestion and allusion underline its gracefully cascading main musical idea throughout its three sections, over just 35 measures.

Fun Fact…

At Dusk, for Flute, Viola, and Harp ARTHUR FOOTE (1853-1937) Night music is something that American composer Arthur Foote does very well, as you may remember from last year’s performance of the Nocturne and Scherzo for flute and string orchestra. At Dusk uses a Debussy-like instrumentation of flute, viola and harp to evoke richly romantic images of the approaching nighttime, with a gently nostalgic atmosphere.

Legend, for Viola and Piano (1929) ARNOLD BAX (1883-1953 The legend of the title is likely a Celtic one, since Irish legends and landscapes held a lifelong fascination for the London-born and bred composer Sir Arnold Bax.

Considered in his time to be Britain’s premiere symphonic composer, Bax wrote numerous orchestral tone poems, many on the theme of nature (In the Faery Hills, Into the Twilight, The Tale the Pine Trees Knew, and many more.) The somber, recurring bass line that opens this elegiac and rather shadowy piece will recur in the closing section. The music grows into darker, more threatening sounds, and we see a side of the composer that possibly bears the scars of losing friends in the First World War. Adding to the mystery of this short tone-poem is the gentler, lyrical, often high-soaring side of the viola. Some tender, even vulnerable passages add to the complexity to this picture.

Beau soir (1891/1933) CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918), arr. Jascha Heifetz Love colors the songs of French composer Claude Debussy. More than half of his 90 mélodies were written for the singer Marie-Blanche Vasnier, with whom he had a long affair early in his career. Beau soir (Beautiful Evening) was one of the few that he published at the time and it was widely taken up. In 1933, Russian virtuoso violinist Jascha Heifetz made a popular transcription of Debussy’s beautiful and nostalgic song which celebrates a beautiful night of life and love while still young.

Summertime, from Porgy and Bess (1935) GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937) Universally recognized today as a masterpiece, George Gershwin’s American folk opera Porgy and Bess took 50 years to travel from Broadway to the Met. Its

Quotable…

“True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.” -George Gershwin

Spanish Dance in A, Op. 23 No. 2 (Zapateado)

8/22 Program Notes (continued)

route there was slow and troubled, a sad web of misguided productions and copyright arguments. The plot revolves around African-American life in the fictitious Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina. Summertime is the first of its many hit tunes and is sung by one of the main characters, Clara, on a summer evening as she sits in the tenement holding her baby.

Fairy Tale in B-flat minor, Op. 20, No. 1 (1909/1949) NICOLAS MEDTNER (1879-1951), arr. Jascha Heifetz “Play it at once impetuously… as though appealing to someone with a fervent entreaty,” Russian composer Nicolas Medtner said of his brief Skazka, or Fairy Tale in B flat minor. Medtner, a renowned performer of his own piano works, wrote almost 40 pieces with the title Skazka – which can also be translated, like the Bax piece in today’s program, as ‘Legend.’ The short piece, in the very Rachmaninoff–like key of B flat minor, builds to a great fff climax which is marked ‘with despair.’ Heifetz made his transcription, dedicated to Horowitz, in 1949.

PABLO DE SARASATE (1844-1908) Originating among the Mexican Indians, the Zapateado dance moved east to Spain where it was adopted as a native Spanish dance. It is characterized by the stamping of the dancer’s shoes, similar to tap dancing. The name Zapateado comes from the Spanish word for shoe, zapato. This violin/piano Zapateado was created by the 19thcentury Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. Renowned for his sweet, singing tone and sensuous sound, Sarasate left 54 compositions, including four books of Spanish Dances which are broadly and attractively based on folk tunes, This work has become a favorite showpiece for violinists over the years, with its dazzling displays of left-hand pizzicatos (plucking the strings while continuing to use the bow in the right-hand), harmonics (touching the string lightly to get a higher pitch than normal), and double-stops (a chord using two strings simultaneously).

March from the opera, The Love for Three Oranges (1922/ c1945) SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953), arr. Jascha Heifetz The crisp rhythms and spiky harmonies of the popular March from Prokofiev's comic opera The Love for Three Oranges are quintessential Prokofiev. The young composer wrote the opera for the Chicago Opera in 1919, to an

Proud Sponsor of the Skaneateles Festival Evan & Elizabeth Dreyfuss

8/22 Program Notes (continued)

absurd, pantomime-like fantasy adapted from a satire by Venetian playwright Carlo Gozzi. The grotesque March (once well-known as the theme of the radio show The FBI in Peace and War) comes from an Interlude in Act 2 – as the Prince is sent by a witch's curse to search far and wide for three giant oranges, each of which contains a princess. Heifetz recorded his arrangement in 1945.

Images: Suite No. 4, Op. 39 (1932) MARCEL TOURNIER (1879-1951) Paris has always played a key role in the development of the harp. As professor of harp at the Paris Conservatoire in the first half of the 20th-century, Marcel Tournier trained two generations of harpists from many countries. He also composed a substantial catalog of solo and chamber works for harp, including four suites titled Images, between 1925 and 1932. The opening movement of the fourth suite, titled The Magical Aviary, is an evocative, toccata-like fantasy that weaves fragments of birdsong into an evershifting, impressionist musical soundscape. The deep lower strings of the harp resonate like bells across the mysterious

landscape of the second movement, which appears to come in and out of focus with the blowing snow. With The Dance of the Moujik (a moujik is a Russian peasant), Tournier evokes an exuberant Russian dance, swirling with harp glissandi and lively rhythms, but always contained within French elegance.

The Ambient Air, for Flute, Violin, Cello and Piano (1980-83) LOUISE TALMA (1906-1996) The song of a nightingale, heard on the patio of the American Academy in Rome in the spring of 1956, was the inspiration behind American composer Louise Talma’s evocative four-movement suite The Ambient Air. But it was to be a quarter of a century before Talma began to write down the 13-minute score. She completed it at 77, a half century after French composer Nadia Boulanger encouraged the French-born student to pursue composition as a career. The opening movement evokes the eerie atmosphere that echoes can produce. An image of driving rain generates a dynamic, fleeting, scherzo-like second movement, punctuated by a central section in slow motion. Slowly, almost insidiously, musical ideas wrap themselves around flute and piano trio in ‘Creeping Fog’ while the musical ideas for the last movement, ‘Shifting Winds’ develop out of those of the opening movement and literally change with the wind.

Ritual Fire Dance, from El Amor Brujo (1915) MANUEL DE FALLA (1876-1946) Spanish composer Manuel de Falla draws on the rhythmic energy and exotic Andalusian coloring of gypsy melodies in his Ritual Fire Dance. He wrote this dance of exorcism for the gypsy singer and dancer Pastora Imperio in his 1915 ballet El Amor Brujo (Love the Magician). The popular Ritual Fire Dance owes some of its status as the best-known movement of the ballet to his friend Arthur Rubinstein, who quickly included a brilliant piano arrangement of the dance in his repertoire. In its evocative music, the gypsy girl Candélas casts incense on the fire in her cave and performs a dance, finally exorcising the ghost of a past lover. — Notes © 2013 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca

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week 3

Earth, Winds & Fire

tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Friday, August 23

7:00 PM Prelude Concert (for ticket holders only)

8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

Prelude Concert Featuring this year's Robinson Award winner Cheryl Fries Saint-Saëns

Sonata for Bassoon and Piano in G Major, Op. 168 Allegro moderato

Elgar Edmond Vobaron

with Sar Shalom-Strong, piano

Romance for Bassoon and Orchestra, Op. 62 with Sar Shalom-Strong, piano Duo Concertant No. 1 for Two Bassoons, Op. 55

with Susan Van Buren, bassoon

Vivaldi Concerto in E minor for Bassoon, RV 484 Allegro poco

with David Ying, cello Elinor Freer, piano

Osborne Rhapsody for Bassoon

Concert LUIGI BOCCHERINI

String Quintet in D, Op. 11, No. 6, G.276, “Bird Sanctuary” Adagio assai Allegro giusto Allegro Tempo di minuetto Tempo primo

DAVID BRUCE

Bella Hristova, violin I Jeremy Mastrangelo, violin II Rebecca Albers, viola David Ying, cello Kurt Muroki, bass

The Eye of Night, for Flute, Viola, and Harp

INTERMISSION FRANZ SCHUBERT

Bart Feller, flute Rebecca Albers, viola June Han, harp

Piano Quintet in A, Op. 114, D. 667, “The Trout” Allegro vivace Andante Scherzo. Presto Tema con variazioni. Andantino Allegro giusto

Bella Hristova, violin Rebecca Albers, viola David Ying, cello Kurt Muroki, bass Elinor Freer, piano

Join us in welcoming the musicians at a post-concert reception in Dobson Hall. tonight’s guest sponsorships:

Rebecca Albers is sponsored by Koko Fuller Bart Feller is sponsored by Planning Sense June Han is sponsored by Roland & Tacie Anderson Bella Hristova is sponsored by the Columbian Foundation 46

Kurt Muroki is sponsored by Tom & Gretchen Jeffers David Ying and Elinor Freer are sponsored by Evan & Elizabeth Dreyfuss

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

The Robinson Award The Robinson Award is an annual scholarship prize awarded to a young musician who exemplifies the values cherished and embodied by David and Louise Robinson, Festival co-founders. Thirty-three years ago, David and Louise opened their hearts and their home to musicians, their families, and the audiences who come to hear them perform. Their lakeside home, Brook Farm, has been a gathering place and rehearsal space for musicians, and the performance venue for the Festival’s outdoor Saturday evening concerts, a tradition Louise has continued since David’s passing in 2006. Created in 2002, the award is given each year to a young musician whose character, musicianship, and community service reflect the values of David and Louise Robinson – enthusiasm and dedication to music of high quality.

2013 Winner Cheryl Fries, bassoon Cheryl Fries is a graduate of Red Creek High School, where she was a member of National Honor Society, as well as an active player in Red Creek’s Symphonic Band, Choir, and Jazz Band. Cheryl has performed in the Hochstein Alumni Chamber Orchestra, Greater Rochester’s Women’s Orchestra, Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra, Nazareth College Symphony Orchestra, and Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra. Cheryl has also performed in the Zone 2 Area All-State Orchestra and 2012 Conference All-State Symphonic Band. In 2012 Cheryl won the Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition and was honored to perform Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in B-flat Major, K.191 with the HYSO. Cheryl was the recipient of the Morning Musicale Scholarship, which recognized a member of the HYSO that strives for excellence and exhibits dedication and commitment to the orchestra. In the fall Cheryl will be attending the New England Conservatory of Music where she will study with Richard Svoboda and major in bassoon performance.

Our thanks to those who have contributed to the Robinson Award

Anonymous Brenton and Mary Bradly Barb Connor Fletcher Foundation David and Louise Robinson Skaneateles Area Council for the Arts

Frank and Jan Smith Karl and Peggy Smith Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth Spitzer Diane Walsh and Dick Pollak Suzanne Weitz Welch Allyn

If you would like to contribute to the Robinson Award Fund, please call 315-685-7418. 47

Program Notes There’s a string quintet inspired by 18th-century bird calls to open. Then, to close, another quintet, for a different combination of instruments, inspired by what its composer, Franz Schubert, described as the ‘inconceivably beautiful’ Austrian countryside. In between, music from our own time, which takes flight from a contemplation of the cloudless night sky.

String Quintet in D Major, Op. 11, No. 6, G.276 (1771) “Bird Sanctuary” LUIGI BOCCHERINI (1743-1805) Chamber music was where Boccherini’s true calling lay and, as a virtuoso cellist, he played much of his own chamber music. Indeed, Boccherini single-handedly invented the string quintet and wrote more such works than any composer, earlier or later. Since there was a resident quartet at one of the Spanish courts he served, he designed the majority of his quintets for the quartet plus himself – in other words for two cellos, as in today’s quintet. (However, in this performance tonight, the second cello part will be played on bass.) Later, when Boccherini was more dependent on the market place and on music publishers for his income, he also included two violas. In all, Boccherini’s catalog includes more than 100 string quintets and a similar number of string quartets, plus additional quintets with oboe, flute, guitar, or piano. That’s not to mention many symphonies, concertos, and music for the stage and church. As one of the more prolific composers of the 18th-century, Boccherini developed contacts among music publishers throughout Europe. His first collection of string quintets was published in 1775 four years after its completion. The D major quintet is the last of the collection. Its title L’uccelliera translates as ‘The Aviary’ or ‘Bird Sanctuary.’ After a short, pastoral opening movement by way of a prelude, the birds introduce themselves, chirping high in the violins over a simple bass line. A second theme is introduced in thirds, then a rising scale, again in thirds. These three ideas generate the material of the second movement, the longest in the quintet,

sometimes in combination, rising high in the cellos in the central development section. In the descriptive middle movement, subtitled I pastori e i cacciatori, a gentle, minor key pastoral scene is abruptly interrupted by a galloping hunting party, with hunting calls alarming the birds. As it disappears into the distance, the pastoral scene returns. Toward the end of the minuet, a sudden turn to the minor key takes us to the finale and a return to the birdsong and other material from the second movement which is further developed.

The Eye of Night, for Flute, Viola, and Harp (2010) DAVID BRUCE (b.1970) US-born but UK-raised, David Bruce is currently Associate Composer of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and has just completed a season as Composer-in-Residence with the Royal Opera House, London. His chamber opera The Firework Maker’s Daughter toured the UK this spring to favorable reviews. A fourth commission from Carnegie Hall and two works for San Diego are among many projects that lie ahead. David Bruce writes: “The Eye of Night is a series of four tender movements, each in their own way a kind of nocturne. The night and in particular the night sky has

Special thanks to the

First Presbyterian Church for their generous hospitality

Louise Robinson shares a laugh with David Ying

8/23 Program Notes (continued)

Piano Quintet in A, Op. 114, D. 667 (c. 1819) “The Trout”

long held a fascination for me. We all know the aweinspiring site that awaits us if we are lucky enough to find ourselves away from the city lights in front of a cloudless night sky. I think the awe we experience on such occasions is not just because of the beauty and grandeur of the spectacle, but because it one of the very few times we are directly faced with the vast mystery of the universe.

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828)

“I have been drawn to the image, first discovered in a short story by Aimee Bender of the night sky as a giant eye looking down on us, unblinkingly. The image fascinates me because it captures the complexity of feelings one experiences when staring up into space. It is friendly, familiar and constant, whilst at the same time being overwhelming, dizzying and quietly terrifying. “The first of the pieces has a dark atmosphere, that falls somewhere between sensual and plaintive. The melodic flute lines draw inspiration from the ornamental style of Indian bansuri flute playing. The second, very short movement has a sweeter atmosphere, showing a more tender and blissful side of night. The third, while still in a largely piano or pianissimo dynamic register is move active and flowing. The final piece is a lullaby, or ‘song without words’ inspired by William Blake’s Cradle Song where he imagines the ‘little sorrows’ and ‘quiet desires’ of a sleeping baby.”

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The period around the year 1819, when Schubert wrote his ‘Trout’ Quintet, one of the most endearing works in the repertoire, was a rich one for lovers of chamber music. Beethoven, then in his 50s, was writing his profound late string quartets. Mendelssohn, barely in his teens, was shortly to write his Octet. Schubert, in his early 20s had ahead of him such masterpieces as the Death and the Maiden Quartet, the Octet and the Great C major Quintet. Chamber music was alive and well, and living, above all, in the city of Vienna. It was here that the tradition of hausmusik thrived among the music-loving middle-classes and bourgeoisie. And it was for this tradition of amateur music-making in the home that Schubert wrote his ‘Trout’ Quintet. He was on vacation in the Alpine countryside in the town of Steyr, just outside Vienna, when the commission came. Steyr was the home town of his friend, the wellknown singer Johann Vogl, for whom Schubert wrote many of his 600 songs. Schubert was Vogl’s guest and together they visited another Steyr resident, Sylvester Paumgartner, who was a wealthy mining director and keen amateur cellist. Paumgartner asked Schubert to write a chamber work for his hausmusik group. The idea of including a movement based on Schubert’s song Die Forelle (The Trout) also seems to have come from Paumgartner. The instruments specified – piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass – are, by today’s conventions, an unusual grouping. But they were the instruments used in a published Viennese arrangement of Hummel’s popular Septet of 1816 which Schubert would have known. The number of movements in the ‘Trout’ Quintet is also unusual. Four was the convention. But here, a fifth movement, a series of variations on The Trout, was inserted between the Scherzo and the finale. The movement starts with a simplified version of the opening of the song. As the music progresses, the theme only gradually reveals its full subtleties, culminating in the final variation, the focalpoint of the quintet. The work’s great clarity of texture comes about largely through the way Schubert contrasts the rich, resonant (and potentially bottom-heavy) scoring for the four string instruments with a brighter, more transparent piano line – created by having the pianist frequently play in octaves high in the upper range of the keyboard, much as in Schubert’s piano duos. Another hallmark of the work is that the piano is usually heard in dialogue with the strings, rather than in a mutual singletexture that develops the work’s themes. Schubert wrote to his brother Ferdinand about the ‘inconceivably beautiful’ countryside around Steyr and it’s not hard to picture the picturesque, sunlit freshness of the Alpine air in the five movements of the quintet. — Notes © 2013 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca

week 3

Earth, Winds & Fire

today’s event is sponsored by:

Saturday, August 24 Free Community Event 10:30 AM Baltimore Woods

4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

S pecial E vent

Musical Nature Walk for all ages with guide John Weeks at

John A. Weeks, one of Central New York’s most widely known and admired naturalists and former host of the WRVO radio commentary, “On the Nature of Things,” leads a short guided walk on one of the nature center’s trails. Along the way you’ll not only hear (and see) the music of Nature, but you’ll also hear the live music of Festival performers David Ying, cello, and Bart Feller, flute!

today’s guest sponsorships:

Bart Feller is sponsored by Planning Sense David Ying is sponsored by Evan & Elizabeth Dreyfuss 50

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible in part by funding from Onondaga County and CNY Arts.

“Sometimes we musicians joke that we just come back for the food.” – Michelle LaCourse, viola

FANFARE

GET YOUR COPY NOW! This beautiful 3-ring binder book with stand is just $20. Get one for yourself and one for a friend. They make great gifts! Available to buy tonight at the concessions table, at the establishments listed, or online at skanfest.org

Welch Allyn. Delivering solutions that matter. At Welch Allyn, we focus on providing end-to-end solutions that make a difference in the quality of care for people around the world. And we’re proud of the fact that, since 1915, caring, respect, integrity and responsibility are just some of the raw materials we put into our products every day.

September 8, 2013 Baltimore Woods Nature Center 3:00-6:00pm

We’re proud to support the 2013 Skaneateles Festival—where the magic of the performing arts meets the power of the human spirit.

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CNY celebrity chef cook-off featuring locally-grown produce and mystery ingredients. Chance Bear of Parisa & Luke Houghton of BeauVine to challenge Chris Kuhns of Phoebe’s Restaurant & Joelle Mollinger from Joelle’s French Bistro Admission: General $75; Patron $100 For reservations, visit baltimorewoods.org or call (315)673-1350 51

week 3

Earth, Winds & Fire

tonight’s event is sponsored by:

Saturday, August 24 7:30 PM Brook Farm

Doug Sutherland and Nancy Kramer

Rain Location: Skaneateles High School

Exact program to be announced from the stage and selected from the following works

CAROLYN BREMER

Early Light

COPLAND

An Outdoor Overture

DEBUSSY

Danse sacrée et danse profane

arr. Roger Niese

June Han, harp

LODOVICO VIADANA

Sinfonia á 8 for Brass Ensemble, “La Bergamasca”

(transcribed by Mark D. Scatterday) VAUGHAN WILLIAMS DAVID MASLANKA HANDEL COPLAND

Sea Songs Mother Earth: A Fanfare excerpts from: Music for the Royal Fireworks Down a Country Lane Variations on a Shaker Tune

ERIC WHITACRE

Water Night

PERCY GRAINGER

Molly on the Shore Shepherd’s Hey

Eastman Chamber Winds Mark Davis Scatterday, conductor Flute Bart Feller Flute/Piccolo Joanna Bassett Oboe Anna Petersen Stearns

Oboe/ English Horn John Lathwell Bassoon Greg Quick John Hunt Contrabassoon Martha Malkowicz

Clarinet Allan Kolsky Andrew Brown Clarinet/ Bass Clarinet John Friedrichs Soprano/Alto Sax Chien-Kwan Lin

Alto Sax Andrew Stoker Tenor Sax Matt Evans Baritone Sax David Yusko Horn Alex Shuhan Mary Hunt

Trumpet Wesley Nance Paul Shewan Herb Smith Trombone Whitney Clair David Bruestle Trombone/ Euphonium Mark Kellogg

Tuba Craig Sutherland Percussion Michael Cirmo Andrea Venet Cello David Ying Bass Edward Castilano

tonight’s guest sponsorships:

tonight’s media sponsor is WCNY

Edward Castilano is sponsored by Doug & Judy Robertson Bart Feller is sponsored by Planning Sense June Han is sponsored by Roland and Tacie Anderson Mark Davis Scatterday is sponsored by Jary and Julie Shimer

Please support our sponsors and advertisers.

Program Notes Tonight’s concert draws inspiration from the earth itself, from its seas and its skies, by night and by day, from our national anthem to our children.

Early Light (1995) CAROLYN BREMER (b. 1957) It’s a joyous, uplifting, feel-good sort of piece, with just the sort of tune you think you may have heard before. The name of the California-based professor of composition may not be familiar, but Carolyn Bremer’s six-minute, concertoverture style piece is skillfully crafted to draw you right in. Real-life issues, politics and life itself are central to Bremer the composer and teacher. Childhood memories and what she describes as ‘feelings of happy anticipation’ when hearing The Star-Spangled Banner played before a ball game triggered her 1995 piece Early Light. The anthem percolates through both the main theme and development of her piece. It was first written for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and now receives hundreds of performances a year by orchestras and bands.

An Outdoor Overture (1938) AARON COPLAND (1900-1990) Extrovert and high-spirited, An Outdoor Overture was commissioned to launch a campaign with the slogan

‘American music for American youth.’ It was premièred by the New York High School of Music and Art and immediately type-cast as ‘kid stuff’ – to quote the words of an early champion of the work, Leonard Bernstein. At the time, composer Elliott Carter chastised music critics for ignoring An Outdoor Overture when it was first played by a professional orchestra: “Its opening is as lofty and beautiful as any passage that has been written by a contemporary composer,” Carter wrote. “It is Copland in his prophetic vein… never before has he expressed it so simply and directly.”

Danse sacrée et danse profane (1904), (arr. Roger Niese for Harp and Winds) CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) In 1897, the Paris instrument manufacturer Pleyel developed and patented a cross-strung chromatic harp as an alternative to the 47 strings and seven pedals of the concert harp. With its two rows of strings slanting across one another, the instrument did away with the pedals and had a string for every semitone. Pleyel then persuaded the Brussels Conservatory to offer a course for the new instrument and Debussy was commissioned to write a test-piece for the final examination. His Deux danses of 1904 combine harp with string orchestra and are written in a

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8/24 Program Notes (continued)

consciously antique style. The first, Danse sacrée, is slow, solemn and ‘sacred’ in the way it uses modal coloring to create atmosphere and demonstrate the harp’s chromatic potential. It incorporates a theme from the Dance of the Veils by Portuguese composer Francisco de Lacerda, which Debussy came across in a French musical journal. With its slow waltz tempo, the Danse profane is more sensuous. Although there is still a class for chromatic harp at the Brussels Conservatory, the instrument is now only played by a few and the pedal harp prevails.

Sea Songs (1923) RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his Sea Songs in 1923 as the second movement of his English Folk Song Suite for the band of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall. His wife, Ursula, describes how he was keen to explore a new medium and “felt that a chance to play real tunes would be an agreeable and salutary experience for bandsmen” – hitherto confined to arrangements of popular classics, marches, dances and the like. The three songs that stride their way through the Sea Songs are Princess Royal, Admiral Benbow and Portsmouth.

Mother Earth: A Fanfare (2003) DAVID MASLANKA (b.1943) Exuberant, forward-driving, affirmative and climactic, David Maslanka’s Mother Earth celebrates what he describes as ‘our planet’s raw, life-supporting/giving power.’ The New Bedford, Mass.-born composer, now based in Montana, wrote the piece for wind band under the inspiration of text written by the early 13th-century Catholic friar and priest, St. Francis of Assisi: “Praised by You, my Lord, for our sister Mother Earth, who nourishes us and teaches us, bringing forth all kinds of fruits and colored flowers and herbs.”

Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749) (excerpts) GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759) Handel wrote his imposing suite in 1749 for an outdoor royal celebration marking the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. The Handel was nearly suite is in the French killed in a swordfight style and includes an when he was 18 after arguing overture and several with his friend, Matheson, contrasting dances. about who would play the Knowing the chalharpsichord in Matheson’s lenges of coordination opera. facing his musicians,

Fun Fact…

8/24 Program Notes (continued)

was finished – Down a Country Lane just happened to fit its flowing quality.”

Handel shrewdly juxtaposes the instrumental forces in blocks of contrasting sonorities. At the première, after some of the 10,000 rockets and other fireworks were set off, a wing of the firework pavilion caught fire and the main firework display failed to be coordinated accurately. Though not a damp squib, the event lasted some 9 hours, until 2 or 3 in the morning. “Scarce anyone had patience to wait for the finishing,” reported Horace Walpole.

Another of Copland’s educational projects for young people was what he referred to as the 1958 ‘school-orchestra version’ of his Variations on a Shaker Tune. He extracted this piece from his ballet Appalachian Spring. The tune is the Shaker song Simple Gifts, written by Joseph Brackett in 1848, which perfectly complements the ballet’s images of community, simplicity and American rural life.

Down a Country Lane (1962) Variations on a Shaker Tune (1942/1958)

ERIC WHITACRE (b. 1970)

AARON COPLAND (1900-1990) In 1962, Life magazine commissioned Copland to write a short piano work for its June 29 edition. “Down a Country Lane is among the few modern pieces specially written for young piano students by a major composer,” “So long as the human the magazine spirit thrives on this planet, explained. “The music in some living form music is descripwill accompany and sustain it tive only in an and give it expressive meaning.” imaginative, not a -Aaron Copland literal sense,” Copland added. “I didn’t think up the title until the piece

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Water Night (1995/6) “I just do my best to illuminate the words with music,” says American composer Eric Whitacre, one of today’s internationally most successful composers of choral music. The ethereal, timeless Water Night is one of the composer’s earliest works and started life as a choral piece to words by Octavio Paz. The Mexican poet is “a composer’s dream,” Whitacre says. “The music seems to set itself (without the usual struggle that invariably accompanies this task) and the process feels more like cleaning the oils from an ancient canvas to reveal the hidden music than composing.”

Molly on the Shore (1907) Shepherd’s Hey (1908-13) PERCY GRAINGER (1882-1961) Both these popular British folksong settings provided Australian-American composer Percy Grainger with steady income throughout most of his professional life. Originally arranged for ‘String 4-some or string orchestra,’ the Irish reel tunes found in Molly on the Shore went through several additional arrangements before Grainger arranged them for military band in 1920. Grainger’s setting of the English morris tune Shepherd’s Hey started life as a ‘Room-music 12-some’ for winds and strings with concertina. Its band arrangement was completed by 1918. — Notes © 2013 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca

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Bohemian Triumph

tonight’s event is sponsored by:

Wednesday, August 28 Free Community Event

5:30 PM Anyela’s Vineyards 2433 West Lake Rd., Skaneateles

tonight’s guest sponsorship:

A Far Cry is sponsored by

S pecial E vent

Musical Happy Hour

Stop by after work for a sampling of world class music from members of A Far Cry. Enjoy great music along with breathtaking views of the lake. JOHANN STAMITZ

Sinfonia á 4 in D, WolS I. D-21

JOSEF SUK

Allegro

Serenade in E-flat, for Strings, Op.6

Andante ma non troppo e grazioso

Gershwin Embraceable You (arr. A. Eng) Biber Battalia in D Major, C.61, excerpts

GIDEON KLEIN

arr. Vojtěch Saudek

Sonata: Allegro Die liederliche Gesellschaft von allerley Humor: Allegro Der Mars Die Schlacht Lamento der Verwundten Musquetirer: Adagio

String Trio as Partita for String Orchestra

Molto vivace

PErapaskero Turceasca

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

2012 Musical Happy Hour at Anyela’s

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Bohemian Triumph

tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

The Glady Krieble Delmas Foundation

Thursday, August 29

8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

tonight’s guest sponsorship:

A Far Cry is sponsored by

A Far Cry, Part I Tu° MA

Partita for Three Instruments in C minor Adagio Allegro moderato Aria: Andante Adagio Allegro

SCHULHOFF

Liesl Schoenberger, violin Jesse Irons, violin Alastair Eng, cello

Duo for Violin and Cello Moderato Zingaresca. Allegro giocoso Andantino Moderato

Megumi Stohs Lewis, violin Michael Untermann, cello

INTERMISSION

DVOŘÁK

String Quintet in E-flat, Op. 97, BB 180, “The American” Allegro non tanto Allegro vivo Larghetto Finale. Allegro giusto

tonight’s media sponsor is CNY Business Journal

Ashley Vandiver, violin Annie Rabbat, violin Franklin Shaw, viola Sarah Darling, viola Loewi Lin, cello

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible in part by funding from Onondaga County and CNY Arts.

From the Artistic Directors

Week at a Glance…

B ohemian Triumph Even as far back as the reign of the Holy Roman Empire, the kingdom of Bohemia was a hotbed of learning, culture, and style. This week we’ll get acquainted with some rarely heard Bohemian composers spanning several centuries. Heinrich Biber, born in 1644, is the earliest of these innovative composers. Johann Stamitz and Frantisek Tu° ma both represent the late baroque era, roughly the first half of the18th-century, and had a great influence on more well-known composers like Haydn and Mozart. Gideon Klein, Erwin Schulhoff, and Hans Krása were all composers of Jewish heritage, whose lives were tragically cut short by the Nazi regime. Both Klein and Krása were active in the musical life at the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Dvořák (who taught the young Schulhoff) is of course the most famous composer to come from the Czech Republic, and his viola quintet is full of the folk melodies that make his music so beloved. Josef Suk carried on Dvořák’s lineage, both as his student and eventually as his son-in-law. And finally we’ll throw some Schubert into the mix, for Schubert’s father was from Moravia, and his own use of folk songs and tunes in his music was an inspiration to Dvořák.

Program Notes Bohemian composers from three centuries open a window onto the richness of culture from this part of central Europe. Tu° ma made a respected career as an employee of the 18th-century Habsburg monarchy. In the 19th-century, starting from humble beginnings, Dvořák built a reputation – and paycheck – that reached as far as the New World. Schulhoff, on the other hand, was the most promising of a generation of musicians whose lives were destroyed by 20th-century conflict.

Partita for Three Instruments in C minor °

FRANTIŠEK TuMA (1704-74) Known primarily as a composer of church music, but also as a singer, a player of the bass viol and the theorbo (a plucked string instrument developed similar to the lute), František Tu° ma was born about 50 miles East of Prague in Kostelec nad Orlicí, Bohemia. Training from his father, a church organist, quickly developed his technique. Subsequent training in the Bohemian capital Prague soon led the talented young composer down a well-traveled path, away from Bohemia to a position in the imperial capital of Vienna. (Not long afterwards, the English music historian Charles Burney, seeing so many Bohemian musicians in the courts and palaces of Europe, remarked that Bohemia had become the ‘Conservatoire of Europe’). In Vienna, Tu° ma enjoyed the patronage of the High Chancellor of Bohemia and, on his death, that of the dowager empress, widow of Emperor Karl VI. Highly regarded by both court and his contemporaries, he received a pension for the last quarter century of his life, passing his final years in a monastery. As a composer of the late Baroque, Tu° ma’s instrumental music includes sonatas, sinfonias and several partitas – a catch-all term for music that falls closer to the baroque

suite than the evolving classical symphony. The fivemovement Partita in C minor follows the suspended harmonies of a solemn Adagio with a quirky three-part fugue, not without its moments of humor. A gentle, central Aria showcases the interweaving lyrical lines of the two violins. Then, in the longest movement of the partita, the lowest part, unusually, becomes the driving force of the ensemble, with the upper strings cast in more of a supporting role. Dueling violins, somewhat after the manner of Vivaldi and the Italian composers of the day, return for a brisk finale.

Duo for Violin and Cello (1925) ERWIN SCHULHOFF (1894-1942) Schulhoff was born ahead of his time; his magpie-like interest in music of all sorts would make him right at home in our 21st-century global culture. He was born to a family of Czech-Jewish musicians in Prague in 1894. As a child, Dvořák encouraged him. Schulhoff then had rigorous training in Leipzig and studied later with Debussy and Reger. In the 1920s, when he composed this Duo for violin and cello, he was a prominent pianist and composer, appearing regularly at international contemporary music festivals. His interests tended towards modernism, often combining Schoenberg’s free atonality with the strong dance rhythms of folk music. As a pianist, Schulhoff championed the quarter-tone music of his countryman Alois Habá. He soaked up the neo-classicism of Stravinsky. He followed developments in Paris and was an enthusiast of the music of Milhaud and other members of Les Six. He also played in nightclubs and drew inspiration from the then new and exciting phenomenon of jazz. His music integrates jazz and ragtime elements as successfully as does 59

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that of any composer of the time. Like his almost exact contemporary, Martinu° , he was something of an outsider. Schulhoff wrote his Duo in 1925. It is largely built upon the sinuous, essentially lyrical melody we hear as the piece begins. In the opening Moderato, Schulhoff confidently works the theme through a wide range of textures and emotions, from the tenderest, most whispered of sounds, to ethereal high harmonics and then with a gritty, folk-like rhythmic drive. The folk element comes to the fore in the exuberant, gypsy-like Zingaresca, calling for a variety of pizzicato sounds and again built on a fragment derived from the first movement’s opening theme. The slow movement returns to a tender, lyrical exploration of the theme while the finale, marked Moderato like the opening movement, concludes with a whirlwind gallop. Schulhoff’s Duo is a worthy companion to the better-known duos of Kodály (1914) and Ravel (1921) and is dedicated to his fellow countryman, composer Leos Janáček.

String Quintet in E-flat, Op. 97, BB 180 (1893) “The American” ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841-1904) In 1891, Antonín Dvořák, a composer born in rural Bohemia, received an invitation from millionaire Jeanette M. Thurber to come to New York to head the National Conservatory of Music at a salary of 25 times the amount he was being paid by the Prague Conservatory. To help him navigate the ways of the New World, Dvořák turned to Josef Jan Kovarík, a young violinist who had just completed his studies in Prague. Kovarík’s hometown was Spillville, Iowa, and it as here, in North East Iowa, that Dvořák, his wife, six children, sister-in-law, maid and Kovarík spent the summer of 1893. What he found was a small settlement of 380 mostly Bohemians, Germans and Swiss (it has the same population to this day). These settlers maintained the cultural traditions of the old country and communicated with one another in their

native language. Dvořák was happier here than at any other time in his two-year stay in the States. Within three days he was hard at work on a new string quartet. His early morning walks through the woods by the Little Turkey River brought the sounds of birdsong – something he had missed in New York – to his ears. Two weeks later, the quartet was complete, a remarkably short time for a work that has become the most popular of all Dvořák’s 14 quartets. It soon acquired a nickname, ‘American’, though its themes are no more American than Bohemian. Three days later, on June 26, Dvořák began work on a string quintet, the work to be played today. He completed it August 1 and it, too, is sometimes called the ‘American.’ It is easy to overstate the peculiarly American qualities of this fine quintet though, particularly when listening to the distinctive melody that opens its first movement. Played on Dvořák’s own instrument, the viola, it is rhapsodic and a little exotic in its coloring. It is based on what is known as the pentatonic scale. Dvořák had already identified this (along with a few other technical matters) as characteristic of AfroAmerican and Native Indian music when interviewed by the Chicago Tribune a few weeks earlier. But the pentatonic scale (a five-note scale) is also found in Bohemian music. So what can be interpreted as Dvořák’s curiosity for the new country could equally be explained as nostalgia for the old. And, meanwhile, it forms the starting point for an exhilarating, richly scored movement which ranges widely over the emotional spectrum. The rhythmically dynamic second movement raises the temperature even more. Its contrasting middle section gives a beautifully yearning, soaring melody first to viola, then to violin. The slow movement begins with a melody that Dvořák wrote in New York for a new national anthem, setting the words “My country, ‘tis of thee.” Formally, the movement is a theme and five variations. The finale alternates a bouncy, good-natured theme with more inward-looking episodes in a thoroughly satisfying way. — Notes © 2013 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca

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Bohemian Triumph

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Friday, August 30

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8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

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A Far Cry, Part II BIBER

Battalia

Jesse Irons, Liesl Schoenberger, Megumi Stohs Lewis, Annie Rabbat, violin Jason Fisher, Franklin Shaw, Sarah Darling, viola Erik Higgins, Karl Doty, bass

KRÁSA

Tanec (Dance) for Violin, Viola and Cello

Alice Hallstrom, violin Franklin Shaw, viola Loewi Lin, cello

INTERMI SSI ON

SCHUBERT

String Quintet in C, D. 956 Allegro ma non troppo Adagio Scherzo: Presto Allegretto

Jae Cosmos Lee, Alex Fortes, violin Jason Fisher, viola Michael Untermann, Alastair Eng, cello

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Program Notes Battalia (1673) HEINRICH IGNAZ FRANZ VON BIBER (1644-1704) Sonata-Allegro – Allegro ‘Die liederliche Gesellschaft von allerley Humor (The dissolute company of all sorts) – Presto – Der Mars (The march) – Presto – Aria: Andante – Die Schlacht (The battle) – Adagio: Lamento der verwundten Musquetir (Lament of the wounded musketeers) Writing almost a century after the death of the 17thcentury Bohemian composer Heinrich von Biber, English music historian Charles Burney said: “Of all the violin players of the last century Biber seems to have been the best. His solos are the most difficult and most fanciful of any I have seen of the period.” Biber began to build a reputation among the most charismatic and daring of 17thcentury violin virtuosos with his earliest appointment to the Bishop of Olmütz in Kroměříž. Here, as both valet de chambre and musician to Prince-Bishop Karl LiechtensteinCastelkorn, he found a kindred spirit who appreciated descriptive instrumental music, or what we now refer to as “program music”. He wrote a Sonata representativa with its croaking frog, clucking hen, slinking cat and other musical sound effects for the Prince-Bishop shortly before he quit the position and moved to Salzburg. Here, a century before Mozart was employed at the same court, he rose to a

position of eminence as music director to the Salzburg court, with an ambition and political know-how that brought its own rewards. Biber’s love of pictorial effects is front and center in a somewhat over-the-top battle piece he wrote in 1673. Titled Battalia, this suite of short movements is scored for nine-part string ensemble and optional continuo. The piece follows a well-established tradition of battle-piece, which was particularly popular in France, where the bataille would follow the combatants from preparation to battle to ultimate victory. Biber asks for col legno (‘with the wood’ of the bow) playing, a snap pizzicato (percussive plucked string effect) to imitate gunfire, a piece of paper over the strings to imitate a snare drum, and both right and left hand pizzicato from his string players. In the second movement, he also calls for the simultaneous playing (mercifully not singing) of eight folk songs in nearly as many keys – it’s a 17th-century mashup imitating what he describes as a drunken ‘dissolute horde of musketeers.’ In a closing movement, arguably a scene of bathos, Biber depicts his musketeers lamenting their battle wounds.

Tanec (Dance) for Violin, Viola and Cello (1944) HANS KRÁSA (1899–1944) Krása was one of a number of Czech composers – Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein (see tomorrow’s program), Viktor Ullmann, and Erwin Schulhoff (whose Duo was played yesterday) – who died in Nazi concentration camps. Most of them, including Krása, were held for a while in Terezín

2012 Robinson Award winner Ben Parks with Elinor Freer, Louise Robinson and David Ying

Michael P. Falcone welcomes guests at “A Christmas Suite” 2012

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(Theresienstadt), the northern Bohemian garrison town that imprisoned many leading Jewish artists and intellectuals from Prague and Brno prior to their transportation to the extermination camps. Krása wrote his string trio Tanec (Dance) in Terezín in the same year that he was killed in Auschwitz. Before he was sent to Terezín, Krása had a reputation as a gifted composer whose potential was yet to be realized. He was a musician to whom success came easily, a protégé of Zemlinsky, championed by Szell and Koussevitzky, but frequently given to living the bohemian life-style rather than channeling his energy into new composition. By 1933, as his most substantial work, the opera Betrothal in a Dream, won success at home, the rise of National Socialism excluded its production in German opera houses. Krasa, the German-speaking Jewish composer from Prague, allied himself more closely with his Czech colleagues. His musical style intensified, nowhere more so than in the short Tanec (Dance) that he wrote in Terezin, for violin, viola and cello. The title is surely ironic, suggesting a dance of death. Its opening pages evoke the sound of a train in motion. Is Krása imagining the transport that would take him and his fellow prisoners to Auschwitz later that year? As the music progresses from the tonal to the more strident and eerie, uncertainty seems to cloud the horizon. Then nostalgia and more unease as the rhythm of the heavy train slows down and then, unpredictably, quickens again. Then comes a feeling of confusion as the theme becomes increasingly fragmented. Our reaction to this powerful music becomes increasingly subjective.

String Quintet in C, D. 956 (1828) FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) This great C major String Quintet was written in the autumn of 1828, when Schubert was not in good health. But there is no evidence that he was consciously or unconsciously preparing for the end by writing music that was noble in conception and spiritual in melodic invention. In the summer months immediately preceding the work’s composition, Schubert’s life followed the familiar pattern of cultural and social gatherings with his friends and visits to the taverns – particularly the Moonshine and

Gwen Birchenough with friends, Koko Fuller, Susan Mark and Mary Knepper the Partridge. In October 1828 he and a group of friends traveled 50 miles on foot to Eisenstadt to visit the grave of Haydn. Back in Vienna, Schubert began further lessons in counterpoint. During the year, three publishing houses wrote to him asking for compositions. This activity paints a picture of a man who was facing life rather than preparing to bid it farewell. Although the quintet is written in C Major, tonal ambiguity is present from the outset, as the opening chord wavers between major and minor. Schubert immediately creates a sense of spaciousness and builds up a feeling of expectation in his listener. The second theme is equally striking. It appears in the unusual key of E flat and is played by both cellos. If Schubert was simply following the precedent of Mozart and Beethoven in writing a string quintet, he would have followed their example and used two violas rather than two cellos. But the romantic side of his nature determined his choice of tone color. And the lower instrument, with its wide tenor range allowed him the sonorous, spacious palette that his quintet explores so memorably.

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The slow movement is ethereal, woven around an expansive organ-like melody in the middle voices, punctuated by interjections high on the violin and low in the cello. A passionate, anguished middle section contrasts dramatically. The Scherzo is spirited and rustic and, at the outset at least, not unlike many that Schubert had previously written. Soon, however, a remarkable trio plunges the music into distant keys at a considerably slower speed and in a different tempo. Schubert was being highly original. The only precedent was in the music he himself composed around the same time. In the finale, Schubert’s spirit emerges optimistic. The music is purposeful and driven, combining a jaunty Hungarian dance melody with the Gemu"tlichkeit of a more sentimental, Viennese cafe melody.

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week 4

Bohemian Triumph

tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Michael & Noreen Falcone

Saturday, August 31 7:30 PM Brook Farm

tonight’s guest sponsorships:

Rain Location: Skaneateles High School

A Far Cry is sponsored by

festival finale with

A Far Cry JOHANN STAMITZ

Sinfonia á 4 in D, WolS I. D-21 Presto Andante Presto

GIDEON KLEIN

arr. Vojtěch Saudek

String Trio, as Partita for String Orchestra Allegro spiccato Variations on a Moravian Folksong: Lento Molto vivace

INTERMISSION

JOSEF SUK

Serenade in E-flat, for Strings, Op.6 Andante con moto Allegro non troppe e grazioso Adagio Allegro giocoso

Violin

Viola

Cello

Alex Fortes Alice Hallstrom* Annie Rabbat Ashley Vandiver Jae Cosmos Lee Jesse Irons Liesl Schoenberger Megumi Stohs Lewis

Jason Fisher Franklin Shaw Sarah Darling

Loewi Lin Michael Untermann Alastair Eng* Bass

Erik Higgins Karl Doty *indicates Guest Criers

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible in part by funding from Onondaga County and CNY Arts.

Program Notes Under the Habsburg monarchy, gifted musicians were forced to leave the smaller, impoverished Bohemian towns and courts and seek their fortune (or even, just survival) further afield. Stamitz proved to be the right man at the right time to lead the Mannheim court orchestra to legendary heights. Until recent times, Klein’s accomplishments and promise were known only to the inmates of a notorious prisoner-of-war camp in the former Bohemian lands. Suk lived a less troubled life and became one of the father-figures of 20th-century Czech music.

Sinfonia á 4 in D, WolS I. D-21 (c1750) JOHANN STAMITZ (1717-1757) Mannheim, in southwestern Germany, was at the forefront of the newly developing symphony in the mid-18th century. The composer who directed its renowned court orchestra was from Bohemia – Johann Stamitz (Štamic), born in Německý Brod, midway between Prague and Brno. Educated by the Jesuits, Stamitz studied philosophy in Prague before making his way in the world as a violin virtuoso. In Mannheim, his career quickly rocketed from first court-violinist to director of instrumental music. His employer, the Elector Carl Theodor, planned to build his court orchestra into one of the finest in Europe, with Stamitz as the musician leading and directing the earliest years of the campaign. “It was an army of generals, equally

fit to plan a battle as to fight it,” commented music historian Charles Burney two decades later. The orchestra was renowned for its discipline and precision, its dramatic contrasts of dynamics, and effects known as the Mannheim Rocket, Crescendo and Sigh – all of which became part of the musical language of the symphony in the second half of the 18th-century, adopted by Mozart among others. These Mannheim traits are to be heard in Stamitz’s relatively early D major Sinfonia for strings, with its bustling opening movement, melodically elegant slow movement and dynamic finale. Stamitz, who died aged just 39, further advanced his reputation in Paris during a year-long visit to the French capital. His influence on his contemporaries was as great as that of any Bohemian composer. As Burney put it: “He, like another Shakespeare,…pushed art further than anyone had done before him; his genius was truly original.”

String Trio, arr. Vojtěch Saudek as Partita for String Orchestra (1944/1990) GIDEON KLEIN (1919-1945) Klein was just 22 when he was sent to the Czech prisonerof-war camp at Terezín. Before that, the Moravian composer and pianist had studied for a short while in Prague, where the Nuremberg Laws after the Nazi annexation of

8/31 Program Notes (continued)

Czechoslovakia meant that he was soon expelled and denied permission to take up the offer of a scholarship in London. For a while, he continued to work under the pseudonym Karel Vránek in underground, progressive Prague theaters. In the Terezín camp, he immediately began to organize other inmates to express themselves through music and wrote folk-song settings for the camp choir. As another Terezín prisoner, conductor Karel Ančerl (later to be conductor of the Toronto Symphony) recalled: “The first time I met Gideon was in a loft in Terezín, where he tried to repair an old, broken piano. The piano soon stood on stool that replaced the legs. It was tuned and Gideon began practicing. He played his favorite Mozart, Brahms and Janáček for us. He formed chamber ensembles and achieved a standard we would not have been ashamed of in Prague. He organized solo concerts and performed Bach as well as modern music, works by other composers living in Terezín and his own compositions… Shortly before the transport to Auschwitz, he began to conduct. Gideon had all the qualifications for this – above all, he had an unmistakable musical ear. Had he survived, he could have . . . achieved the highest standard as a pianist, composer and conductor.” In Terezín Klein composed a short work for string quartet, a piano sonata and the string trio we are to hear today in a recent

adaptation by Czech-born composer Vojtěch Saudek as the Partita for string orchestra. Just nine days after he completed the work, Klein was transported to Auschwitz. Klein’s remarkable energy and positive attitude to the harsh incarceration at Terezín bursts out of the opening movement of the Partita. Its use of the rhythms and inflexions of Moravian folk-music inevitably bring to mind the music of Janáček and Bartók, but Klein’s voice remains distinctive. The heartfelt, skillfully crafted middle movement is subtitled “Variations on a Moravian Folk-song” and has become his best-known work. The driving,

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8/31 Program Notes (continued)

closely-argued finale is again propelled by the spirit of folk-song.

Serenade in E-flat, for Strings, Op.6 (1892) JOSEF SUK (1874-1935) Josef Suk was born in the Bohemian village of Křečovice, a few miles south of Prague, to a school-teacher and choraldirector father. His long career as second violinist with the Czech Quartet (known as the Bohemian Quartet until 1918) introduced Czech music to European audiences over many years, including quartets written for the group by Janáček and by his father-in-law, Dvořák. As a professor at the Prague Conservatoire, Suk and members of the quartet trained generations of Czech string musicians and served as a role model for later quartets. Suk’s grandson, also named Josef Suk, died in 2011 after a distinguished career as a violinist. Suk (senior) also taught composition in Prague to many students, including Martinu° . As a composer, Suk found early success with such works as the Serenade he wrote while still a student at the Prague Conservatoire. Dvořák was his teacher at the time and, at the end of the school year, encouraged his student to create ‘something lively with youthful joie de vivre’ over the summer break to balance all the minor-key works Suk had previously written by choice. The resulting Serenade found

immediate success and has remained Suk’s best-known work. Brahms recommended it for publication by his own publisher Simrock, much as he had done for Dvořák a generation earlier. The sunny, engaging score is uncomplicated and follows in the tradition of Dvořák’s String Serenade of 1875. The main theme of its gentle opening movement tips its hat to the opening of the Brahms Violin Concerto. The second movement, meanwhile, comes closest to Dvořák’s Slavonic spirit, while the finale may bring to mind another serenade – that of Tchaikovsky. Nevertheless, Suk’s musical voice remains distinctive throughout. His musical themes, moreover, derive from the opening theme of the first movement and add unity to the whole. The fluent, polished writing of the lyrical slow movement reveals the expertise of a string player – still just 18 year-old. Now a cornerstone of the string orchestra repertoire, Suk’s Serenade was, appropriately, given its première by the Prague Conservatoire Orchestra, February 25, 1895. — Notes © 2013 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca

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Musician Profiles A Far Cry According to the New York Times, the self-conducted string orchestra A Far Cry “brims with personality or, better, personalities, many and varied.” The group is a tightly knit collective of 17 young professional musicians. Leadership rotates – both on stage and behind the scenes. By expanding the boundaries of orchestral repertoire and experimenting with the ways music is prepared, performed, and experienced, A Far Cry has made a name for itself throughout the world. It has given well over two hundred performances, recorded four albums, and developed a powerful presence on the Internet. In 2012, A Far Cry completed its first European tour to great acclaim. The Criers call Boston home. They serve as Chamber Orchestra in Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Through an educational partnership with the New England Conservatory, A Far Cry works with local students to pass on the spirit of collaboratively-empowered music. Rebecca Albers, viola Violist Rebecca Albers has performed throughout North America, Asia, and Western Europe. She enjoys a varied career as an orchestral and chamber musician, soloist, and

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teacher. As a winner of the Juilliard Schools viola competition, she made her New York solo debut with the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall, where she performed the New York premiere of Samuel Adlers Viola Concerto. An avid chamber musician, Rebecca tours extensively with the Albers Trio, a string trio formed with her two sisters, and with Musicians from Marlboro, the touring extension of the Marlboro Music Festival. She is the newly appointed Assistant Principal violist of the Minnesota Orchestra. Anonymous 4, Ruth Cunningham Marsha Genensky Susan Hellauer Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek Renowned for their unearthly vocal blend and virtuosic ensemble singing, the four women of Anonymous 4 combine historical scholarship with contemporary performance intuition to create their magical sound. Their programs have included music from the year 1000; the ecstatic music and poetry of the 12th-century abbess and mystic, Hildegard of Bingen; 13th-century chant and polyphony from England, France, and Spain; American

Musician Profiles folksongs, shape note tunes, and gospel songs; and works newly written for the group. Composers who have written for Anonymous 4 include David Lang, Richard Einhorn, John Tavener, Peter Maxwell Davies, and Steve Reich. For 25 years, Anonymous 4 has performed for sold-out audiences throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Its 19 best-selling recordings for harmonia mundi usa have won multiple awards and have sold more than two million copies. Anonymous 4 has twice been voted one of Billboard’s top classical artists. Jennifer Aylmer, soprano American soprano Jennifer Aylmer has developed a sterling reputation for her beautiful voice, compelling stage portrayals, and impeccable musicianship. She is noted both for her significant opera performances and for her diverse concert appearances. Highlights of her varied career include her Metropolitan Opera debut as Bella in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy, her performance as Papagena in Julie Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute for the Metropolitan Opera, and her creation of the role of Amy in the premiere of Mark Adamo’s Little Women for the Houston Grand Opera. Her

concert work ranges from Mozart and Handel to Lukas Foss and “The Great American Songbook.” Jennifer made her New York recital debut as winner of an Alice Tully Hall Vocal Arts Debut Recital from the Juilliard School. She joined the voice faculty at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music in the fall of 2012. Eastman Chamber Winds The Eastman Chamber Winds are comprised of faculty, alumni and students of the Eastman School of Music. It is led by Mark Scatterday, Eastman faculty member, and only the fourth conductor of the famed Eastman Wind Ensemble. Eastman is credited with the invention of the concert wind ensemble and has long been associated with the development of the wind ensemble, as well as the concert repertoire composed for it. Bart Feller, flute Bart Feller is Principal Flute of the New Jersey Symphony, the New York City Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestras. Bart has soloed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Jupiter Symphony. He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,

Musician Profiles Bargemusic, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Among the summer festivals he has participated in are the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards, Marlboro Music Festival, OK Mozart International Festival, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. Bart is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Julius Baker and John Krell. He attended the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School, and is now a faculty member there. He is also on the faculty of Rutgers University/Mason Gross School of the Arts. Bart has released three CDs. Donal Fox, piano Donal Fox is internationally acclaimed as composer, pianist, and improviser in both jazz and classical music. His numerous awards include a Guggenheim fellowship in music composition and a fellowship from the Bogliasco Foundation. He served as the first African-American composer-in-residence with the St. Louis Symphony. Donal recently premiered his Monk and Bach Project at Jazz at Lincoln Center, his Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project at Tanglewood; and his piano concerto Peace Out for Improvised Piano and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. His

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innovative “Jazz Series” has included concerts, recordings, and collaborations with Oliver Lake, John Stubblefield, David Murray, Regina Carter, Lewis Nash, Stefon Harris, Christian Scott, Terri Lyne Carrington, Maya Beiser, Dafnis Prieto and poet Quincy Troupe, among others. He has recorded as composer and pianist for New World Records, Evidence Records, Music & Arts, Passin’ Thru Records, Leonellis Music, and Wergo Records. His works are published by Margun Music, G. Schirmer, and Leonellis Music. He is a recent recipient of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Music and currently is a Martin Luther King Visiting Scholar Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “Donal Fox is simply without peer” – Downbeat Elinor Freer, Co-Artistic Director and piano Elinor Freer has performed as soloist and chamber musician across the United States, Europe, Mexico, and China, including appearances in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Bonn, Prague, Moscow, Beijing, and many other cities. Ms. Freer has been featured as soloist with numerous orchestras and at festivals including Summer Music in Harrisburg, PA,the Festival de Musica de Camera in Mexico, the

Musician Profiles Bowdoin Music Festival, the Lake Winnipesaukee Music Festival, and Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley. A laureate and prizewinner in such competitions as the Joanna Hodges International Competition and the American Pianists Association, she has held piano fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Ravinia Festivals Steans Institute. Committed to bringing classical music to new audiences, she has been awarded multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for various school residencies and outreach performances. Ms. Freer serves on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music and has recorded for Cedille Records.

Hilary has released 14 feature albums on the Deutsche Grammophon and Sony labels, in addition to three DVDs, an Oscar-nominated movie soundtrack, an award-winning recording for children, and various compilations. In 2012, she released an album of Tchaikovsky and Higdon concertos. The Higdon piece, which Hilary commissioned, won the Pulitzer Prize. Her ongoing commissioning project, In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores, involves 27 of todays top composers writing new short works for violin and piano. Hilary recorded the pieces for release in the 2013-14 season. Her most recent album, Silfra, is a collaboration with prepared-pianist Hauschka. The recording was entirely improvised by the two performers.

Hilary Hahn, violin Two-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn has gained international recognition for her probing interpretations, compelling stage presence, and commitment to new music and the commissioning process. Her extensive tours and dynamic recordings have made her one of the most sought-after artists of this era. Hilary appears regularly with the worlds elite orchestras and on prestigious recital series in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. In the 16 years since she began recording,

June Han, harp Harpist June Han performs extensively in Korea, France, and New York City with Ensemble Sospeso, Sequitur Ensemble, Ensemble 21, and Manhattan Sinfonietta. She has collaborated with the Chamber Music Society Two Program, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Cygnus Ensemble, and Speculum Musicae. Her frequent performances with the New York Philharmonic have included tours in Europe and Asia. She holds a Premier Prix for harp and chamber

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Musician Profiles music from Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, MM and AD degrees from the Yale School of Music, and a DMA degree from the Juilliard School. Bella Hristova, violin Acclaimed for her passionate, powerful performances, beautiful sound, and compelling command of her instrument, violinist Bella Hristova is a young musician with a growing international career as a soloist and recording artist. Her talent has been recently recognized with a prestigious 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, given to outstanding instrumentalists and based on excellence alone. 2013 saw the late spring release of her newest recording, Bella Unaccompanied, (A.W. Tonegold Records) a CD of works for solo violin. Ms.Hristova has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio. She is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including First Prize in the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and First Prize of the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand. She is the first recipient of YCA’s Helen Armstrong

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Violin Fellowship. Bella plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner. John Lockwood, double bass Acoustic and electric bassist John Lockwood has toured the U.S. and Europe with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Gary Burton, the Mel Lewis Big Band, Donal Fox and The Fringe. He has also performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, MIT Symphony, Pat Metheny, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Shaw, Toots Thielemans, Stan Getz, and Art Farmer, and Clark Terry. Mr. Lockwood received his B.M., composition, Berklee College of Music. He currently teaches Jazz Studies and Contemporary Improvisation, at the New England Conservatory of Music and is Associate Professor of bass studies at Berklee College of Music. Jeremy Mastrangelo, violin Jeremy served as Associate Concertmaster of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra from 2001 until the orchestra’s dissolution in April 2011. In December of 2010, he was appointed to be the orchestra’s next concertmaster. During his tenure with the SSO he was a featured soloist

Musician Profiles with the orchestra on multiple occasions, including performances of Bach’s Concerto for two violins with Jaime Laredo, Brahms Double Concerto, the Sibelius violin concerto, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. He has been a guest concertmaster with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony, and the Oregon Symphony. During the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons, Jeremy has performed regularly with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa as guest Principal Second violin, under the direction of Pinchas Zuckerman. Prior to his work in Syracuse, Mastrangelo was co-concertmaster of the New World Symphony in Miami. Mr. Mastrangelo has been a finalist in the Julius Stulberg competition and was also the top prize winner in the National Federation of Music Clubs student auditions. Kurt Muroki, bass Kurt Muroki began his musical studies on the violin and went on to study the double bass at the Juilliard School of Music. Kurt has performed with the Jupiter Chamber Players, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York City Ballet, the 92nd Street Y, and Bargemusic. He is an

artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, Festival L’Autonne at IRCAM, and the Aspen Music Festival. He can be heard on movie soundtracks for “The Departed,” “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” “Julie and Julia,” and “Moonrise Kingdom.” Kurt has recorded with The Who, Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Itzhak Perlman. In addition to concerto tours throughout Asia and the United States, he has worked with the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Tokyo string quartets. Dafnis Prieto, drummer Originally from Cuba, Dafnis Prieto’s revolutionary drumming techniques had a powerful impact on the Latin and Jazz music scene, locally and internationally. Various awards the include “2011 MacArthur Fellowship Award” “Up & Coming Musician of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2006, a Grammy Award Nomination for “Absolute Quintet” as Best Latin Jazz Album, and a Latin Grammy Nomination for “Best New Artist” in 2007. Also a gifted educator, Prieto has conducted numerous master classes, clinics, and workshops

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Musician Profiles throughout the world. Since 2005, he has been a member of the NYU Music Faculty. He has received new works commissions, grants, and fellowships from Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, East Carolina University, and Meet the Composer. Dafnis Prieto endorses: Yamaha Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Latin Percussion, Evans drumheads, and Vic Firth Sticks. Randall Scarlata, baritone Hailed for his warm and expressive sound, consummate musicianship, and winning way with an audience, baritone Randall Scarlata enjoys an unusually diverse career. He is equally comfortable singing oratorio, opera, the great song cycles, works from Tin Pan Alley, and the newest new music. He has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s finest orchestras, and at international music festivals on five continents. Randall has given world premieres of works by Ned Rorem, Lori Laitman, George Crumb, Daron Hagen, Samuel Adler, Mohammed Fairouz, Paul Moravec, Christopher Theofanidis, Wolfram Wagner and Thea Musgrave. He has won many competitions, including the International Schubert Competition in Vienna, the Joy in Singing Competition, the Brahms Competition, The Young Concert Artists Competition, the Naumburg Competition, and the Alice Tully Debut Recital Award. In addition, he has recorded for the Naxos, Arabesque,

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Albany, Chandos, CRI, and Gasparo labels. Randall is on the music faculty at West Chester University. Mark Scatterday, conductor Mark Davis Scatterday is Professor of Conducting and Chair of the Conducting and Ensembles Department at the Eastman School of Music. He leads the famous Eastman Wind Ensemble, with which he has toured Asia and played in Carnegie Hall. Mark studied conducting with Donald Hunsberger, David Effron, Sidney Hodkinson, Carl St.Clair, H. Robert Reynolds, Gustav Mier, and Richard Jackoboice. Before joining the Eastman faculty, he chaired the music department and taught conducting at Cornell University. While at Cornell, he was one of the principal conductors of the professional new music group Ensemble

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Musician Profiles X. An advocate of contemporary music, especially the music of Karel Husa and Roberto Sierra, Scatterday has commissioned, recorded, and premiered over 25 works. He conducted the premiere recordings of Roberto Sierra’s Cancionero Sefardi and Judith Weir’s Concerto for Piano and Musicians Wrestling Everywhere. His recording of Barcelonazo with the Eastman Musica Nova was nominated for a Latin Grammy. Cory Smythe, piano Pianist Cory Smythe is an inventive improviser, chamber musician, and performer of contemporary classical music. He has performed at the Darmstadt International Summer Festival for New Music, the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City, Ravinia’s Rising Stars Series, Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, and at major halls the world over in recital with violinist Hilary Hahn. The Washington Post recently praised him for “…the ferocity and finesse of his technique.” As a core member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Smythe has given numerous premiers, collaborated in the development of new works. Cory has also been a featured guest and soloist with many new music ensembles throughout the

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United States, including the Boston-based Firebird Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. He holds degrees in classical piano performance from the music schools at Indiana University and the University of Southern California. Laura Ward, piano As a distinguished collaborative pianist, Laura Ward is known both for her technical ability and for her vast knowledge of repertoire and styles. Concert engagements have taken her to Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Spoleto Festival (Italy), and in France to the Saint Denis and Colmar International Music Festivals. She has served as vocal coach at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts, Westminster Choir College, Temple University, the Ravinia Festival Stean’s Institute, Washington Opera, the University of Maryland, the Music Academy of the West, and Cleveland’s Blossom Festival. She is also the official pianist for the Washington International Competition, the Astral Artists Auditions, and the Marian Anderson Award. Laura is Co-founding Artistic Director of Lyric Fest in Philadelphia. John A. Weeks, naturalist John Weeks is one of Central New York’s most widely known and admired naturalists, renowned for his weekly WRVO radio commentary, “On the Nature of Things,” which aired from 1984 until mid-2006. John is widely recognized as a biologist, botanist, environmental educator, artist, author, and commentator – and has been called “Central New York’s own modern-day John Burroughs.” During his admired career, he served as Conservation Biologist for the NYS Conservation Department, Associate Professor of Biology at Oswego State, Founding Director of The Rogers Environmental Education Center at Sherburne,

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Ying Quartet Ayano Ninomiya, violin; Janet Ying, violin; Phillip Ying, viola; David Ying, cello The Ying Quartet has performed worldwide in celebrated music venues from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. The quartet is also known for its enterprising view of concert performance, which has led to visits to the White House as well as correctional facilities, and to business schools as well as hospitals. In its collaborations, the quartet has performed with chamber music greats Menachem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, and Paul Katz. It has also explored new musical territory with folk musician Mike Seeger, the Turtle Island Quartet, and even actors, dancers, chefs, and magicians. The Ying Quartet’s recordings reflect many of the group’s wide-ranging musical interests and have generated consistent, enthusiastic acclaim. In addition to pieces from the traditional quartet repertoire, the quartet has recorded three albums of works they commissioned in their “Life Music” project. They have also collaborated on recordings with the Turtle Island Quartet, jazz pianist Billy Childs, and Phish frontman Trey Anastasio.

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A Christmas Suite

Concert Information All concerts are held in Skaneateles, August 8 – 31, 2013. Tickets can be ordered at www.skanfest.org or by calling (315) 685-7418. Saturday concerts at Brook Farm are held at 7:30 pm outdoors. Patrons may arrive as early as 6:00 pm and picnic on the lawn. Call (315) 685-7418 (or check skanfest.org) after 3:00 pm on Saturdays for rain location announcements. Rain Location: Skaneateles High School auditorium, 49 East Elizabeth Street Suggested items to bring: Lawn chairs, blankets & flashlights (chairs are provided in A seating only). Ticket exchanges may be made up to 24 hours prior to concerts. Unused tickets returned less than 24 hours before the performance will be acknowledged as a contribution to the Skaneateles Festival. Any unused ticket may be exchanged for a ½ price ticket to a Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music concert during their 2013-2014 Season (subject to availability).

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A Christmas Suite

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